FIC: Designation: Hostile 17, 1/4
Masterpost
Standing outside the apartment building, Alec watched as Max hit the button for the elevator and waited. He couldn’t help but notice how uncharacteristically jittery Max was. Maybe it wasn’t obvious to an ordinary human, but to an X5-Alec could see Max was about to lose more than her patience as she stood waiting on the elevator. Finally it dinged and the doors opened, and he watched Max anxiously stepped inside.
Alec entered the lobby as the doors were closing, and noticed the elevator was headed for the penthouse. Quickly, Alec scanned the lobby for stairs or an exit sign, then saw the directory listing the names of the residents, including the penthouse: L.Cale; right where Max was going. Spotting the exit sign, Alec found the stairs, and running, he took them two and three steps at a time.
At the top of the stairs, Alec slowly opened the stairwell door in time to see Max enter the apartment. Alec moved closer and waited.
In her rush, Max left the door wide open, making it easy for him to hear them. It was clear Max was in a panic, where L. Cale appeared to be in utter shock at seeing Max standing there. It was plain to see they had a thing, that this guy Cale was special to Max, that maybe she loved him. Hell, she cared enough that she'd made a beeline straight from Manticore to here in order to warn him just like Renfro had predicted.
Now he just had to wait for Max to infect Cale, then give the virus time to take effect. His timing had to be just right; his own plan hinged on Renfro’s plan succeeding. Spike was counting on him. He listened to them, heard them kiss, and smiled, knowing the virus had been successfully delivered. He just had to wait, and count down, ‘thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight…'
Alec’s laughter faltered as Max turned and lunged out at him, exclaiming, “You son of a bitch!
Expecting her reaction, Alec pulled out and aimed his gun to stop her. "Whoa, whoa, hey!” Holding up his free hand, Alec said, “You know I’m just following orders. Just listen to me! Renfro said if you want him to live, you gotta bring him back to Manticore and turn yourself in.”
Max narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “There's a cure?”
“Yeah, she'll give your reporter the antigen if he tells her what he knows and who he's been working with.”
“Why should I believe her?”
Shrugging, Alec conceded. “You shouldn’t; that was her plan. I do have an alternative, if you’ll listen?”
“Yeah, and why should I believe anything you have to say?”
Alec pursed his lips before he smiled and answered. “Offhand you probably shouldn’t.” He swallowed, needing to sell it to Max; Spike’s life depended on this plan. “As a sign of good faith, I’m willing to offer you the first part of the antigen.” Alec took out a small vial from his pocket and shook it. “It’ll help him out-right now-at least relieve his pain. It’s not the cure, but a start. He’s still going to need a second dose and then these.”Alec pocketed the tube and threw Max a bottle of pills, and she caught them mid-air. “I’m sure Renfro has no plans to tell you anything about needing a second dose or those. They’re worthless without the second dose. It’s too late to change your genetic make-up and not have it-affect him-at least not now. However,” he continued, “after the second dose, it’ll permanently tweak his DNA enough that your touch shouldn’t kill him.”
“Shouldn’t?”
“Listen, I didn’t inject you with the shit, and if you’re looking to me for some kind of money-back guarantee…”
He watched as Max sent him a heated glare, then demanded, “What do you want?”
“Not a what, but a who; I want you to help me get someone out of Manticore. We have a deal?”
Behind her, Max turned and leveled a worried look over to the reporter Cale; he was shaking, in obvious pain. Wordlessly, Max nodded her consent.
“I have your word?”
Max shifted toward him, meeting his gaze, slowly eyeing him, silently letting Alec know that under any other circumstances she’d be kicking his ass. Instead she simply answered, “Yes.”
“Good.” Alec pocketed the gun in the back of his pants, and walked over to the reporter. Kneeling down he unscrewed the vial; an arm wrapped around the Cale’s shoulders, sitting him up, securing him as tremors rippled through his body. Alec tipped the contents of the liquid into the man’s mouth. Once he finished, Alec bent down to pick him up, and he gently moved him to the couch. “Give it a few minutes.”
Alec patted Cale’s shoulder before he stepped away and turned, only to feel Max’s fist connect with his jaw. On impact, Alec staggered back, until he fell, landing hard on the floor. He twisted and was about to kick out, but Max’s hand was suddenly there in his face offering to help him up.
Alec just stared at her hand until she made some kind of disgruntled sound and leaned forward to grasp his hand. Once he was up, she backed away and stood there with she crossed her arms. “All right, who is it you want to rescue?”
Alec rubbed his jaw, considering Max’s reaction. In the end he decided to let it go, figuring maybe she had a right-if it’d been Spike, he’d probably do more than just throw a punch. Shrugging it off, Alec answered. “Who doesn’t matter, but I need you to distract Renfro in order to get to him. She’s expecting me to bring you both back by way of Section B on the south side. Seeing you, she’ll be reassured that everything went according to plan, so security will be lax.”
Max snickered, “Right, getting in is the easy part. What’s the plan to get out?”
Avoiding the question and her as he started to pace. “Once inside, working together we can disable connecting sections and send a sonic order to redirect all the X7s to the north side. Renfro’s going to be expecting you, so once I deliver you both, just play your cards right and she’ll give Cale a dose not realizing it’d be the second dose.”
He turned his gaze to Cale. “Whatever information you have, she wants it.”
Turning back, Alec addressed Max, but kept his voice loud enough for Cale to hear. “Should be obvious by now she’ll use any means necessary to retract whatever information he has. Since he’s human she’ll temporarily hold off brute force as too risky,” he inclined his back to Cale. “They’re fragile and die too easily. Besides, Renfro likes games. Although that dose should reduce most of the pain, he’ll still exhibit symptoms, so she’ll go the friendly route at first to manipulate the situation. Give me ten minutes to get to my friend in Section D, so make sure you play it up.”
Max prodded, “And getting out?”
Alec bit the inside of his cheek; the fact was he didn’t have a plan beyond the basic of: get in and get out. Had hopes that he and Spike working together would have a chance of getting out before X7s surrounded them. Alec glanced away, but Max figured it out. “You don’t have a plan, do you? Other than getting in. And that’s not even your plan, but Renfro’s.”
His voice rose in frustration, “the plan is we get in, he gets his second dose, and I get my friend, once…” Alec pointed to Cale still shivering in on the couch, although he noticed the dosage had to be working as Cale’s tremors seemed to have lessened. “…he’s dosed, get out. You’re an X5, and with the X7s out of the way, you’ll have a clear path.”
“Can’t believe I’m even asking, and you? What the hell are you going to do? You won’t have time to step out of Section D by the time the alarms go off, and you won’t have enough time to get away before every X7 will be breathing down your neck.”
“Didn’t know you cared?”
“I don’t.”
Alec cocked his head. “Oh I get it. Feeling guilty for leaving Ben behind?”
“What? How do…I thought…”
“You thought wrong. It was another one of Renfro’s mind fucks. Why she assigned me as your breeding partner.”
From the couch, Cale interrupted. “Breeding partner?”
Alec didn’t bother acknowledging the question, but noted Max’s blush before he continued. “Like I said, Renfro likes to manipulate. She wanted to rattle you since you killed him. Don’t worry; it appears my clone doesn’t care. He took the high road where you’re concerned and already forgave you. Please note I’m not as generous. You kill me, you better make sure I can’t come back. Otherwise I’m going to be pissed.”
“What? Ben’s alive.”
Looking at Max now, Alec noticed Max didn’t deny his claim about killing Ben. He could see it in her eyes Renfro told him the truth, Max did kill Ben something he hadn’t known for sure until now. After Max’s surgery, she was placed in cy-ops for both rehabilitation and reconditioning. According to Renfro, during one of Max’s indoctrination sessions, Max revealed she was the X5 that had killed her brother. It had been the only significant information Renfro had gathered from Max. Why Renfro assigned him to be Max’s breeding partner.
Not that he trusted Renfro and it had only been conjecture on his part, but when they brought Ben in he overheard Renfro accuse Lydecker of coddling one of his kids, that led to Lydecker letting an X5 go. It confirmed what he had suspected that only another X5 would have had the strength to take his clone down, shatter his femur, and breaking his neck. Alec had seen the damage first hand, when they brought Ben in--dead.
They had inserted Alec with tubes for a transfusion going directly to his twinned clone, to help revive Ben from the abyss of death despite his twin’s mental state. After Ben had been revived, they kept up the treatments until his clone was capable of sustaining himself. Even after returning from cy-ops Ben never said anything but good things about his unit-sister. It was all that praise that made Alec wonder. Why he had started to have doubts about Max, in his experience, no X5 was that good.
Once Ben returned from cy-ops Renfro labeled his twin as useless other than as a living incubator host for body parts. It didn’t work, but whenever he could, Alec would avoid seeing or spending any time with his twin. Apparently as a living incubator you were giving a lot of freedom until you were needed. Ben spent his time tracking Alec down repeatedly telling him they were a unit, how he found it comforting to be with Alec.
Confused, Alec didn’t know how to act or what to feel about Ben. Prior to his twin’s escape with his eleven other sibling units, Alec never knew about his twinned clone 493. Had only discovered Ben’s existence hours after their escape when he was taken and isolated from everyone else, tested, and then sent and kept in cy-ops. Even after he had been released, they considered him a risk and continued to keep him isolated, and kept him from his control group.
Years later to face his twin, forced to save Ben’s life, Alec found it difficult not to harbor resentments.
To daily see a walking reflection of himself, but it was worse than that. Ben was an eager child, submissively following orders-everyone else’s order except for one; his standing to be left alone.
Every time Alec turned around, Ben would be right there inching closer until Alec would blow up and order him to leave him alone. It’d last for an hour; maybe a day before Ben broke the order and tracked him down. He might of kept some physical distance, but he’d be there watching-again slowly inching his way closer, until he was meekly following Alec around throughout the day. For whatever reason Renfro and the others didn’t seem to care.
Ben continued to be his shadow until Renfro intervened and abandoned him to Spike.
Max interrupted his train of thought. “Alec?”
Quickly, he opened his fist, shaking his hand to release the tension. “Huh, yeah. If you hadn’t realized, it’s really hard to permanently kill us.”
He watched as Max digested the news about Ben, as she openly revealed an array of emotions with hope stamped predominately on her face. “Is that who you’re going after? Ben?”
“He’s with my friend, so yes. If he comes with me, fine, but he’ll have to pull his own weight to get out of there.”
The worry flitted across her face as she closed the space between them. “What do you mean?”
Alec turned away, but Max grabbed his arm, stopping him. “Alec, I asked you a question.”
“He’s weak, damaged; all right? I guess coming back from the dead wasn’t a picnic. Though you should know-you are rather bitchy.” Alec then peered over to Cale directing the next question to him. “So Cale was she like that before?”
Cale didn’t answer, but met Alec’s gaze. Although he was still sweating profusely, it was obvious by the way he was holding himself and paying attention that the dosage had substantially decreased his pain. Without wavering, Cale answered confidently, “Guess we need a plan and a bigger distraction to give you more time to get out.”
Alec just stared at the man, confused and slightly amazed the guy was willing to help him. Somehow, he seemed to understand, and he smiled. “By the way, it’s Logan. Do you mind,” His chin jutted in the direction of a wheelchair he hadn’t noticed before, “bringing my chair over?”
Needing the distraction, Alec moved toward it and wheeled it over. Still stunned by Logan’s generosity, Alec didn’t bother to ask and just quickly bent down to lift Logan, depositing him in the chair.
Somewhat flustered, Logan muttered, “Thanks” as he wheeled himself over to the computers.
After only a few minutes in front of his computers, Alec was able to appreciate Logan’s talent and started to understand why Renfro was interested, but it was only after he saw the feed of Eyes Only that he had a grasp of the bigger picture. He had thought Logan was just some noisy reporter. It was what Renfro had alluded to, but now to see the reporter was none other than, Eyes Only, suddenly all of Renfro’s extreme measures made sense.
It didn’t take them long to come up with a plan. Throughout, Max asked questions about Ben that boarded on badgering. Still, Alec didn’t volunteer any additional information that he deemed unnecessary to the mission. Once Max realized he wasn’t going to say anything else, she fixed him with a steady stare. At one point he wasn’t sure if she saw him or was thinking of his clone.
Things started to move fast and fell into place when Logan’s associate Asha arrived.
The plan was simple: once they arrived, and Asha and her team were in place, they’d hide along the parameter and stay hidden-waiting for a specific time to strike, time, they still needed to agree on before they left.
Meanwhile, he, Max, and Logan would drive through the front gates. They’d split once they were inside; with Max delivering Logan to Renfro while he went after Spike. Allowing them to get the dose Logan needed before Logan’s pre-set broadcast would go public and reveal Manticore’s location. Within minutes of the broadcast Asha’s group would attack with a series of explosions. The initial attack would concentrate on the north side, to trap the X7’s there. Then, under the chaos, Max would get Logan to the control center to free everyone celled-X series and anomalies. Once Alec heard the explosives, that’d be his cue to attack and get Spike out of Section D.
It was a simple and direct plan. Although Alec didn’t bother to tell Max about any of the other complications or disclose the full extent of how physically and emotionally inept Ben was. Whether his twin was damaged coming back from the dead, or the result of Renfro’s reconditioning his doppelganger’s brains were scrambled basically making him useless-an obedient hapless puppy willing and eager to prostate himself. He had the misfortune to witness that, to Ben’s reaction with Spike.
Ever since, whenever his thoughts lingered on Ben-his jealousy would kick in, twisting emotions of anger and disgust all directed at his clone. If he hadn’t screwed up and let Max know about Ben, he would have had Spike drain him, simultaneously destroying all of his clones internal organs, making him worthless to bring back even for body parts.
Internally, he argued with himself: that it would have been merciful to end Ben’s life, but another part felt conflicted and nagged that he needed to protect his clone. It was pathetic and he’d angrily dismiss the thought, replacing it with the image that fueled his rage: of Spike intimately entwined with Ben, feeding off of his clone.
Renfro had forced him to watch gauging his reaction. He stood there and watched silently, careful not to respond under Renfro’s watchful eye. It became more difficult as he realized Spike didn’t even appear to know that it wasn’t him. Not that Alec would have blamed him because he didn’t. It wasn’t Spike’s fault; Renfro had kept him away for over a week starving Spike. Still Alec cringed; hurt by the way Spike accepted, held and cradled his clone. How he licked Ben’s skin before Spike shifted into game-face and sunk his teeth in, pulling long mouthfuls of his clone’s blood. Ben encircled his arms around Spike making it obvious to everyone: him and Renfro that Ben was enjoying Spike feed on him, how pleasurable it was on the receiving end. Something he knew first hand and had purposely hid from Renfro.
Forcibly, Alec shook the memory away. It didn’t help that behind his back, Alec could feel Max’s heated stare, knew she was brooding about Ben. It did nothing to make him feel contrite or lessen his jealousy. Instead, Alec thought of Spike-remembering his smirk, the clear sparkle of his blue eyes, the soft lilt of his voice as Spike told him one story after another, alternating with various nibbles along his neck before he’d gently bite and drink his full. Alec’s fingers itched to rub the mark Spike had created. Instead he clenched his fist, nervous that if he didn't he wouldn’t be able to control himself. Under his lashes he glanced at Max. Knew she’d be disgusted and he’d agree with her, and have to admit that throwing a boner right now wasn’t appropriate- and that's what happened whenever he touched the marks, usually.
Usually, because it was a different story in the beginning, where he'd had a very different reaction to Spike, when they first met. It was easy to recall-only then his name had been designation 494. At the time, Alec had no idea what kind of anomaly Spike was when they threw him in Spike’s cell. Remembering, he couldn’t suppress the shiver as the memories triggered emotions of want and fear.
Next~
Standing outside the apartment building, Alec watched as Max hit the button for the elevator and waited. He couldn’t help but notice how uncharacteristically jittery Max was. Maybe it wasn’t obvious to an ordinary human, but to an X5-Alec could see Max was about to lose more than her patience as she stood waiting on the elevator. Finally it dinged and the doors opened, and he watched Max anxiously stepped inside.
Alec entered the lobby as the doors were closing, and noticed the elevator was headed for the penthouse. Quickly, Alec scanned the lobby for stairs or an exit sign, then saw the directory listing the names of the residents, including the penthouse: L.Cale; right where Max was going. Spotting the exit sign, Alec found the stairs, and running, he took them two and three steps at a time.
At the top of the stairs, Alec slowly opened the stairwell door in time to see Max enter the apartment. Alec moved closer and waited.
In her rush, Max left the door wide open, making it easy for him to hear them. It was clear Max was in a panic, where L. Cale appeared to be in utter shock at seeing Max standing there. It was plain to see they had a thing, that this guy Cale was special to Max, that maybe she loved him. Hell, she cared enough that she'd made a beeline straight from Manticore to here in order to warn him just like Renfro had predicted.
Now he just had to wait for Max to infect Cale, then give the virus time to take effect. His timing had to be just right; his own plan hinged on Renfro’s plan succeeding. Spike was counting on him. He listened to them, heard them kiss, and smiled, knowing the virus had been successfully delivered. He just had to wait, and count down, ‘thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight…'
Alec’s laughter faltered as Max turned and lunged out at him, exclaiming, “You son of a bitch!
Expecting her reaction, Alec pulled out and aimed his gun to stop her. "Whoa, whoa, hey!” Holding up his free hand, Alec said, “You know I’m just following orders. Just listen to me! Renfro said if you want him to live, you gotta bring him back to Manticore and turn yourself in.”
Max narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “There's a cure?”
“Yeah, she'll give your reporter the antigen if he tells her what he knows and who he's been working with.”
“Why should I believe her?”
Shrugging, Alec conceded. “You shouldn’t; that was her plan. I do have an alternative, if you’ll listen?”
“Yeah, and why should I believe anything you have to say?”
Alec pursed his lips before he smiled and answered. “Offhand you probably shouldn’t.” He swallowed, needing to sell it to Max; Spike’s life depended on this plan. “As a sign of good faith, I’m willing to offer you the first part of the antigen.” Alec took out a small vial from his pocket and shook it. “It’ll help him out-right now-at least relieve his pain. It’s not the cure, but a start. He’s still going to need a second dose and then these.”Alec pocketed the tube and threw Max a bottle of pills, and she caught them mid-air. “I’m sure Renfro has no plans to tell you anything about needing a second dose or those. They’re worthless without the second dose. It’s too late to change your genetic make-up and not have it-affect him-at least not now. However,” he continued, “after the second dose, it’ll permanently tweak his DNA enough that your touch shouldn’t kill him.”
“Shouldn’t?”
“Listen, I didn’t inject you with the shit, and if you’re looking to me for some kind of money-back guarantee…”
He watched as Max sent him a heated glare, then demanded, “What do you want?”
“Not a what, but a who; I want you to help me get someone out of Manticore. We have a deal?”
Behind her, Max turned and leveled a worried look over to the reporter Cale; he was shaking, in obvious pain. Wordlessly, Max nodded her consent.
“I have your word?”
Max shifted toward him, meeting his gaze, slowly eyeing him, silently letting Alec know that under any other circumstances she’d be kicking his ass. Instead she simply answered, “Yes.”
“Good.” Alec pocketed the gun in the back of his pants, and walked over to the reporter. Kneeling down he unscrewed the vial; an arm wrapped around the Cale’s shoulders, sitting him up, securing him as tremors rippled through his body. Alec tipped the contents of the liquid into the man’s mouth. Once he finished, Alec bent down to pick him up, and he gently moved him to the couch. “Give it a few minutes.”
Alec patted Cale’s shoulder before he stepped away and turned, only to feel Max’s fist connect with his jaw. On impact, Alec staggered back, until he fell, landing hard on the floor. He twisted and was about to kick out, but Max’s hand was suddenly there in his face offering to help him up.
Alec just stared at her hand until she made some kind of disgruntled sound and leaned forward to grasp his hand. Once he was up, she backed away and stood there with she crossed her arms. “All right, who is it you want to rescue?”
Alec rubbed his jaw, considering Max’s reaction. In the end he decided to let it go, figuring maybe she had a right-if it’d been Spike, he’d probably do more than just throw a punch. Shrugging it off, Alec answered. “Who doesn’t matter, but I need you to distract Renfro in order to get to him. She’s expecting me to bring you both back by way of Section B on the south side. Seeing you, she’ll be reassured that everything went according to plan, so security will be lax.”
Max snickered, “Right, getting in is the easy part. What’s the plan to get out?”
Avoiding the question and her as he started to pace. “Once inside, working together we can disable connecting sections and send a sonic order to redirect all the X7s to the north side. Renfro’s going to be expecting you, so once I deliver you both, just play your cards right and she’ll give Cale a dose not realizing it’d be the second dose.”
He turned his gaze to Cale. “Whatever information you have, she wants it.”
Turning back, Alec addressed Max, but kept his voice loud enough for Cale to hear. “Should be obvious by now she’ll use any means necessary to retract whatever information he has. Since he’s human she’ll temporarily hold off brute force as too risky,” he inclined his back to Cale. “They’re fragile and die too easily. Besides, Renfro likes games. Although that dose should reduce most of the pain, he’ll still exhibit symptoms, so she’ll go the friendly route at first to manipulate the situation. Give me ten minutes to get to my friend in Section D, so make sure you play it up.”
Max prodded, “And getting out?”
Alec bit the inside of his cheek; the fact was he didn’t have a plan beyond the basic of: get in and get out. Had hopes that he and Spike working together would have a chance of getting out before X7s surrounded them. Alec glanced away, but Max figured it out. “You don’t have a plan, do you? Other than getting in. And that’s not even your plan, but Renfro’s.”
His voice rose in frustration, “the plan is we get in, he gets his second dose, and I get my friend, once…” Alec pointed to Cale still shivering in on the couch, although he noticed the dosage had to be working as Cale’s tremors seemed to have lessened. “…he’s dosed, get out. You’re an X5, and with the X7s out of the way, you’ll have a clear path.”
“Can’t believe I’m even asking, and you? What the hell are you going to do? You won’t have time to step out of Section D by the time the alarms go off, and you won’t have enough time to get away before every X7 will be breathing down your neck.”
“Didn’t know you cared?”
“I don’t.”
Alec cocked his head. “Oh I get it. Feeling guilty for leaving Ben behind?”
“What? How do…I thought…”
“You thought wrong. It was another one of Renfro’s mind fucks. Why she assigned me as your breeding partner.”
From the couch, Cale interrupted. “Breeding partner?”
Alec didn’t bother acknowledging the question, but noted Max’s blush before he continued. “Like I said, Renfro likes to manipulate. She wanted to rattle you since you killed him. Don’t worry; it appears my clone doesn’t care. He took the high road where you’re concerned and already forgave you. Please note I’m not as generous. You kill me, you better make sure I can’t come back. Otherwise I’m going to be pissed.”
“What? Ben’s alive.”
Looking at Max now, Alec noticed Max didn’t deny his claim about killing Ben. He could see it in her eyes Renfro told him the truth, Max did kill Ben something he hadn’t known for sure until now. After Max’s surgery, she was placed in cy-ops for both rehabilitation and reconditioning. According to Renfro, during one of Max’s indoctrination sessions, Max revealed she was the X5 that had killed her brother. It had been the only significant information Renfro had gathered from Max. Why Renfro assigned him to be Max’s breeding partner.
Not that he trusted Renfro and it had only been conjecture on his part, but when they brought Ben in he overheard Renfro accuse Lydecker of coddling one of his kids, that led to Lydecker letting an X5 go. It confirmed what he had suspected that only another X5 would have had the strength to take his clone down, shatter his femur, and breaking his neck. Alec had seen the damage first hand, when they brought Ben in--dead.
They had inserted Alec with tubes for a transfusion going directly to his twinned clone, to help revive Ben from the abyss of death despite his twin’s mental state. After Ben had been revived, they kept up the treatments until his clone was capable of sustaining himself. Even after returning from cy-ops Ben never said anything but good things about his unit-sister. It was all that praise that made Alec wonder. Why he had started to have doubts about Max, in his experience, no X5 was that good.
Once Ben returned from cy-ops Renfro labeled his twin as useless other than as a living incubator host for body parts. It didn’t work, but whenever he could, Alec would avoid seeing or spending any time with his twin. Apparently as a living incubator you were giving a lot of freedom until you were needed. Ben spent his time tracking Alec down repeatedly telling him they were a unit, how he found it comforting to be with Alec.
Confused, Alec didn’t know how to act or what to feel about Ben. Prior to his twin’s escape with his eleven other sibling units, Alec never knew about his twinned clone 493. Had only discovered Ben’s existence hours after their escape when he was taken and isolated from everyone else, tested, and then sent and kept in cy-ops. Even after he had been released, they considered him a risk and continued to keep him isolated, and kept him from his control group.
Years later to face his twin, forced to save Ben’s life, Alec found it difficult not to harbor resentments.
To daily see a walking reflection of himself, but it was worse than that. Ben was an eager child, submissively following orders-everyone else’s order except for one; his standing to be left alone.
Every time Alec turned around, Ben would be right there inching closer until Alec would blow up and order him to leave him alone. It’d last for an hour; maybe a day before Ben broke the order and tracked him down. He might of kept some physical distance, but he’d be there watching-again slowly inching his way closer, until he was meekly following Alec around throughout the day. For whatever reason Renfro and the others didn’t seem to care.
Ben continued to be his shadow until Renfro intervened and abandoned him to Spike.
Max interrupted his train of thought. “Alec?”
Quickly, he opened his fist, shaking his hand to release the tension. “Huh, yeah. If you hadn’t realized, it’s really hard to permanently kill us.”
He watched as Max digested the news about Ben, as she openly revealed an array of emotions with hope stamped predominately on her face. “Is that who you’re going after? Ben?”
“He’s with my friend, so yes. If he comes with me, fine, but he’ll have to pull his own weight to get out of there.”
The worry flitted across her face as she closed the space between them. “What do you mean?”
Alec turned away, but Max grabbed his arm, stopping him. “Alec, I asked you a question.”
“He’s weak, damaged; all right? I guess coming back from the dead wasn’t a picnic. Though you should know-you are rather bitchy.” Alec then peered over to Cale directing the next question to him. “So Cale was she like that before?”
Cale didn’t answer, but met Alec’s gaze. Although he was still sweating profusely, it was obvious by the way he was holding himself and paying attention that the dosage had substantially decreased his pain. Without wavering, Cale answered confidently, “Guess we need a plan and a bigger distraction to give you more time to get out.”
Alec just stared at the man, confused and slightly amazed the guy was willing to help him. Somehow, he seemed to understand, and he smiled. “By the way, it’s Logan. Do you mind,” His chin jutted in the direction of a wheelchair he hadn’t noticed before, “bringing my chair over?”
Needing the distraction, Alec moved toward it and wheeled it over. Still stunned by Logan’s generosity, Alec didn’t bother to ask and just quickly bent down to lift Logan, depositing him in the chair.
Somewhat flustered, Logan muttered, “Thanks” as he wheeled himself over to the computers.
After only a few minutes in front of his computers, Alec was able to appreciate Logan’s talent and started to understand why Renfro was interested, but it was only after he saw the feed of Eyes Only that he had a grasp of the bigger picture. He had thought Logan was just some noisy reporter. It was what Renfro had alluded to, but now to see the reporter was none other than, Eyes Only, suddenly all of Renfro’s extreme measures made sense.
It didn’t take them long to come up with a plan. Throughout, Max asked questions about Ben that boarded on badgering. Still, Alec didn’t volunteer any additional information that he deemed unnecessary to the mission. Once Max realized he wasn’t going to say anything else, she fixed him with a steady stare. At one point he wasn’t sure if she saw him or was thinking of his clone.
Things started to move fast and fell into place when Logan’s associate Asha arrived.
The plan was simple: once they arrived, and Asha and her team were in place, they’d hide along the parameter and stay hidden-waiting for a specific time to strike, time, they still needed to agree on before they left.
Meanwhile, he, Max, and Logan would drive through the front gates. They’d split once they were inside; with Max delivering Logan to Renfro while he went after Spike. Allowing them to get the dose Logan needed before Logan’s pre-set broadcast would go public and reveal Manticore’s location. Within minutes of the broadcast Asha’s group would attack with a series of explosions. The initial attack would concentrate on the north side, to trap the X7’s there. Then, under the chaos, Max would get Logan to the control center to free everyone celled-X series and anomalies. Once Alec heard the explosives, that’d be his cue to attack and get Spike out of Section D.
It was a simple and direct plan. Although Alec didn’t bother to tell Max about any of the other complications or disclose the full extent of how physically and emotionally inept Ben was. Whether his twin was damaged coming back from the dead, or the result of Renfro’s reconditioning his doppelganger’s brains were scrambled basically making him useless-an obedient hapless puppy willing and eager to prostate himself. He had the misfortune to witness that, to Ben’s reaction with Spike.
Ever since, whenever his thoughts lingered on Ben-his jealousy would kick in, twisting emotions of anger and disgust all directed at his clone. If he hadn’t screwed up and let Max know about Ben, he would have had Spike drain him, simultaneously destroying all of his clones internal organs, making him worthless to bring back even for body parts.
Internally, he argued with himself: that it would have been merciful to end Ben’s life, but another part felt conflicted and nagged that he needed to protect his clone. It was pathetic and he’d angrily dismiss the thought, replacing it with the image that fueled his rage: of Spike intimately entwined with Ben, feeding off of his clone.
Renfro had forced him to watch gauging his reaction. He stood there and watched silently, careful not to respond under Renfro’s watchful eye. It became more difficult as he realized Spike didn’t even appear to know that it wasn’t him. Not that Alec would have blamed him because he didn’t. It wasn’t Spike’s fault; Renfro had kept him away for over a week starving Spike. Still Alec cringed; hurt by the way Spike accepted, held and cradled his clone. How he licked Ben’s skin before Spike shifted into game-face and sunk his teeth in, pulling long mouthfuls of his clone’s blood. Ben encircled his arms around Spike making it obvious to everyone: him and Renfro that Ben was enjoying Spike feed on him, how pleasurable it was on the receiving end. Something he knew first hand and had purposely hid from Renfro.
Forcibly, Alec shook the memory away. It didn’t help that behind his back, Alec could feel Max’s heated stare, knew she was brooding about Ben. It did nothing to make him feel contrite or lessen his jealousy. Instead, Alec thought of Spike-remembering his smirk, the clear sparkle of his blue eyes, the soft lilt of his voice as Spike told him one story after another, alternating with various nibbles along his neck before he’d gently bite and drink his full. Alec’s fingers itched to rub the mark Spike had created. Instead he clenched his fist, nervous that if he didn't he wouldn’t be able to control himself. Under his lashes he glanced at Max. Knew she’d be disgusted and he’d agree with her, and have to admit that throwing a boner right now wasn’t appropriate- and that's what happened whenever he touched the marks, usually.
Usually, because it was a different story in the beginning, where he'd had a very different reaction to Spike, when they first met. It was easy to recall-only then his name had been designation 494. At the time, Alec had no idea what kind of anomaly Spike was when they threw him in Spike’s cell. Remembering, he couldn’t suppress the shiver as the memories triggered emotions of want and fear.
Next~