Untitled #24 (Gen, PG)
Title: Untitled #24
Rating: PG
Category: Gen oneshot
Word Count: 1308
Characters: Alec and Ben
Spoilers: None specific
Summary: Ben dreams and Alec follows
Author’s Notes: From here. For tigriswolf who asked for something with Ben and Alec, mirrors and dreams
Disclaimer: The following characters and situations are used without permission of the creators, owners, and further affiliates of the television show, Dark Angel, to whom they rightly belong. I claim only what is mine, and I make no money off what is theirs.
- - - - -
"Do you think this is funny or something?"
There's a pause, a sigh from the shadows, before Ben answers unseen, "You don't hear me laughing, do you?"
Alec doesn't reply. Ben might not be laughing on the outside, but Alec's pretty sure he's still finding something humorous in all of this anyway. Then again, in the time he's come to know Ben--however little that may be--humor hasn't exactly been on Ben's list of priorities.
"So what are we doing here, then?" Alec asks. He moves forward into the room where Ben went before him. The space is dimly light, but his eyes adjust quickly. The electricity's long gone, and the sinking sun throws tiny rays of yellow and orange through the window cracks.
"She told me to come," Ben, still out of sight, says.
Alec nods. She. Ben's Blue Lady. There's no point in arguing with him now, telling him that she's not real and that the voices Ben hears are only in his head when he dreams at night. Ben would gut him for saying such a thing.
He goes deeper into the room until he's standing in the middle of an endless field of mirrors. From what little he knows about the outside world, he's assuming this was some kind of place people went to have fun before the Pulse. He's not sure why people would be amused by all these mirrors, but he's never been able to understand the ordinaries completely.
The mirrors reflect his image back and forth, throwing it around until he's surrounded by hundreds of images of himself. Some of the mirrors are broken, dirtied and dusty, and there are patches of shattered glass on the floor beneath his feet. When he looks closer, uses his enhanced vision, he can see smudged fingerprints on the glass. For a moment, he almost can hear a child's voice of excitement as she ran through this endless maze.
Alec shakes his head, trying to clear his mind, and asks, "And why did she tell you come here?" He remains still, watching and wondering where Ben is standing.
One of his reflections move and smile, catching Alec's eye. Ben.
"Have you ever wondered if there were more of us back at Manticore?" Ben says, answering a question with a question, as he is fond of doing.
"X5s?"
"No. No," Ben says, and his reflection moves along with a collection of others. Alec can't pinpoint which image is the real Ben out of all of them. He can't tell where his reflections end and where Ben's reflections begin. It's a dizzying--nearly uncomfortable--sensation.
"No," Ben continues, "more of us. You and me."
Alec shrugs. He wants to put his hands in his pockets, attempt a bit of nonchalance, but he doesn't completely trust Ben. They've been traveling together for a little over two months now since a near run-in with Lydecker back in Seattle. So with Ben, Alec's just following his old training in how Manticore taught them to keep their friends close and their enemies closer. Ben isn't exactly an enemy, but he's definitely not a friend, and for Alec, that's enough of a reason to keep him close.
"It's possible," Alec says.
"What do you think happened to them? Did you ever meet them? You were there longer than I was."
Alec shakes his head. "I didn't mean any of our clones, no. I was in the field most of the time, anyway."
"Ah, right, right," Ben says. His voice is smooth and slick. All that feline DNA making him nearly purr when he talks. "All those assassinations."
"Yeah."
Ben stays quiet, and a dozen of his images pace back and forth. In the dying sunlight, his skin appears golden.
"You know what I do find funny," he says after a long pause.
"Hm?"
"That you and I ended up doing the same thing even though we were raised apart. I escaped and you stayed behind, but we both killed and made sacrifices for something bigger than ourselves."
"That was my job," Alec says. "Whatever you do...it's...it's not the same."
"Isn't it? Death is death. It doesn't matter if I'm killing for my lady or if you're killing to make your CO happy. It's all the same in the end when we've got blood on our hands."
Alec considers arguing that it's not the same thing because the assassinations were different than what Ben is doing now out of his own free will. Ben kills because it's a game and it's fun and he's fallen so far off the radar that even Manticore that prides themselves in producing killing machines would toss him in the basement with the rest of the 'nomlies. Ben's more than deadly; he's psychotic.
"Why did she ask you to come here?" Alec asks instead, changing the subject.
"For guidance," Ben says. His images begin to move towards the exit door, so Alec follows. With Ben, it's always best to keep him in your sight if possible.
"Yeah?"
Ben's images converge until there's only one of him standing in front of the door and smiling at Alec. "Yeah," he says, before turning away and pushing open the exit door. Piercing, golden sunlight rushes in, and for a temporary moment, Alec is blinded.
After opening his eyes, he walks forward to where Ben has sat down on the steps leading out of the building. In front of them, the land rolls on with dead, brown grass lining the cracked pavement of an old parking lot. Far off in the distance, seagulls cry and swoop over a polluted ocean.
"She said that there are more of us out there," Ben says when Alec sits down next to him. Ben's eyes are focused on something faraway and his brow is furrowed in concentration.
"I'm guessing you don't mean other X5s."
Ben nods. Out here in the sunlight, Alec can see the darker stains on Ben's black shirt and pants. He's smart enough to know that only blood can make a spot darker than black.
"Do you want to find them?" Alec asks.
"She wants me to find them. She said that if we came here--you and I--we could see what it would look like with a whole army of us." He turns to look at Alec. "Could you imagine? An army of our genetics, born and bred for killing. They wouldn't be just any X5. They'd be us with our drive and our need to please her."
Alec decides not to point out that he's never felt the need to serve the Blue Lady as Ben does.
"She's shown me in my dreams what we could do. We would serve her, and she would become stronger." Ben sighs. "She would protect us. All of us, you know."
"Protect us?"
"From anyone that wanted to hurt us. Lydecker, Manticore, other Xs...anyone." Ben smiles, lips parting just enough to reveal his teeth.
Alec stays silent. Perhaps he should kill him right now. Reach over and snap his neck before he has a chance to go out into the world and continue his murders of innocent people. It's something he's considered before, but for many reasons, he can never bring himself to do it.
Before Alec can move, though, Ben stands and walks down the rest of the stairs to the ground. "Are you coming?" he says, even though they both already know the answer.
"Where are we going?"
Ben smiles, and there's something dark and animalistic in his eyes. Something that makes even Alec's heart trip over itself. He's not afraid of humans. But, Ben's falling further and further away from humanity each day.
"Whenever she tells us to go," Ben says, and he turns to walk off into the dying sun.
Alec sighs and rises to his feet to follow.
End
Rating: PG
Category: Gen oneshot
Word Count: 1308
Characters: Alec and Ben
Spoilers: None specific
Summary: Ben dreams and Alec follows
Author’s Notes: From here. For tigriswolf who asked for something with Ben and Alec, mirrors and dreams
Disclaimer: The following characters and situations are used without permission of the creators, owners, and further affiliates of the television show, Dark Angel, to whom they rightly belong. I claim only what is mine, and I make no money off what is theirs.
- - - - -
"Do you think this is funny or something?"
There's a pause, a sigh from the shadows, before Ben answers unseen, "You don't hear me laughing, do you?"
Alec doesn't reply. Ben might not be laughing on the outside, but Alec's pretty sure he's still finding something humorous in all of this anyway. Then again, in the time he's come to know Ben--however little that may be--humor hasn't exactly been on Ben's list of priorities.
"So what are we doing here, then?" Alec asks. He moves forward into the room where Ben went before him. The space is dimly light, but his eyes adjust quickly. The electricity's long gone, and the sinking sun throws tiny rays of yellow and orange through the window cracks.
"She told me to come," Ben, still out of sight, says.
Alec nods. She. Ben's Blue Lady. There's no point in arguing with him now, telling him that she's not real and that the voices Ben hears are only in his head when he dreams at night. Ben would gut him for saying such a thing.
He goes deeper into the room until he's standing in the middle of an endless field of mirrors. From what little he knows about the outside world, he's assuming this was some kind of place people went to have fun before the Pulse. He's not sure why people would be amused by all these mirrors, but he's never been able to understand the ordinaries completely.
The mirrors reflect his image back and forth, throwing it around until he's surrounded by hundreds of images of himself. Some of the mirrors are broken, dirtied and dusty, and there are patches of shattered glass on the floor beneath his feet. When he looks closer, uses his enhanced vision, he can see smudged fingerprints on the glass. For a moment, he almost can hear a child's voice of excitement as she ran through this endless maze.
Alec shakes his head, trying to clear his mind, and asks, "And why did she tell you come here?" He remains still, watching and wondering where Ben is standing.
One of his reflections move and smile, catching Alec's eye. Ben.
"Have you ever wondered if there were more of us back at Manticore?" Ben says, answering a question with a question, as he is fond of doing.
"X5s?"
"No. No," Ben says, and his reflection moves along with a collection of others. Alec can't pinpoint which image is the real Ben out of all of them. He can't tell where his reflections end and where Ben's reflections begin. It's a dizzying--nearly uncomfortable--sensation.
"No," Ben continues, "more of us. You and me."
Alec shrugs. He wants to put his hands in his pockets, attempt a bit of nonchalance, but he doesn't completely trust Ben. They've been traveling together for a little over two months now since a near run-in with Lydecker back in Seattle. So with Ben, Alec's just following his old training in how Manticore taught them to keep their friends close and their enemies closer. Ben isn't exactly an enemy, but he's definitely not a friend, and for Alec, that's enough of a reason to keep him close.
"It's possible," Alec says.
"What do you think happened to them? Did you ever meet them? You were there longer than I was."
Alec shakes his head. "I didn't mean any of our clones, no. I was in the field most of the time, anyway."
"Ah, right, right," Ben says. His voice is smooth and slick. All that feline DNA making him nearly purr when he talks. "All those assassinations."
"Yeah."
Ben stays quiet, and a dozen of his images pace back and forth. In the dying sunlight, his skin appears golden.
"You know what I do find funny," he says after a long pause.
"Hm?"
"That you and I ended up doing the same thing even though we were raised apart. I escaped and you stayed behind, but we both killed and made sacrifices for something bigger than ourselves."
"That was my job," Alec says. "Whatever you do...it's...it's not the same."
"Isn't it? Death is death. It doesn't matter if I'm killing for my lady or if you're killing to make your CO happy. It's all the same in the end when we've got blood on our hands."
Alec considers arguing that it's not the same thing because the assassinations were different than what Ben is doing now out of his own free will. Ben kills because it's a game and it's fun and he's fallen so far off the radar that even Manticore that prides themselves in producing killing machines would toss him in the basement with the rest of the 'nomlies. Ben's more than deadly; he's psychotic.
"Why did she ask you to come here?" Alec asks instead, changing the subject.
"For guidance," Ben says. His images begin to move towards the exit door, so Alec follows. With Ben, it's always best to keep him in your sight if possible.
"Yeah?"
Ben's images converge until there's only one of him standing in front of the door and smiling at Alec. "Yeah," he says, before turning away and pushing open the exit door. Piercing, golden sunlight rushes in, and for a temporary moment, Alec is blinded.
After opening his eyes, he walks forward to where Ben has sat down on the steps leading out of the building. In front of them, the land rolls on with dead, brown grass lining the cracked pavement of an old parking lot. Far off in the distance, seagulls cry and swoop over a polluted ocean.
"She said that there are more of us out there," Ben says when Alec sits down next to him. Ben's eyes are focused on something faraway and his brow is furrowed in concentration.
"I'm guessing you don't mean other X5s."
Ben nods. Out here in the sunlight, Alec can see the darker stains on Ben's black shirt and pants. He's smart enough to know that only blood can make a spot darker than black.
"Do you want to find them?" Alec asks.
"She wants me to find them. She said that if we came here--you and I--we could see what it would look like with a whole army of us." He turns to look at Alec. "Could you imagine? An army of our genetics, born and bred for killing. They wouldn't be just any X5. They'd be us with our drive and our need to please her."
Alec decides not to point out that he's never felt the need to serve the Blue Lady as Ben does.
"She's shown me in my dreams what we could do. We would serve her, and she would become stronger." Ben sighs. "She would protect us. All of us, you know."
"Protect us?"
"From anyone that wanted to hurt us. Lydecker, Manticore, other Xs...anyone." Ben smiles, lips parting just enough to reveal his teeth.
Alec stays silent. Perhaps he should kill him right now. Reach over and snap his neck before he has a chance to go out into the world and continue his murders of innocent people. It's something he's considered before, but for many reasons, he can never bring himself to do it.
Before Alec can move, though, Ben stands and walks down the rest of the stairs to the ground. "Are you coming?" he says, even though they both already know the answer.
"Where are we going?"
Ben smiles, and there's something dark and animalistic in his eyes. Something that makes even Alec's heart trip over itself. He's not afraid of humans. But, Ben's falling further and further away from humanity each day.
"Whenever she tells us to go," Ben says, and he turns to walk off into the dying sun.
Alec sighs and rises to his feet to follow.
End