A/N: This fic is a response to reader58’s challenge on NWP to revive Ben, and bring him to TC. :)

A/N2: Thanks to haeresis_max, who made me realize I'd never posted chapter three here, though it's been written for a while. :)

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A Step Of Faith - Chapter 3: A Second Chance

Alec stood on the roof of TC’s tallest building, watching the sun set over Seattle. He wasn’t there for the view, though, didn’t really care one way or the other -- he just needed to clear his head.

Alec snorted softly.

The surveillance team he’d cleared for a mission a few hours earlier was probably wondering why TC’s usually laid-back second-in-command had demanded a report, then barked their orders and stormed out of the room.

Maybe they thought he’d had a fight with Max.

That thought brought a small smirk to his lips, but the amusement faded pretty quickly.

Meeting your supposedly-dead twin had that effect.

Alec knew he’d reacted badly. But, the thing was, he’d thought he’d put all that behind him a long time ago, thought that he’d stopped remembering his twin as a traitor…stopped being so angry that he’d been the one to pay for all of Ben’s crimes.

Ben hadn’t done that to him, Manticore had. It had been Manticore who had put him through re-indoctrination at the age of ten because they’d decided that having the same genetic make-up as one of the escapees made him a flight risk. It had been Manticore who had stuck him in Psy-Ops for six months when they’d found out his twin had lost it.

Manticore had been behind all of it.

He knew that.

But when he’d seen Ben…all the old anger…the bitterness…the weird sense of betrayal he couldn’t explain…all of that had come flooding back.

Alec had never really been one to buy into the propaganda. Sure, he’d been able to spout off, “Mission, Duty, Discipline,” with the best of ‘em, but he’d always thought of himself as being pretty independent. He had never been one of those mindless automatons who’d fallen in line without question.

But, if there was one thing Manticore had tried to drill into him that he hadn’t fought against, it was that his twin was the enemy.

It hadn’t been hard to convince Alec of that.

Because, when he thought of Ben, he thought of long weeks in solitary, with no food or water, and nothing but hunger and pain to keep him company.

He thought of countless tests by so-called “scientists,” and endless visits by Psy-Ops transgenics who’d messed with his head until he hadn’t been sure what was real anymore.

And if it wasn’t enough that Ben had haunted him in Manticore, his ghost had somehow followed him outside, too.

Every time Max looked at him, he couldn’t help but wonder, did she ever see him at all?

Now, she wouldn’t have a choice. But, would that make things better or worse? What if she didn’t like what she saw? What if she chose Ben instead? After all, why go for a copy when you could have the original?

Alec ran a weary hand through his hair.

He wished he could hate Ben, he really did. It would make things so much easier. He had more than enough reason to.

Maybe he couldn’t hold Ben responsible for what had happened to him, but Ben had hurt Max, badly, and in a way no one else ever had.

Yet, he couldn’t blame Ben for that either, not really. As much as Max had hated herself for doing it, killing Ben had been a mercy, even if Manticore had gotten him in the end anyway.

The truth was, if it had been him, he might have asked her to do the same thing. If he’d known what Manticore had been planning to do to him after Rachel, he might have-

Alec closed his eyes, clamping down on that thought before it could go any further.

All the justification in the world didn’t change things. He could still hate Ben, he had the right to. Max would understand.

But…strange as it sounded…he didn’t want to feel that way.

Maybe it was Max and all her talk about “family”…or maybe the toxins in Terminal City had somehow started to affect him.

He just knew that, in spite of everything, he didn’t want to see Ben as the enemy.

Alec sighed.

Clearing his head had just gotten a whole lot more complicated.

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TC was quiet, the busy streets from earlier now all but empty aside from the transgenics with shark DNA like Max, and a few unlucky guards who’d been given night duty. Ben didn’t mind though. His thoughts were a whirlwind of emotion, and he was grateful for the quiet.

He and Max had talked for a long time. They’d talked about life after the escape, the others…and Zack. Max had told him about her time back in Manticore, meeting Alec, the virus she’d been infected with, and how that had changed and eventually ended her relationship with the man she thought she had loved.

They hadn’t talked anymore about that day in the woods, though, or what had happened afterwards.

It was too hard, and maybe it always would be.

But, his little sister didn’t hate him, and it was more than he ever could have asked for.

Ben wondered what everyone else would say, wondered if anyone else could accept him like Max had. He wasn’t like them, he wasn’t a good soldier who had followed orders. He was an 09’er and a nomlie, a traitor with a broken mind.

He’d hurt all of them...Alec most of all.

Alec, the twin he’d never even known he’d had…the twin who'd been tortured because of him. He was Max’s second-in-command, and though his little sister hadn’t said anything, Ben could tell that she cared about him. Would Alec demand that he leave? Or would he let him stay just because of Max?

Ben didn’t want to leave, didn’t want to be alone anymore. But was it even right for him to stay?

Ben stopped, closing his eyes.

A large part of him still missed the way things had been before the escape. Max had been right when she had said that nothing had made sense there. He saw that now. But things had been simpler. There, he had been told how to act, how to feel, and what was expected of him. His questions hadn’t mattered, because he’d only had to follow orders.

Now, he didn’t know what do.

Ben opened his eyes, his gaze resting on the building in front of him. It was a large building, with broken windows, missing doors, a rusted fire-escape, and drab, gray, cement walls. But, it was tall…the tallest building in Terminal City.

The High Place, his mind whispered.

Maybe there, he could think.

He moved towards the entrance, not surprised to hear the crunch of glass beneath his boots when he stepped inside.

He looked around for a moment, taking in the abandoned machinery, crates, and papers strewn over the floor. There was a doorway near the back, and the light filtering in through the broken windows was more than enough for Ben to read the sign tacked to the wall: Roof Access.

He crossed the factory’s main floor, then walked up the cracked cement steps. When he reached the top, he froze.

Alec stood near the edge, staring out over the city.

Ben’s eyes widened in surprise, and he turned to leave, knowing his presence wouldn’t be welcome.

But Alec’s voice stopped him.

“You don’t have to go. It’s a free world.” His twin’s voice took on a wry edge as his gaze swept the perimeter fence, “Or so I’ve heard.”

Ben paused, unsure.

“I don’t want to bother you. I didn’t know you were up here.”

Alec shrugged, smirking a little.

“You can blame Max for that. She’s rubbed off on me.”

He hadn’t expected Alec to speak to him at all, but in spite of his surprise, Ben couldn’t help smiling at the comment.

“Maxie always did like high places. She always followed me up to the roof back at Manticore.”

“So, it’s really your fault, then.”

Alec’s words hung in the air, and Ben looked away, the faint accusation in them a reminder he couldn’t ignore.

It was his fault…all of it.

“Do you hate me?”

The question had tumbled out before he could stop it, but suddenly the answer mattered more to him than he could explain.

Alec gave another wry smirk, this one edged with emotion, his eyes never leaving the city below.

“Funny you should say that. I’ve been asking myself the same thing.” Something dark flickered in Alec’s eyes, but when he continued, his tone was indifferent, almost nonchalant. “They wanted us to hate you, y’know. Did a pretty good job of it, too. I hated you for a long time.”

The answer was honest and straight-forward, and Ben felt himself flinch. But then he realized that Alec had said “hated” not “hate”…

“Now?” Ben asked.

The other transgenic shrugged again.

“Manticore…they screwed all of us up. Made us do things…” his voice caught, the thought unfinished, and Alec shook his head, as if trying to dispel whatever memories were playing in his mind.

The many emotions darting over his face were quickly pushed back, forced behind the sardonic, care-free mask Alec seemed to use the most. But, when he spoke, there was a sincere edge to his words that hadn’t been there before.

“Everybody deserves a second chance, I guess.” Alec looked up from the city and turned back towards Ben, a now slightly self-mocking smile on his lips. “Max has sure given me enough of ‘em.”

Ben drew back in surprise, not sure what to say, or if he should say anything at all, when Alec continued.

“Besides,” he smirked, “having another me around could come in handy. Twice the girls.”

Ben shook his head at his twin, startled by the joke.

“Come on, think about it,” Alec insisted. “No girl could resist us.”

He quickly began listing the possibilities now that there were two of them, but Ben wasn’t listening, not really.

Everybody deserves a second chance.

It shouldn’t have mattered what his twin had said. They were the same on a genetic level, sure, but Ben didn’t know him, hadn’t been in the same unit with him like he had with his brothers and sisters.

It shouldn’t have mattered.

But it did.

TBC...

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A/N: In the next chapter, Ben will meet Gem and Eve. :) Admittedly, this is a fic I haven't touched for quite a while, but as long as the Lord allows, I WILL finish it. Thank you for being so patient.

I hope you enjoyed it, and please let me know what you think! :)

-Laughter

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| Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 |

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