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"Max, he needs to step aside," Zack said, getting straight to the point before Gem could even bring him a cup of coffee.

"I have a problem with that," Alec replied evenly, cradling his own cup of brew in his hands, but never taking his eyes off of the man seated across the table from him.

Max's breath caught in her throat. This could get ugly real fast. Alec when he was being all cajoling, talkative, and sly was dangerous. But it was when Alec grew Manticore assassin quiet that she really worried. And, at the moment, those green-gold eyes were chillingly calm.

Two alpha X5s vying for leadership of TC. It wasn't a pretty picture. Max knew the situation, however, in a way, was odd -- a turn of events that had taken an unusual set of circumstances to bring about.

Zack had always been a leader -- alpha -- the top dog (or rather cat) and squad commander when they were children; the one who'd continued to watch over herself and the others after they'd escaped. Seth, too, had been an impressive male presence as a child, another alpha, second only to Zack in physical prowess. Zane, Krit, Ben, and Kavi, the younger ones, had been betas -- followers -- lacking the physical prowess of the two older boys.

Reason had it that Alec, as Ben's twin, should also be beta -- and Max rather thought at one time in X5-494's life that was the case. However, most of Alec's squad mates had been deployed in '17. He'd been left behind with the remnants of his platoon -- those who didn't "qualify" for Quantico assignments. With Lane, Zack's twin, gone, and Seth's twin long dead, one of the betas would have been elevated to leader status, and she'd bet her bottom dollar that had been Alec.

Not as aggressive as Zack by nature, Alec had harnessed power among his own kind both back at Old Manticore and here in Terminal City using his keen wits and near-psionic charisma. He'd literally charmed his way into the top position as opposed to fighting his way there. Everyone in TC could use their fists. Everyone knew how to kill. However, only Alec had the brains, ability, foresight, and desire to take his "family" beyond the realm of street thuggery and into the profitable business world. Only Alec knew how to work the system, cut through the red tape, and talk ordinaries into doing what he wanted them to do. Only Alec had made the leap from soldier to entrepreneur, taking the rest of the mutants along with him on the road to legitimacy, the formerly successful TC Mall mute testimony to his money-making talents.

But now-- Now everything had changed.

"Max," Zack continued. "We need to be an army ... soldiers ... not a bunch of shopkeepers. TC's only chance of surviving is to load up on weapons, stake out our turf, and fight to keep it."

"And just where are all those weapons gonna come from, bro?" Alec asked with a wolfish smile, his eyes locked with the older X5's. "You gonna buy 'em? With what? Your good looks, or, more likely, mine? And what about food and medicine, fuel for the generators, the latest CD releases? It all adds up in a hurry you know."

Zack snorted. "We'll buy what we can, and steal the rest. We take what we want."

Alec glanced over at Max, one eyebrow raised. "And this makes us legitimate in the eyes of the rest of the world how?"

"Legitimacy can go to hell!" Zack declared. "Freak Nation is never gonna be legit. All we can be is strong."

Alec leaned back in the booth and draped an arm across the top of the seat behind Max. "Okay, G.I. Joe," he drawled. "Or should I say Six Million Dollar Man? By the way, how's the mechanical ticker and that processor in your brain? Personally, it sounds to me like you've got a bit of a short circuit somewhere." He leaned forward slightly, those green-gold eyes intense, his voice conspiratorial. "We're not gonna survive if we make 'em hate us any more than they already do. They're already scared of us. We're a danger to them. This isn't the movies. Goin' all 'Mutant X' isn't gonna win us any friends in the real world. It'll only make us more powerful enemies until finally the ordinaries decide to wipe us out once and for all."

"They should be afraid of us," Zack said hotly, his chest puffing out. "We're so much better than them it isn't even funny."

"I agree," Alec said. "We're better. But better or not, we've still got one huge problem." He nodded at the view from the window of the coffee shop, the Space Needle and the city beyond. "There are three billion of them, and about three hundred of us, bro," he said, his tone surprisingly reverent. His head swiveled back to Zack, a small ironic smile tugging one corner of his lips. "You really think we can beat those odds?"

"I don't care," Zack spat. "We'll fight to the death if we have to, but at least we'll go down for a just cause."

"Ever hear the phrase 'If you can't lick 'em, join 'em'?" Alec shot right back at him. "Or 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do'? I don't know about you and Max, but surviving sounds a whole lot better to me right now than dying. And if we wanna survive, we've got to adapt ... do things their way when we can ... live by their rules. Which means, bro, no more hit and run raids on the National Guard armory or takin' medical supplies at gunpoint from County General Hospital. I say we light a fire under our artists and antique hounds, go to Rita and Sketchy for some good press, and get the TC Mall up and runnin' again. We sell our product, we make money, we buy the supplies we need, and no one gets killed or arrested." He looked at Max. "Sound like a plan to you?"

"Coward," Zack spat. "I'm thinking you're the enemy after all -- just like I told Max all along. But then you're pure Manticore. How could she ever trust you anyway?"

"Zack!" Max intervened. "Alec's right. We can't fight all of them, and if we keep engaging in criminal activities, sooner or later the police and the Army are going to come after us with more firepower than we can withstand. If we lay low now ... go back to legitimate endeavors ... maybe things will calm down and they'll leave us alone. Later, we might even be able to negotiate with the city again."

"Once they stop bein' scared as shit of us," Alec said under his breath. "Of course they've got reason. We killed 12 of their kind."

"Because of you!" Zack said.

"Hey!" Alec said, losing his temper at last. "I'm sorry my 'death' got the blood lust thing going, but I wasn't exactly in a position to stop what happened."

"But I was," Max said quietly.

Both men looked at her.

"Don't blame Alec, Zack," Max said. "I should have stopped Mole and the others. That's what started the downward spiral."

"But we can build things back up, Max," Alec reassured her. "Just give me free reign and a little time."

"He'll get us all killed," Zack insisted, glowering at the other X5 over the table while his coffee grew cold at his elbow. "It's time for action, not words."

"Words are all we've got, bro," Alec said, a snarkiness in his tone, and a dangerous light in his now pure green eyes, that Max knew meant true trouble. "At least in the long run. You wanna fight a war we can't ever win!"

"And you don't want to fight at all!"

"Hey! I fight when I have to. Just ask your bossy twin, X5-600!"

So that was it, Max suddenly realized. Lane must have put Alec through Hell back at Manticore, and he was seeing his former unit mate every time he looked at Zack. Not exactly the grounds for a peaceful resolution between the two testosterone-high males.

"Guys!" Max said loudly. "Take it down a notch!"

"Of course you're on his side," Zack sneered. "He's your lover!"

"That has nothing to do with this," Max fumed.

"It has everything to do with it, Max!" Zack cried. "You love this cheap knock-off of your brother Ben, and you're as blind now as you were when it was Log boy you were makin' moon eyes at!"

"Hey!" Alec and Max both shouted at the same time, each insulted in his and her own way.

"Oh ... My ... God," a new voice spoke.

The three in the booth (and Gem who'd been listening to the whole exchange from the kitchen doorway), stared at the coffee shop entrance. Mole was standing there looking like he'd just seen a ghost, his cigar dangling dangerously loose on a bit of saliva from his lower lip. "Alec?" he said, his reptilian features contorted with sheer disbelief.

"Hey, Mole," Alec said rather sheepishly, and with a little wave. "How ya been?"

"You're dead," Mole said, pointing a finger at him.

"I got better," Alec deadpanned.

"I can see that." Mole turned to someone he figured wasn't an apparition. "Max?"

"Cliff Notes version," Max said tiredly, realizing an explanation was needed. "Lydecker lied to me, and tried to keep Alec. Alec healed, and escaped. End of story."

Mole stared at Alec a moment longer, then a big grin split his scaly face. "Fine by me," he said with a shrug. "Hallelujah!" But then he noticed Zack, and put two and two together. "And now we've got a leadership question, right?"

"Right," Zack replied. "Or at least Max seems to think so." Blue eyes regarded the lizard man. "Where do you stand, Mole? With me? Or with him?"

"With him," Mole said without hesitation, nodding at Alec -- something that surprised Max. "Sweetcheeks here never led us wrong, and, leave of absence for medical reasons aside, he is our elected boy."

Alec's eyes thanked his friend, then he turned back to Zack with a smug smile.

"He wants you to be a bunch of sissy artists, for God's sake!" Zack cried out, his voice both puzzled and angry.

Mole shrugged. "Hey, what can I say? Joshua ain't the only one with an inner muse. The sand art brought in some nice dollars when things were goin' good, and I trust Alec to make 'em good again. I also bet most of the others here in TC will take a paint brush as opposed to a bullet any day."

"I don't believe this," Zack said, shaking his head and looking at Max. We've been doing fine the past few weeks.

"Yeah," Mole said. "Except for that lack of baby formula problem, and the X5s bein' low on Tryptophan again. Oh, and Dix says we still need a couple of new processors for the main computer terminals. We're gonna lose data at a crucial time one of these days, not to mention our lack of back-up records 'cause the CD burner won't work." He glanced at Max. "I gotta admit your ex had his uses. Logan used to take care of that stuff for us."

"Logan's not around any longer," Max said quietly.

Alec shot her a look, brow slightly furrowed, a question in his eyes.

"He took off," Max said by way of explanation. "With Asha apparently."

"Nice," Alec replied, nodding his head. "And I can't say I'm surprised."

"Neither was I," Max said under her breath, remembering how hung up on Eyes Only Asha Barlow had always been.

Mole was watching Alec and Max, his yellow eyes rather knowing. "I gather the two of you have already gotten 'reacquainted'?"

Alec's arm dropped possessively around Max's shoulders and he pulled her closer, even as Zack's scowl deepened. "Max and me are fine," Alec said. "I'm fine."

Mole accepted Alec's statement without question, those few words telling him everything he needed to know -- that the two X5s were still tight, and that Lydecker hadn't even come close to subduing their feisty soldier-boy.

"Mole," Alec said, still watching Zack. "Pass the word. Meeting tonight, seven o'clock in the main building.We need to come up with a plan for gettin' TC back on its feet again, and outta the crosshairs of the police and Army."

"You got it," Mole said.

As soon as the lizard man had left, Zack shot to his feet, his blue eyes smoldering. "This isn't over, Max," he declared. "You're making the wrong choice."

"Zack," Max pleaded. "Please. Give Alec a chance. Work with him. The two of you can--"

"I'm not goin' anywhere, Max," Zack interrupted her. "Don't worry about that. I'll never leave you again."

"Obsess much did we while down on the farm?" Alec asked.

"Shut up!" Zack snarled.

"Guys!" Max shouted, banging a hand on the table so loudly it made Gem jump. "Zack, quit it. And Alec ..." She eyed her lover a long moment. "Remember what Zack's been through and cut him some slack. What happened to him at Manticore could just as easily have happened to you."

Alec swallowed hard at her words, and the fire in his hazel-green eyes dimmed. Max saw she'd made her point.

"Quite provoking him," she continued. "Like it or not, you guys are going to have to start getting along."

"Fine," Zack said sulkily, heading for the coffee shop door. "I'll be around when you want a real soldier."

"She's got all the soldier she needs!" Alec called after him.

"Shut up!" Max ordered.

Alec shot her a look, sulking just like Zack, swirling cold coffee around in his cup -- probably contemplating his rival's demise Max thought tiredly. She regarded her newly returned lover a long moment, then asked, "What would you have done? If it had been me who'd been killed by the Steelheads?"

The handsome X5 didn't even hesitate. A very small smile touching his lips, and still staring at the dark liquid, Alec said, "I'd have done the same thing you guys did. Only I wouldn't have stopped at twelve dead. I'd have killed 'em all."

"That's what I thought," Max said quietly. She put a hand on his. "Now, cut out the 'mine's bigger than yours' shit with Zack and help me get TC back on track."

Nothing in Max's life had ever felt so good as the kiss Alec gave her then -- the kiss of a lover not only miraculously back from the dead, but of a man ... a transgenic ... ready to lead his people with her by his side.