[Ben does say things just to make others feel better - indeed, at times it's all he can do - but not about this. This is survival, and quite frankly, Alex surprised him a little bit. There's still work to be done, but there's a solid base there to start on, there's the spark he's always known was there to fan into a proper fire.

Ben, who looks at Alex and sees his friend, has always known it was there; Ben, who looks at Alex and sees another soldier in a fight for survival, has taken some convincing.

And if he hadn't been before, the question Alex follows up with would cement the deal.]

Tactics. Better awareness of your own strengths and the strengths of those in your group. Just because you do not have my senses doesn't mean you cannot utilize the data I collect with them to better inform the decisions you make. The same for weaknesses - I didn't know your power made a noise, but you did. Neither of us realized I might have been incapacitated.