She entered the darkened cave with a sense of trepidation. She knew that beyond this lay the old Command Center that she had known and loved and it made sense that this is where Tommy would wish to return. She needed him to come back to his senses…actually she just needed him. It didn't matter anymore that he was evil or that he could only behave civilly around her. She could not lose him again…if she did she might as well join him. She could not have a life without him anymore.

"Kimberly, why did you follow me?" Tommy asked as he looked up at her from his position on the floor and she reached over for his hand. She knew just how bad he felt and wanted to make it right as soon as possible because the longer he thought about this, the worse it was going to get. "I hurt you again…I hurt the one thing I love the most."

"You hurt me because I let you. I don't want you to live with anymore regret than what is already on your shoulders once this is all over," Kim whispered as he pulled her down and she let him settle his arms around her. "You need to take a shower and get some sleep Tommy."

"I don't deserve," Tommy began as she glared at him and he barely nodded. He could live his life like a raving lunatic when he was not with her, but when she was around he was the man that he had used to be, before the lone star expedition. They both carried a burden from that expedition, his was to be evil and hers was to try to bring him back. The sad thing was, he did come back when he was with her, but when they tried to prolong that, spread it to others he fell right off the wagon. He had lost everything but her because of this. He didn't know how much more he could stand to lose.

"This is the last time I will do this," Kim murmured to herself as she looked around the command center. "I don't want to give up on him, but…I need to bring him back, maybe if he loses me he will come back."

"Don't think like that," a voice echoed as Kimberly spun around to see Tyler and Corey standing in the entrance. She had no clue why they might be here, but she knew that they were tired of the lies. They wanted to truth, which was something that only she and Tommy could give them. "He used to bring us here when we were younger, we'd play for hours while he worked. I never thought this would be where he came for comfort."

"It's not comfort Corey and how did you get here?" Kim asked as they gave her guilty looks. "What have you done?"

"Don't freak out on us, but we followed you," Tyler said as Kim's eyes widened. "How did you know he'd come here?"

"Because I know your father better than anyone else in the world," Kim said as she sat down next to a console and patted the spot next to her. "They've never told you about the lone star expedition, did they?"

"The what?" Corey asked as Kim shook her head. She had thought this would be their reaction, but had wanted to keep it from happening. She had tried to convince Kat to tell the boys the truth, but considering that she only knew bits and pieces it was hard to do that. Saying that Tommy went off the deep end was easier than trying to explain the evil that she didn't understand.

"The expedition that your father and I went on that turned him into this," Kim said as they nodded. "Do you really want to know what happened?"

"I have the feeling that we don't get much of a choice about hearing this," Tyler said as Kim just shrugged her shoulders. They could always refuse and she would just leave it alone, if that was what they wanted.

"You can choose, but if you don't want to hear it, then you won't ever know the full truth," Kim said as Tommy walked back in, in a towel and looked around at them.

"Kids, you shouldn't have come," Tommy said as he took a step away and he looked around at them. "Every time that I'm around people without her…"

"We're not here to ask that of you, Dad, we just want to help," Corey said as Kim looked over at him and then stood to give him a hug. "She was just about to explain what really happened to you."

"What really happened? Kim, we can't do that," Tommy said as he reached over and walked over to the nearest exit.

"Tommy Oliver! Don't you dare walk away from me!" Kim yelled as he turned around and saw her glare. "If they find out, then it should be from us and guess what, no one knows but us."

"The fact that I only choose to let this happen to me instead of to you? You who didn't have a family, who didn't have all the responsibilities that I had and yet I decided to let this happen! What will everyone think when they hear that?" Tommy yelled back at her as she crossed her arms and glared at him.

"I remember volunteering to take it, to have the evil inside of me, but you wouldn't let me do that. You couldn't stand the thought of what it would destroy for me, you didn't think of what you would lose," Kim said as the boys watched as he came back, furious at her.

"You said you'd bring me back!" Tommy yelled as he grabbed her arms and shook her. "You said I wouldn't have to live this forever!"

"You think I haven't tried, that? You think that I haven't spent every day trying to bring you back! Damn it Tommy the reason that we agreed to this was because I've been able to bring you back in the past, not the other way around. They always said we could go back and let it take the other. How many times do I have to ask you to let me take it and for you to save me?" Kim yelled as his hands shook and her eyes teared up. "I don't want to leave you, but what else can I do to bring you back?"

"Tell me the secrets you've kept from me, the things that I have begged from you since this happened. It's the one thing that might set us free of this," Tommy said as she tore her eyes away from him. "You can't, no matter how many times I've asked, you can't."

"Tommy, it's the same reason that I could never really come back to you the way we both wanted," Kim said as the boys looked between the two of them. "The reason that we, for all those years, that we would walk out before we ever lost control."

"I want to lose control now, I want to find myself in you again, but if you can't just trust me and tell me, we are just going to keep walking around each other on eggshells," Tommy said as Kim closed her eyes and then walked away from him. She was so scared to tell him this, to break the final barrier between them getting back to normal. She, however, didn't think that that was humanly possible for her to do. Even though she loved him, she didn't know if she could tell him that.