Title: The Circle Game

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Author's note: The title of the chapter is taken from Joni Mitchell's song The Circle Game. So I don't own the title of the chapter either.

Chapter Fourteen: The Circle Game

We can't go back,

We can only look behind

From where we came

And go round and round and round

In the circle game

"Nicolas is Khivar's brother?"

"You know," Tess said dryly, glancing over at Isabel, "no matter how many times you ask that question, the answer is going to be the same."

"The information came from Nasedo. We can't be sure it is true," Isabel countered.

"Yes, but what could he possibly gain from lying about this?" Tess countered.

"Oh, I don't know," Isabel answered sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "How about instilling incredible amounts of fear in all of us?"

Michael and Max glanced between the two arguing girls. The four of them were standing near the base of the cliffs where they had met so many times before. Michael had called the meeting, filled with news about Nasedo's return.

Max kicked at one of the loose rocks, watching as it bounced down the sloped incline towards the road below. "I agree with Tess. I doubt Nasedo would have lied about this. Either way, we need to be careful."

"Liz mentioned to me that Whitaker had family in Copper Summit in Arizona," Tess said thoughtfully. "They're probably somehow related to this."

Max blinked in surprise. "Liz didn't tell me that when she came over yesterday."

"Liz came over yesterday?" Isabel asked, surprised. Michael seemed incredibly uninterested in Max's estranged relationship with his ex-girlfriend, and Tess was too busy ignoring Max to really pay attention to what he was saying.

"Yeah… just to talk," Max answered, his face flushing slightly at Isabel's searching gaze.

"Anyway," Michael said, interrupting before the conversation could progress any further, "What do we do now?"

Max shook his head. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Michael echoed. "How can we do nothing?"

"We don't know enough, and if Nicolas is really as dangerous as Nasedo said, the last thing we want to do is put ourselves in more danger," Max argued.

Michael folded his arms over his chest, glaring. "We're already in danger, Max. That's not going to change."

"So why go out of our way to find danger when it is going to find us?" Max replied logically.

"Because if we're going to war, why should we wait and let them attack us? We take the fight to them, strike before they can hurt us!"

"We're not at war," Isabel interjected. "It's not like we've got an army behind us, preparing to fight. It's just the four of us."

"Seven."

"What?" Max and Isabel both looked over at Tess.

She shrugged. "It's the seven of us. You're forgetting Alex, Maria, and Liz." She could tell that the other three hybrids were more than a little surprised that she was the one including the three humans in this, but she continued, "Look, I don't think we should include them in all our conversations. And certainly not in our plans to fight. They don't have powers…" she glanced at Isabel and corrected herself, "I mean, they don't have gifts, and are going to be a liability more than an asset. But they are involved in this, and we can't really ignore that, can we? Who's to say that Nicolas and the other enemy aliens… uh, skins… aren't going to target one of them?"

"It still doesn't change anything," Isabel protested. "This isn't a war."

"Then what do you call it?" Michael demanded heatedly. "Because from everything I've learned over the past few months, I'd say this is exactly a war!"

"We're just… us. Teenagers."

"Except that Nicolas, Khivar, and the others don't view us as teenagers. They still think of us as this legendary group of royals," Tess retorted. "And as long as they think that, we don't have any other choice than to live up to their expectations."

"It's us or them," Michael agreed firmly, staring hard at Max. "And I don't want us to be the ones who die."

Max ran a hand through his hair. "I get what you're saying, Michael. But what exactly are we supposed to do? We don't know enough to fight back right now."

"We could go to Copper Summit," Michael suggested.

"And what? Knock on the doors and ask if the people there are skins?" Max replied sarcastically. "We have no idea what we could be walking into, and I…"

"I'm not just going to wait for one of us to get killed!" Michael exploded. "That's already almost happened to Tess… twice."

"We have to proceed with caution," Max said again. "I'm not… I'm not going to condone rushing off into some crazy goose-chase that could get us all killed."

"Yeah, and I'm sure your wait and see method is going to go so well," Michael snapped irritably. He turned away from the others, knowing that the conversation would get them nowhere. Max wasn't going to bend on this one, and Isabel was too afraid to want to fight back right now. That left Tess, and while there was a chance that she would be on his side, he could also tell from her current silence that she had no intention of intervening in this argument.

"Better than walking into danger," Max murmured.

"Fine," Michael hissed. "Then what do we do the next time one of us gets kidnapped, Max? And the time after that? Does one of us need to die for you to realize that waiting isn't going to help us?"

"Your plan puts us in even more danger," Max replied levelly. "Open your eyes, Michael. We're not equipped to fight these people, not right now. We need time to plan… we need more information."

Michael shook his head angrily, and Isabel bit her lip in worried apprehension. Max looked away from the others, refusing to meet Michael's furious gaze. And Tess silently watched the other three, her eyes narrowed, her face blank.

As they all walked away moments later, Max caught Tess' arm and said, "Eight."

"What?"

"It's eight. Not seven. You were forgetting Sheriff Valenti."

"So… we still have this project to work on," Maria said as she took a seat next to Max. Their history class was slowly filling up, students drifting in from the hallway moments before the bell was due to ring.

Max glanced at her and gave a gloomy nod, not looking forward to the project. The two of them had been matched with Kyle, and the last time they tried to pick a topic the jock had gone out of his way to be rude to Max. Whatever baggage he was carrying, it was going to make this entire process incredibly unpleasant.

"Yeah," Max muttered, looking down at his desk.

Maria frowned and slanted a look over at Kyle, who was animatedly talking with Isabel. She knew Tess had altered any of Kyle's memories that pertained to aliens, and so she couldn't understand what grudges he would still be holding onto. He shouldn't really remember most of what he would have been upset about.

So why was he being such a jerk?

Max, however, was too preoccupied with other thoughts to worry as much about Kyle. He was thinking instead of Liz, of the way she'd walked into his room as though she belonged there and demanded to be in his life once again.

He loved her.

Maria gave Max another look, then realized he wasn't paying any attention to her. He was obviously off in his own thoughts, and was not going to be any help. With a sigh of frustration, she walked over to Kyle by herself.

Both he and Isabel stopped talking the moment Maria approached. When it became clear that Maria wanted to talk with Kyle, Isabel discreetly slipped away, leaving the two alone.

"So, we have to work on this project," Maria said.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Can you stop by the Crashdown after school today? I'm working until 5pm, and then we could meet after that," Maria offered.

Kyle shrugged, unconcerned. "Yeah, sure. Sounds good." He glanced over at Max. "Is Evans coming also?"

"Of course," Maria stressed. "It is a group project."

"Yeah, fine. Okay." He pushed past Maria and slid into a seat, slumping forward and resting his elbows on the desk.

Maria huffed, but decided not to press the issue. She had not idea what the problem was, and certainly wasn't sure how to fix it.

She turned, about to leave, but Isabel caught her by the arm. "You can't fix every relationship," she murmured under her breath, glancing over at Kyle with a slight nod. "Just let it go. He's never going to like Max."

"Why?" Maria hissed, annoyed.

Isabel shrugged. "Ask Tess. She's the one who knows him best. But he's been like this for a while now. Ever since the beginning of the summer."

"Since the stuff with the FBI?" Maria asked, lowering her voice to a whisper.

Isabel nodded. "Yeah, I guess."

It wasn't difficult to track down Tess during lunch. As usual, she was sitting in the center of the quad, surrounded by her group of popular friends, leaning against her boyfriend. Chris had his arm wrapped around her shoulders.

What was difficult was getting a chance to talk to her in private.

Maria marched up to the table and stared at Tess. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" she asked.

"Go ahead," Tess answered, raising one eyebrow curiously. Next to her, Sara stifled a giggle. Cliff, sitting across from them, looked up at Maria, his eyes filled with mocking laughter.

"Not here," Maria said, ignoring the others. "I… uh, it's personal."

"Personal?" Sara demanded, grinning. "What could you possibly have to say that would actually interest Tess?"

"Maybe she's asking for advice on something?" Cliff suggested. "You know… like how not to be a freak?"

But Tess gave Maria a searching look, then said, "Drop it, guys." She rose to her feet. "I'll be right back." And she gestured for Maria to follow her away from the table.

"You have such charming friends," Maria said sarcastically.

Tess didn't answer the comment. Instead, she asked, "Did something happen? Is Michael alright?"

"He's fine," Maria said dismissively, but inwardly she was smiling. The fact that Tess automatically assumed that if Maria wanted to talk to her, it had to be about Michael, simply meant that Tess still thought of the two of them as a couple. And that made Maria particularly happy.

"Then what is it?"

"Um… actually, it's Kyle."

The reaction on Tess was alarming. She seemed to freeze, her eyes widening slightly. In a split-second, true fear appeared on her face. It was gone a moment later, and she was asking in a calm voice, "What about him?"

But Maria had seen that flash of terror, and she realized that not only did Tess care incredibly deeply for her brother, but she was also worried about him.

"He's been… different," Maria said.

Tess reached out, catching Maria's arm in a vise-like grip. "Different? What do you mean?"

"Um… just that… well, he's being really mean to Max. And I thought… well, shouldn't he not really remembering any of… of what happened before?"

Tess let go of Maria's arm, relaxing. "Oh. Okay."

"What did you think I meant?" Maria demanded skeptically.

Tess didn't answer. She didn't want to explain any of it to Maria, didn't want to explain her fears to anyone. But she knew, better than most, the fragility of the brain, and the amount of damage extensive use of her gifts could cause. What she'd done to Kyle was big, bigger than almost anything else she'd ever done. And although she had assured everyone that it would have no unfortunate side-effects… well, she was still worried. And she'd still kept an eye on Kyle, watching him closely when he wasn't looking, searching for any signs that something might be going wrong.

"Tess?"

The blonde hybrid shook her head, ringlets bouncing slightly. "You dragged me away from my friends, away from lunch, to tell me that you don't like the way Kyle and Max are playing together?" she asked, her voice sardonic.

"Tess," Maria snapped, "I'm just trying to figure out what is going on. Shouldn't your mind-warp have fixed the problem?"

"Keep your voice down!" Tess hissed in response, glancing around the quad. They were standing far enough away from the others to talk without any danger of being overheard, but still… no reason to take chances.

"Sorry," Maria apologized sheepishly.

Tess sighed. "Look, Maria… I erased Kyle's memories of those few days. So that he didn't remember Jim and I disappearing for so long, or the FBI showing up at his house, or anything I told him about aliens. But anything that happened before that, he's still going to remember." She paused, thinking, then added, "You know, it's also possible that he still remembers a lot of the emotions he felt from them. And just not why he felt that way."

"But why would he hate Max that much?" Maria asked.

"Does it matter?" Tess replied. "He does, and that's pretty much all there is to it."

Max sifted through the papers spread out in front of him. One was a map, the small dot representing Copper Summit circled in red. Another was a newspaper article printed from the internet that talked about Whitaker's initial election to the Senate. The third was a birth certificate, found by Alex, stating that the senator was born to Ida and Walt Crawford.

"Crawford," he said thoughtfully. "As in Nicolas Crawford?"

Could it be possible that Nicolas Crawford was somehow related to the senator? Nasedo had told Michael that Nicolas was Khivar's brother, and that he was quite possibly the most dangerous person they would ever come across.

The sound of footsteps on the floor outside his room caused him to quickly shove the papers into a stack and place them in the bottom drawer of his desk. As the resounding thud of knuckles rapping against the door echoed in the room, he shoved the drawer shut and turned around. "Come in."

Mrs. Evans stepped into the room. She was holding a pile of clothing in her arms, shirts of his that she had washed during the day.

"Oh, thanks," Max said, taking the clothing from his mother and dropping it onto the end of his bed. "You know, I could have done my own laundry."

"I know," Mrs. Evans answered, "but I didn't mind." She sat down on the end of the bed. "I don't see you any more, Max. You're always rushing off to some activity or another."

Max shifted his weight awkwardly, unsure how to respond. "I guess I'm just really busy, you know?"

"Right. Well, I was wondering if you were thinking at all about college," Mrs. Evans asked.

"I just started my junior year of high school," Max answered. "Don't you think it is a little early?"

"Well, is Liz looking into it?" Mrs. Evans countered.

Max flushed. "I… I don't know."

Mrs. Evans, sensing that she was on shaky ground, said quickly, "You know, Isabel's already started to look into a few different schools."

Isabel, Max knew, always looked at things in advance. Always planned every single detail for several possible scenarios, just in case. His sisters neurotic tendencies, while they certainly had some benefits, also had drawbacks, and Max had no intention of following her example.

"You know, a lot of people don't really start thinking about this until the spring."

"I know," Mrs. Evans agreed. She hesitated, then added, "You know, your father and I would be happy to take you to look at different schools if you want. California has some really good schools, or you could look on the East Coast."

"Um… okay. Well… I guess let me think about it."

Mrs. Evans nodded, her smile forced, and rose to her feet. "Well, I'll leave you to your homework," she said, before exiting the room. At the door, she stopped and looked back, as though there was something else she wanted to say. But she remained silent, and a moment later she disappeared into the hallway.

Max let out a shaky breath, one he didn't even realize he'd been holding, and put his head down on the desk. He knew his mother was worried about him, knew the strained relationship that existed between the two of them was only going to get worse as the year progressed. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion, and knowing there was nothing he could do to stop it.

The conversation about colleges had obviously been an attempt to insert some normality into their lives, to somehow pretend that they were still just an ordinary mother and son.

As he thought of his mother, of Liz, of Copper Summit and Nicolas, and he felt the same stirrings of self-doubt. When he'd seen Tess' bruised body as she stumbled from the abandoned factory, when Isabel had told him that the Whitaker had said they were actually after her, he'd felt something… a rush of… well, he couldn't quite explain it. But it was as though the true king inside him had pushed its way to the surface. For one moment, he was giving orders, and it felt… right.

But that was gone now.

Now, he was back where he started, doubting every single decision he made.

"Kyle?" Tess walked into the doorway of his room, leaning against the frame.

"Hey," he said, surprised. They didn't often go into each other's rooms, and usually only when it was important. "Is everything alright?"

She nodded, taking a few more steps into the room. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

She drew a breath, then asked in a rush, "Why do you hate Max Evans so much?"

Kyle stared at her for a moment, his eyes widening with shock at the question. After the silence had stretched on for a few minutes, he asked, "Why do you care?"

Tess shrugged. "I… There are a lot of reasons that you might hate him, and almost all of those effect my friends. I'm just… concerned."

"You think I'm still upset about the whole thing with Liz and am going to screw up my relationship with Trudy," Kyle said bluntly.

"Any reason why I shouldn't think that?" she questioned, taking a seat on the edge of his bed.

He shook his head. "It's not about Liz. Not completely, anyway."

"Then what is it about?" Tess asked gently.

"Well… it is… a little bit… about Liz. But even more than that… Do you have any idea how many times Dad has had to run off to something related to Guerin or Evans? I mean, at first it was the whole thing with Hank Guerin, and I was fine with that. But then… I don't know, it is more than that now. Evans got caught up in something, and Dad's… I don't know what Dad is doing, but it feels like… he was doing stuff for Evans."

"He's the Sheriff," Tess pointed out. "It's his job."

"Yeah, well…" Kyle shook his head. "It's… it's more than that." He paused. "Why do you even care about this anyway? I promise I won't let it affect Trudy."

"And Isabel? Will you let it affect her?" Tess asked.

Kyle gave Tess a searching stare. "And then there's you. Do you really think I don't notice that you spend time actually talking to Evans, Guerin, and their friends?"

"Well, yeah, because Isabel is friends…"

"It was before you started hanging out with Isabel," Kyle interrupted. "It started earlier last year, before… before all this stuff with Isabel."

"So you're upset that I'm talking to people?" Tess asked skeptically. "But why are you only angry at Max? Why aren't you angry at me?"

Kyle shrugged. "You're my sister."

Tess nodded slowly, and a few minutes later left the room. She knew things with Kyle were more complicated than he was letting on, and she wondered how long it would be before it all came bursting forth.

Next Chapter: Breakaway

Due: Tues 4/22