The alarms on Alex's drain blare their warning. Even at its highest setting, it is not able to keep up with the steady rise in his powers. They are filling him, too quickly. His body temperature is rising as well, which is a normal side effect of his powers considering the amount of energy he generates. He can normally be cooled down by the drain, or even simply giving him Tylenol. But his fever is a wildfire, and he needs to be cooled down immediately. Annie has brought in a cooling blanket and it is keeping his brain from frying, but there is no longer a choice.

This has to end, but there is a new problem. Dr. Abdol leans over Dr. Andrews and cannot wake the woman up. She has grown pale and cold, her skin clammy and her body even less responsive than Alex's. But she isn't reacting at all to anything he does to rouse her. He is not a telepath, and can't exactly understand how Lillian Andrews has connected her mind to Alex Summers, so he has no idea how to disconnect the two.

Alex's eyes have sprung open and he stares up at the ceiling, his rapidly darting pupils seeing nothing. Kathy, sponging sweat off his face, ignores the doctor's attempt to wake the woman. She leans over her son, whispering, "Come on, Baby, come on. Try or you are never going to be able to come home."

The bird song trill is his answer to her, a language that is not a language.

Annie has reappeared, and is hooking an iv to her patient's arm, "It's ok, 'Lexxy." She croons as she works "I'm here. No one's going to hurt while Annie's around." She mimics a phrase or two of the bird song and that works a little, calming him enough that she can insert the iv.

"What is that?" Kathy asks the nurse.

"A sedative." Annie answers. "It will relax him and hopefully calm his powers down."

"No." Kathy says, putting out her hand. "Don't. I don't want him drugged."

Abdol frowns up at her, and says, "Kathy, please."

"He is my son." Kathy says, firmly, "I decide what is best for him." She points at the ceiling, "You installed that thing, use it."

The doctor looks like he is going to protest, his dark eyes furious. But a fresh blast of alarm from Alex's drain halts whatever he was going to say. He looks at Annie, "Go have security open the skylight, quickly."

"But, Doctor..." Annie gasps, "You aren't just going to let..."

"Do as I say, Nurse." Abdol says, his thick Egyptian accent almost unintelligible, "You weren't here before. You don't know what kind of havoc his powers cause."

Annie, frightened by the tone of his voice, and furious at Mrs. Summers for being so stubborn, hurries off to the security desk.

Abdol turns to the woman still cradling her son, "He is going to fire his powers, Kathy. And they might not focus through his hands. They don't always. Sometimes the explode around him."

"Wake Andrews." Kathy says, "She's the only one who can tell us what is happening."

The doctor leans over the elegant figure sprawled over the bed, "I can't. She won't wake up. Don't you think I have been trying?"

Kathy looks down at her son, who stares up at her but doesn't see her. "He is somewhere. I thought he was gone, but she woke something up in him. He is reacting, just not to us..."

"To what then?"

"To whatever is happening to him wherever he is." Kathy says.

"Kathy, you may be doing him more harm than good by persisting with this." Abdol says, "You might kill him."

She looks at the doctor, "Dead or alive, Doctor. Either one must be better than this walking death. I didn't know he was in there before. I was selfish. I wanted him alive because he's all I have left. His father is dead, and his brother...Scott is a busy man, an important man. Alex was all that that was left to me." She closes her eyes and strokes Alex's forehead, "But now that I know he is not gone, just lost, trapped inside his mind, inside some world where he can be hurt and frightened, I am not going to allow him to remain there, not alone. He is my baby. I love him too much to allow this suffering to continue."

Above them the sky light begins to open, preparing for the massive burst of Alex Summer's powers.

On the Shi'ar throne world of Chandilar, chaos reigns. The slaves from the mines have broken their chains, with help from Raza and several others who wished to re-establish the throne to its proper owner. Commandeering skimmers and barges, they have converged on the capitol now, and have taken the guard posts, which are strangely unprepared for the attack,

Hepzibah, riding behind Ch'od on a two-person skim cycle, calls out, "This makes no sense. Corsair left the mines hours ago. He should have alerted them. They should be expecting us."

"Razzza may have taken out the Informant before he could forewarn the Imperial Guard."

Hepzibah narrows her eyes in a human gesture of displeasure that she learned from Corsair, and backs up her anger with the swishing of her graceful tail. "And did Raza kill the Majestor too? I think something is wrong here. I think Raza takes advantage of a palace coup, and puts us in the middle."

"Doessss it matter how we get where we are, Kitten?" Ch'od asks, "Asss long asss we are free."

The pretty little cat who had, before her people had been wiped out by D'Ken's greedy nonchalance, been the sheltered runt of her litter, bares small sharp white fangs in a low growl, "Raza may be leading us to our doom."

The palace looms ahead and though Ch'od says nothing he too does not like the many lights that glow so late at night. He doesn't miss the damage on the wing where he knows the Majestor's chambers are. One wall bows strangely, windows shattered, as if an explosion had come from within.

Hepzibah sees none of this. She only sees the place where Corsair had fallen. She will find him in there and if he is not alive she will give him the rites of his people and properly send him to whatever afterlife the humans believed in.

She prays to her own gods though that he be alive.