After Hours

That night passed uneventful and she was pulled out of her reverie by the rising sun which signaled it was time for her to get ready for school. In the beginning she had thought that school would be her haven that it would let her forget for a while or a least occupy her for those long painful days.

But she was wrong. School was no less agonizing then any other place she spent her time now, even worse because everything reminded her of them. And as she sat down in her seat in biology another flash hit her like a truck.

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And so for the second time that night they went into those woods believing they were ready for what awaited them. They reached the same government building and the four aliens took their places in front and blew the steel door right off its hinges in a flash of green light and as they stepped inside what seemed like a deserted building Liz's senses began to crackle to life no longer sluggish from her woe.

Had she looked at her hands at that moment she would have seen a green spark surge from her finger tips but that discovery was for another day in a painful future when it would no longer matter. They stepped forward as group with purpose and a great feeling of vengeance bubbling under the surface.

"Do we even have any idea where it is?" Kyle sounded so hopeless, so lost.

"Before the... before we had to go we were looking in this like doctors office place at the end of that hallway but we didn't umm... we didn't have time to see if it was there" Michael said pointing at a long corridor to their left.

Without answering Max started in that direction the others following him when they reached the end they saw the office Michael had spoken of and two other doors on the other sides.

"Okay we have to split up..." Max started before a frightened Tess cut him off.

"But Max you said we wouldn't be alone."

"You won't, we won't. Isabel, Michael, and Maria go in that room," Max pointed to the door closest to the office. "Tess and Kyle you go in that room," pointing at the room diagonally across from the office. "And Liz and I will take the office. If anything happens just call out, and try to get out as soon as possible."

They each took their own path and Liz followed Max into the dark office.

"Okay it's pretty small but they wouldn't just leave it anywhere so check locked drawers, safes, and hidden places first." Max said flipping the light switch and starting to break the file cabinet open with his powers, he glanced up when Liz didn't answer to see her looking through a closet the blood from the gash on her stomach had soaked her shirt.

"You're bleeding," he said calmly focusing on the cabinet again.

"Yeah I uh... yeah." Her voice slow and detached as she pushed cleaning supplies around searching for some sort of secret hiding place.

"How bad is it, I could heal it if... if you want me to." He sounded almost timid.

"I'm fine," she said a little too quickly touching the wound and feeling oddly sentimental about it "It will leave a scar but... I want it too." She scolded herself for letting him hear her awkward feelings.

"I get what you mean," he whispered

"How do you get what I mean, I don't even get it" her misery coming out of her mouth like vomit.

"I'm sorry I just... you don't have to hide it Liz we're all sad about Ale..."

"STOP!" her tone tough and dire "Don't say his name." tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Liz I'm sorry and I would do... something but we can't not here, not now." She didn't answer him and went back to looking, scared of what she might say if she kept talking.

Max looked up to say something else when he saw something in the back of the cabinet. He reached for it and examined it.

"Liz I found it! We can go!" Max exclaimed surprised by the small amount of time it took to find it.

"You can't leave yet," Declared a deep voice from behind him and as he turned around he saw a man with his right hand wrapped around Liz's mouth and the other hand cover the wound on her stomach. He wore a blue suit and his blonde hair was slicked back.

"Liz!" Max leapt forward in an attempt to get her free but when he did the man squeezed the wound on her stomach causing her to groan in pain, her eyes watering. Then the man reached into his jacket pocket with his right hand uncovering Liz's mouth as he reached for his gun.

"Max go! You have the disk just go!" Liz cried

"I won't leave without you!" his voice shaking the fear evident.

"You won't be leaving at all." the man said before pointing his gun directly at Max as Liz struggled against the man's grip on her.

"Stop fighting me little girl" he sounded annoyed he turned the gun against her neck.

"NO!" Max screamed

"Take me but leave her alone." His voice growing more livid by the second.

"Max no don't do something stupid because of me."

"No, by all means do something stupid," the man smiled as he slammed Liz against the wall.

"Stop it." His voice quieter.

"Make me!" he had a wide grin spread across his face now

"I'll give you the disk!" Max blurted out in an effort to bargain for Liz

"If you let her go... I'll give it to you."

"Don't do this Max" Liz pleaded with him.

But Liz held the disk tightly in his outstretched hand now but as the man reached for it her pulled it away and the man dug the gun further into Liz's neck.

"Her first" Max's voice demanding and sad

"Okay," the man shove Liz toward Max keeping the gun trained on her and Max through the disk at the man before grabbing hold of Liz.

"Are you alright?"

"You should have left me; you should have just left while you still had a chance." Her voice overwhelmed.

"What? No, Liz don't say that." Max said surprised

"She's right you know," the man announced pointing the gun at Max again smiling "sorry kid got to do it but you know what? I'll leave your little girlfriend here alone." Max lunged at the man grabbing the disk from his pocket, the man didn't notice and pushed Max back towards Liz

"It's sad really," he started looking at Liz "to know that you're the reason he's gonna die... oh well!" he exclaimed before firing the gun. Liz screamed and everything went completely black for a second and then suddenly the world came rushing back to her and she wished it hadn't. Max was lying on the floor, blood was gushing from a wound in his chest, and the man had gone.

"Max!" Liz cried as tears poured from her eyes. She placed her hands on the wound trying to stop the bleeding.

'There's too much, it's too much' she thought seeing the blood surge from underneath her palms.

"Liz," his voice quiet and ragged "Liz you have to destroy the disk." He unclenched his palm revealing the disk in his hand.

"Max no! We're going to get out of here and we're going to get rid of it together."

"Liz I don't think I can hold for much longer, no one can heal me..."

"What about a hospital? We can go we don't have to explain as long as you're okay it doesn't matter."

"Liz you know we can't do that,"

"We have to do something I can't just sit here and watch you die Max I just..." She said before he cut her off touching her cheek with his hand.

"Liz you have to do it, and you have to take care of the others because no matter what they tell you, you are important to the group you always have been."

"Max," she pleaded "Don't"

"Liz I want you to know that I always loved you," his voice so quiet and beaten "even if you didn't love me." He told her as she shook from the sobs.

"I never stopped loving you Max, not since the first moment I saw you and I never will." Her tears falling on him as she sobbed.

"Never let them get you Liz, if they come looking never let them touch you," he begged her as she nodded "Its up to you now Liz, we make our own destiny and I know that the one you choose will be amazing." he sputtered as blood trickled from his mouth.

"I love you" her voice cracked as she kissed him on his forehead.

"I love you..." he coughed unable to finish his last words as he fell away from himself and left his body lying on the ground staring directly in Liz's eyes as she held him close to her body leaning against his corpse as the last of the warmth left him.

"Oh my God!" Kyle bellowed as he saw the room covered in blood.

Tess came running in after him and fell to her knees as she saw the scene in front of her. Isabel and Maria almost ripped over her as they entered the room, Maria turned to Michael who had followed them in and he held her against his chest as tears fell from his eyes.

Isabel just stood their dumbfounded, unable to comprehend the amount of sorrow that filled her. Liz just sat there in a pool of Max's blood holding his limp body and weeping.

"It's over now," she whispered in his ear "you can be safe now. You can go home."

'Home'