A\N: Yeah, so I guess one reviewer is good for now...thanks, Monkeerangerfan!

See Tommy.

See Tommy run.

See Tommy collapse at my feet.

See me laugh.

"You evil little witch..." He curses, getting up.

"You tripped over your own feet, Oliver. And the kids are doing great." They are. I'm recruiting Kira the second I get out of this mess.

She lives on her own.

Duh, Jase. Ya mind? Haven't quite explained everything to Tom yet...

WHAT?!

I jump, wincing. Damn, bro, volume!

Tommy laughs. I glare. "Zedd too loud?" He asks.

I raise an eyebrow. "Excuse me? Did you just...no, never mind." I realize he doesn't know how mind-bonds are usually made before I kick his ass. Good thing for him. I'm a lot stronger now. "Not Zedd. Jason."

"What?!"

I roll my eyes. "God, is that the only thing you two can say?"

Yes. Now tell him.

Yeah, sure, Oh Mighty Highness.

"Storytime!" Kira says, grinning.

"Edited storytime." I correct. "Jase and I are both Maligore's children, and since we were turned at the same moment, we have the same abilities twins do, only stronger. We can talk mentally. And SASS approved our working together on this case, since we both have the experiance, so we talk a lot. Now go run the course again, kids."

The kids moan. I grin. "Only one more time. Then you can have the afternoon off."

They light up and run off. Tommy gives me puppy-dog eyes. I feel my heart...melting.

Never thought I'd feel that again.

"Me too?" He asks.

I laugh. "Hell no."

"I'll take you out to dinner!"

I hesitate. Tempting.

I smile. If he's that desperate. "Fine."

He runs full-on at the course, and I grin.

Funny how a few words give someone so much motivation...

Tommy actually meant it.

Olive Garden isn't much, but it feels nice. I mean, I've dined with heads of state before. But here, there's just humans. I don't have to watch the door or worry about a page stabbing me in the back.

I can relax.

Tommy orders a wonderful pasta dish and wine combination, insisting on tiramasu for dessert.

"I hate you. I'll never fit in my clothes again." I tell him.

He smiles. "You'll always be beautiful. And you were thin when you ate this stuff before, remember?"

"Tommy?"

"Yeah?"

"I never ate junk food unless I was at someone's house."

Tommy frowns, working it out.

"And I fought evil and went to a gym."

He nods. "Ah."

I smirk. Admittedly, I have a really high metabolism (I was almost too small to get the SASS job), but I still have to eat right.

"How'd you end up with SASA or whatever?"

"SASS. I was going to go into law enforcement, but a SASS recruiter hijacked me. Haven't looked back." I smile, taking another bite of tiramasu. "How'd you end up with a doctorate?"

"Bored."

I raise an eyebrow.

"I got really, really bored, so I started a college class. Then I started another, and another, until I wasn't bored anymore. Poof, I had the degree."

I shake my head, smiling. "You're something else, Tom."

"I'm something else in bed, too." He says suggestively.

I almost fall over laughing. I've had three princes and one really intoxicated Trey trying to get me in bed, and he thinks a couple of bad lines are going to get me in his? "Tommy," I start when I've semi-recovered, "Don't--"

"AYIIIIIIIII!!"

I wince. My ears are more sensitive than they should be.

A bunch of machine-gun weilding aliens bash their way to me and Tommy. Damn! I leap up, drawing my gun. "SASS!" I shout. "Drop the weapons!"

"Who's going to make us?"

Great.

I let flame play across my body. "Me."

The machine guns can't hurt me, I'm too hot. But they hurt people around me. I focus. Remember the spells, Kim. Calm. Always calm. Don't think.

"Deasa." I mutter. The people vanish, save Tommy. What the...no, not now, worry later, focus, Kim! Focus. Only the goal. Only the goal.

Jase. Who are these guys?

No one I know. Gimme a sec...be right there.

Might be too late, bro.

I tune back into the fight. The cyborg just declared his everlasting hate for Tommy. Tommy shouts out a morphing call.

"Dino Thunder, Power Up, Hah!"

I stare for a minute. Dino Thunder..? We are having a serious talk after this.

Then a bullet sprays across my face, and I leap at the nearest alien.

It doesn't register for a few minutes that there's a water alien here. I frown. Water control is never good. Very few people have the ability to control an element, no matter what race they are, Zedd's inpronouncable species being the sole exception. So this guy must be good.

I step into a fight with him. "You really wanna do this?" I ask. Always defuse, if the option exists. SASS training. "Back off. Just walk away."

The response is a splash of water, which fizzles into mist. I remember Zedd's more detailed training.

"Fire stems from an emotion. For you, for now, it is anger." Zedd's smile wasn't disconcerting anymore. "Someday, Pheonix, it'll be something completly different." He stopped smiling. "Always be careful when dealing with angry fire. If you don't hold back, you could destroy someone."

"What if they had as much power as me? A water manipulator or something?"

Zedd fixed me with a firm stare. "Skill. Make it a contest of skill, or you will both lose. Never, ever forget that. Skill is all you have to rely on, little Pheonix. You are the skill."

I am the skill.

"KIM!"

I spin, and water sears across my back. I scream in pain, lashing out instinctivly. Tommy's in trouble. Where...

"KI-YAH!"

And he's back in the fight. With part of his skin half-melted.

Everyone--including the thing that threw acid on him--stares in sheer astonishment. Does the man have no pain receptors? How the bloody hell is he doing that?

Kira, I suddenly understand why you don't like Conner. Men who can pull stunts like this just are not worth the headaches.

I leap into battle next to him, whacking the water creature with the butt end of my pistol. The acid-thrower runs, and Tommy trips trying to run after him.

Suddenly he screams. Ah. So that's what happened to his pain receptors. Shock. I kneel next to him. "Hurts." He grits out.

I nod.

The cut was too deep. I stared up at Zedd in hopelessness, fear. I couldn't fix it. I couldn't fix anything!

He gently pinched the ends of the wounds together.

I touch the burned skin, imagining whole, smooth muscle there.

"Healing comes from love, Kimberly." He said gently. "A mentor's love for his student. A lover's need for the other's well-being. Anything can spark a healing. But it must be from love. Always from love."

The healing flows from me so freely, and the love, the need for him, pure and sweet.

"Why can't I heal myself?" So soft, so upset. I hated my voice then, for betraying me.

"You don't love yourself. But you will, Pheonix." Zedd's smiles, at the beginning, were so unusual, so startling and so welcome. "You'll find something within yourself to be proud of, something worth fighting for."

"And then," I whisper, watching Tommy sit up, "You can heal."