A/N: I know it's been a very long time since I've update Skin Deep, but thank you to everyone who has been looking out for it, and the newer readers who've found this story and been reading it. I had another project going that took all of my attention over on Fiction Press. I'm no in a position to continue Skin Deep. Thank you!

Daniel sat at his desk looking at the screen, trying to explain the readings that were on a constant loop. "How the hell…" he whispered to himself. He didn't think it was loud enough for it to carry across the lab, but it did, and it caught the ear of Kevin Shaw as he walked in. "How the hell what?" he asked as he walked up next to Daniel and took a seat.

"Well…uh…I really don't know how to explain it." Daniel replied as he rubbed his neck.

"Why don't you try? I'm sort of a genius, so I'm pretty sure I'll be able to pick up what you're trying to explain."

Daniel laughs. "It looks like that all that time you've spent lying in a hospital hasn't diminished your sense of humor." He pulls up a screen. "Ok, the window on the left was Krystal's brainwave when I had her sedated, running test. It's very simplistic, dormant, not much activity going on with it. The window on the right is obviously more energetic than the first."

Kevin gets closer. "Is the second brain scan after you woke her up? I don't really see anything unusual with either of them."

"Are you serious? You don't see anything that may cause you to scratch your head a little?"

"Other than the fact that the second scan is considerably off the charts, no I don't see anything."

"I guess you're not as much of a genius as you may think yourself to be."

"Why's that?" Kevin leans back in his chair as he folds his arms.

"The scan on the right wasn't taken after Krystal woke up. Don't get me wrong, it is Krystal's brain scan, but it's not after she woke up."

"Then when was it?"

"Both of these scans were taken at the same time."

Kevin's jaw drops. "You're telling me my daughter was switching from an asleep little angel, to some crazy head banger in a mosh pit?"

"No, I'm telling you that your little angel was a sleep and in a mosh pit at the same time. Krystal had two different brainwaves during the scan. I've never seen this before. It's kind of like she…

"Was sharing her brain with someone else." Kevin finished Daniel sentence.

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

"Do you know what this means?"

"If I did Kevin, I wouldn't have been staring at this screen for the last two hours wondering what the fuck was going on."

Kevin rubs his chin and thinks about how he is going to word his response. "It seems that residual cognition from the hybrid DNA as merged itself with Krystal's."

"You're telling me Krystal has split personalities?"

"In a sense, but it could be worse."

"How can this be any worse?"

"Krystal's own mind could be losing a battle against the hybrid's conscious. If that's happening…"

"Krystal won't be Krystal anymore…" Daniel finished Kevin.

"Where is Krystal?"

"Where do you think she'd be at right now? She's at school."

"We're going to need to pull her from class and bring her back. This is an unforeseen event that we must compartmentalize as much as possible."

"I'll have the car sent around."

Krystal sat alone, as usual, at a table in the corner of the lunch room. Daren came up to her, and across the table, sat down. "You know, when I said that we should talk that didn't mean that you should avoid me and any conversation that may try to start." Daren took his bag off his shoulder and laid it under the table. Krystal had her head down. She wiped her mouth with a napkin and shyly looked up at Daren. As soon as she let her eyes travel up enough to make eye contact with Daren, she quickly looked back down to her lunch tray. "I know." She started. "I would very much like to know what's going on just as much as do."

"You have one hell of a way of showing it."

"Again, I apologize, but there are a lot of other things going on that you can't even begin to comprehend."

"Really, are you telling me that it transcends the fact that I can hear you talking to me in my head? If you think that I won't believe anything you'd tell me just because you think that it's way beyond my…how did you say…beyond my comprehension…"

"I didn't say that."

"…then you are very, very wrong missy. Even since I've realized what has been going on, I've been going fuckin crazy trying to figure out what the hell is going on. So I would appreciate it if you don't try to undermine my own intellect."

Krystal is mildly thrown back by the way Daren was speaking, mostly with certain elaborate words he was using. "I'm an Alien." She blurt out. Daren stares at her in almost a shocked, but sarcastic way. He throws his fork down on the tray. "I'm trying to be serious. Didn't you hear anything I was saying? I used a lot of big words too, just to show you how important the matter is."

"Yes I did…hear the "big" words you used." Krystal smiles and laughs a little to herself, but hides it. "I'm being honest with you, I'm an Alien. Well, not really an Alien, but I have been infused with DNA of a Yautja and Xenomorph hybrid; therefore I'm more extraterrestrial than human but still human to say the least."

Daren stared at Krystal for a moment before replying. "You're not fucking with me?"

Krystal instantly became embarrassed and slightly confused. "Daren, we are not having sex…we're not like that, are we?"

"No! I'm asking are you messing with me. Are you just pulling my chain or something?"

"No, I wish I was."

"Were you born like that? Are you a child of some freaky Predator and Alien fuck fest?"

"No, definitely not. I don't think I would want to be involved in a….fuck fest."

Daren face-palms himself. "You are so not getting what I'm trying to say."

"I think I do, and no. My father and his colleague merged my DNA with the DNA of a dead hybrid."

"Why the hell would they do that?"

"I don't know. Every time I've tried to get an explanation from my father, he gives me this long exaggerated speech about the betterment of mankind." Krystal realizes that Daren is deep in some sort of thought. "Daren, are you ok?"

"So let me guess…you can transform into some Alien/Predator hybrid at will?"

Krystal's jaw drops slightly as Daren basically figures out Krystal's biggest secret. "Well…"

"Yeah right!" Daren begins laughing. "Like that could ever happen.

Just as Daren finishes his sentence, the football jocks, and their cheerleader girlfriends from Daren and Krystal's previous altercation, walk up to the table. "Hey freak!" Both Daren and Krystal look up thinking that the jock was talking to them, respectively, in particularly. "We want this table, so that means, you two need to leave." Daren instantly, and almost instinctively, stands up and gets chest to chest with the jock. "You want us to leave?" Daren begins. "If you do, I wouldn't mind leaving you the same way I left you the last time we crossed paths, before I leave." Daren notices that the jock's demeanor changes. It's no longer the cocky swagger that he had when he approached, but more of a concerned nature. Daren continues to stare down the jock, but suddenly, he hears Krystal's voice in his mind. "Don't, not here. We…I don't want any more attention then I already get."

Daren looks back at Krystal. "Are you going to let them walk all over you the rest of high school?"

"I don't want them too, but sometimes you have to pick your battles, and this is not a battle I want to fight."

"You won't have to fight…" Daren goes back to the staring contest with the jock. "I'll handle it all."

"Well, have fun impressing no one but yourself. I'm leaving."

At the very mention of it, Krystal grabs her tray and begins walking away. Daren watches Krystal walk away then turns his attention back to the jock. "Next time I see you, or any of you football fudge packers, I will finish what I started." Daren grabs his bag from under the table and leaves to catch up to Krystal. A table away from all the commotion going on, a girl sits alone and listens to the whole thing…everything…even Krystal and Daren's "private" conversation. "Well, it looks like little ole Krystal Shaw has a friend now."

Outside the lunch room, Daren catches up to Krystal, who's walking in a very angry manner, and gets close. "Krystal, stop!" Daren yells as he grabs her arm. Krystal turns around as she brushes Daren off of her. "What, do you think you're, some knight in shining white armor…or in this case, a t-shirt and jeans? I don't need you to fight my battles for me."

"You weren't complaining when I used my super, secret ninja skills to save your ass from those assholes a few days ago."

"That was different." Krystal pauses. "I've been meaning to ask you about those "super, secret ninja" skills of yours."

Daren backs away a little. "Why, what do you want to ask?"

"Like for starters, what was going on? I was in your mind the whole time you were fighting the guys off and from your point of view, you seemed pretty confused and scared of what was happening."

"Well…you…I mean me…it's complicated."

"I'm pretty good with complicated. I am borderline genius."

"Wow, you're in no short supply of being humble."

Krystal gets closer to Darren and grabs his arm. "Answer the question!"

Daren takes a second to look down at Krystal's hand on his arm. "I don't know what was happening. Time felt like it was slowing down, just slow enough for me to react to everything going on. I couldn't explain it. That's not even the beginning of it."

"Yes, you mean seeing things in the infrared spectrum."

"Hey, how did you know about that?"

"I can hear what you're thinking, remember…and read your mind."

"Oh…so you can take a peek inside my head whenever the fuck you want huh?"

"Well not whenever I want, just when we're close enough to each other."

Daren throws his hands up. "Great, now I have the crazy hybrid, fuck fest, love child reading my mind."

"I wasn't involved with this FUCK FEST!"

"Argh…." Daren groans. "I can't take this right now." Daren places his hands on the sides of his head and turns around to walk away, but he bumps into Kevin Shaw. "Father, what are you doing here?" Krystal asks.

"I'm sorry Daren, but you're not going anywhere but with me."

Daren slowly puts his hands down. "I ain't going nowhere with you."

"Oh, I apologize again. Did I say that you were just going with me? I meant to say us." Four very tall and very muscled men in black suit seem to pop out of nowhere. "Grab you things Krystal, we're going home."

As Daren and Krystal are being led into the car, the girl from the lunch room watches from a distance. "It seems as if this is going to be harder than we initially thought." She says to herself in her mind, almost as if she was communicating with someone else in the same manner Daren and Krystal do.

A/N: It probably doesn't matter but Pendulum's newest album "Immersion" is what led me to continue writing. It's a great album and I had it on loop while I was writing this…with the help of a little Patron and orange juice :D Leave some feedback and tell me what you think so far!