I don't own Roswell or Any of its franchise. Sadly, or season 4 would've been amazing, I just know it.

A/N Thanks for the lovely reviews! I struggled more than normally with this chapter. I have a somewhat serious conversation in both Kyle's and Michael's POV, and I had to make people's different views seem…well, different. It's a lot harder than it looks, but I hope you don't find it too choppy or unfinished. Fyi: Bit of a blood warning for Isabel's POV. Enjoy!

Unbetaed, but will appreciate any and all help if you spot an error! Thanks.

Last Time On TATT: Maria worries about Liz's mental state after her torture. Alex, Maria and Liz have some human time to cope with everything at Liz's place. Tess is comforted by Kyle after she struggles to get past killing Pierce; they wind up bonding, which freaks the youngest Valenti out. Max gathers all the hybrids to help mindwarp Kathleen out of her misery. Later he tries getting Liz to open up. She deflects and organizes the first ever group dinner since the Antarians came back in time.

CHAPTER TWENTYSIX

Kyle's POV

It was eerily silent around him; the only sound was the sound of his panting breaths and his body's movements in the night. His sneaker clad feet slammed against the pavement with ferocious strength, heightening his speed more and more until he started trembling uncomfortably.

Kyle didn't care; he wanted to run away from everything. Away from the fact that his dad wasn't the hero he'd been in the other life, that none of his fellow humans saw him as anything other than the slightly mean jock he'd been once upon a time, that he'd come back powerless, but more than anything, Kyle was running to escape that thread inside of him that connected him to the person he'd once considered a sister.

Tess. The very thought of her, sent a shiver of something he couldn't quite decipher down his sweaty spine, and with one last burst of effort, Kyle stormed down the empty sidewalk at three in the morning.

Finally, his body gave up on him, and Kyle was forced to stop. He bent forward, leaning his arms on his knees and gasping violently for air, and tried to push back the queasiness that tried worming its way through him.

It took a little while, but eventually, Kyle felt strong enough to straighten back up, wiping his sweaty hair out of his eyes. He shivered, and glanced down at the soaked through wife-beater, knowing he'd have to go back to Michael's place and shower soon so he didn't wind up with pneumonia of all things.

As if thinking about the former temperamental hybrid had summoned him, Kyle spotted him standing completely still, out of the corner of his eye when he turned to head back to Michael's apartment.

"What the…" Kyle whispered, narrowing his eyes to look closer, just in case his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Upon further inspection, Kyle realized that it was indeed his friend standing in front of someone's house in the middle of the night. Huh, he wondered, letting his eyes take in the small home, what's so special about this place?

In the next moment, the question was answered when a lone passing car drove by and shone its light upon the front of the house in a split second. It was Maria's house.

Oh, right, Kyle sighed. I shouldn't really be surprised to find him here. He almost lost her again, so naturally he's in his overprotective mode.

A distant memory of a scowling Maria calling said mode 'pain in the Czechoslovakian wife's ass-mode' entered Kyle's mind, and he had to swallow back a nostalgic grin. He really missed his friendship with the blonde human; after he'd somehow returned to the past, Maria had been more jealous of his closeness with the hybrids to even think about trying to cultivate a friendship with the guy she'd known practically her whole life.

I guess she never really got an opportunity to see past how I treated her in elementary school, Kyle thought sadly, even as he began walking slowly towards the immobile figure standing in front of what Kyle suspected was Maria's bedroom window.

He was walking as slowly as he could, while at the same time making as much noise as possible with his movements. Kyle had at three individual times accidentally snuck up on all of the Antarians, and he wasn't about to do it again. His eyebrows, which had somehow been singed all three times, ached in phantom pain at the memory of those incidents.

"Hey Guerin," Kyle greeted amiably, when he had stood next to the other man for a long moment without being acknowledged in the slightest. Maybe he just didn't realize I was here.

"Hey Kyle." Was all Michael replied, he didn't even look away from the dark window in front of him, and Kyle mentally rolled his eyes. Right, of course the General knew I was here; he probably knew where I was before I even spotted him my damn self.

The silence grew again, and Kyle mostly wanted to just turn around to go get that shower his nose was telling him that he sorely needed at this point, but the look in his friend's eyes stopped him. And the small, selfish part of him was actually pleased to be doing something else but think about the whole mess he'd gotten caught up in with Tess.

"Wanna talk about it?" he tentatively asked, when his conscience won over his vanity. Michael glanced at him without answering before turning his attention back on the unmoving form in a bed that Kyle could just barely make out in the darkness.

"Yeah, didn't think so really," Kyle continued after a few minutes of yet another edgy silence. "I guess I don't blame you for being here right now. I mean, if I'd been through what you have, I'd probably be setting up camp out here too."

Michael didn't move, and Kyle shrugged as if he didn't really care. On the inside though, he was growing a little bit more concerned than previously. Michael had rarely looked so despondent, so drained. Not even during the toughest part of the war…well, before Kyle's knowledge of it ceased due to his untimely death and all. Michael had always been the one that tried cheering people up. It was something he'd taken over from Maria, when her deadening powers had slowly gotten the worst of her.

"Anyway Man, I'm here if you wanna talk…" Kyle finished with a sigh. There was no response, but he hadn't really expected one. I guess, I'll have to open the floor so to speak, Kyle realized with an internal grimace of pain.

"'Cause personally, I could use some listening ears for a second."

Michael twitched, almost as if Kyle's request had finally gotten through to him, but then he stilled and didn't react further.

"Aw screw it," Kyle cursed, and before he knew it, it burst out of him. "I kissed Tess, and I think that we're somehow bonded now, and it's freaking me out, and I can't stop getting this Tess and our Tess confused, and I don't wanna end up blowing everything by letting something slip through the connection. So, really, my life sucks just like yours do."

There was no movement for a long second, but then Michael twitched again…and again, and with a start, the confused Kyle understood that Michael was trying to hold in his laughter.

"Shut up Asshole, it's not funny." Kyle hissed, looking around to check for witnesses to Michael's apparent meltdown.

Michael was finally looking at him, even wiping his eyes while a small smile still lay on his lips. "Oh Dude, it really kinda is."

It was only the fact that Kyle honestly couldn't remember when he'd last seen the other guy smile that stopped him from punching him out. Instead, he just shrugged in an attempt to make it seem like he didn't care about any of Michael's amusement.

Judging from the smile that was still on Michael's face, he wasn't succeeding.

"Look, if you just wanna laugh, that's fine, but I was being serious here." Kyle said, trying to get things back on track. He regretted it almost instantly, because the smile quickly disappeared from Michael's face, leaving it slightly gaunt and exhausted looking instead.

"Nah Man," Michael shrugged, "I get the complicated part. So, what are you gonna do now? I could try to teach you some techniques in guarding your inner thoughts, but to be fair, it's mostly something I did on instinct back when I first started going out with Maria – I've never taught it to anyone."

The idea had some merit, Kyle realized, but in the end he decided not to try another mental alien thing as the first option, which he told Michael straight out.

Michael nodded, "I get that. But you know where to find me if you change your mind."

Seeing a way back in to the real problem at hand, Kyle smirked, and nodded with his chin towards the window in front of them. "Yeah, right here, would be my guess. Care to tell me why you're taking the stalker tendencies so far this time?"

Kyle waited, half-way expecting to be ignored like he'd been before he'd spilled his guts, but to his surprise, Michael looked over at him, seemingly with every intention of talking.

The moment their eyes met, Kyle had to repress a shiver; the other male was clearly in agony. Probably beating himself up, and blaming everything that almost happened on himself, Kyle decided without saying anything out loud.

"I need to stay here, in case bad stuff happens." Michael's voice was like nothing Kyle could ever remember hearing before; incredibly soft, almost timid with a healthy dose of bitterness thrown into it.

"She's home safe, sleeping soundly," Kyle felt the need to point out, glancing in at the still form on the bed through the window.

"I know that." Michael all but hissed, his cheeks tinged a little with embarrassment. "Don't you think I know that, Kyle?"

"So what's the problem?"

"The problem is," Michael spat out through gritted teeth, "that nothing is as it's supposed to be! Maria likes me, I know that; I can feel that, but she doesn't trust me, and because of me not gaining her trust, she almost died…again. If it hadn't been for Max, I would've…" He trailed off, the look in his eyes lost, and tormented at the mere possibility of losing the woman he loved.

Kyle did the only thing he could do, reached out and punched Michael in the chest. Hard.

"Aw, what the hell, Man?" Michael rubbed his pain away, glaring daggers at Kyle all the while.

Rolling his eyes, Kyle merely took a precautious step backwards before speaking his mind. "This is what's wrong with you guys. You take everything on your shoulders, thinking that because your DNA is different than ours; all our problems are your fault. It's just not true, Michael. I know Maria, and I know that she chose to participate in Liz and Max's rescue; that she somehow ended up shot, because of a lack of foresight that she used to have. I get that you don't trust her, or the other two. I know that compared to us, they're just kids, but still – you beating yourself up because you're holding Maria up to the Maria from the other timeline is not only wrong, it's disgraceful."

Michael frowned ominously, the air taking on that special oppressing feeling it did whenever he was beginning to get really mad, and Kyle quickly wrapped up his last points.

"Maria doesn't deserve to be treated like a child, being guarded for her own safety. Neither does she deserve to be held up to the pedestal you've got your original Maria on; she won't ever reach that, no matter what you do."

"So what do you suggest I do then, Mr. Wise Guy?" To call Michael's tone of voice acidic would be an understatement at this point, so Kyle took a deep breath before replying.

"You let her come to you – Knowing her as I do, it's bound to happen once she steps out of her 'Best Friend'-mode. You just have to come to terms with her, and the others, not being who we lost, but people with their own thoughts and ideas. It sucks, but I'll give you a piece of advice. I look at it, as if they've all gotten amnesia, and I have to reenter their lives smoothly, so they don't call the cops on me…or something."

Michael stood without moving a muscle for a long while, and Kyle didn't really think he'd succeeded in explaining his views to the other male, but slowly, the oppressing air seeped away, and Michael slumped a bit with relaxation.

"I guess you're right…" He murmured, running a hand through his hair with a small groan. "I'm just tired, I really wanted to come back to happy times, you know. Peaceful and all that Gandhi crap."

Kyle grinned, slapping Michael on the shoulder briefly. "Well, just to be fair, we never did have any kind of peaceful times the first time around either, not even when we were this young." He gestured down his sweat covered front.

"Huh," Michael snorted, and spared Kyle a quick glance. "Ain't that the truth?" He paused, and then asked without looking away from the window this time. "So what do we do now?"

"We go home, and you cook me something to eat, 'cause I'm starving, while I take a much needed shower." Kyle said, turning to leave Maria's lawn.

A few steps later, he realized that Michael wasn't with him. "Are you coming?"

Michael hadn't moved, but Kyle caught the slight reflection of a grimace on his face in the window, before he spoke. "Not to sound like a wimp or anything, Valenti, but you've gotta shove me a little or else I don't think I can."

Nodding mutely, knowing how serious his friend was, Kyle stepped up next to Michael. He placed his hand on his shoulder, and started walking back once more. There was only a little bit of reluctance, before Michael sighed heavily and followed him.

They walked in amiable silence for a while, until Michael looked at Kyle with a raised brow. "So…Tell me more about this Tess thing."

Groaning, Kyle cursed himself for having revealed anything in the first place, but for some reason, he couldn't not talk about Tess and ended up doing just that the whole way back to Michael's apartment.

Michael's POV

After Kyle had managed to cut a little through the piercing fear of his heart, the night before, Michael was a bit saner about everything, but it didn't mean he was completely over everything just yet. He was just a little less obvious about it. The whole thing about Tess and the unexpected bond, was hidden away to ponder over when he was no longer so worried about his girlfriend.

She's here, she's still breathing, Michael thought, downright staring at the woman he loved above all else in the middle of second period geometry class.

Maria didn't seem to notice his attention upon her, too caught up in eying Liz, who was sitting quietly next to her, diligently taking notes with her uninjured hand.

"Hey Michael," Isabel's greeting from the chair beside him jolted the hybrid out of his thoughts and he reluctantly turned to meet her gaze. The concern in them was obvious, but her expression was kept neutral so as not to attract any unwanted attention. "You'll burn a hole in the back of her head if you keep watching her like that."

"I'm not staring." Was Michael's brilliant reply to that and Isabel rewarded him with a teasing eye roll and he chuckled at the clear lie that had just left his lips. "Yeah, well; she doesn't notice anyway. She's too busy making sure Liz is all right after…after everything."

The teasing glint in Isabel's eyes dimmed a fraction and she sighed. "You know," she said quietly, gazing at the two human girls, "I thought coming back would make their lives better, but I don't think it's working quite right."

Michael shivered as the old memory of a dead Maria entered his mind and he said through gritted teeth, "It's still better than being dead, Iz."

"Yeah, I guess," Isabel muttered and then added when Michael shot her a scowling look, "I mean, sure it is, but you've got to admit that we haven't exactly made things a lot better for them despite our best efforts."

"Well, I'm gonna fix things so nothing bad happens again." Michael vowed and explained further when Isabel leaned forward slightly with a questioning air about her. "There's still the Skins and crap like that to get to and I'm gonna handle it before it turns into the same massive pile of," he broke off at Isabel's raised eyebrow and reproving look and censored himself with a small smile, "stuff ."

Isabel glanced away from him and looked up at Kathleen, who was cheerfully, although obviously without any real grasp on the matter, going through the geometry notes that their normal teacher had left behind before his vacation. Then she looked at the still Liz, who was now gazing mindlessly out the window, ignoring the concerned whispers of a tired looking Maria.

"I think that's a good idea. I'm in if you need any help."

"I know," Michael nodded gratefully and resumed his staring at Maria, who finally noticed him and sent him a small smile and an eye roll when Kathleen finally noticed the lack of attention her teaching had, and playfully threatened with detention if people didn't follow the lesson.

0o0o0

He didn't care that his teachers were looking at him oddly, Michael decided. It's worth the risk of regaining my stigma as weirdo kid again anyhow.

His fellow students were busy chatting good-naturedly, only absentmindedly punching at the keys on the keyboard while their just as bored teacher was staring at the only active participant in class. Namely him.

I wish I'd remembered to get a computer of my own, Michael thought, shielding his busy typing and deflecting the teacher's attention with a jaw breaking yawn and a glare that still worked wonders considering he hadn't actually used his brooding face since he was an actual teenager.

Mission accomplished by the teacher's eye roll and loss of scrutiny, Michael dove right back into what he'd been doing; hacking several systems with an expertise that would make even Serena look bad.

Michael's subtle search finally hit gold and he stopped, staring intensely at a security image of Courtney, who was standing next to someone clouded in shadows. Michael swallowed a growl; he didn't need a lot of brain cells to recognize the tiny form as belonging to Nicolas.

"Got you," he whispered with an unattractive smirk of triumph that unknowingly made the student next to him gulp and switch her seat to the next one over.

Michael quickly printed out the pages he'd discovered and got up without caring about the raised eyebrows his movement caused. A moment later, found the large hybrid almost jogging down the hallways with several crinkled pages of paper in his hands and he didn't stop until he reached the class where he knew Max was in.

Knocking on the door and adopting the serious expression of a kid that had every right to be where he was, Michael entered and looked searchingly out into the room until his eyes connected with Max.

"Yes, may I help you?" Michael glanced at the teacher, who was looking at him with a frown and barely repressed a smirk. I guess I can't escape my bad reputation no matter how much better I am at actually showing up in class this time around, he thought and cleared his throat to speak.

"I've been sent for Max Evans. He's needed in the administration's building."

The teacher's frown didn't lessen, but apparently she didn't really care to go the distance in terms of actually finding out the truth because she simply nodded and looked at Max, who'd already taken his bag and stood up to leave.

"Find out the homework assignment from one of your classmates, Mr. Evans so you don't fall behind."

Max nodded in agreement and without a sound followed Michael out the door.

Once they were standing out in the empty hallway, Michael spoke before max could follow up his curious expression with a question.

"I've got a sure read on Courtney; I can get her and if we go together we'll be able to get Nicolas before the Summit crap and all of that."

Max's dark eyes lit up with a light from within that Michael recognized to be pure hope of an end to all of the madness they'd gone through back in their original timeline with the drama and fear of those days, but then he blinked and it was gone.

Michael frowned, waiting for his best friend's no doubt enigmatic response. He didn't disappoint.

"We need to talk with Liz and Maria and Alex."

"Uhm, okay, I'll bite. Why?"

Max blinked and looked away before setting his gaze on Michael, and in that moment, the larger time traveler could see the burning emotional despair that was eating the former king up from the inside, and he automatically took a step closer to lend some kind of support to his best friend's suffering. Before he got a chance to speak though, Max just sighed and answered his question.

"We're losing them all over again. They may be alive and well this time around, Michael; but as sure as I'm standing here, we're losing them. I can't handle another life without Liz ever again, Michael."

Michael stood immobile for a long second, trying to figure out to lend some strength to Max, who seemed a lot older than both his psychical and his mental age combined.

"I understand that, really I do, but come on, Man," he finally settled on saying, "we can't just blurt everything out like that. They'll never believe us for one thing."

"We'll show them," Max countered, his fervent look of hope reminded Michael of the time so very long ago they'd both denied Isabel the chance to tell Mrs. Evans about their origins.

"Buddy," Michael sighed, running a hand through the hair he'd slowly begun growing out again, "we'll scar them for life if we give them images to go with our stories. Unlike us, they're still pretty much just kids."

"I agree," Max murmured hesitantly, but then he straightened up and in that moment, Michael realized that nothing he'd ever say could convince the brown-haired hybrid otherwise.

"But what, Maxwell?" Michael prepared another, no doubt futile, argument as to why they should protect their loved ones. A moment later, all arguments fled his mind as he tried to process what Max had just said.

"Last time we trusted them, Michael. We trusted them with our lives and they're the same age now as they were then. In fact, at this point in time in our earlier lives, they'd all pretty much risked their lives for us and expected nothing but truth and trust in return. Why is it that we can't give them that now? Even though we know without a shadow of a doubt that if we trusted them, they'd never let us down? Tell me that."

"Well," Michael countered, frowning at the things he'd just been told as things began unfolding in his mind in ways he hadn't anticipated. "We swore to protect their innocence this time around, didn't we? So they didn't die again."

Max's lips turned up in a bitter smile that frankly, didn't suit him at all. "It's already too late for that to be an issue, Michael. Too many things have already happened to make our vows any good. Add in the fact that they're all connected to us through the bond and we've got a recipe for possible disaster. Michael, I won't lose Liz again; it's been killing me to keep all these secrets from her."

"You think you're the only one?" For the first time, Michael's temper seemed to rise to the surface and he was mad enough not to care. "I just don't want to lose them over this. What do you think is gonna happen, when we sit them down and tell them about the time travel and the end of the world so to speak? It's gonna freak them out, and they might end up avoiding us!"

"That's already happening for me with Liz!" Max roared, and Michael found himself automatically tensing, halfway into his preferred battle stance in case his leader was going to lash out with violence.

"Last time we didn't have the bonds either, which makes everything so much more screwed up and-".

"Hey guys!"

Kyle's voice interrupted whatever Michael would've said back, and he relaxed from his earlier stance, only just realizing he'd been in it in the first place.

"Hey Kyle," Michael greeted, slowly turning to look at their human friend, a bit more certain now that Max wasn't about to blow them all up into smithereens, but all that worry came back and intensified with tens of thousands when he noticed that Kyle wasn't alone.

Immediately, his eyes darted over to Max, who was just standing immobile and meeting the shocked, and much freaked out look that one Alex Whitman was sending his way.

For the first time since Maria had been shot, and nearly died, Michael didn't even think about her. No, all that went through the large hybrid's suddenly empty mind was, "oh shit."

Isabel's POV

Isabel was actually feeling, if not content, then acceptably calm for the moment. The thought of Pierce being gone for good, and them having eliminated any evidence that could lead future F.B.I. Units to their tail, was simply too good to not feel satisfied about.

And now it seems we're on route to fixing the whole Skin mess too, Isabel thought, sitting quite comfortably at her seat next to her former friend and/or minion, Michelle. The other girl kept shooting frightened glances her way, but Isabel ignored it with an ease that was born out of a lot of experience.

Currently, she was expertly filing her nails, half-way listening to the teacher babble on about the War of Independence, while silently bemoaning the fact that she couldn't just fix her cubicles with a little help from her powers due to possible witnesses.

Oh well, she thought, shrugging mentally, I can just perfect it when I get home later.

Bored now that she couldn't do more to her nails, Isabel looked around the classroom, and stopped when her eyes reached Liz and Maria. The two were sitting in the front, no doubt due to Liz's need to be able to hear everything her teachers told her. But the longer Isabel looked, the more it became clear to her that Liz was nowhere near listening.

Neither is Maria judging from the looks she keeps giving Liz, Isabel decided.

Then again, Isabel thought on, with a small headshake, it's not surprising she's hanging on to Liz so much after what they've been through lately. Liz hasn't been the same since we got her out of the base and Maria nearly got killed too. She's probably never seen her best friend so despondent before.

A memory of one of the times Isabel had seen a miserable Liz flickered through her mind, but she shook it off without paying much attention to it, too caught up in her sudden worry for the two young women.

Then, a second later, she froze. Something was bursting through the bond with an unmatched speed, and it was such a jumbled mess that it took the former princess a few moments to decipher it properly.

Disbelief, confusion, anger, hurt, but above it all; panic.

Isabel was half-way to the door, when her teacher icily brought her a little back down to earth. "Miss Evans; do you have something to share?"

"I…I…" Isabel, at this point, could barely form sentences, too deeply entwined with the emotions that Alex was pouring through to her

"Aw, aw, aw, my arm; oh it hurts!"

Liz pained filled shout, drew the teacher's attention away from Isabel, and she found herself staring equally as entranced as the rest of the people present.

The brunette was holding her injured arm, her eyes filled with tears, and she was all but whimping. It seemed like her arm was cramping, that something was most definitely wrong, and Isabel had the conflicted emotion of horror rushing through her. If Liz was indeed in danger of some sort, she had to help, hoping against hope that Alex could hold on.

It was in that moment, that Liz looked up into Isabel's eyes, and in that brief look, Isabel just knew the other girl was acting; that she'd somehow interpreted Isabel's panic and decided to help her out. It seemed as if Maria had caught on as well, because she was acting like the frantic best friend that was sure that Liz was about to die right this very minute, and doing her utmost to be in the way for the teacher to do much of anything.

Thank you, Isabel sent out a silent thought of thanks, and slipped unnoticed from the classroom.

She barely managed to get down one hallway, before she was run over by the very person she was desperately seeking.

"Alex!"

The teenager froze from his position on the floor, where he'd landed, and Isabel reached out to him, but before she got a chance to do much of anything, Max, Kyle and Michael rounded the corner of the hallway and interrupted.

"He knows! He overheard us!" They looked anxious, and panicked, even the usually so stoic looking Max, but even so, they only looked half as scared as Alex.

The words pierced Isabel's heart, and in one terrifying moment, she felt as if she was two people. One being so overwhelmingly happy that her love finally knew everything, while the other was completely freaked out because her love knew everything!

"Alex, please calm down." Isabel softly begged, her whole being locked onto Alex. "I'll explain everything, just please don't run away from me."

Isabel was fully prepared to witness an epic meltdown, to see the clumsiest human in their circle blubber incoherently before running off at high speed. What she hadn't expected, was Alex slowly sitting up against the nearest wall, rubbing his neck tiredly.

"Fine. But I think I've got the gist of it already."

Isabel raised a brow, and looked over her shoulder up at her brother, who looked more sheepish than she'd ever seen him before.

"What do you know?" she asked in a whisper, looking around cautiously. She wasn't about to risk more people finding out, no matter how much her heart was beating with fear and adrenaline.

"Well," Alex didn't look at any of them, staring straight ahead and speaking in a chilling monotone that didn't suit him. "You're from the future, we were all dead, and now that you're back, you want to prevent us from everything, and it's slowly tearing everything apart. How am I doing?"

"Jeez Max, how much did you blabber on about this in public?" Isabel hissed, before trying to calm herself down. Her connection with Alex was going haywire and making her feel uncomfortable.

He may look calm and collected, Isabel realized, fighting back a rising sense of nausea with difficulty, but from all of the things that I'm feeling through our connection, Alex is freaking out big time. It's almost like his emotions are hurting me psychically.

Just as she thought that, something seemed to stab her insides, and she bent forward with a pained moan. The painful sensations kept spiking at irregular intervals, and Isabel soon realized that she was being hurt from the inside; somehow Alex was hurting her without even touching her.

"…more to the story, and we need to sit down and talk more fully about everything," Isabel vaguely heard Kyle saying in the distance; his voice was somehow distorted, and she was too distracted by her hurting to attempt to listen in on the conversation going on around her after that.

She blinked furiously to get the small dark dots out of her sight, recognizing them as a sign of upcoming unconsciousness. The coppery taste in her mouth, took Isabel by surprise. She moved her tongue, and learned, with almost nonchalant carelessness, that she'd bitten through her tongue. She was still bent over in a position, which she knew looked like she was pleading silently for Alex's forgiveness, or willingness to stay, so Isabel wasn't surprised no one around her knew what was going on.

She felt warm drops trail down her cheeks, and out from her nose. Isabel wasn't naïve enough to think it was tears or even snot; the red color in her vision told her that it was all blood. She would've known even without her vision; she'd experienced something similar before.

Finally, Isabel managed to work through the ever growing pain to open her mouth, and gurgle out her brother's name.

Next thing she knew, Isabel was being rushed into a small room that she distantly remembered as the Eraser Room of all places. She heard Max order Michael to make the blood in the hallway disappear, before his eyes locked with hers and he began healing her.

It's no use, Isabel wanted to say, it's Alex who's doing it, he just doesn't know it yet. Only Alex can make the pain go away.

How she knew this, Isabel had no idea.

"…keeps saying your name…" Max's voice reached her as if far away, but Isabel couldn't muster up any more attention. Everything she had was devoted to battling out the still oncoming waves of stabbing pain.

"…look at me Izzie!" I thought I was doing that, Isabel thought out to her brother, but then she discovered that she'd closed her eyes, when two strong fingers forced her eyelids apart, and she met Max's concerned gaze once again.

He's punishing me, and he doesn't even know it. The thought kept running through Isabel's mind on repeat, and she'd almost given up hope of the pain ever stopping, when suddenly, she felt a familiar set of hands gently cupping her face.

"What am I doing, Isabel? Tell me! I'm not punishing you!" Alex's voice seemed like it was reaching into her, and pulling the last bit of sanity with him to the surface.

Because it was Alex asking, pleading frantically, Isabel somehow managed to tell him mentally what was happening to her, and coaching him back to inwardly calmness.

A few minutes later, or it could have been hours, Isabel didn't really know, the pain was suddenly cut off, and pure blissful numbness set in. After that, Max once again opened her eyes, and a moment later, she was fully healed albeit a little sore.

"What the hell was that?" Michael's voice was the first to pierce the tense silence, but Isabel couldn't give him an answer.

It turned out to be Kyle, who came up with the answer. His tone was eerily calm, not even the slightest bit of emotion in it when he spoke.

"I guess Alex's powers decided to show up and make themselves known…"

None of the time travelers moved a muscle at the preposterous idea of Alex, who'd only recently been healed by Max, having powers already. It shouldn't be possible.

The only one, who did move in the tiny room, was Alex himself. He was crouched next to Isabel, running his thumbs up and down her cheeks. His touch was smearing the drying blood all over her face, but he didn't seem to notice. He was just repeating the same thing over and over again, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

Isabel finally came out of her shock, and just wrapped her arms around his lanky frame. "It's okay," she whispered to his plea, "everything's going to be just fine. I promise."

The other guys straightened up, clearly going to leave the two of them alone to talk in private. The last thing Isabel heard, before Max quietly closed the door behind them, was Kyle's faked cheery voice stating that they should look on the bright side now; only one human knew the truth out of three, so things could've been a lot worse…

Liz's POV

September twentythird. Journal entry one. I'm Liz Parker and five days ago I died. After that, things got really weird…

The pale form on the bed frowned and twitched even as new images flashed through her mind in one gigantic swirl.

"Liz, if you do this; you're dead." The voice of the girl that Liz practically considered her baby sister rang loudly in the tense silence and she blinked the burning in her eyes away.

"I know, Serena." She forced her exhausted muscles to cooperate as she continued, "But you also know that if you try to stop me, I'm not going to be the only one."

The still form of Liz parker flinched, looking as though she was having a seizure, her body tensing up and making the veins in her neck pop out.

"Miss Parker," Agent Pierce's cool, yet hate filled eyes rammed into her, "don't take this little meeting the wrong way; you're simply a bargaining chip to use against the abomination you call Max Evans. But," Pierce's lips turned into a sadistic smile, "that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun while we wait, now can it?"

He bent forward and placed some sort of helmet device on her face once more and images, upon images flashed through the young girl's mind and she knew she was screaming horribly at the fear and pain they induced, but she couldn't for the life of her stop herself from doing it.

"LIZ!"

Liz's eyes snapped open and she was staring straight into her mother's frantic face. Her heart was pounding a mile a minute, and for some reason her breaths just didn't seem to want to slow down. Also, it was like her hands had crackled with electricity for a split-second too, but that was just too weird.

"Mom!" Liz gasped, instinctively flinging her arms around the older woman, clinging to her for dear life. She felt weird, as if her mom wasn't supposed to be alive, and the peculiar feeling scared her even more.

"Shh, Sweetie. It's okay, I'm here," her mom soothed into her ear, rocking them both softly from side to side in an even motion. "Everything is just fine, Honey"

How long Liz sat in her mother's warm embrace, drawing comfort like a sponge, she didn't know nor particularly cared to either. She just enjoyed the sensations, even as her mind tried to categorize everything.

"Do you want a glass of warm milk?" Her mother's voice drew Liz back into the real world, and she blinked with amused confusion.

"Mom," she said, reluctantly pulling away from the embrace, "I'm not five years old, you know."

"I know," Nancy smiled as she gently ran her fingers through Liz's soft hair, "but I've got news for you, Sweetheart. To me, you'll always be five years old. You'll understand when you've got a kid of your own some day."

Liz smiled, and thanked her mom for the comfort, before pretending to lie back down on the bed to try and sleep some more. Nancy got up with a small smile, and left, leaving, to Liz's amused bemusement, the door opened just enough for the dim lights of the hallway to be seen.

She did try to go back to sleep at first, but her mind kept going back and forth between her nightmarish dreams and the chaotic feelings she'd gotten from Max that day in school.

It must have had something to do with Isabel; Liz rationalized, biting her lip wearily. When she stormed out of the classroom today, she looked so scared that I couldn't stop myself from helping her escape Mr. Tanner's wrath. Thank God, Maria knows me so well, or it would probably not have worked as well as it did.

The memory of Maria's overacted drama, which kept everyone from knowing Isabel had left, put a small smile on Liz's face. Of course, they'd both been sent to the school nurse to be checked out soon after, and both of them had spent the rest of the day there until their parents picked them up with concerned looks on their faces.

Thankfully Mom and Dad bought my excuse of studying too hard, Liz's smile dimmed as the now familiar guilt overcame her. She really hated lying to her parents.

But it's necessary, she decided, her thoughts returning to the tumbled mess of dreams she'd just escaped from. They'd never believe any of this even if I did tell them.

It had been silent from her parents' bedroom for half an hour, before Liz moved again. She stealthily got out of her bed, put on her robe and went out to the place where she hid her journal.

An hour later, Liz finished documenting all of the fragmented dreams she'd been having ever since Pierce had put that damnable helmet on her head. As she'd been writing, her mind travelled to Max and the weird emotions he'd been giving off ever since…well, since she'd first become aware of their connection to be honest.

For some reason, Liz no longer felt bothered in the slightest about the bond between Max and her. The only peculiar thing about it all was the increasing knowledge from deep within her which told her that it shouldn't be so dark and tainted. Their connection was always supposed to give off comfort, hope, purity and above all love.

It's like it's supposed to be 3D, Liz wrote at the bottom of the page, in a rushed scrawl that looked nothing like the orderly way she usually documented her thoughts, but right now, it's only 2D if even that. I somehow just know that Max is the one I'm meant to be with; that we're willing to sacrifice everything for one another, but I can't make the jump from that knowledge to reality. I'm scared…It's like I'm two people right now. It's like there's another Liz Parker just waiting in the wings to come out and overtake me. I don't know what to do…

TBC…

A/N Oh, no she didn't—hehe. So any idea of what kind of power, Alex's gotten? I've hinted at it in earlier chapters and can reveal that I got the idea from the show during Alex's counseling session with Topolsky. :D Please use this new review method that takes practically no time at all now, to tell me what you think! Now back to my enjoyable holiday.

Until Next Time

Ditte Mai