I don't own Roswell or any of its franchise. Sadly.

Big, ginourmous thanks to my trusty beta Marzmez for all the help and support during my insecure rambles!

A/N First off: Remember when I asked you to trust me? Yeah, I'm keeping my word in this chapter to some extend hehe. So, I was in a writing mood and this popped up, I hope there hasn't been too much of a anticipation for fight scenes, because I still suck royally at those, so they may not live up to the hype. That said, there's a tiny bit of blood and gore in this chapter, but it's not that bad. Also in Liz's pov the highlighted sentences are words from the previous chapter! Now, I'll let you get on with reading. Enjoy:D

Last Time on TATT: The entire gang minus Max/Liz makes a plan to take on Nicholas and it starts out great until he gets back up from Khivar's second in command, Caden. Alex freaks out and it's only Isabel's doing that they aren't all dead. Maria gets caught in the crossfire. Kyle is taken down by a Skin and dies as he kills several of the enemies with his powers, leaving Tess and Isabel in despair. And on top of that Nicholas suddenly makes a move to take out an unconscious Alex and then someone answers Isabel's prayer for help and intervenes… Let's see what happens next, shall we?

Liz's POV

She hurt all over, it was choking every pore of her being, only broken by sporadic flashes of memories that weren't –couldn't be – hers. There were voices around her and Liz knew that she should respond; help out that frightened male voice that she vaguely recognized as Alex's.

Except, Liz's mind tried to tell her, it can't be him because he died; Tess killed him and showed barely any remorse. But that's not true, a tiny part of her did its best to force through, Alex is alive and Tess is your friend, she'd never hurt anyone.

Another male voice, quieter than the other voices around her, seemed to speak to Liz and she wanted nothing more to open her eyes as he kept asking her to, warm lips gently caressing her hair from what she could gather in her limited situation.

As time went on, Liz slowly began to realize that she was supposed to wake up – that there was trouble around her and she was always in the midst of the fighting, no exceptions.

Max was skin and bones as he hung fromthe chains, covered in lacerations and blood and his body showed clear signs of his own urine and more, but Liz had never been happier to see her husband –husband? – alive and she felt a rush of adrenaline shoot through her as she made her way to his side and reached out to him with her heart and soul through their bond. It didn't take long to get a reaction. His lovely eyes cracked open at her touch and as soon as their minds connected, Max seemed to crumble and all she felt and heard from her other soul was devastation. Not at his own fate, but the fact that Liz even put herself at risk in the first place.

"First of all we need to get to the Granolith before the Skins do. Nicholas is bound to get there soon with Tess' help."

Tess? Liz's mind was distracted from her horrible memories at the sound of a rough voice. Kyle, she decided – once more confused because he'd been dead for years now and no matter how crazy she was becoming, Liz knew that dead people didn't talk. Kyle's not dead! Her small inner voice practically screamed and Liz would've flinched back from the noise if her body's reactions had been hers to control.

Yes he is, Liz finally managed to practically growl back as memories of impossible things flooded her numbed senses. So am I for that matter. I'm not supposed to be here… No, I died to save Max – You're not dead! – Always to save Max…

"Forget about that now. We need to get a plan together before it all ends up with us dead and with no Granolith."

Tess is alive too? She betrayed us, Liz could feel an all consuming anger begin to twist inside of her and she fought her own body for control so she could help. Immediately her body protested again; that old, almost familiar, pain from a life gone by, mixed in with fresh agony and memories that shouldn't be possible. How is all of this even possible? Liz wondered, unknowingly grimacing in pain as she tried to open her eyes and look around.

"Shh, Liz," Max's soothing voice whispered in her ear, instantly sending calming waves down Liz's tense spine. "I'm here now. I'm so sorry I couldn't stop all of this from happening to you. I just wanted you to be safe…That's the only reason I came back; for you, always you, Liz."

Came back? Wait, Liz's confusion bled away slowly and another old, - yet completely impossible, her rational voice yelled in the background, - memory returned to her, filling in another piece of the puzzle she'd been trying to solve for weeks now.

The cave was dark and empty, but Liz had left behind childish fears of bogeymen long ago; her real life's monsters were a lot worse. Instead, she confidently made her way through a small, inconspicuous hole in the far end of the wall and ended up in the chamber that housed the Granolith.

Liz spared a moment of her search to stare up at the thing that had so much power it still blew her scientific loving mind even after all her years involved with her Czechoslovakians.

Shaking her head, Liz shoved the thoughts away for now and continued the searchfor her wayward husband. Another close fit through another passage and she was crawling out through one of the pods and entering the podchamber where her eyes quickly landed on Max's still form.

He was sitting with his back to her, not moving, but Liz knew that he'd sensed her presence froma slight lessening of thetension in his shoulders. A few seconds later, she sat down next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder with a small sigh of contentment.

"What are you doing up?" His voice was rough and gravelly, but considering that he barely spoke anymore, Liz wasn't surprised in the least. "You need to sleep."

"Pot, meet kettle," Liz joked and straightened up so he had to look down into her eyes, forcibly dragging him away from whatever deep thoughts he was in the middle of. "Maria came looking for you, she said you just walked out of a meeting with Michael earlier. That's not like you. What's wrong, Max?"

Max sighed and gave an abysmal attempt of a smile that both of them knew was just for show. "I'm just tired, Liz. That's all."

Liz bit her lip, a feeling of dread slowly making its way down her spine. Max didn't get tired, he was their rock whenever things got too hard, always ready with a soothing touch and a soft smile, except, now that she thought about it, Liz realized that it'd been a while since his beautiful smile had lit up the room.

"Don't you ever feel likeyou've had enough?" Max interjected through her thoughts and Liz looked up again. "Things are getting worse every day and we've lost so many already and I can't do anything about it. Liz, tell me what to do?"

Liz turned around so that she was facing her troubled husband. "Max, life is hard and with our luck it's probably gonna get a lot harder too, but…we persevere because we have to. Of course I'm tired, I can't tell you thenumber of times I've wanted to use Serena's knowledge to just go back and take a chance to change our lives."

Max frowned, "What are you talking about?"

Liz smiled gently and ran a hand through Max's grey-streaked hair that once scared her so much when she'd first seen 'future Max's' face so long ago. "If it wasn't so dangerous, the Granoliths opportunities are endless. Remember 'Future Max'? Let me tell you something he told me that I haven't shared with you before. Actually it's more along the lines of something that Serena told him."

Max raised a brow and nodded when Liz looked at him for permission to go on and she took a deep breath and told him all about the time travel feature in the Granolith.

In the next second, Liz just knew. The puzzle was finally solved and she wanted to both weep with joy and scream with outrage. They did it, I don't know why I'm back but they did it…Oh my God.

In that moment, Liz noticed that while her attention had been sorting everything out, Max had left her alone. She couldn't feel his warmth or sense his emotions nearby and that gave her the incentive to fight harder to return to the land of the conscious.

"I can't believe you, Zannie boy. I mean, I knew you and your precious family were weak even before you got sent to this retched planet, but now you're just pathetic."

That voice? Nicholas! Liz's younger self's fear of the boy-looking alien still lingered inside of her and her heart began to beat faster and faster, giving her enough power to fight her body. After what felt like forever her left forefinger twitched and then a couple of toes and then, suddenly, Liz's eyes snapped open and she was moving before she even truly realized it.

"Kill the humans, you fucking wimp and I'll handle this boy myself, show him just who the real powerhouse here is."

Liz's insides froze before thawing with wrath that sent spikes of power through her, power that she hadn't felt in a long time; her own special crackling lightning power. She recognized Caden's voice and was about to search him out when another voice screamed out Alex's name and everything in Liz focused on saving the boy she'd called her best friend, until Tess came along and ruined everything.

Not this time, Liz decided, racing faster than should've been possible. This time I will save Alex and everyone else who's in that bitch's way! She ignored that tiny, younger, part of her that tried explaining that Tess wasn't evil, Tess was her friend, because that was just too ludicrous to take in right now along with everything else.

Tess' POV

Horror, sorrow, anger, denial and guilt and bone crushing grief battled inside of Tess from the second she'd watched Kyle sink to the ground with the most devastatingly confused expression on his face.

Everything seemed to happen in a blur after that; her connection with the dying human was struggling to stay working, sending the biggest bursts of energy into him as she could manage. Tess didn't verbally or mentally acknowledge it, but she was more than ready to die with Kyle despite their relationship being barely there.

It didn't matter; all she knew was that she could not live without him. And, more importantly, Tess bared her teeth, they're all gonna die if he does…

A lot of things seemed to happen in a blur as Tess sat at Kyle's side, her hands pressing on his stomach to staunch the blood flow as much as she could. Maria fallen to the ground with a shriek of pain, Isabel fighting and Max arriving all seemed to happen at the same time. Even when Isabel and Michael rushed to save Alex from Nicholas' rash act, Tess still couldn't comprehend everything entirely.

A second later, everything stopped, as the heartbeat that she was so engrossed in listening to through her bond with Kyle stopped.

"No…" Tess moaned, catching a glimpse of someone stopping Nicholas' mad dash out of the corner of her eye. It didn't matter; nothing did if she couldn't get the silent heart beating again. "NO!" Irately, Tess desperately began pounding on Kyle's still chest, "you can't do this to me, come back! Come back to me right now!"

Noises erupted all around her when she felt her control slip out of her fingers and Tess jumped to her feet, eyes not wavering one inch from the quiet –not dead, he wasn't! – boy on the blood-soaked ground.

A feeling unlike anything Tess had ever experienced seemed to slide into her, and she resigned herself to the fact that in a matter of minutes, her life would probably end as well. But not until they're all dead, she thought viciously, practically growling with so much rage and grief it was all but choking her.

One quick movement and Tess had slipped a quickly, alien sharpened rock into the nearest Skin's vulnerable neck, watching dispassionately as the blood sprayed everything – including her – nearby. Another quick jab and victim number two went down with a gurgled scream as she clutched her severed throat with desperation that Tess watched with a frighteningly sense of serenity.

Just as Tess turned to send a killing blast in a third Skin's direction, she saw a flash of sparkling green and everything erupted into pain that rivaled the one in her heart. She fell to the ground right between one of her victims and Kyle, spasms rocked her body and she struggled to locate her attacker.

"Tess!"

The air around her crackled with electricity for an endless moment, until it suddenly vanished, leaving her spent and throbbing all over. Tess grimaced as she looked up to see her attacker, only to freeze in shock as her eyes locked onto Liz's dark brown ones.

The brunette was standing only a few feet away with Nicholas' smaller body caught in her arms as if he was an unruly child to be taken home for punishment. The Skin was pale and bleeding from several scratches on his face, his clothes sent out small puffs of smoke in the morning light that only brought more attention to the multiple burns on his arms.

"L-Liz?" Tess whispered hoarsely, slowly managing to get back on her feet. Her grief momentarily pushed aside by mounting confusion and slight apprehension. The look in the human girl's eyes gave Tess the chills and she ignored the hypocrisy of her thoughts when she compared Liz to a seemingly soulless being.

Then the human she'd considered her best friend spoke, and Tess suddenly didn't know what to say or do.

"You couldn't stop yourself this time either, could you?" Tess followed Liz's sorrow and rage-filled eyes as they landed on the unmoving Kyle and swallowed a lump of dread.

The Skin in Liz's arm seemed to get his second wind and began thrashing around violently and Tess watched in anxious awe as the brunette human seemingly electrocuted him with one quick movement. Nicholas' scream was both a soothing sound and an agony all at once for the curly-haired hybrid.

"LIZ!"

Tess jumped to her feet when the roar of Max's voice seemed to distract Liz and her grip on Nicholas lessened enough for the injured Skin to rip himself out of her arms. Out of the corner of her eye, Tess noticed that Max was standing frozen, hindered by Caden's presence and Michael was by Maria's side while Isabel was with Alex. The only other one free to help was an unknown woman that had stayed near Michael every time Tess had managed to look away from Kyle earlier.

Before she took any time to think further about Liz's behavior, pressing down her initial dread at the human's cold eyes, Tess had sent off a blast that struck Nicholas in his side just as he was reaching out to stab Liz with an unnoticed knife that gleamed in the early sunlight.

The Skin was blasted backwards with another pain-filled scream and Liz sank to her knees. For one desperate short minute, Tess feared that the alien had managed to injure Liz and felt her insides twist together. She couldn't bear the thought of losing another of her circle, but before her fragile mind snapped completely, Liz drew in a shagged breath and stumbled back to her feet.

She looked over at Tess with an unfamiliar look in her eyes, a mixture of confusion, old anger and gratitude battled for dominance until it settled on a neutral stare that once again made Tess' skin crawl.

"Focus on me, you little brat!"

Caden's coarse voice interrupted Tess and she quickly turned to stare at him, only to see his attention focused solely on Max. Evidently, the former king had tried coming to Liz's rescue once again, much to Caden's consternation and his temper finally snapped with terrifying results.

A second later, everything erupted into another bout of pure chaos. Caden sent a pulse of raw energy Max's way and he rolled out of the danger zone and responded in kind with so much speed that Tess knew that he'd had some kind of training in his life.

She didn't have time to think about that though, because unbelievably, in the next moment, Nicholas had appeared again and jumped on to Liz's back, unceremoniously slicing the girl's fragile neck. The blood immediately sprouted from the deathly wound and Tess catapulted herself into movement a fraction of a second faster than the rest of her friends did.

The next thing she knew, Tess was holding on to Nicholas' own neck and was squeezing for all her worth. "Why won't you just die?" she growled through gritted teeth, wanting to pour as much pain and suffering into the deceptively innocent looking Skin as possible.

Liz was now lying on the ground, one hand clutched frantically at her neck, but then Tess vaguely noticed her move toward them with her free hand raised and a second later, her hand reached behind them and Tess knew what was going to happen next.

Judging from the widening of Nicholas' eyes and the pure fear that dawned on his face, he knew too and then he vanished between Tess' fingers as Liz ruined his meat suit and it blew away in the soft wind that was around them.

Feeling a little cheated out of actually ending that miserable, smug worm's life, Tess turned to stare a little dumbfounded at Liz. She was still a little creeped out at the sudden switch that seemed to have taken place in her friend; she'd never seen Liz in that state before.

Of course, the second her eyes landed on Liz, Tess got her sense of self back and was nearly overthrown with fear at the sight in front of her. Liz was now lying crumpled on the ground, blood everywhere and her grip on her injured throat looked to be quickly lessening, but her eyes were glued on Tess with that indecipherable stare with no hints of stopping.

Without a second thought, Tess batted Liz's hand away and took over adding much needed pressure on her gaping wound. If she'd thought too much about it, Tess would probably have thrown up, might even do it later, but at that point in time all she was focused on was getting Liz to survive long enough so that Max could either heal her or they'd get her to a much needed hospital.

"M-Max…" Liz gurgled, face wincing with every syllable.

"He's coming," Tess promised, the lie easily slipping from her lips as tears began running down her face. In the background Caden and Max's fight was still going strong, something she knew that Liz wasn't blind to either, but it looked like the brunette appreciated the lie none the less.

"You're gonna be fine," Tess murmured again and again, screaming in her head for someone to help her save her friend.

She was so intent on not letting Liz's life slip between her fingers that Tess didn't even notice the fighting going on all around her until someone grabbed her arm and tried pulling her from Liz's side. With a ferociousness that felt more primal than anything else, Tess turned her head and savagely bit into her would-be captor's hand, refusing to let go even when her assailant began shaking her tinier frame with all his might.

She was only interested in two things now, only capable of doing two things. Stop the Skin from hurting Liz and save Liz at all costs, not caring whether or not she got hurt herself.

Out of nowhere, the Skin was ripped out of her mouth and Tess watched with wide eyes as Michael unceremoniously snapped the alien's neck and sent something that reminded her of her own blast, yet a hell of a lot more powerful, right through his body until it too disintegrated.

A second later, Michael was on his knees next to her, and staring down at the unbelievable calm looking Liz, who just kept staring up at them as if she wasn't bleeding out in front of them and gasping more and more for air.

"Tess," Michael's tone was more serious than she ever remembered hearing before and for some reason it managed to snap her out of her halfway primal state of mind enough to look at him questioningly. "I'm not exactly the best healer – fuck, I don't think I'm even qualified, but I know a little bit, so I'm gonna try to help Liz and I'd appreciate it if you didn't attack me. All right?"

Taking a deep breath, Tess looked down and met Liz's gaze for a short moment before looking back up at Michael. "Promise me that you'll do what you can? If it feels like you're failing, I'll take over again because she can't die too. I can't lose her …Please."

The tears kept on rolling down her cheeks, and landed on the ground, mixing morbidly with Liz's lifeblood, solidifying, in Tess' exhausted mind that she had to save Liz at all costs.

The air rumbled with the continuing battle between Caden and Max, and Tess spared one brief glance over at the two males. If she hadn't been so ruined inwardly by losing Kyle and struggling to save Liz, Tess may have gawped in awe at the sight. The two men moved like dancers, their movements were as flawless as they were deadly and everything around them, including a few downed Skins, was ruined beyond all repair. The ground was cracked and some dry bushes were burning violently, sending giant masses of smoke up into the air. Only then did Tess notice the smoke filled air all around her, and she realized her throat was raw and it was hard to breathe.

But, it didn't matter and without much thought about what would happen should Max actually lose his fight, Tess turned back to Michael and Liz. They shared a look and then Michael nodded and Tess slowly removed her blood-soaked hands when Michael's own hovered over hers in preparation for whatever he was about to do.

For what felt like forever, but was probably nothing more than a few seconds in reality, nothing seemed to happen and Tess had to fight herself from pushing Michael out of the way and taking over.

Then, to Tess' profound relief, she noticed that Michael's fingers slowly began glowing greenish and not long after that, the flow of blood between his fingers stemmed and Liz began to blink rapidly as though uncomfortable with something and Tess realized it was the wound's closing itself up that irritated her.

"Liz?" The wobbly tone in Michael's voice told Tess that he'd had no real confidence in his own powers, but she didn't feel betrayed. In fact, she had to repress an urge to hug the stuffing out of him with grateful joy.

Liz gestured mutely to his hands around her neck, which he promptly removed with a relieved smile on his face. A scream from Maria instantly took his attention away and the former Antarian General was across the site and next to Maria, who was busy struggling with one of the few remaining Skins.

Tess prepared to help, but with an ease that frankly frightened her, Michael's big hands had ended the attacker's life and she looked over at Liz instead. The brunette seemed a little dazed, a result of the blood loss, Tess knew and she didn't say anything for a long moment.

A roar of rage and triumph from Caden trapped both girls' attention and Tess had to hold a weak Liz back at the sight of Caden pounding Max to the ground and slamming his head into the ground. For some unexplainable reason, Tess wasn't worried – something told her that Max had everything covered and just as she finished muttering that very thing to Liz, Max got to his feet and to Tess he'd never looked more dangerous.

"Now, it's my turn," his voice was gravelly and rough, practically oozing threats. Judging from Caden's slight flinch and the sweat pooling on his brow, he knew the danger he was in.

Liz squirmed in Tess' arms and with a start of her own; she released the human girl as fast as she could. To her surprise, Liz didn't act as if she was going to continue whatever it was she'd been doing before Nicholas had hurt her; instead, she merely inclined her head with a careful motion that told Tess that although the severity of the injury had lessened, the pain had by no means disappeared.

"We have to help him," Tess whispered, eyeing her surroundings for more enemies, but aside from Caden and one, who was busy clutching his head over by Isabel, who was still beside an unconscious Alex there didn't seem to be any more left.

"It's not necessary." Liz stated in a similar whisper, her eyes locked on Max with a look that Tess didn't remember seeing on her before. It was as if she was looking at the one person that meant more to her than anyone else and if she blinked, something bad would happen.

Instinctively, Tess glanced over at the unmoving figure on the ground a little to her left. Her heart skipped an uncomfortable beat and her stomach churned, as though painfully missing the barely formed connection she'd shared with him. Kyle…I'm so sorry, she thought before once again being distracted from her mixture of grief, guilt and anger.

Caden must have lashed out while I wasn't looking, Tess thought as she saw Max stumble back with a loud grunt of pain, a long, fresh gash running from his shoulder and down to his waist, leaving his shirt in tatters.

I've never seen his eyes look so inhuman, the observation ran through Tess' mind as he very briefly looked in their direction, settling on the blood that covered Liz in particular before he returned his concentration to a panting Caden. Apparently he'd used what was left of his waning strength wounding Max.

"Why can't you and Khivar just leave us alone?" The question was loud in the sudden silence and Tess watched with baited breath as Caden struggled to maintain his menacing aura, but it was useless against Max, who only seemed to be getting stronger with every passing second.

"We wouldn't have interfered in his reign," Max continued, confusing Tess with his knowledge, something she only had a little off courtesy of Nasedo's upbringing. "I- we were content here on Earth, living in peace. Will you just leave, go back to your delusional ruler and tell him we're not interested in a world that we died on so long ago?"

Caden sneered and Tess felt a tiny bit sorry for him, knowing he was sealing his own fate when he finally replied to Max's request.

"My king wants you gone, your line broken forever and I want whatever he wants. Why couldn't you just stay dead, huh? Khivar's ruled Antar for decades now, his love for Vilandra the only positive thing he's got left to remind him of a better time even as his people cling to your memory in a continuous attempt to overthrow him." Caden took a deep breath, settling into a battle stance that Tess recognized as one of those that Nasedo had taught her as belonging to the Royal Guards only and she gained another piece of the puzzle in terms of who Caden really was.

"I'm loyal to my king and your kingdom is ancient history as far as I am concerned; Zan was a spoiled brat and nothing more. You'll never convince me to surrender this fight, so stop stalling and keep going, before I lose whatever patience I have left!"

Max stood completely still for one long minute, closing his eyes briefly as if in prayer and when he reopened them, Tess saw nothing of the teenage boy she'd come to know since arriving in Roswell and she swallowed a lump of pure fear at the sight.

"He's gonna kill him," Tess murmured, grabbing Liz's hand. To her surprise, Liz actually squeezed back as she responded with a mute nod of agreement.

Just as Liz finished moving her head up and down, Max slowly bent down and took two small pebbles in his hands. "At least I tried," he said quietly. As he spoke, he made a fist and Tess had to look away for a second when his fingers started to glow brightly. When she looked back, Max was holding two deadly looking blades in his hands. At that moment, he began to run toward Caden, and the expression on his face was one of resigned determination.

Truthfully that scared Tess more than anything else, but she didn't get a chance to do anything before Max reached Caden. His quick rush seemed to have caught the alien off guard as well because he didn't even try to dodge when Max buried those weapons into his chest with a savage grunt of effort.

He killed a defenseless man, a tiny, moral part of Tess kept on thinking, before her more rational – and vengeful – self came back and reminded her that defenseless or not, Caden hadn't been a good man and would've killed, not only Max but all of them if he'd gotten the chance. He's already partially responsible for K-Kyle's…

Unable to even think the word 'death', Tess vehemently shook her head and just watched alongside Liz as Caden stumbled back, Max's knives still embedded in him as he sunk to his knees and eventually tumbled backwards where he didn't move again.

Maria's POV

The silence in the cave was oppressive at best, an exhausted Maria decided. She was silently watching as Michael, Max and Alex came walking inside carrying their precious cargo between them.

I can't believe what's happened these last few days, Maria thought, biting her lip when her leg gave another stab of pain from the break it had suffered hours earlier.

Michael had done some Czechoslovakian mojo on her leg that hadn't exactly healed her break completely, but had at least made it somewhat bearable. It's nothing compared to what's happened to some of the others here, she continued with a sad sigh and a slight trembling running down her spine at the memory of not only watching Kyle die, but seeing Liz – her best friend in the whole world – get so grievously and mercilessly injured and not having been in any kind of position to help.

Thank God for Michael, Maria looked over at the man in question; his face somber and pale as he helped place a motionless Kyle on the ground they'd prepared for him. If he hadn't helped her, I wouldn't have been as sane as I am right now.

Her eyes travelled over to Max, who looked nothing like the angry warrior he'd been since arriving on the scene to take on Caden. He looked, if not broken, then completely fatigued and weary, as if the weight of the whole universe was on his shoulders.

The second he'd made sure that the insane alien with the creepy eyes was in fact taken care of, Max had all but catapulted himself over to Liz's side and the look of pure tenderness and love that he'd given Liz as he'd carefully pried her bloodied hands off of her neck to complete Michael's weaker healing had sent shivers down Maria's spine and she'd had to look away from their private moment.

Shortly thereafter he'd made his way over to her and reached out to heal her, but Maria had only shook her head and leaned into Michael, who was sitting next to her with a pleading look on his face directed at Max. "I'm okay for now," she'd said and pointed weakly in Kyle's direction, "Please see if you can do something about that."

That had brought the thankful mood to a halt more surely than anything else could have and Maria had been carried into the podchamber and sat down on the floor where Liz had sat down next to her and without any warning at all her friend had hugged her like they hadn't seen each other in years. If she hadn't been so tired and damn relieved that Liz wasn't actually dead, Maria may have wondered about it more, but as it was, she simply returned the hug with a fierce one of her own.

Isabel joined them, along with a shaken looking Tess, who looked like her whole world was over and without any hesitation whatsoever, Maria dragged her into the group hug as well, feeling a few burning tears in her eyes to match Tess' continuous flowing ones.

Courtney sat in the corner, looking like a small wind would bowl her over, and normally Maria would've questioned her right to be there, but she'd actually saved Maria's life when Michael had been busy helping Liz. She'd barely woken up when one of the last Skins had tried literally ripping Maria in half, but she'd stumbled and then crawled over and pushed that weird destruct-o button that they all had before fainting once again.

If only she'd stop eyeballing Michael whenever he's around then I might even like her a little bit, Maria thought with a wry smile. The next moment, Max turned to look in Maria's direction and she had to force herself not to react. It would seem that her forgotten fear of the alien-ness that was Michael had transferred over to Max after seeing his brutal ending of Caden.

Alex stood next to Max and Maria saw him frowning a bit and then his gaze zeroed in on her and she silently cursed herself for her lack of control when her earlier fear spiked a bit. I guess it's normal to fear the guy who tried to kill you, she thought, but then she wanted to kick herself when she saw Alex's minute flinch and Isabel's immediate focus on him.

"I'm sorry about everything," Alex murmured as he settled down next to Maria on her free side. "I wasn't in control of myself…Otherwise I'd never hurt you, I hope you know that."

Maria sighed and wrapped the arm that wasn't around Liz over Alex's tall, gangly shoulders. "Of course I do, Alex. I'm sorry I'm so weak that you have to feel my emotions after what can only have been a seriously poopy day."

Alex's smile was more along the lines of a grimace, but she appreciated his attempt none the less. "Well," he said as he made no move to get up, "at least now you see that envying my 'cool' powers is a complete waste of time."

"I can't believe I was that shallow," Maria whispered, leaning her head on the cave wall behind her. "After today I wouldn't wish any of those freaky Czech powers on anybody. No offence, Tess."

Tess, who was sitting in a similar position on Liz's other side as Maria was, didn't bother replying. Her sole focus was on Kyle's form on the ground and Max, Michael and Isabel's movements as they placed those alien stones Maria had heard about from Michael all around Kyle.

A moment later, Max glanced over at Tess with an almost guilty look to him. "We'll need you to help, Tess," he said gently, as if speaking to a child. Which I suppose is the only kind of mental stability she's able to keep hold of right now, Maria surmised, feeling nothing but pity and understanding for the girl.

If that had been Michael… The mere thought brought a wave of fresh agony over Maria that was tenfold that of the pain in her half- broken leg. Alex gave a small jolt next to her and Maria quickly put a lid on her thoughts, shoving her morbid fantasy of seeing Michael lying dead on the ground to the background as fast as she could. "Sorry," she apologized and Alex merely shrugged and closed his eyes.

Tess unwrapped herself from the human comfort that she'd been encased in since entering the podchamber and Maria watched intently as she slowly made her way over to the other hybrids and gingerly sat down in front of the small amber colored stone that was lying innocently next to Kyle's pale face.

"What are they gonna do?" Maria whispered, not expecting any answers since those who'd know about the details seemed to be getting increasingly focused on pouring some kind of soft glowing energy into the stones in their hands.

"They're magnifying their own powers through the Healing Stones," Liz's slightly hoarse voice answered without any hesitation whatsoever. To Maria's confused surprise, she even expanded on her explanation, "Out of all of them, Max is really the only healer and through their Royal Four connection their strength magnifies to unmeasured dimensions – they're hoping that their combined forces will somehow resurrect Kyle, that the powers that have been awoken in him is enough to make him more like them for the stones to work properly."

"Whoa," was all Maria could really say to that and she got a quick smile from Liz, who then looked back at their Czechoslovakian friends.

It didn't quite hit Maria until later that it was kinda weird that Liz was suddenly such a fountain of knowledge even if she took into account Liz's quest for answers, but Maria was momentarily distracted when suddenly, a curtain of light started evolving around Kyle's body until it suddenly burst into one huge flame like orb that flew inside him with a whoosh of sparkles trailing after it.

And then, rather anticlimactically in Maria's opinion, nothing else happened.

Maria held her breath along with everyone else in the cave, all their eyes transfixed on Kyle for what felt like forever. Even Courtney, Maria noticed when she saw the only surviving Skin lean forward ever so slightly after a few minutes of anxious waiting.

"No…." It was Tess' voice that first rang out in the hollowed rocky cave, "Please don't do this to me, Kyle. Please don't leave me. We've got so much to talk about. Please…Nononono!"

Maria wanted nothing more than to go over to her and comfort her, but for one thing she was still not really able to walk without assistance and for another thing, suddenly Alex began moaning next to her and her attention shifted to him.

"Argh…Stop," he muttered over and over again, bringing Isabel's focus over to him, but before she could help calm him down like she'd done when he'd last lost control, and before Maria could improvise and knock him unconscious with a jagged piece of rock that she'd scooped up from the ground, the entire cave resonated with a primal scream that shattered everyone's nerves.

One heartbeat later, things jumped into motion. She watched in frozen awe, one stone filled hand still halfway raised to smack Alex over the head, as none other than Kyle rushed to his feet with remarkable agility for a dead guy.

Maria yelped in unneeded warning when his completely healed body bowled into Michael's with a force that sent the larger male stumbling to the ground. A second later, Kyle was downright growling at Max as he prowled toward him, an almost casual kick sent an unprepared Isabel to the ground as well and Alex immediately ran to her side. Apparently, he did something to Kyle because the resurrected human bent forward with a groan for one short moment, before he managed to make his way over to Alex with payback in his emotionless eyes.

Liz began to get up, but Maria instantly grabbed a firm hold of her. "Don't be stupid, he's lost it completely- he's gone totally Resident Evil on us," she whispered frantically, hoping that her stubborn friend would see the pure stupidity in getting involved in a fight that not even aliens with powers could seem to stop.

Okay, so they're completely worn out and he's newly energized, Maria quickly amended when Max struggled back on his feet, but still, shouldn't they be able to take us all down in a second no matter what?

"Tess, look out!" Isabel yelled, being the only one to notice that the other girl had jumped to her feet and was running toward an unnoticing Kyle.

Maria watched – along with everyone else – with her mouth wide open in shock as Kyle twisted around to no doubt finish off another wrongly perceived threat, only to be utterly silenced by Tess kissing him with all her might. She was grasping on to his bare chest with hands that was still smeared red with Liz's dried blood, but he didn't seem to mind because after only a few long seconds, his own bloodied arms had wrapped themselves around her much smaller frame and was pushing her as close to him as possible.

Feeling it was safe enough since she was pretty sure that Kyle's sanity was returning, Maria untangled herself from Liz and began crawling over to Michael, who hadn't moved since Kyle had knocked him to the ground. Max had explained earlier, as he'd looked him over before preparing to fetch Kyle into the podchamber that Michael was beyond fatigued. His attempts at healing, at using powers as they weren't meant to be used, had drained him a lot more than usual. Add to that the whole weird, but awesome thing they just did to get Kyle back and there's no question that he's on his last legs, Maria thought as she finally reached her boyfriend.

Maria breathed a big sigh of relief when she saw that Michael wasn't unconscious as she'd first thought. He was just lying there and staring up at the roof of the cave with a small smile on his face. "So I guess Tess took a note out of your book," he said gently, reaching out to caress her cheek with an indescribable look of tenderness in his eyes. "Shutting the guy up by kissing him," Michael explained at Maria's questioning look.

Unable to stop it, Maria chuckled tiredly and leaned against Michael, using him as a comfy pillow even as she took great care in protecting her leg from further aggravating it. "If I wasn't in so much pain right now, I'd totally take my own move back and show them how it's really done," she murmured, placing her head in the crook of Michael's neck which muffled her words a bit.

She felt a small rush of concern and guilt run from Michael's side of their bond to hers and knew what he was going to say even before he said it, "Are you in a lot of pain? If you're still feeling a little iffy about Max, I'll try again to help you and-"

"Don't," Maria interrupted quietly, "I can handle it for now. I know you and Max are more than exhausted right now; I don't wanna burden him with my silly injury until we can't avoid it any longer. He needs, we all do by the way, to charge our batteries so to speak before doing anything else. My immature behavior has caused enough problems for you guys already, I'll deal with it. Just don't move too much, 'cause I kinda want to stay right here with you until we're all better."

"You're not as immature as you think you are, you know." Michael whispered and then added with a small, almost sad smile, "Actually, I'd rather have you immature and innocent than the opposite, believe me.

Maria was about to say something along the lines of 'sure, whatever' when Max spoke and Maria looked over at him to find him sitting next to a content looking Liz.

"We need to take care of Caden's body and the ones that weren't Skins as well," his tone was without any inflection and if Maria didn't know any better, she'd say he was talking about getting some homework done, he seemed that affected by it and once again, Maria was a little more than a bit perturbed.

"I can light a fire," Courtney said, looking at Max with the same look that Maria was sure was gracing her own features. "Burn the evidence before anyone in law enforcement gets involved. I'll have to go to Copper Summit too; to be sure they're all gone before too much time passes."

"I'm pretty sure we did a lot of damage when we escaped," Michael said, making Maria wonder what she had missed before he continued, "but just in case we weren't thorough enough you should check out the Husk room, maybe yours made it, however unbelievable it sounds or…maybe enough survived so that we could fiddle a little with it to help you out."

Courtney looked at Michael like he'd just given her a million bucks. Or like he agreed to sleep with her, Maria thought sourly, but beat it down quickly when she felt Michael's subtle amusement at her emotions.

Their conversation was interrupted by none other than Kyle and Maria switched her attention to him, preferring to look at the formerly deceased and deranged teenager than at her boyfriend's alien stalker.

"I agree with Michael, but you can't burn the bodies though. I've learned a little from growing up in a sheriff's home," he said when Courtney looked at him with a raised brow and a confused expression. "No matter what there's bound to be some kind of evidence and if anyone heard or in worst case scenario even saw a smidge of our earlier battle, then it's gonna be easy to find some kind of DNA evidence or something like that, even if you burn Caden and the others."

"I'll handle it," Isabel said, eying Kyle with such a relieved look in her eyes that Maria briefly wondered if the former Ice Princess had a crush on the sheriff's son until she noticed the way her hands were intertwined with Alex's.

"Handle it how?" Maria blurted out and then immediately wished she'd just kept completely out of the conversation when all eyes turned to her. "I mean, if you don't mind me asking," she murmured embarrassed, - and promptly burrowed her head back into the crook of Michael's neck, feeling unusually insecure for some reason.

"I don't mind at all," Isabel smiled and Maria dared to look over at the girl she'd used to downright fear not too long ago, "I'll use my powers to make them and everything else into sand particles – they'll blow away in the wind like the Skins did when they disintegrated."

"Oh…" was all Maria could formulate verbally even as her mind jumped from question to question that she already knew she'd never ask anybody but Michael. Or Liz since she's always got a way of knowing everything, Maria corrected with an inward smile.

Courtney was the first to leave; she shocked pretty much everyone by actually bowing respectfully to Max before she left for Copper Summit. Not too long after that, Alex and Isabel left too, saying something about waiting in the Jetta so they could all go home to Tess' place and clean up before going home to their own houses.

Tess was practically glued to Kyle's side and Maria heard him say that he was still too juiced up from the revival to actually sit still and plan. Evidently, it'd been the burst of raw energy from all of them that had made him more or less explode as soon as he'd been awoken, too overtaken with instincts to calm down enough to listen to his more rational mind until Tess' actions had grounded him.

Good to know he's not gone cuckoo, Maria thought with a small smile as her eyes followed them out the door. A foreign, yet gentle touch on her injured leg brought Maria right back to the real world and she gave a mighty jerk that sent waves of burning throbbing down her leg. She may even have whimpered a little, but she would never admit it to anybody if asked.

When the red hot pain slowly subsided, Maria opened her eyes and saw Max crouching in front of her. Michael gently pushed her up into a sitting position, clearly in agreement with his friend that Maria's healing had waited long enough.

"You're too tired," Maria argued when Max reached out and placed his hand on her knee, "Michael already took care of most of the breaks, I'm totally fine for now."

"Maria," Michael's tone was full of warning, but it was the look of sheepish remorse on Max's face that finally convinced her that no matter how dangerous he could be, Max truly was a gentle soul underneath it all. Besides, she thought with a quick sigh, if Liz trusts him even after all of this, I'm damn sure gonna follow her lead.

"Thank you, Max." The words slipped out without any hint of bitterness, fear or apprehension and Maria felt a hint of warm gratitude from Michael that told her that she'd done the right thing.

A few minutes later, Maria was convinced again when she actually supported her huge lump of a boyfriend outside to the Jetta where Isabel sat on the backseat with Alex holding her. Courtney had taken her own car and was already gone.

A quick scan of her surroundings told Maria that her fellow blonde had already taken care of the bodies and the rest of the evidence from the battle. One car had survived Isabel's sweep and Kyle and Tess' forms next to it told her that they'd use it to drive home in privacy and she smiled, happy that something finally seemed to go smoothly for them.

"Well, let's go and get cleaned up," she said and got into the driver's seat with a spring in her step that belittled the exhaustion she felt. "Let's get this crappy day over with. Who's with me?"

The answering smiles were proof enough and without another word, Maria turned on the engine and began the drive back to Tess' place.

Liz's POV

Once everyone was gone, Liz saw what she'd been waiting for ever since seeing all of the power that Max had used since he'd joined the battle, only moments before she did.

He paled, utterly spent after using every last bit of energy on Maria's admittedly much needed healing. One breath went by and then he sank down the wall next to her with a tiny groan of pain that Liz knew she wasn't supposed to have heard.

"Come here," she whispered softly, gently leading him into lying down with his head in her lap and awkwardly stroking his sweat soaked hair with the arm that still bore a – by now – very dirty cast. Her own body still throbbed from the treatment she'd gotten from Nicholas' goon, but the memory of that was still hazy, fighting a losing battle over all the other memories she'd somehow gotten shoved into her skull.

"Are you okay?" Max asked, his eyes slowly closing even as he spoke. Liz could feel his concern through their connection, weak though it was, but she didn't worry about the state of their bond at that moment. No, she just wanted to calm her husband down, give him peace.

"I've never been better," she bent forward and placed a small kiss on his sweaty forehead. "I'm here with you."

A hint of surprise bubbled through the bond and Liz smiled with all the love she had in her when Max's eyes reopened with what had to be enormous effort. "What do you mean?" His tone was uneven, but it didn't hide his befuddlement and Liz knew she would get no better time than this to tell him, it was a rarity to be as alone as they were right now.

"Max…" she began and Max frowned only to freeze entirely when she continued, speaking clearly and never looking away from his comically widened eyes, "You know, I would've done the exact same thing you guys did. I want you to know; now more than ever that I love you and I always will. That's why I'm so happy that you took my words to heart and used that brilliant mind of yours to figure out Serena's cryptic words about time travel. Like I said; I would've done the exact same thing."

TBC…

A/N One odd extra little thing that my beta made me aware off: Unlike canon, this story's Skins have the ability to bleed, something which I forgot they actually don't while writing and am now too tired to correct since the dispatching of said aliens are a big part of this chapter. Now, I'm most eager to hear what you thought :D

Until Next Time

Ditte Mai