Chapter 11

"Oh, Max." Tess sounded worried, but the statement didn't reach her eyes. "Are you okay?"

Max sounded incredulous when he replied, "Yes, I'm fine. It's not me I'm worried about; my powers will come back soon enough. But Alex, Liz; he almost died." He took a step back and rubbed his forehead tiredly.

Away from Max, Tess shook her head and paused, realizing she had to get herself out of the hole she was digging. She looked down at the floor for a moment before lifting her head with a pained statement on her face. A tear fell from her eye. "I'm sorry," she choked. "God, Max, I just can't let myself even consider that possibility because of how much Alex means to me. You know?" She brushed her hand over her eyes to rub the tears away, and Max moved forward at the motion.

"Shh, Liz, it's okay," he murmured, feeling finally that he understood why she'd reacted as she had. "He's okay."

"Max, I don't know what I would do if I lost him. Or you. You're just..." She stopped as he pulled her into his arms, letting him envelop her in his warmth. Her head fell over Max's shoulder and as he rubbed her back soothingly, she smiled. Tess Harding was nothing if not an actress.

Minutes later, Max released her. "I still don't know what to do about Tess," he said honestly. "I- I don't know if I can believe she did this on purpose, because she must have known how much it would hurt all of us when we found out. Still, I'm so angry, I don't know if I'm thinking straight. Alex- all of you- have done so much for us. You never deserve to be used like a puppet."

"No," Tess agreed. "But I don't think Tess understands that. She's not right somehow, Max. Not human, like the rest of us. One second she's mindwarping you, the next she's our ally; we don't know what kind of agenda she has." She tried not to smile at the supreme irony of the situation.

Max let out a long-suffering sigh. "I told Alex that if he remembered something he should tell me. Maybe we should wait to act about Tess until we see just how much he recalls." He faltered. "But I know I have to tell Isabel, and she's going to be mad."

Tess smiled sympathetically. "I know you'll do the right thing, Max. Go home and sleep on it. I promise, I'll be here tomorrow. And forever." She kissed him lingeringly on the mouth and trailed her lips down his neck as his eyes fluttered shut. "Good night, Max. I know we'll take care of Tess."

"Yeah, tomorrow," Max whispered. His eyes were still closed. He remembered when tomorrow was full of promise and didn't make his heart heavy with dread. Not even Liz's proximity could lift the weight on his soul, and that hurt too. "Good night, Liz." He turned and walked out the door without looking back.

~~~~~ ~~~~~~

Max fumbled in his pockets for his house key as he stood at the darkened doorstep. The lights of his parents' bedroom and Isabel's room were lit, and the rest of the house was dark. That meant they'd retired for the night. Max's stomach growled hungrily, and he realized that the combination of the healing and not eating dinner was not lost on him. He opened the door slowly, trying not to make much noise.

The kitchen was bathed in moonlight, but he switched the stove light on to see better. Max opened the refrigerator, searching for something quick to heat up, but then he turned around to see one angry sister staring at me.

"Max." She said coolly. "Glad to see you've decided to remain in New Mexico today."

Max looked away, her words stinging. It seemed that they'd finally made up after the whole Vilandra incident so recently; it was hard to believe there'd been another fall-out. As children, Max and Isabel fought like normal siblings, but their secret bonded them together so tightly that squabbling was as bad as it got. Now, their relationship was frail, broken so easily. He felt guilty for leaving her behind, but the money and idea was Michael's. Their friendship had needed mending, too.

"I was at Alex's," he answered dully. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I didn't know if I could concentrate if too many people were there."

"Was Liz there?" Isabel exclaimed. Secretly, of course, she asked because Tess was an unknown danger to Alex. However, she knew Max would regard it as a jealousy thing. Regardless, the answer she would get would be the same.

"No," Max replied, frowning. "I asked her to come, though," he admitted. "She was working."

Isabel sighed in relief. "So, Alex is all right, right?" she asked. "He seemed so much better. I assume you checked him out?"

The haunted look in Max's eyes made her swallow convulsively, and the refrigerator hung open, forgotten as Max sat down wearily to recount their group's near loss.

~~~~~ ~~~~~~

"Tomorrow?" Kyle exclaimed. "It's a school day, Liz. Are you nuts?"

"Yes, tomorrow. We are going to Las Cruces tomorrow. And may I remind you that I'm not concerned about Tess' attendance at that hell-hole of a high school." Kyle didn't respond, because he recognized the belligerent look in Liz's eyes. She was just begging him to challenge her.

"Las Cruces it is," he agreed. "So, what are we going to do when we get there? All the information we have is a couple newspaper clippings and a picture of some girl who may or may not exist. And may I remind you we still don't know what Tess had Alex doing with the super-computer, if that's what he was, in fact, using. Or why it was necessary to use Alex, and under a mindwarp, no less."

Liz looked at him coolly, her blue eyes piercing Kyle's. "I didn't have Isabel teach me how to mindwarp for nothing, I suppose. I might as well use these powers."

"What about what happened to Alex?"

"We don't know how he's doing, Kyle," Liz replied. "And we don't know how long Tess was screwing with his head. It's just a risk we'll have to take." She yawned. "Now, we should go to bed. We have a long mission ahead of us."

Kyle nodded wearily. "You're the brains behind this operation. I'm only the brawn." He settled on the couch and pulled the blanket over his legs. Liz retreated to Kyle's room, and he waited for a minute before the lights went out. Then he dashed for the phone.

~~~~~ ~~~~~~

By the time Max finished telling Isabel what transpired, most of the blood had drained from her face and tears were stinging in her eyes. "Max," she whispered, "I'm sorry I was mad you. And I'm sorry I didn't tell you what was going on. Alex- it took this to make me realize how much I care about him, and if I lost him now..."

"I know. It's easy to take our friends- and our family- for granted," Max said meaningfully. "We learned a long time ago that the six of us are the strongest together."

"The six of us," Isabel echoed. "Max, what are you thinking of doing about Tess?" Her mind raced, trying to figure out a way to do damage control while still keeping the real Tess in the dark to their plan. For them to watch her successfully, she had to think they didn't know about the switch. That meant acting like Liz was the evil one and having Max act normally around the impostor.

That meant he couldn't know what was going on. Max would never stay close to "Liz" if he knew she were Tess.

"Max," she repeated. "I want to find out what Tess has been up to. Alex- he's my- well, he means a lot to me, and I want to make sure she realizes how wrong she was. Let me make sure she won't hurt anyone again."

Max nodded and moved to speak when Isabel froze, craning her head. "I think that's my phone," she muttered. "We'll talk later." And she ran to get the phone before the caller hung up.

~~~~~ ~~~~~~

"Hello?" Isabel asked breathlessly.

"Shhh!" The voice on the other end exclaimed.

"Kyle?"

"Yeah," he whispered. "Look, I'm not supposed to be calling you, but I'm aware of rumors of your wrath when people leave without telling you." The humor was lost on an unamused Isabel.

"Wait. Leaving? What are you talking about, Kyle? Where are you going?"

"Las Cruces. Liz and I are going to Las Cruces, because of what Alex said. We also found some-"

Isabel interrupted him. "Are you insane?" she hissed. "You have no idea what Tess had him doing there. What if she was working with other people that can hurt you?"

"Well, Liz is Tess right now, Isabel. She can take care of us. We think we know what she was doing, at least in part. I don't want you to follow us, Isabel. You need to stay and monitor Tess while we're away. I just thought you should know what was going on."

"You think you know what she was doing," Isabel repeated. "Pray tell what it was?"

"Well, Liz thinks she was using a new super-computer in the college campus."

"To do what, though?" Isabel wondered. "What would Tess want with a computer?"

Kyle sighed. "That, we couldn't figure out. The computer specializes in cryptography, or some crap like that." He paused suddenly. "Shh, I think I hear something." After a minute, he let out a sigh. "It was just my dad. Look, I have to go. Don't tell anyone else where we're going, okay?"

"Wait!" Isabel cried. "Max went to Alex's today and healed him, and he found out that Tess was doing more damage than we thought. He's mad, and he's very suspicious of Tess. I'm doing damage control, but be careful, okay? And don't draw attention to yourselves."

"Got it, Isabel," Kyle replied. Then he shut off the phone, placed it on the hook, and flopped back on the couch.

~~~~~ ~~~~~~

Isabel sat in bed, unable to sleep. Her conversation with Kyle was running through her head, and she knew that something was evading her consciousness. Some answer was just beyond her grasp.

She grabbed her yearbook, this time her sophomore one, and flipped through the pages. First, Tess' picture loomed out at her. The random thought passed through her head as she wondered who she would dream walk if she concentrated on the picture.

Isabel shivered, remembering the last dream she entered. Ever since the Laurie incident, she actually refrained from invading people's dreams for no reason. As amusing as watching Liz swoon over Max or Kyle scream over acquiring a reptilian hand was, she didn't need a repeat of suffocating under the ground.

Tonight, Isabel needed to overcome her recent fear. She knew it somehow.

Her fingers flipped to the end of the sophomore section, and she smiled at how White came after Whitman. A perfectly manicured nail tapped on Alex's smiling face, and she smiled at him in return. "What did she do to you?" she breathed. Her voice was hardly audible.

Isabel lay back, her eyes fluttering shut. It didn't take long to find Alex's dream orb, but its usual clarity was marred. Confusion permeated Alex's consciousness, but before Isabel could fully materialize, flashes flew across the landscape. Symbols whirred past, glowing and fading, morphing into yet more symbols, and then letters. Bronze, silver, regal colors abounded.

It came to her in the next second, almost in the same instant the dreamer suffered a similar phenomenon.

"The destiny book."