Part 5

"I have her powers."

Kyle moved into action quickly, throwing his orange juice onto the burning timepiece, but all that served to do was cause a hissing, and the melting plastic acquired a sickly yellow hue. Liz and Kyle watched in trepidation, but soon the electric current died out and only a puddle of alarm clock parts and a burnt odor were all that was left.

Liz looked on the verge of tears. "What am I gonna do, Kyle?" she asked, a hitch in her voice.

Kyle's throat worked silently for a moment, as though he were reaching for the right thing to say. Finally, he remarked, "Well, I know you must be feeling scared as hell, but I'd just like to express my relief that you are in Tess' body right now. You know, it means I don't have to be scared of my own alien-ness at the moment and can concentrate on yours." Liz didn't look calmed. "Uh, sorry. Guess that wasn't the right thing to say."

"No," she agreed, her breathing evening out. In front of Kyle's eyes, Liz seemed to compose herself, and she straightened her shoulders resolutely. "But you did say one valid thing- I'm in Tess' body and I should have realized that... certain alien abilities would accompany it."

"So this isn't a big deal? We'll just take deep breaths, do a little Buddha meditation, and go on with our respective days?" Kyle sounded incredulous.

Liz nodded. "Yeah, it's fine. I'm fine. I can totally control this."

"But Liz-"

"No, Kyle. We don't have an alternative." She swiped her manicured hand across her forehead tiredly. "We decided it was best to deal with this was by laying low- I'm an outsider, remember?"

He nodded reluctantly. "If that's what you want. I just hope you're as quick a learner at controlling your powers as you always have been at school- I mean, look at Michael. He IS an alien and he couldn't control himself for years..."

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

"Have you seen Tess Harding today?"

"No, why?"

"She actually wore something not exposing her cleavage. I didn't know she actually had something like that in her wardrobe."

"Yeah, could she be any more pathetic, falling over Max Evans all the time like that in those skanky clothes?"

"Well, the way she looks today, I don't think she could get the class nerd to do anything with her, much less Max Evans. And she knows it, too, by the look on her face."

"Where has Max been, anyway?"

This was one of the few conversations about their group Kyle had heard since he'd entered school that day. He and Liz parted after they got out of his car and she'd gone off in search of Tess' schedule. Between the first bell and now, which was third period, he'd been informed that Alex Whitman had walked into school with Isabel Evans and apparently seen something that scared the crap out of him, so he and Isabel took off. Kyle hoped he was okay and marveled at the irony of Alien and friends, co. being the talk of the town when their main goal of life was to melt into the shadows.

Talk between two established gossips was nothing, he supposed, but rumors spread so easily that Kyle didn't know what was safe any more. The bell rang, startling him out of his deep thoughts, and he looked through the door of his History class. Tess' seat was suspiciously empty and he knew Liz would have no reason to be late for class.

"Sorry, Nixon," he muttered. "The Watergate Scandal's gotta wait a day; I got one to contend with on my own." And with that, Kyle set off in search of Liz with a gut feeling that Liz's resolution to handle her powers alone was not going to stick.

He found her in the Eraser Room five minutes later, curled into a ball.

"Liz," he whispered, "What's wrong? What happened?"

She turned to him with red eyes. "I was fine first period. I mean, it's not that hard to just sit quietly and not disturb anything. But then, I- I was in lab and my partner kept bugging me and I was getting so angry and looking at him wishing he would just stop and suddenly the beaker exploded in front of us-"

"Oh crap," Kyle muttered. "What did everything think? Did they see it happen?"

"No," she laughed sarcastically, "No one saw it happen, because it didn't. I just didn't realize it because I was seeing the beaker explode myself."

"I mind-warped my lab partner, Kyle."

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

After hearing that statement, Kyle told Liz in no uncertain terms that no matter what she thought, he was going to find Isabel right now and get her to do something. He didn't care what he had to do to convince the blond alien that Tess really was Liz, but he was going to do it. He knew how freaked out he'd been when Tess mind-warped him that once to see the fake report card, and he couldn't imagine what it would feel like to know you had invaded someone's brain. Liz was one of the best people Kyle knew, and he couldn't stand to see her like she was now, scared and disgusted with herself, not knowing what disaster was in store for her next.

The problem was finding Isabel if she'd left school with Alex and convincing her that Liz was inside the body of the person who'd been messing with Alex's head.

Fortunately, Kyle was lucky enough to run into Isabel as he exited West Roswell High. It looked as though she was just returning, a frown spread across her pretty face.

"Isabel," he called.

"Oh, hi, Kyle. I guess you heard about Alex?"

He nodded. "Something to that effect. What happened, Isabel? Is he okay?"

She stepped close enough to him so that he could hear her lowered voice. "I think that whatever Tess did to him when she mind-warped him really screwed him up." Her eyes darkened at their supposed friend's actions. "He seems okay now, but he wouldn't talk about what he saw. Liz seemed really worried about him- he was just walking into school and it was like he sensed or saw something that scared him half to death. Alex just turned pale and begged me to take him home."

Intuition. It was something they'd all acquired soon after their initiation to the alien abyss, Kyle realized. Alex might not even know it himself, but he was recognizing Tess on some basic level. Liz was one of his best friends and Kyle knew he wouldn't conceive of her hurting him; however, it didn't mean subconsciously the thought wasn't there.

"About Tess, Isabel..."

"I don't want to talk about her, now, Kyle," she answered tightly. "Look, I'll see you later in class." Isabel was walking away from him, but Kyle stopped her with his next words.

"If you care about Alex at all, Isabel, you'll listen to what I have to say." She turned slowly and gave a slight nod, indicating she was listening.

"Before I start, I'm telling you that this is really me now, Isabel. Everything I'm saying is the truth and not a product of some mind-warp. I know it may be hard to believe-"

"What is it, Kyle?" Isabel said exasperatedly. "Please just tell me."

"Right. Everything that Tess said last night? Well, it wasn't her. It really was Liz, and everything she said was true."

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

Liz blinked when the door to the Eraser Room opened and light streamed in, illuminating Kyle's face. He walked into the closet and shut the door behind me, and Liz's face fell.

"You couldn't find her?" she whispered.

"No, I found her all right," Kyle responded. "She's just a little shocked right now- she didn't believe me at first, thought Tess was mind-warping me in to saying that or something. I guess I don't blame her, with the Alex thing going on."

"But she believes you now? How did you convince her."

He shrugged and a slight blush colored his face. "I told her to connect with me to prove I was under only my own influence. So she did, and I guess she believes that even Tess isn't devious enough to implant fantasies about Jody Ann Paterson into my head."

Liz chuckled grudgingly. "I'm not even gonna ask."

"Well, regardless of my methods, I've convinced her. So let's get you out of here and into Alien Power Seminar 101."