Kyle followed Liz through the dark corridors, listening to the sounds of her hands gliding along the walls for guidance. Maria was at her back, clutching to the hem of Liz’s shirt. Every so often, when Maria tilted her head to make sure Kyle was still behind them, Kyle could see the wide eyed terror Maria was feeling. Kyle didn’t have enough words to explain that he was right there with her.
Liz was about a step away from freaking him out completely. She’d calmly borrowed alien powers to melt handcuffs, had personally turned the Skin in her cell to ashes and then had turned back to them to announce they had to find the others to break Max away from Nicholas. In Kyle’s book, that was the formula for a major psychosis in the making. He wouldn’t even let himself think about what would happen to her if they weren’t able to get Max out of the building alive. Something in her resolve seemed to have changed and if Max somehow didn’t make it, he doubted Liz would either.
Every so often, she would pause and ask for his guidance when the hall divided. Kyle tried his hardest to help them get back to the main entrance. Maria had no sense of direction on a good day, much less in the dark with fear compressing your spine. And as if all of this wasn’t enough to freak out the average human, he could still hear Liz’s words in his head, telling him he was probably changed for life. Part alien now in some freakish game he hadn’t asked to sit in on.
But still…there was Tess. She was proving to be the bright ray of sunshine in his universe. She made it all seem…well, not worth it, because look where he was. But maybe she made it bearable, tolerable, a reason to live through the impossible circumstances and go home. Maybe kiss the girl after the evil foe was vanquished. Wasn’t that how the stories ended? Didn’t the heroes get the girl? Of course, it could be argued that he wasn’t a hero, but a jock that had fallen into a seriously bad place at a bad time. But he never listened to that voice anymore.
Being with Tess for those short hours before everything went insane made him finally understand what a year of stalking Max and Liz hadn’t explained. Sometimes when you fall for someone, there’s no rhyme or reason. You want who you want and you love who you love. And sometimes life isn’t fair, but those rare moments when it was more than fair made up for it.
Kyle almost froze in the middle of the hallway when he realized the deep path his thoughts had taken. Was this what insanity felt like? Knowingly infiltrating an alien base to free your captured girlfriend who happened to be an alien as well? If so, it really wasn’t so bad. Kind of nice really, in a morbid sort of way. He finally belonged to something, a compact group that allowed no outsiders to join. Kind of like being on the football team, but more dangerous.
“Kyle?”
Kyle snapped out of his daze when he heard Liz’s soft whisper. He took in their surroundings as best he could with the faint light. “Down the hall. Last door on the left.” He recognized this hall now. It had been the one he’d seen the Skins take the others down. At the time, they hadn’t dared try to help them, no matter how appealing the option had been. There had been too many enemies, and not enough allies. They’d found the device a few rooms down a nearby hallway.
Liz nodded, the tension thick in the air. Now that they had a destination, the entire situation was too real. There was no way of knowing how many Skins were guarding their friends. Liz was tired and still shaken from the day’s events, but the adrenalin pushed her on. She couldn’t help Max until she somehow got the others out. And come hell or high water, she was going to help Max.
She gestured for them to be quiet. Briefly, she considered trying to push Maria into a room to wait, but she had a feeling it would only waste time. Had Kyle and Maria avoided capture because they were supposed to stay out of the way for the first rescue attempt? That had turned out well, so she didn’t bother asking them to wait.
Kyle was probably bristling behind her. He would want to know what her plan was, but there was no time to tell him it consisted of breaking down the door and borrowing whatever powers she could get her hands on. Overall, it wasn’t really a plan, but it was all she had.
Doing her best to tiptoe across the floor, Liz could feel Maria’s fingers gripping the waistband of her pants now. She had all but climbed onto Liz’s back. Each step closer to the door sounded louder than the last and Liz was sure someone was going to step out into the hallway and catch them any second.
One step from the door and Liz was suddenly convinced that her plan more closely resembled a suicide mission. What if they were blasted before they even stepped into the room? How much did they really know about the Skins anyway? What if not all of them had the destructive powers she had borrowed from Rick? What if the extent of their evilness was simply glaring and leering at prisoners and just looking evil?
Pausing, her back pressed against the wall, Liz listened carefully for any sound at all. Her fears were getting the better of her and she battled them back. She waited for anything that would indicate that their friends were inside, or maybe how many Skins were holding them captive. But there was nothing but an empty silence that fed her fears of walking into a trap.
Knowing she might just be doing something stupid enough to get herself killed, Liz untangled Maria from her clothes. If something happened to her, Kyle and Maria had to be able to get away. Taking a deep breath, Liz steeled her courage and shifted her head to see inside of the room.
Her eyes had slowly become used to the darkness over the last few hours, but there was still little she could make out in the room. There were no sounds, either for help or attack and Liz wondered if Kyle hadn’t directed them to the wrong room. With a loud click, Liz flicked on the stolen flashlight and eyed the carnage with a surge of hope.
The remains of a chair were to her left. Rope was scattered along the ground in different places. But the most encouraging sight was the thin layer of black ash that covered the floor.
Liz stepped inside the room, leaving footprints in the ash. A part of her cringed, but it couldn’t be helped. With a gesture, Kyle and Maria followed her inside, no more eager to be in the hall than she had been.
“What happened?” Maria eyed the room, trying to decide who had won the fight. She looked for any sign that Michael had been there and had left safely.
“I’d say Michael by the looks of it.” Kyle leaned over to poke at the charred flakes. It warmed him considerably toward Michael to know he’d blown up some Skins. For the moment, Michael was Kyle’s newest best friend.
“Didn’t Isabel destroy Whittaker?” It was too much for Maria to hope that Michael was fine, that he had escaped and was out there somewhere.
Kyle nodded. “Yeah, but did you see how weak she was earlier?” Kyle turned to Liz, noticing that she was simply standing in the middle of the room not moving. “This is a good thing, right?”
Liz sighed. “I don’t know. They’re free, which is good.”
“But?”
“But it means our job is harder. They could be anywhere in this building now. We have the device and I don’t know how to find Alex. Max is getting worse, Kyle. And that was a few hours ago. He’s running out of time.” Disappointment threatened to do what the fear had tried. She’d wasted so much time already. Had it been too long? Had they already discovered she was missing? That the others were missing? Would they take it out on Max? Or just hold him as bait until they could come for him?
Liz turned to Kyle and Maria and for a moment, didn’t bother to hide her own fears. “We’re running out of time. We have to find Max now.” It didn’t matter that they didn’t know where Alex was. At least he was with three aliens. All Liz had was the ability to borrow powers and she had to get close enough to do it first. The odds were against them and Max was not going to pay the price.
With a vise like grip, Liz clutched at Maria’s wrist. Kyle barely had the chance to grab hold of Maria before Liz clicked the flashlight off and dragged them down the hall. There was little of their earlier caution as they all but sprinted down the corridors, retracing their footsteps.
It was several minutes before Liz realized they were going the wrong way. But by then, the hall had emptied into a large room. The illumination was the first clue they had taken a very wrong turn. Their second clue came from the shouts of the Skins that held the flashlights.
Liz, Kyle and Maria froze in their tracks, stunned beyond movement. Liz came to her senses first as the closest Skin raised his hand toward them. With Maria’s wrist still clutched in her hand, Liz dove to the left behind a large metal lab station. The concrete where they had been was a charred crater in the earth. The onslaught of energy balls continued and Maria flinched beside Liz every time a blast shook the lab station. While it held, Liz couldn’t help but wonder how long that would last.
Kyle swore hard when he noticed that he was separated from Liz and Maria by fifteen feet of exposed concrete. When they had jumped left, he had jumped right. Liz and Maria were huddled together, helpless as the Skins opened fire. Kyle had the better vantage point and could see them advancing slowly. Kyle knew enough about strategy to guess that Liz and Maria would be trapped within a matter of minutes.
Looking around wildly, Kyle tried to find a weapon of any sort. He pawed at the drawers and felt the floor for any objects. To his dismay, there was nothing. Even as Kyle began formulating the world’s dumbest plan of drawing attention to himself to protect the girls, it happened.
Without warning, the Skins began retreating, ducking their heads and flinching at nothing that made sense to Kyle. They were almost acting as if they were under attack. But they weren’t. Kyle could see the room clearly and Liz and Maria weren’t making any moves to drive the Skins back.
Then he saw her.
Tess was crouched in the very back of the room behind a row of machinery. Her eyes were clenched shut, her brow furrowed in concentration. And suddenly everything made sense. Tess was mindwarping the Skins into believing they were under attack. The rush of joy at seeing Tess alive was more jolting than walking into a room of Skins. Realistically, he’d more or less figured Tess was okay. She was a fighter. But without every realizing it, Kyle had been holding his breath until he’d seen for himself that she was alive.
Alive and about to be sneak attacked by the Skin creeping up behind her.
Kyle didn’t think, didn’t hesitate. He put an alarming amount of faith in Tess’s abilities and rose to his feet. Completely exposed, Kyle zigzagged past the random blasts the Skins were still hurling at their imaginary foes. Choosing the clearest path to sneak up behind Tess’s Skin, Kyle bolted across the distance.
In horror, he realized he wasn’t going to make it in time to pull Tess out of the way. He needed a weapon, something to attack with. Tess was in danger and needed his help. Liz’s words still rang in his ears and it occurred to him that if he could only lunge across the last of the distance, Kyle could use the Skins own powers against him.
Kyle pounced, watching the last of the distance close between them. With arms outstretched, Kyle closed his hands over the Skin’s arm, shocking him into misdirecting the blast he’d been ready to fling at Tess. Kyle could feel both the Skins’ and Tess’s eyes on him and he didn’t have time to figure out who looked more surprised. With a deep breath, Kyle narrowed his eyes at the creature that had threatened Tess and pooled everything inside of him for an attack.
And then he was waiting. For something to happen. Anytime.
With an irritated scowl, the Skin shoved Kyle away from him. The shock of hitting the ground wasn’t anything like the shock of discovering he didn’t have the ability to borrow powers. For once, a plan seemed to work as the Skin turned his sights from Tess right onto Kyle. Unable to help himself, Kyle scuttled backwards on the floor under the fiery glare. His seconds were numbered. There was no getting out of this mess now.
Kyle closed his eyes, willing his mind to remember good moments in time. Happy family memories with both his mother and father before they fought. His first day in high school and being announced MVP. The first time his father told him he was proud of him. Kissing Tess. He let the thoughts envelop him, warm him as he waited for his time to come.
“What the hell did you think you were doing?”
Kyle opened his eyes to find Tess glaring at him, her hands on her hips in agitation. Confused, Kyle looked around and noted that he was covered in a layer of black ash. “What did I miss?”
“You missed the part where you almost got your ass kicked because you jumped into a battle. Kyle, you could have been killed. What were you thinking?”
“I was saving your ass. You’re welcome, by the way.” Kyle pulled himself up from the ground and noted that they were the only four people in the room. Liz and Maria were coming out from behind the lab station and picking their way across the room with Liz’s flashlight. Whatever Tess had done must have been spectacular. Kyle narrowed his eyes at Liz as she approached him. “You are dead meat as soon as we get out of here. Borrowing powers.”
Liz frowned, having seen some of the action. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t it work?”
“What are you talking about?” Tess tried not to sway, but she discovered it was becoming harder to stay on her own two feet.
“Never mind that now. Suffice to say, I must be broken.” Kyle frowned at Tess, taking in her appearance. “What’s wrong with you?” He watched her open her mouth to probably tell him to mind his own business, but she fell forward. Kyle swore and caught her in his arms, letting her lean on him, and he was close enough to smell the chemicals on her. “They drugged you.”
Hating to admit to a weakness, Tess bit her lower lip. She said nothing.
Maria eyed the trio around her, sensing that something had changed while she’d been out of town. Liz and Tess weren’t openly hating each other, and Tess was actually clinging to Kyle. But Tess was their only hope right now. “Where’s everyone else?”
“We split up. They went after Max, I was supposed to find the device and a way out of here.” Tess buried her head in Kyle’s neck and closed her eyes for a minute. It had been hard to think her way through the fog in her brain to use her powers, and she’d felt them about to fail her earlier.
“We have the device.” Kyle decided to damn the consequences, and picked Tess off the ground. He cradled her in his arms, giving her a minute to gather her strength.
Liz eyed Tess, taking a chance and putting all of her faith in her hands. “Tess, what you did with the Skins in here…can you do that again?”
Blue eyes opened and met Liz’s harder ones. Instinct told her to lie, to leave them all behind and flee the building as she was taught to do. But if she did that, she would always be alone. “No.” She closed her eyes again, not wanting to see the disappointment on their faces. “Whatever they drugged me with is still in my system. I can’t concentrate enough right now to do much of anything. I’m sorry.”
Liz wasn’t sure if she’d ever heard Tess apologize for anything, and she wondered if she should blame it on the drugs. Still running on instinct, she laid a hand on Tess’s shoulder, waiting until she opened her eyes again. “It’s okay, Tess. We’re all going to get out of here alive. It’s just going to take teamwork. Are you in?”
Tess knew what was being asked of her, and what was being offered. Two things she had never expected. “Yes.”
“Then we need to hurry. We made too much noise in here. We have to go. Kyle, can you carry her until she’s okay enough to walk?”
Kyle nodded, shifting Tess more securely in his arms. “I’ve got her.”
“We need to go.” Liz looked up and to the right, staring blindly at one wall. “Max isn’t far from here.”
Maria eyed Kyle in question and Kyle could only shrug. “Alright, chica. Lead the way.”
*~*~
Max held his head high, even though he was beginning to suspect that his posture was drooping. The day had been too long, the pain too frighteningly intense to be able to maintain a blank face.
He’d been ripped from Liz’s arms and forced to watch as Nicholas touched her. And it hadn’t mattered that the mild touches had been meant to scare her more than anything else, it had made Max reach heights of rage he hadn’t known existed. He had no idea what Nicholas had told Liz, but he had seen the shock mixing with curiosity on her face. Whatever it had been was important. Nicholas had done something to Liz, knocking her out with little more than a touch to her head, and he simply hadn’t had the strength to fight against the Skins. He’d been dragged back to the cold, impersonal room with the lone chair and had been there since.
The Skin with the curious silver handprint on his cheek had leered at him before laying his hand over his heart, the spot Liz had healed. And while the pain had been intense, it was nothing compared to the burn Max could still feel beneath it all, the searing imprint Liz’s touch had left on his soul.
Nicholas hadn’t come back yet, and Max could only imagine he was trying to make sense of things. There was so much to process, so much to think through there could never be enough time to work through it all.
Liz had healed Max, or at least one of the bruising marks that had been left on his body. She had healed him and he’d seen things that didn’t make sense. Things like seeing himself wearing more leather than he’d even thought it was possible to wear at one time. Had that been another of Liz’s fantasies he’d stumbled upon? It hadn’t felt that way.
Just thinking about Liz was enough to bolster his confidence. He would find a way out of this mess. No matter what happened to him, he would live long enough to see Liz walk out of the building. Whatever fate had in store for him after that he could accept, but he would not accept that he would die in a cold room, alone when Liz was somewhere being held against her will.
It was enough to have him tipping his chin up another notch as the door opened. Nicholas sauntered in, his hands tucked in the pockets of his pants. A smile twitched at the corners of his lips. Max couldn’t help but feel as though Nicholas could see too much, that he knew everything.
He walked the room in small circles, taunting Max, choosing the words carefully and throwing them in his direction. Max could sit back and appreciate it now, admiring the monotonous ebb and flow of his voice. Unfortunately for Nicholas, his barbs had no effect on Max. He couldn’t understand any of the threats being directed at him or possibly Liz. There was no information to be gained by torturing him to death with an even keeled voice and a smile that was supposed to be evil and slippery. Max wondered if anyone had ever told Nicholas that he just looked young, like a child dressing up in his father’s clothes. He tried to cloak himself in importance and power like ordinary people wore coats. And Max realized that it gave him more power over Nicholas than he had ever thought possible.
As if Nicholas finally realized he didn’t have Max’s full attention, he charged forward, capturing Max’s head in his hands. Max didn’t even bother to flinch or close his eyes as Nicholas tried for the hundredth time to reach into his mind and pull out the answers he craved. Nicholas sensed this too, and pulled back on his efforts. The two men met eye to eye, doing nothing more than simply staring.
It was more than enough for Max. He was tired of sitting in the damn uncomfortable chair. Tired of being beaten and tossed around like some sort of rejected rag doll. He was tired of not being able to protect Liz. He was tired. But this was a whole new level of lethargy. Before, it had been a weakness, something that kept him from protecting his family. Now, it was the driving force that spurned him onward.
An explosion rocked the foundation of the building and the ground shook beneath Max’s feet. He watched as Nicholas stumbled and fought to keep his balance. With a clipped tone, he pointed at two of the Skins by the door and barked out orders. Immediately, they turned and fled from the room. Nicholas looked at Max for a long minute, despite the debris that was beginning to fall from the ceiling around them. Max knew he was sizing him up, wondering if Max had somehow had a hand in the destruction. Careful to keep his face neutral, Max gave him nothing.
The seed of fear was planted deeply inside of Max again as Nicholas’s gaze pierced through him. Because Max could feel something stirring beneath his skin now, something familiar and warm. And it was clear then to him that whatever explosion they had felt had involved Liz. He could feel her nearby, could all but hear her voice whispering in his ear. Hope was an alien feeling that bubbled up from the depths of exhaustion.
Wordlessly, Nicholas pivoted on his heel and disappeared through the door. Max entertained himself for a moment with the visual of Nicholas wearing a cape and watching it flap behind him as he fled to find the source of the trouble. It seemed like the sort of clichéd thing Nicholas might do if he thought of the idea. Max made a note to himself to share it with Nicholas if he regained his powers of speech anytime soon.
He had no way of knowing how long he sat there after Nicholas left. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. There was only one Skin near the doorway now, watching Max with a single minded intensity that even Nicholas would have been proud of. Max knew if he was going to make any sort of escape attempt, it should have been at that moment. A more perfect opportunity would never come. But Max hadn’t been prepared. He hadn’t been biding his time as maybe he should have been. And even if he could find a way to get out of the ropes that bound him, he was pretty sure he’d be on his face before he made it to the door.
Max had been watching the Skin through heavy lidded eyes, but in the space of a second, the air around them seemed to shimmer. It caught Max’s attention as did the sudden sensation that Liz was standing beside him. It was an odd prickling on his skin that he couldn’t explain. He kept his gaze on the Skin, waiting to see if he had noticed it too. Apparently not, as his gaze never shifted. His eyes stayed locked on Max’s, daring him to move. And then he simply exploded, disappearing into a thousand flecks of ash and dust.
Max blinked once, then twice when the confusing image didn’t fade. The air was charged around him and that same familiar prickling beneath his skin kept insisting what his eyes denied. Liz was there.
Unable to help himself, trusting even when his eyes proved him wrong, Max called out for her hesitantly. “Liz?”
With a single word, the air simply stopped shimmering and when Max blinked again, Liz was standing in front of him. His eyes widened and it crossed his mind that it could be a trick. But Liz seemed to be able to read his face and she lowered her lips to his. The rough pressure of her lips against his alleviated any doubts that may have lingered. Her hands were braced on his face and she allowed them only a moment before pulling back.
Max realized that someone had been tugging at the bonds that held his hands and he found himself free suddenly. Needing to feel Liz for himself, he wrapped his arms around her and held her close for a long minute.
It was too much to take in all at once. Liz was safe. She was free, and she was in his arms.
Liz breathed in the scent of Max’s hair and let him cling to her. They didn’t have any time, and she mentally logged the seconds in the back of her mind. But the larger portion of her brain was fogged over, unable to process anything except the fact that she had found Max. He wasn’t dead, or hadn’t been subjected to any of the horrible fates her imagination had worked up.
“And the list of things I’ve missed keeps getting bigger.” Maria eyed her two friends for a second before shaking her head. The meeting they were going to have to hold after this was going to be three days long.
Liz pulled away from Max, taking in his appearance. Just as Rick had promised, Max had another ugly handprint gleaming silver against his chest. It made her wish she hadn’t already killed him. She wanted to heal him then and there, to refuse to move until she had borrowed enough of his powers to heal him completely. But Liz remembered enough after his experiences in the White Room to think she could heal all of his wounds so easily.
Instead, she ran a hand down the side of his face and offered him a smile. It seemed like weeks since she’d seen him last. With a nod of her head, she showed him that Maria and Tess were standing off to one side. Tess was still weak, especially after using the small amount of energy she’d had left to mindwarp Max and the Skin. She was leaning against Maria for support while Kyle loosened the ropes at Max’s feet.
Knowing Max wouldn’t have the strength to stand alone, Liz crouched at his side and eased an arm behind his back. He accepted her help and together, they stood. She could tell it was taking everything in him not to fall backwards and it surprised them both when Kyle took Max’s other side and helped brace them.
“Don’t make more of it than it is.” But Kyle offered Liz a small smile. He nodded toward Tess and Maria, concern clouding his features. “Can you two make it okay?”
Maria nodded, seeing the look that crossed Kyle’s face when he looked at Tess. “I’ve got her.”
“The exit isn’t far from here.” Tess looked at the three of them and wondered if she felt a fraction of what Max was suffering through. She was only mentally drained. Max looked as though he’d been beaten within an inch of his life. The bruises marring his body did a lot towards explaining Liz’s state of mind. How much of what had been done to Max did she know about? Tess suspected it was more than any of the rest of them could imagine.
Liz nodded. She could already feel the incredible heat pouring off Max. It was more than his body should have been able to handle. The urge to stay and heal him was tempting, but she had no way of knowing if what was inside of her was something that could tap out or not. It was still a long way to the exit.
Shouldering as much of his weight as she could, Liz pulled Max toward the hallway. Tess had told them that she’d discovered a way out of the building earlier. But they still didn’t know where the others were. The newly developed plan had been to find Max and get him out of the building however they could. When Max was safe, they would go back in for the others. The whole plan made Liz want to hyperventilate. No matter what happened or how dire the consequences, they were still leaving three of their friends behind.
There seemed to be movement everywhere now, and it was impossible to pinpoint where the sounds were coming from. Liz, Max, and Kyle took the front, while Maria and Tess took the rear. Kyle had the flashlight and he had clicked it on. If anyone started down the hall across from them, they would be just as doomed if the flashlight was off.
Muffled shouts echoed and from a distant part of the building, another explosion boomed. The acoustics made it impossible to tell how far off it was though. When another set of flashlight beams bounced off the walls and illuminated the path, Kyle clicked theirs off and they all pressed against the wall. There were no doors in this hall, giving them an exposure that didn’t settle well. But no one came their way, instead passing them by ahead.
“How far, Tess?” Liz didn’t like all the activity around them. No doubt they were being hunted and if they were found, they were dead.
“The end of the hall and left.” She stretched back her brain to remember the exit she’d seen. It empties into a large storage room. Some sort of machinery and large blue drums. If there’s someone in there, we can hide behind them.”
Liz nodded and started down the hall again. The end of the hall loomed before them and Liz tried to hurry the others along. Kyle was trying to keep up with her, but Max’s feet were dragging behind. He’d tried keeping up with their pace earlier, but he’d quickly discovered it was easier to be dragged. Liz tried not to think about what it did to Max’s pride to have to be dragged down the hall. There wasn’t time for anything else.
The hallway forked and Liz and Kyle moved to the left, working in perfect sync for once. They didn’t expect the opening to come up so quickly though and they found themselves standing in yet another open doorway.
The room wasn’t empty as they’d hoped it would be, but no one seemed to have seen them yet either. Tess had been right when she’d said there was enough machinery and fifty-five gallon drums lying about to cover them. Even in the dim lighting the Skins on the far side of the room provided, Liz could see well enough to move to the left.
Kyle let go of Max’s shoulder to help Maria and Tess find cover. Without Kyle’s support, Liz and Max fell to their knees behind a row of drums. Max was panting and Liz smoothed his hair back from his forehead when he dropped his head in her lap. The amount of sweat pouring off his forehead alarmed even her. His temperature seemed to have skyrocketed another couple of degrees and Liz couldn’t help but wonder if even one more degree would be what killed him.
“We’re almost there, Max.” She whispered in his ear, laying a trail of kisses against his skin. It burned her to touch, and the sting of tears in her eyes caught her off guard. She’d made it this far without crying, she wasn’t about to start now. “Don’t you give up on me now.”
“Liz.”
Liz looked up, not bothering to wipe away her tears and found the trio watching them sadly. “What?”
“We’re not alone.”
“I know, Kyle.” She couldn’t hide the impatience in her voice.
“No.” Kyle nodded across the room. “Look.”
Liz swiped at her tears and peered through the drums. At first glance, she didn’t see anything. But the tone of Kyle’s voice had been insistent, so she looked harder. More machinery lined the wall. Long coils of wire were stacked haphazardly. Nothing looked odd or out of place.
Then she saw what Kyle had been pointing at.
Hidden in the deepest recesses of the shadows on the other side of the room, Liz could make out movement. Human movement. She glanced sharply at Kyle. “Is that-“
“Yeah.” Kyle kept them in his line of sight. He couldn’t disguise his relief that there were three figures hidden in the shadows. “I think they saw us when they came in the room.”
“Alex.” Liz’s eyes lit up suddenly. “He can help Max.”
“If we get the hell out of here first.” Kyle clamped a hand down on Liz’s shoulder. “We’re going to make it, Liz. We’re already there. We just need one last distraction to get out of here. My car’s parked about a dozen yards out. It’s not ideal and everyone will have to watch their elbows, but I’ll bet we can all fit inside.”
Maria moved closer to them, dragging Tess behind her. “Is that Michael?”
“We think so.” Liz watched as Maria carefully set the canvas bag to the side, out of the way of harm. To her friend’s credit, she hadn’t let the bag out of her sight since being given custody of it.
“So, what’s the plan?”
Liz looked up to find all eyes on her. On her lap, Max let out a few sputtering coughs. She moved quickly, covering his mouth with her hands so he wasn’t heard. She knew she was stalling for time, but she was out of ideas. She’d been running on fear and adrenalin this long and she was quickly running out of both.
Max focused on the smooth line of Liz’s fingers against his lips and it had to be an early stage of madness that he wanted to kiss the fingers. He knew she was trying to keep him quiet, but he could feel his body breaking down around him. It wouldn’t be long before he did something that got them all captured again.
The four of them were talking in hushed whispers, and there was no mistaking the urgency in their tones. They were all looking to Liz for guidance and he was ashamed of his own weaknesses. He was lying on the floor, sprawled across her lap while she had to make decisions for them all. That was his job, to hold the balance of lives in his hands and shoulder the decisions that should never have to be made. Liz glanced down at him and in that split second, he saw what the others still didn’t. Liz didn’t have a plan. A glance told him that they were simply waiting for a command, anything to get them out of this mess.
But what they didn’t understand, could never understand, was that it would never be over. If they escaped from the building, Nicholas would merely send more goons after them, maybe take their parents for good measure this time too. There would be no escape unless they fled Roswell in the middle of the night, left their homes and lives behind. It would be the only hope they had to escape a future with more nights like this. Unless they ended it all now.
Liz had already figured it out. He saw the awareness dawning in her eyes as he watched. And it terrified her. Max couldn’t make the decision, couldn’t tell them to go back into the building and find a way to stop Nicholas. It was up to Liz to make that call, to tell them to start taking lives and killing without mercy.
Max knew he could never forgive himself if he turned Liz into that kind of person. The orders were on her lips. He could see her brain forming them. Realistically, he knew he couldn’t shield her from decisions like this, but he’d be damned if he would let her when there was still breath left in his body.
His eyes wandered, looking around for anything that might be useful. The canvas bag at his thigh had him narrowing his eyes. The shape was altogether too familiar and filled him with loathing dread.
Ignoring the words of protest and Liz’s movements, Max battled his way into a sitting position. He didn’t look at any of the others, focusing the entirety of his concentration on the bag. No one made any further movements to stop him as his fingers pulled at the strings that held it tied. With carefulness that bordered on reverence, Max tugged the bag down until it revealed the cube that had been at the heart of the catastrophe Max was living in.
He picked it up in his hands, hardly able to believe that Michael had been able to find it. The lack of weight surprised him, giving credence to its heritage even if he’d somehow still been a disbeliever. He wondered how he’d forgotten that one side had been broken. There weren’t any obvious signs like dangling, sparking wires, but Max knew it was broken. Almost as if instinct had taken hold of him. He picked up the cube, balancing it in his hands and examined it from all sides.
Shock was the dominant emotion when Max realized that some of the small markings were letters. Some had been lost, due to time or damage, but there were whole words Max was able to make out. It was incredible to be holding something from his world, to be able to read a language that might as well have been written in ancient Egyptian before this weekend. It was like holding the golden book in his hands again, to be able to read the words left for them by their people.
Liz’s hand closed over his arm and he looked up at her. She was confused, worried. He could see it in her eyes. A laugh bubbled up in his throat. He wanted to point the words out to her, show her what he’d found. But he realized that even if he could, she wouldn’t understand the importance of them.
Because in reading the odd scrambling of words, Max realized he’d found them a way out of the building. At least, a way out for the rest of them.
Licking his lips, Max wished there was some way he could explain to Liz what had to be done. She had no idea what was at stake. She was only beginning to see what their lives would be like if Nicholas lived through the night. Her heart was too pure, too good to understand that not all of them would make it out of the building alive.
Then there was the fact that he was dying. He’d had too much time to think it all through in the last few hours. Liz was free. She was safe and as long as she stayed that way, he could do whatever needed to be done. He was careful to keep his back to her, not wanting her to see the emotions play across his face. Liz would be the only one of them to try to stop him, at least initially. Max was glad that Isabel wasn’t there. She would be the only other one that would try to stop him for the sake of nobility.
Turning to his right, Max found himself looking into Kyle’s confused face. Here was the one person he’d always considered an enemy, a person that couldn’t be trusted no matter what. But in the space of a weekend, he’d discovered that maybe Kyle Valenti was the best friend he could ever have. He of all people understood that sometimes there had to be pain, that the world wasn’t fair. And he would be the only person there capable of keeping Liz from following Max when he went after Nicholas.
Max held Kyle’s gaze for a long minute before shifting down to the cube in his lap. Max was careful to keep out of Liz’s line of sight and released a small stream of energy from the hand that was positioned directly over the cube. The machine sparked for a fraction of a second, enough to put the light of knowledge in Kyle’s eyes. He looked down at the cube, then up to Max, eyes wide with something like fear and disbelief mixed together. But it was enough to know that Kyle understood what he was about to do. With a flicker of his eyes, Max gestured back to Liz, pleading with Kyle to not only understand, but to comply. He couldn’t do this unless he knew Liz would be taken care of.
Kyle hesitated, swallowed hard and finally nodded his head slowly.
Max could have breathed a sigh of relief. He saw that Tess and Maria had seen the cube light up and were watching him curiously. Max didn’t have time to deal with them just then. They would be taken care of. Between Michael and Kyle, the two girls would have someone to help them in the aftermath of everything that had happened. He couldn’t worry about them.
Knowing it was time, Max shifted until he was facing only Liz. She looked worried and tired. Dried blood had run down her arm in dark patches and Max raised one hand to his lips. He had so much he wanted to tell her, so much left to say. She cocked her head to the side, questioning him silently. And it was more than Max could bear.
Needing the contact, he closed the distance between them. Softly, gently, he met her lips with his own. No amount of danger was going to take this moment away from either of them. Her lips parted beneath the delicate kiss and he wrapped his hands in her hair. Time slowed, just as it had every other time he had kissed her. But it was different this time. No longer did their kisses taste of promises or potential. This one was tinged with regrets and time lost. It was filled with the memories there hadn’t been time to create.
There were no flashes, but he hadn’t been looking for them. It was enough to feel her skin beneath his fingertips, to hear the steady beat of her heart. Liz Parker would survive this night. He would make sure of it.
And when Max separated his lips from hers, he let his hands slide to her cheekbone and linger for a moment. Her eyes were still closed, and when they fluttered open, he memorized the moment. Burning the exact color of her eyes into his soul, he was rewarded with an automatic smile that seemed to accompany any kiss he gave her, no matter the circumstances. He memorized that too.
“I’m sorry, Liz. I’m sorry you won’t understand any of this. I wish I could make you hate me. But I can’t. I need to remember this moment.” Liz furrowed her brow, as if she could understand his words through sheer will alone. It made him love her all the more. “You know everything I’m saying to you anyway. Nobody will ever know me the way you do, and I think that in time you’ll understand everything.”
A tear leaked from the corner of her eye and he brushed it away with his thumb. He knew that she understood on some level what he was doing and that she didn’t hate him for it later. “Take care of everyone for me. And let them take care of you.” The moment was at its end. Max could sense it, felt it in the urgency that was breaking the protective bubble around them.
With the last of the seconds left to them, Max clutched Liz in an embrace. He breathed in her scent, wanting to carry it into the sterile building with him. “I’ve always loved you, Liz Parker. A part of me always will. Nothing can ever take that away.”
Quickly, before regrets had the chance to form, Max pulled away from her and used the last of his strength to push to his feet. He was no longer worried about being seen. If they saw him, it only meant they would follow. With the alien cube clutched in his hands, Max pushed past his friends and headed back into the winding corridors.
Distantly, he could hear the sputter of conversation, shouts and cries but he couldn’t tell who they came from. He took turns at random, following the instinct that told him where he would find Nicholas. And he tried not to think about everything he had left behind.
