“What are you doing in his body,” Isabel growled lowly. Malice fueled the fire in her eyes, and Max was sure she was going to blow. He was sure that he himself was going to blow. This whole situation was just so…. mind blowing.

“Dear Vilandra, I thought you would enjoy me in this body. Lovers from both of your lives rolled into one, nice package.” He took a step towards her, but Isabel stood her ground, daring him to challenge her. The whole group felt the eerie chill that swept the room after he spoke. It was Alex’s voice, Alex’ body, Alex’s eyes, but it wasn’t. Which made it all the more dangerous for them to be deceived.

“We used to make love in your brother’s bed, because you knew it would infuriate him. He hated me, and you hated him.” Alex took another step towards her.

“You were so angry with him and how he treated you. Zan always let Leandra have her way, and he never listened to any of your advice. You wanted revenge on him. You wanted him to feel the hatred you had stored up for him. You practically purred like a naughty little kitten when his room reeked of our love. Or what you thought was love.

“You were too young, too naďve to be a real threat to anyone.” Alex took one last step towards her so he could tip her head underneath his finger. She stared back at his eyes with a spiteful glare.

“And you were much too innocent to realize our fuck sessions were nothing but a good romp in the sack for me. Isn’t that what these humans call it? A romp in the sack. But it was good, my dear. You were so very good.” He leaned in to kiss her cheek, but she turned her head. He just smirked and leaned back, not moving his eyes away from her. Leaning in, he whispered into her ear, “I almost didn’t want to kill you. Your screams during our fucks were the same as when you begged for your life.” Isabel cringed at his words, but refused to give him the satisfaction of fear.

“Oh sure, you helped me bring your brother down,” Alex continued, ignoring Isabel’s desperate struggle for control of her emotions. “Gave me information about the palace only a member of the Royal Court would know. Told me things you were sworn never to tell anyone else.” Isabel turned her head back to him, her tear-filled eyes burning with uncontrollable rage.

Isabel’s lips, taut and pursed, spoke tightly. “I was not the traitor. I did not betray my brother or any of my friends. I did not betray our kingdom and it’s people. If anything, you are the traitor. Of love. You lied to me. To her. You used Vilandra for your own sick ways.” That damn smirk of his was really pissing her off. She didn’t want to do anything but wipe it off his face in the most volatile way possible. But this wass Alex. No, not Alex. Alex’s body.

“My darling, I never denied it. I used her and then killed her.” Alex grabbed her hand in his, looking her dead in the eye. “You weren’t the traitor in the end, no. You helped me in gaining the upper hand, but when it came down to the very last bite, you refused me any information. Information that I needed to complete my conquest. You even tried to make me change my mind. You thought I really loved you enough to obey your command. You thought I really loved you.” He threw her hand away, grinning like a madman. He rolled his eyes up in memory.

“It was a dark night out. You and I were talking in the large courtyard behind the palace. You often snuck me into the palace grounds so we could discuss issues concerning your brother’s overthrow. In your eyes, it made you seem even more defiant towards your brother although he never knew anything about it. It was the night before the Queen’s death, but you didn’t know that we had planned to kidnap her. You were quite oblivious to my plans.

“That night you begged me to rethink our tactics. That maybe if I addressed my ‘concerns’ to your brother about his ruling, things could be worked out without violence. Basically, you panicked.

“Of course, I couldn’t let you ruin my plans. Vilandra, you believed anything I would tell you. I could have asked you to bring me the sun and you would have brought it to me with your own hands, crawling on your legs. So I lied to you. Let you believe anything you wanted to believe. And you stayed loyal to me, Vilandra. So loyal.” He traced a finger down the length of her face.

“I am not Vilandra. I am nothing like her.” Isabel tilted her head up to Alex, but with a wave of his hand, Isabel fell to her knees.

“You are. I see it in your eyes. Each of you holds a part of your former lives in you. To deny it is to deny yourself.” Alex flung his hand in the air, and Isabel fell completely to the ground. Her body lay unconscious on the floor.

“Now if you excuse me, Krosia, I’d like to take Leandra with me and be off. This meeting has left me a bit weary.” Before Alex could even move towards Adam’s shield that encased Liz’s body, Max held his hand out to create another shield to halt Alex’s movement. Alex seemed amused.

“Now, Zan, do we have a problem? Because time is a-wasting.” Max glared violently into Alex’s eyes.

“Over my dead body will you take Liz,” he growled. His eyes narrowed, challenging Alex to attack him.

“Sounds like a good plan to me.”

Alex glanced at the shield, shaking his head in disapproval.

“Even in this body, the body of one your loyal friends, you continue to put your Leandra first. Tsk, tsk tsk. That was your first and worst mistake as king, Zan. You protected and treasured your love so much that you disregarded the millions of other people that existed in your kingdom.” Alex held his hand out and aimed a sharp, brusque ray of energy towards the middle of Max’s shield. The ray was quickly absorbed, not reflected, by the shield. Although Max didn’t cower, his eyebrows knitted in deep concentration

“Stop fighting it, Zan.” Alex exerted more force into his energy ray. “I want to keep what’s mine. To do that, I need to take Leandra and kill you. I’m really sorry about having to do this, but hey, you got to do what you got to do.” Max paid no attention to Alex’s obviously sarcastic and fabricated conversation, as he was too intent on keeping his shield up.

Max could feel his body strength quickly diminishing. He lacked much experience with his powers against actual enemies as his encounters only included the death of Tess and the inferno in Roswell. Yet all of his time spent training and sharpening his powers wasn’t useless and for nothing. His ability to concentrate and direct his powers was adept, but whatever Alex was doing was slowly unnerving him. The ray should be reflected off his shield but instead seemed to become absorbed into Max’s body. Max had to focus twice as much to keep it from destroying him instantly.

“Max,” Maria’s called out suddenly. She was standing between the two shields. Adam still had his up to keep them from getting their energy drained by Liz, and Max’s shield against Alex.

“Max, don’t use all your energy… Max, stop…” Maria’s desperate plea fell on his deaf ears. He was too far-gone. Maria looked desperately at the scene around her

Both Liz and Michael were passed out on the other side of Adam’s shield and Adam himself was tiring from the constant usage of power. Max was completely concentrated on the beam of energy that was engrossing him. Isabel was still down for the count on Alex’s side of the shield. And Alex… god, her best friend. He looked so evil, so intent of destroying Max. He was getting his jollies on seeing their Court suffer. Maria swore that when she found Khivar, not in Alex’s body, she’d kick his ass so bad. Oh, she couldn’t wait.

“Yeah, Zan,” Alex added cynically, breaking Maria out of her spell. “You should really stop. You might kill yourself this way.” Alex laughed mockingly.

“Max, listen to us!” Adam shouted, ignoring Alex’s ridicule. “Stop! You’re going to hurt yourself!” If only his words would reach Max. But Maria could see Max wasn’t going to let go until he had to. C’mon Max, if you’re going to be pigheaded, just hang on a few more seconds. Max, just keep hanging on. Everyone, hang on. Help is on the way.

Maria glanced at the door momentarily before it burst open, and a bright, blinding light came shooting forward, towards the back of Alex’s body. He plummeted to the ground, hitting it violently. His body started convulsing erratically. A large gust of smoke rose up from where the light hit.

Without the constant pressure on his shield, Max fell to ground himself, gasping for air. His glowing shield vanished and all that was left was his weak, faint body.

“We were in the neighborhood. Thought y’all might need a hand,” Kyle piped up, walking through the smoke. Ben and Sandy followed after him.

“What happened to Leandra?” Ben cried as his eyes landed on Liz. He ran to Adam and pushed his hand away, making Adam disengage the shield. Adam was about to warn him when he realized Liz was no longer draining energy. She was just out cold.

Ben knelt next to Liz, and waved his hands over her body. Her body shimmered momentarily, then faded back to its normal tone. Her eyes slowly opened and she looked up at him, smiling gratefully. Her head felt too heavy to lift, so she dropped it back down to the ground.

Ben moved over to Michael and ran his hands over his body. Michael stirred immediately and let out a loud groan.

“Shit.” Maria grinned crazily at Michael’s curse, and bounced on top of him. Wiping the apparent tears away, she kissed his head softly, and whispered something softly into his ear. He lifted his head and smiled at her. Whispering so only she could hear him, he uttered, “I love you too, Pixie.”

On the other side of the room, Sandy already worked her magic on Isabel and Max, who seemed to rising. Adam was sitting on the floor, trying to catch his breath after keeping his shield up for so long.

“Sandy’s better at the healing thing than I am, so you two,” Ben gestured to Liz and Michael, “might still feel a bit dizzy for awhile.”

Sandy silently stood from where she was crouching by Isabel. Her face was expressionless and she just stared at Ben long and hard.

Max coughed before saying, “And just who the hell are you?”