Pain.

Ripping into her, sinking deeper and deeper, in so many places that she couldn‘t register it all. And it was building, becoming a scream that she fought to hold back. Control the pain. Control it.

*Liz,* Michael’s thoughts were frantic. *Ah- God! What did they do?*

Her breaths were shallow, her senses weren’t registering anything beyond the pain.

I don’t know. I don’t know.

She rolled her head from side to side. She had to move something.

It hurts. It hurts.

She felt her own pain echoed back from Michael as he yelled at her.

*Heal yourself! DO IT!*

She tried to force her mind to focus past the pain, on where the pain was coming from...

It was building again and she arched up as the scream finally ripped free.

******

Max was frozen in place as Michael roared fiercely and threw the table over on its side. He watched Maria inanely begging Michael to tell her what was wrong.

Didn’t she know? It was Liz.

Max had known this would happen. He had been expecting it. But now he couldn’t even breathe. The sight of Michael staggering around and fighting against the pain that was coming from Liz- it was horrifying.

What were they doing to her? Max cut off his thoughts and walked over to Michael.

Michael suddenly lurched back and into Max’s chest, almost knocking him flat. Max grabbed his arms. “Michael, ask her where she is, if she can see anything. Do it!!“

******

Liz had to focus just to control herself. If she didn‘t, the pain drowned her. She was shaking from effort... or was it just shock?

The scream was building again-

And she gritted her teeth against it.

Michael, I can’t- I can’t heal myself. I’m sorry.

*It’s okay. Stop worrying about- me. I‘m fine.*

Liar. You can feel everything.

*Liz, this is important. Look around and tell me what you see.*

She opened her eyes and forced herself to try. Within seconds, she was sobbing softly. It hurt... It’s a big room, an operation room or a lab, kind of. There’s bright lights overhead and I’m on a table- Horror slammed into her.

*What is it?*

She whimpered to see her naked body, restrained by metal bands at her wrists and ankles, bandages on her chest, her hip, her thighs, her arms, her legs, with blood seeping into them and oh god, she was suddenly nauseous and everything started spinning. She laid her head back down and watched the bright lights grow dimmer...

******

Michael was kneeling beside the bed, holding his stomach. The pain was lessening as Liz wandered in and out of consciousness. Max was right beside him. “Can she see anything? Does she know where she is? Michael, we have to find out or we’ll never be able to stop what‘s happening to her!!”

Michael ignored his tirade, resting his forehead on the bed in the short peaceful moment. “Max, you have to heal her. She can’t do it.” He licked his lips and kept his eyes closed.

“Heal her? How?”

Michael shook his head. “All I know is that she’s not going to last long like this. You figure it out.”

******

The lights were staying in one place now, but Liz still felt disoriented. What was it she had been doing?

Looking at the bandages.....

She sat up again and pain ripped through her abdomen. She bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out.

*What the fff-?*

She could feel Michael clamping down and bearing it with her. In a moment, it passed and Liz fell back on the hard table.

I don’t know, I’m cramping and there’s... oh god, something running out between my legs.

She tried to sit up but the room started spinning around her.

It’s hurting too much.

*Liz, Max is going to try something. Just sit tight.*

Liz groaned and shook her head from side to side, trying to clear it from the dizziness. Then an oily voice came out of the void around her.

“Our ‘Sleeping Beauty’ awakes.”

She tried to focus her eyes on the man, but all she could see was a dim figure in the bright lighting. “Who are you,” she whispered, feeling the rawness in her throat.

“I’m nobody important, a man nobody really wants to know, but everyone has need of at one time or another.“

Liz’s eyes closed of their own volition. She was concentrating hard on not screaming again. But it was hard to do that and breathe and listen at the same time.

“There‘s a few questions your... ahem... physicians wanted the answers to.”

**Liz?**

A rush of frenetic feelings rushed at her- love, anger, pain, guilt... oh god, so much guilt-

Max?

He loved her. She felt it. He loved her and he hated himself for ever leaving her.

**Liz, I’m so sorry. I would do anything to take this away.**

Liz shook her head.

Max? How am I feeling you?

**Through Michael. What did they do to you? Oh- God!**

Max- no.

The scream was building again and she focused on pressing it down. She didn’t want him to feel it. When she was back in control again, she suddenly realized that Mr. Nobody was still talking to her. She opened her eyes and watched him pace down the length of the table, appearing to take an interest in her bandages. “So, you get painkillers; we get information; everyone’s happy. Otherwise, we’ll just let nature take its course.”

Liz jerked on the table as the guys’ emotions exploded in her head. Michael was cursing up a blue streak and Max’s thoughts... were dark and less coherent.

Liz just let their emotions run over her. The intensity made her weak. She focused her attention back on the man as he continued. She could finally see his thin, dark face as one of the observation lights hit him directly. He looked so much nicer than he sounded. Except for those piercing black eyes...

“Nothing to say yet? Well, maybe you don’t believe me. In that case, I think I know someone who could convince you that I‘m in earnest- your friend, Kyle Valenti. He and I met the night before your wedding.”

Liz actually felt the pain recede for a moment as her mind grappled with this information. Max put it together before she did, reading in her thoughts all the things she hadn’t told him about before she could prevent it.

**Kyle was tortured? I didn‘t know.**

“Kyle was a spectacular sport.” Liz tried to watch Mr. Nobody as he circled around the table, but the dizziness got worse. Her eyes slid shut. She didn’t want to watch him leer at her nakedness anyway.

**WHAT??**

Liz cringed as Max’s fury and murderous thoughts tore through her mind.

“I guess you’ll be glad to know that he never divulged a thing,” the man kept talking blithely. “Of course, I was under time constraints because of the wedding. Otherwise, my perfect record would have gone untarnished. But we already had our ace in the hole, Larry Trilling, who was more than cooperative. Otherwise, we might never have investigated this rather interesting twist: a human girl becoming an alien.”

Liz felt herself becoming ambivalent. She couldn’t stop them; she couldn’t stop the pain; and she couldn‘t even tell them what they wanted to know because she didn‘t know in the first place.

******

Michael had never felt such a strange co-existence of feelings in his life. His body wasn’t hurt; he wasn’t restrained. But she was.

Dammit, he wanted to hurt the people who did this to her. Power was sizzling at his fingertips. But there was no one to hurt. Not here. They were wherever Liz was, trying to scare her with tales of Kyle’s torture.

Michael cursed forcefully. The pain was more manageable now. Liz wasn’t any better, but with Max to share the connection, it somehow wasn’t as bad. The physical pain, at least. Emotionally, plugging Max in had been like being put in a blender. This was pretty much annihilating Max.

Oh, great. Now the son-of-a-b*tch who had Liz was at it again, asking her how the transformation had happened.

Don’t tell them anything, Liz.

*I’m not.*

**I’m going to try to heal you, okay, sweetness? Just relax.**

*NO! Max, he’ll see it.*

She was in so much pain. How could she say no?

Let him do it, Liz, it doesn’t matter what he sees!

**I have to help you,** Max pleaded. **I have to do this. PLEASE?**

Michael felt Max’s hand dig into his shoulder painfully. And he winced as he felt the surge of misery from Liz intensify. She was getting worse.

Liz?

*Yeah- do it. It’s- it’s-*

**I’m trying. Just let your mind go blank, sweetness.**

*I can’t! It- it hurts more.*

Michael swore. She was right. He could feel it building up now, pulling the breath out of him.

******

Max was riding Michael’s connection with Liz, trying to use that to filter his power through. But it wasn’t working. It just kept getting bounced back, like there was something blocking it.

Liz, did they drug you?

**What? I can’t-**

The pain was intensifying. His abdomen burned in sympathy.

What is that, Liz? What did they do inside of you?

She asked the man, the ache driving her to it. Max waited for the answer, trembling from emotion and effort and pain.

**They took a sample; they cut me inside... I’m still bleeding.**

Max grimaced.

Why? Why did they do that?

But the man was in her face again, pushing her to tell him how the transformation took place, threatening her with more pain.

Max felt tears flood his eyes. How could they do this to her? Liz was so gentle, so fragile. He couldn’t even imagine the hardness, the brutality in this man’s heart.

Max shook his head. Alright, that’s it. Michael, put her out.

*What?*

Make her sleep, Michael. She’s in too much pain and he’s going to use it against her. Do it- now!

Liz protested weakly.

**Max, I won’t be able to wake up. I won’t be able to stop anything they do to me.**

He winced and stopped himself from pointing out the obvious. He cleared his head and thought to her very calmly. You’ll be able to rest and try to heal, sweetness. Right now, that’s all you need to worry about. Michael will be able to wake you when you’ve gotten enough rest.

*Max, I don’t think-* Michael started to interrupt.

Then a sudden stab of panic from Liz made Max’s knees buckle and he almost collapsed on Michael‘s back.

LIZ?

But all he could get from her was blind terror; her thoughts were too confused to understand. Max shoved away the emotion and concentrated. He finally got it, his horror growing by the second- a machine; she recognized it from Kyle‘s flashes. They were bringing over a machine to torture her with-

Max opened his eyes. He grabbed Michael, pulled him up roughly and roared, “PUT HER OUT NOW OR I’LL POUND THE LIVING SH*T OUT OF YOU!”

Michael broke Max’s hold but barely looked at him. “I am- Just let me concentrate.”

Max released him and moved his hand back to Michael‘s shoulder. He closed his eyes, trying to force calmness and love into the connection.

Sweetness, Michael‘s trying to put you to sleep.

But Liz wasn’t listening. She was fighting to get free, fighting everything. The pain Max felt from her thrashing was almost debilitating. He could feel Michael reaching out to calm her, put her to sleep.

*Max, she won’t let me do it!*

Max felt another intense jolt of fear that ran through his body like ice water. They were hooking Liz up to the machine.

Max spat out a terrified curse and jerked away from Michael. “Isabel, Maria.” His eyes found them on their knees, holding hands and watching Michael in horror. “Come here. NOW!“ They obeyed. “Liz is panicking,” he croaked out. “She has to calm down. Isabel, connect to Michael and send her your love, anything positive. Don’t talk, it will be too much. Take Maria with you, like we did back in the cave. Okay?“ Isabel squeezed his hand and Maria nodded through her tears. Max closed his eyes and put his hand on Michael’s shoulder.

Immediately, Liz’s exhaustion and pain hit him, almost sending him to his knees again. His absence had panicked her even more. She was screaming for him, begging him to help her.

It almost undid him completely.

Okay... okay... I’m here. I’m here, sweetness.

Then a fiery thrust of warmth and love entered the connection as Isabel and Maria started broadcasting.

It helped him remember. Max pushed away his bloodthirsty impulses and focused on Liz. He thought of her, only of her and of every warm, sweet, wonderful, sexy, quiet, spunky, delightful, soft, husky, beautiful, shy, courageous part of her that he loved.

*It‘s working!*

She had stopped thrashing and was listening now.

**Max! Help me...**

I’m trying. Just close your eyes and let yourself drift, sweetness, Max was begging her with everything in him. He could feel her fear as she tried not to respond to their hands on her body.

Rage swept through him. He couldn’t stop it-

*Maaax,* Michael warned him tensely.

**I’m sorry, Max...** Liz’s thoughts were broken.

Max buried his face in one hand and rocked slightly, trying to concentrate only on his love.

Listen, sweetness, I will be there soon. And I will hold you in my arms until you beg me to let you go.

**I won‘t...**

Max took a deep breath and continued.

I am living for the moment I see your eyes looking into mine again, captivating me with their beauty like they have since the first moment I ever saw you.

**I love you.**

Oh, I love you, Liz.

Then the pain was gone.

*She’s out.*

A faint humming in his mind told him that she was asleep. He dropped his hand from Michael’s shoulder and broke the connection.

“Oh my god,” he heard Isabel whisper beside him. He pulled his other hand away from his face and shuddered.

“That’s it. We are going to fry these bastards.” Michael’s voice was low and steady as he stood to his feet.

Max nodded darkly.

If they could have just left Liz alone, just let her be okay. But no, they had to cut her-

His face pulled into a fierce grimace and tears sprang in his eyes.

They had to cut her and hurt her and threaten her. My Liz. That had been her body writhing in pain, naked and-

“They won’t hurt her anymore, will they, now that she’s sleeping, right?” Maria’s whisper went unanswered.

They are going to have to die.

The anger built up inside of him, pulling his power out, whipping it into a frenzy. His body started to shake with effort to control it.

“Max?”

He took three steps and reared his fist back with a loud roar that vibrated throughout his whole body.

Then he slammed his fist into the wall, taking plaster, dry wall and cement with him. His arm was buried up to his elbow as the broken plaster settled around him.

His hand was broken. He could feel it. But it felt right. The pain was right. It was nothing compared to what Liz was feeling.

Someone was pulling out his arm... gently. Isabel turned him to face her, but he only held her eyes for a moment. Then he pulled away and crossed to Michael.

******

Michael had collapsed in a chair. He was exhausted, too exhausted to act on the hate and anger churning in his stomach. He couldn’t believe someone could hurt Liz that way. Max’s enraged explosion didn’t surprise him in the least. But Michael did look up to see the aftermath.

Max’s hand dangled grotesquely as he walked over. The look in his eyes...

Michael stood to his feet, determined to take this like a man. It was his fault, after all. He met Max’s murderous eyes grimly.

There was a moment of silence as they faced each other.

Then Max’s arms went around him, leaving Michael completely stunned.

“Thank you,” Max choked out. Michael put his arms around Max. The hug was brief, surprising, and binding.

He was forgiven.

Their pain made them one.