She turned her attention to Nathan, who closed the door behind him and took a deep breath.

Kyle looked very unimpressed with Nathan’s obvious distress. “What’s up, Brit boy, miss your tea and crumpets?”

Nathan ignored the dig. “Garrett just had a very interesting phone call. I magnified the sound waves a bit so that I could hear.” Joey’s eyes widened at that. “Something’s happened that he doesn’t like.”

“What did he say?” Kyle looked like he wanted to shake the information out of Nathan.

Nathan held up his hands and Joey saw that they were very unsteady. “Let me concentrate so I get this right. I’m feeling like throwing a whitey any second.”

His face was growing paler by the second and his breathing was labored. Joey stepped closer in concern. “I think he was talking to the tossbags who have Liz. He kept pacing and saying, ‘that’s impossible’ a lot. Then he said...” Nathan looked lost as he sought to spit out the conversation exactly as he heard it. His voice even took on a Northwest American accent. “’What about subject HM-35...4,’ I believe it was. After they replied, he ordered them to ‘guard the room and take her out. You know how to do it. Just don’t hurt the male, whoever he is.’”

Nathan paused and Joey exchanged glances with Kyle. They were talking about Liz- taking her out, killing her? And who was ‘the male‘? “They have someone else now?“ Joey’s own breathing was erratic at a sudden thought and she felt Kyle put his arm around her waist. “It could be Justin. Could they have Justin now?”

Nathan had been looking down, shaking his head and now that he looked up, she could see tears in his eyes. Oh god. “Garrett turned away from me right then. He didn’t want anyone to hear him. But I did. ’Max Evans is dead,’ he said. ’I autopsied his dead body myself. This can’t be him. Maybe it’s his twin brother, whatever. Guard the room with the human; they’ll go after him next.’”

Joey’s mouth was agape. “So they have Max? That’s impossible. They can’t have him? Can they?” No one answered her. Before she could give in to the emotions starting to overwhelm her, another face appeared at the door. Through the small window, she saw an older man with a kind, wrinkled face and dark, squinty eyes.

She frowned in thought. She knew him- how did she know him?

The door opened and he walked in. Nathan just stared at him in shock but Kyle stepped in front of Joey. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

The man smiled. “I’m here to help Joey. She and I have met before. Remember, child?”

Joey felt something tickle her mind, then a scene played in her head, one she recognized...

“All aboard,” she heard the conductor say. After a brief look around the station, she walked to the front doors. As she pushed her way through the turnstile, she saw a flash out of her right eye. Then a man was there, taking her arm gently and whispering to her. “You dropped this,” he placed a box in her hands. She opened her mouth to protest, but he put his fingers on her lips. An intimate gesture that surprised and frightened her. But his dark, squinty eyes and wrinkled face seemed to hide no malice. “It’s yours,” he insisted, then turned to stand behind her. As she watched him touch the turnstile, the train began to whistle and the loud engine started pulling away...

This was the man who had saved her from the hunter. “Oh, yes. You- you gave me the orb.”

He nodded and smiled. Kyle turned to look at her in amazement, then paused before turning back to the man. “Who are you?”

“I’m a guardian for the twelve.”

******

Kyle almost laughed in his face. “You’ve got to be joking. Where the hell have you been? I’ve been working my ass off for like, two days, trying to protect them.”

The man’s dark eyes turned to him with a calmness that made Kyle stop and want to fidget like a five-year-old caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Just as Kyle was about to pick up his tirade again, the man finally spoke. “It takes time to infiltrate the FBI and keep up with all of the crackpots who have threatened them over the years. Be assured, we have not been idle. Many threats have simply passed them by because of our work.”

“We? Our?” Kyle looked around with his hands extended. “What, do you have a mouse in your pocket or just multiple personalities to speak for?”

“Kyle.” There was a warning tone in Joey’s voice that piqued Kyle’s anger just a bit as she walked past him to stand in front of the man. Kyle huffed out a breath. Fine. Trust the “guardian” who just walked off the street even though there are shapeshifting alien hunters out there and if he happens to be one of them, this guy could just reach out and- Kyle cut off his thoughts and moved closer. He watched the man’s hands, every muscle tense.

“I have found your mate and brought the orb back to you, where it belongs.” The man held out his hand and showed the mysterious rock to Joey.

Kyle barked out a laugh. “So what, you have the caveman- oh, I’m sorry, I mean, Justin- knocked out in your backseat or something?”

The man looked at him seriously and nodded. Kyle blinked and the man gave Joey the rock. “Millamalinka, you are the leader of your foursquare. Keep the orb with you from now until the Parting.”

Kyle’s jaw dropped. The- the Parting? Great. His eyes narrowed. He was getting that “gonna-be-screwed-over” feeling again. Like when this whole mess had first started and Liz was suddenly lying to him and trying to protect Max from HIM, when HE was her boyfriend. He shook his head.

“Look, Yoda, we have to hit the road now, because you’ve done such a bang-up job with the protecting thing that they have your great King and my friend on a slab somewhere in Berkeley. And meanwhile, ‘back in the Bat Cave,’ the mad doctor is about to open hunting season on aliens. So, could we just have this touching little scene ‘to go‘, please? I‘ve got to check in with my Dad.”

Everyone just stared at him. Joey finally cracked a little smile and reached out for his hand. Aw, what the hell. He lifted her hand and kissed it. “Hey, I just work here.”

She smiled and nodded. “Riiight.” Then she looked at Nathan. “We’d better go.”

Kyle squeezed the hand of his own little leader-girl and tried to ignore the words ringing in his head over and over.

The Parting.

Sounded like a chick flick he’d avoid with every testosterone-filled atom of his body- with good reason.

Kyle sighed.

Just protect the girl, rescue the King, and get the hell out of the way.

******

Michael finally had what he’d always itched for- the leadership of his people. And it sucked. They had only stopped once for gas, but just the responsibility of keeping track of everyone drove him nuts. Maria had to pee and spend ten minutes picking out a candy bar.

Delia was so on-edge that the manager of the gas station came out to keep an eye on her. Which, of course, just egged her on. She was picking up items and turning them over in her hands very slowly and smiling at the manager when Michael caught up with her. He dragged her out. “What the hell are you doing, trying to get thrown in jail?”

“Who do you think you are, huh,” she jerked her arm out of his hand and stared at him.

“Hey, I’m older than you are; I’m bigger than you are; and right now, I guess I’m smarter than you are. So get in the van. Now.“ He stared her down until tears pooled in the big, green eyes. Then as she crumpled before him, he cursed under his breath and pulled her in a hug. “Max is fine, okay? We’ll be there in an hour and a half and you can see him for yourself. Are you with me?”

She nodded and pulled away in embarrassment, not meeting his eyes. “I just- I’ve heard about him my whole life. And now I met him and-”

Michael just nodded and pushed her in the right direction. “Why don’t you get in the van? Okay? We’ll be leaving in just a minute...” He watched her walk to the empty van and shook his head in frustration. “as soon as everyone PEES!”

He cursed people with tiny bladders everywhere, immediately thinking of Alex. He cursed again. He could have waited another five hours to use the bathroom, especially if it meant the difference between life or death for Liz, Max and Alex. Shelley and Christopher came out next and nodded to him as they went on to their van, looking blissfully unified, ad nauseum.

Ad nauseum? He smiled sardonically. Man, Liz had rubbed off on him.

The funk that had come over him at the painful disconnection was suddenly on him full force. He winced as he remembered her pain in their last moments of connection together. He paced along the side of the car. Dammit, he was worried about her. She would never admit it to anyone, but Liz didn’t like being alone. It had taken her so long to figure out how to block him because she just didn’t want to do it. She had liked having Michael around in her head, especially after Max left. It kept her from being so lonely. Honestly, probably the only thing she hated worse than being alone was having nightmares.

Michael hung his head. He had thought she was having another nightmare when she’d been taken. It was so familiar... she was up in her room, feeling lonely again and some unknown jerk came in and grabbed her.

She’d had that one so many times that Michael knew exactly what to say to her to calm her down afterwards. And the feelings he’d gotten from her that night, they were exactly the same as in the nightmare- only she stayed asleep afterwards. Which is why he’d thought it was probably another nightmare. Makes sense, right?

Unless you’re being brutally honest. You thought it could be something else.

Michael’s lips tightened. It was true.

Tug wandered out with a Coke, gnawing on a piece of beef jerky. Michael looked up, glad of an interruption. “Nice shoe leather.“ Tug just stared at him and kept walking to the van.

Michael shook his head and started pacing again. He knew Liz’s mind like the back of his hand. And that night, after he’d almost fried Max with a death ray, he knew the first thing Liz would be concerned about was Max. And so, Michael had lied to convince Max he was sure she was okay when he wasn’t really sure at all.

Why? Michael raised pained eyes to the sky. Why did I do it?

The answer came back in a whisper inside him. Because you thought Max couldn’t handle it. You thought he’d crack.

And a small part of himself knew it was true. Max had too much on him, between the transformation, the hunters they’d fought and the wedding disaster. He’d been under so much pressure and that depression he’d finally given into after getting to L.A. had completely wigged Michael out. Finding out Liz was kidnapped could have put him back over the edge, and since Michael just wasn‘t sure- he lied. Of course, he hadn’t realized Max would be up all night, making himself sick with worry. And so they had wasted those precious hours, when they could have been digging for information, trying to find clues, doing something to save Liz and Alex- all because Michael fell asleep... fell f*ckin’ asleep. How weak was that? He’d be lucky if Liz ever forgave him.

He looked up and out across the flat horizon. No, that wasn’t true. Liz would never blame him in the first place. But it would be a long day in hell before he’d forgive himself.

Isabel marched out with Maria in tow and Michael stirred himself from his spot. “Let’s go,” he snapped.

“Wait- where’s Nasedo?” Isabel paused by the car.

Michael looked around the gas station, already knowing the answer.

Isabel shook her head in amazement. “He‘s gone again.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Michael got right in her face. “We don’t need him. Never have. Never will. Get in the car.”

Isabel swallowed hard and climbed in without argument.

Michael looked around one last time. He should have seen that one coming. He should have asked Nasedo some questions before he disappeared. But he was too busy feeling sorry for himself.

Some leader.