Max stood tensely, ready for anything as the stranger regained his balance and faced him. It had taken seconds too long to get over to Joey and break them apart. She could have been killed easily, if he had intended it. So what was his game?

Then Michael was at Max’s side, moving toward the stranger. Max’s hand shot out and held him back. Before he could even speak, he heard Joey’s frustrated voice behind him. “Max, he’s one of us. Let me through. Isabel-!”

A small discharge of energy sent everyone scrambling with various exclamations and curses. Max looked back to see Liz running through the swinging door, knowing she was making sure her father stayed away. Maria ducked down in the booth, her cast making it difficult to move anywhere fast. But Alex was at the windows, checking for anyone watching outside. Joey pushed her way past Isabel and was suddenly standing between him and Michael.

“Joey, you can’t do that, just set off power like that-”

“I know that,” she interrupted. “You think I don’t know that? But you were going to hurt him. And he’s one of us.” The sureness in her voice made Max reconsider.

He looked over and saw the guy smile at Joey. A slow-building, all-out goofy grin. “What’s your name,” he asked him gruffly.

“Rance,” the brown eyes never strayed from Joey’s face. “Justin Rance.”

Max heard Joey whisper “Justin,” from beside him. He’d have to deal with her later. She couldn’t go around making eyes at strange aliens like this. They had no idea what forms a hunter could come in. Why couldn’t they appear to be anything they wanted to be, like a normal teenage guy?

Michael must’ve have decided the same thing, because he chose that moment to shove Joey behind them.

Or at least he tried to. “Michael,” Max cautioned as they struggled.

But Joey finally gave in, just to run around behind his back.

Before Max could move an inch, she had joined Justin across from them. Her face was full of outrage. Max couldn’t believe it. She was going to defend this guy against them!

“What is wrong with you two,” she spat out. “I said he’s one of us.”

Max started to go forward, but hesitated as he saw Justin place his hand on Joey’s neck. His blood ran cold. Was that a warning?

“Joey,” Michael ordered her. “Get over here- now!”

Her eyes blazed at them. “Not until you listen to me!”

Michael suddenly clutched at his head in pain. Isabel stepped forward to check on him.

“Uh... guys, I hate to interrupt,“ Alex’s voice came across to them hesitantly. “But Valenti, five o’clock.“

Max whipped his head around to see Sheriff Valenti inspecting Justin’s motorcycle where it stood on the sidewalk. Great. Maria was up and on her feet now, heading for the phone. “I’m calling Kyle,” she said quickly.

“Michael, are you okay,” Max heard Isabel ask. Max looked over to see Michael leaning against the booth, looking dizzy and pale. What had happened?

“Max, I’m telling you, Justin’s one of us.” He turned to see Joey pleading with him again. “He’s the one from my dream.”

The dream. The guy who’d helped her activate the orb. Max’s thoughts took a direct shift to the left and everything slid into place. Their immediate bond, the instant attraction... but he’d have to think about that later. For now... Valenti was too close. And Michael was-

“Kyle,” he heard Maria say into the phone. “Get over to the cafe now. We need you to keep your dad out of here. Ple-” Then Maria hung up, looking surprised at what must have been an abrupt agreement from Kyle.

“Good thinking, Maria,” Max nodded to her, not surprised to her watching Michael with worry. Then looked over to Justin. “Grab a seat.” Justin’s eyes had been trained on the Sheriff checking out his bike. He looked over at Max and nodded, obviously used to avoiding the law. As he walked over to a booth, his hand clasped Joey’s tightly. Max’s heart lurched at the sight, but he tried to trust her judgment. Michael, however, stepped in front of Justin with obvious agitation.

Justin stopped and stood toe-to-toe with Michael. “You got a problem, there, Sasquatch,” Justin bit out.

“Michael, back off,” Joey said fiercely from behind Justin.

Michael looked from one to the other, still awfully pale. “Yeah, I got a problem,” he addressed Justin. “Max told you to sit, not drag her with you. Let her go.”

Justin dropped her hand and stepped even closer to Michael. Energy began pulsing between the two of them.

“Michael,” he heard Maria call out warningly.

Max started forward.

“Uh... Valenti’s leaving a calling card,” Alex called out.

Good. He would be busy writing up the ticket for a minute or so. “Michael, pull it in,” Max said tensely. “Valenti’s right outside...”

Michael seemed to listen, but grabbed Justin by the front of his jacket.

“Michael,” yelled Isabel and Maria at once.

But Justin broke Michael’s hold with a quick move of his arms and then grabbed him in return. They were practically snarling at each other and Max could feel the electricity whipped up to a frenzy between them.

Just as he reached them, they froze. After a second or two, both pulled back from each other with stunned looks on their faces. Michael staggered back against a startled Isabel.

Justin stared at Michael, a smile fighting with incredulity and doubt on his face. “No way. Kryna?”

Max watched Michael for some sign of recognition, but all he saw was confusion and pain. Something was wrong with him. “Michael, are you okay,” Max said, suddenly afraid that maybe Joey was wrong about Justin.

Michael looked over at Max. “Where’s Liz,” he breathed out strangely.

Max felt the beginnings of fear sear his consciousness. “She went in the other room to check on her dad,” he said, his eyes automatically searching out the door.

There she was, just entering from the back room. Max felt his heart beat slow to normal again.

“Kryna,” she said, crossing to Michael with a strange look on her face. Max felt the stillness in the room grow as everyone watched her. He looked over to Justin, the same question in his mind.

“What does that mean,” Max asked Justin forcefully.

“That’s his name,” Justin began, finally letting the smile win out. “That’s my little brother’s name.”

There were several gasps from the group surrounding them.

Little brother? Max looked over at Michael in amazement. But Michael looked like he had hardly heard the words. He was staring down at Liz with a pinched look on his face.

Max frowned. Something still wasn’t right. Maria sensed it, too, because she began crossing to him slowly.

Liz had her hand on Michael’s arm, comforting him, Max noticed with a pang. He was reminding himself for the umpteen-billionth time that they were brother and sister now when Michael’s face suddenly blanked out.

His knees buckled and he would have hit the floor if Liz hadn’t half-caught him, half-fallen with him.

Justin was there before Max could move, but to Max’s horror he threw himself at Liz, knocking her to the floor like a linebacker.

“No!” Max felt instant rage destroy his control as he grabbed Justin and heaved him away from Michael and slammed him up against the booth. His breathing was ragged, his lips curled into a snarl, but Justin wasn’t even looking at him. He was watching Michael.

“Let me go,” Justin yelled, trying to break free. Max could feel the electricity spark between them. But he just gripped him tighter.

“Not until you release Michael,” Max bit out, leaning in closer and spearing Justin with his eyes.

Justin’s eyes looked panicked when he looked at Max. “It’s not me,” he insisted with a pale face. Max found himself believing him. But- “It’s her,” Justin continued.

Max turned to see Liz back at Michael’s side. Her hand was on his shoulder, glowing. She was trying to help him. Justin couldn’t mean her. Max turned back to say this to Justin when he caught the look on her face out of the corner of his eye. He snapped his head back to look again.

Oh my god.

She was smiling.

Max felt ice flow through his veins.

Liz would be feeling Michael’s pain...

His chest constricted until he could hardly breathe.

That... wasn’t... Liz.

Then suddenly, he saw an influx of images from Justin‘s past. They had connected.

as a young boy taking care of someone... his sister?

FLASH

as an older youth stealing a car

FLASH

more recently, an empty house and a frantic search

Max shoved the rest away.

*Fry the little witch on three, right,* Justin snapped in his mind. *No one messes with my brother.*

Fry her? Max scrambled to get his emotions under control. That wasn’t Liz. That was an alien hunter, a... a shapeshifter. Which meant that the real Liz was-

*Do it, now!*

Max frantically wrapped his power around him and felt the quick influx of electricity so much like Michael’s that he lost his focus for a moment. This WAS Michael’s brother. Magrasettah, he read from Justin’s mind. The name struck a chord deep inside Max. He forced his mind back on the present. This was wrong. They couldn’t just attack her. Not here, not like this, Max sent out to Justin. Too many people around. Take her on the psychic plane.

*What the hell is that?*

Max wasted no time explaining. He pulled Justin along, heading for Michael and “Liz.” They had to connect to them for it to work. He felt a new wave of fear as he saw how much power “Liz” had drained out of Michael.

He was now a pasty gray color, which had sent the whole group into a panic. Maria was cradling his head in her lap, her face almost as pale as his. Isabel was beside them, frantically trying to connect to Michael, to no avail. “Max, I can’t do it,” she screamed. “Help me!”

“It’s her,” he shot back as he positioned himself behind “Liz” and gently pushed Alex out of the way.

“What,” Isabel looking up in confusion. “Liz is keeping me from connecting?”

Max drew in a deep breath and felt time stop for just a moment as everyone’s eyes focused on him. “That’s not Liz.”

The dark-haired twin of his soul mate turned with a wicked smile and laid a dainty hand on his thigh.

Max felt a burning and then- PAIN. He threw his head back in agony.

His power was being altered, liquefied, and began leaking out of him through their connection. Her hand burned like fire until he was sure that there was nothing left on his thigh except raw flesh. And that would surely be burned through in seconds... Agony ripped a ragged cry out of his throat. Then a warm sliding beside him brought a welcome reprieve from the pain.

Max drew in a deep breath. Isabel was connecting to him, no, to Justin, who was still somehow connected to him. Their power surged and filled him, cooling the pain and rushing down to meet the hunter who had him in her grip. He felt their fear and worry over her power, and the way their minds raced to come up with a solution.

He couldn’t think... she was overwhelming him. So he just waited, feeling his life being drained away.

*Too much, we’ll give her too much power at one time,* he vaguely heard Isabel throw out.

He must be losing brain cells or something. Everything was getting kinda’ fuzzy...

*You have to stop her, let the power build up. Come on, man,* Justin was encouraging him.

Max realized Justin was talking to him. And he reached deep inside for the last reserves of strength to build a little shield, just above her draining connection to him. There was still a little bit she could take from him below the shield, but above it, their combined powers began to mass. Max’s placid strength, drained though it was, swirled in with Isabel’s screaming fury, and sparked when it came into contact with Justin’s pulsating vibrations. But would it be enough?

Max strained to keep the shield as the hunter’s power suddenly brushed against it. She seemed amused by it, throwing a few odd little bursts of power toward it. Max held the shield with all of his will. He could feel himself begin to tremble all over, his own pain and weariness a greater enemy at the moment. He felt a strengthening as Isabel and Justin added layers of shields on to his. And behind it, their power grew.

******

Alex and Maria exchanged glances. That wasn’t Liz? Alex immediately stepped back away from her. A shapeshifter? But no, it was Liz... it had to be. They were just all talking. How could she-

Then all doubts were erased as Liz proceeded to put her handy-dandy incineration powers to good use on Max’s leg. Alex felt his face convulse in horror as her hand just melted through Max’s jeans and kept going.

Alex’s immediate impulse to retch and run was only heightened by the sudden understanding that the real Liz had gone into the back room minutes ago and this anti-Liz must have come out in her place. Which meant that the real Liz was back there somewhere.

And from the look of things, he doubted that their probable meeting had been a friendly little encounter.

Oh no, it was much more likely that Liz herself now resembled Michael, the pale, tragic zombie, or Max, recipient of the first glowing/fiery handprint of the evening.

So just at the point when the smell of burning flesh got to be a little too uncomfortable, Alex took off for the back at a dead run.

Isabel, Joey and Justin could help Max and Michael.

Alex would help Liz.

And Maria would have to handle Valenti, or whoever else the hell decided to show up and try to kill somebody. All bets are off when a hunter comes to town.

******

Maria was frozen in horrific indecision. Walking cast or no, her first impulse was to reach over and smack that imposter into the next available parallel dimension, “Do not pass GO, do not collect $200.”

But right now, it was obvious they, Liz, Michael, Max, Isabel and Justin, were connected, even to her very human, very watery eyes.

Michael was so pale and still now. And Max and the others had quickly followed suit. It was like they were playing some psychotic alien version of the child’s game “Statues.“ From all appearances, none of them looked like they might “move and lose” anytime this century.

It was so quiet...

Only Max’s ragged breathing and an occasional sob from Joey broke the silence.

Joey?

Maria leaned to see around the group and found Joey watching them with wide eyes. As soon as she saw Maria, she called out in a hoarse voice, “I don’t know what to do! What do I do?”

Maria scrambled for an answer, how to explain to an alien something that she’d only been told about from other aliens. “Um, you form a connection,” she began, shifting to the side. Now she could see Joey’s wide hazel eyes filled with tears and the fists clenched at her side. She looked so young, so not ready to deal with this. “Hey, it’s okay,” Maria tried to console her. “All you have to do is touch Max or Isabel. You’ll connect and they’ll help you figure out what to do.”

Joey looked at her brother and sister but didn’t move.

“Joey,” Maria said seriously. “If you want them to survive this, you had better get your butt in gear. I think- I think Michael’s too out of it to help and you‘re stronger in pairs. You have to do it, Joey. For them- and for me, please.” She her eyes full of tears at the end of her speech and gratefully watched as Joey reached out for Justin’s shoulder. A deep breath rattled through her frame and she suddenly remembered Valenti. She gently pulled herself from under Michael and limped over to the door.

Valenti was over at his cruiser, talking on the CB. He’d only be another minute before coming back over to the cafe.

“Come on, Kyle,” she whispered. Maria turned back to the group frozen beside booth number six. They were all so still... “Come on, guys...” She was beginning to feel like she should be carrying glowing pompoms or doing the e.t. splits or something. There was literally nothing else to do but cheer them on.

******

It didn’t take long for the shapeshifter to grow weary of playing their shield game. She seemed to sense the power just beyond it and began exerting incredible pressure upwards against it. The power bearing down was growing by the second as well and Max found himself wondering if he might be annihilated somewhere in between the two.

His trembling body was beginning to betray him. He couldn’t hold it much longer...

Wait, there was a new breath of power in the connection, tentatively seeking him out. Joey? Max wanted to reach out to her, sensing she was scared, but he was afraid of losing control if he did.

Isabel was there in an instant, caressing Joey with her thoughts and telling her of their plan. Max just gritted his teeth and held on. Then the power exploded above the shield, growing exponentially as the influx of Joey’s calm strength added itself to the seething, humming mass.

Max felt the shapeshifter pull back suddenly, and his shield expanded in the new space. No! She could punch through the expanded shield easily, like Doug had. Max scrambled, throwing out a warning to Isabel, Justin and Joey, then ripped away the shield. The power funneled through his body and found the connection that held him to the hunter.

His first thought was the sudden realization that his body wasn’t made to hold that much power... it was splintering, invading his bones, shooting through his blood and his organs.

Shouldn’t there be pain? But there was just energy. He was only energy, flowing, twisting, turning...

Isabel’s. Justin’s. Joey’s...

His thoughts were getting caught up and pulled away from him in the whirling mass. Too much power...

*Oh god, Max, no-*

*MAX!*

Max? Who was Max?

A sudden hold kept him from continuing to spiral downward with the maelstorm. It roared down through him, pulling at him, reaching for him with empty, clawing hands. But they were holding him back: Joey, with her smooth, focused restraint and Isabel with the furious, intense grip of her love.

“You are NOT dying today, Max Evans! You still owe me big for that shopping trip!”

“And you owe me years of big brother stuff. Come on, stay with me! We‘re a family...”

He started to feel his body again. The power was still raging, but Justin was focusing the stream, sending it on to the hunter. It was working. The roar lessened gradually to a hum and Max found himself smiling in the following stillness. His sisters had saved him. Both of them. Then he realized the power had been absorbed by the hunter. She had almost drained Max completely.

The silence was immense.

******

Alex found Liz on the stairs, crumpled and still. Her eyes were open and unfocused. She was pale; there was no blood. But she looked so... still. He threw himself down beside her and slid his arms underneath her back. His mind instantly flashed back to the time when she was twelve and had fainted right in front of him at school. Appendicitis. But this time... looked worse. Much worse. He pulled her limp body closely into his, noticing that she was still warm. Her face was just beside his cheek, and he silently begged her for a breath, just one. He stilled and forced himself to count to ten slowly and with growing horror...

No breath.

Dammit.

“No.” He vaulted off the stairs with her in his arms and laid her down on the floor. His fingers rested against her throat for forever and then... there was a beat.

And another. Weak, but there.

She was alive. He pulled back and laid her down, very disturbed to see the edges of her lips turning blue.

Without hesitation, he yelled hoarsely, “Max! Somebody!”

Breathe. She has to breathe.

He bent over and pinched her nose gently between his fingers. He lifted the back of her neck with his other hand, forcing her airway to open. Placing his lips gently against hers, he blew in a breath. Her ribcage automatically expanded, then deflated.

He waited five seconds, again calling for Max.

Then, he breathed for her.

Someone would help him soon. They could heal Liz. And she would be fine.