He wasn’t quite sure how he had ended up on the rotation AGAIN. He had been doing his best to distance himself from everyone since Tess had basically started ignoring him for the last few months, but Liz refused to let him drift away. She would just call him up, tell him when he was scheduled for the week and had so much faith in him, he couldn’t bear to disappoint her by not showing up.

Liz impressed the hell out of him. He had always known that she was special, but over the past few months, the way she held them all together…it was incredible. It was too hard to let go of Liz too. And if it meant having to see Tess to keep her in his life, well, he had thought that he would be able to handle it…

And, despite himself, Kyle had wanted to give Michael and Maria a hand. It wasn’t THEIR fault that Tess wanted nothing to do with him.

At least Liz had stopped asking him if he had talked to Tess. He did his utmost to avoid talking to Tess. It was just too painful. And Tess certainly made no effort to talk to him, although he did find her staring at him an awful lot. He had no idea what she was thinking when she did that, but she didn’t ever turn away when he looked back.

It was weird. It was like SHE didn’t want him, but she didn’t want anyone else to have him either. Did she know that just by looking him she could drive him crazy for weeks, wondering what she had been thinking, whether she had been feeling sorry for him, or whether she was just comparing him to her beloved Max and finding all his shortcomings…

Just like Liz had done.

He had had enough. It was time to cut the ties. This was DEFINITELY the last evening he was spending in a room buried deep under the desert floor playing cards with Ren and Alex. He HAD to move on.

He wanted to be a normal teen-age jock again. He wanted to have fun and go to the prom with some hot babe and not wonder if the alien kid had hatched yet.

He wanted "normal" dammit!

He wanted to stop dreaming about icy blue eyes, glossy pink lips and masses of curly blonde hair. He wanted to get the image of Tess laughing and throwing her arms around Saint Max out of his head.

Did the girl have no self respect? Max was more than taken… he was damn-well practically married to Liz. Not that Max had looked too upset to have Tess practically in his lap earlier that day…

Damn him.

Kyle swore again as he turned the wheel sharply, cutting across the desert. He knew his dad would be pissed if he could see how he was driving but Kyle didn’t give a crap. He wanted to get to the transformation chamber, do his duty and then get back home.

He slammed on the brakes near the entrance to the tunnels. He could see the jeep parked nearby. They had been careful not to come by way of the Reservation anymore. The chamber was deep enough into the desert to be virtually impossible to find for anyone who wasn’t looking for it, but the last thing they needed was someone stumbling across it because they wondered where a bunch of teenagers kept disappearing to…

Kyle wondered briefly WHY they couldn’t be going out into the desert to drink illegally like normal kids.

He sighed, climbed out of his car and rummaged around in the trunk for the flashlight he carried there now. He was in the tunnel moments later, used to the ten-foot drop by now. He usually only used the ladder Max had brought out when he left.

Switching on the flashlight Kyle yelped when Ren’s face appeared in the beam.

"Holy Crap! You scared the hell out of me!" He kept the beam trained on the shape-shifter’s face. "What are doing here? And why are all the lights out?"

"I was leaving." Ren explained patiently, his expression blank as usual. "I turned OFF the lights right before you nearly jumped on my head."

Wise guy.

Kyle had grown to like Ren in spite of his general state of serenity and his complete lack of sense of humour. At least he let Kyle beat him at poker once in a while. He was damn good at poker, what with that stony expression. But the guy’s poker-face could get tiring…

"Why didn’t you turn on the lights?" Ren was asking, raising an eyebrow, clearly not at all upset by the fact that Kyle was still shining his flashlight directly in his eyes.

Ironically, several weeks after Jennetta had gone into the pod, it had been Kyle who had figured out how to power up the compound.

It had been by accident actually. He had just been finishing up a shift with Michael.

He liked being on Jennetta duty with Michael - he brooded and left Kyle alone. Maria had a tendency to get all weepy and Liz would never shut up about Tess, about how great she was, about how much she liked her. Isabel usually just did her homework, while Alex seemed to think that Kyle LIKED being his sounding board for all the new songs for his stupid band. Max was just Max - irritating on every level - always perfectly pleasant and nice and quiet and Kyle never had any clue what Evans was REALLY thinking…irritating.

But Tess was the worst. They would sit in stony silence, neither speaking to each other, only to Ren.

And she stared at him with that blank look of hers.

It sucked.

It sucked because it always made him remember how much fun they used to have with each other during the months that Max had been on Illyria, when they had become friends…both outsiders, both trying to fit into a group that had shared a secret for so long, that newcomers were sometimes left out in the cold. They always used to laugh about how annoying all the others were, had bonded over their mutual outsiderness…had bonded in not wanting to admit how much they WANTED to be accepted…to belong.

Yup. It sucked. It didn’t help that he was madly in love with her, but the transformation chamber ordeal usually made him sadder about the loss of her friendship than about the loss of something that had never been.

And yet, he couldn’t make the first move. He just couldn’t do it anymore.

A guy had to have SOME pride.

And so they sat in silence on the rare occasions they were scheduled together.

Anyway, on the day in question, he and Michael had been covering the entrance with some scrub brush from the desert when Kyle had tripped on a small rock and had gone smashing into the large boulder that covered most of the hole in the desert floor.

He had put out his hands to stop his fall and when he took his hand away, a silver hand-print had been shining up at him.

Michael had come up behind him. "What the…" He had stared at the hand-print, then stared at Kyle. "How the hell did you do that?"

Kyle had blinked, staring at his hand, suddenly remembering when he had opened the doorway into the transformation chamber on D-Day. He had totally forgotten with all the other crap that had gone down that day. "I have no frigging clue."

Michael had set his palm against the hand-print. They both started when a bright light suddenly shone out from within the hole. "Jeez." Michael breathed.

Moments later they had heard Max calling up from within the tunnel, where he had been on his way to join Liz for their shift. "What’s going on up there?"

"What’s going on down THERE?" Michael had demanded

"All the symbols on the walls are shining." Max had called back. His dark head had appeared out of the hole a moment later. "What did you guys do?"

"Kyle did it." Michael replied, looking at him suspiciously. Max had also looked at Kyle questioningly.

"You were able to activate the hand-print Kyle?" Kyle had felt himself getting his dander up just at the sound of Max’s "leader" voice.

"Yeah, so?"

Max’s eyes had narrowed. "Liz can do it too - at least at the entrance to the chamber." He glanced at Michael. "We always suspected it…now I guess we know for sure." Michael had just been shaking his head.

"Know what?" Kyle had demanded, looking from one to the other in annoyance. "Stop speaking in alien and tell me what the hell’s going on."

"Maxwell changed you." Michael finally ground out, scratching his head. "When he healed you…"

"We always knew that something was up with Liz, with the flashes and stuff." Max sounded a little disappointed as he continued. "We just thought it was a special connection between the two of us."

"It was the healing." Michael had finished.

Kyle had felt sweat break out on his forehead. HE was part alien??? He was going to have to talk in indecipherable Czech speak! "Maria can’t do it? Alex?" Kyle had asked desperately.

Both Max and Michael had just shaken their heads. Michael’s expression had begun to look interested, like he thought maybe Kyle’s head was going to explode. Max had just looked guilty.

He had felt like he was suffocating…

He was trapped! He was ALWAYS going to be connected to these people.

He would never be able to escape HER.

"Kyle are you okay?" Max had asked, sounding upset.

Kyle had forced himself to take deep breaths. There was no way he wanted Max to see how disturbed he was. He was NOT in the mood for a bonding session with the heart’s desire of HIS heart’s desire.

It always came back to Tess.

"I’m fine." He had snapped. He pointed down into the hole. "Shouldn’t we check out what else has been turned on?"

Max and Michael had exchanged glances again, but had followed him willingly.

It turned out that an awful lot had been "turned on."

A glowing trail of silver hand-prints had shone out from the stone walls, disappearing into the distance in both directions. The many carved symbols had been lit up as well, creating a perfectly pleasant glow that made flashlights no longer necessary.

Max had put his hand against the closest hand-print. None of them had been surprised to see the wall swing out.

Michael had tried the next one. Another door-way.

There were rooms everywhere. And they all looked like they had been lived in once upon a time.

And it was again reinforced to Kyle that aliens had been among them for a LONG time.

In the months since the "lights had been turned on," most of them had explored the compound extensively. There were still hundreds of rooms that none of them had seen…the tunnels seemed never-ending.

The only person who didn’t EVER touch another silver hand-print was Kyle. He wanted nothing to do with any powers…

He was human and he planned to STAY human.

"I’ve told you." He snapped at Ren now. "I don’t DO the lights here."

Ren just raised an eyebrow. "They’re waiting for you." He nodded down the corridor.

"I thought you were on duty tonight." Kyle called after the shape-shifter as he began to climb the ladder to the surface.

Ren glanced down at him. "I am always on duty." He replied simply. "The King insisted that I come up for some air."

Kyle smirked. "You are looking a little peaked Renny old boy." The shape-shifter just stared at him.

Kyle sighed. No sense of humour…it seemed to be a Czechoslovakian characteristic. Max and Michael had crappy senses of humour too.

He was glad that his had not been damaged in the transfiguration.

He kept his flashlight trained on the floor as he hurried down the tunnel. He wondered if anyone was ever going to bother to dust.

A good ten minutes later he reached the entrance to the transformation chamber. It, of course, looked exactly like the rest of the walls, but he had been there often enough that he knew where to stop.

This was the one place that he had no choice but to use a little alien voodoo as Maria called it. He waved his hand over the wall, scowled as the entrance hand-print flashed out at him.

"Bloody Czechs." He muttered to himself, glancing at his watch again. "Only four hours. You can do four hours Valenti - and then its over."

It was as the wall slid away that Kyle came face to face with Tess.

She blinked. "Kyle."

Kyle groaned to himself. He was SURE the schedule had said "Alex."

"Tess." He managed to mumble.

She started to babble. If he hadn’t heard it himself, he wouldn’t have believed it. Tess Harding was babbling.

She had not said word one to him in four months and now she was babbling.

He would never understand women.

"I was just…I mean, Alex had to practice with the Whits…he couldn’t put them off again….so I thought…you know, that I would help him out. So that’s why I’m here…you know, to help Alex out?"

Kyle just stared at her. "Then why are you coming OUT of the chamber?"

Tess whitened. "Er, well, Max and Liz are in there. I just came in and…well, they’re sort of busy…so I thought I would come and look for you…since I knew you were coming and all." She trailed off lamely.

"Busy" meant that Max and Liz were likely making out, since the two of them couldn’t seem to keep their hands off of each other. The idea of them making out under Jennetta’s pod grossed him out a little, but hey different strokes - it wasn’t like the two of them were EVER normal when they were together.

What annoyed him was that this was why TESS was upset -upset enough that she hadn’t even interrupted…she had just fled. Kyle didn’t blame her. Even after literally throwing herself at Max today, he had still gone back to Liz.

"Sorry about that." He muttered, looking at the floor. He might think she was deluding herself, but he didn’t enjoy the fact that she was likely always hurt by how little chance she had with Max.

"You’re sorry about what?" Tess asked, sounding confused.

"You know…about Max and Liz."

"You’re sorry that Max and Liz are fiddling with the orbs?"

"Is that what they’re calling it these days?" Kyle smirked. Tess just blinked at him.

"Huh?"

Kyle eyed her for a minute. Tess wasn’t usually this dense. "Never mind." He shrugged in the direction of the tunnels. "Wanna go for a walk?"

What the hell are you doing you idiot? A voice in the back of his head was screaming at him. He ignored it. He just wanted to make her feel better.

Idiot.

Shut-up, he told the voice.

Tess smiled at him. Kyle was surprised at the warmth he saw. "Okay."

"We’ll be back soon you horn-dogs!" Kyle bellowed over his shoulder as they exited the corridor into the transformation chamber.

He ignored the weird look Tess gave him. ************************************************************************************ Max and Liz stared at each other as Kyle’s yell drifted into their ears.

"What the heck is he talking about?" Liz asked. Sure they were holding hands while eavesdropping as Tess made her move, only having done so after Liz and Max had practically pushed her out to meet him, but "horn-dogs?"

"One track mind." Max sighed, rolling his eyes. He slid his arm around her waist, planted a light kiss on her temple.

Liz shivered, smiled at him. "Speaking of one track minds…"

She pulled away from him, went back to the stone table nearby. She stared down at the orbs she and Max had been examining when Tess had come in a few minutes before. Ren was convinced that these purple ones that Michael had uncovered in one of the compound’s other chambers were communication orbs - but REAL ones this time. The original blue orbs had had the capability to store one message, but if these orbs could be made to function, contact might be re-established with Illyria.

Liz picked up the nearest orb, traced the symbol on it thoughtfully. It looked like a shooting star. "Do you think she’ll get up the nerve to tell her how he feels?" She asked Max as he came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. Liz leaned back against his chest, bringing the orb up to eye-level.

"Staring at it isn’t going to make it tell you how to work it Liz." Max told her affectionately.

"Hmmmm…" Liz sighed, placing it back on the table. She wasn’t sure why she wanted them to be able to contact Illyria so badly…

It was just a weird feeling she had…that they had better be in contact with Max’s home planet soon. That something terrible was happening there.

Liz suppressed the shiver that wanted to erupt. She turned in Max’ s arms, couldn’t resist kissing him lightly before asking again,. "Well? I really want them to be happy Max. Kyle has just been so distant…I worry about him. He needs Tess."

Max pulled her against his chest. "I do too Liz. But I just don’t know. It’s been six months. It might be too late."

"It’s NEVER too late for love." Liz insisted. "I would wait for you forever."

Max pushed a stray hair behind her ear. "Thank God." He replied seriously. He bent his head to kiss her again but they both jerked when a piercing squeal suddenly filled the chamber.

"What the…" Max was frantically looking around the chamber, trying to identify where the noise was coming from. Liz was not surprised when he thrust her behind him. Always over-protective.

And yet, that noise…it sounded like something was dying…

"I think it’s coming from the pod Max!" Liz exclaimed. He turned to stare at her.

"Jennetta!" They both said at the same time.