(continued from previous)

Chapter 4
The Dreamer

At first the dream was like a normal dream. She was walking down the streets of some large city, following behind Cade Foster. It took her a minute to figure out where she was exactly, but she'd seen pictures of Chicago before, and after seeing a few buildings that she recognized she got her bearings. Chicago was somehow important to Foster.

Isabel Evans quickly learned during dream walking that people frequent places they know in their dreams. Work, school, home, the mall. Often the places were different in the dreams then in real life. Buildings seemed bigger or smaller. Designs were more intricate or plain. Colors were dulled or brightened. Details sharper or blurred. Here... everything was highlighted with silver, like moonlight casting over everything.

The sounds of the city were absent, the only sounds being those made by Foster's feet tapping against the pavement. It was ominous surrounded by tall buildings sheathed in silver light. The lack of apparent life in his dream besides himself was beginning to make her curious, but she didn't want to interrupt until she saw where the dream was going.

After two blocks, it started getting weird. The buildings suddenly began to shift slightly, turning into backdrop screens. Then something began to show on them. Pictures. Like from a movie. It wasn't too strange at first. She'd seen dreams with "movies" in them before. It was what was being shown on the screen that was strange. Sounds invaded from the background to voice the words of the jumpy scene being shown.

The scene had the man in the dream sitting around a fire, with a black man laying nearby. The black man had a wound in his stomach the size of a tennis ball. He should be dying, but he only looked in pain. They were talking.

The black man started first, in a soft, pained voice, "I was careless."

Then Cade jumped in, his voice was different in the dream then the one she remembered hearing briefly in the cafe, but only slightly, "You were beaten. Get used to it."

"I made a mistake."

"Welcome to the human race." Cade said with a slight ironic sound in his voice.

"I'm not human. I am Gua."

Just as the picture was starting to get interesting it did a strange flickering, like someone decided to change the channel. It was only then she realized Cade had passed the building. Isabel hurried after him, trying to catch up before he got out of sight, which would mean the dream would fade for her and she would either wake up, or get sucked into someone else's.

When she caught up, another one of those movies were already starting. This one had a woman and Cade, and they were apparently having a picnic, which involved a good amount of kissing and hand wandering.

Isabel sighed. -That- was one of the reasons she avoided walking into men's dreams. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the dream turned a little too adult for her tastes. Not that she minded peeking in on them sometimes, but male fantasies tended towards the disgusting.

But before it got much more intense he passed the building and a new screen flickered on in it's place. Same woman in this one, and he was naked, she was clothed. And he was holding her and crying, whispering her name under tears, "Hannah." She was dead. Isabel could tell by the way her neck was bent, and the fact that she wasn't breathing.

Foster stopped in his walking a moment, pausing before that scene. Isabel almost felt bad for the man, even though she didn't know him at all really. From the emotions she could feel laced through the dream he truly loved that Hannah. But after only a few more moments he continued forward. And got no further.

A strange... whirlpool like thing. Like the thing in the episodes of Sliders... appeared in mid-air in front of him. Except unlike being blue like the ones on that TV show, this one was pure white. Something came flying out of it. A silver metallic sphere, about the size of a golf ball.

Cade moved rapidly, faster than anyone human could awake, and caught the globe in his hand. He held it in front of him and said, "I know you're here. I will stop you." Then he crushed the sphere in his hands.

And the world screamed. Or at least the city did. Isabel actually had to cover her ears at the sound of it. Interlacing voices yelled all at once, from all directions. "You're their only hope of survival, yet they salivate at the prospect of tasting your blood."

"They're coming! You can't stop them!"

"The second wave is closer than you think. It's like a thunderstorm rolling over the hills -- it can't be stopped. You can already hear the rumbling."

"You are a statistical freak. There aren't enough like you in your population for us to be worried."

She could feel the words pressing against her, forcing her to cover her ears more, but it didn't block out the sound. It was like trying to cover your ears to block out your own thoughts. She was able to remain standing only because she didn't know what the words meant.

Cade wasn't so lucky. He fell to his knees. And as his knees impacted the pavement the ground rippled, like a drop of water falling into a pool. The ripples moved outward and got higher, and higher, the pavement moving in waves with it. When it hit the buildings they began to crumble. The silver highlights vanished and the city became red.

More voices, and more voices and more voices. Cade pitched forward, hands pressing against the pavement, head lowering as if to accept defeat and another wave of ripples shot out around him. This one shattered the crumbling buildings, rendering them to dust. In the uprising dust of the newly leveled city, a new voice shown through.

A voice so sweet, and so beautiful it could only be one person. Isabel learned that in the dreams, people look and sound how the person dreaming wants them to. Those they love, look and sound more beautiful. Almost unearthly. The voice had to be Hannah's. And for some reason no matter how loud all the other voices were, hers could be heard loud and clear.

"He was a thief, you know. Downtown, twenty-second story. He was trying to open a safe. One hundred and eighty pounds. Alarm goes off, cops on the way. He carries the safe down twenty-two floors -- twenty-two floors, with a safe on his back. That's Cade Foster. Do what you want to me, but you'll never stop him. You'll create your own worst enemy. He'll hunt you down."

He looked up when the voice started, and stared straight forward. The shaking stopped, and the blood highlights dulled slightly. A moment later another voice joined in. This one was a man's voice, "'On the seventh dawn of the seventh day, a twice-blessed man will roam the fields, doomed to shadows with his brethren, or savior to all who walk the ground.' Nostradamus was talking about you, Foster. You're the Twice-Blessed Man."

The same voice added a moment later, after another round of screams from the voices that painted the city red, "Frankly, I haven't got much faith in the human race. But I've got faith in you, Foster. You can beat these bastards."

There was a long moment, then he pushed himself up, until he was standing. The red highlights vanished all together, and the city slowly began to rebuild itself. Very slowly.

It was only then that Isabel realized what the dream meant. The man was constantly in conflict with two parts of himself. One that believed whatever quest he was on was impossible, and another that believed he could do it. The dream just personified it.

He turned around and saw her, blinking slightly at the sight of her. Then he approached her. She glanced down to check what she was wearing. Sometimes, very rarely, the dreamer could influence her attire. But this wasn't one of those times. She was still dressed in her pajamas.

She stood there, watching him get closer to her, then when he was within normal speaking distance he looked thoughtful and asked, "Were you and your brother and friend the reason Joshua sent me here?"

He thought she was just part of his dream. Perfect. Mom was the only one who ever thought she was really herself, besides the times she took peeks in Michael and Max's dreams, but they didn't count. And Maria didn't count either, because she told her.

Isabel shrugged her shoulders slightly, "I don't know. What do you think?"

Cade gave a small sigh, "I think I better protect you three until I know. One Acolyte already tried to kill that Michael friend of yours. Who knows how many the Assembly sent."

"What's the Assembly?" she asked, trying not to sound too desperate for answers.

He didn't seem to notice, and answered with one of those 'I've explained it a million times, why not once more even if just for a figment of my imagination' voices, "They're what the Gua leadership on Earth call themselves. They're the ones in charge of all their experiments. Testing the Earth for the Second and Third Wave..."

"Wave of what?"

"Invasion. War. Destruction. Like a tsunami they plan to wash over the world and destroy everything in their path. And what they don't destroy will be taken as their slaves."

Isabel didn't like the sounds of this Gua. They sounded just like those stereotypical movie aliens who were completely one-sided and all they wanted to do went against the morals of the "earthlings." And of course the humans had to stop them. Maybe the man was just delusional. Thought he was the savior of the human race.

"Do they all want to destroy the planet?"

"Not the planet. The people that inhabit it. They need the world for themselves. Cause their world is dying."

Recycled Independence Day plot. And about half the other Sci-fi movies involving aliens. "Let me guess, you think they crashed here back in 1947, huh?"

"No. I don't think they've been here that long. Since the sixties, yes, but I don't know about the forties." he said thoughtfully.

He probably thought he was talking to a manifested part of his own psyche, which wasn't uncommon in dreams as far as Isabel's experience told her.

"So... if they didn't crash, who do you think did?" Curiosity forced her to ask. If he knew something about her people, getting him to talk in the dreams would be lots easier than in the waking world.

He scratched at his head, the half-rebuilt city around him growing dull, then changing all together into a... a broken down trailer of all things. Standing outside one at least.

Foster moved to sit down on a cooler and said in a pondering voice, "Good question. Eddie thinks it was just a government hoax to keep our minds away from the true problems. I always thought it was a Gua test, but it couldn't have been a Gua crash, cause they don't fly ships here. They use white holes..." He pondered a moment longer, then suddenly he stood up, "Of course! Why didn't I think of it before!? 'Survivors of slain ancient enemy.' The Gua were invaded a long time ago by another race and defeated, but they defeated them in return. What if -they're- the ones who landed here..." He looked all thoughtful.

"What was that race?" Could that be her people he was talking about? Could it possibly be?

There was another shifting in the background, but she paid no mind, keeping her attention on Foster as he responded, "I don't know. Joshua never named them. Could they be who I'm looking for? I could imagine the Gua would want them dead if they were survivors of their 'ancient enemy.'" Then he paused and looked at her, "Could you be that?" He wasn't really talking to her, more to himself, but she took a step back.

This was not good. She didn't like him asking her that at all. Max had had a very good idea, but she messed up when she made herself seen. She should have hidden from sight and just watched the dream progress from a distance.

She shouldn't have gotten involved personally. But now she was part of the dream and there was nothing she could do about it. As if to accent that fact, she suddenly felt something against the back of her head. Something round, and hard, and cold.

She whirled around, just as she heard Cade yell, "No!" and found herself facing the black man from the "movie" pointing a gun in her face.

There was a loud noise, and a flaring pain and the dream world went dark.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

She woke with a loud scream, trying to get a bearing on where she was. Hands were on her arms a second later and she was being held down. Isabel reacted without thought, heating her hands to boiling temperatures and slapping out at whatever was touching her, still partly in the dream. There was a sharp yell and the hands released her. It was only when someone splashed some water over her head that she came to her senses and realized she was awake.

She gave her head a full shake, sending more then a few droplets of water flying and realized people were speaking to her. Max... her brother, "Izz? You all right?"

Isabel ran a hand over her damp hair, realized someone had thrown a glass of water on her head, the glass she usually kept beside her bed. "Uh... yeah."

She looked around and found Michael looking ruffled and angry with a red hand print on his cheek. Not just a hand print from flushed skin. It was a burn. Max had one too, on his shoulder, burnt straight through his shirt. "Uh.. sorry. How long was I out?"

"About ten seconds." Michael said angrily, rubbing at his blistering cheek. "Damnit, Izz, could you lower the temperature next time?"

She didn't respond to the second part, she was still mulling over the first part, "Really? Only that long?"

Max answered this time, "Yeah. You laid down, your eyes flickered around twice, then the next thing we know you're jumping up screaming and trying to burn us to a crisp. I take the dream was... intense?"

"To quote Deluca: Understatement."

She sat up from the bed and went to Michael first. With a wave of her hand the burn vanished. She wasn't a gifted in the "healing" part as Max, but she could reverse her own damage well enough. Then she did the same to Max.

"Sorry again. It was... incredibly strange. But I got a few answers." There was a pause, then she added, "I think."

Chapter 5
The Dedicated

November 18, 1999

I didn't have time to write last night so I'm slipping in a few paragraphs before my shift at the Cafe. I'm starting to wonder more and more these days. The world is so much bigger then I ever imagined it could be, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. First finding out about Max and Michael and Isabel changed my life completely. Now only a month and a few weeks afterwards, my life is changing again.

My friends are in trouble, and not because of Maria, or the Sheriff, or Kyle or even myself. They're in trouble because of some outsiders. Other outsiders I guess you could say. Yes, those kind of outsiders. Michael was shot yesterday by one of them. He's all right, of course, but I know how he must have felt. I was shot too after all, and even though the pain vanished soon after, I still felt it for what seemed hours at the time. I wonder if they feel pain like we do? I never really thought about that before.

Does a cut on the hand feel the same to them as it does to us? Does food taste the same? Hypothetically, they could very well have many differences when compared to us, besides just their powers and cells. I just have never gotten around to asking them all the questions I want to. We've always had other things to worry about. Perhaps I should sit down with one of them and ask...

"Ask us what?"

Liz jumped at the voice behind her. She hadn't even heard someone come up to the roof... She closed the journal quickly and looked towards who said it. Michael, of course. How'd he get up here? Silly question. He'd gotten in her room before. The roof should have been easy for him.

"Michael... what are you doing here?"

"Your mom let me in." He said simply, moving to sit down on the small table she had out there she sometimes did her homework on. In fact, he was sitting on her geometry book.

"You actually know how to use the door? I'm shocked."

She wasn't really, but ever since the... events of a few weeks back they'd been getting a little more on the friendly side. None of the others had really noticed the change, cause around Max and Isabel and Maria they didn't talk much. Though after the trip down to Texas it seemed like Maria and him were also 'bonding' a little. "And I didn't think you knew my mom."

Michael gave that half-smirk, something that the first time she'd seen it surprised her. It softened his face far too much to go unnoticed. "Hah-hah. You're starting to sound like Max." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, "And I don't know your mom. Just told her I was one of your friends."

"Oh." Liz replied. Though admittedly she was surprised her mom had let him in. "So... why are you here?"

"'Cause Max and Isabel are downstairs waiting for you to come to your shift. Neither wanted to come up here and get you, so I volunteered." Michael stood up for a moment and took the Geometry book out from under him. He looked at it for a moment and said, "So how much homework have I missed anyway?"

"Max didn't want to come up here?"

She didn't know what bothered her more. The fact that Max didn't want to, or the fact that Michael was actually acting concerned about his grades. Though she leaned more towards the former, and she never answered his question.

Michael glanced up, as if realizing how she took that and corrected, "Isabel didn't want him to come up here. 'Cause Kyle's down there. If you and him walked in together... That whole tense situation again." He shrugged slightly and laid the geometry book down on the edge of the table.

"Oh. Well, yeah. I can see how she wouldn't want that to happen..."

She glanced down at her journal, knowing she had better put it into her hiding place before going down. She could finish her sentence later, if she remembered what she had been writing at least.

"I'll be down in a minute or so. I have to... Uh..."

"Hide your journal?" he inquired with a quirked eyebrow.

"Uh, well, yeah.. I mean.. you know.."

"Yeah, I know." Michael's grin widened as he stood and started towards the window back into her room, then said before he stepped through it, "Nice hiding place, by the way. The loose brick and all. Very 'X-Files.'"

Liz stared after him as he vanished into her room. He -knew-?? How did he know?? Was he still reading her journal? She sighed and just put the journal in its place. She'd confront him about it later. For now she had to get in uniform and go downstairs and serve alien themes.

On her way down, Liz remembered what Michael said. Kyle was down there. Sigh. Things with her 'ex' were still rather tense. But he was no longer there by the time she got down, which surprised her.

Isabel and Max and Michael were all sitting at the first booth, which was in Maria's "territory" so she was their waitress for another good twenty minutes. They were eating burgers and fries. A Trekkie Special and two Will Smith's.

Sitting on the table nearby was an already empty bottle of Tabasco Sauce. Originally, before she knew they were aliens, she always just figured Max and group really liked their food hot. Now... she put that question away with the others in the "Ask Later" file.

She moved to sit down next to Michael, 'cause Max's sister had claimed his booth. "Hi."

"Hey..." Max said, shifting a little in his side of the booth.

There was a moment of awkward silence, until Michael thankfully broke it in a calm, emotionless voice, "Want some fries?"

His fries were almost drenched red from all the Tabasco Sauce on them. She pointed at the empty bottle and said, "Not with that stuff on it."

Michael smirked briefly and said, "What? You don't like Tabasco Sauce?"

"I don't like -that- much, no. Little too hot for my tastes, thanks."

"It's supposed to be hot?"

It was only then that Liz realized she was bantering with Michael right in front of Isabel and Max, who were both frowning as they watched them.

After the Michael retort Max said softly, "Well... I'm glad to see you two are getting along now."

Was that a tinge of jealousy in his voice? It could have been. Liz looked at Max, trying to figure out what he was feeling, but whatever it was he was hiding it fairly well.

He had no reason to be jealous. Michael was her friend, yeah, but that was it. Her heart belonged to the handsome alien who saved her life and opened her eyes to a larger world. And maybe if he was jealous of Michael he'd get his act together and admit he loved her too. And anyway, he seemed to like Maria.

Isabel interrupted her thoughts, "That's all nice and well, but don't you have work, Liz?"

"Five more minutes," Liz responded after checking her watch.

She still didn't know how she felt about Isabel. She was Max's sister, but she always seemed to... not like her. Perhaps she was just being protective of her brother, in her own way.

Maria appeared a moment later, "Hey... Glad you're here. It's getting pretty backed up. Agnus is being a bi...senile old goat again and taking breaks constantly."

"You should tell my father." Liz said softly, though she knew it wouldn't do any good. Her dad liked Agnus too much to fire her, or even speak harshly to her. Probably came from the fact that she used to baby-sit him when he was a child. "Anyway, I'll be there to help you in a few minutes."

"Thanks," and with that, Maria went to take the order of a new couple who'd just arrived.

"So... why were you waiting for me?"

The three aliens all looked at each other, then Max leaned forward and said, "We just wanted to tell you to watch out Cade Fo...Nichols. If he comes in, sneak off and call me so we can get here."

Liz shrugged her shoulders absently. That was a simple enough request. "Sure. I can do that."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Two hours after the three aliens left, and half an hour after Maria got off shift and went home, Cade Nichols walked in and sat at one of the tables.

Liz saw him instantly and smiled slightly to herself, moving over to take his order since he was sitting at one of her tables. She could call the trio after she got his order.

"How can I help you today, Dr. Nichols?"

"Let's see..." He glanced over the menu and then made his order a second later. "I'll have... the Will Robinson Burger with Obi-Wan Rings and a Green Martian Shake."

"Feeling adventurous today, aren't we?"

"You could say that."

He offered her a kind smile, and for a moment she forgot she was supposed to call Max and tell him the man was here.

She was all the way to handing the order over before she remembered. She asked the other waitress to cover her for a few minutes while she made an important phone call, then went off outside to use the payphone. The payphone was less likely to have eavesdroppers, 'cause her mother was upstairs.

She fished a quarter and a dime out and put in the coins, then dialed the number to Max's phone. A number she was coming familiar with lately. There was one ring, then a click and the answering machine picked it up.

"Hi, it's Max...I'm not here right now, but please leave a message."

Sigh. "Max. It's me... Liz. Just calling to tell you that a certain someone is here at the Cafe. I'll try your...."

She was going to say his cell phone, and she meant to try that next, but she never got the chance. She was in the middle of her sentence when a hand went over her mouth, also knocking the phone from her hand with a muffled scream. She tried to struggle, but the man was too strong. With his free hand he hung up the phone, then turned her around and she got a look at him.

He was tall, and dark skinned, short cropped black hair. And he had intense dark eyes, so dark she couldn't tell the difference between pupil and irises. His hand was still crushed over her mouth, so she couldn't voice her thoughts. Not that she could anyway. She was shell shocked, just like when the argument broke out in the Cafe. She couldn't move anymore.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" someone else said nearby.

Liz moved as much as she could but could only see the profile of the speaker. It was a man though, with an accent that she couldn't place.

"Yes." the man holding her said. "They'll come to get her. It's in their nature." Without another word, Liz felt a sharp sting in her upper left arm and the awareness faded.

Chapter 6
The Acolyte

After ten minutes, Cade realized something was wrong. His waitress, the petite brunette named Liz didn't come back. Instead a woman in the same outfit, but much older, in her mid-twenties, brought his food.

He inquired on where the girl who was serving him went and she said that she'd gone off to run a quick errand, and it was odd that she was taking so long. In the time it took him to finish his meal, she still had not returned.

He pulled out his cell phone and dialed up Eddie's number -- they'd stopped using the bugs after the Evans boy spotted them. "Eddie," Cade said after he heard the click which indicated connection. "Look, something's going on down here. I'm not exactly sure what. Could you check the hospitals? Make sure none of... -them- got checked in lately?"

He was trying to think of reasons the girl would leave on the excuse of an 'errand.' And reasons she wouldn't come back. Even if paranoia wasn't a contagious disease, it had been rubbing off on him lately.

"Just a minute, Foster." Eddie didn't sound particularly happy, but that wasn't exactly a surprise. After a minute the voice returned, "All right, nothing coming up on any of them."

Sigh. All right. Looks like he would have to find her the hard way, and hope nothing happened to her. She seemed like a very nice girl. The Gua weren't above stepping on a nice girl to get what they wanted.

"Damnit. She's just a kid. Why can't those bastards pick on someone their own size?" He didn't realize he'd spoken aloud.

"So I'm guessing you lost track of one of the kids and you think they're in trouble? Was it the blonde one you dreamed about last night?"

"No. It wasn't the blonde. And I should have never told you about that."

"Hey, your tastes are your own problem, man. But I still say she's too young for you."

Rolling his eyes, Cade gave a small sigh. He really shouldn't have told Eddie about his dream. It was just a dream. It didn't mean anything. But seeing Joshua appear behind her, and then her vanish with a loud scream that woke him up was a little intense, even for him. He certainly wasn't attracted to her in the way Eddie kept implying, but it had bothered him. Well, not too attracted at least.

He stood up and paid for his meal, still holding the phone as he added, "So did you get any information on our friend at the school?" Meaning the 'guidance counselor'/FBI agent.

"Oh, yes. I did some serious digging. Though I only came up with a few more things. She's on assignment in Roswell, sending encrypted emails to an office in Phoenix daily. I was able to intercept some and decrypt them, but the information is sketchy at best. She seems to be following the girl, Parker, around though. And the Evans kids have mentions too. But like I said, it was sketchy at best. She didn't go into details in any of them"

The FBI was following Liz Parker? And the Gua were apparently after her friends. "I smell a conspiracy." Cade added as he walked out the doors of the Cafe.

"You're in Roswell, Foster."

"Conspiracy Capital?"

"That D.C. man, but Roswell's probably in the top five."

"Find out why she's trailing Parker. Get back to me when yo..."

But he didn't finish his sentence, much less the word. Someone pulled the phone out of his hand. He hadn't heard anyone get close enough to do that, and he was very good with his senses. He wasn't one of the best thieves in Chicago history because he had nothing better to do on Friday nights.

It was Evans. The boy. Max. Who he'd spent almost an hour talking with just the day before. And he looked seething with anger, his facial expressions sharper, his eyes darker. He pushed the button to terminate the call absently before he said anything.

"Who's trailing Liz? And where is she?"

His voice carried barely held back anger. This was a completely different Max Evans then the one Cade'd met earlier.

"Did something happen to her?"

"You know good and well...!" Behind Max, his sister appeared, laying a hand on his arm as if in an attempt to calm him down.

It worked a little. His gaze softened and he trailed off with his barely contained yell. After a breath he continued, "Yes, we have reason to believe something did happen to her. Now who is trailing her?"

There was the anger again. It was almost frightening. Which was strange. His original appraisal of the boy had him as fairly harmless. The type to literally catch a fly and let it go out a window instead of swatting it.

Taking in a slow breath, Cade tried to reassess the boy and figure out what he could be capable of at this time. He didn't want to get into a fight over an FBI Agent after all. Best thing to do was probably tell the truth. Keep on his good side.

"Your friend has an FBI Agent following her around. I'm trying to find out why, but since you terminated my phone conversation I will have to wait until later to find out."

"Why Liz?" another voice came from behind him. It was that of the short cropped blond haired girl, Maria.

"That's what I was hoping to find out." Cade responded honestly, trying to keep everyone calm.

Though deep down he was probably almost as worried as they were about what might have happened to the Parker girl. Acolytes? FBI? Or maybe she just remembered something she had to do. It didn't always have to be some huge conspiracy. Eddie would have laughed if he had told him that. Everything was a huge conspiracy to Eddie.

The Evans boy waved the phone in his hand, "Who's on the other end of this? And how do you know an FBI agent is following Liz? Are you FBI?"

He grinned slightly, "No. I'm a little undressed to be an Agent. And the man on the other end is a good friend of mine. A friend who happens to know a lot about computers."

Another voice joined in, Isabel's, the girl who was in his dreams last night, "So who are you really? We know you're not Kincaid Nichols."

Well, there went that cover. It usually didn't take long for someone to figure out something about his cover wasn't kosher. As long as it wasn't a police officer or someone who would turn him into the police he usually just let it go where it went. No use fighting by trying to hide behind an already broken id.

He glanced around, to take note of all those present. The Evans kids were on one side of him. Maria was on the other, and the Guerin boy had joined to stand behind her.

No one else within earshot, but he wasn't taking any chances. This was a small town after all. He motioned towards the alley, indicating that he wanted to take the conversation a distance away from the Crashdown and the main street, and without waiting for any response, he started down into the alley.

Cade stopped near a garbage can and turned around, facing the kids who had followed him. "All right, you are right. I'm not Kincaid Nichols. My name is Cade Foster. And I'm not a parapsychologist. I used to work for a security company. I sold locks and advanced security systems to businesses."

"'Used to'?" Maria asked from where she stood a foot or so to the side of the other three, who stood closer together.

"It's a long story, but I lost my job. I lost everything. My money, my wife, most would even say my sanity, but I'm not too sure about that part yet."

There was a silence for a minute, then the tall blonde, model looking young woman said simply, "Because of the Gua."

He blinked slightly. Suspicions were being confirmed. These kids knew something. How much was the question... Had they been part of an experiment like himself? But then why did Michael look so confused at the Acolyte encounter?

Cade shook the thoughts from his head. He could ponder it over later. For now he might as well get some answers, "The Gua, yes. How do you..."

But the question never got finished, because behind the four teens, in the start of the alley, a figure appeared. The light was still enough that the figure was instantly recognizable.

What was Joshua doing here? Cade thought as he saw the well known tall dark skinned Acolyte assassin. Then suddenly it hit him. Of course. For Joshua to be able to warn him about the Acolytes, he must have been told of the mission, and the Gua didn't seem the type to tell their plans to those who were not a part of it.

The teens -- minus Maria -- noticed his eyes look past them, and turned almost as one. Maria caught on a moment later and looked as well. The first reaction any of them made came from Isabel, she gasped and took a step backward. Cade instantly moved forward, grabbing the girl and putting her behind him. Nothing bad was going to happen to these teens on his watch.

"What are you doing here, Joshua?"

"If you have not figured that out by now, Foster, I don't see why I should tell you."

"Give me one reason not to rid the Earth of one more of you?" It was a weak threat, and one that he likely wouldn't go through with, and Cade knew that he probably knew that.

But the response he gave was enough of a reason. Joshua raised his hand, and a pendant on a necklace dangled from his palm. Not a very nice pendant, a strange symbol on it. Shaped like a spiral. The bottom was even broken off. Hardly worth a second glance.

But a whisper behind him gave voice to the reason. "Liz. I let Liz keep that pendant."

It was Max's voice, and he sounded almost breathless. Like the air was torn out of him.

"That's a good reason." Cade said softly, sighing inwardly.

He had to remain calm. Violence would not diffuse this situation. But it was so tempting just to punch the Gua before him.

"So I assume you want a trade for her? What is it this time? Another communication recording on a disk?"

"No. Meet with me. She has not been harmed, and she will remain so, as long as you meet with me." He paused, looking them over, them motioned in the direction of Maria, "Except her."

"Oh no you don't. I am like so going." Maria said.

At the same time Michael and Cade turned towards her and started to tell her that it would be best if she stayed. They used different words, but they didn't get further then the first few syllables because the hyper blonde girl erupted.

"She is my best friend! If you try to make me stay here then I'll just like call the police and give them a description of the kidnapper." Maria looked toward Joshua. "You can't stop me from going. I'll like follow. -And- call the police. I got a phone you know. And a car. Well, actually it's my mom's car, but close enough." She was talking so fast no one else could get a word in, not even Joshua.

When she finally stopped for air, Michael relented, "If it will shut you up, then come along. Maybe I can talk them into killing you first. God knows it would make the world a better place."

"Ech! You... jerk! I hope they dissect you."

"Will you two -please- stop it?" Isabel yelled from behind Cade, annoyed by the sound in her voice.

"Interesting new friends you've made, Foster." Joshua said in the newly found silence. "There's an old book store on East Kerr Street. 2801B. Meet me there in an hour."

He tossed the necklace in their direction, and Max caught it. A second later the Acolyte was gone again.

Continued next page...

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