The Dark One

THREE

Alex leaned against the railing of the mall's upper level and stared down at the fountain below. He was supposed to meet Stacey Scheinin there in fifteen minutes. Stacey Scheinin-as in head cheerleader, as in one of the most popular girls in school.

As in what could she possibly want with Alex Manes? Okay, he had gone out with Isabel Evans. And in his book-and in the books of plenty of guys at school-Isabel ranked higher than Stacey in terms of hotness and just general it-ness.

But Isabel never would have shown the slightest interest in him if he hadn't learned her secret. That had forced them together. It had given her a chance to see him as more than one of the horde of average guys who worshiped Princess Isabel from afar. She'd gotten to see he was someone she could count on. Someone-

Someone that, ultimately, she didn't want to be with. Surprisingly, the pain of that realization had almost faded away completely. Or maybe not so surprisingly. Maybe that's what happened when you got zapped away to another planet where a faction of the beings wanted you dead. Things just sort of fell into perspective.

Alex scanned the area around the fountain. There were no suspicious clumps of giggling girls or smirking guys waiting to mock him for falling for the biggest practical joke ever. Weird as it was, it seemed like Stacey had been totally sincere when she had invited him to meet her here. It wasn't some high-school-ritual-humiliation kind of thing.

Alex pushed himself away from the railing and wandered toward the food court. There was no way he would be waiting at the fountain like some anxious little puppy when Stacey showed. He'd get there when they agreed to meet, but not any earlier.

When he reached the first of the little food stands, Alex turned around. Okay, he didn't want to appear too eager, but that didn't mean he wanted to meet Stacey with questionable breath or the potential of some kind of mall food gunk stuck to his front teeth. He turned into the Gap instead. Nothing was safer than the Gap.

"Excuse me," a woman called, a tall, gorgeous woman who looked like she should be on a magazine cover and not in a dinky mall in Roswell. "I need a male opinion. Does this sweater look good on me?"

Alex knew she wasn't talking to him, but if she was, he'd have to say there wasn't a guy alive who wouldn't like her in that sweater-or anything else.

"Excuse me," the woman said again. Alex glanced around to see what fool could possibly be ignoring her and realized he was the fool. She was actually talking to him.

"That sweater should be paying you to wear it," he told her, pulling out one of his older brothers' lines. And then she laughed. Actually laughed in a flirty way. Good God almighty, she was flirting with him. I've gone through another wormhole, he thought. I'm on a planet of inverse male attractiveness. First Stacey Scheinin asks me on a could-be date, and now this.

He glanced at his watch and saw that he had only a few minutes to make it to the fountain on time. "You should buy it. Really," he called to the woman.

"You're leaving?" she asked, giving him a sexy little pout.

"Sorry," he said as he headed out the door. Definitely a strange new world. That was the only place a woman could direct one of those little pouts in his direction.

Alex trotted down the stairs instead of taking the escalator, feeling light and buoyant. As long as he was visiting this wonderful planet, he was going to enjoy it.

"I've been waiting two whole minutes," Stacey called from her seat on the rim of the fountain, spotting him before he spotted her. She gave him a pout, too.

"Two whole minutes without me? Are you all right?" Alex teased, confidence soaring after he'd scored two real-life, sexy pouts in less than ten minutes.

"I will be once you get your butt over here," she answered playfully. Alex knew Isabel hated Stacey's high, breathy voice, but Alex thought it was kind of cute.

Alex walked over to her, not too fast, and when he reached her, Stacey wrapped her arm around his waist, surprising him. He didn't expect her to get even a little physical so fast. Actually he didn't expect her to get physical at all.

Not that he was complaining or anything. He looped his arm across her shoulders, which he thought was the best response to the waist wrap. The double waist wrap, where the guy slid his arm around the girl's waist, made walking difficult. And the hand-in-the-girl's-back-pocket wasn't a move for amateurs. Unfortunately, Alex felt like he still fit in that category.

"Aren't those the most adorable little strappy pumps?" Stacey cried, towing Alex toward A Walk on the Moon, the mall's shoe store. And they were off. Doing the promenade. Window shopping, or at least pretending to, but mainly walking the lower loop of stores, checking out who was with whom and being checked out in return.

Alex caught an envious look from Craig Cachopo, who was selling shoes since he'd quit his UFOnics job. He gave Craig a cool little yeah-I-know-we-go-to-the-same-school nod, and then Stacey was propelling him to the next store.

"Oh, that's tacky," she announced, shaking her head at a denim dress with a big sequined sunflower over the pocket. There was no one from school in the vicinity of that store, and Stacey kept them moving along. Alex just went with the flow, picking up another envious look as Stacey came to a stop in front of the jewelry store. "Aren't those the most adorable little earrings you've ever seen?" she exclaimed.

Alex murmured something agreeable. He spotted Steve Lydick, center of the basketball team, coming at them from the opposite direction. Alex pretended to study the jewelry display with Stacey, but he kept track of Steve from the corner of his eye. He knew the exact second that Steve saw him with Stacey-because a second after that Steve dropped his icecream cone on one of his size-thirteen sneakers.

Stacey caught the spill and giggled. "Hope we don't see you doing anything like that on the court," she called, hustling Alex over to a combination Indian artifacts-alien souvenir shop. She pointed to an inflatable green alien wearing a rhinestone tiara.

"How awful is that?" she said snidely. "Who would buy that thing?"

"Royalty should never be mocked that way," Alex said solemnly. "What would Princess Diana have said?"

"Exactly," Stacey said, smiling up at him.

Alex's eyes wanted to roll very badly, but he wouldn't let them. Yeah, Stacey was a fluffhead, but he was finding it amusing to spend an afternoon as part of the elite. When he and Isabel had made one of their few public appearances, people had always been whispering behind their backs, speculating on what she could possibly see in him.

But that wasn't happening with Stacey. Alex even caught a few girls shooting them glances that seemed to be asking what he saw in her. But no. That wasn't possible. He was probably just heady from Stacey's perfume.

After one full mall circuit and many "isn't that adorable" and "oh, that's tacky"s, Alex was thinking maybe the whole popularity thing was a huge sham. Were all popular people as bored as he was right now? Was Stacey actually enjoying this?

"Okay, there's still one place we haven't gone yet," Stacey said coyly. She maneuvered him into a tiny alcove with a drinking fountain and one bench. In all the years he'd been coming to the mall, Alex had never even seen it before.

"Is there something adorable or tacky back here?" he joked.

A tiny wrinkle appeared between Stacey's eyebrows. "You mean you don't want to?" she asked.

And then he got it. He'd just been initiated into one of the mall make-out areas. He sat on the bench and pulled Stacey down next to him. That's all the invitation she needed. A moment later her soft, bubble-gum-lip-gloss-flavored mouth was busy kissing him.

I don't even like this girl, Alex thought. Liz would have a fit if she could see me. She'd say I'm shallow and superficial and-

Stacey nipped his earlobe as if she could sense that his mind was wandering. Alex responded by concentrating on kissing the side of her neck until she was squirming with delight.

Forget Liz, he thought. This is just for fun. And I was held prisoner on a hostile planet. If anyone deserves some just-fun time, it's Alex Manes.

"This is an exact replica of the Partridges' living room," Elsevan DuPris told Trevor. "I'm assuming you have heard of The Partridge Family. 'Really came together when Mom sang along,'" he warbled.

"I've seen a couple of episodes. The materials about Earth provided by the Kindred were very detailed," Trevor answered. He shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. It didn't feel right to be sitting so close to the leader of the rebellion-the being Trevor had idolized for as long as he could remember.

"Ah, the Kindred," DuPris said. "How are those of the Kindred?"

"It is becoming more and more difficult for them to stay hidden from those who have joined the consciousness," Trevor explained, eager to prove his usefulness to DuPris. "But obtaining the second Stone of Midnight and knowing it is in your hands has given them more hope than they have felt in generations."

DuPris nodded. "The era of the consciousness is almost over. Someday historians will look back at it and see it for the barbaric creation it was. They will realize it reduced sentient beings to the state of hive insects without individual freedom or even the desire for individual freedom."

"I will do anything to help you shatter the consciousness," Trevor vowed. "I will make any sacrifice."

He had dreamed about having the chance to say those words to the rebel leader for so long, but a lance of pain ripped into him as he flashed on what he'd already lost. Michael was his brother, his only living relative. He'd welcomed Trevor into his home, into his life. And now-

DuPris reached out and grabbed Trevor by the wrist. Trevor felt a tingling sensation in his brain and then a searing burst of heat.

"Thinking about your brother. How sweet," DuPris said sarcastically. He let Trevor go, then combed his slicked-back hair with his fingers. "Don't you see that sentiment for family groupings is the same kind of thinking that brought about the creation of the consciousness? Every being must take responsibility for itself. It is the only way our planet will ever reach its full potential."

Trevor nodded, clamping down on the burst of anger he felt at DuPris for reaching in and snatching thoughts out of his head. He hoped there weren't any traces of the anger flickering in his aura. DuPris deserved complete loyalty. It was through him that the beings of the Kindred would gain their freedom.

"The first thing we have to do is reinvigorate the damaged Stone of Midnight." DuPris pulled a piece of velvet out of his pocket. He unwrapped it, revealing the lifeless Stone. "Every day you and I will connect and join powers, then send energy into the Stone. In several weeks it will be back to its full strength," he continued, placing the Stone on the table.

Again DuPris took Trevor's wrist. A few moments later the connection was made, and images from DuPris's mind invaded Trevor's.

An almond-shaped, pupil-less eye being cut from its socket by a clawed finger. A body consumed by fire, tentacles waving until they shriveled to dead strings. A mother and baby felled by a taser blast.

"No. No. Don't make me see it." Trevor's human body responded to his horror, his heart thrashing in his chest.

But the images kept coming. A hand reaching into a metal-studded abdomen as if it were as soft as clay and pulling free the secondary appendage. A young boy being forced to watch as his father was tortured.

Trevor tried to jerk his hand free, but DuPris tightened his grip, fingers brutal. "Little boy, did you actually think a revolution could be fought without blood?" DuPris asked, the question detonating in Trevor's head.

"I misjudged you," DuPris continued. "I thought that you were ready to join the rebel force, to work side by side with me."

"I am," Trevor gasped, fighting against the nausea still sweeping through his body in response to what he'd seen. "I am," he said again, more forcefully. This was what he'd been waiting for his whole life. Nothing was more important than the shattering of the consciousness. Nothing.

"Then join your power with mine," DuPris instructed, loosening his grip slightly.

Trevor focused every molecule of his being on building a power ball with DuPris. Expanding it out, out, out until his body trembled with the strain.

DuPris gave the signal, and he and Trevor hurled their ball of power at the Stone. Trevor opened his eyes-he hadn't even realized he'd closed them-and looked down at the Stone. Some of its green-purple light had returned. Not much more than a flicker. But it was the most beautiful thing Trevor had ever seen.

"You did well." DuPris released Trevor and clapped him on the shoulder. "There are many who brag about being willing to sacrifice anything, then fall apart at the first real test."

Trevor kept his eyes on the Stone. "I want to ask you something," he told DuPris.

"So ask." DuPris sounded bored.

"Michael said you killed… our parents." Trevor forced himself to look directly into the rebel leader's eyes.

"I'm sure you know the history of the cause," DuPris answered. "I stole one of the Stones of Midnight and escaped with it by stowing away on a ship-your parents' ship. I planned to use Earth as my base until I acquired the other two Stones necessary to destroy the consciousness."

Faint threads of red appeared around DuPris, and Trevor realized for the first time that the rebel leader had managed to cloak his aura. Just those few streaks of anger were visible, and they quickly vanished.

"Your parents were the only two members of the rebellion on the ship, something that, of course, was kept secret from the others," DuPris continued. "When the others discovered my presence on the ship, they imprisoned me. They planned to return me to our planet for judgment by the consortium."

Tears sprang to Trevor's eyes. He had learned about the way the human body responded to emotion in the materials given to him by the Kindred, but he was still taken aback every time his feelings affected him physically. He blinked quickly, hoping DuPris hadn't noticed Trevor's wet eyes.

"So you caused the ship to crash," Trevor said, struggling to keep his voice steady.

"A necessary sacrifice. I had to keep the Stone in my possession," DuPris replied.

"A necessary sacrifice," Trevor replied. He understood the logic. The lives of a few beings could not be allowed to cripple the rebellion.

"Any more questions?" DuPris asked. "I want to get back to redecorating the master bedroom. I've chosen a Mr. and Mrs. Brady theme."

"No more questions," Trevor answered.

Within moments DuPris had teleported out of the room.

Trevor returned his gaze to the Stone, allowing its beauty to calm him. The power of the Stones will bring all on my planet freedom, he thought. Freedom.

He'd been taught from childhood that the rebellion demanded sacrifice and that it was a gift to be asked to give an offering.

"I have sacrificed all I have," he whispered. "I have given the rebellion everything. It is an honor." Trevor felt tears sting his eyes again. Frustrated with his body, he wiped them away with his sleeve.