Shadow at the Water's edge.

Powers.

He slowly lifted his hand, and pressed the palm against Vivian's. Instantly, they both felt a small energy surge, and their palms began to tingle.

"Alright, now watch." Vivian closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

Alex could see the golden glow emanating from her shoulder blade, and then liquid gold was flowing through her veins, down her arm and converging underneath their linked palms. Alex gasped as he felt the energy from her palm leaking into his own.

"Concentrate on your breathing, take long deep breaths, and focus on the energy you can feel around your mark."

Alex did as he was told, taking a few deep breaths, he slowly became aware of an energetic warmth surging under the skin beneath his mark. He focused on the energy, and slowly his mark began to glow blue. As he continued to focus, blue energy slowly leaked out of his mark, across his shoulder and down his arm, drawn towards Vivian's palm. The moment their energies touched, a power surge shot through both of them.

Vivian gasped, her eyes shining gold. She met Alex's eyes and her eyes widened. "Your eyes..."

He blinked several times, his brows beginning to furrow. "What's wrong with them?"

She smiled. "Nothing...it looks like they've trapped lightning and its trying to escape." Suddenly, their attention was drawn back to their linked palms, as the energy began to glow brighter, their hands swallowed in emerald light. "Our energies are linking together, that's why its green."

Alex smiled. "What does that mean?"

"Our powers are linked, we are twice as strong now then we were a moment ago." She pulled her hand away, and the green energy slowly faded on both of their palms, converting back to blue and gold, and then disappearing entirely. "Once we disconnect though, we return to our normal power level."

Alex examined his now normal looking hand. "So...how do I learn to use my powers?"

Vivian stood up and stretched as she yawned. "I'm not sure. You may learn to just by instinct. Test your abilities using your strength, mental and physical." She glanced at the clock. "It's getting late. I should head to bed."

Alex nodded, wondering how he would be able to sleep tonight with his brain buzzing with all this knew information. Then a thought struck him. "What am I going to tell Nick?"

Vivian looked slightly alarmed as she said quickly. "You can't! He musn't know."

Alex raised his eyebrows. "I can't tell him?"

Vivian shook her head. "You would have to explain everything to him, he would either think you're crazy, or believe you. I don't know which would be worse." She stepped forward and put her hand on his arm, her voice pleading as she said. "Please, Alex, don't tell him. For my sake. There are people out there, evil people, who catch us to harvest our powers for their own use, or sell us as pets."

Alex sighed and put his hands on her shoulders. "Vivian, I won't let anything happen to you. I wouldn't have yesterday, and today I find out that I was destined to protect your Grex. Seeing as you're the only one left, I can't let anything happen to you. So...I won't tell Nick anything. Promise."

She wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you."

He held her tightly. "You'll be safe with me. Go get some sleep."

Vivian glanced at the door reluctantly. "We don't have to get up early, tomorrow's Saturday."

Alex smiled. "I know, but we need to update Libby and Squints. Saturday's we usually go down to the beach, we haven't in a while because of everything that's been going on, but tomorrow might be a good day to restart the tradition."