Max struggled against Rufus as best she could as he dragged her out of the warehouse.

"Behave and I won't break anything." He hissed.

~~~

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Max shrieked as she woke up. "LET GO! NO!"

"MAX! MAX IT'S ME!" Fabian was at her side, trying to grab her so she didn't flail and hurt herself.

Panting hard, Max looked around before looking at Fabian. She swallowed hard. "S-Sorry."

"Nothing to forgive...you have the right to be a little upset." Fabian assured her with a soft smile.

Max leaned over and hugged him, which he returned instantly.

First a strange talk with Sarah, then a memory of Rufus.

The universe really didn't want her to relax, did it?

"I'm gonna go on to breakfast and tell Nina about the puzzle piece." He sighed.

Max nodded hesitantly. "Mind filling her in about my chat with Sarah?" She'd woken Fabian up in the middle of the night and told him all about her dream.

He nodded with a smile. "Don't worry about it." With that he left.

~~~

During class, Max found it incredibly hard to concentrate. She couldn't help it, it was like something was watching her.

And that's when she realized the people around her...were Rufus.

Max paled and looked at the seat next to her, to see Rufus smirking down at her. "My dear, I'm afraid I still need you."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Max shrieked, startling the entire class. She shot out of her seat, knocking into some of the other tables as she bolted out. Many from Anubis house went after her, but she quickly got away from them.

~~~

"Max?" She paled when she heard Alfie call out.

For a moment she thought he left, but then someone was grabbing her foot.

She kicked out of instinct and heard Alfie groan. "For such a little guy...you really pack a kick..." He admitted, sliding down against the washing machine. She had hidden in the laundry room. "So what's up? Why the freak out in class?"

Max pinched the bridge of her nose tiredly. "It's...It's no big deal. I didn't sleep well and I think I fell asleep in class without realizing it and had a sort of nightmare."

Alfie bit his lip. "...Does it have to do with those bruises?"

At this, Max subconsciously pulled her sleeve down. The bruises were fading, but he'd seen them when he did his skateboard stunt.

"...Max you don't have to tell me if you don't want to but...were you attacked or something?" Alfie asked hesitantly. "People say that can't happen to guys, but...I've never agreed with that line of thought."

Max swallowed hard. "I..." She took a deep breath. "Look it...it's...something happened and it just stuck with me more than I'd like."

"Yeah I get it. Ever since the whole cellar thing..." Alfie shuddered. "Can't seem to shake that. I get a lot of nightmares about it too."

"...So what do you do?" She asked.

Alfie smiled. "Hang out with people, so I'm not alone." Max smiled. "But...Jerome's kind of abandoned me for Mara."

"...We could hang out." Max offered awkwardly. "I mean, I won't be caught dead with a skateboard, but still." Alfie grinned.

"Sounds good. Listen I want to show you something, I think it's connected to aliens." Max almost rolled her eyes, but she could tell Alfie was being sincere about this.

He took out the puzzle piece Fabian lost, much to her shock. He was telling her about how he thought it was an artifact left by aliens, but she could barely focus on what he was saying.

~~~

Later that evening Max stepped into the living room. The others were in the dining room talking about something, but Fabian was at the couch.

"Prepare to love me." Max grinned, taking out the puzzle piece.

Fabian's jaw dropped. "Is that-" He asked to be sure. She nodded. "MAX OH MY GOSH I LOVE YOU!" She hugged her tightly, making her laugh.

Little did she know the others were watching them curiously, and Nina with a bit of jealousy.

~~~

During the night Nina, Fabian and Max met up in Nina's room with a map of the house. Sarah had come to Nina in a dream as well and gave her some numbers which they thought were coordinates.

"Guys I don't think the numbers are coordinates. It's Sarah's numerology number and date of birth." Nina explained. Amber had been using numerology numbers to match up people romantically earlier, plus they were learning about it a lot in class.

Nina put the numbers in the puzzle piece, and the house began to shake uncontrollably, making things fall of shelves and such.

"Guys..." Max paled. "I think we just woke the house."

~~~

The next morning at breakfast, Trudy was convinced the shaking had been an earthquake, but Alfie insisted it was aliens, much to the amusement of the others.

"Max believes me, don't you Max!?" He asked hopefully. He'd sat next to her during breakfast for once.

Max smiled awkwardly. "Um...I mean, it's a possibility." Alfie seemed pleased with the answer and went after Trudy.

The moment he was gone, Fabian spoke up. "So I've been thinking about the puzzle piece and how Sarah's numbers opened it-"

"Whoa rewind, you guys opened another puzzle piece without me? So rude." Amber snapped.

Max's eyes narrowed. "No offense but last we spoke you and Patricia were out."

"We weren't out..." Patricia sighed. "Just...conflicted."

Amber took a deep breath. "The point is, we're back now. Obviously you guys can't rest until you finish this mystery."

"Thanks Amber." Nina smiled. "Anyways, we still have the other puzzle piece to figure out."

"Do you think we should use the same numbers?" Fabian asked.

Patricia gulped. "Maybe we shouldn't try it. Those noises freaked me out."

"Noises?" Amber questioned.

"The so called earthquake last night." Max explained. "That was us solving the puzzle piece."

Amber's jaw dropped. "Spooky..."

"Let's look at the riddle again." Nina insisted.

Fabian took it out and read it. "My father's father stands tall, his face and hands together turn circles around Isis and Osiris and Horus the son reveals me."

Max paused, thinking it over as Fabian groaned in frustration.

She gasped, grinning. "It's a clock!" She exclaimed, making them all look at her.

"What?" Amber tilted her head.

"A grandfather clock, remember? We were just learning about numerology in class!" Max beamed. Fabian let out a breathy laugh of amazement.

"Max you're brilliant!" Nina all but squealed with excitement.

Sadly though, it was time to go to school, so they didn't get the chance to search around for what clock.

~~~

Later when Max got back to the house she rushed over to the clock and began to turn the hands to get it to three, only for the small hand to break off, much to her horror.

The clock made noise, alerting Victor. Max bolted into the spot under the stairs.

But even worse, Alfie had seen what she was doing and had grabbed the clock piece, only to be caught by Victor.

"What were you doing?" He hissed. "Did you break this?"

Alfie seemed frozen for a moment, glancing briefly to where Max was hiding. Max let out a silent groan and waited for him to rat her out.

But much to her shock, Alfie lied and said he was planning to prank the house by changing the times.

Alfie was put on toilet cleaning duty and sent away, and Victor went upstairs. Fabian and Nina came in to see Max rush back to the clock.

She changed the bigger hand to 3 and something opened, but there was nothing inside.

"Oh man!" She hissed, punching the clock in annoyance.

"I think it's time for another Sibuna meeting." Nina told her.

~~~

"We need to talk about the relics, the house, the earthquake-" Nina started when they all got to her room.

Only for the door to fly open and for Alfie to barge in. "I knew it! What's going on? What do you guys know? Or should I just ask Victor."

The others paled, trying to figure out what to say. And that's when Fabian spoke.

"The thing is Alfie...you were right." Fabian started, making the others look at him. "That was an alien artifact. We're scared aliens have invaded the school and we don't know what they want, so it's very important we keep this to ourselves."

Alfie bought it instantly, looking horrified and also excited. "I'll do some research and figure out what we need to protect ourselves!"

"That's good, take your time!" Alfie rushed out and Fabian shut the door, sighing in relief.

Max groaned. "Now I feel like a jerk. He's been so nice to me and he even took a punishment from Victor for me."

Fabian sighed. "It's for his own good. The less he knows the better."

"Guys can we focus?" Nina asked. "I think the puzzle piece we found in Victor's safe was the one originally hidden in the clock."

Max nodded. "That would explain why it wasn't there."

"But I don't think he was ever able to open it, because he wouldn't know the numbers." She added.

"Sarah's numbers?" Fabian questioned in confusion.

Nina winced.

Max's eyes widened in realization. "...Your numbers?" She asked softly.

Everyone looked at Nina with shock as she nodded timidly.

~~~

Later that night, Sibuna met up in her room again, and Nina entered her numbers in the puzzle piece.

Fabian paled when he saw something behind them. "Guys..." Everyone turned to see what it was.

They couldn't help their gasps of shock and horror.

A message formed on the wall in the room, saying Awaken The Voice. But it was gone in a flash and none of them knew what it meant.

~~~

During class Alfie was telling Max something about aliens, but she was only half listening.

Their lie wouldn't last forever, they'd have to come up with some sort of explanation for Alfie before things got out of hand.

Class started and Alfie tackled a teacher, thinking she was an alien.

Okayyyy maybe things were already out of hand.

~~~

"You want to tell Alfie the truth?" Max questioned in disbelief after class. She, Patricia and Fabian had met up.

Fabian huffed. "Look the alien lie can only get us so far and soon enough Alfie is going to have questions that we won't be able to answer."

"Besides, aren't you guys buddy-buddy now?" Patricia questioned. "I thought you'd be for it honestly."

"She's got a point. Your nightmares have lessened significantly since you started hanging out with Alfie." Fabian added with a smile.

Max scowled. "That's not the point. The point is Alfie could ruin everything! What if he tells everyone?"

"Look Alfie might like pulling pranks, but he's been through enough to know when to take things seriously. Remember the elixir incident? Which is kind of our fault?" Fabian insisted.

Max groaned at the mention of those horrific days. Maybe they did kind of owe him an explanation...

"Let's do it."

They dragged Alfie to a classroom and told him about the puzzle pieces. Only time would tell if it was a mistake or not.

All they could do...was have hope.