Arriving (M/L,CC Mature) Chp 25 10/30/11 [WIP]

[6throck]

/Title: Arriving
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. The characters belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, UPN, etc. I'm just borrowing them so they can explain what really happened to them.
Category: Post-Departure. Everything happens exactly like the show, except the very last statement by Max. It's very Dreamer-centric, but I include everyone in it. Warning, Tess lovers, beware
Rating: Mature for now
A/N: I was never satisfied with the way Season 3 picked up after Departure. Nothing was explained to my satisfaction, so I began writing this shortly after Season 3 started and I realized I would have to write my own story if I was to be happy with the fate of my favorite show. I did show a few people some of my early drafts, but not many people have read it. It's just been my own little baby. I decided to post it just in case there are some readers who, like myself, wanted a different life for Max, Liz, and the rest of the gang after Departure. I chose the title of Arriving because I wanted something that was the complete opposite of departure. I used the present participle because the events are still unfolding and their story will continue to live on even after I stop writing. I think I finally decided to post it, so that I have the motivation to finally complete the story. I have a lot of the chapters writen already, and I know where the story is going, but I haven't written it all out yet. If you guys really like it, I'll try to finish it for you.


Thanks to bb and Vanessa for the wonderful banners!!




Prologue


Taking shelter behind one of the bigger rocks on the mountain, watching the imposing hillside with a sense of trepidation, Liz was suddenly pulled into Max’s arms as he shielded her from the blast that exploded violently from the Granolith. She buried her head in his chest, and ran her hands across his back, overwhelmed by the feel of his body next to hers.

It had been so long since he had held her like that. In that one moment, she forgot everything that had happened, between them, and between Max and Tess. Her body responded to his as naturally as it ever had. She felt the length of him against her, his hands running through her hair, his head just above hers, his heart beating rapidly under her face, his unique scent filling her nostrils, and his thighs pressed up against hers, his knees bending to bring their centers closer together.

She felt Max turn back toward the location of the Granolith, and she raised her head to look over his shoulder at the scene behind him. Then, suddenly, another loud blast came from the Granolith, and Max instinctively pulled Liz back into his chest, as his arms circled around her head, protecting her. Liz couldn’t see it, but she knew that second blast must be from the ship that was designed to carry them back to their home planet. But, standing there, holding Max, she quickly blocked that thought out of her mind, and concentrated on freezing this moment in time so she could always remember how wonderful it felt to be in Max’s arms again.

But, the moment was over as quickly as it began. They turned and looked at the nearly cloudless sky, with only a faint smoke trail to mark the ship’s Departure from the top of the cliff that housed the Granolith.

The shock of what had just happened in the Granolith chamber came rushing back; exposing Tess as a liar, revealing that she had killed Alex and then set-up the “accident” using Kyle to help her, mindwarping him in the process, and now taking off in the ship for home, carrying Max’s child. Conflicting emotions were running high in Liz’s mind and body, when Max turned to look at her, and really looked at her, deep into her eyes.

“I’ve been really wrong about a lot. But I was right about one thing, to get you into my life, to be around you. To love you.”

Gazing into his eyes, Liz could feel his love for her and knew that he was speaking from his heart. She couldn’t keep her hands from touching him, from holding onto his arm as he held her face as lovingly as he had many times before. She felt a sudden surge of happiness at hearing Max’s admission that she was his strength and that he loved her. She returned her arms to his shoulders as he pulled her head back into his chest again. Then, they turned and continued down the mountain, Liz’s hand clasped tightly within Max’s.

But Isabel’s question to Max again brought Liz painfully back to reality.

"What happens now, Max?"

As Max stopped, thinking about this question, Liz realized that things would never—no, could never be the same between them. No longer holding hands, the canyon winds whipped through Liz’s hair, chilling only her skin, but Max’s next words sent a heart-breaking chill through her soul.

“I have to save my son.”

My son . . . .

My son . . .

Max’s son . . .






Chapter One-The Aftermath





Max and Tess’s son . . .

Liz bolted straight out of bed, heart pounding against her chest, her sheets soaked in sweat, her fingers clenched tightly. For a moment she thought Max actually had spoken those words out loud. But, as the last remnants of the dream faded away, she realized that she had just imagined he had said that. They were unspoken words. But, they were words that were foremost in Max’s mind, and Liz knew it. He may not have said it out loud, but Liz was certain he had thought it. It was like she had seen into his mind at that very moment and had read that statement emblazoned upon his brain, like the Royal Seal that was also branded there.

As she looked around and observed her surroundings and saw that she was in her own bed, Liz looked quickly at the clock on her table. Had it only been a couple of hours? It felt like a lifetime ago.

After stopping Max from leaving and watching the ship take off, the rest of it all blurred together--climbing down the rocks, calling Valenti, devising the cover story, driving back into town and agreeing to meet at the UFO center later. Liz hadn’t even had the chance to talk to Maria yet. She knew something had happened, something that had to do with Michael’s decision to stay, but there had been no time to discuss the subject yet.

At least Valenti knew what was going on. That was one area that they didn’t need any more trouble with--the law. Although Valenti was not the sheriff anymore, he still had pull and they naturally went to him with all their official public problems, like dealing with the trashed jeep.

The jeep.

Liz had some fond memories of that jeep; she even had a pet name for it--Bob. Images starting flashing in her mind—images of riding in Bob with Max on the old highway during the day, and out to the radio tower on highway 42 at night. Memories of sitting with Max in the jeep at the roadblock, kissing in front of the Crashdown, and making out at Buckley Point. Of course, all that was before Tess came into the picture. The arrival of Tess brought on new problems, eventually leading the four of them, Max, Isabel, Michael and Tess, to send the jeep over the edge of the road, setting it ablaze with their powers.

Nothing could be done for it now. And as she thought about everything that had just happened and everything that almost happened, the tears started to pour uncontrollably from her eyes.

~~~~~

Valenti had driven out to the cliffs that day in the late 70’s blue Chevy pickup he had been driving since losing his job as Sheriff. Max refused to let Liz out of his sight, so he and Liz went with Valenti in the truck. Michael, driving the Jetta with Maria, Isabel, and Kyle, followed close behind. Max explained what they had discovered about Tess in the Granolith chamber to Valenti on the way, but he left out the details of Tess’s full plan and his last few moments alone with her. He needed to wait to tell everyone that all at once. Max glanced over at Liz. She just sat there woodenly, trying to reconcile her heart with her mind. She truly loved Max, and she knew that he loved her, but he had done so many things that hurt her. He had slept with Tess and gotten her pregnant. She just didn’t know if it was possible to get beyond that right now. Back at the rocks, Liz had let her emotions rule her actions, blocking out everything else that had happened. Now, she needed to keep her emotions in check.

They stood at the edge of the road and looked down at the wreckage. No one spoke for a moment. Watching the still smoldering pieces of the jeep, everyone realized how close they had come to really ending everything. Maria clung to Michael, a sob starting in her throat. Isabel, coming out of shock after the revelations at the Granolith chamber, now regained her senses and let the tears flow down her cheeks. Max and Liz stood side by side, not saying a word, but after a few seconds, Max automatically reached for Liz’s hand and she accepted it. Kyle and Valenti looked solemnly on.

Valenti broke the unspoken silence by telling everyone, “Ok, here’s what I’ll do, I’m going to call in a report to Hanson, telling him that Max came to me this morning regarding Tess.”

Liz still shuddered at the sound of Tess’s name being spoken aloud after everything they had found out about her and everything Tess had taken from her, personally. Max felt her stiffen, and knowing the reason for her shudder, was torn between comforting her and keeping his distance. He decided to increase the pressure of his hand around hers slightly, giving her hand a small squeeze. Liz didn’t look up at him, but she didn’t take her hand away either. Max knew that he had to get some answers quickly, because only when he figured out what had happened--only then could he ever begin to try and repair his relationship with Liz.

Valenti continued, “I’ll tell Hanson that Max told me that he and Tess got into a fight about something and that she took off in the jeep. He told me which direction she went and I went after her. This way they won’t question why Max came to me and not Sheriff Hanson since I’m Tess’s guardian.”

Max nodded in approval. They had gotten Valenti into a lot of trouble in the last few months, which raised a lot of suspicion about Valenti and his involvement with Max and Isabel and Laurie DuPree, resulting in a hearing and the loss of Valenti’s job as Sheriff. No one wanted to renew suspicion again.

“When I determined that she might be heading out of town on the highway, I drove this direction and saw the smoke from the crashed jeep rising from the ditch. I called Hanson and reported the accident and asked him to send for medical help immediately, fearing that Tess might still have been in the jeep when it went over the side.”

It was Isabel’s turn to react to Valenti’s words. She had been in shock at the chamber, finding out that Tess was responsible for Alex’s death.

Alex.

The one she never really appreciated until it was almost too late. The man who still came to her in dreams, trying to get her to move on without him, but only causing her heart to ache for him more.

Alex.

Isabel’s tears started to run afresh again, only to be stopped short by the anger that now ran through her veins. When Valenti made the comment about believing that Tess might have been in the jeep when it crashed, Isabel’s blood stirred and she suddenly wished with all her might that Tess really was dead!

No. Wait. She wanted Tess alive so that she could make her as miserable as she had made Isabel feel after losing Alex, and then she’d take matters into her own hands. For a brief moment, Isabel felt a faint glimmer of the guilt she had been consumed with after killing Whitaker, but she quickly brushed that aside. That was the old Isabel’s feelings of guilt. Isabel felt as if she had died last week when Max had forbidden her, threatened her, into not leaving Roswell. But now a new Isabel had surfaced--one that just two nights ago had reconciled with her brother. And this new Isabel was a warrior who didn’t have any qualms about killing another enemy. She refocused on Valenti’s story.

Valenti continued, “We’ll search the wreckage for a body, and when one doesn’t turn up, I’ll suggest that she made it out before the crash, or that she staged it herself, because of her argument with Max. She’ll be labeled as a missing person, not dead, in case she ever turns up again.”

At these words, Michael’s head snapped up. He was just about to tell Valenti that Tess’s next appearance in Roswell would be her last, but before he could say anything, Valenti stopped him. Then, Michael realized he was not the only one about to deny that possibility. Isabel, Max, and even Kyle looked like they were about to say the exact same thing he had just been thinking.

Valenti said, “I know exactly what you were are about to say, and I can’t say that my mind isn’t going there, too. She was living in my house. My God! She killed him right there in MY HOUSE!” Valenti ran his hands through his hair in disbelief.

Maria’s quiet sob pierced the eerie echo that last statement made off the nearby tunnel behind them. Michael pulled Maria to him and planted a kiss on top of her head, trying his best to comfort her.

Valenti got control of himself again, and continued, “I need to take at least two of you back with me into town, since you can’t all fit in Amy’s car. But, I’ll need to hurry back here without being seen so my story will connect. Max?”

Valenti’s last question to Max was just one more reminder that it was Max who was really in charge here. Valenti was handling the logistics of this situation, but it was Max who was really calling the shots. Max thought for a few seconds as he quickly devised a plan, and then he spoke.

“I’ll go with you and I think . . . Kyle should be the second person. Everyone else can go back in the Jetta.”

When Kyle heard his name, he quickly looked over at Max. He assumed that Max would want Liz with him, or at least Michael or Isabel. Kyle couldn’t figure out why Max had chosen him.

Kyle wasn’t the only one who showed surprise at this decision. Isabel and Michael were also looking at Max strangely. Isabel quickly glanced at Liz to see how she was reacting to this news, but she was surprised to see Liz looking straight ahead at seemingly nothing.

Isabel felt an immediate sense of guilt and sorrow for this girl who had managed to get twisted up in their crazy lives and had been hurt again and again by simply falling in love her brother. Isabel flinched at this thought too, as she thought to herself, “Well, you haven’t been exactly nice to her lately either.” She had been so caught up in her own grief at Alex’s loss that she realized that Liz had been through a lot too. In fact, she realized that she had never really accepted Liz into their lives. She had always seen her as an outsider, someone who could never understand what it was like to be them. Isabel had let Tess in because she was just like them, another alien. She had thought that Max was careless and foolish to have relationship with Liz, but she could see now that Max was better when he was with Liz. During these last few weeks when Max was with Tess, he had been different. He was mean, controlling, and cruel, almost like he wasn’t Max anymore.

Michael spoke up, “Kyle? But . . .”

Max stopped him. “I know we all have to have a talk. A long talk. We have to figure a lot of things out, but we’ll have to do it a little later. Right now, we need to get moving with the plan. If we are spotted in the truck before Valenti gets back to the site to make the call, it will be easier to explain if Kyle and I are with Valenti. It will seem like we are all looking for Tess.” Max looked around to see if they understood this reasoning. He didn’t want to tell them his other reason for wanting Kyle with him.

Michael nodded, accepting this explanation. Isabel nodded too, and Max turned to Kyle to see if he accepted this as well. Kyle shrugged his shoulders and attempted humor by saying, “You’re the boss, Señor Presidente.”

Liz, who had been silent during this whole exchange, lost in her own internal conflict, jerked at these words. They had been meant to lighten the mood a bit, but the memory of the circumstances under which they were spoken the last time brought chills to Liz. It was when Nicholas had made all the humans in town appear to have vanished. He had installed a giant, green rod into a sign outside of town, which, according to Courtney, had imposed one of the multiple subset dimensions of time that existed on their home planet on the town. Humans couldn’t deal with this, so they shifted somewhere else. Kyle, Liz, and Maria were leaving to try to destroy it, but they knew they might disappear at any moment as well.

She had wanted to tell Max then—tell him all about Future Max and why she staged that scene with Kyle. Max knew now that she hadn’t actually slept with Kyle, but he still didn’t know why. Why hadn’t she told him the whole story in the jeep? She didn’t really know, unless it was because she didn’t want to tell him that she had done it to get Max and Tess together, since it was quite obvious that it had worked. She just couldn’t tell him. Not right then. Nothing she could have told him about why she did it would have made Max stay, not when he had to leave to save the baby.

Max must have seen her flinch, or else he sensed it because he turned to her and pulled her aside quickly. He turned back to the others and said, “Go. Go back into town. We’ll all meet at the UFO center at . . .” Max checked his watch and did some quick calculations, “ . . . at 10 o’clock.” That gave them 4 hours.

“Brody is out of town for the day picking up a shipment of new alien ‘artifacts.’ He’s closed the Center for the day so we have the whole place to ourselves. Ok, that’s the plan. Everyone, get back in your cars, I need to talk to Liz a minute.” Michael, Maria, and Isabel headed for the Jetta. Kyle and Valenti climbed in the truck. Max turned back to Liz.

“Liz, listen.”

“Max, I know that you meant what you said back there, but . . .”

“Wait. Just hear me out Ok? I know that things are still not right between us. But after finding out about Tess. . . Well . . . I think we have a lot of things to talk about. She told me something . . . I . . .I can’t tell you everything right now, I have something I have to do first. But, I promise you Liz, I’m going to figure all this out!”

Max held her head in her hands and forced her to look into his eyes, desperately trying to read her emotions. His next move had nothing to do with his last statement; it was just something he had to do.

Liz wasn’t sure what her next thoughts were, because just then Max’s lips descended upon hers. Liz lost herself to the moment for the second time that morning, as she gave herself to Max right then, deepening the kiss slightly, yet still holding back. But, man! How she missed those kisses! The way his lips captured hers and pulled at them, as if he was trying to suck her whole body into his. No one could kiss her like Max could!

Max pulled back, slightly out of breath from her kiss, but his hands remained on her face, cupping it gently. “I just need you to be by my side on this. Tess had a plan, and if she was willing to mindwarp Alex and Kyle to achieve this goal, then she may have mindwarped others as well. We need to know the extent of things she did.”

He watched Liz’s eyes as she realized what he might be implying. He felt her relax a bit, and he knew before she had to say it, that she was with him.

“I need to talk to you before we meet with the others at ten. Are you working today?”

Liz had to think for a moment. Today was Sunday. Liz’s mind sought out the mental picture of the work chart in the backroom of the Crashdown and visualized the schedule. Thinking about real life was sometimes just as hard as thinking about this current situation.

“Yeah, I’m on the morning shift. But, I can get my dad to let me switch with someone else. I know Linda was looking for some extra money before the summer break. I’m sure she’ll cover for me.”

“Great, I’ll come over in a little while, after I get back into town,” Max replied.

Liz turned to walk toward the Jetta. Max called after her one last time.

“Liz, ah . . . Thank you for coming for me.”

Liz, gave him a small smile, “I didn’t want to lose you, Max.” She hurried on to the waiting Jetta and climbed in beside Isabel in the backseat.

Max continued to watch Liz in the backseat window until the Jetta was out of sight.

“Let’s go, Max,” Valenti called.

Max climbed in beside Kyle in the truck, and Valenti pulled out and headed back into town.

[6throck]

A/N-Thanks for the feedback everyone. And also for the offers for banners. I've still got to think of some great images that will encompass the entire story, so I'll get back to you soon. I've put this story on hold for so long, that now that I'm getting back into this world, I want to keep going.

So, without further ado, Chapter 2

(P.S) I don't have a beta, so I hope everything reads well.



Chapter 2-Kyle’s Story





As he drove quickly down the highway, watching for any cars on the road, Valenti said, “Max, I still have that videotape you gave me to give to your parents. It’s in the glove box there. You should probably take it now.”

Max pushed the release button on the glove box and saw the tape that he and Isabel had made just a few hours ago, trying to explain to their parents why they were leaving. Of course, they hadn’t told them everything. Not on a tape that could mistakenly get into the wrong hands and start suspicions about them and about Liz and the shooting again. They said just enough to let them know they loved them and that they had to go. Max felt a sudden pang of guilt at knowing what his mother’s reaction to hearing that tape would have been.

“Thanks. I’ll make sure we tape over this as soon as possible. Maybe with Isabel’s graduation.”

That was a semi-pointed thought. Although he should have been pleased at learning about Isabel’s early graduation, all he could think about was that she couldn’t leave them. They had to stay together. He had been so cruel to her, threatening her. Max couldn’t believe that he had acted like that. He had never done anything like that before. This thought brought him back to the present and the questions that he needed to ask Kyle.

“Kyle?”

“Yeah, Max?”

“I need to ask you some things. About Tess.”

“Well, I don’t know how much I can tell you, but fire away.”

“When you were being mindwarped, did you ever have any feelings of being controlled, compelled to do things that you didn’t want to do?”

Kyle looked at him and said, “Well, I just now realized that I had been mindwarped. I didn’t remember it until this morning.”

Max nodded and said, “Ok. Let’s start with that. How did you figure it out? What made you realize you had been mindwarped?”

Kyle realized that Max’s tone had changed considerably since the Granolith chamber. It was no longer accusatory. He seemed very interested in hearing Kyle’s explanation.

Kyle thought back to Maria’s and Liz’s visit to him just a few hours ago. “Maria and Liz came over to see me early this morning and told me that Tess had been mindwarping me. I didn’t believe it. They told me to just look around the room, to see if something seemed strange, out of place.” I was standing by the dresser when I looked up into the mirror. Then it all came back. I remembered seeing Alex standing in the doorway--the mirror reflects the doorway when you stand right in front of it--and I saw Alex standing there and then I remembered the whole scene. Alex was begging Tess to stop mindwarping him. That she had been doing it for two months while he was in Las Cruces deciphering the book.”

Max blurted out, “Two months!? She had been mindwarping him for two months? How could she have done that?”

Kyle replied, “I know don’t. I don’t know how your alien power stuff works. I’m just telling you what I remember Alex saying.”

“Ok, Ok, keep going.” Max’s mind was reeling with this information.

Kyle gulped and continued, “I guess I must have heard the argument and I came into her room and saw her with Alex. I tried to get them to calm down, and Tess grabbed Alex trying to get him to stop talking. He told her not to mindwarp him again, that there was nothing left. She must have tried to do it again, and he . . . he just collapsed on the floor. The rest is fuzzier. I remember dragging his body to the car and putting it in, but at the time I thought it was her duffle bag that I was putting in her car.

“I’m so confused, Evans. It was like she not only erased my memory of what really happened, but then made me see something that wasn’t there. She knew I would never take Alex’s body to the car if I knew what it really was, so she made me think it was a duffle bag.”

Max was thinking of something to say to Kyle, but before he could come up with a response Kyle’s words interrupted him.

“But, wait. Something else isn’t right. I remember watching Gladiator with her that night. How could I have been watching Gladiator with her, if she was staging the accident with Alex’s car?! Shit! She must have made me think that she was there with me the whole time, when she wasn’t!” Kyle’s voice was breaking at having to relive those events again. “I can’t believe I helped her carry the body. I helped her cover up Alex’s death.”

Valenti put his arm around Kyle and gave him a quick hug. “It’s Ok, son. We know that you couldn’t help him. You couldn’t have known what she was doing to you.”

Kyle turned and leaned into his father shoulder, accepting the comfort he offered, but still not totally able to shake his feelings of responsibility in the cover-up.

Max was going over everything that Kyle said again and again. Before he knew it, they were at the edge of town, and Valenti had pulled over to the side. Luckily, no one had been on the road with them so far.

Max opened the door and he and Kyle jumped out of the truck. Before they shut the door again, Valenti leaned over and quickly said to them, “Stick to the back roads. It’s only about a mile back to the center of town. Max, go straight home. Play the story out at home for your parents in case the police decide to question them. Tell them you ran over to my house after Tess left to tell me what happened.”

“Kyle, you should stay at home, to seem like you’re waiting for Tess in case she comes back. I’ll call you after I get back to the accident site, to tell you what I found. That way a call will be logged in. Max, I’ll need to call you too, so make sure you’re there.”

Valenti wasn’t sure what Max had said to Liz just before they left, but he suspected he was planning on going over to her house soon.

Max nodded in agreement. “I’ll be there.” He shut the door and Valenti pulled a U-Turn and sped off back down the road he had just come on, needing to get back to the jeep quickly.

Max and Kyle headed off to get out of sight from the road. They both walked in silence for a while. Max was thinking about Tess and the mindwarps, when suddenly he remembered something else that he had just learned this morning.

“Kyle?”

“Max?” Kyle replied in the same tone.

“Liz told me something that I need to talk to you about.”

Kyle’s eyes narrowed at this statement. He knew what Liz must have told him, but he waited for Max to say it first.

“She told me that you had never slept together. Is that true? Why? Why did she do it?”

Kyle didn’t know what to say. “I don’t know, Max, and that’s the truth. She wouldn’t tell me why, just that we had to do it. She somehow knew that you were going to come to her room that night, so she staged the scene in the bed.”

She knew? She knew he was coming over that night? How? Max’s mind was running a million miles a minute.

“Max? I swear nothing happened. She laid down all these ground rules before we even got into the bed. Underwear had to remain on. She said something about kissing, and not using tongue, but it never came to that. We didn’t even touch at all.”

“I heard you. You were both laughing.” Max’s eyes were unfocused as he began to speak, caught up in the memory of that night that he could never forget.

“I hadn’t heard Liz laugh in a long time. I wasn’t sure who she was with so I walked closer. I heard her say something about this being nice, about it feeling good, and I looked in and saw you both in bed together. Her leg was exposed and it was bare. She looked up at me and I saw this look of guilt on her face. I lost it. I couldn’t breathe. I had to get out of there. I must have dropped the concert tickets, but I don’t remember doing it. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground jumping into the jeep and driving. I don’t know where I was going, I was just driving.”

Kyle could see that Max was lost in that memory. “We were talking about how long it had been since we had really talked together, and that I had made her laugh. That’s what she meant, nothing else.” Kyle’s tone grew more serious. “Max. You should have seen her face after you left. She was devastated. I have never seen her look so hurt before. I thought that maybe she was doing this because you pissed her off or something, but this was not for revenge. She looked like that was the last thing she ever wanted to do to you, yet she did it anyway. She must have had another reason,” Kyle surmised. “Liz just doesn’t do things without a plan.”

Max brought himself back from that awful memory. Kyle was right. Liz wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t have a plan. He would find out from Liz what really happened. He had to know. It was critical to his goal to repair his relationship with Liz.

Max suddenly flashed back to a few moments ago when he had felt compelled to kiss Liz by the side of the road. He had felt her open up a little to him, but he knew she was still holding back, not releasing herself fully to him. But, something had started to come through. Not flashes, more like impressions or feelings. He caught a sense of fear and hope coming from her in that moment. He hadn’t been trying to get flashes from her, but maybe next time he would.

They continued on, walking in silence, until they came to the road where they had to part ways.

Max turned to Kyle and said, “Thanks, Kyle. Thanks for telling me everything. I know that you must be having a hard time with this, but I don’t blame you, and I know Alex wouldn’t want you to feel responsible.”

Kyle looked at Max and said, “I know. I need to do some meditation on this, some deep mediation. But, first, I think I need to clean out my room and get rid of anything that is left of her.”

“Wait, Kyle! Don’t throw anything away. We may be able to use it to help with more clues. Just put it aside and we’ll deal with it later. Remember, come to the UFO center at 10. I really need you there.”

Again, Kyle was shocked at this statement from Max. Max had never told Kyle he needed him like this. The last time he asked Kyle for a favor was back when he asked him to sneak into his father’s office to find those weird Gandarium things. But, that was different. Even though it was to help his dad, Kyle still felt like he was being used. This time, however, he didn’t feel that way. He genuinely felt Max’s need for his support.

“I’ll be there. Do you need me to bring anything?”

Max looked at him solemnly. “No. But, I may need you to repeat some of your feelings after learning you were mindwarped.”

Kyle nodded and turned back towards the other street. Max started to walk away, but turned and called Kyle’s name. Kyle turned around and asked, “Yes?”

Max responded, “I just wanted to let you know that I’m glad you were there for Liz, that you helped her when she needed you. Mind you, I don’t like what you did, but I know it was for Liz and I’ll have to find out why she felt like she had to do it. Thanks for being her friend.”

Kyle accepted this, and merely nodded back. Then he turned back and continued down the street to his house.

Max continued walking home, trying to think of a story to tell his mom about the events of that morning, the video tape stuck into the back of his jeans, rubbing against his back as he walked.

~~~~~

Michael had dropped Isabel off at her house about 10 minutes earlier. They had traveled most of the way from the accident site in silence, each one caught up in their own personal thoughts.

Isabel went straight to her room, careful not to wake her parents. She pulled out her Prom picture of her and Alex and drifted off to sleep, clutching the picture to her chest.

Meanwhile, Michael had pulled the Jetta up in the alley at the back of the Crashdown. As Liz got out of the backseat, Maria quickly grabbed her hand. “We’ll talk later, babe. I need to tell you something. But, Liz, we did it. We got them back!”

Liz gave Maria a quick smile and squeezed her hand back. “I know,” she said simply and she turned and quickly scaled the very steps that had brought Max to her balcony on so many occasions. She climbed in her bedroom window and quickly called Linda to ask her to cover for her today. Then she went over to her desk and removed the tissue-wrapped object in the drawer that she had kept ever since she was given it over a year ago.

She returned to her bed and lay down, pulling out the alien pendant from her pocket and unwrapped the item in the tissue paper. She stared a long time at the two objects, thinking that these might have been the only things she would have had of Max if he had left. The distressing turmoil of the last few hours finally hit her, and the emotional overload drained her of strength and she fell into an exhausted sleep.

In the car below the Crashdown, Maria turned to Michael. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you were going to stay for me.” Maria reached out and caressed the side of Michael’s face with her hand. Their eyes locked and she knew he felt the same way. Without saying another word, Michael quickly pulled out onto the street with only one destination in mind—his apartment.

[6throck]

A/N -Thanks for the feedback everyone. My son's Eagle project went great and I had him writing Thank You cards this morning. We should be able to get all his paperwork done soon. I was so exhausted I could have gone to bed at 7pm last night.

Ok, here's Chapter 3. I know it won't answer a lot of questions, but we're getting there. I'm doing some rewrites of previously written chapters as new inspiration has come to me, getting back into this story after so long. This chapter isn't really long, so I'll be back this week sometime to post the next chapter.



Chapter 3-Max’s Experiment




As soon as Max arrived home, he headed straight for his room, putting the videotape in a secure spot using some alien powers. He had only left his room a few hours ago, but somehow it seemed like he was seeing it for the first time. He remembered Kyle’s explanation of how he had realized he had been mindwarped, and so he started to look around his own room for a sign of something that seemed out place.

As he walked slowly around the room, Max caught sight of the postcard of the Vegas strip that he bought when Michael had taken everyone to Vegas. As he reached out to hold it, he remembered that trip with mixed emotions. He hadn’t really wanted to go, but he went for Michael. Yet, he didn’t allow himself to relax and enjoy the time away from Roswell. He was still acting out the part of the king, the leader, trying to make sure Michael stayed out of trouble, and ultimately not allowing Michael to do what he needed to do to heal from his ordeal after being shot.

But, that night in Vegas was great! He changed his mind about going back early, and he had found Liz sitting alone at the table and asked her to dance. She was so beautiful in that red dress with her hair pulled back away from her face. They had danced that night for hours, never tiring. He felt like he could have danced forever with her. She felt so right in his arms.

That memory of them dancing together brought him to the next memory of them dancing together at the Prom. This time though, things were different. Liz told him that she felt like she was suffocating, that she felt like he was always going to come to her and tell her that he remembered Tess and that he loved Tess, not her. He remembered how her eyes had been pleading with him to tell her that wasn’t true. He wanted to comfort her and tell her that would never happen, but something had caused him to hold back. He didn’t know what it was, but at that moment he could clearly picture in his mind the memory of seeing Tess back on his planet and the feelings he had for her.

Max compared the two memories and wondered how things had changed so much in such a short time. It all began when he saw that flash of Larak’s memories of Zan and Tess when he healed Brody. It was after he told Tess about it that he started to remember some of his previous life on his planet. At first, he was so excited. He even shared his memories with Liz. But as he worked on the retrievals more and more with Tess, he started to remember feelings as well.

Feelings about Tess.

He never even suspected Tess might have been using her powers on him, but now . . . knowing about her plan to get pregnant, he wasn’t sure about anything he had felt regarding Tess. Instead, he concentrated on places in his room where Tess had recently been. He came to his bed and the memory of how Tess had worked with him on the memory retrieval came rushing back to him. Had she really been helping him find his memories, or was she using her powers to make him see something that didn’t happen?

He decided to try it on his own, to see if he could do it without Tess. He sat down on his bed and concentrated like Tess had taught him. He started with the memories that he had already retrieved, and tried to expound on them. But, when he tried to think specifically about that memory of him swimming in the water, he had a difficult time visualizing it. It seemed hazy; out of focus. He relaxed more, trying to block out his emotions about what had just happened that morning with Tess. Still, the feelings that had been there with that memory before were gone, like how the water felt like jello around his body. Even the image of the water, the moons, and the cliff were harder to see than before. Max panicked and tried to pick another memory, but it was the same as before. All the emotions and feelings were gone, and the vision of the actual events was faint. It was as if all those memories had been poured into a giant sieve, and he was helpless to hold onto them as they slowly drained from his mind.

In desperation, Max tried one last memory, one that just happened recently here on earth. He hadn’t wanted to think about it yet; in fact he wanted to block it out. He thought back to that night at the observatory. He remembered going there after Liz got into the cab and left for the airport. He didn’t know why he went there, he just seemed drawn there. Tess showed up. He remembered telling her he wanted to wake up, that this was all a dream, and then . . . he remembered waking up the next morning, naked and lying next to Tess.

He tried to think about what happened in between those two events, but it was hard to remember. How did they get inside the building? Were there guards? Did they sneak by them? Max couldn’t remember.

He began to race around his room, staring intently at every object, hoping to get a flash of something, anything that would confirm he had been mindwarped. Nothing!! In frustration, he ran his hands through his hair. Instantly, his frenzied pacing came to a halt as a wonderful scent filled his nostrils.

Liz.

He could smell her! Max’s eyes frantically scanned the room to discover where this delightful fragrance was coming from. He began a new race around the room, picking up every article he could find and smelling it, searching for the source of her scent. It only took him a couple minutes to completely destroy all semblance of order in his room before he finally found the object of his search and the source of the smell.

His hands.

She was all over them.

His mind went back over the last few hours; from the time he kissed Liz in the jeep, to the recent kiss by the roadside just a few minutes ago. He had held her face in his hands both times, and also during his declaration of love outside the Granolith chamber. Her scent had imbedded itself in the flesh of his hands.

It reminded him of those wonderful weeks when they had been together last year. He would go home every night and smell her all over him—his jacket, his clothes, and especially his hands. He loved to touch her face, knowing that he would be able to carry a part of her with him wherever he went.

Dear Lord!! He had forgotten how delicious she smelled! He couldn’t get enough of her. Max sat down on the edge of his bed and buried his face in his hands, inhaling the exhilarating scent of Liz that had mated itself with the skin of his hands.

Suddenly, his phone began to ring, jerking him out of his reverie. He quickly picked it up.

“Max, I’m back at the scene.”

“Sheriff?” Max asked, recognizing Valenti’s voice.

“It’s Jim, Max. Just call me Jim.”

“Right, of course. I’m sorry.” Max replied, remembering now why he was calling.

Valenti continued, “Max, I’ve already called Hanson and the ambulance crew. They should be here in a few minutes. After we look and can’t find the body, I’ll suggest that Tess trashed the jeep and took off on her own. Hanson will probably want to talk to you and your parents, since it was their jeep.”

“How soon will that be?” Max asked.

“Pretty soon, Max. You’d better tell your mom the story and prepare her for Hanson.”

“How long do you think the questions will take?” Max wanted it to be quick. He still had to see Liz and talk to her before meeting the others.

“I’m not sure. Hanson’s pretty thorough, but hopefully, not more than an hour. Just make sure your parents are right there. They can help speed things along if he starts asking too many questions. After all, she’s the one who took your jeep. You don’t know much more than that.”

“Ok, Jim. Thanks. I’ll go tell them right now.” Max sighed. He may not have much time to talk to Liz after talking with Hanson, but he would make time. He had to talk to her alone first.

“You’re welcome, Max, and good luck. Oh! I think I hear the sirens. They’re here now. I’ve got to go. Bye, Max.” Valenti hung up.

Max hung up the phone too, and decided it was time to tell his mom the “story” they had come up with about Tess taking the Jeep. He got up from his bed, and walked towards his door. He looked back at his room again, and resolved to find out everything he could about what had been happening to him these last few weeks.

~~~~~~~~~

Hanson had just pulled away from the house, when Mrs. Evans turned back to her son.

“Well, I hope they find her. But, I don’t understand what would have caused her to stage an accident like that.” Diane Evans turned to her husband and gave him a quick hug.

“At least it wasn’t you or your sister in that jeep.” Max’s mom looked at her son sitting on the couch. “I don’t know what I would have done if they had found that jeep in the ravine like that and you and Isabel had been missing.”

Max looked guiltily over at Isabel who was holding back tears. They had been planning that very thing just hours before. The videotape hidden in his room was proof of that. He decided ask Isabel to delete the footage on there as soon as possible instead of waiting until her graduation to tape over it.

Isabel looked at her mom, the tears shinning in her eyes. “But, it wasn’t us, Mom. We’re just fine. I’m sorry about the jeep though.” Isabel couldn’t hold back the tears anymore, and began to cry.

Diane went over to her daughter and wrapped her arms around her. “I know it wasn’t, honey. It’s Ok. It was just a jeep. You don’t need to cry.” Diane looked at her husband with that last remark, wondering why her daughter was crying over losing the jeep.

Phil Evans picked up on the look from his wife, and responded. “That’s right, Izzy. Don’t worry. We'll get you guys another car to drive. Meanwhile, I’m sure your mom will let you borrow her car when you need it.”

Max saw his mother’s puzzled look and tried to help cover for Isabel’s outburst of emotions. “Thanks Mom, Dad. I’m sure Isabel’s fine. It’s just been an emotional time for her the last couple of weeks.” He didn’t want to mention Alex’s name out loud. Not yet. He hoped his mom would pick up on his inference anyway.

“Of course it has.” His mom said, sympathetically, picking up instantly on Max’s clue. “We understand.”

Isabel struggled to regain her composure and slowly stopped crying. “I’m Ok, Mom. It’s just I suddenly thought what it might have been like for you to think you lost us, and I realized how fragile things can get. That we can think we have everything we need, and then they are suddenly taken away from us.”

Max looked at the clock restlessly. He really needed to go see Liz.

“Mom? I need to go see Liz and tell her what happened.” Max had told his mom that part of the argument that he and Tess had gotten into had to do with Liz, and Tess’s jealously over Liz due to the fact that Max wasn’t completely over her.

“That’s fine, honey. I think you should.” His mom replied. “We’ll be here in case they find out anything about Tess.” She was secretly pleased that Max was still semi-involved with Liz. Although she had had reservations about his relationship with the dark-haired beauty last year, she knew her son really had cared a lot about her. He just hadn’t been the same this last year since they had broken up.

“Do you need to borrow the car?” Phil asked his son, putting his hand on his son’s shoulder and giving it a slight squeeze. He too, was grateful that his son hadn’t been involved in that accident with the jeep.

“No, but thanks, Dad,” Max answered. “I want to clear my head anyway, and walking will help. Oh, and I might stop by the UFO Center later. Brody’s getting in a new shipment of supplies, and I thought I’d go over and offer my help.” Max decided to take advantage of his parents’ generosity and tell them he planned to be gone most of the day.

“That’s fine, Max. I’m sure Brody will appreciate the help.” Diane replied. “Just let us know if you’re going to be too late.”

“Thanks, Mom. I will.” Max quickly gave his mom a peck on the cheek and practically sprinted out the door. He checked his watch. It was just about 9 am. He would still have about an hour to talk to Liz before meeting with the others. He broke into a jog as he headed over to Liz’s.


Next installment
Chapter 4 Revelations

[6throck]

A/N-Ok, so I couldn't wait anymore to post the next part. I'm going to be busy Wednesday and Thursday and I didn't want to wait until Friday. I know I probably won't be able to satisfy everyone's expectations with regards to Max and Liz's talk, but I've tried to stay true to the characters as much I could, still aiming for the Dreamer ending I so deperately crave. This is only part of their talk, though. Things don't finish here.



Chapter 4-Revelations





Liz emerged from her bathroom after taking a quick shower, trying to wash away the memories of that dream and the tears from her eyes. She had just gotten dressed and was picking up the two items she had placed on her dresser, intending to return them to her desk drawer when she heard a knock on her window. She whirled around, startled, and stared right into Max’s beautiful amber eyes. She felt her heart leap at the sight of his face, and tried to rein in her emotions as she walked across her room to open her window for Max, shoving both items in her back pocket as she went.

“Hey, Max. How did everything go this morning?” Liz tried to lighten the mood a little, and prolong the uncomfortable discussion that she knew was coming.

“Ok. Sheriff Hanson came over and asked me a bunch of questions about Tess.” Max watched Liz’s face for signs of her feelings. Her face had been freshly scrubbed. Most likely during the shower she had just taken, guessing by the scent of strawberries and the sight of her still damp hair. But Max could see that her eyes still looked a bit puffy, and he surmised that she had been crying. He suppressed the urge to go to her and hold her in his arms, although his body was screaming at him to do it.

“I told him that part of the argument that Tess and I had gotten into was because of you and her jealously over our obvious connection, even though we weren’t still officially together anymore.”

“Tess? Jealous of me?” Liz thought that was pretty ironic considering that Tess had been the one that had slept with Max and then had gotten pregnant with his child.

“Liz. I need to tell you what I found out from her in the Granolith chamber before . . . before she left.” Max finished, knowing how hard it would be to talk about this with Liz.

“Fine. What happened? Why did you let her leave?” Then, it hit her. Bitterly she continued. “It was because of the baby, wasn’t it? Even after she killed Alex, you let her go to save the baby, didn’t you?” Liz wasn’t sure what she would have wanted Max to do to Tess, but she wished that Tess was as dead as Alex was. “Did you kiss her goodbye before she left?” Liz spat out, instantly upset with herself for thinking that and even more so for saying it out loud. She didn’t really want to hurt Max like that, but she was hurting so badly after picturing the two of them sleeping together that it just came out.

Max was shocked at Liz’s vehement tone, but he knew how much she had to be hurting. He wasn’t sure what to say to explain his behavior, but he was going to try his best to tell Liz about his suspicions.

“No, of course not, Liz!! You’ve got to believe me. It was all a plan, Liz. A plan to get pregnant and return home. She was ready to deliver the three of us, me, Isabel, and Michael, to our enemies. To Khivar. She said that Nasedo made a deal with Khivar 40 years ago. She planned the whole thing, except for Alex’s death. She said that was an accident and that she didn’t mean to kill him. But, she couldn’t risk him telling us what she had done to him, so she mindwarped him again. His mind couldn’t take it, and he died.”

“And you believed her?” Liz replied, her tone expressing her unbelief at Tess’s last-hour confessions.

“I don’t know exactly what I believe, but I don’t think that Alex and Kyle were the only ones she was mindwarping, Liz.” He saw her eyes widened in reaction to his words.

Max rushed on, hoping to get through to Liz, pacing back and forth across the room as he spoke, trying to work out everything in his mind. “I did a lot of thinking this morning before Hanson arrived. It was the first time in a long time that I’ve really sat down and thought about everything clearly. I’ve been going over all the events that have happened in the last year. All of our powers have been growing this past year--mine, Isabel’s, Michael’s, and even Tess’s. I don’t know why I didn’t think she would use her powers on the rest of us.

Liz sat down on the bed and listen as Max went on. “Once we finally realized that she was one of us, I think we put aside what she had done to all of us when we first met and just accepted her. Seeing all of us in the alien book, finding our pods, knowing that we had all been in the crash together, and then hearing the message from the orbs about our previous lives, we just saw her as one of us. Those things just seemed to bind all 4 of us together. I guess we looked past what had happened before because we didn’t think that someone just like us could be evil.”

He shook his head at his own blindness. “But, looking back over the time since we first met Tess, and knowing now about the plan to get pregnant and deliver us to our enemies, I can see that was always her intention. The dreams, the flashes, the feelings of being controlled—those were all Tess using her powers on me, trying to get me to . . . to mate with her. When that didn’t work, when I fought back, she revealed herself as another hybrid. That way she could get closer to us, to me. I think now, she was still trying to win me over, this time from the inside, as one of us. But, I still loved you, and only you, Liz. This must have been totally frustrating to her. Here she was so close to her goal, and she still couldn’t accomplish it.”

Max stopped pacing and stood in the middle of the room, facing Liz.

“It must have been a huge triumph for her when she heard that you had slept with Kyle,” Max went on bitterly. “I was so lost. I still loved you, but you kept pushing me away. She was always there for me, supporting me, constantly by my side. I began to accept her more as part of the group, but I still didn’t feel anything for her but friendship. I was still clinging to the hope that you would love me again.”

Liz had been looking directly into Max’s eyes as he spoke his last line, and her heart nearly burst at the look of the pain in his eyes. Not able to bear the sight of Max’s devastation at believing that she had stopped loving him, she quickly looked down, breaking eye contact. She desperately tried to stop the tears that threatened to fall as the anguish of what she had had to do washed over her once again. “I never stopped loving you, Max,” she said quietly.

Max’s heart soared as he heard her confirm that fact. He knew from the tightness in her voice and the way she averted her eyes that she was close to tears. He went on quickly, slowly advancing towards her as she sat on the bed. “I think I always believed that deep down inside, but you were doing such a great job trying to convince yourself and me that we couldn’t be together. But, you know how stubborn I am. I refused to completely give up on you, so I couldn’t see Tess the way she needed me to.”

Liz smiled inwardly at his admission of his stubbornness. It made her love him all the more that even after all the things she had said to him and done to him, that he still continued to love her in spite of it.

Max started pacing around the room again as his mind went into overdrive. “She must have finally thought of a way to convince me to let you go. She started to help me remember my past life through the memory retrieval that she said Nasedo taught her. I was really anxious to learn more about my past life, especially since all our enemies seemed to know more about us than we did. I should have been suspicious about it at the time, and the fact that she wasn’t helping Isabel or Michael do the same thing, but I wasn’t.

“Damn!! How could I have been so blind!! Now, I don’t know if anything I remembered was real or something that Tess planted in my mind. Liz, everything that I believed to be true these last few weeks might not be real. Everything that has to do with Tess, that is.”

He went to Liz’s side at that last remark, kneeling down at her feet, holding her hands in his, trying to impress upon her without saying it, what he was really thinking—that even his memory of sleeping with Tess might not have been real. He had to tell her all about his earlier experiment.

“Liz, when I got home today, I went to my room and looked around. I tried to recall some of the things that Tess ‘helped’ me with. But, the memories . . . they’re not as strong as they were a couple of weeks ago. I tried a couple of different ones, but I got the same result. Then, I tried another memory with Tess, something . . . something more recent. Liz, it was exactly the same! I couldn’t remember it clearly at all!”

Liz quickly glanced up at his face, as she understood immediately what he was implying, but she didn’t dare to hope that he was right. Anxiously, she jumped up from the bed where she was sitting, leaving Max still crouched down at the bedside. She walked toward the middle of the room, trying to dampen the sudden surge of anticipation she was beginning to feel.

Max stood up. He had seen the faint glimmer of hope in her eyes as he spoke those last remarks. He knew he was close to breaking through the protective wall she had thrown up around herself. Max’s voice softened as he continued, moving slowly across the floor towards her.

“On the other hand, every single memory and every feeling I’ve created with you is clearly and permanently imprinted in my brain—the dress with the cupcakes and how you felt about it, the polka-dot bra you were wearing the day you got shot, the way you looked at me when I let you see me, the touch of your hair between my fingers, the sound of your voice when you casually responded, ‘Besides that’ to my alien take-over comment, the smell of your body the morning we woke up in the desert, and the taste of your skin, your neck, and especially your mouth. All of those things are so clear to me.”

Liz felt her pulse begin to quicken as she felt the warmth of his body drawing closer to her. Her mind flashed with all the scenes and images that Max was describing, and the emotions that were tied to each of them sent a flush through her entire body.

He continued towards her and could hear her breath quicken as he described his memories of her. He swore he could even feel her body temperature rise and hear the beat of her heart increase in tempo. Max took all this in and went on. “What I said about her being jealous was true, Liz. She knew I never felt the same way about her that I felt about you.” Max said in his gentlest tone. He crossed the rest of the distance between them and turned her around to face him, grabbing her face in his hands as he tenderly affirmed, “Like I’ve always felt about you, and how I’ll always feel about you, Liz. That’s what I know is true. True down to the depths of my soul.”

Holding her face in his hands like that, he couldn’t resist the urge anymore and pulled her to his lips, kissing her hard until he felt her soften and respond against him. Once she did, his hands left her face, and crushed her body against his. He felt her arms go under his and around his back into her favorite position. He began to use the opportunity to open himself to flashes and tried to pour all his feelings for her into those kisses, hoping to get through to her. Just as he began to feel her wall start to crumble and her feelings open up to him, she pulled away suddenly, gasping for breath and biting her lower lip.

Liz wasn’t ready to kiss Max again; she couldn’t control her emotions when she did. She had been hurt too bad to let him again right now. But as Max began his assault on her lips, she felt her resolve melting. She opened her mouth to his and felt his arms go around her and she let him pull her closer to him. Her arms went around him unconsciously and her whole body was humming in response to being molded against him. Just as their kisses began to deepen, and their tongues probed inside each other’s mouths, she began to have flashes of her and Max together in various places in the past. She panicked and pulled away, worried that he might be getting flashes from her about Future Max and she wasn’t sure she was ready to reveal that yet. She was out of breath from the kisses, but she couldn’t resist tasting him one more time as she licked her lips.

“Max,” Liz said huskily, still out of breath from that kiss and the barrage of emotions she had begun to feel from him before she broke off the kiss. “Max, I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet.” She looked around her room, at anything except for Max as she continued. “When you kiss me like that . . . you make me lose control of everything, all my emotions, and . . . and I’m not sure I can afford to do that again.”

“Liz, look at me. Look at me,” Max repeated. He gingerly touched her check, raising her eyes to meet his, needing to look into her eyes as her said this. “You make me lose control. And I don’t want to apologize for doing that, because I want to kiss you all the time and I don’t want to feel like I have to hold back when I do. If there’s one thing I have learned this last year, it’s that I need to show you all the time how I feel about you, and not let you pull away from me or tell me you don’t feel the same way about me. Because I know, Liz. I know. You can’t hide that from me. I can feel it, and I know you can too.”

Liz tried to look away from Max, afraid to let him see the truth of what he said in her eyes, but she couldn’t. Max’s gaze had captured hers and she couldn’t break the connection.

“Liz, I need to tell you everything—about what I believe has been happening to me these last few weeks, about you, about Tess. Everything. I want to fix things between us, Liz. I need you. You’re the only thing that is right in my life—has always been right. Even last year, when I tried to slow things down, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I have to have you in my life. When I don’t . . . . everything goes wrong.” Max flung his arms open, indicating the situation he now found himself in.

He continued, and unable to stop touching her completely, he began handling her hair, rubbing the silky strands between his fingers. “These last few weeks, when I tried to place my past life, my alien side, ahead of my human side, something wasn’t right. I wasn’t me anymore. I was someone else—someone else that doesn’t exist anymore. That person died a long time ago. The man that I am today is the man that I am because of you, because of my life here. I can’t deny where I came from, but I can’t deny the life that I have lived here because that is all I know. To me, that’s more real that anything that happened a lifetime ago.”

Liz’s gaze was locked onto Max’s and she began to drown in the depths of his golden eyes.

Max felt relief that he seemed to be getting through to Liz, and plunged forward, deciding to tell her something that he had never told her before. “Liz, I felt this connection to you, even before I healed you two years ago. I can’t explain it, but I’ve always felt drawn to you. From the first day I got off the school bus and I saw you playing across the school yard, I knew that I loved you.”

Liz was shocked at this revelation. He had never told her this much before, but for some reason, she wasn’t really surprised. She couldn’t remember feeling anything for him when they were younger, but ever since he had let her see who he really was and made the reverse connection with her, she, too, felt like it was meant to be—that they were supposed to be together.

She often thought about that. How she could have not known before that she was missing something that was so important to her now that it was hard to imagine her life without Max Evans being a part of it?

When she believed that Max was going away forever, she had gone to see Maria to talk to her about it. But, when Sean opened the door instead, she decided to try to forget about Max and threw herself into Sean’s arms. But even though she thought that she would never see Max again, she still couldn’t imagine her life with anyone else, and had to apologize to Sean for her thoughtless actions. Sean could never be Max. No one could ever take Max’s place in her life.

Max saw that she was thinking about what he had said, and he longed to know exactly what thoughts were going through her head right now. He knew he could kiss her again to find out, but he had to get her to open up completely to him.

“Liz, I just told you I want to be completely honest with you, no holds barred. I think I have to in order for you to completely trust me again. But, I need you to be honest with me too. I need you to be willing to tell me about what happened last fall with Kyle.”

[6throck]

A/N-I hope everyone is ready for the next chaper.


This is where we left off.


“Liz, I just told you I want to be completely honest with you, no holds barred. I think I have to in order for you to completely trust me again. But, I need you to be honest with me too. I need you to be willing to tell me about what happened last fall with Kyle.”

Chapter 5-At Last





Liz eyes widened a bit as she realized what Max was asking her to do.

Max continued, “I talked with Kyle a bit on the way back into town. He told me everything he knew from his side, but I need to know why you did it. Kyle said you were devastated after I left. And we both agreed you must have had a plan. It wasn’t just something that happened. You knew I was going to be there that night.”

Liz looked at Max and knew the time had come to tell him. But, she wasn’t sure she could find the words. It always sounded so strange to her to talk about it, like she was the pawn in someone’s bad sci-fi/drama TV Show.

“Max,” she began. “I don’t know where to start.” Liz’s voice started to give out as the emotions that she had tried to suppress from that memory worked their way to the front of her mind.

“Will you trust me?” Max asked, his eyes pleaded.

Liz swallowed hard, as she knew what he wanted her to do, what it was time for her to do. She needed to drop the shield that she had built around herself whenever she was close to Max.

As she nodded in acceptance, Max didn’t waste anymore time talking. He immediately, but tenderly leaned in to kiss Liz, almost as gently as he had during their first kiss. Liz’s heart fluttered in her chest as she felt his feather-light touch on her lips, and she shivered slightly in pure delight. His lips lightly and repeatedly touched hers as if he was drinking from a fountain.

But, soon that wasn’t enough. Liz’s taste was intoxicating, and he began to deepen the kiss, dropping his jaw, asking for more. Liz perfectly responded to his demands, matching his every move, and their tongues found their way into each other’s mouths. His hand sunk deeper into her thick hair, caressing the back of her head. He wrapped his other arm around her tiny waist and pulled her up slightly. He heard her small gasp of pleasure, and felt her arms go around his neck as she pressed his mouth hard against hers, desperate to get as much of him as she could.

His body began to respond, and he pulled her closer to him, so that there was no space left between them. Her thighs pressed up against his, and he hardened instantly at the contact. Liz felt this and couldn’t suppress a groan as she unconsciously dropped one of her arms to go around his lower back to press those parts of their bodies closer together, if possible. With the other hand, she gripped the hair at the back of his neck tighter in her fingers as she became more aroused.

Max knew that he should be trying to get flashes from Liz about what happened, but that goal was set aside for a while. His lips left her mouth and traveled down to her smooth neck, tasting her every inch of the way. Liz moaned out loud at the sensations that she was feeling both physically and mentally as the connection between them flared to life and she began feeling all of Max’s intense, hungry emotions.

The instant he heard her moan, Max sucked deep and hard on her neck as the sound excited him more. But, all Liz was aware of was that his lips were no longer on hers, so she pulled his mouth back and hungrily attacked his lips. Then it was Max’s turn to moan as she softly bit his lip in her excitement. Hearing Max vocalize his pleasure only inflamed Liz more and she frantically grabbed the material of his shirt, pulling him closer to her as she thrust herself at him, wrapping a leg around his.

All thought was lost between both of them for a few moments as they succumbed to the passion that had always been there between them but now was able to spring to life as Liz’s shield came crumbling down. The prolonged absence between them caused their desire to flame hotter and faster than it ever had before.

Max hated to think about anything except Liz’s mouth and body against him, but he needed answers so he began to probe her. He gasped with the force of the flashes that began to assail him as the power of those suppressed feelings came flooding in. Max felt like he was drowning, but he didn’t stop kissing Liz. Instead, he squeezed her tighter, as if she was the oxygen he needed to survive. The frenzied, lustful passion of their earlier kisses changed subtly into the loving ardor of two soul mates sharing a connection that was uniquely theirs.

It had been a long time since they had gotten flashes from each other, not since that time when Max had kissed her unbiddingly in Whitaker’s office. As his mind went back to that memory, he suddenly saw himself in that very place through Liz’s eyes, and somehow he felt something that he was unaware of at that time.

Someone else had been there!

Someone else that was very familiar to him.

An image came to his mind, an image of that person who looked strangely like himself, only older. The man’s hair was long and pulled back from his face.

A face that was tired and scarred. A face in pain.

His face.

He saw more and more scenes of this other version of himself and Liz. He saw him dancing with Liz on her balcony, arguing with her in her room about something, and watching Liz cry. And interwoven throughout all these visions was the incredible and overwhelming sorrow and heartache Liz had felt during those events.

Max felt Liz begin to cry as the images poured out from her. He stopped kissing her and crushed her tight against his chest and stroked her head, trying to soothe her. Max needed a moment to steady himself too, as the remnants of heated passion and the echoes of Liz’s pain still coursed through him.

“It was me, wasn’t it?” Max gasped. “Somehow it was me asking you to do that. You only did it because I asked you to. Oh my God, Liz, I’m so sorry. You were in so much pain!!! How could this have happened?”

Liz began to finish what Max had already seen. She kept the side of her face against his chest, and she choked out brief sentences through her tears, as she, too, struggled to catch her breath. “Something happened, Max. Something in the future. Your enemies had taken over. You were desperate. Isabel and Michael were both dead. The world was about to end. You managed somehow to modify the Granolith. To rip a tear in time and come back in time to fix something. Something that had to do with Tess. And with the present version of yourself . . . and with me.”

Liz began to stop crying as she finally gave voice to the events that nearly killed everything good between her and Max. She raised her head off his chest and looked him squarely in the eyes. “We were supposed to make love that night, Max. It was supposed to be me. I was supposed to be your first. And when we made love, we were never separated again. The word he used was cemented. Things were cemented between us that night, on that night of the Gomez concert.”

Max thought about this and realized how true that would have been. He could just imagine how it would be to make love to Liz, and cemented was just the word to describe it.

Liz continued, “When Tess saw how connected we were and how badly you began to treat her, she left town. And when your enemies came, the three of you weren’t strong enough against them. So, the Future version of yourself came back in time to stop that event from happening and to make the present you fall out of love with me.

“And I tried, Max! I tried everything I could think of to turn you away from me. I helped Tess with the right books to read and the right clothes to wear. I turned you down for the concert even though I really wanted to go with you. And then after you kissed me in Whitaker’s office that day, Future Max told me it wasn’t working, that I was making you love me even more. I think he could feel your emotions.”

Max thought back to that moment after confronting her about trying to get him and Tess together and realized that was true. That at that moment he loved her even more than before—that she would love him enough to push him towards someone that he knew she hated because she thought that’s what he needed.

“So, I came to your room that night. I told you I didn’t want to die for you. I had this whole speech made up that was a complete lie. That was my last resort. I went back to him that night and cried and cried. We waited to see what happened. He said that if it worked, that he would just disappear.

“And it almost worked. He was starting to fade away, and then suddenly, he came back. He told me that I had to think of something else. That’s when he told me about Isabel and Michael dying in the future. He said all of our lives depended on me finding another way to make you stop loving me. And then I came up with the idea of having you see me with Kyle after talking to Maria about her seeing Michael with Courtney.

“So, I went to Kyle and asked for his help. I couldn’t tell him why. Future Max was adamant about not letting anyone else know he was there. He was in the bathroom when the scene played out. Afterwards, he said it was the hardest thing he had ever had to do, to watch me do that. Again, I think he could actually see it from your eyes, like he had your memories. He could remember how you felt seeing me in bed with Kyle. We had one dance, the wedding dance I would never have with you, and then he disappeared. I knew that you had finally given up on me and I sank to my knees in tears.”

Liz was exhausted after that kiss and telling the rest of the story to Max. She didn’t tell him, but through the connection she had also been hit with Max’s own feelings of hurt and despair, and she had nearly been crushed by the weight of it. She couldn’t regret more the pain she had caused him to feel. Max practically carried her over to the bed, so she could sit back down again. She rested against his side, griping his shirt tightly in her hand, nestling her face against his shoulder.

Max picked up on the last comment she made and suddenly put several things together.

“We were married? Wait a minute! That vision I had in Vegas. That was a real memory of what was supposed to happen? We got married in Vegas, didn’t we? That was what you were about to tell me that night. I can’t believe you had to keep all these things to yourself all this time. Liz, I can’t believe how strong you are to have done all that. God! I love you so much!!”

With that comment, Max gathered Liz into his lap and lay down onto the bed with her still in her arms. Liz cuddled up with him and wrapped her arms around him, never wanting to let him go again.

Nothing felt better to Max then having Liz in his arms again. He wanted nothing more than to stay like this forever, but he knew he still needed to find out the truth about what happened with Tess. But, he needed this as much as Liz did, so he closed his eyes and blocked out everything but the feeling of Liz’s body in his arms. He ran his fingers through her beautiful hair, using his powers to dry away any remaining moisture, massaging her scalp in the process.

When both of their heartbeats had returned to normal and he felt they were both ready to go on, he turned her face towards his and asked his next question.

“Liz. I want to find out what really happen that night . . . that night . . . after you left in the taxi,” Max finished. He couldn’t even bring himself to say the words. He got a sick feeling in his stomach even thinking about it. Liz’s eyes narrowed at first, as she tried to understand what he was talking about. Then, her eyes pained over, as she realized that must have been the night that he believed he slept with Tess.

“But first, I need to apologize to you for the way I’ve treated you these last few weeks. I can’t even believe that was me! I yelled at you, demeaned, you, and manhandled you. . . . I . . . I would never have done those things if I was in control of myself. I was so angry with you, I don’t know why. I think deep down I knew you were right, that Alex’s death was alien-related, but, I couldn’t admit it.”

Max hung his head in shame as he recalled all the incidents between them. He starting talking rapidly, remembering all the pain he had caused her. Liz pursed her lips together as he listed all the times he had been uncivil to her, realizing how much hurt he had really caused her. But she was just beginning to understand now that he might very well have been under Tess’s influence. She held him tight and let him unload all his feelings.

“. . . and then that day went you were waiting for the taxi. I about lost my mind when I saw you sitting there on the fence. I couldn’t let you leave. But, you were insistent. You didn’t back down at all, even when I gave you the ultimatum about our friendship. I should have realized that you wouldn’t have changed your mind. I remember that you said that Alex did the same thing after the whole Topolsky incident. And you didn’t back down then either. Although that time you were protecting me, not Alex,” Max admitted, smiling at the irony of the reversal of situations.

Liz saw his smile and grinned a little too. “You know Max, I thought you were really going to throw me into the Jeep that day,” Liz said, thinking back to that scene by the roadside. “You were like this pacing tiger, ready to pounce on me. If I hadn’t been so mad at you, I would have thought it was kinda sexy.” Liz looked up at him as she delivered that last line.

Max looked at her, completely astonished. How long had it been since she had acted coy with him? Not since last year, around the time they found that orb. Had it been that long? He loved the way her voice sounded and the way her eyes looked him up and down when she acted that way. Max suppressed a groan in his throat, and as he felt himself respond to her words, he roughly replied, “You just about had your wish, little girl. I couldn’t decide whether to yell at you, or devour you.”

Liz couldn’t believe how she was acting. Just a few minutes ago, she was confused as hell about her relationship with Max, and she knew that she would never get over the fact that he had slept with Tess and had gotten her pregnant. But, now all that was in question, and the recent kisses coupled with the long absence from Max was causing her to behave like a carefree, lustful high school girl again.

“I’m sorry, Max. I shouldn’t have said that. I know we need to start working on getting more answers, not talking about that stuff,” Liz blurted out, wishing that didn’t have to be the case.

Max suddenly sat up and impulsively pulled Liz into his lap facing him so her legs were around his waist, making sure she couldn’t mistake detecting the accuracy of his next statement. “You don’t know how much I wish that would have happened,” Max said huskily. Liz’s eyes flew open as the closeness of their bodies revealed Max’s arousal against her and she gasped in pleasure. The intimate contact of their bodies immediately brought their relationship to a new phase. Liz automatically tightened her legs around his waist, causing their bodies to rub against each other as she stroked against him lightly, her hips moving instinctively to relive the ache she now felt acutely in the center of her body.

Max hoarsely gasped out Liz’s name, as it took all his will power to keep his hips from responding in turn. He quickly grabbed the sides of her hips, wrapping his strong fingers around the fullness of her bottom, holding on tight, hoping to prevent a repeat of that sensuous movement against him. He knew he couldn’t take another stroke like that again. Liz’s hands immediately followed his, interlacing fingers with his. She pressed their joined fingers tighter against her bottom, relishing the feeling of being pressed into him, her heart pounding heavily in her chest. Her body was absolutely on fire, and it seemed as though her entire being was being flooded with an energy that was crying out for her to continue until she completely merged with Max.

Not since that night in the desert had they ever been in a position like this, the intimate parts of their bodies in such close proximity, pressing tight against each other. But in that instance, their activities had been cut short before they had a chance to enjoy the sensations their bodies were causing. Now, however, there was no bleeping orb to stop them and Liz found herself devouring these new pleasures her body felt, instantly craving more. God!! If this was the reaction they produced every time got more intimate, she didn’t think she’d still be conscious when they finally made love!!!

Liz saw the wild look in Max’s eyes, and she felt the tremors in his body as he struggled with his control. Their connection was still very much in place, and she felt all his tumultuous emotions, especially his silent plea for her to not move an inch, and she understood that he was only hanging on to his control by a small thread. She delighted in the realization that she had absolute power over him at that moment. Armed with this knowledge, she leaned forward and rained kisses on the side of his neck, breathing heavily, knowing that to kiss him on the lips at this moment would undo them both, but wanting to drive him crazy just the same.

Max leaned his head to the side, exposing his neck more fully for Liz’s hungry mouth. His fingers tightened around her butt as he not only tried to control his own emotions, but also the ones he was receiving from Liz. As the full force of Liz’s desire hit him, he moaned loudly, and his breathing became erratic. Liz heard his cry and sucked harder at his throat, suddenly eager to taste him. She desperately wanted to move her hips again, but she settled for pressing their linked hands harder against her butt, hoping to push herself still closer to him. Max felt a strange sensation run through him, but he didn’t have the mind power to identify it. His immediate thought was for air, as he struggled to breathe, desperately trying to dampen the fire that threatened to consume them both.

“Liz.” Max finally found his voice again. Liz removed her mouth from the delicious skin of his neck and raised her eyes to meet his. Max took a deep breath as the sight of her flushed checks and passion-glazed eyes caused him to harden even more. He had to swallow hard to talk. “I want nothing more than to replay that scene and make that version come to reality. But, I want to, no, I need to make sure we know the truth about what happened first. It wouldn’t be fair to you.” As he continued to struggle with his control, he gently touched his forehead to hers, dropping his eyes down at their joined bodies and said, “So, will you promise to keep this thought on hold until then?”

Still dizzy from the onslaught of arousing sensations that were coursing through her body, Liz sighed in agreement. She managed to whisper, “I promise,” and quickly but reluctantly crawled off his lap before things started to get out of control.

Max took a moment to slow down his breathing and get his body back under control, he glanced at the clock on Liz’s nightstand to check the time. It was already 9:50! They had been talking for nearly hour.

“Liz, we need to meet the others in 10 minutes. After that, I . . . I need to go there . . . to retrace my steps that night and try to remember what really happened. I need you there with me, to help me. Will you go with me?” Max pleaded.

Seeing the place where Max had been convinced he had had sex with Tess was the last place Liz wanted to think about or see. But, she knew Max needed to know the truth, so she resolved to put her feelings aside and concentrate on helping Max.

Liz nodded in reply, and changed the subject. “Come on. Let’s see if there’s some food in the kitchen. I’m starving. I’ll leave my parents a note telling them I’ll be helping Maria’s mom out all day with stuff for her business and that I got Linda to cover my shift. We’ll have to sneak down so my parents don’t hear you and figure out your preferred method of visitation is through my bedroom window.”

As they left the room, hand in hand, neither one noticed the faint glow that emanated from the back pocket of Liz’s jeans.

[6throck]

Ginger-Glad I could make you blush. I do have a little more of that in store.
Timelord-I hope you enjoy the journey
Jan-Sorry about that. I'll be posting the next chapter soon.
Natalie-Happy to have you join us. Thanks!!!
keepsmiling-Thanks. It's such a hard decision. Would you rather be with him or wait until he told you later? I think I'm with Liz and no matter how painful or what the results were, I think I would have to be there when he found out the truth. I would drive myself crazy just waiting.
cindy-Thanks!!


A/N-Thanks for the awesome feedback, everyone! I posted these last few chapters fairly quickly as I was anxious to get the story rolling forward. I just had to make a few tweeks here and there to my original story. I've made the most changes from my original version to this chapter, so I hope it reads ok. Sorry, no glowing pocket revelations yet.


Chapter 6-Finger Tapping



Isabel noticed the change in her brother the minute he walked through the door of the UFO Center. He seemed calm, yet in control. She knew immediately that the talk with Liz must have gone well. She looked over at Liz. She was surprised that Liz could forgive her brother so quickly.

As Isabel watched Liz descend down the stars, she was startled to see how bright and clear her aura was. Isabel usually had to really concentrate to see auras around humans, but, today, she didn’t need to try to see Liz’s aura at all. It was glowing brightly. She hadn’t told anyone about this power yet. It was a new power, and it wasn’t as strong as her others, yet somehow knew instinctively what each color represented. Liz’s aura showed the swirling colors of anxiety and hope. Isabel took a closer look, sensing that there was something else as well. It seemed to be pleasure. She reexamined Max and wasn’t surprised to see that same color reflected in his aura as well. She rolled her eyes mentally. Well it didn’t take them long, did it? Why could she read Liz so well today?

She glanced over at Kyle wondering if her power was increasing, but Kyle’s aura wasn’t easily visible. He hadn’t noticed Max and Liz’s arrival yet. He was still meditating. Isabel now rolled her eyes physically as she knew she would never understand Kyle’s embrace of Buddhism, but it really seemed to be working for him.

“Where’s Michael and Maria? Aren’t they here yet?” Max asked.

“And Michael is known for his punctuality?” Isabel retorted.

"Well, not usually, but this meeting is important,” Max answered back, a little more curtly than he meant. He was just anxious to get the answers he needed as soon as possible so he could get on with the rest of his life . . . with Liz.

“Every meeting you call is important. Our whole lives are about meetings. Multi-million dollar corporations don’t have as many meetings as we do,” Isabel said angrily and resentfully.

Max began to open his mouth in response when Kyle spoke up.

“Yeah, isn’t that great! Boy, this ‘I know an alien club’ thing is wonderful. And I’m so glad you made me a part of it. And by the way, when do I get my name badge and Alien Blowup doll, cuz I thought that was part of the membership?” Kyle interjected sarcastically, using his dry sense of humor to break the tension that was slowly building between Isabel and Max.

Isabel shook her head and took a deep breath and released it in a semi-smile at Kyle’s remark. She knew that she wasn’t really upset with Max, she had just been angry at everything that had happened and was just releasing that anger in Max’s direction.

At the same time Liz put her hand on Max’s arm to try to calm him down as well. “I’m sure Michael and Maria were spending some time together. I know they’ll be here soon,” Liz said to Max.

“Who’ll be here soon? And did I hear something about blow-up dolls?” Michael’s voice came from the top of the stairs, as he and Maria appeared, walking hand in hand. Maria slapped him on the shoulder at that last remark, but the look in her eyes was playful. “Like you need a blow-up doll,” she said under her breath. Michael heard her comment and gave her a sly smile.

No one missed the fact that Maria’s hair was still wet from an obvious shower, Michael’s shirt was buttoned crooked, and that Maria was wearing one of Michael’s shirts and a pair of his old cut-off jeans.

~~~~~~~~~

Max looked around at the group assembled in front on him. Liz was on his left, smiling at him, encouraging him. Isabel was straight in front of him with Kyle next to her. Michael and Maria sat down on his right, sitting close together. He took a deep breath and began.

“These last few months have brought a lot of changes in our lives. I don’t know exactly where to start, but I’m going to try. First though, I need to tell you about my last few moments with Tess alone in the Granolith Chamber.

Max saw that everyone was intently waiting for him to reveal that bit of information, so he quickly went on. “Tess confessed she had planned to get pregnant with my child and return home, delivering the rest of us, me, Isabel, and Michael, to Khivar. She said that Nasedo had made a deal 40 years ago, giving her immunity from Khivar if she did this. She admitted that she hadn’t meant to kill Alex, but that she couldn’t let him tell us what she had done to him. It seems like the entire time that we thought Alex was in Sweden, he was really in Las Cruces deciphering the alien book and being mindwarped by Tess.”

“How could she have been mindwarping him the whole time?” Isabel said. “She would have been totally drained of her powers.”

Max replied, “I haven’t had a lot of time to think about everything in detail yet, but I did a little reflecting on my walk back to town this morning. I know all of our powers have been growing this last year, and I’m sure Tess’s powers grew too. But, you’re right. I still don’t see how she could have been mindwarping him the entire time. But, along with strengthening our powers, I think we began to develop new powers as well. I believe now Tess had another power that she didn’t tell us about. I don’t know if we all realized that.” Max looked at everyone directly to drive that point home. “Kyle said something to me today that brought that to my attention.”

Max turned to Kyle and said, “Kyle, can you tell everyone what you remember about what really happened that night that Alex died and what you thought happened?”

Kyle nodded and began to tell the group what he had told Max earlier about that night.

“So it seems she was able to implant memories of events that never happened, and erase memories of something that did happen,” Max stated.

“Like she did with my mom that day in the Center when Brody went wild,” Maria exclaimed.

“Exactly,” Max replied. “I never thought much about that incident at the time. But, now I realize that was a different power than what she told us about before. She only told us about the power she had to change what someone saw in the present, not about the ability to change a memory of what happened in the past.”

Michael turned to Kyle and asked, “So, how did you figure this out, Kyle?

“It was Maria and Liz that told me. They came over early this morning and told me that Tess had been mindwarping me. They told me to look around the room to see if anything seemed strange. But, I don’t know how they knew,” Kyle answered, turning to Maria.

“It was the finger tapping. Liz figured it out,” Maria stated.

Everyone turned to Liz, who had been silent this whole time. She had remained quiet earlier, content to let everyone else do the talking. She figured most of them had heard her speaking her mind enough the last few weeks to last them for a while. She needed Max to be the one pointing out Tess’s deception. The others would follow his lead. After all, she was pretty sure everyone knew exactly how she felt about Tess. Liz needed them to question their own thoughts and perceptions about Tess without her input.

She looked at Max first, who gave her an approving smile, and then she turned to everyone and explained, “I went over to Maria’s after Max said goodbye to me this morning. I waited in Maria’s room until she came home from Michael’s. We were talking in her bedroom, when all of the sudden, we heard her mom start talking very loudly to herself in the kitchen. She was going on and on about Larek. That really freaked us out.

“We went out to see what was going on. She had been folding the laundry and was holding one of the George W. T-shirts that she had been bringing to the UFO Center that day when we were held hostage by Brody. When we started talking to her, she seemed to come out of it and then she started tapping her fingers on the top of the stove, over and over again. I suddenly realized that I had heard that same finger tapping from Kyle and from Alex—that incessant tapping, over and over again.

“I knew that Tess had done something to Maria’s mom that day in the UFO Center to make her forget about what happened, so I figured that she must have done the same thing to Alex and Kyle as well. That George W. T-shirt must have been like a trigger or something for breaking the mindwarp.

“Maria and I drove over to Kyle’s to see if we could find out what his trigger was and if we could break his mindwarp. When he started to look around his room, he got to the dresser and began tapping his fingers. I told him he was close, and then he looked into the mirror and spaced out for a couple of seconds. That must have been his trigger because he remembered everything that happened that night after he looked in it.”

Max picked up where Liz left off. “I think that she must have done the same thing to Alex that she did to Kyle and Mrs. DeLuca, only to a more severe degree. Instead of erasing just one or two memories, Tess erased his entire memory of who he was, made him think he was someone else, and gave him a goal to decipher the book. That way she didn’t have to sustain a constant mindwarp of him the whole time,” Max concluded.

“Oh, my God!!!! That’s probably why he never left his room except to go to the computer lab,” Maria said. “If Tess did all that, Alex would have been like an empty shell. He wouldn’t have been able to think about socializing or even talking to other people. Tess made sure his only goal was about the book. That little bitch!!”

“Max!! Your memories!!!” Isabel suddenly exclaimed. “All those things you were remembering of our home world. You were working with Tess when you started retrieving them. Were those real?”

“Well, the flash of Larak’s memories I saw when I healed Brody had to be real, but that only revealed that I knew Ava on our world,” Max explained.

“What about everything else? Was that real, too?” Isabel breathed.

Max turned to look at Liz and they shared a look that excluded everyone else in the room for a moment. Without taking his eyes from Liz, Max replied, “That’s exactly what we have to figure out.”

“But, Max hasn’t been tapping his fingers like Kyle,” Michael pointed out. “Isn’t that the sign that someone’s been mindwarped like that?” he asked.

“No, that’s the sign that the humans have shown!” Liz suddenly exclaimed, putting several things together at once. She continued rapidly. “It’s possible that if you guys were mindwarped this way, you would show completely different signs, or more likely, you wouldn’t show any signs at all,” she ventured.

Liz’s mind was kicking into high gear now, as she took a deep breath and excitedly carried on. “Listen. Tess was more familiar with alien physiology, especially alien minds since that’s where her powers focused. According to the information that both Pierce and Nasedo told you, your alien powers come from using a portion of the human brain that normal humans don’t ever utilize. So, this power of Tess’s, this memory erasing/implanting, probably works on that part of the brain that aliens use all the time. That means it would likely seem more natural to you. Your minds wouldn’t reject the invasion as much because it was accustomed to using those same areas. We humans, on the other hand, don’t use that part of our brains, so our minds start to fight this intrusion and these implanted false memories. You know, kind of like our bodies fight infections. Our immune systems are designed to detect and fight against “alien” invaders—cells, or in this case, memories—that are not recognized by our body. The finger tapping was just the subconscious mind letting us know that something was wrong,” Liz finished, breathlessly.

Max was still dizzy from the amount of information that seemed to pour out from the tiny frame of this beautiful girl by his side. He was constantly amazed at her everyday.

Liz felt his gaze and looked up at him, somehow sensing his astonishment at her conclusions. She blushed slightly as she thought she had once again sounded like a science geek. Max felt her embarrassment and reached for her hand. He laced his fingers with hers and captured her gaze with his incredible amber eyes, which immediately washed away all her feelings of discomfort.

“Whoa, girlfriend,” Maria started, her fingers massaging her head slightly. “I have definitely been hanging around you way too much lately, because most of that actually made sense to me.”

“It made a lot of sense to me too,” Kyle said. “I’ve learned a lot about the mind this last year through my study of Buddhism. The human mind is a lot stronger than we know.” He looked at Liz and smiled, giving her his support.

“So, you’re saying she might have done something like this to me, and I might not even be able to tell?!” Isabel demanded.

“No, I think sooner or later you would be able to tell,” Liz tried to assure Isabel quickly. “Besides, it’s unlikely that she mindwarped either you or Michael.”

“Michael . .” Isabel trailed off, looking up at him in horror. “Those dreams, the baby . . .” Michael’s jaw dropped in understanding as Isabel spoke, “ . . . those had to have been from Tess,” Isabel finished, remembering all the uncomfortable feelings she had at that time about her and Michael. “I felt something strange in my body afterwards, even when I wasn’t seeing the vision. I even thought I might be pregnant.”

Liz started to put the pieces in place. “Isabel. Dreamwalking is your special power! Maybe Tess used that ability to get into your subconscious and alter your perception of reality,” Liz continued. “Tess must have sent you those dreams, those visions, and at the same time she did something more, something that even affected your body and mind afterwards.”

“But, the dreams stopped and I realized that I wasn’t pregnant. Why wouldn’t she have continued again?” Isabel asked.

“Because it was just around that time that Nasedo kidnapped Liz and we went after her . . .” Max stopped, haunted by his memory of the White Room.

Liz knew exactly what happened next, and she put her arms around him and held him tight, sensing his feeling of pain at that memory of being taken and tortured. Max’s eyes were full of love as he looked down at Liz as she comforted him. He went on, “After Liz left and went away that summer, Tess must have shifted her focus.”

“No,” Isabel said, shaking her head sadly, “I just think she just had another angle. I’m sure that getting you to get her pregnant was still her priority. Liz had left you, but you still had me and Michael,” Isabel said to Max.

She turned to the rest of the group. “She would have needed to get rid of all his support, so she led me to Whitaker and they revealed my past life as Vilandra to me. She must have known that if I found out that Vilandra had betrayed Max in our previous lives, that I would keep that a secret from him now. And that secret would slowly tear us apart.” Isabel turned to Max and said slowly, “And it nearly did Max. I’m so sorry.”

Max looked up at Isabel as he thought about that. After that time, everything changed between them and he admitted to himself that he never quite trusted her the same afterward. Even during their period of working together to help find Laurie DePree, there was still this level of tension between them. And last week was the worse fight they had ever had.

They looked uncomfortably at each other for a moment each remembering the ugly fight that had come between them this last week. Max cleared his throat and said, “Isabel, I don’t ever think I really apologized to you for my behavior. I don’t know what was wrong with me. I would have never done those things I threatened you with. I want you to be happy. I know you were hurting after Alex’s death, and you just wanted to get out of Roswell. But, I just couldn’t let you go. If it turns out that I wasn’t being mindwarped by Tess. . . well, then I can’t think of what else could have happened to me. For some reason, the thought of you leaving Roswell was something I couldn’t let happen,” Max confessed.

Isabel smiled at Max and said, “Thanks, Max. I needed to hear that.”

Liz spoke up. “Max, if Tess was able to use her powers so successfully on Isabel by using her special power of dreamwalking, I wonder if she did something similar to you,” Liz said, looking at Max.

“But, my special power is healing. I don’t see how she could have used that against me.”

“I know, but perhaps your gift stems from your feelings of others, your concern for them, which helps you heal them. Maybe she took your natural gift of compassion for others and turned that against you. Just like she was able to affect Isabel subconsciously, she might have been able to use your feelings to change how you felt about someone, even causing you to say and do things to them without realizing it. That way she wouldn’t need to mindwarp you all the time. It would affect your mind and body afterwards and you wouldn’t even need to have her near you to make you act differently towards others.”

Maria spoke up, “That makes sense, Max. Look. The people you hurt the most were the ones you loved the most before, Liz and Isabel.”

Max thought about what they said, and slowing starting nodding. “I guess that could have been the case. I’ve been feeling so angry and upset with Liz and Isabel lately.”

Maria began, “Well, it looks like Tess was able to do what she was best at, play with people's minds. Let’s see. She totally messed with Kyle’s head by first coming on to him, then moving into his house, setting herself up as a little homemaker during the holidays, and then ultimately dropping the sister act on him. She tore Isabel apart by killing Alex and pitting Max against her. She made Liz doubt her future with Max by constantly telling everyone that she was meant to be with Max not Liz, and she prevented Max from getting back together with Liz by permanently STAPLING herself to his side and making it seem that everyone had turned against him but her.

“Hmmmm . . . I wonder why she left you alone, Space Boy?” Maria said, turning to Michael. “She probably figured your brain was too messed up to worry about,” she said teasingly.

Michael was about to retort to Maria’s remark when Isabel interrupted his thoughts.

“What about the whole incident with you and Liz last fall, Max? Was that something that Tess did too? I was so sure you guys were going to get back together again. I mean, come on Max, you were doing everything you could think of to convince her that your destiny didn’t mean anything to you, going to see her all the time, performing that ridiculous serenade, and completely disregarding both mine and Michael’s advice,” she smiled, sheepishly. “And I knew Liz wasn’t over you. She looked miserable all the time. Then, suddenly, you start acting so cold to her and hanging out with Tess more. Is that when this all started?” Isabel asked.

Liz sucked in her breath and gripped Max’s hand tighter in hers as she turned to look into his eyes. Max felt her anxiety, but he knew that the others deserved to know the truth about what really happened. They needed to know how much Liz sacrificed to save them from a future that was now so unclear. Max’s voice was tender as he spoke quietly. “Liz. You need to tell them.”

Liz looked at Maria and saw the look of concern on her face and then at Kyle who was giving her encouragement. Then she saw the puzzled looks on Isabel’s and Michael’s faces and knew that this information needed to be heard by everyone.

Liz looked back at Max and gave him a slight nod in acceptance. He reached down with his other hand and brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it in a loving gesture, trying to comfort her, knowing that this was going to be hard on her.

“Liz and I had a long talk this morning before we came here. She revealed something that she’s been forced to keep from me for a long time. You can’t even imagine the pain that Liz went through. I know. I felt it when we connected,” Max grimaced slightly in remembrance. “She went through so much, sacrificing her own future happiness to ensure that we had a future.”

Max looked back down at Liz. “Everything she did was because she loved me so much, and I treated her like crap for it.” Max’s voice got thick as he recalled all the times he spoke harshly to her, and the pain he saw reflected in her eyes as a result. He looked over at his sister and Michael. “We all did,” he said pointedly, his eyes making contact with Isabel, causing a flush of shame to color her face, even though she had no idea what the truth was.

Max turned back to Liz and nodded at her. Liz turned back to face the group.

“Well, Tess was the reason it happened, although not like you think,” Liz began. “Maria knows the whole story, Kyle only knows one part, and Max now knows most of it, so I need to start from the beginning and tell everyone what happened.”

Liz took a deep breath and began. “It all started this rainy night Maria took me and Alex out to see this fortune teller that her mom swore by . . . .”

[6throck]

A/N-Thanks again, everyone.
keepsmiling-I loved Kyle's humor on the show and always thought he had the best lines. One of my fav was from BD when the DJ was asking all the guys to convince Liz that they should be with her, and Kyle says, "Hey, I'm just happy to be nominated, and I think I'm going to puke."
Eve- I can see I'm really going to have to be thorough in my explanation of Max's behavior with Tess. Be prepared. I think I have all the bases covered.
nibbles-Good thoughts. Max does take on a lot of responsibility on his own shoulders and of course his controling nature makes it so that when things feel out of his control, he is going to eventually lash out. I think we could safety say that if, at it appears, Tess was using her powers on Max to control his feelings and his actions, that would exasterbate those feelings of being out of control. Then add Liz and Isabel telling him they are doing things against what he thinks is safe, his reaction of anger towards them is understandable.

Ok, on with the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it.



Chapter 7-From the Mouth of a King



Liz continued with the story, pausing only long enough to let Maria and Max interject comments as she came to their parts in the story. She blushed furiously when it was time to reveal the information that she and Max would have made love that night, but she knew she couldn’t hold that back. She told them everything, hiding nothing.

When she described her last few moments on the balcony with Future Max, Liz had tears in her eyes. Max reached over, pulled her chair tight against his, and wrapped his arm around her. Liz looked right at Isabel and said, “Isabel. There’s something you need to know. Alex was there. Alex was there at our wedding party. We called everyone and had you meet us in a dive outside of Phoenix. Michael and Maria, you and Alex were there. He didn’t die in that reality. He was still there two years later. I’m so sorry, Isabel.”

Isabel looked up at Liz with tears streaming down her face. She didn’t know when during Liz’s story that she had begun to cry, but the tears were there. “Liz, Alex may have been alive then, but Michael and I would have died later, and from what you said, the rest of the whole world was about to perish too. That means my parents would have died, everyone else that I loved would have died, including Alex. It’s not your fault that Alex died. He would have died either way, and both times Tess was ultimately responsible. I don’t know how you did it, but I don’t ever think I could thank you enough.”

Isabel stood up and went quickly over to Liz. Liz rose when Isabel approached. Isabel wrapped her arms around her and hugged her close, releasing more tears from her eyes in the process. Liz was crying too.

“I’m so sorry, Liz. I’m so sorry. I know I’ve never treated you fairly. I never really accepted you in our lives. I thought our lives were perfect, that we were safe, until that day in the Crashdown when Max saved you and you got involved in our secret. But, that wasn’t true. Someday, somehow, they would have found us. And then it would have just been the three of us against them and I don’t think we would have made it. I blamed you for putting our lives in danger, but the truth is we became stronger. We are stronger together then we ever would have been alone.”

Isabel released Liz and looked right at her and spoke candidly. “I was so used to being the center of both Max’s and Michael’s worlds. I didn’t have anyone else to share things with except for with them. I couldn’t even talk to my mother about it, even though I desperately wanted to.

“When Max healed you and told you about us, I was jealous. I knew that he had always had a crush on you, and once you knew who he really was, instead of running away, you got closer. It was so obvious that the two of you were extremely connected to each other. Everyone could see that.” She glanced over at Max who had stood up as well and smiled knowingly at him.

Isabel turned back to Liz, and recalling their conversation that night so long ago on the way to Marathon, she continued, “I know he wasn’t really leaving me, that you weren’t taking him away from me, but you had claim on most of his thoughts and attention. But, I think deeper down, I was jealous because I wanted that same thing for myself. When Michael and Maria got together as well, it just compounded the feelings.”

Isabel turned to look at Maria now. “I never really accepted you either, Maria. And I’m sorry for that.”

As Maria stood up to stand by Isabel and Liz, Isabel addressed both Maria and Liz and said, “You two are the closest to sisters that I have in my life. I wasn’t even that close to Tess, and she was an alien like me. I never appreciated or acknowledged the contributions you both make to the group. I was selfish and stubborn, but I’m going to try to change now. Will you both forgive me?” Isabel pleaded.

Maria and Liz shared a quick look before hugging Isabel, both promising to forgive her. The girls released each other and Maria continued, “Only if you promise not to bite our heads off if we tell you you’re acting snobbish again.”

Liz was grinning at Isabel and Maria when she felt an arm pull her away from the two girls. She whirled around, wondering who had pulled her aside. She looked up and saw a look that she recalled she had only seen once on Michael before, back when he had apologized to her in the hallway at school last fall. It was a look of genuine compassion and tenderness.

“Liz,” Michael began, looking slightly uncomfortable. “I don’t always say the right things or express my feelings well. Just ask Maria. But I wanted to let you know that I appreciate everything you’ve done for us.” He gave her a huge hug, and as he released her he looked at Max over Liz’s head and said, “You know how lucky you are to have gotten this one, don’t you, Maxwell?”

Max came up behind Liz and wrapped his arms around her slight waist and replied, “I’m frequently reminded at how lucky I am,” as he planted a kiss on top on Liz’s head.

Kyle approached Liz next, “So that was what all that was about, huh? Gee, I didn’t know pretending to sleep with you could save the world from ending. Do they give out a medal for something like that, and if they did, what would it say?”

“It would say, I’d better not catch you in her bed again, Kyle.” Max released Liz and clapped Kyle tightly on the shoulder, but his manner was jovial. “That line ‘I was only trying to save the world’ only works once for a guy.”

As everyone sat back down, Max refocused on the rest of the plan. “I don’t know exactly what specific chain of events led the Future version of myself to come back and try to change things, but it seems that the problems he encountered in his world because Tess left may not have just caused by Tess’s departure from Roswell, but because of the deal she had in place with Khivar. From what information he told Liz, it doesn’t seem like he had that information in his timeline. I don’t know if we’ve made enough changes to prevent what happened 14 years from now from taking place, but I think it’s a good chance we have. Besides, now we know about it and we can watch more closely for signs.

“Besides, we still have a lot of questions to answer. We need to go through Tess’s stuff and see if she left any clues about what she’s been doing, what she’s been up to, and where she’s been. It’s pretty obvious that she knew a lot more than she let on. Next, we need to follow up on this Leanna business. Our trip down to Las Cruces yesterday turned up more questions than answers. We found the girl that was really Jennifer Coleman, but Liz confirmed that she was human. We got a blood sample. But, she didn’t recognize Liz at all and yet Liz said she ran from her and Maria that night at the concert, like she knew them.”

“Are you guys sure it was the same person? I mean could it have been just someone that looked like her?” Isabel asked.

“No, it was definitely the same girl,” Liz answered. “I recognized her. So either she wasn’t running from us, but from someone else at the concert, or that wasn’t really Jennifer Coleman at the concert.” Liz looked around at everyone as she delivered her next line, “Which means she was either another shape shifter or someone was using Jennifer’s body in an alien possession.”

Max continued, “So in addition to going through Tess’s stuff, we need to find out everything we can about this girl Jennifer and if she really does have a connection to Alex. I need everyone’s help on this. I have to do some things for myself, personally. I have to find out if Tess has been mindwarping me, if we really slept together and if I really have a son somewhere out there, or if this was all some elaborate trick to get us to return home with her.”

“Maria and I can check out this Jennifer Coleman chick,” Michael volunteered. “We’ve already been down there before, so it will be easier for us.” Michael looked down at Maria and smiled. It looked like they had another road trip in store.

“And I can try dreamwalking Jennifer tonight to see what’s going on in her mind. You guys still have that picture of her, right?” Isabel asked.

“Yeah. I’ve got one in my room. I’ll get it to you later today,” Liz said.

“That should take care of Jennifer, now about Tess . . .” Max began.

Kyle interjected. “I didn’t even go in my room when I got back this morning, so everything is exactly the way she left it. I guess I can look through her stuff, but I don’t know exactly what I’ll be looking for,” Kyle sighed.

“I’ll help you, Kyle,” Isabel announced. “I’ll be there as the official alien expert. I won’t be able to dreamwalk Jennifer until tonight, so I can do this with you now.” Isabel looked back at Kyle and smiled. Kyle was a great guy. She didn’t feel anything romantic for him, but his sense of humor was exactly what she needed in her life right now. It looked like they would be paired up a lot in the future, and she found that she didn’t mind a bit.

Max watched as everyone stood up, marveling at how quickly everyone just accepted their roles in this ‘alien club.’ But, as they began heading for the door to start on their assigned tasks, Max suddenly shouted, “Wait!”

Everyone immediately halted and turned around. They looked at him with some puzzlement at the tone of his voice. It was commanding but not harsh. Once Max saw that he had their attention, he took a deep breath and began.

“Thank you, everyone, for everything you’re doing. I know it hasn’t been easy these last couple of years, for any of us, but especially for Liz, Maria, and Kyle. The three of you could have been living these normal, happy lives. But, for one reason or another you’ve gotten tangled up in this . . . this ‘I know an alien club’,” using Kyle’s earlier reference. “Some by your own choice, and others . . . not.” Max looked directly at Kyle at that last remark.

“All of you have had to endure things that normal teenagers never dream of encountering and you’ve done it every day. You’ve been interrogated, spent time in jail, and faced off against the FBI. You’ve been plagued by alien-fanatics, dangerous alien Skins, weird alien crystals, and manipulative alien hybrids. You’ve lied, deceived your parents, damaged cars, and left town on a moment’s notice. You’ve been shot at, nearly killed, and have killed others to save your own lives or the lives of others. You put your lives in danger every day, and I wanted to let you know that I am aware of all of this and I’m extremely grateful for all your sacrifices. I wish it didn’t have to be so.

“I can’t change what’s happened to us. And I can’t promise you that these things won’t happen again. But, I know what Isabel said is true. We’re stronger when we’re together. We need to trust each other and never hide anything from each other ever again.” Max looked at Isabel and then down at Liz, who had joined him by his side while he was speaking.

Max saw Liz’s love for him shining in her glistening eyes, as his words acknowledged all the sacrifices they had made for each other. Max reached for her hand and held it tight as they interlocked fingers.

“Listen, I know I haven’t been the greatest alien leader, or even the greatest human lately. I’ve treated everyone horribly. Liz and Isabel bore the brunt of it. But, I’m going to try hard to make it up to you. The Max that you’ve known the last few months hasn’t been the real Max. In fact . . . I started to lose myself that day almost a year ago when Liz walked away from me to leave me to my Destiny,” Max confidently declared as the realization of that fact hit him.

Without releasing his hold on her hand, Max suddenly grabbed both of Liz’s hips and turned her around to face him as he looked into her tear-filled eyes. Her other hand automatically joined his at her other hip and clasp around it tightly as she felt a sense of urgency come from him.

All of a sudden, Max felt a powerful surge of energy encompass him, causing something inside of him to come alive. It was almost as if a memory of his mission here on earth was suddenly unveiled. He saw it clearly for the first time. His tone took on a new authority as he continued.

Max looked directly into Liz’s bright eyes. “But my Destiny is you. I’m not the man I’m supposed to be without you, Liz. Everything’s clearer when you’re around. This last year has taught me that. I’ve made some pretty careless decisions lately, and that’s no way for a King to act. A King needs a strong Queen by his side; someone who completes him. You are that Queen, Liz. I don’t care what anyone else says. I know it down deep in my soul. You’re the only one for me. You are my mate, my other half, the one I was always meant for. And I defy anyone here to claim otherwise!”

Max’s eyes left hers and looked piercingly into the 4 pairs of eyes that were opened wide at this last commanding outburst. With a power he didn’t know he possessed, Max searched the hearts and minds of the 4 people standing before him, instantaneously reading their thoughts in reaction to his words. A green glow emanated from his eyes, and in turn, was reflected within the eyes of those he cast his gaze upon.

Kyle’s eyes were met first. Kyle had always harbored a sense of resentment of Max; first for ‘stealing’ Liz away from him, and second for involving his family in this alien affair and causing nothing but trouble. But, as Max’s gaze bore into him, all those feelings were dispelled. He knew he could never have loved Liz the way that Max did. And somehow he always knew she didn’t love him either. She was meant for Max. She was always meant for Max. He would never deny it.

Next was Isabel. As her tear-stained eyes met those of her brother’s, Isabel felt humbled and overjoyed. This was the brother she loved! This was the Max she had always known! He had been brought back to her, and she knew without a doubt that it was Liz that had made this possible.

The instant before Max had turned to her she had witnessed the powerful merging of Liz and Max’s auras. The resulting combination created colors so beautiful and brilliant that she would have been surprised that everyone couldn’t see it. It also seemed familiar, like she had seen this effect take place before. She somehow knew that Max’s aura could only have produced this effect with Liz and that this particular medley of colors was uniquely theirs.

As she felt Max read the thoughts that lay bare on her heart, she opened herself up to him. She had already confessed her regret to Liz about not accepting her. Now she confessed it to Max—all the times she blamed him for saving Liz, for telling Liz about them, for being with her. For tearing him down instead of supporting him. She confessed it openly with her heart and her mind. Yes, Liz is his. I will never doubt it again.

Maria’s eyes were wide with anxiety at hearing Max speak so about her childhood friend. Liz was the girl with the pigtails, who played dress-up with her mother’s make-up and made pies of out mud. Liz was the girl who cried when she did, laughed when she did, and made weird comments about Czechoslovakians all the time. Liz? A Queen? But she saw the same love in Max’s eyes that she had seen in Liz’s, and as she thought about it, she couldn’t imagine a better role for her best friend to fill. She knew they were meant to be together, that she was his soulmate. Her mind showed resolve to come after him, alien powers be damned, if he ever hurt her again, but she knew she would never have cause.

Michael was last, and as he was subjected to the same searching examination, one thought ran prominently across his mind.

My King . . .

Ever since hearing about their Destinies, Michael had thrown Max’s King role back at him, blaming him for making the wrong decisions, for not knowing what to do, for putting their lives in danger, for being too . . . Human.

But now, he had finally seen his true King, his ‘Fearless’ leader. Almost as soon as Max had started talking to them about sacrifices, Michael had sensed a great change come over Max. These were the things that great rulers and kings said, and his heart echoed with the voices of thousands of soldiers, pledging their loyalties to their leaders. He, too, had used Max’s healing of Liz against him, throwing it back in his face over and over again.

Never again.

He begged forgiveness for his careless thoughts and comments. He really did like Liz. He knew she was the best thing for Max and that alien or not, she would be the one to take the place by Max’s side, forever. He pledged his loyalty to her now, as well as to his king, to always protect them at all costs. Respect flashed predominately in his eyes as he also acknowledged Liz’s role and vowed to never forget that. Liz was his Queen, and Max, his King.

The moment passed quickly and no one was quite sure what had happened, but they couldn’t deny the feelings and heartfelt declarations that had been shared.

Max shook his head slightly, processing the wealth of information that he had gained in just a few seconds. The green glow was gone from his eyes, and their familiar amber color had returned. He glanced around carefully, looking for signs of discomfort in those around him, but he saw none. He looked down at Liz, releasing her hips from his hands and capturing her face instead. He wanted to explain to her what had happened between him and the others, but before he could start to talk, Liz stopped him, raising her hands to grab onto his wrists.

“It’s Ok, Max. I know. I felt it too. It’s like an echo of what you got passed into me as well. It was wonderful. I didn’t catch everything that was said, I . . . I just feel so loved right now,” Liz’s warm brown eyes were wide with the expression of those feelings.

Max planted a kiss on her forehead, as her lips looked far to inviting right now, and said, “That’s the way you should always feel. I’m going to do best to make sure you feel that way every day for the rest of your life.” Max wrapped his arms around her shoulders, urging her to lean her head against him.

“Max, what was that?” Isabel asked quietly. “I could actually feel your power being used.”

“I could too,” Michael added quickly. “It was something I’ve never felt before. It was very strong. Not even close in comparison to when I use my own powers.”

“I have no idea. I don’t even know how I did it,” Max replied curiously. “I hope I didn’t upset anyone. I know it was pretty invasive.”

Maria spoke up, “I think we’ve all shared what was in our hearts, Max. I had nothing to hide from you. Now, I don’t expect it to happen every time you want to know something about me, however,” she continued in her quirky manner, “You realize that you can just ask me normal questions once in a while, too. Right, Girlfriend?” Maria used her pet name for Max.

Max grinned back at Maria, promising to just ask the next time he needed to know something.

“I’m with Maria,” Kyle chimed in. “You aliens have a funny way of getting your assurances, but I’m at peace with it. My mind’s been cleansed of any bad feelings for you, Evans. Buddha has shown me the way,” Kyle said, quite sanctimoniously, stretching out his neck and looking upward, haughtily.

Isabel had to cover her mouth to prevent the giggle from coming out at Kyle’s remark. She needed a little light-hearted laughter after the emotional overload she had felt in the last 48 hours, and Kyle always had a knack for comedic timing.

Maria wasn’t as quick on the draw as Isabel. A snicker escaped from her mouth before she could stop it. As the sound carried across the room, it seemed almost magical, as it immediately lightened the heart of everyone that heard it.

Not only was Maria’s laugh therapeutic, it was also highly contagious. Liz began to feel the pull of the giggle from her own lips, and Isabel could no longer contain hers any longer. All three girls were laughing loudly now, and Max smiled widely at them. Michael looked puzzlingly at his wacky girlfriend, and then let a small smile creep into his own face and he tenderly remembered how much he loved this zany girl.

Kyle took a look around at his group of friends that had now become so much closer in the last hour and smiled inwardly. Then he masked his face and shrugged his shoulders and said, “What?! Can’t a guy mention Buddha without sending everyone into hysterics?”

The girls laughed harder at this, and Max and Michael began to chuckle as well. Kyle’s face finally broke and he, too, enjoyed the much-needed amusement.

With a smile on their lips, the 6 friends headed up the stairs of the UFO Center to face the rest of their day and the discoveries that lie waiting for them.

[6throck]

A/N-Thanks for the feedback and comments everyone.


Ok, so this next part doesn't answer a lot of questions, but they are coming soon. I'll try to post the next part Sunday night.



Chapter 8-Two By Two By Two





Michael and Maria left the UFO Center and headed towards the Jetta, having just received strict instructions to check in once they got to Las Cruces.

“We’ve been keeping each other in the dark too much lately, and that stops now,” Max told them before they left. “I want you to report in 3 times a day.” Going off Michael’s look, Max replied, “I know it may seem excessive right now, but I’m going to error on the side of caution for a while. We have no idea what went on down there, and that alien bomb device that you found might not be the only thing waiting for you. As your leader, I’m sending you on a potentially dangerous mission, and I want you to follow my orders. I can’t lose either one of you. I hope you can respect that,” Max finished solemnly. Michael looked at Max and saw only his genuine concern for them both there, sighed inwardly, and realized his days of needing to question Max’s orders were over. He immediately agreed. “Sure thing, Maxwell. Unless something odd happens on the road, we’ll call as soon as we get into Las Cruces.” He turned and grabbed Maria’s hand and then headed out the door.

As they approached the Jetta, Maria turned to Michael and said, “Head for my place first.”

Michael looked puzzled at Maria. “What for? We can’t waste much time. You know this car doesn’t like to go over 90 and we’ve got a long way to go.”

Maria hopped in the passenger seat as Michael got behind the wheel and said, “Well, I may have showered, Space Boy, but in case you haven’t noticed, I’m wearing your things. I’d like to get some of my own clothes to wear since it looks like I’m going to be living in them for a couple of days.”

Michael gave her a sweeping glance as he drove down the street. He thought she looked pretty good in his clothes, but he thought she looked even better out of his clothes

Maria caught his glance, and smiled inwardly, knowing exactly what he must be thinking. She pretended not to notice, but stretched her arms out above her head slowly, arching her back seductively as she calmly continued, “Besides, I should check on my mom and see how she’s doing. You know that whole mindwarp thing. By the way, it’s not very likely that she’s going to buy the excuse that I’m staying overnight at Liz’s again. Let’s just hope she doesn’t give you too much grief.”

Michael finally tore his eyes away from Maria’s lithe body, and concentrated on driving, trying to keep his hands on the steering wheel. As Michael drove down the road, Maria looked over at him and studied his strong profile. She loved the look of him, even while he was driving, and had to pinch herself again at how everything had changed between them in the last 24 hours. She still couldn’t believe that he stayed for her. Michael, the guy that couldn’t even put more than two words together to express his feelings for her, the guy that had been dreaming about getting home his entire life—this was the guy that had been ready to abandon every chance of ever returning home again, to leave both Max and Isabel, and stay with her?

She knew he wasn’t the perfect boyfriend, but she loved him for who he was. He was Michael. More importantly, he was her Michael. Besides, she had seen a definite change in his attitude towards her these last couple of months. And now, after last night and his decision to stay this morning, she knew he was finally ready to show his feelings for her more openly. And those feelings revealed that he loved her. It was confirmed to her last night when he sent her the flashes and let her see him. That was such an incredible feeling! He had shown her his vulnerability and shame by letting her see how his life had been as a child living with Hank. And he had let her feel how much he loved her and cared about her. He never actually said those three little words out loud to her, but knowing that she was the center of all his thoughts, totally made up for it.

She had hoped that now that Michael was opening up to her that she would see flashes all the time, like Liz did. But, after that initial flash, she hadn’t seen anything again, not even when they made love. Maria pushed aside her feelings of disappointment and concentrated on what she did have. She had a guy that was totally and completely in love with her, and was willing to basically give up everything he had ever dreamed of to be with her. And being a virgin, she didn’t have a basis for comparison, but she definitely thought that sex with Michael was different than anything she had heard described in the girls bathroom. She doubted anyone else in the world could boast the kind of pleasure she had received during their encounters. She couldn’t ask for anything more. Besides, Liz and Max’s relationship was something totally different. They had a connection that was so powerful, it was hard to comprehend. It was only right that the uniqueness of their relationship allowed for the constant receipt of flashes.

Michael pulled the Jetta up to the side of her house, and Maria was pulled from her reverie. She jumped out of the car quickly and started for the house. She wanted to get on the road soon. She was actually looking forward to some time alone with Michael. She just needed a change of clothes and some other necessities first. She hurried into the house, but was stopped short by a very disturbing sight in the kitchen.

~~~~~~~~~~

Isabel watched Michael and Maria take off in the Jetta then turned to Kyle and said, “Ok, Sherlock. Let’s go digging for clues. You’re driving. I seem to be. . . um . . . currently without a vehicle.” She smiled sweetly at that last statement, and smartly tossed the keys to her mom’s car to Max and he passed by. Max caught the keys without missing a beat, and with one hand on Liz’s back, guided her towards his mom’s car.

Kyle watched Max and Liz for a moment and then turned back to Isabel, smiling impishly. “Admit it. You just want to ride in The Machine, don’t you?” Kyle’s smile was suddenly washed away as he caught something in her look and a sense of dread settled in the pit of his stomach. “Just . . . just don’t do anything to it, you know, um. . . with your alien voodoo. This baby’s a chick magnet, and I want to keep it that way.”

“Are you sure, Kyle? I’ll bet I could make some small additions that would guarantee you to score every time,” Isabel smiled mischievously, as she held out her hand towards his Mustang, threateningly.

Kyle ran to step between her and his beloved car, holding out his hands to try to prevent her from doing anything to it. “Nononononono,” he spoke the one word of refusal in rapid-fire succession. “It’s perfectly fine the way it is. I don’t need any ‘improvements!’”

Isabel lowered her hand and looked over at Kyle innocently. “Well, if you’re sure, Kyle. Then, would you be so kind as to open the door for me, or should I just unlock it myself?”

Kyle ran the rest of way to his car, disarming the alarm and quickly throwing open the door for Isabel as she gracefully climbed in. He walked around to the driver’s side, keeping his eye on Isabel the entire time, not completely trusting her. He jumped in and started the engine, causing the powerful motor to come roaring to life and then sped off in the direction of his house.

~~~~~~~~~

As Liz and Max got into his mom’s car and Max started driving down the road, he glanced over at Liz and said earnestly, “I’m so glad you’re coming with me, Liz. I don’t think I could have done this on my own.”

“I know that you need to know what happened, Max, and I think I need this as much as you do.”

As their eyes meet, Liz looked deep into Max’s eyes, and saw his love for her etched in them. She could still feel a residual of the emotions she had felt from him earlier, when they had connected in her bedroom. In fact, the entire time they were at the UFO Center, she had been able to sense some of his emotions. And that experience with the others . . . . Liz didn’t know quite what to make of that yet. It was like she had also felt the emotions of Maria, Kyle, Isabel, and Michael being filtering through Max and into her. It was an incredible experience, and all their thoughts seemed to be about her. But, as marvelous as that was, being able to sense Max’s emotions, feeling his love for her within herself, was the best experience in the world.

This effect was similar to the time after they found the orb last year and she had had all those flashes. For weeks after that, whenever she was near Max, it was like they were completely in tune with each other. She didn’t actually sense his emotions, like she did now, but she just seemed to know what he was feeling. She often wondered if it was an aftereffect of so much intimate contact with Max during their search for the orb.

Then, after the whole Destiny thing had come into the picture, she hadn’t really been close enough to Max to cause a renewal of this effect. But now, she was pleasantly surprised and pleased that it had returned again, and much stronger than before. Now, she knew that she was actually sensing his emotions. It made her feel like she was part of something special and unique, as if it confirmed that they were made to be together.

As if he was reading her mind, Max was thinking about the same thing that Liz was. He, too, had been aware of her feelings the entire time that they were having the meeting. He had missed having that comforting flow of her consciousness around him when they had been together in the past. During their time apart, he was aware that he missed her presence, but until now, he hadn’t realized that not feeling her emotions was also part of the loss. It was if his own energy wasn’t complete until hers mixed with it. Max wondered if this connection went both ways, and concentrated on sending his feelings of love out to her in case it was true.

Liz felt a sudden swelling of endearment come from Max and she immediately sucked in her breath and looked over at him as she felt the waves of love wash over her again and again. She concentrated hard and returned the sentiments. The instant he saw her turn towards him, Max knew the experiment was a success, and the receipt of her matching emotions confirmed it.

Liz’s eyes opened wide with this knowledge. “You feel it too, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I feel it. I’ve been able to feel your emotions since . . . this morning . . . in your room . . .”

“ . . . after I let you connect with me, after I let you in,” Liz finished.

“It’s like a part of that connection is still with us.”

“Do you think it’s a permanent thing now, or just something that will disappear sometime?” Liz questioned, thinking about how this might have happened.

“I don’t know. Does it bother you?” Max asked, worriedly, seeing the look in her eyes.

“No, Max!! Not at all!” Liz affirmed, vehemently. “It makes me feel really special, like the seeing the flashes does. I was just wondering if . . . if we had been . . . . um . . . together this last year, if maybe our connection would have built up to this level, you know, gradually.”

Max saw the wistful look in her eyes, and wished again that things had been different. “I don’t know, Liz, but I hope it doesn’t disappear anytime soon. I’ve missed you so much. This feels like making up for lost time.”

He reached over with his free hand and grasped hers tightly, rubbing his thumb over her smooth skin.

They didn’t speak the rest of the journey . . . they didn’t need to.

~~~~~~~~~

Kyle’s red Mustang came roaring into driveway of his house and he and Isabel got out of the car and walked inside. Their playful bantering stopped the moment they saw Kyle’s dad on the phone, pacing the floor nervously. Isabel and Kyle exchanged worried looks as Valenti got more and more agitated. “I’m coming over right now, Michael. Kyle and Isabel just got here, explain it to them. I’ll be right there.” Valenti handed the phone to Kyle and then snatched his keys from the counter and raced out the door.

Kyle looked somewhat puzzled, and he began to talk to Michael on the line. “Michael? What’s wrong? What happen? Why is my dad going over there?”

Michael spoke rapidly. “It’s Maria’s mom. She’s starting to break through the mindwarp again. I brought Maria home to grab a change of clothes and to check up on her mom, and we found her sitting in the kitchen holding that stupid George W. T-shirt, ranting on and on about Larak. Maria snapped her out of it, but she started asking a bunch of questions. I told that we had just found out that Tess had hypnotized her. That was the best thing I could come up with. Maria’s not sure what she’ll do if she remembers everything. We need your dad to help calm her down and stop her from doing something stupid, like going to the police. Maria’s sitting with her now, trying to explain some things to her. We gotta get going, but she doesn’t want to leave her until your dad gets here.” Michael sounded frustrated.

“Yeah, ok. That’s a good idea. My dad’s probably halfway there by now. He really tore out of here. Tell Maria, I’m sure my dad will take care of her mom.”

Kyle hung up the phone and turned around to face Isabel. Isabel’s face was grave as she looked questioningly at Kyle, waiting for him to explain the whole story. “What’s wrong with Maria’s mom? Is she ok? Did Maria have to tell her all about us?” Isabel asked in a panic.

Kyle repeated Michael’s side of the conversation to her and Isabel was lost in thought for a while. She imagined again how much easier things would be if their parents knew about them. She hoped that one day they would be able to tell her parents. She desperately needed her mother’s love, and she couldn’t imagine ever losing that. But, she didn’t believe that her parents would stop loving them if they knew their secret. They said they were trying to protect them from harm by keeping them in the dark, but look at Maria’s mom. She got caught up in this whole mess, and now she had to be lied to in order to keep their secret. Maybe once this whole fiasco was over, she’d have another talk with Max about it. Hmmm . . . on second thought, maybe she’d talk to Liz first. Max’s strength might be Liz, but she was also his weakness, too. She might be able to persuade him to do something that Isabel couldn’t.

Isabel looked back at Kyle and said, “Michael said it was hypnosis, huh? Well, I guess that’s as close to the truth as we can get right now. I hope that someday, we might be able to tell all our parents the truth, but . . . it’s not the right time yet. I’m really glad your dad is able to help us out, Kyle. It’s been wonderful to have him on our side. He’s been the best ally we could have had. I really hope that he’ll be able to take care of Maria’s mom. Man! Tess really did leave a wake of destruction behind her, didn’t she?” Isabel said disgustingly. Then turning towards the hallway, she said with a heavy sigh, “So, I guess we should get started.”

They made their way to Kyle’s room and shut the door. Kyle looked around the room that now seemed so strange to him. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be completely comfortable in this room anymore.”

“I know, Kyle. I don’t know what to say. Maybe it will help if we start to put everything in the boxes as we go through it. After that, maybe you can do a Buddha chant or something to cleanse the room of the evil spirits.” Isabel tried to say something to help lighten the mood.

Kyle smiled back at Isabel. “Well, I don’t know about a specific ‘cleanse-the-room-of-a-murdering-alien chant’ but I’m sure I can find something.” Kyle replied dryly. “I’ll go out to the garage and find some boxes. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can start to feel more at ease in here.”

Kyle started at the far end of his room and started removing everything that was Tess’s and putting it in the box at his feet. Isabel sat on the floor by the box. As Kyle added an object to the box, Isabel took it out and studied it, trying to see if she could get a flash from it. She then placed the object in one of two other boxes, Possible Clues, or just Plain Tess Junk. So far the box of Plain Tess Junk was the only one that had anything in it.

Isabel sighed and reached for another item. Suddenly, she was hit with a flash of Max and Tess kissing. She quickly dropped the item in her hand like a hot potato and looked down at it.

It was Tess’s dance card from Prom.

Isabel shook her head, trying to get the image out of her mind. She so didn’t need to see a close up of her brother macking on someone, especially Tess. Wait a minute!!! Max kissed Tess at Prom? But he took Liz to Prom!! What the hell went on that night? Isabel realized that she had been so wrapped up in her own experience with Alex at Prom that she had missed whatever happened between Liz, Max, and Tess that night.

Isabel turned to Kyle and said, accusingly, “Where were you when all this happened?”

Kyle looked down at Isabel, puzzled. “When all what happened?”

Isabel held up the Prom card. “I just got a flash of Tess kissing Max from this. What went on that night? I thought Max went with Liz and you went with Tess. What the hell were Max and Tess doing kissing each other?”

“Yeah, I figured that might have happened,” Kyle responded causally.

Isabel looked at him with an appalling look on her face.

Seeing her look, Kyle rushed on. “You see, I kept getting these weird vibes from Tess that night. I wasn’t sure what it was, but suddenly I was thinking about her in a totally different way. I mean, up until then, I still thought of her as this totally hot babe that I wouldn’t mind getting a taste of.”

Isabel made a face at that comment.

“Hey. I know. But, what can I say? I was being a guy. Anyway, that night, even from the time I picked Tess up, I kept having these strange feelings about her. Like I shouldn’t be wanting to get it on with her. Then at the dance, a fight broke out between me and one of my loser teammates from the basketball team, and I called Tess my sister. I couldn’t believe I said that! It caught me completely by surprise.

“I tried to shake it off by doing something rash, so I pulled her into the Eraser Room. Except, when I tried to tell her how hot I thought she was, it came out all wrong. I said something like I thought she was beautiful, but that I didn’t think of her that way. I told her that I cared about her like family, like a sister. She seemed kinda relieved and then she played it off like she was disappointed, but if that’s what I wanted that she would accept that. But, I’m sure it was just an act. Ok, then my Dad and Mrs. Deluca busted in on us and kicked us out, I think to use the place for their own little make-out session.”

Isabel grimaced with another thought that she didn’t need in her head. “Go on. What happened next?”

“Well, when we started back to the gym, we saw Max sitting on a bench in the hallway. Tess said she would meet me inside the gym in a minute and went to go talk to Max. But, she never did come back inside. I looked for her later when the dance was almost over. I couldn’t find her. I guess I should have asked someone about her, but I didn’t. I just went home. But, if you say that you saw them kissing in that flash, then I guess I’m not surprised. The only thing that surprises me is why Max left Liz like that. Maybe they had an argument or something. But, then who took Liz home?”

“Good question. Something I’m going to have to take up with my brother when I see him again. Doesn’t he know the rules of etiquette? You always, always, always leave with the same girl you came with, no matter what happens on the date, especially at Prom!!!”

Now that the flashes were under control, Isabel skimmed through the dance card and wrinkled her nose in disgust at all the silly doodles and Tess’s obvious obsession with Max. What was up with the stupid poem about their destinies intertwining like lost lovers? And there was almost a whole page dedicated to the kiss. No wonder the flash had been so strong. She looked at the last page and saw that they went to “our bench”, wherever that was, after Prom. She didn’t say how long they stayed there, but she was so excited from the kiss that she didn’t go to sleep that night.

Isabel dropped the dance card into the Plain Tess Junk box and sat for a minute, lost in thought, waiting for Kyle to deposit more items into the box. Suddenly, Kyle’s shout interrupted her thoughts.

“What the hell?!!”

“What?”

“Well, would you take a look at these!” as Kyle held up a long strip of brightly colored square packages.

Condoms.

Kyle had moved a stack of books from his desk and discovered a little surprise buried in the back corner of the desk against the bookshelf.

“What? Did you forget about your stash back there, Kyle? Really, I don’t think those are quite that shocking,” Isabel retorted.

“Well, considering that these aren’t mine, I think this is pretty interesting. I don’t buy this brand.”

“So, I guess we’re saying that Tess bought them?”

“Yeah, these are definitely hers. I guess she didn’t need me to trim her lamp. It looks like she found someone else.”

“What are you talking about, ‘Trim her lamp.’ I don’t . . .” Isabel stopped, closed her eyes and pressed her hands to her temples. “I so didn’t need that visualization. I’ve had enough for the day. But, you never really did anything with her though, right?”

“No, we talked about it, but we never got around to it.”

“Are you sure, Kyle? You don’t think she mindwarped you into forgetting that, do you?”

Kyle shook his head. “No. I’m glad now, knowing what she’s done to everyone, that I never actually hit that.” Kyle shuddered at the thought. “But, at the time, it was a mutual idea. If she really wanted it, I would have given it to her. Why would she want to make me forget it? It’s not like it would have been a big deal if she said she didn’t want to anymore. She knew that. I mean, it would have just been attending to our bodily needs. Nothing more than that.”

“Ok, Ok. I get it. Just don’t start quoting the fat guy again.” Isabel replied.

Kyle passed the strip of condoms to Isabel, and she took them warily, wondering what if she would get another distasteful flash from them.

[6throck]

A/N-Sorry, I'm a week late. I got busy last Sunday helping my son finish his final Eagle Project write up and then this week got so busy with Thanksgiving stuff. I wish I had time for some replies on feedback, but I'll have to catch up with you later on that. I wanted to get this chapter out now, so I can work on polishing the next couple of chapters so we can get to some answers.

Just as a note, the author of the book mentioned is Michael Newton.


Chapter 9- Digging for the Truth





“Well, that was Michael,” Liz said after answering Max’s cell phone. “It seems that Maria’s mom is breaking through the mindwarp again. They called Valenti to come over and talk to her and help her out. Michael told her that Tess hypnotized her.”

“I guess that’s pretty close to the truth, minus the alien part,” Max said grimly. “Is she going to be alright?” Max asked.

“He didn’t know, but I really hope so, Max. She’s like a second mom to me. Valenti got there when Michael was on the phone with me. They’re taking off for Las Cruces now and leaving Maria’s mom with Valenti. Michael wanted to make sure you knew he was ‘following your orders’ by checking in. He said,” Liz smiled at the tone of voice that Michael used, “that you would mostly likely have called that ‘something odd’ and since he agreed to call if anything like that happened . . . he did.”

Max curled the edge of his lip in a half-smile at that comment. Yep, that sounded just like Michael.

Liz continued, “It’s funny. He’s still Michael, but something’s different. There isn’t that tone in his voice any more. I really think whatever you did back there at the UFO Center got to him. He’s really finding his place in all this now.”

Liz was going to say something else, but just then, they crested the hill and she spied the fence that she had been sitting on just about a week ago. They had decided to go there first to try to remember what happened that night.

Max pulled off the highway and automatically parked in the same place as he did before. This action stirred up a lot of memories and conflicting feelings. He could remember exactly what he felt seeing Liz on that fence, and the pressing urge to find out what she was doing. He also recalled the anger he had felt at her refusal to obey him, the conflicting feelings of both surprise and frustration at her gall and admiration for her strength, and the acute tension that had been between them during that conversation which had crackled with electricity that was almost sexual in nature. The latter sensations were felt more strongly with the recent discussion of this event that took place in Liz’s bedroom a couple of hours ago.

Through the retained connection, Liz sensed a small part of the range of emotions that were coursing through Max. She felt all the emotions in overlapping waves, but the sexual tension ones seemed to consistently cover the others. She looked up at him with wide eyes at the intensity of the sensations she was feeling because she knew she was only getting a portion of their original strength. Her own body began to respond unconsciously to the erotic feelings his memories were stirring up again.

Max caught her glance and knew what must be happening, and worried that she was only getting his feelings of anger. “I’m sorry Liz. I’m sorry I was so angry with you . . .”

Liz cut him off as she pressed her finger to his lips. “It’s ok, Max. I caught more than just the anger part.” She felt him relax a bit and decided to tease him a little. Completely ignoring the strongest feelings, she got a twinkle in her eye and continued, “So, you were surprised that I didn’t bow down before you and follow your orders, huh?” she said smugly.

Max didn’t know what to say at that remark, and Liz took advantage of his momentary speech loss to climb out of the car. She knew that she had to change the subject quickly before Max realized that she was starting to react to the more prominent feelings that were emanating from him.

Max sat stunned for a couple of seconds and then got out as well. For a moment he had caught something from Liz—something besides her claimed self-satisfaction in defying him. He quickly joined her outside the car.

Liz began. “So. We know what we said to each other. We don’t need to replay that scene.” Under her breath she said, “Besides, if we did that now, it might not turn out the same way,” fantasizing about Max actually throwing her into the car this time and ravishing her. She turned to Max, trying to compose her features so not to give anything away.

Max caught some of those feelings, and gave her a curious look, smiling slightly.

Liz shook her head, trying to clear it. She needed to focus on the current situation. “Ok, we’re going to try something I learned from my grandmother when I was a little girl. One time when she was visiting, I lost my favorite stuffed animal. I was inconsolable. Grandmother came to me and taught me this. She had me remember the last time I had my stuffed animal, and then slowly led me through all the places I went after that, retracing all my steps until I was able to discover where it was that I had left it. It was truly amazing. Since then, I’ve used this method whenever I misplaced or lost something. I don’t know if it will work in this case, but it’s worth a try.”

“Close your eyes, Max,” Liz instructed.

Max immediately obeyed her and shut his eyes. Liz continued, “Ok, you need to remember what happened that night. I need to you concentrate. Listen to the sound of my voice. Take deep breaths.”

Liz watched Max’s face relax and his breathing slow. She began talking slow and deliberate. “Think back to that day. Picture everything in your mind as I mention it. A lot of things happened. You argued with Isabel at school. You were talking a drive in the jeep and you were returning back into town when you saw me sitting on the fence. Can you see it?”

Max furrowed his brow for a moment as he struggled to reclaim the memory. As soon as he had it, he relaxed again. “Ok, I’ve got it.”

As soon as Liz heard this, she continued, changing the form of the words to the present tense. “You see me sitting here on the fence. You pull over and we get into an argument. I get in the taxi and I leave. You’re watching the taxi drive off now. What are you thinking?”

With his eyes still closed, he began talking. “I watch the taxi drive away until I can’t see it anymore. I’m still in shock that you are risking everything, all of our lives—as I believe—with this stupid venture of yours. A part of me is worried for you, for what might happen to you, but the other part of me is more worried about what will happen to the rest of us if we are exposed somehow.”

Max was amazed at how easily the individual feelings came back to him. He had worried that having Liz with him now might cause him to block the unpleasant feelings that this previous encounter with her had caused. But her presence now had a calming effect on him, almost as if she was clearing the fog from his mind and allowing the memories to flow unrestrained.

Gathering strength from this realization, he sightlessly reached for her hand and found it effortlessly as he continued. “I also feel guilty. Guilty that somehow Alex’s death was my fault—that my involvement with you had somehow caused all of this; guilty that I wasn’t helping you now—wasn’t protecting you. Then, I feel despair. Complete despair. I had failed everyone. No one was left to stand by me. Isabel hated me, hated what I had done to her. Michael was on Isabel’s side, and then you, Liz . . . you had left me. You had left our friendship behind to pursue this . . . this quest of yours.”

Liz struggled to remain still as their connection, now heightened with the physical contact of their adjoining hands, caused the full measure of the emotions he was describing to crash into her. Her heart ached with the pain he was reliving. She wanted to soothe his anxiety, reassure him that everything was ok, but she knew he had to do this on his own if he was to discover what really happened that fateful night.

Max continued, now fully immersed in the memory of that night, almost as if he was in a hypnotic trance. “I’m not sure how long I stand here staring at the empty road. Eventually, I get back into the jeep and start driving. I want to drive after you, to stop you, but I know it is a hopeless cause.”

“Ok, Max that’s good,” Liz encouraged. Knowing that they needed to follow his trail, she began, “Don’t lose that thought, Max. Keep focused on that memory. See what happened next. Open your eyes, but don’t lose that vision. Let’s get back in the car and try to follow the same trail you took that night.”

Max opened his eyes, and started for the door to get in. Liz ran to the other side to get it. She could see that he was still inside that memory. Max started the car and pulled around to the street. He hesitated for a moment looking in the direction the taxi had gone that night, before turning the other way, back into town.

Max kept the narrative going as he drove. Liz carefully monitored the road and the cars around them, making sure Max was still partially aware of this reality as well. But, Max seemed to be able to balance the two realities in his mind and she relaxed a bit, laying her hand on his arm to keep the connection with him stronger.

She had noticed since the talk in her room this morning that tactile contact made the emotions she got from him increase, and she wanted to be able to feel everything clearly. She smiled a little at the ease of this trigger. If physical contact helped this connection work better, that shouldn’t be a problem. Sometimes she couldn’t keep her hands off of him.

As he got back into town, he turned off the main street and headed into the residential area. He turned from street to street, repeating the same route as before. Max’s voice got stronger as he drove. “I’m going to go home. I . . . I just want to lie down and try to drown out the world around me.” He seemed defeated, his shoulders slumped, his head bowed slightly.

Suddenly, his hands tighten around the wheel and his whole body seem to stiffen. He sat up straight and his eyes were fixed firmly on the road ahead. “But, now, I realize that I need to go somewhere else.”

Liz felt a strange sensation come from Max’s mind at that moment. She had been aware of all of his feelings up to that moment, but now it was as if she felt two emotions conflicting with each other. She had strongly felt Max’s desire to go home and be alone in his depression, but now she also felt the strange impression to keep driving. But, this new urge didn’t feel right, it felt forced. Liz had been connected to Max enough to recognize the characteristics of his consciousness, and this wasn’t his thought. It was someone else’s.

Max was focused on the road ahead of him and unaware of his surroundings, but Liz knew exactly where they were. Her jaw tightened as she tried to hold back the anger that began to burn in her chest. This proved to her what she had suspected all. She didn’t want to distract Max from his memory, so she kept all her conclusions to herself. However, the moment Max had spoken those words, they had been passing directly in front of a house.

A house that she knew quite well.

A house that currently had a red Mustang parked in the driveway.

~~~~~~

Inside that house, Isabel was looking at the pile of papers and notebooks she had just dumped in the Tess junk box and wondering how it was that she never noticed that Tess never went to school. I mean, she went to school in the sense that she showed up on the school grounds, and sat in classrooms, and was present in the hallways, but she was obviously not doing any schoolwork. Notebook after notebook was filled with strange alien doodles and mindless drawings. Not one word about a class, a lecture, a test, or an assignment.

Nothing.

She must have mindwarped all the teachers when it came time to turn in homework or take a test. She was just there filling space.

Isabel hadn’t gotten flashes from anything else, not even the condoms. She had started going through all her schoolbooks and notebooks, desperate to find any other information about her.

Suddenly, a sound distracted Isabel. Her heart skipped a couple of beats as she identified the noise that distracted her from her pile of papers. She snapped her head around and stared at Kyle. He had taken the sheets off the bed earlier and was sitting on the stripped bed, staring absently at the wall in front of him. But, it was what his hands were doing that caught Isabel’s attention. He was tapping his fingers over and over again on the box in his lap. Isabel continued to stare at him for a couple of minutes, barely breathing, not sure what to do next. She was almost afraid to find out what else Kyle had been mindwarped about. But, they had to find out everything, so she took a deep breath and spoke. “Kyle! You’re doing it again. You’re tapping your fingers! What do you see?”

Kyle pulled his gaze from the wall and turned towards Isabel. “What!! I was doing what?” Kyle looked down at his hand like he didn’t recognize it. “I can’t believe it. She did it to me again!!! Damnit!! How many times did she mess with my head?!”

Isabel sat down next to Kyle on the bed and tried to console him. “I’m so sorry Kyle. I guess with her living here in your house . . . you were more likely to see things that she didn’t want you to, and once she learned to do this memory-erasing thing with her powers, I guess you were kinda like her guinea pig. What were you looking at last? There must be something that you saw that she erased from your memory.”

“I don’t know. I was just sitting here, staring at the wall . . .” Kyle broke off suddenly. “That wall! That’s the first thing that she attempted to ‘redecorate’ when she first took over my room. But, what could this wall have to do with anything. I mean, it’s just a wall, isn’t it?”

Isabel got up and walked over to the wall at the foot of Kyle’s bed and stared at it suspiciously. Then, suddenly, she waved her hand over it and was not that surprised when a silver handprint appeared. Isabel then pressed her hand on top of the glowing handprint and was startled when it passed directly through the wall. She felt various objects inside, and began pulling them out, knowing immediately what they were just from the feel of them.

Books. Lots of books.

As she read the titles of the books, she saw that they were all centered around the subject of the mind, with one exception.

Isabel said, “Well, it looks like Tess was very active in working to increase her powers. Nasedo told us that our powers are human, just extremely advanced. Seems like Tess took that information to heart and checked out . . . . God,” Isabel exclaimed as she examined each book, “It looks like the entire Roswell Library’s inventory of books on brain washing and mind control.”

“And look at this last one, Destiny of Souls,” Kyle said coldly, holding up the last book. “Well, we all knew she had this huge hang up on Destiny. Now, we know she was just using it to find a way into Max’s pants. With this kind of determination, you gotta admire the guy’s strength for holding off as long as he did. I just hope for Liz’s sake that THAT turns out to be a mindwarp too. ”

While Kyle began flipping through the books, Isabel reached back into the hiding place in the wall and began to sweep the area, making sure she didn’t miss anything. Her fingers came in contact a familiar wire coil. She grabbed a hold of the object and pulled out the spiral notebook, wondering excitedly why this notebook had been hidden away instead of in plain sight with Tess’s other school things. Isabel began reading through the notebook and gasped at loud when she saw what the notebook contained. “Oh my God, Kyle! Look at this!” she exclaimed, shoving the notebook at him. But her excitement was halted briefly as she watched Kyle take out a piece of paper he had found stuck between the pages of one of the books. “What do you make of this, Isabel?” he said, holding out the page. Isabel frowned as she leaned over to read the words on the paper. “I don’t know, but I think we’d better find out what all this means.”

[6throck]

A/N-Whoa. I had no idea that I was leaving a big cliffhanger with those last couple of chapters. Sorry, guys. Well, as far as Isabel and Kyle, we'll have to wait a few more chapters to find out what they discovered in Tess's stuff. For now, after a little Candy, we're going to shift back to Liz and Max and get down to the truth about what really happened. Apology in advance, this time, I know I'm leaving a cliffhanger.


Chapter 10- 380 West



Ironically, it wasn’t until she was flying down the highway at 90 miles an hour that Maria had the chance to slow down and reflect on all the things that had happened since Alex’s death. That event seemed to be the beginning of a downward spiral. Everything that happened after that just spun around faster and faster, pulling everyone under. She had never had time to just sit and think.

Michael realized that she had been quiet for a long time, which was typically not like her. “What are you thinking about?”

With a slight gleam in her eye, Maria turned to Michael and asked, “I’ve been meaning to ask you something, but with all the craziness going on this last week, I haven’t had the chance before. So, why did you decide to follow us down to Las Cruces last week?”

Michael glanced over at her for a moment, trying to decide out what kind of an answer she was looking for by asking a question like that. He sighed inwardly knowing that he would never be able to figure her out, yet realizing that deep down, he didn’t really want to. “I know what you’re thinking, and it’s not that I didn’t trust you. It’s just that Max was acting so strange. He and Isabel were fighting, and I mean really fighting. I know they weren’t speaking to each other before, right after Max found out that Isabel had been keeping the secret about Vilandra from him. But, this was 10 times worse that that. And I was caught between them. Usually, it was the other way around, you know, with me and Max disagreeing and Isabel played the mediator.”

Maria nodded and silently encouraged him to continue.

“Max is usually the cautious one, wanting to think everything out before making any decisions or acting on anything. Unlike me, someone who just wants to do something and be done with it, even if it’s the wrong thing.”

Maria smiled at him. “Well, I do like your impulsiveness, although you could stand for a little reining in now and again.”

He rolled his eyes at her and continued. “I guess, in a way, even though that frustrated me, I had really always counted on Max to be the strong one, the leader, to make the right decisions and know exactly what to do. Then, when he told me that he slept with Tess and got her pregnant, I knew something had to be really wrong. I knew he didn’t love her. How could he do this?!”

“After that, I started thinking. What if something was wrong with Max? He was our leader. We were all following his directions, and if something was wrong with him, if someone was controlling him, then all the decisions that he had made in the last few weeks were the wrong ones. And we had all just gone along with him. And if Max was wrong, maybe Liz was right. Maybe aliens were involved somehow in Alex’s death. Even Isabel had started to think so. And if aliens were involved in Alex’s death, then it was possible that you and Liz were heading into danger. So, I raced down here to check on you.”

“Really?” Maria was pleased to hear that Michael was worried about her. “Well, I can’t say that I’m not grateful to you for coming. We might have been blown to bits by that alien bomb thing if you hadn’t been there. I just can’t believe you drove all the way to Las Cruces on that motorbike of yours.”

“What’s wrong with my bike?!” Michael said, defensively.

“Nothing. But, it’s about as safe to ride around on as that Jeep of Max and Isabel’s was. It just doesn’t seem like it should even be street legal.”

Michael was puzzled by her sudden attack on his motorbike, until he realized what the problem was. He had never let anyone else ride on his bike, not even Max. Yet, he had driven Courtney home on it that night last year. Maria was probably just upset about that. He decided to have a little fun with her.

“Well, it is a pretty rough ride. It’s not really for everyone, I guess. You’d probably complain about getting bounced around on the road too much for me to even offer you a ride on it.” He glanced over at her, waiting for her reaction.

Maria dropped her jaw and half-heartedly slapped his arm. “What does that mean? You think I complain too much? Well, let me tell you, Spaceboy, I have plenty of things I could complain about, but I don’t. See, I have learned from my mom, not to expect too much from a man . . . .”

Michael interrupted her tirade, “So, are you trying to say that you’re up for the challenge then?”

“Hey, if I can handle you, I’m certain that I can handle your little dirt bike.”

“You think you can handle me, huh?” Michael said, raising his eyebrow meaningfully.

Maria realized that the question referenced more than just his bike. “Well, I think I did pretty well the first couple of times, but maybe you think that was just a fluke. I’d be willing to prove it to you again if you want,” she said suggestively.

“I think that can be arranged,” Michael growled.

Maria enjoyed the moments of silence, lost in her fantasies of what they would be doing once they stopped tonight. But, then her thoughts turned back to their mission and something that Michael had said earlier.

“Michael? How did we miss it? How did we not see what Tess was doing to Max? I mean, even you said that Max wasn’t acting like himself, you know, sleeping with Tess, arguing with Isabel, arguing with Liz . . .” Maria broke off.

“Well, I think we were all feeling a little uneasy with Alex’s death. But, you’re right. We should have done something more. But, I think we just all were accustomed to Max doing what he thought was best for everyone. Now, that I think about it, Isabel and Liz were the only ones to stand up to Max and disagree with him openly. He shot down Isabel with threats of lying to their parents and teachers, but Liz . . . I guess she’s the only one that stood her ground and did what she needed to do to get to the bottom of this,” Michael concluded.

Maria smiled in pride at her strong friend. “Yeah, she did. And you’ll never know how much it hurt her to do it. She loves him, Michael. Even when he was acting like a jerk, threatening to break off their friendship if she continued with her search, she still loved him. Maybe it was the strength of her love for him that helped her to see that it wasn’t really Max doing all that. God! I hope that they find out that this was all a mindwarp, Michael.”

Michael looked over at Maria, and stared straight into her beautiful green eyes and said sincerely, “Me too, Maria.”

~~~~~~~~

Driving back out of town, Max made several turns and then began to head south. Liz wondered where he had felt compelled to go that night. He turned on to highway 380 and began to head west. After several miles, he made the turn off for the Roswell Observatory. Liz shivered as she looked back at the road behind them. A few more miles and they would have hit same exit that Max took that night so long ago when they went to find the orb. For a brief second, Liz was afraid that Tess had led him towards the desert. The whole idea of Tess luring Max anywhere to seduce him was appalling to her, but the desert was their special place. It was almost like it would have been worse if it had been there than anywhere else.

Max had stopped his running commentary, and Liz decided to try to urge him to continue again. “Max, do you know where you’re going?” she asked quietly.

Max seemed to struggle to find the words. “I . . . I’m heading to . . . the . . . . Observatory. I want . . . to see . . . that star again. The one you can see . . . from my planet. Nothing . . . in this world . . . matters anymore . . . it’s . . . not real. Only . . . thing . . . that m . .mm . . matters . . . ggg . . . getting . . . home.” Max’s hands were gripping the wheel in a white-knuckle grip, showing the massive internal struggle that was going on inside him. Even without the connection between them, Liz saw that there could be no doubt that he had been trying to resist the commands to go to the Observatory that night.

Liz squeezed his arm a little tighter in quiet assurance, as she could feel his own emotions being pushed aside as the foreign influence that she knew had come from Tess was trying to take control.

Max finally reached the Observatory and pulled into the parking lot just like before. Luckily, the Observatory was closed on Sunday so they didn’t have to worry about a crowd of people to deal with. They both got out of the car and Liz followed Max to the spot where he had stood looking at the Observatory. Max reached out and took Liz’s hand in his, and looked at her with clear focused eyes as he said, nodding down at their joined hands, “This helps me keep everything straight in my mind. You’re my anchor, Liz. Don’t let go.”

“I won’t, Max.” Liz gripped his hand tightly in hers as Max closed his eyes and refocused on the memories of that night. She watched his face relax as he returned into the semi-hypnotic state.

Max turned back to look at the Observatory building and continued describing what happened, but now his voice seemed a bit stronger. “I’m standing here staring at this building, not moving at all. It is like I am waiting for something to happen. Then Tess arrives. I don’t see her pull up, I didn’t hear her car. Suddenly she’s just there.” Max turned and faced in the same direction that he had that night.

“She says she knew that she would find me here. I say something. I don’t even know what I said . . . it’s like it not coming from me. I remember thinking that I had lost everyone, that this can’t be real, this can’t be happening, and that I want to wake up.”

She . . . she grabs my hands and makes me look at her, and then she tells me that she’ll be here for eternity. Now she’s . . . pulling me down and . . .God! I’m sorry, Liz, I kissed her. I didn’t want to, but I wasn’t thinking straight.” Max broke out of the trace for a moment, desperate to explain his actions to Liz.

Liz felt the incredible conflict of feelings that were going on inside of Max at that moment. The overwhelming urge to let go and give in to Tess, and the struggle to clear his head and stop what was happening. Liz stepped in front of him and took his other hand in hers as she studied his face as it was bent down in despair.

“Ok, Max, what happens next? Can you remember? You . . .aaaah . . . kissed her, and then what?” Liz fought with her own control as she attempted to push aside the feelings of panic at what he might reveal happened next.

Max closed his eyes tighter as he tried to get past the memory of feeling Tess’s lips on his. It just didn’t feel right. It had never felt right. Ok, now what? What do we do next? Max had a vague impression of being pulled along, not in the direction of the Observatory, but back to Tess’s SUV.

Max opened his eyes and began to walk towards the back of his mom’s car, towards a vehicle that wasn’t there, pulling Liz along with him. When they reached the space where Tess’s car had been, Max remembered that Tess had opened the door and retrieved something from inside.

“A blanket. She pulls out an old Army blanket from her car.” Max looked at Liz wildly, excited and scared as the memories started to come. “She gives it to me to carry, smiling smugly, and then she leads me back towards the Observatory.”

Liz swallowed hard and blinked hard to hold back the tears. “Ok, Max. Let’s follow your steps to the Observatory now.” Luckily, the Observatory was closed on Sundays, so they didn’t have the crowds to deal with.

Max squeezed Liz’s hand in his and began to walk towards the huge building that now loomed ominously in front of him. Inside this building held the key to his world and the answers that he sought. Max prayed that they were the right ones.

“She takes my hand. I don’t think I’d follow her if she hadn’t. We go to the same door that we had used the last time we snuck in. Tess uses her powers to open the lock, and then we are inside.”

As he spoke, Max reenacted the scene, opening the door as well, and pulling Liz inside. Max used his powers to create a faint glow so they could see where they were going. As they found their way into the main corridors, Liz was worried about being caught. She furiously whispered, “What about the security guards, Max? Won’t we get caught?”

“Don’t worry about the guards, Max. I’ll take care of them,” Max said in a voice that was not his own.

“What?!! What are you talking about, Max?” Liz said a little louder. She could feel Max’s consciousness slipping further way, and she was worried that Max was getting too caught up in the memory. She concentrated hard on strengthening her connection to Max, hoping to reach him.

Max shook his head suddenly as he felt Liz’s energy punch a hole in the cloud that was threatening to overrun his mind. It was harder to focus in here. The memories, which earlier had felt like they were draining out of his mind, were now bubbling up inside him, threatening to completely wipe out the present. They were that strong!

“I’m sorry, Liz. Those must have been her words to me that night. She must have been using her powers on me. God! I know I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you.”

He abruptly leaned in to kiss her, as if to grab a quick breath of fresh air before plunging into the sea of polluted memories that lay before him. Liz’s lips met his halfway, and she poured out everything she could to him in that brief kiss.

Max’s vision cleared, and he was able to retain some clarity as he sought to stay aware of the present. “Right. These guards. Well, we can’t use Tess’s little tricks on them. Let’s just see how many we have to worry about.” He carefully peeked out from around the doorway where they had stopped, and checked the hallway in front of them. They crept down the corridor and looked around the next corner. To the right was a hall that showed an arrow pointing the Main Observatory Room around the corner. To the left, was the lobby and the Information Desk.

It appeared that there was only one guard on duty. Max remembered that Tess had led him into the Main Observatory Room. But in order to get there now, they would have to walk down the hallway to the right, putting them in plain view of the front desk, where the guard was watching a baseball game on his monitors. As engrossed in the game as the guard was, Max was sure that he wouldn’t miss spotting them if they just tried to walk right in front of him.

Max thought up a quick diversion. Looking around, he spotted a giant poster of the Horsehead Nebula on the wall of the Lobby. Max whispered his plan to Liz, grabbed her hand in his, and turned back towards the poster. Raising his other hand, he used his powers to make the poster fall off the wall. He only intended to make it fall gently, but somehow his powers caused the poster came tearing down off the wall. The guard wasn’t the only one to jump at the sound. Max, too, was startled at the unexpected result and he was motionless as he watched the guard leave the desk and run over to the fallen poster. Liz had to drag Max down the hallway and around the corner until they were out of sight.

Max recovered from his shock and as they reached the door to the Main Observatory. He used his powers to open the door and then to seal it shut, preventing any interruptions. As Max’s eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, the objects around him took form, and his eyes flickered anxiously in the direction of the far wall in the back.

Liz’s heart was closing tightly in her chest and a cold chill came across her as she laid her eyes on the room that had been Tess’s destination that night. She knew she needed to know the truth about what really happened, but now she was afraid to learn the intimate details in case they didn’t reveal what her heart desired.

Liz forgot to block her emotions from Max, and he felt her fear rise up within her. He instantly regretted having to put her through this. He turned to her and lovingly cupped her face in his hands and stared into her eyes, seeing the anxiety she felt reflected in them. “I’m so sorry to have to put you through this, Liz. If I was able to do this on my own, I would. But, it appears her powers are too strong. I would only see what she wanted me to see, what I saw that night. You give me the strength to see past all that. I can feel now that she made me come here. This pressing need inside my head to be here isn’t mine. I . . . I don’t know how far she took this. I wish I didn’t have to know, but I need to know. I do know that I didn’t do this of my free will. You have to believe that.”

Liz sensed the desperation that Max felt at this situation, of needing to know what happened, of not wanting to hurt her in the process, and the worry that she wouldn’t believe him. She helped alleviate his fears by telling him what she had been feeling from him during their trip here. “I believe you, Max. I can feel it too. You probably didn’t notice, but the moment we passed by the Valenti’s house, I could sense a change in your emotions. I knew it was her. It’s like I can feel two things coming from you at once, your feelings of resistance and the other impressions to do . . . everything else.”

Max smiled in relief and gently brushed his thumb across her cheek. He took a deep breath and turned to look around the room again. The huge telescope caught his attention and he remembered what happened next. He spoke out loud, walking over to the telescope with Liz’s hand clasped tightly within his own. “She led me to the telescope, asking me if I remembered her telling me that this world was the dream world, and that what was out there in space was real. She told me that I would be seeing that star again soon, only I wouldn’t need to use this telescope to see it.”

Max slowly let his eyes drift over to the area of the room where Tess had led him next. He slowly walked that direction, holding Liz’s hand as led her across the floor. “Then she started talking about how everything was going to be more real.”

Max closed in his eyes again to focus on the memories. As his mind began to form the images that took place next, Max’s eyes furrowed in concentration. He squeezed them tighter together as the images began to get stronger and more confusing. He shook his head, trying to understand what he was seeing. “Now, this is getting strange. It’s like I’m seeing double vision. I know what I believed happened next, but now I’m seeing something else as well, like a double exposure. How do I find out which one is real?!!” Max rubbed his temples in frustration.

Liz knew she needed to help Max, and forget the gnawing pit of fear that was tearing at her insides right now. Wondering if she could feed him some of her energy through their connection, she reached out and pressed her hands against his hands at his temple and made Max look at her. “Let me try to help, Max.”

Understanding her intentions, Max opened his eyes, and looked directly into Liz’s warm, brown ones. He concentrated as hard as he could, leaning into Liz through the connection, trying to draw as much from her as possible. Liz felt this, and gave herself to him freely. Suddenly, Max felt a flood of power come from Liz. Alarmed by the unexpectedness and unusual strength of this energy surge, Max abruptly pulled Liz’s hands away from his head.

Liz was confused by his actions, and softy asked, “Max? What’s wrong?”

“Did you feel that?” Max breathed.

“Feel what, Max?”

But Max was lost in thought as he realized there was something else about that feeling of power. That it seemed familiar somehow. Earlier today . . . . in the UFO Center! Had that power come from Liz? He looked at in question and saw that in the darkness of the room, she seemed to be glowing.

Max looked at Liz in awe, trying to discover the reason for her sudden radiance. He soon realized the light wasn’t coming from her, but from behind her. As he slowly moved around her, he found the source of the light and his eyes narrowed on her back pocket, as it shone brightly with a cool blue-white glow.

“Liz!” Max cried out. “There’s something glowing in your pocket.”