Max got up and walked over to where the pod was. The slimy membrane stuff had been cleared out so that there was a clear passage. Max crawled through and looked up to see everybody busy around the granolith.

"Max?!" Liz said somewhat startled. Max looked over to where she was. There was a small table with devices on it that Max didn't recognize. He looked around and saw that everybody else had similar ones in their hands.

"What's going on?"

"We're examining it. Tess's step-dad tried to use these to track this thing down. So we're hoping that it'll help us."

"Oh." Max went over and picked up a long, cylindrical crystal. "What's this?"

"We have no clue."

Max turned around and looked at the base of the granolith. "What's that?"

"What's what?"

"Come here," he said to Liz. He walked over, crystal in hand, to the base of the granolith. "Look," he said sliding it into the granolith. The granolith lit up from the inside.

"Max?! What did you do?"

"I have no idea." He stood up and held onto Liz. The granolith's light fluctuated colors, and then turned into a blinding white light.

"Max?" Liz whispered.

"Over here," he whispered back.

"Where are we?"

"I don't' know. Can you see me?"

"No, all I see is black. You?"

"Same. Hold on." Max moved over to where he though she was. He reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Is that you?"

"Yeah. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I think. Here." Liz pulled out a flashlight and turned it on. They could both see the beam of light cutting through the dark, but it never ended.

"Ok, why isn't it hitting something?"

"I don't know. Max, look." She shone the beam down towards their feet. They were standing in a black liquid.

Max leaned down to touch it. "What the-"

"Max!" Max looked up at Liz, but she wasn't there. He looked around and saw a flash of light about a yard off in the water.

"Liz?! Liz!" He moved over to where the flash was. He bent over it and started to reach through. There wasn't a bottom there. Max took a deep breath then jumped through.

Max landed on a red pillow. Looking around, he found out that he was sitting on a floor of red pillows. Above him there was blue liquid. Like the sky was entirely that. And that continued on forever in all directions. So did the pillows.

Liz was asleep next to him. She didn't look injured, but she did seem exhausted. "Liz," Max said shaking her. "Liz, wake up."

"Hmmm," she said still asleep.

"Liz. Wake up, Liz," he said a little louder. She opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Are you okay?"

"I am now," she said slightly crazily.

"Come on. Get up. We have to figure out what to do."

"Why? It's comfortable here," she said in that same almost crazy voice.

"No. No. We've got to get moving. Something's not right about this." Max pulled her to her feet, and supported her under her shoulder. He started to walk. Liz kept stumbling to the ground and giggling, so he decided to carry her.

"But Mr. Evans, we haven't been married. You don't get to carry me to the honeymoon suite yet."

"Liz, stay with me. I don't know what happened, but I'm gonna fix it somehow."

"And how are you going to do that?" she asked, getting up. "After all, you don't have your subjects, your majesty!"

"What?!" Max responded astounded. But before she could respond, she tripped and fell through the pillows.

"Liz!" Max dove after her. But this time he didn't land next to her.

Max kept falling. But he wasn't falling fast. It reminded him of that scene in "Alice in Wonderland" when she fell down the rabbit hole. Only a billowed out skirt wasn't holding him up.

Around him he saw stars. Stars and nebulas and planets. Only really small. It seemed like they were set against a black velvet backdrop that was just out of his reach.

"Liz! Liz can you hear me?!" he shouted.

In response he received an echoing "Hear me! Hear me. Hear m-" that sounded like Liz said it, but could have easily been a warp in his vocal sound.

Below him he saw a white light. Not the blinding kind, just a small diamond of white light. Like a Christmas light was at the bottom. Max's gaze fixated on it like it had hypnotized him. He slowly moved his body so that his head was falling first. Falling towards the small light.

When he reached it the floor seemed like a thin rubber cover, and the light was a hole in it. He was suspended above it and could barely touch it. Convinced that beyond it was Liz, he started stretching the hole open. When he got it wide enough for him to fit through, a sudden sucking action happened, and he was sucked through.

He found himself floating in a sparkling, purple haze. He looked down and saw that his feet were buried in a sparkling, light blue cloud. "Where am I?" he asked softly. His voiced echoed off the haze and multiplied in sound until it was almost too loud to bear.

"Max."

Max looked up. That sounded like Liz. And there she was, walking towards him. But as she came through the haze, she seemed to change. She changed into Tess. But before Max could react, she changed again, into the image of his mother.

"My son" Max started to form the word mom. But before he could, she started talking again. "You really do love that human. You've proven it over and over again. Risking heart and life for her. I don't want you to feel bound by your past life. There are always the o-" She faded before she could finish what she was saying.