Liz moved slowly into the room, the technician who had brought her back pulled the door closed after him and a loud click was heard.

Only four people were sitting at the table, Isabelle was sleeping, she had returned from her meeting with Topolsky and had complained of being tired. Topolsky had ask for Liz next; it had been forty-five minutes since they had taken the girl out of the cell area.

Max moved towards her, Liz was very pale and her eyes looked bloodshot. He helped her to the table, he pulled one of the chairs out and she gently lowered herself into the seat.

Maria was worried about her bestfriend. "Lizzie are you ok?"

Liz leaned forward, positioned her elbows on the table, she placed her fingers on her temples and tried to rub the ache away. "I'm ok, I just have this killer headache, I don't understand one minute I was fine, the next my head was pounding."

"Do you want to lay down?" Kyle questioned. In the last few weeks watching Max and Liz together, he had come to understand how deep the boy's feeling were for her. He knew he could never compete with that. But it didn't mean he didn't care about her.

"Yeah, I think I'd better. I just don't understand, I've only been awake for a few hours, but I feel so tired. Liz looked up and saw the concern on their faces. "I'll be ok, all I need is a few hours sleep."

"Just like Izzy." Michael said. He leaned forward and dropped his voice to a whisper, hell, he knew they could hear them, no matter how low they spoke, but it made him feel better knowing they had to strain to listen. "That bitch takes Izzy out of here, she comes back looking like hell, next Liz, what did she do to them?"

Liz raised her hand, motioning it back and forth in front of her. "No, Michael, she didn't do anything, she just wanted to talk. She ask me a bunch of stupid questions about whether or not I missed my mom."

"With me it was missing my friends." Isabelle stated from the doorway of her and Kyle's cell. "She wanted to let me know that she was here for me." Isabelle snorted. "Like she was gonna be my new bestfriend or something."

"I don't like this Maxamillian, the two of them leave here fine, next thing you know they come back looking like hell." He turned to the girls and ask, "Did you drink anything, eat anything?"

"No, she never even offered me anything." Liz replied.

"Me either, she just sat there at her desk. I just wanted to reach out and grab that damn pen out of her hand and stab her with it." Isabelle crossed her arms over her chest. She felt chills running up and down her spine. She shook her head to try and clear it.

"I know what you mean, she just kept twirling that pen through her fingers." Liz leaned back in her chair, "I've never wanted to hurt another person as much as I wanted to hurt her. I kept watching that pen, and then…I think I feel asleep while she was talking"

"Me too, hell, the woman wouldn't shut up." Isabelle added.

A thought entered Max's head, "You both fell aslee…..

Max never got to finish, the room was suddenly filled with a loud voice requesting that they all return to their cells.

"Later, we'll finish this discussion later." Max turned and helped Liz back to their cell. When all the doors were closed and locked the door was thrown open and Yeager stood in the doorway staring at them. After a few seconds he walked into the room, the same five technicians from before trailing behind him. They were pushing what looked like a large metal frame with chicken wire stretched acrossed it.

Yeager smiled and said, "time to play."

The technicians started removing the magazines and books, they placed them back into the boxes and carried them to the wall next to the door. The radio was placed next to the boxes. Next they took down the two tables, returning them to their carrying cart, they were pushed through the doors by two of the techs. The chairs were folded up and were placed against the walls with the boxes. The remaining technicians started pushing the frame into the center of the room. They placed it over two large metal circles that were imbedded into the floor. One of them spoke out loud for the first time, "activate magnets." There was a loud clang, the frame shook for a second. They stepped back from the contraption and waited for Yeager to proceed.

He walked towards Room B, he smiled as he stepped up to the glass and looked into Michael's scowling face, "You in the mood for a little fun, you, me and the little firecracker?"

"I'm not your litt…." Maria's words were cut off as Michael grabbed her.

"I'll play asshole, anytime. But your not touching her." Michael shook his head as he pulled Maria behind him. He could feel her trembling. If Yeager wanted to play, fine. But he wasn't going to hurt Maria again. He wanted to wipe that damn smile off this jerk's face.

Maria clawed at his back, "Michael what do you think your doing? Pissing him off is not of the good, do you understand?"

Yeager started laughing, he couldn't believe it, the little one had more spunk then he had thought, oh this was going to be sweet.

"Let'em alone." This came from Kyle who just a few weeks ago would have been happy to see Michael or Max get the shit kicked out of them by this goon. But a few weeks can change a man.

Yeager ignored him. The jock was for another day, he wanted to play with Guerin right now.

"Unlock Room B." Yeager said as he turned his back and stalked back to the center of the room.

Michael pushed the door open and stepped out into the room, without even turning to face her he said roughly "stay here."

"Michael!" Maria hissed at his retreating back.

He turned and looked at her, "please for once would you just listen to me."

Maria searched his face, she couldn't believe he was doing this. She knew he was going to get hurt, and there wasn't a damn thing any of them could do about it. When she repeated his name in a whisper, he could barely hear her, but he could hear the pleading in her voice. He smiled, "just stay here, ok?"

He turned back to Yeager, he knew he was out of his element, but if he could keep this animal away from Maria he'd let him do whatever he wanted to him.

The others watched as Michael moved closer to Yeager, they understood what he was doing; keeping Yeager distracted from Maria. But they also knew that there was no way Michael could even think of taking this man on and remain in one piece.

"Why are they doing this? How is hurting us going to get them their damn results, how do they expect us to "breed" for them if they hurt Michael." Liz whispered to Max.

"I don't think Yeager's agenda has anything to do with Topolsky's. I think he just likes to hurt people." Max pulled her deeper into the room. He turned until he was between Liz and the glass. He didn't know what was about to happen, but he didn't want Liz to see it.

"Do you really think that you can keep me from her? Do you punk?" Yeager's lips twisted in a sneer, he shook his head back and forth, did this kid really think he could stop him. "What, you think your some kind of superhero, is that it. Maybe on the outside, but down here, you're just another little shit."

Michael's brain kept repeating the same thing over and over again. Hell he hoped that whatever he was going to do, he would just get it over with as quickly as possible.

Maria stood at the glass and felt her nails digging into the palms of her hands. For the first time in her life she prayed, prayed that God would keep Michael safe, She knew her atheist mother would be throwing a fit right now, but hell she thought, I'd sell my soul to the devil if it would keep Michael safe.

Isabelle couldn't stop shaking. Up until this moment they'd had many moments in the last few weeks that could be considered "uncomfortable" some downright unpleasant, but this was different, this man wasn't Toplosky and her little psycho games. This was real, this was dangerous, Michael could be seriously hurt.

Kyle had seen Max pull Liz away from the doorway, he knew he should do that same with Isabelle, but he didn't know how to go about handling her. She wasn't Liz, she was a lot stronger, a lot meaner when it came right down to it. He reached up and took hold of her shoulders, "Isabelle, don't watch this, you shouldn't have to watch, ok."

She turned and snarled, "none of us should have to watch this, we shouldn't be here. We should be back in Roswell, at school, back with our parents. Not in this hellhole. I can't take this anymore, I can't…" her voice broke and he could see the tears rolling down her cheeks. "Oh God. He's going to hurt him"

Kyle reacted without thinking, he brought her up against his chest, surrounding her with his arms, he pulled her tighter to him. He pushed her head down and said, "I know, believe me I know." He didn't know what else to say. He had never thought he would see this girl like this, emotionally broken. Not Isabelle, he had thought she was made of steel. He just held her and watched the nightmare taking place in-front of them. He listened as Yeager taunted Michael.

"You think you can just snap your fingers and she'll sit there like a little puppy, all doe eyed and waiting for her hero to return to her. Hell I can get her ass out her quicker than you can say shit." Yeager turned to the technicians and shouted "get her out here, now!"

Michael turned to stop them, he never saw Yeager step forward, never saw him bring his ham-like fist down on the back of his neck. First he heard Maria scream his name, but by that time he knew it was too late, knew he had let her down.

The technicians grabbed Michael before he hit the floor. They pulled him up and dragged him over to the metal frame.

Through the dizziness Michael felt himself thrown back against the wire that was stretched across the frame. He felt his arms being raised above his head and felt his wrist being pressed into cold metal… "Snap". He felt the same cold metal on his ankles… "Snap"

He opened his eyes and found himself looking into Yeager's face, that damn smirk was enough to make him want to puke.

"Oh and one more thing boy…shit!" Yeager stated with a smile.