"This is it," Max said. "This is where they've got Liz."

"You're sure?" Kyle asked.

"Yes."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Kyle was impatient to get going.

"I can't just go in there, they'll recognize me." Isabel had come back and told him everything she'd seen.

"Well, it's a little late to be worried about that, don't you think?"

"Not really." Max ran his hands through his hair. It changed from its usual style to red curly locks a little longer than normal. Next, he closed his eyes and passed a hand in front of his face. His eyebrows and lashes also changed color, plus a handsome goatee appeared around his mouth. He turned Kyle's rearview mirror and studied his appearance. "This will have to do," he said. With that, he stepped out of the car. When Kyle didn't move, Max stuck his head back inside and asked, "You coming?"

"What?" Kyle had to give his head a shake to get it to function again. "Yeah." He opened the door and stepped out.

The two boys stepped up to the sidewalk, and looked at each other. Kyle's eyes couldn't process what he'd seen. Max's features were still his own, but they were disguised under that curly red hair. "Man, that was just freaky."

"Sorry." Max looked at Kyle and said, "Wait a second." Kyle was wearing his Roswell High letterman's jacket. With a pass of his hand, it turned into a jacket from the University. Kyle gasped. "Don't worry, I can change it back." They headed for the building.

"You'd better. And Evans, next time, warn me."

"Remember, if that girl is the only one with Liz, all you have to do is keep her distracted, and prevent her from hitting any alarms. If there is anyone else in there we'll take them out together."

"I got it," Kyle said exasperated.

"Just checking."

They entered the building and rode the elevator the second the floor. Max was following the directions that Isabel had given to him. He saw the 'Go Wildcats!' emblem on the wall that Liz had shown him and knew that they were getting close. He passed his hand in front of his jacket, and it turned into a white lab coat. He put his hand on the knob and asked, "Are you ready?" Kyle nodded, and they stepped into the observation room. There was only one person in the room, which is what they'd been expecting. Forcing himself not to look into the room where he knew Liz was being kept because he knew he'd blow his cover if he did, Max concentrated on the young woman standing in front of them instead.

"Laurie, I know that you must get this all of the time, but when I told my buddy, Curtis, here that I was going to be working with you, well, he just demanded an introduction."

The young intern looked from one good-looking face to another, but realized that she didn't know either one of them. "Who are you?" she asked Max.

"I'm Steve." He held out his hand, "Steve Davison. Professor Harrison told me to come over and work with you on," he stepped closer and winked, "the project." She returned his handshake and turned to Kyle. "This here is Curtis... Atherton." Max was having a problem coming up with fake names fast enough. He put a hand on Kyle's shoulder and changed the name on his jacket from 'Kyle' to 'Curtis'. "He's had a big crush on you for months. You probably don't know it, but you see him almost everyday."

"Really?" She wasn't sure it was possible to pass this cute guy anywhere and not notice him.

"How about I let you two get acquainted and I'll just go introduce myself to the... you know... girl." He reached around Laurie to get what he supposed were Liz's charts. In the process, he turned off the video camera, and melted its innards for good measure. "Excuse me," he said as he passed Kyle and Laurie. They didn't appear to notice him as he let himself into the sterile room that had been Liz's prison for nearly ten hours. Kyle was already laying on the charm, in full flirt mode.

Keeping his back to them, he rushed over to Liz. It broke his heart to see her curled up in the tiny cage. It wasn't even big enough for her to sit up in. "Liz," he whispered. He reached through the cage and touched her soft skin. "Liz."

She responded by rolling over. "Max," she said. Opening her eyes, she nearly screamed. He quickly put a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound. "It's me. Look at me. Look at my eyes. It's me. Don't be afraid." "Oh, Max, thank god. I knew you'd come for me."

Max put his hand on the bars of her cage and used his powers to try and weaken them. Nothing happened. He tried again. The metal was too dense, he was unable to manipulate it. "Max?"

"It's ok, Liz. Just hold on."

Suddenly, he felt Isabel's presence in his mind. "The cage is made out of depleted Uranium. It's too dense for our powers."

"Thanks, Is. I was just getting that. Any ideas on getting her out of here? Kyle and I will look pretty conspicuous carrying this cage around. And it won't exactly fit in the Mustang." His fear for Liz was making him testy.

"I have an idea. Give me thirty seconds." The she was gone from his mind.

Back in the van, the gang was about a half hour outside of Roswell, still following Sheriff Valenti. There had been no sign of the FBI pursuing them from Texas. "Michael, do you think that if you had the Sword you would be able to get through that depleted Uranium that was used for the door to where the FBI was keeping Max. Remember that Nasedo told us that it was too dense for us to manipulate?"

"Yeah, I remember. I probably could. With the Sword, I felt like I could do anything that I tried."

"Good. Liz is locked in a cage made out of the stuff, and Max can't get her out."

"I could do it, but how are we going to get me to her?"

"We'll use the Sword together. I'll dream-walk Max, and you give him your powers through the connection."

"Do you really think that will work." Michael said. He looked at Maria's hopeful face and realized that they had nothing to lose. "Let's try it."

Maria and Isabel switched places so that Isabel was sitting in the backseat with Michael. They put their hands together in such away that their wrists were also together, and Michel fit the Sword over both of their arms at the same time. As before, the Sword refit itself for a more comfortable fit.

It almost completely encircled their wrists. "Alex," Maria said, "pull over." Alex already had the same idea and was slowing down even as she spoke. They didn't want anything to interfere with the aliens' concentration. Ahead of them, Valenti noticed that they were stopping and pulled over as well.

With the Sword binding the two of them, each one of them felt their powers grow at incredible rates. It was a hundred times more powerful than when they'd used the Sword individually. The Sword itself was glowing as bright as the sun, and Maria and Alex had to turn their heads away from the light.

Looking at Michael, Isabel asked in a hushed tone, "Ready?" He nodded. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She didn't have to do anything to make a connection between herself and Michael. The Sword had already done that. Therefore, she just needed to reach out with her mind and touch Max. For the first time ever, with her help, Michael traveled down the tunnel of the dream-walk. When he emerged into Max's subconscious, he was hit by all of the emotions his friend was feeling. Fear, anger, sorrow, determination and love all swirled around him. "Max?" he called out.

"Right here," Max answered from behind him.

Michael spun around and spotted his friend. "Where's Liz?"

Max showed him Liz curled up in her little cage. Her eyes were open and she was looking at Max with so much hope, and trust that it took Michael's breath away. He remembered again some of the passages that he'd read in Liz's journal all those months ago when he'd stolen it from her room.

Michael felt hatred well up inside of him. Someone was going to pay for doing this to Liz. "We're getting her out of here." Stepping in front of Max, he looked his friend in the eye. "Let's do this."

Understanding, Max took Michael's face between his hands, and through their subconsciouses, formed a connection. Immediately, he began filling with unbelievable amounts of energy. Grabbing a hold of the bars on the top of her cage, he channeled all of the energy he was getting from Michael through his palms. After a few seconds, the metal began to give way. Max pulled with all of his strength while plying the bars with his powers, and slowly a gap opened up between two of the bars. Little by little, they gave way to his demands.

Seeing it, Liz whispered, "Max." Her voice was full of love and admiration. He didn't stop until he created a gap wide enough for Liz to slip out of. Seeing that she was in her nightgown, he slipped his lab coat off and she put it on. In his mind, he whispered for Michael to hang on for just a minute longer. The door behind them opened, and Kyle came in carrying a struggling Laurie. Liz, leaning against Max for support, squashed her instinctive reaction to shout "Kyle" at the unexpected appearance of her ex-boyfriend.

"Let's see how much you like being in a cage." Kyle turned Laurie over and lowered her headfirst into the gap that Max created between the bars. She only put up a small struggle, after all she'd seen what the other one had done to the cage in the first place. She was grateful that they weren't looking for blood.

Max returned the bars to their original shape, trapping Laurie inside. Then he picked up Liz and carried her out of that room. Passing through the observation room, Kyle jumped at the sparks that were suddenly shooting out of the computer monitor. As they walked quickly away, a small, contained fire broke out in the room, destroying the results of every test that they'd performed on Liz. Inside his mind, he said goodbye to Isabel and Michael and they broke off the connection.

Once they were outside, Max regretfully handed Liz to Kyle. "Take her to the car. There's something I have to do." Kyle shifted Liz's weight slightly. "Can you carry her?"

"Yeah. What are you going to do?"

Max ignored the question. "Meet me in front of that building over there." He pointed to the building across the square where Professor Harrison had his offices. He gave Liz one last look then took off at a run.

Kyle hurried to the car with Liz. She appeared to be sound asleep, and he wondered if they hadn't given her some drugs or something. He opened the passenger door and settled on her on the seat. To be on the safe side, he locked the door as he shut it. Turning to go around the car to the driver's seat, he glanced to the building where he was to meet Max and caught his breath. He stared in disbelief.

Max Evans was scaling the front of the building. He was using the window ledges to climb from floor to floor. As he watched, Max stood on one ledge, that couldn't be more than four inches wide, and jumped up and grabbed a hold of the ledge that looked to be at least three and a half feet above his head. Using his arms only, he pulled himself up so that he could get an elbow on the bricks. From there, he changed his hold and pushed his arms straight down, bringing his hips level with the protrusion. After that, he went from his knees to his feet, and repeated the process all over again. It was all so effortless that Kyle stood mesmerized for several seconds.

On the sixth floor, Max opened the window and climbed inside. According to the information Isabel had given to him, the guy who was responsible for Liz being here had an office across the hall from this one. Easing the door open, he looked up and down the hall. There was no one about. On the door opposite, there was a placard that read: Harrison.

Bingo. Max crossed the hall, and used his powers to unlock the door. He made his way over to the desk and removed both videotapes from the top drawer. Thank goodness it hadn't occurred to the man to take them with him when he'd gone home for the night. Max reached for the metal wastebasket that was on the floor and put both tapes into it. Then he riffled the desk looking for the two EKG tests that had monitored his and Isabel's connections with Liz. They were in a folder right in the front of the bottom drawer, obviously put there for easy access. "Thank you, Professor," Max said as he put them folder and all into the trash can. Waving his hand across the top of the can, the contents instantly ignited. The folder was reduced to ashes instantly. The videotapes melted down within seconds. A feeling of satisfaction washed over him. He would place a call to Nasedo in the morning, and let the FBI handle Professor Harrison and his team of kidnappers. For now, all he wanted to do was get Liz returned to her parents.

Kyle was waiting for him on the grass outside the building when he appeared in the window. In no time, Max had shimmied back down the wall and was opening the door to the Mustang. "Any problems?" Kyle asked.

Max picked Liz up and climbed in. He settled her on his lap. "No. Let's get out of here," he said as he pulled his door closed and locked it.

With a great deal of pleasure, Kyle tore up the lawn with his back tires and screeched out of the parking lot.

"Max?" Liz groggily asked.

"You're safe. We're taking you home right now."

She caught his hand and brought it to her lips. "Thank you."

"Shhh. I told you I would come for you." He petted her hair and frowned at the stubble that met his fingers. They had taken a lock of her hair for the hair test right from her temple. "Hold on," he said. He brushed his fingers along her hair again, and the hair that had been cut grew right back out. He stroked it until it was the same length of the rest of her hair. It was a little finer than the rest, but it would grow back in normal.

She reached a hand up to his face, and was startled to encounter whiskers. She raised her head and looked at him. Taking in his appearance, she smiled. Her smile grew into laughter. She felt a giddy happiness well up inside her as she realized that it was over and she was free. "Max," she grinned.

"What?" Max pretended to be affronted. He could feel the relief that was causing her laughter. "It doesn't look that bad. I thinking I might leave it like this for a while."

She playfully hit his shoulder and said, "You will not. Besides, what would your mother say?"

"So you think I look better the other way?"

All serious now, she looked into his eyes and breathed, "You know I do."

"Well, in that case..." Within seconds, he'd restored his looks back to their normal appearance. "Better?"

She nodded. She looked over at Kyle who was concentrating very hard on his driving. "Kyle, thank you for helping Max get me out of there."

He took his eyes off the road long enough to smile at her, "You don't have to thank me. Besides it gave me and Max here some time to get to know each other."

She looked from one to the other trying to decide if Kyle was kidding. The last time they gotten an opportunity to "get to know each other," was the day of their oral history assignment. It was the same day that Michael had kidnapped Maria and Max, Isabel and Liz had followed them into Texas. Then Kyle, Sheriff Valenti and Miss Topolsky had followed them. They must have been a sight going down the highway, she chuckled suddenly, the five cars chasing whoever was in front of them, not noticing whoever was behind them all the way into Texas.

Which reminded her: "How did things go in Texas? Did they find what they were looking for?"

"Yes. It's pretty incredible, they said. They ran into some trouble though and the Sheriff had to go help them out, but they're fine now."

"What happened?" "They tripped an alarm going into the house. Agent Pierce called the sheriff to let him know."

"Oh my god! But everyone is fine?"

"Yes."

"Thank goodness."

"How are you feeling? Better?" Max had sent a small amount of energy into Liz's body while they'd been talking to replenish what had been taken from her during the long day.

"Yeah, thank you."

"We've got a long drive, you should try to get some sleep. Do you need anything?"

She settled more deeply into his lap and resting her head on his shoulder, thinking, 'I've got everything I need right here,' said instead, "Nope."

After a few minutes, she dozed off to sleep, her mind and soul at peace for the moment. Holding her against his chest, Max was content. Deciding to let the others know that they were on their way, he relaxed his mind and cranked up his powers. He reached out for Isabel, but couldn't contact her. "Damn," he whispered. He tried again but didn't have any luck. He wished he had a picture of her. Then he remembered. "Maria." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the picture he'd used to dream-walk Liz earlier. Maria was in the picture with Liz. He touched Maria's face in the photo, and tried to connect with her.

The four teenagers and Sheriff Valenti were on the outskirts of Roswell. They would all be pulling up at the CrashDown in less than five minutes. It was difficult for him, but Max was able to form a connection with Maria and he let her know the good news. Alex flashed his lights at the sheriff to get his attention and pulled off the side of the road. Alex ran to tell him the news. And so, it was a relieved group of travelers that returned home that night.

Kyle watched the alien out of the corner of his eye as he put away the photo. "So," Kyle said, causing Max to look at him. "How are we going to explain this?"

"I'm sure your dad will come up with something. We're going to alert the FBI and let then deal with Harrison and his team. The University will be so busy covering their butts that they won't say anything to us about what we did tonight."

"So, what's to prevent them from trying it again."

"They've lost all of their evidence, and they know that if any of us turn up missing in the future that we'll destroy them. Trust me, this will be the last we hear of that particular group of people."

"I hope so."

Max reclined his seat back a little, and Liz snuggled a little more comfortably into his chest. He was enjoying the feel of her soft weight pressing against his when he mused aloud, "It's strange."

"What's strange?"

"When we were all making plans to go back down into Texas, I was thinking that we would need Alex's van because all six of us would be squished in any of the cars we normally drove. For some reason I didn't think I wanted to have Liz on my lap for five long hours. Just now, I can't think of anything better."

"Are you sure?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if you get tired, if she gets too heavy for you, we could switch places."

Max smiled at Kyle and said, "Not on your life."

"You could drive the Mustang. Come on Evans, you know you want to."

"Forget it, Kyle."

"Ok, it's your loss, though."

"You forget, I've driven your car."

Kyle thought for a minute. "That's right. What was I thinking to let you drive my car? I must have been really drunk."

"You were," Max agreed.

Feeling the need to defend himself, Kyle asserted, "Hey, so were you."

"Yeah and whose fault was that?"

"Are you saying it was my fault? I'm not the wussie who gets drunk after one sip."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't the one who announced to two hundred people and whoever was listening to the radio that he was going to puke."

As the miles rolled by under the tires of the Mustang, the boys bantered good-naturedly back and forth. Neither one noticed Liz smiling broadly against Max's chest as she listened.

In the CrashDown, the Parkers and Evans' continued to hold their vigil. The sheriff had phoned ahead to let them know that Liz was on her way home and would be there in several hours. In the meantime, there was an air of celebration when the four teenagers walked into the restaurant. Maria and Alex went immediately to Liz's parents and hugged them both. The grown-ups seemed to absorb some of the energy that the teens carried so easily.

Isabel went to her parents and shared an embrace with both of them. Michael stood off to the side until Phillip reached over and gave him a firm handshake. After that, he went to the Parkers and shook hands with Liz's father. He was shocked when Nancy pulled him into a hug. His former employers plied him with questions about where he'd been working and how he'd been doing like they were old friends. Having others care about him was a unique experience, but he decided that he liked it.

The teenagers made up a story about going to a ghost town in Texas, but then being stuck out there when their van had broken down. Maria called her mom, and Amy came over to the CrashDown to join the others. They shared a long hug, then the story was repeated all over again. Amy said, "Well, thank goodness the sheriff was there to help you out."

Maria looked from her mom to the sheriff and back again before saying, "Yeah. Thank goodness." Barely suppressing a warning glare at her mom's would-be boyfriend, she walked away to sit with her friends.

"Jim, thank you for helping Maria and her friends out today. I know how busy you are."

"Amy, looking after the kids of this town is part of my job. You don't have to thank me."

"But what if I want to? You know what? I know just the thing." She jumped up and walked over to Jeff. She whispered a question to him. He looked at the sheriff and grinned before answering. Amy smiled at Valenti before getting her daughter and the three of them disappeared into the kitchen. A few minutes later, they all returned with slices of coconut cream pie, and served a slice to everyone in the restaurant. "You finally get to stick around for a slice of pie," Amy teased as she set a plate down in front of him.

Maria could barely keep from rolling her eyes as she returned to her seat next to Michael. She handed him a bottle of Tabasco sauce. Several hours later, the mood was still festive. Jeff had turned on the radio to his favorite station and oldies were playing. All of the adults were reminiscing about where they were and what they'd been doing the first time they'd heard any song that was played. Amy was the youngest of the group, but she still managed to get a few stories in. The four teenagers were making plans to go see Riverdog on the reservation in the morning. It was into this scene that door opened and Agent Pierce entered the CrashDown.

Thinking it was another ghost, Maria squealed and ducked under the table. Michael and Isabel stood to meet him, and Sheriff Valenti also approached him. "Where's Liz?" asked Nasedo. When he'd questioned Agent Harrison, the man had admitted everything he and his brother had done before he'd died. He'd stopped here instead of going straight to Arizona In an effort to help Max mount a rescue attempt.

"Max is bringing her home right now." Valenti quickly filled him in on what they knew so far. Then he in order to explain his presence to the others, he introduced him to the Parkers as the agent in charge of Liz's case.

Playing his role to the hilt, Nasedo said, "I can assure you that the people responsible for taking your daughter away will not go unpunished. We will make sure that they are never in the position to do anything like this again. Because of the people involved, her case will never go to trial, so you don't have to worry about your daughter appearing in the tabloids or on Jerry Springer. They'll be quick to agree to total silence in the matter, but rest assured that they will be severely penalized."

"We'll just be happy to have our daughter back home again, safe and sound."

"Well, she's on her way right now. I'll need to ask her just a few questions when she gets here, but I'm sure that Max can give me most of the information I'll need so I won't need to keep her for long." Her parents nodded.

"Sheriff," Nasedo called out, "do we have an ETA on them?"

"Knowing how my son drives when he thinks I'm not looking, not long now. I'd say two hours at most."

"There, you see," Nasedo said to Liz's parents, at his most charming, "she's practically here already."

"Agent Pierce, could you tell us, I mean do you know, why they took our daughter?" Nancy asked.

Nasedo put his hand on her shoulder and heard at least four people gasp, "I'm afraid, that's classified. All I can tell you was that it was a case of mistaken identity."

Making themselves content with that answer, they talked quietly. Nasedo introduced himself to Mr. and Mrs. Evans, or rather Agent Pierce did. He was glad that at least two of his young charges had a decent upbringing even though it had been devoid of any of the lessons he was supposed to teach them about themselves and their powers.