He looked up at the sound of the door at the end of the room opening. Sheriff Valenti stepped in. He looked around than came over to Michael's cell. "What are you doing in there?" he asked. His voice was heavy with exasperation.

"I'm playing solitaire, what does it look like?" Michael sat and watched as he came over to his cell door, put his hand over the keyhole. At the sound of the click, he pulled the door open. Michael came to his feet. "It's you, isn't it."

"Of course it's me. Who were you expecting, the sheriff?" said Nasedo in the guise of Sheriff Valenti. "Why are you sitting in here? Don't tell me you can't open this door on your own."

"Get out of here." Michael ordered. "What are you doing here? I thought you were in Virginia, or something."

"I've been keeping an eye on the sheriff. Lucky for you Pierce stashed a couple of cameras here in the station." Nasedo looked at Michael who hadn't moved except to stand up when the cell door was opened. "I couldn't believe it when you actually agreed to be put in here."

Michael wasn't going to discuss his reasons for being here with Nasedo. After seeing what the alien was capable of while they were rescuing Max, he finally came to understand Max's reluctance to trust him. "Look, will you just get out of here before he comes back. I don't need any help from you."

Assuming Michael was afraid of reprisal from Valenti, Nasedo said, "Don't worry, I'll take care of the sheriff."

The two of them were so caught up in their argument, they didn't hear the sound of approaching feet. They looked up, startled when the door opened.

"What's going on here?" the real Sheriff Valenti stood in the doorway with Max right behind him. They both stood agape, looking at Nasedo. The sheriff's brain had turned to mush. It was like seeing his reflection in the mirror. "Who are you?" he asked the stranger.

Nasedo slyly approached Valenti, and said, "I think the real question to ask here is 'Who are you?'." He reached his hand forward towards Valenti's chest.

Max stepped between the two men and knocked Nasedo's hand away just as Michael stepped behind Nasedo and grabbed him by the arms. "No!" he yelled, the memory of the last time he stood helpless and watched Nasedo do this was still fresh in his mind. "Don't touch him."

"He put you in jail, Michael. I can't allow him to incarcerate you. What happens when he sends you to the state prison where regular health check-ups are mandatory? How long do you think you will survive there before you're discovered? A month? Two?"

"I'm not going to any prison."

"That's right, you're not." Nasedo looked at Valenti, his eyes cold and flat. Valenti got the impression of being stared at by a serpent, and could barely contain a shudder. "Don't worry. I'll take care of everything."

Michael suddenly saw some facts fall into place. "Like you did the last time?"

Max jumped in to add, "Last time you decided to take care of things, you got me captured by the FBI."

"You weren't supposed to be there. Why were you at the carnival in the first place? You had to know I was trying to draw Pierce out. You knew he would be there, and you deliberately put yourself in danger."

"You had Liz. I couldn't let anything happen to her."

Nasedo sighed loudly, and asked in frustration, "What is it with you and that girl? She's nothing to us. She doesn't belong with you. You and Tess were created to be together."

"No, you're wrong. I belong with Liz."

Some malicious imp in Nasedo decided to stir up some trouble and he continued as if Max hadn't interrupted, "I mean, I can see what the attraction is. She is a cute little thing. All firm, yet soft in the right places. And boy, can she kiss..."

Max was dumbstruck, and Michael couldn't believe his ears. "What?"

Nasedo glanced at Michael, then back to Max. "Yeah, as soon as we were alone, she pressed her eager body up against me, and put those adorable lips to mine. I mean, 'Wow'. She gets a ten in my book." The real Valenti was appalled. To see himself talking that way about a minor, one that his son had been dating no less... It was like being in the Twilight Zone. And he didn't know he owned such an oily smirk.

Max's hands clenched into fists, and he took a threatening step forward.

Nasedo continued, "You know, I must not kiss the same way that you do, because somehow I kept giving myself away. I guess I need to work on my technique. Tell me, do you usually give her tongue right at the beginning of a kiss, or do you make her wait for it?"

Max grabbed him by the shirt front, and slammed him into the bars of one of the cells. He could barely restrain himself from pounding Nasedo into the ground. He was so angry that his voice shook as he said, "You listen to me. Liz Parker is mine. She belongs to me. You stay away from her. Don't touch her. Don't talk to her. If I ever hear of you coming anywhere near her again..."

"You'll what?" Nasedo almost laughed at the seemingly empty threat.

"You don't want to find out." Max looked him square in the eye, promising dire retribution if Nasedo ever touched Liz again. Then he released him and stepped back.

Enough time for games. Nasedo was completely out of patience with Max's stubborn refusal to see what had been written into his genetic code from the beginning of his creation, as undeniable as his brown eyes and hair. He said angrily, "Why do you care? Tess is your mate."

"You're wrong," was all Max said.

Michael had stood quietly aside, but now he brought the conversation back to the topic at hand, and the realization he had made when Nasedo said he'd take care of everything. He hadn't been thinking of the night Max had been taken by the FBI. He was implying something that had happened further into the past than that. "You did something to Hank, didn't you? The night he disappeared."

Thoughts were falling into place like dominoes, and he continued, "You were here in Roswell at the time because you left the symbol for us out in Frazier Woods. That was only a month or so before Hank left." Michael was referring to the mark they'd discovered a few nights after some bright lights had been spotted in some nearby woods. Max, Michael and Isabel had risked discovery to locate the place where the lights had originated. ...And Sheriff Valenti had missed catching them with the mysterious mark by seconds. Listening to this exchange he realized that his suspicions concerning their sudden willingness to participate in the school sponsored campout were accurate. He didn't have time to fully process the thought because Nasedo was answering Michael's accusation, but he promised himself he would later.

"That's right. And I saw the sign you left for me at the library. That was good work, Michael. That's how I found you."

"Then you were here in town when Hank disappeared," Max clarified.

Sheriff Valenti moved to stand next to Max and asked, "You killed Hank Guerin?"

"I couldn't allow him to hurt Michael again." He looked at Michael and smiled. "You'll be glad to know, he regretted every bruise he put on you before he died. I even asked him if he wanted to take a swing at me for old time's sake."

"Was that before or after you cut off his hands?" Valenti put in angrily.

The two teens thought they might be sick as Nasedo answered, "After, of course." He smiled again. It was the kind of smile that didn't reach the eyes. "Come on, don't tell me you're sorry for that miserable son-of-a-bitch." He said to Valenti, "You told me yourself that he wasn't wanted around here."

"I told you? When did I ever talk to you about Hank Guerin?" the sheriff asked, perplexed.

"Why, when I came to your office, of course. You wouldn't just let the guy disappear, so I had to come to tell you he was moving to... Las Cruzes, was it?"

'I'm already gone.' Hank's voice floated into his mind. In growing disbelief, Valenti recalled again the last conversation he'd had with Hank Guerin. The last thing the man had said was, 'Aw, don't worry, Sheriff. I'm already gone.' But it hadn't been Hank saying that after all. It had been this malevolent shape-shifting alien. Hank had already dead for a week. Valenti hadn't recognized the irony of the statement at the time, but he did now. "You son-of-a-bitch!" He lunged at the alien, intending to do what, he wasn't even certain himself.

Max again stepped between them and Nasedo just looked amused. "Sheriff, Sheriff, don't. Just leave it be. There's nothing you can do about it now." Max had tried to warn Valenti what Nasedo was like. He hadn't liked Hank anymore than the rest of them, but to have suffered at the hands of this alien who had no mercy and apparently no conscious, that wasn't anything he would wish on anybody.

Into the silence, they heard footsteps pass outside the door. Michael said, "It's probably not a good idea to have two Sheriff Valentis in the same room."

Nasedo left off staring down the Sheriff to say, "You're right." Michael stepped away from the alien as he put one hand out in front of his face. Suddenly a blinding white light filled the room, and as they all watched, Nasedo transformed himself into the form of Agent Pierce of the FBI Special Unit. When it was over, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a container of Tic Tacs. He calmly popped a couple into his mouth and began crunching away.

Valenti could barely close his mouth. He couldn't believe his eyes. He was standing in his cellblock with an honest-to-god alien. Max and Michael were aliens, too, but they seemed so human that it was easy to forget that they were different from him. This man, Nasedo, was truly from another planet. He had done and seen things Valenti couldn't even imagine. He had known this alien was a shape-shifter, but to actually see him change forms was incredible. He could understand Max's caution when it came to dealing with him. Trying to control someone who had powers like this required a certain amount of diplomacy.

Michael said, "That's better."

Max wasn't to be diverted from the issue at hand. He said to Nasedo, "This is our home. You cannot just come here and start killing people. If we're having a problem, we will handle it - the right way. The legal way." Max spoke with deadly earnestness. "The sheriff knows who we are. He is protecting us from discovery like you are protecting us from the Special Unit. He can't and won't continue to keep us safe if he thinks we are a threat to the people here."

"He's protecting you? He threw Michael in jail. You call that protecting you?"

"Yes, I do. As long as we choose to live here, we are citizens of Roswell, and are subject to the same laws as everyone else. If we break those laws, Sheriff Valenti will treat us exactly as he would anyone else. That includes doing what he has to if we cross the line."

Michael said, "That's right."