"Ok, let's try this," Liz said while getting a plastic cup from his cupboard. She put the cup on the counter, face down. She set her pencil down next to it. "You can push things away, right? I mean, that's what you did to Pierce. How about trying to push a light thing a little distance. Push the cup only the distance of the pencil."

He lifted his arm, closed his eyes and concentrated, hard. There was a crackling in the air. The cup lifted and flung itself against the wall on the opposite side of the room. "This is stupid."

"Yeah, you say that every time." She retrieved the cup. "Come on, Michael. You can do it, but this time it's about control. Don't push so hard."

Again he lifted his arm. Again there was a crackling in the air, again the cup went flying. By the tenth time, it was stopping short of the wall.

After the thirtieth time, it managed to stay on the counter. Eventually, he was successful in sliding it only the little distance necessary.

"Michael, you did it!"

"Yeah, but I don't know if I'm getting better, or if I'm getting tired. How about you, could you feel anything?"

"Yeah." She told him about the sensation of static electricity the air gave off. "Are you moving the cup, or are you moving the air around the cup?" she asked.

"I'm not sure."

"Ok, let's try it again." This time as the cup started to move, Liz stuck her hand between it and Michael.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Seeing if the air was moving."

"Don't do that again. I could have hurt you."

"No, I was fine."

"Damn it, Liz! If you do that again..."

"Ok, I won't. But you wouldn't have hurt me. You were in control, Michael."

"Yeah, that time. Next time, you stand back."

And so it went. They tried everything they could think of sometimes with success but more often with failure. As Liz deduced, Michael was able to at least try most things that were physical in nature, but when they tried mental things, he could hardly even begin. Max could do things that were mental in nature, Liz knew, but maybe Michael simply wasn't able to. She just didn't know. He'd tried projecting visions, like Tess, with no results. He said he even tried to dream-walk Maria one night with nothing to show for it but a headache.

Curious, she asked him a hundred questions. What did he focus on? What did he think about when trying to use his powers. Did he feel the energy coming from inside himself? Where? What did it feel like? And on and on. He tried to describe the indescribable but finally gave up saying, "I don't know how I do it, I just do it."

Tess's daily torture routine didn't let up, and Liz was helpless against it. Every time Tess sent another vision her way, she stood transfixed, unable to look away at least for the first few seconds. It was as if Tess could control not only the vision, but also the length of time Liz was forced to watch. It seemed the young alien, though separated from Max, was no less determined to possess him, which didn't come as any surprise to Liz. There was never any warning, and she had no way to fight against it.

Liz was becoming discouraged. If she was going to be miserable whether she was with Max or not, she figured she might as well be miserable with him. Maybe he could figure out a way to stop Tess that Liz hadn't thought of yet. After all, Tess wouldn't actually kill her, would she? Maybe Liz was being paranoid about the whole thing, and if they showed Tess that they were together to stay she would just back off. 'Yeah, right,' Liz thought. 'I wish I could believe that one.'

Feeling nostalgic one night, and not a little lonely, Liz was sitting on her balcony, re-reading her journal. She remembered the intensity of the first few days after Max had saved her life. She remember being heartbroken when he told her they couldn't be together, then her shock at seeing Maria and Michael kissing so passionately downstairs. She remembered their first kiss. She continued to read. She paused when she got to the entry she'd made just before she and Max had found the first orb.

She read the passage: "...Lately I've been going through these changes... They're undeniable, chemical." Changes? She could distinctly remember the sensations she'd been having. 'Changes' was too weak a word to describe what was happening to her, inside of her body.

Despite their vow to stay apart, she had been yearning for Max with every ounce of her being. She was fantasizing about him almost every waking moment, and dreaming about him in her sleep. She had all these feelings and emotions she'd never felt before. But it was more than that. There was an underlying urgency in her. A need she couldn't explain. That was back in April. She grimaced. The need was every bit as strong today as it was back then.

April? Her mind snapped into focus for one instant as she began to see the impossible. It was in April when her feelings for Max started to run her life. It was in April when Max came to her and the force of their passion took over them both. It was in April when Venus moved into position in the V constellation. It was in April that the aligning of the stars set off the aliens' biological drives, which was supposedly what prompted the dreams Michael and Isabel were having. Dreams? Dreams like she'd been having about Max? Dreams about sex and love and happily ever after? She knew that one dream had gotten so intense, Isabel had actually woken up thinking she was pregnant.

Had Max ever actually said he'd had a dream about Tess? Or, what if he dreamed about Liz as she dreamed about him? What if he only had daydreams about Tess? Daydreams that she herself had put into his head.

She hear her own voice talking to Nasedo, 'When Max saved my life that day, he changed me.' Changed. How was it possible? Could it be that when he made the connection with her that allowed him to fix whatever damage the bullet had caused, he fixed more than just that? When he was looking into her soul, and later allowed her to see into his, had he in some way altered her very existence?

Little snippets of conversation floated through her mind as she stared disbelieving up at the sky. 'I belong with you, Liz... I've always known it.' 'Because it was you.' 'You're my destiny.' 'I could never be with anyone else.' 'Venus first started moving into this pattern in April.' 'She doesn't belong here.' 'You will know them only by the evil within.' 'She definitely has some kind of power over us.' 'She was there, she was waiting for me.' 'Our enemies have come to the Earth.' 'I'm telling you, something's not right about her.' 'Your new girlfriend, Tess...' 'She's dangerous, don't ever forget that.' 'Max, it's you she wants.' 'My son, you were the beloved ruler of our people.' 'He could be anyone at any time.' 'He changed me.' 'It's fate.'

Liz's head was spinning with the implications. 'Oh my god.' What if Tess wasn't Tess? Wouldn't Nasedo have known? What if Tess was another shape-shifter sent here to destroy Max and the others before they could complete their mission to rescue their people. How would they know? She might have made it to the pod chamber and killed the real Tess then took her form before Nasedo got there. She knew what Tess looked like at the time because she obviously had the body. And she knew what she was supposed to look like from the alien book. She just needed to age her appearance according to human standards. It would explain why she was able to manipulate the other aliens so easily. She wasn't some teenager. She was a fifty plus year old alien sent here to destroy the others. Killing off Nasedo wouldn't have done her any good. She probably figured that if she stuck with him, he would eventually lead her to them, which is exactly what he did.

Liz remembered all the times Tess tried to get the three aliens to go off with her alone. She probably wanted to make sure she got them all. If she were to show her hand, then blow it, the aliens would be able to retaliate in some manner. How Liz wasn't sure. If Nasedo couldn't be killed as Tess had said, then Tess probably couldn't be killed either. Then how to neutralize her? Liz wondered. What they needed was a plan. What if she were wrong? Liz would feel pretty stupid announcing to everyone her suspicions if they were completely unfounded. Tess was able to help make the orbs work, but then, Maria, Alex and Riverdog had been able to make the Healing Stones work. Maybe the orbs only needed four people focusing on it. Or four aliens. If Tess wasn't there, perhaps Nasedo could have stood in her place. It didn't necessarily follow that it had to be those four particular aliens. But to be able to replace Tess all this time. It seemed a little far-fetched. Ok, a lot far-fetched.

Concentrating on what she knew as fact, Liz thought, that maybe there wasn't anything more sinister about Tess than her relentless pursuit of Max. Liz needed proof. Something tangible before she could approach the others. Liz paced up and down the length of her balcony as she contemplated the possibilities. When her thoughts refuse to cooperate, Liz blamed the balcony. It was too short for proper pacing. She climbed down to the street and walked on the sidewalk in front of the CrashDown. After twenty minutes of getting nowhere, she reluctantly gave up on the topic of Tess.

Instead, she thought about herself and the revelations that had come to her. She warmed at the thought that she and Max were destined to be together. There was no arguing with the evidence. The dreams, the timing, the feelings of something powerful coming awake inside of her were irrefutable as far as she was concerned.

Liz came to a stand still as Michael's voice trickled through her mind. 'Nasedo told me that all of the things we can do are not alien, but human. He said our brains were designed to be a couple of centuries ahead of human evolution.' Human. Liz gasped as she thought about this. If the so-called 'alien' powers were really human, then that meant that she had them, too. She would just need to figure out how to get them to work. 'Do you realize what you're thinking? How could you possibly think you can do this?' she asked herself. As if in response she again heard herself say, 'he changed me.' Perhaps when Max put his hands on her and saved her life, he did a lot more than that. When he created a physical link to fix physical injuries, it's possible he created a mental bond that fixed mental 'injuries', too.

'One way to find out,' she thought, as she suddenly scrambled up the ladder that led to her balcony. In her bedroom, she looked around for something...

"Ah ha." She said, seizing a glass of water. Heating something up, especially liquids, was about the easiest thing to do Michael had told her. It was a simple matter of aggravating the atoms so that they moved more rapidly.

"Simple, huh? Well, here goes." She set the glass down, stretched her hand over it and concentrated. Nothing. She tried again. She tried to imagine the little atoms moving faster. Peeking one eye open, she saw the glass was unmoved. She stuck her pinkie in the water. Room temperature. She tried to remember what Michael told her he did when he was trying to use his powers. Taking a deep breath, she tried again.

Over an hour later, her head was pounding, and the water was still unmoved. On one hand she was getting discouraged, sure it was a stupid idea to begin with. Yeah, right, like she has special powers. On the other hand, part of her felt she was on the right track. There was just something she was missing. What was it? She thought of Max, and what his reaction would be if she were successful. She would be able to prove to him, to all of them that she did belong with them. A feeling of warmth unfurled inside her in anticipation at that imagined moment. Would he kiss her, or just hold her close? Her skin started to tingle. He would kiss her, she decided. First passionately, then lingeringly. She got lightheaded. With a happy sigh she stretched her hand over the water again. No sooner had she begun to concentrate then the water was at a rolling boil. She stared in disbelief. The glass itself began to glow red and melt.

"Oh my God." She snatched her hand back. She stared at the glass. Had she done that? She looked around her bedroom as if to make sure that she was alone. She put her hand over the glass again, and tried to return it to its original shape. Once again, nothing happened. She tried to cool the now steaming water. Nothing. What was she doing wrong? What was different from the last time?