Two men in plastic yellow suits entered. They were moving cautiously, each holding a gun that Max also recognized from Alex’s flashes. He felt anger stir deep within at the sight. The memories he’d gotten from Liz and Alex were potent and his adrenaline kicked in. His muscles were tense, the power within him coiling slowly. These were the guys who had held Liz down and-

“Max Evans, I presume,” said the tall, thin man who stepped in the door. He was wearing a three-piece suit, which made no sense considering his lackeys were dressed like they were entering a germ warfare zone. The man’s piercing black eyes held Max’s gaze with unnerving fervency.

Max didn’t answer.

The man’s face immediately grew nonchalant. “Nothing to say, have we? I know something that might get a response from you.” Max just watched him walk closer. His power was darkening within. He could send it out with one tiny lift of a finger. But he would only get one shot and he couldn’t hit all three of them at once. They were too spread out. How could he keep them from getting to Liz? His chest constricted.

“I could, perhaps replay the tape of your fiance’s arrival here, and the manhandling it took to get those clothes off her.” Max heard the blood pounding in his ears. “Or maybe you’d prefer the tape of our doctor’s sample-gathering from later in her stay here.” Max’s vision darkened until he almost couldn’t even see the man’s smug smile. “She‘s quite a screamer, isn‘t she?”

With a roar, Max threw up his hands and blasted power at the man. He was going to kill the son-of-a-b*tch.

Immediately, the man raised up a control device and Max’s power hit a shield of some kind. Max grit his teeth and intensified the power to a laser beam. It started to eat through the shield, and the man’s black eyes grew fearful. “Shoot him, you idiots!”

Max forced his power back out and turned just as a dart hit him in the shoulder. Another hit him in the chest. Numbness took over and Max fell to his knees, his power release stopping abruptly.

Now they’ll get Liz. He hit the floor. A pair of yellow, plastic-covered shoes stopped right in front of him. He blinked. They were fuzzing out right in front of him... Liz? And a whiteness overtook his vision...

******

Joey looked all through the house, a sinking feeling growing in her gut. Justin was nowhere in sight. The answering machine in her room was blinking frantically and she punched the button quickly.

“Joey, where are you, girl?” It was Maria! Joey slapped a hand to her forehead in frustration. Justin had missed the call?? “Listen, I can’t wait around. Max is on his way to get us. We think they have Liz and Alex at a CDC lab in Berkeley, California. It’s going to take us about five hours to get there, but we’re leaving pronto. We’ll call as soon as we find out anything.” Joey sat down heavily. Berkely. They were on their way to Berkely. She had to help them.

There was a muffled voice and she could hear Maria talking to someone else briefly. “Fine,” Maria muttered under her breath. Then she spoke more clearly. “Joey, Isabel says to keep your cute little butt right where it is. No heroics. We’ll bring them back home soon; we promise.” The serious tone in Maria’s voice brought tears to Joey’s eyes. Why couldn’t she help them? “Bye!”

Click. Dial tone.

Joey just sat there as the machine rewound the message and shut itself off. Then a movement at the door caught her eye. It was Nathan, blue eyes full of concern.

“I don‘t see him outside. Is everything alright?”

Joey shook her head. “They think Liz and Alex are being held in Berkeley. They’re on their way right now.”

Nathan nodded, then looked around her bedroom briefly. “Well, looks like Magrasettah hit the road. God, he always was a maggot.”

Joey stared at him.

Nathan shrugged at her questioning glance. “I think. So where would he go?”

Joey gasped. The orb. She scrambled to her knees and reached under the bed. It was gone. She pulled up the dust ruffle and looked under frantically. He’d taken it. She sat back on her heels, taking in deep breaths. How could he do that to her?

Nathan was beside her in an instant. “What’s the crack?”

Joey looked at him with wide eyes. “The orb. Justin took it.”

******

The government’s response had been immediate. They had state officials and federal big-wampuses on the way to deny everything. In fact, Kyle didn’t expect the Great Garrett to make it out of the hospital under his own power. Not unless he had another card to play. His Dad already had orders to keep the man in his sight and halt all further statements. But, of course, with half the state’s media plugged-in and waiting to scream first amendment violations if anyone stepped in, there wasn‘t much a Sheriff could legally do.

Sh*t.

There was a manila envelope being held by an armed security guard behind Garrett, who was currently on his cell phone, probably getting chewed out by someone in his department. The guard hadn’t moved in the fifteen minutes since Garrett’s announcement.

Kyle shook his head. The names and photos had to be in that envelope. This had been planned all along. Garrett just wanted an arena for his little sideshow.

All of this virus crap had just drummed up the publicity he wanted.

Dammit.

Kyle headed back over to his Dad. He felt jittery. “You got anything yet?”

“Well, the guy’s carte blanche has been revoked, that’s for sure.” Kyle marveled at his Dad’s calm. “They’re backin’ out on him faster than a five-legged mule. But they can’t control him from Washington, and we can’t get him away from the media. He’s got the law on his side right now.”

Kyle shook his head. “The law sucks.”

“Kyle, don’t start.”

“Dad, when has the law ever helped Liz? Or Max? Or any of them? All it does is protect the rights of the people who want to hurt them. It sucks.”

His Dad turned away with a tense face and reluctantly nodded. “You’re right, okay? It sucks. But we can’t break the law just because it doesn’t work for us right now. Let’s just do what we can.”

Kyle sighed. “You mean sit around on my ass while this jerk scares up a mob to go after my girlfriend?” His Dad cursed and Kyle stared at him. He was having a hard time getting his voice to stay level. “This is way out of control and you know it.” He hadn’t been able to get Joey on the phone at her house. Now, he just prayed that Joey made it back with Justin before all hell broke lose.

******

Liz was riding the waves of energy that were cycling through her, trying desperately to get free of it. Max was out there, somewhere, but she couldn’t talk to him. Seeing him again, feeling him again and sharing that intimate moment- whatever it was- had made her that much more desperate to be with him.

She knew the energy had been healing her body at first, and she had reveled in the wholeness and the ripples of pleasure it brought with it. But now, it was just keeping her sedated, serving no purpose at all.

She concentrated all of her will and desperately dammed its flow through her body. It stuttered. It halted. The high-pitched hum dropped an octave.

Then suddenly, it slammed back into high gear and the pitch revved up to an almost intolerably high note. Energy shot out from her. And as it left her, she knew- it was coming from the orb.

Her eyes flickered open. Finally. Max? She could feel him there, somewhere. But he was asleep. She couldn’t tell if he was here or back in Roswell. Tears filled her eyes. She had somehow thought he would be here with her.

She was still in the lab, stretched out on the same gurney and looking at the same ceiling. But as her eyes flickered down and over her body, she gasped. She was glowing... glowing so intensely that she wondered how she was able to stand to look at herself. She wore no clothing, but the brightness made it impossible to distinguish her features. The energy had melted through her restraints and they lay on the floor in a heap. Liz felt a surge of relief. She was free.

A noise on the left caught her attention and she looked over to see two men in yellow suits writhing on the floor in agony. Liz felt her breath leave her. The plastic had molded itself to their bodies, even their faces. Their eyes, nose and open mouths were caves of yellow plastic. They couldn’t even scream. That’s where that blast of power had gone. But she hadn’t done it, not on purpose!

Liz wanted to look away, but she couldn‘t force herself to move. Then she was up and moving to the door in seconds. What was going on?

Alex! She saw Alex on her right! And there was a doctor, frozen in horror and covering his eyes as she walked by. They had been doing something to Alex. He looked almost dead.

Oh my god! NO! I have to help Alex!! STOP!! But her body wasn’t obeying. She couldn’t even see him any longer. Just as she reached the door, it slammed shut and a quiet beeping sounded. Red lights around the room began to flash. Liz halted and looked back at the doctor, who was yelling into a communicator of some kind. For the first time, she realized that the humming in her head was so loud she almost couldn’t hear anything. That was an alarm going off.

Her body turned back to the door and lifted a hand. Power surged out of her and the door melted in the middle, running onto the floor until there was a large enough hole for her. The heat from the metal was amazing as she stepped through. She walked over to the stairway and stopped.

Her mind was still trying to process the amount of power that had funneled through her to melt that door. Even though it had been a staggering amount, it had been replenished immediately. It must be the orb controlling her. It had to be. She was... invincible.

And she was standing in place like an idiot. What was going on? She looked around and realized that she was in control once again. Great timing. She was now in the middle of a large, white, tiled hallway that immediately made her want to puke from all the painful memories. She had no idea where to go or why the orb was controlling her. Her only friend in the whole place was back in that room. How was she supposed to know what to do?

Something stung her in the back and she turned without even thinking. Three uniformed guards with stun guns were approaching. She reached behind her left shoulder blade and pulled out a dart. As she dropped it on the floor, the guards halted. She wondered if any of them were Moe and Joe, from the sterilization chamber.

Her hand lifted and the men were flat on their backs instantly. She walked forward, not of her own free will, and stood over them. They weren’t dead. They were stunned, eyes wide open, bodies completely still.

The orb forced her hand on the first man’s head. It was reading his mind.

FLASH

Creeping around the Parker’s apartment with a yellow visor blocking his view. Seeing Liz on the floor, unconscious.

FLASH

A snaggle-toothed little girl that hugged him with a smile.

FLASH

Eating a doughnut in the break room, seeing the alarm and grabbing his gun.

As more power surged from Liz, the man jerked under her hand and blood flooded from his nose and mouth.

Liz’s jaw dropped even as her hand moved to the next man. She had just killed him in cold blood. NO! The next man’s flashes went by with nothing familiar in them and the orb left him alive.

But the third man’s flashes reduced Liz to tears. Max was here. And he’d- he’d been put in the sterilization chamber.