Max stared at her, and dumbly repeated, "I said..."

"Well, the future version of you."

"I don't believe this," Max said. "Time travel? No. That's not possible. It was probably just some shapeshifter trying to break us up."

"That's what I thought at first, but I was wrong. It was you, Max."

"How do you know?"

"The same way I always know when you're nearby. I felt him the same way I feel you and Michael and Isabel."

"You can feel us?" Isabel asked.

Liz nodded. "It's like yesterday in the biolab and you asked me where Michael and Max's hands were. Even though they weren't touching me, I knew where they were."

"Is it part of your powers?" Isabel wondered.

"I'm not sure," Liz shrugged. "It's been like that for a really long time."

Max still wasn't convinced, and he said as much. Liz made a reluctant decision to share her encounter with Future Max with him and the others, hoping Max would finally understand everything she couldn't explain. She asked Isabel to join them, and the tall blond girl willingly climbed out of bed. As soon as she was standing next to Liz, the other girl took her hand. Reaching out, Liz also took one of Michael's hands. That meant Max had to hold Michael and Isabel's free hands in order to complete the circle.

Knowing that he was wishing it were different, Liz said, "Balance, remember?" He nodded. If her were touching Liz, it would be all he could focus on. Touching her. Her skin, her scent. Her body calling out to him in the siren song he was helpless to resist. Being between Michael and Isabel was probably a good idea.

"Ok, is everyone ready? I'm not sure if this is going to work..." she warned them, feeling a little insecure.

Liz was warmed when Isabel and Michael both squeezed her hands reassuringly. She closed her eyes and concentrated. In all the times she'd practiced projecting false images with her powers, she usually sent out a static background, like the empty hallway she'd sent to Michael and Max earlier.

Sending the image of herself to Maria had been pretty difficult to maintain, and that was to one person, a human. Creating the illusion she wanted for her three alien friends was going to be hard, but she used the physical connection with Michael and Isabel to help her. Taking a deep breath, she began.

All of a sudden, she was gone and the three of them found themselves standing in Liz's bedroom. A smiling Liz came out of her bathroom and twirled once or twice before going to her dresser and pulling a white lace shawl out of the drawer. Going to stand in front of the mirror, she placed it on her head.

They all heard Liz's voice speaking softly in their ears though her words were for Max. "Maria, Alex and I had just gotten back from going to see a fortune teller. She'd told me that you would choose me over your destiny, that we would get married..." As she spoke, the Liz in front of the mirror began to recite her wedding vows.

Max opened his mouth to say something, even he wasn't sure what, when suddenly from outside her window, there was a sound like an electric jolt accompanied by a flash. Wind gusted through the curtain causing it to blow, and a pair of legs became visible through her open window. In a few short steps, Future Max was hunched down, looking at her. "Liz."

The three of them were so amazed at his appearance they almost didn't catch her reaction to his arrival. There she was, scared out of her mind at she stared at him. "Max?"

The next thing they knew, Future Max was chasing her around her room trying to get her to listen to him as he explained about the Granilith. Present day Max winced as she practically screamed at him, "You... you're like some kind of shapeshifter with the ability to look like Max with that beard and those gray hairs."

Then Future Max had her cornered against her bedroom door. Max wanted to go pull the other man away from her. She was so scared. "Would you let go of me. Please. Just. Let. Go. Of me."

All three of them breathed a sigh of relief as Future Max dropped his hands from her arms. Liz's voice again drifted in their ears. "Already I knew it was you, Max. I didn't want to believe it. Couldn't believe it. But I knew. See how I didn't even try to escape him? How I trusted him not to hurt me? It just took a little longer to convince me."

She moved the scene forward a little and now they found themselves outside where Liz was peering over the edge of her balcony. Max heard himself singing down below and silently groaned. Vision Liz looked over her shoulder at him and said, "How embarrassing," as if she could read his mind.

Max started to object, but Future Max beat him to it. "I had to do something to get your attention..."

Max stared in amazement as the implications of what he was seeing sank in. While he'd stood down on the street below singing his heart out, making a public ass of himself, and doing everything he could think of to win Liz back, he'd also been on her balcony undermining his own efforts. And Liz.

Liz was amazing as she leaned over to smile down at him all the while knowing he was behind her with some desperate message to impart. He remembered that smile. How incredible it was to him. How it sent hope through his heart that he was getting through to her. Reaching her. How he'd treasured that smile for a few short hours.

Then she turned to the future him and asked, "Why are you here?"

The scene shifted again, and they were once again in Liz's bedroom. It was the next day, and Future Max was touching the stuff on her dresser. Some part of Max objected to the invasion of her privacy, and smiled when Liz entered and caught him at it. "That's private." Then, in typical Liz fashion, she put down her purse and announced, "Ok, I have some questions."

Max secretly grinned at that, and wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if she had pulled a list out of her pocket, as she had a couple of days after the shooting at the CrashDown.

Suddenly, Future Max was explaining, "The closer that you and I grew, the worse it got with Tess until she eventually left town."

He couldn't stop from asking quietly, "What did he say in the part you skipped?"

Liz's disembodied voice answered, "Nothing important. It's all changed now. Listen and remember what I said about all of you needing to find your balance."

"Because of me?" vision Liz asked.

"Because of me and the way I treated her." The three of them listened raptly as he talked about the four of them needing each other to survive.

"So you need me to help Max and Tess get together?" vision Liz asked.

Future Max answered, "I need you to help me fall out of love with you."

Stunned, Max was unaware of how hard he was squeezing Isabel and Michael's hands. His sister softly nudged him and he forced himself to relax his grip. Before they could comment on Future Max's request, Liz's voice whispered in their ears. "So I went to Tess and set up that whole fiasco outside the CrashDown. But it didn't work." The scene flashed briefly to Liz and Future Max watching Tess and present day Max talking from across the street of the restaurant. Liz didn't show them any part of her conversation with Future Max, instead skipping forward to where present day Max came barging in. Max saw how narrowly he'd missed running into his other self.

Then they were back in Liz's bedroom as Future Max berated the girl who looked like she was at the end of her rope, "Liz, Max isn't the only one who is the problem here. You are. You are not letting yourself change. Now you have to DO something before it's too late."

Max whispered, his heart aching, "Michael, when this is over, you have my permission to punch me."

"Consider it done."

For a moment, they were all back in Max's room, and Max was afraid he'd blown Liz's concentration by talking, but then, there was a knock at the window. Vision Liz was waiting outside, asking to be let in. He looked around and sure enough, there was present day Max doing some pull-ups on the bar he'd attached to his doorway.

"This is a surprise," he said with a tentative smile, pushing up the window.

"It isn't what you think," she answered honestly.

The scene went dark and Liz's hesitant voice said, "I guess you know what happened next."

"What happened?" Michael asked.

Max answered, "She'd told me she didn't want to be with me, and asked me to let her go."

Then they were all back on the roof of the CrashDown. Liz was sitting talking to Future Max. The evidence of tears on her face was apparent to them, even from where they were standing. Suddenly, Future Max slammed his hand down on a box of tissues announcing, "It didn't work. We have to try something else."

Liz showed them the rest of the scene, letting it all play out before their eyes. By doing so, she was letting them know that she'd hated doing this, hated hurting Max like this. Letting them know that she'd wanted to go them, for their help and advice, but he'd refused, telling her instead, about how in his reality Michael and Isabel were both dead and it was up to her to save them.

Liz whispered to them, "After the shock of what was to come wore off and I had a chance to think about what he'd said, I realized that Max was being driven by grief. He blamed himself for not being able to save you two. And that his guilt over your deaths was leading him to do this. In some part of his mind, he'd decided that the only suitable punishment for having let you down was to give me up."

Vision Liz asked through her tears, "What can I do that's going to turn you away from me?"

"I don't know."

In rapid succession, a series of scenes followed: Liz comforting Maria in the kitchen of the CrashDown. Going to Kyle. Spotting Max on the balcony as he'd caught her in bed with Kyle. Liz calling Tess, telling her to find Max wherever he'd gone. Liz sitting on her balcony with Future Max, waiting for whatever was to come next.

"So, Max and Tess are going to be together now."

"I don't know. I don't know anything now. This is a different world."

Then she skipped forward to have him say, "The future is to be determined. It's like I always told you Liz, we create our own destinies."

As the scene faded out, Liz's voice whispered to them. "He disappeared less than ten minutes later," and finally it was over. The four of them were back in Max's room, holding hands.

"Disappeared," Isabel asked. "Where'd he go? Back to the future?"