"I don't care. Somewhere out of Roswell, quiet and alone." Maria told him. She didn't even turn to him. Although she did watch him out of the corner of her eye. But he stared straight ahead to. This was the most uncomfortable situation she had ever been in. She had never really been alone with Max before, even though he was her best friend's love interest. But usually if she was around him, it was because Liz was. So they sat in uncomfortable silence as they past dimly lit houses, and darkened stores.

Max pressed on the gas. When had he become eager? Sure there was the initial fear. And yea it was still there. But discovering the truth at this point, meant more to him then anything, even his own safety, and maybe his life. And the thought that the truth had been stored inside of this small girl his whole life made him want to laugh harshly at the ridiculousness of it. So he ventured to take a glance at her. And along with all the oddness of the situation, came along with the remembrance of the fact that not only did Maria hold their truth, but she held a truth about herself that none of them had been aware of, or suspected. So at this point, although Max could hardly admit, he stood in total awe of Maria. Because she was now, the total contradiction of what he or anyone else had thought her to be.

"Here." Maria spoke up. It was perfect. And inside she smiled. The part of her that reveled in taking people by surprise. Because she noticed the evident cringe at his realization that she had picked the crash site.

Max pulled off the highway and drove out deeper into the desert until he knew they where far enough from the road not to be seen. Max turned off the ignition then stepped out of the jeep without even glancing at Maria. But as he started to walk, he heard her footsteps follow.

Maria followed Max and after a moment he stopped and turned to her. Maria smiled. "Out here, no one can here you scream."

Max chose to step closer to Maria. "Is that supposed to scare me?"

Maria nodded. "No. It's just the truth. Out here, no one can hear you."

"Maria cut it out. You said I had to find out the truth. So tell me how." Max ordered her.

"You know, I'm surprised you three didn't do it on your own before now. Especially Isabel, since she seemed to have perfected the task so well." Maria said in a kind voice. But she knew most likely that sound annoyed him to no end.

"What are you talking about?"

"Uhhhhhh!!!" Maria groaned loudly. "You aliens annoy the hell out of me!" Maria grabbed Max's in her own and brought them up to the sides of her head. "In there is the truth!" Maria yelled to him and stepped forward. "Everything you want to know. And you and me both know that if you went in my head I couldn't hide anything. Because you could dig around in their freely. So you want to know if I am telling the truth? You want to know what happened to your families and your planet? Well come and get it." Maria challenged him. "And don't stop until you've found it all. Because I am tired to no end of trying to prove myself. Go all through my life if you need to." Maria waited for a moment. And she noticed the fear in his eyes. "What are you scared of? You wanted the truth. Get it. But I'm going to warn you, what is in here," Maria said referring to her head, "isn't what you are expecting. You're not going to see that your family died in the crash. Or see where your home is. And you may just find something new, that you wish you never found out. So ask yourself if you are willing to take that chance."

"Are you?" Max asked and pulled her towards him with his hands on either side of her face. "Are you ready for all to be revealed, and no more secrets to hide behind?"

"I'm more than ready. I want you to do this. But the question is, are you ready?" Maria asked him softly.

Max sighed deeply then shut his eyes, and immediately pulled at her memories and thoughts. He barely heard the startled gasp that came from her, instead he just pushed forward. And he began at the beginning.

Max found himself inside a house, and he seemed shorter then usual. He tried to move in his body, but soon realized it was not his own. And as the small body moved and his hearty was thumping in his chest he realized in an instant he was reliving a memory. A small hand reached out and opened the door, slowly and shakily. He heard the faint sounds of footsteps, and the darkness that filled the room he was in, only brightened slightly as the dim light from a hallway beamed in. And from inside he could feel the heart beating, and feel the small hands shaking with fear. And before the door could be opened it was flung opened, knocking the body he was in backwards. Max heard a choke gasp of air that escaped the body, but he could hardly pay attention is a tall man stood in the doorway. The next thing he knew, two shots rung out, and the once tall fearful figure dropped to the ground in a heap. The child's eyes moved down towards the black heap that laid next to her, then his line of sight moved again and he found a younger, but familiar man standing in front of him. Before the body he was in had any chance to run out. The man raised a gun and shot the man on the floor two more times. Then as soon as the last shot was fired a women came running threw the door way and pulled him off of the floor. Max felt the tears that ran down the face, and he felt as the body began to shake. He could barely hear the cries coming from the other women as the body he inhibited cried wildly. He soon felt himself being carried out of the room, and the hallway whizzed by as they ran into another room. He found himself placed on a bed, and the women ran around wildly pulling things out of drawers, and throwing them into bags. Max head began to pound, and his stomach lurch with the continuos gulps of air, and violent crying. And in his sight moved and he found a small blond haired girl crying, staring back at him from the dresser mirror.

Max pulled out of the memory abruptly, but before he could exit the painful hell he was in, he found himself forced into another memory.

The next thing Max knew, he was walking down a hallway, behind a man with blond hair. But he also noticed that this body seemed to be a little taller. Then man stopped, and so did the body. And as he turned to face the body, he knew right away that it was Brian DeLuca.

"In here."

Max felt the nervousness flood the girl, and as it did, memories where pulled up, and Max was hit with an immediate intensity of emotion. And it all flew by him in moments. He knew what Maria knew and felt what Maria felt about it all at once. And it was like he knew it all along. Just as she had. He knew that they were only four survivors. And hew knew that all along Michael, Isabel, and him had been known about. He knew that the ship had been discovered. He knew that there where records found on the ship, and he knew that they where there on Earth for a reason. To survive. Because they didn't blend in with any other place. Humans where the only ones with similar characteristics. So it was easier to hide here. And that they had no home to return to. Then as abruptly as he knew it, all the facts that Maria had given him quickly halted as she composed herself and entered a room.

"Ms. DeLuca, please take a seat."

Max felt the rigidness of Maria's steps, and the nervousness that she felt. And he knew from her thoughts, that something was going on here. Once Maria had taken a seat, the man began to speak.

"Ms. DeLuca, how many of the other life forms are left?"

"Four." Maria answered without a doubt.

"Yes. And of those four, we know of three. And those three live in Roswell."

"In Roswell?" Maria exclaimed. And he felt the surprise and worry she felt. "Who are they?"

"In good time Ms. DeLuca. But now you have a job to do. You are 12 now, and we think that you are well within the ability to learn about these aliens. And in time their identities will be revealed and you will take on the task of infiltrating them."

Before Max could gage Maria's reaction, Max felt himself thrust threw memories, and once again, they all seemed to become his. And it seemed as if he had lived every single one of them. He saw Maria finding out their real identities, he saw her watching them, he saw her mother scold her for breaking down in tears at school. And he felt the pain in Maria as her mother walked away, leaving Maria to deal with everything on her own. He then began to see Liz. He saw Liz shot. He saw himself healing her. And then the blur stopped, and he found himself face to face with a more current image of

Maria's mother and father, and a more familiar sound of Maria's voice.

"I hate you!" Maria screamed. And Max noticed it was through tears that she was shedding from anger and hurt.

"Maria you knew we would be taking certain measures." her father spoke up, seeming unharmed by her sudden outburst.

"You shot her! You shot her for your own benefit. You shot her because she is my best friend and it proved the perfect advantage." Maria screamed with pure fury. And Max knew right away that this was after Liz was shot. And this had to be what Maria had referred to when she said that Liz had been shot on purpose.

"Maria, we had to. It was the only way. We were not progressing fast enough." Amy said to her daughter.

Max felt tremors began to run through Marias body, and he felt the anger and fear that began to fill her. He heard her unconscious thoughts. They spoke of a realization that her life was not her own anymore, and that it never was. That she was being used as an available object to get to three aliens she didn't care about. And she would do anything to be rid of them.

"So what! Now if everything goes as planned I have to get to know them! I cannot believe this!" Maria screamed.

Brian stood up and walked towards Maria. "If you do not find out about them, we will not have anyone on the inside to help. No one knows them personally. And to help them we need to know them personally. Now are you going to be so selfish as to think of yourself, or are you going to help other?"

Max felt the pure fury ripping through Maria at her fathers words. "I will help. But don't for a minute assume, that your lying and trying to make me feel bad because I am supposedly so selfish had anything to do with it."

Then Max found himself pulled away from that memory and thrusted through more. And he lived through the whole process in seconds of Maria becoming part of them over just six months. And it was all through her eyes. He saw her wanting to reveal everything to the sheriff for the simple fact that she didn't want to deal with it. He immediately caught Maria's thoughts of what she would have to do, and what their futures would be. And he saw her relationship with Michael, and the pain she felt at knowing that she would have to deceive him. And as they continued to pass him by something else imbedded itself in his memory, and he tried to stop the rush of memories, but he had no control. Maria was pushing him forward. But he saw it and remembered it, and he felt his own heart being suffocated. And it came to the point where he was unable to stand the rush of images and he drew away. His eyes popped opened and he found himself face to face with Maria. She was sweating, and her bloodshot eyes almost seemed sunken in with the darkness that surrounded them. He noticed her jaw grounded together and the determination set on her face. "Maria let go." Max gasped as he realized the connected was not broken. He was feeling every emotion going through her body. And he soon realized his body was also under equal physical stress.

"No." Maria forced out. But her voice wasn't strong. Her answer was in a painful whimper.

Max felt himself being pulled back in roughly. And before he was pulled out of the physical world he gasped, and he heard a startled cry from Maria as they fell to the ground on there knees. Then he saw it all, and felt it all.

Amy: "You know their weaknesses."

Isabel: "You were a traitor!"

Max: "You lied to us."

Maria: "This is everything nightmares are made of."

Maria: "I'm a stone wall Mr. Guerin. Nothing you say or do has any affect on me."

Michael: "Get away from me."

Maria: "Mr. Guerin, you're clinging to something that isn't there.

Maria: "....I never have and never will, need you, want you, miss you, or love you."

Max: "Leave her alone!"

Isabel: "That isn't true! She loves us!"

Brian: "Maria calm down. You have been taught how to control emotions."

Dr. Bernard: .....and that Mr. Guerin has been the only one that you have been this intimate with, that you would also prove very valuable in some of our experiments."

Dr. Bernard: "Well I am asking because what you are about to experience is very close to an exam."

Maria: "No!"

Isabel: "There is no way you can be human. And whatever they do to you, you deserve it."

Michael: "You're lying."

Janelle: "Wasn't there a reason for the way you acted?"

Maria: "Yes, but that doesn't make it right."

Janelle: "You were left alone. And you sacrificed yourself. You sacrificed everything good inside of you, to the point where you are hating and degrading yourself, when you did your best to help your friends."

Michael: "What the hell happened to you?"

Isabel: "How could you do this to us? Betray us like this?"

Max: "Maria that is a little hypocritical of you to say."

Maria: "You don't know anything about me!"

Isabel: "So, what, do you want our pity and thanks?"

Maria: "I do not want or need your pity."

Maria: "They're gone."

Liz: "I'll do fine. And I'll make the situation improve if I have to. You will return to Roswell."

Liz: "You'll be back, I know you will."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Max opened his eyes, he was met with the hard dirty ground. And as he tried to move his head felt like it had been run over by a truck. He slowly pushed himself from his position on the ground, and he found Maria laying on her side sobbing. Max held his body up off the ground with his weakened arms. Max had always thought himself the strongest with his powers, and more controlled. But now he knew his limits. Because the connection had practically killed him mentally and physically.

Max slowly pushed himself into a sitting position and sat there quietly. Any movement or sound was killing his head.

"Did you see it?"

Max looked down at Maria. Her face was dirty from the sand that stuck to her now tear stained face, and her hair was matted to her head. And her eyes looked haunted, and broken. But all Max could do was nod.

"You felt it?"

Max let his eyes shut and she nodded his head stiffly. He had felt more then enough. It was to much for all at once.

Maria's muscles tensed as she pushed herself up. And a riveting pain pounded in her head. Maria crawled towards him, and sat back on the ground.

"Liz?" Max asked shakily.

Maria looked away in the distance and her chin began to quiver that it stopped and she nodded.

"Why?"

"She had no choice. She found out only three months before you where taken. And she had no idea what would go on when you where. I needed help, and she was all I had." Maria told him weakly.

Max wanted to find out more, but he lacked the strength to pursue the subject.

Maria sat there silently, but she continued to shake, and her mind debated on whether to talk any longer. But she couldn't wait. "Do you believe me?" Maria asked him.

Max looked up, and he could see the desperate hopeful look in her eyes.

Maria moved forward and grabbed onto his arm, leaning into him. "Max please. I can't go on like this with no one trusting me. I can't keep this in anymore. Because it is so alone. There is no one to tell me everything will be okay. Or to try to reason with me that what I have done was for the good."

Max looked at her cautiously. He had saw everything, and felt it all. And it had troubled him to no end. And here she was clinging to him as if he was the only thinking keeping her from falling into oblivion.

"Max please." Maria pleaded with him. "Did you find the truth?"

Max let out a deep breath and nodded.

Maria eyes widened only slightly, and a choked sobbed passed her lips, and without thinking of how it would make him feel. Maria threw her arms around Max.