"Maria?"

Maria turned her head to face her father.

"I need someone around here that your trust." Brian DeLuca said as he kneeled down in front of Maria.

"I don't trust anyone." Maria said and stared straight ahead past him.

"You trust those three aliens." he said abruptly.

"Don't call them that." Maria said softly.

"Maria...."

"Alright." Maria agreed. She let her thoughts run for a moment trying to come up with someone around the facility that she trusted. "Robert Swanson." Maria told him.

"Alright." Brian said and stood up. "I have my guards outside of your room. No one is to come in here or leave this room. Understand?"

"Yea I get it. I can't leave." Maria watched as he left the room and she felt a familiar fear. "Where are you going?" Maria asked hurriedly.

Brian turned to look at his scared daughter. That doctor had broken her easily. She had always been very emotional. She had been trained well though, but she was not supposed to be up again things of this sort. Everything was supposed to go smoothly. "I am going to find out what exactly happened." He paused for a moment. "You will not be seeing Dr. Bernard or Dr. Phillips, anytime soon." he reassured her.

Maria nodded, but as he turned she called out one more time. "How did you know?"

"Every five hours remember?" he said as he turned again.

Maria nodded and allowed him to leave this time. It was nice having someone there to protect you and get rid of everything that harmed you.

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

Isabel had watched intently as Maria clinged to the man that carried her out. And the more she thought about it, the more she decided her suspicions were true. "That was Maria's father." Isabelle bursted out, interrupting Michael and Max's conversation.

"What?" Michael asked taken aback my Isabelle's comment.

"The day when they cut into our arms, looking at our ligaments or whatever. Maria ran into my room, screaming her head off, about the doctor not planning on using anaesthesia. That's what she referred to earlier. And he kept refusing to. So she grabbed a scalpel, and pushed him, and threatened that if he didn't then she would be sure that he was strapped down and had his ligament structure looked at without anaesthesia." Isabelle repeated. She remembered the whole ordeal very well.

"So what Isabelle. That doesn't make that guy her father." Michael snapped.

Isabelle frowned at him. "I'm getting to that. Well he refused to. So she pulled out her cell phone, pressed a number, and held it to her ear. A moment later she said Brian DeLuca into the phone. Then she gave her name. The next thing I knew, the doctor got all tense, and hurriedly told her he would use anesthaesia." Isabel explained. "Look her father obviously instills some fear around this place. And he looked a little high and mighty when he walked in. And, if you think about it, he kind of looks like her. Sure Maria is petite like her mother. But where does the blond hair come from?"

"I don't know Isabelle...." Max started.

"Max, you saw how she reacted to him, Isabel might be right. She showed no fear of him, and she hung on to him as if he was the only thing keeping her alive. If you saw your parents right now, you would be hanging onto them for dear life." Michael said. He was partially convinced. Except for the fact, that Maria said her father left her. But it seems a lot of things Maria said, weren't true.

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

"Mr. Swanson, my daughter tells me that I can trust you, is that true?" Brian DeLuca asked as the young man took a seat.

"Yes, sir." Robert said quickly. Why she would choose him he had no idea.

"Good. Mr. Swanson, I would like you to explain to me, in detail, everything that has gone on here the past couple of days. And names would be very preferable." Brian said gravely.

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

Brian DeLuca walked briskly down the hall, with his new found information. He motioned towards the guards guarding the room and entered. "Get up. It's time to go." he ordered them.

"Go where?" Isabel said worriedly.

"We are leaving." Brian said to them, he turned to Swanson, and spoke again.

"Go get my daughter and bring her up top." he turned to his guards, "Bring them to. And do it quietly, I do not want this whole facility alerted to our disappearance. Hold them up top, I have something to take care of." Brian DeLuca said and walked out of the room.

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

"Dr. Bernard, Dr. Phillips, I believe that we have had a misunderstanding." Brian DeLuca said smoothly as he faced the two men tied to chairs. "Somehow you got the impression that my daughter was to be experimented on. Let me assure you, when I had you two brought here, there was no such deal. Our deal, was to perform testing on these aliens. And in that deal, you were to follow the instructions of either Amy DeLuca or Maria DeLuca. You did not follow that part in our deal, either." Brian DeLuca smiled. "I really am glad your mouths are tapped shut." He noticed the fear in their eyes, as thoughts of what he would do occurred to them. "Unfortunately I do not have the time to perform dissection without anaesthesia. I have other matters to attend to. But believe me when I say you are not going to leave this facility alive."

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

"Where are we going?" Maria asked groggily as she was led through small, darker halls. She hadn't been through these halls before.

"Your father said to bring you to the top." Robert said as he helped Mr. DeLuca's guard help Maria through the halls.

Maria eyes opened wide. "Wait! What about Michael, and the others!" Maria exclaimed and tried to pull away.

"They're being brought up top to." Robert said as he pulled her along. He turned her comment over in his head a few times. She seemed very concerned about the aliens. And he didn't miss that fact that she had said, MICHAEL and the others.

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

Maria winced as the bright sun enveloped her. She opened her eyes enough to see a small group of people standing next to a small jet plane.

"What's wrong with her?"

Maria looked up to see her father standing in front of her. "They had given me a sedative." Maria forced out. "I don't think it was meant for me, it was too strong." Maria said softly over the roar of the jet. She let her eyes shut as her vision became blurry.

"Maria." Brian said firmly and lifted Marias head up. "Wake up, now."

Maria's eyes opened at the forceful tone of her fathers voice.

"You are going on that jet. I am going on another." He told her firmly.

"Where am I going?" Maria croaked out.

"Away from here. At least for a little while." Brian DeLuca turned towards the two guards. "Get her on there now."

Maria allowed them to lead her to the jet, she wouldn't have been able to do anything to stop them.

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

Michael watched the guards standing on the small plane carefully. There was no way of getting out of this situation. They had been forced on the plane, and given there clothes back that they had been taken in, and oddly enough they were clean. Then they where told to sit down and strap themselves in.

And they had been sitting here for about the past twenty minutes. Quiet. The door opened to the jet, as it had done a few times already, and two guards stepped, helping Maria, through the door.

"Ms. Rando!" a guard called out as they entered.

Michael turned his head as he heard a door open from the back, and a middle aged women stepped out. Her face was kind, and her light brown hair had light streaks of gray in it. She stepped out hurriedly, with concern etched on her face and she rushed forward.

"What happened to her?!" Ms. Rando exclaimed.

Brian DeLuca's guard holding Maria up answered. "She may have been given a stronger sedative, not meant for her."

"Bring her to the back." Ms. Rando ordered.

Michael watched as the women stepped out of the way and allowed them to pass.

Before she followed she gave them a curious gaze then followed them into the back. The door shut, then moments later the two guards came out, and shut the door again. Then the quietness that had enveloped the room halted. Guards began leaving, and the jet began to get louder. Reports where given, and soon Michael became well aware to the fact that they where lifting off of the ground.

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

"Morning sunshine."

Maria turned towards the familiar voice. "Is it morning?"

"Actually, yes. It's close to three in the morning." Ms. Rando said as she sat on the bed next to Maria.

"Are we on a plane?" Maria asked hoarsely.

Ms. Rando stood up and walked to a table to retrieve a glass of water. "Actually one of your father's personal jets." she responded and walked back over to Maria. "Drink." she said as she tilted the glass against Marias mouth. Maria winced as the cool liquid left a trail down her dry throat. Her eyes widened as the last day jumped at her. "Where are they?" she asked alarmed.

"I'm guessing you mean your little alien friends?" Ms. Rando asked as she tilted the glass again, allowing Maria to sip the water.

Maria nodded.

"They're up front, being guarded rather heavily." she revealed to Maria.

Maria let out a sigh of relief. Then fell back onto the small single bed. "They're not my friends."

"Then what was all this trouble for?" Ms. Rando asked curiously, as she placed the glass of water on the side.

"Why are you here and my mother isn't?" Maria asked avoiding the question.

"Your mother is busy. So she sent me." Ms. Rando explained.

"Wow, she actually was able to give up her personal aid. She must be worried. Figures. The mother who I am around my whole life, doesn't come back when I am in danger, but the father who I see only a few times a month, rushes here. Isn't that odd Janelle?" Maria asked cockily.

Janelle frowned. "Yes, maybe, but not as odd as you avoiding my previous question. No give."

Maria let out an annoyed sigh and let her eyes travel to some other object in the room.

"Maria...." Janelle warned.

Maria let out a defeated sigh. "Fine, they where my friends. But after the way I treated them I doubt it."

"Wasn't there a reason for the way you acted?" Janelle asked Maria, trying to bring the fact to her attention.

"Yes, but that doesn't make it right." Maria said, easily condemning herself.

"I'm sure they will understand." Janelle reassured Maria.

"I doubt it. They've seen a side of me that I never wanted anyone to see. They know the truth about me now. Sure they liked the other Maria, but she isn't what she appeared to be."

Janelle sighed. "What you have shown them the past couple of days is not you. I know you. Whenever your mother brought you along with her on business I watched over you. You are a ditzy blond, who dresses wildly, and talks too much."

"Maybe! But I am not just that! I am also a girl who was raised it what seems like a boot camp. And I was taught how to hurt, and deceive people, and that by any means necessary, you will get what you planned accomplished." Maria exclaimed. She felt as if she had two separate personalities. And at this point they where clashing terribly.

"Maria, you are more then that. Just because you were raised like that, doesn't mean you are that. Sure you know how to hurt and deceive people. And you have the ability to do it. But that doesn't make you bad. You don't bask in the joy of hurting anyone. I know how you have felt. You've told me. Over these past few months, you have been hanging onto to practically nothing. Guilt surrounded you night and day, because you knew what would have to be accomplished. You where lonely every minute of everyday, because you parents told you to hide emotions, and the people who you trusted, you couldn't reveal the truth to. You where 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." When

Janelle had finished her rant, she took a couple of deep breaths before she continued. "Maria you've done all you've can, you cannot expect anymore else of yourself. You are a bright girl, who loves everything, and who sniffs oils. Except you are trapped inside of mold that your parents have formed around you. In a way you are like them, your friends. They look like humans, but on the inside they are different, not from here. People have all kinda of facades. Some just very different from the real person living inside of them. Now you have to decide Maria, if you are going to allow the mold your parents have made around you hold, or if you are going to break through it."

Maria let out a small laugh, and smiled sadly. "I'm not very good at breaking down stone walls."

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

Isabel sat silently eating the bland food. It didn't taste very good. She looked to one side of her then the other and noticed Max and Michael not appreciating it much either. But it was more then they had gotten over the past couple of days. Isabelle turned her head when she heard the sound of a door opening. The door in the back hadn't opened in a while. Maria emerged from the back. Her eyes where slightly hooded, and dark circles laid under. But besides that she seemed fine. But her face still looked cruel. Isabelle kept her eyes on her as she walked passed them, and began to feel encouraged.

"Nothing to say this time?"

"Isabel." Max warned softly.

"No. Now that we aren't strapped down and have knives laying around us, she isn't as mean as she thought she was. But I thought she was a specialist?" Isabel asked snottily.

Maria stopped filling up the glass of water and shut off the faucet. She turned to Isabel, and felt instinct take over, and did everything she could to swallow her comment. She had always had this ability. Why did it come forwards so forcefully now? Because she was miserable. That's why. Maria reached up into the cabinet, and yanked out a bottle. She walked towards them and slammed the Tabasco sauce down in front of Isabel. "You might like that better." Maria grounded out. Maria stood up, and began moving towards the back.

"Oh no you don't." Michael said and quickly jumped up from his seat, and practically leaped over Max and Isabel, to block Maria's path. "Explain now." he ordered.

Maria looked at him through slittled eyes, and as the guards became aware of Michael's confrontation with Brian DeLuca's daughter, and moved forward to pull him away, a silent debate went on in Marias head. And she finally made a decision. "Leave him, he's going to get his answers."

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

"So you want to know? Ask." Maria told him. For some reason she couldn't find the ability to just explain.

"What the hell happened to you?" Michael asked, his angry voice laced with confusion.

"Nothing happened. I'm the same person I was three months ago, or a year ago. You've just never see all of me." Maria told him. If only that was the case. That something had 'just happened' to her. And she could turn away from it. But she had been like that her whole life.

"My turn." Isabelle said and stood up to confront Maria. Her fear of Maria had began to lessen. "How could you do this to us? Betray us like this?"

Maria eyes widened in anger. "Hardly." she spat out. "If anything I saved your lives."

"Maria that is a little hypocritical of you to say." Max said as he stood up and joined Michael and Isabel.

"Hypocritical? Do you have any idea what you are talking about? I sacrificed everything to save you all." Maria revealed. But she soon got the impression that they didn't think so.

"Sacrificed?!" Isabel exclaimed in disbelief. "For six months you acted as our friend, you knew that they where after us, you knew they would take us, and you didn't warn us! You didn't sacrifice anything!"

Maria stood there feeling like the prey. And even as the words began to form, they still wouldn't come out. And she continued to tell herself to fight back against them. But Maria felt that it was true. There had to have been more that she could have done. But her situation worsened when she found Michael in front of her staring down at her.

"You made no attempt to help us, and you knew that they were going to take us, and you didn't even warn us, and you still think you helped us. Well if you think that, then you don't know a thing about us." Michael said evenly and glared at her.

Maria clenched her jaw together, maybe she was regaining her courage, or maybe old habits die hard, and she just couldn't turn away form an argument with Michael. "I know more about all of you, then you know about yourself. I know where your ship is, I know how many of your kind were on it, I know why it crashed, I know how many are dead, and I know how many are still out there walking around. I know more about what goes on inside of your body, what you need, and what you want, then you do. And I'd bet right now each one of you would just love to get a good look inside of my brain to find out what else I know. But I wouldn't go in there." Maria said and smirked. "You don't know what you'll find."

Isabel clenched her hands into fists in anger. "You are such a bitch! You continue to hurt us over and over again, but continue to say that you helped us! You let them bring us in, and strap us down, and do testing on us! You are so selfish there is no way in this world you could do any good."

Maria felt her whole body began to shake with fear and anger, and Isabelle voiced her own fears. That she would never do any good anywhere, or be any good. And deep down inside of Maria, she didn't want to believe that there was no hope for her. "You say I don't know you?!" Maria screamed. "You don't know anything about me! While you," Maria looked at Isabel, "where finding a home with a nice adoptive family, my father was leaving. Why? Because someone came into our house and tried killing me and my mother, just because we where connected to my father. And he shot the man as I watched from a crack in my doorway! So of course he picked up and left to avoid getting us killed! At ten I was brought to a military base over the summer, and forced to learn about the insides of aliens! And my whole life I was taught how to keep your emotions hidden, how to deceive everyone, and get things done by any means necessary. What you saw back there, do you think that was easy!"

Maria paused for a moment, her chest heaving, and her throat hurting from the screaming. "Then six months ago, Max's fetish with Liz was discovered, and per chance I was Liz's best friend. So the powers that be decided to shoot Liz in the hopes that Max would heal her and I would get on the inside! I had to deal with my own best friends near death experience! How do you think I lived with that!" Maria screamed, and ignored the tears that traveled down her cheek. She noticed the looks on their faces. Max seemed a tad shocked, like Isabel, but she seemed to be almost scared, and didn't want to hear it. Michael's jaw was clenched shut and he looked at her with a strait face.

"And over the past six months I had to live with the knowledge of what would eventually happen! And every night my mother would explain to me, in detail, what would happen, and what tests would be performed. And I went to bed crying every night, because I felt so alone and no one could know about what I knew. My whole life has revolved around the discovery of you three! So don't you dare call me selfish! I have sacrificed my whole entire life!" Maria cried out. And then it was over. All of what she had been holding inside of her had been released.

"No." Isabel said softly and shook her head.

"What do you mean no?" Maria asked cruelly as she tried to stop her crying.

"You could have just told us, and been done with us easily, instead of sacrificing your whole life, unwilling." Isabel said firmly, bent on finding a reason.

Maria let out and angry scream and knocked over a glass sitting on a near by table. "No I couldn't have!" Maria screamed. "Don't you even realize what is going on here! Everything that has been done, you being brought in here, me trying to find out about you, it was all for a reason!" Maria yelled to them.

"Of course it was for a reason!" Michael yelled at her. "Like you said, trained your whole life. Your reason was to find out as much about us, bring us in, then find out more."

Maria clenched her fist together and pulled when back and punched him. He stumbled back into Max, but quickly regained his balance, and stared at her like she had lost her mind. "Stop condemning me! Do you think for one minute if I were to have told you about you being known about that you could have gotten away! And like you said, I have been trained my whole life, not only did I deceive you over the past few months, but I decided you over the past couple of days. I didn't tell you because to finally set you free from the people following you we had to bring you in! If we really wanted to know about you, I would not have been in charge. You would have been dissected immediately. I have had to live with the guilt of knowing that I would have to hurt every single one of you, but I couldn't tell you. You hated me right! That was the plan! To make them believe." Maria turned to Max. "Remember what I told you about Liz? It was a lie. A letter was forged by you to Liz, telling her that you had to leave." Maria turned to Isabelle. "And about your mother, of course she is hanging on by hardly nothing, she loves you. I know how to hurt every single one of you, and if I needed to I could do it again."

"You're lying." Isabel said and shook her head. "And if you weren't, how would you expect us to believe you?"

"Because you're free now!" Maria yelled to them out of frustration.

"Then why are we on this plane?" Max asked her reproachfully.

Maria frowned, knowing her answer wouldn't do anything to gain their trust. "Because you can't go back yet."

Michael looked at her disbelievingly and shook his head. "Oh that's convincing."

"Look you can't go back yet. Not right away." Maria said solemnly.

"Then when?" Isabelle asked her.

"I don't know." Maria admitted.

"Then how are you helping us?" Isabelle yelled to Maria.

"Look I'm sorry!" Maria screamed back. "I am doing the best I can! I have practically ruined my life to save yours!"

"So, what, do you want our pity and thanks?" Isabel asked incredulously.

Maria glared at Isabel. "I do not want or need your pity." Maria said angrily. "I just wanted to make you understand. But if you don't believe me, fine. When you're back home in Roswell, without anyone following you, maybe then you'll believe me." Maria said firmly, and for a moment there was silence. Maria regained her composure, and let her muscles relax, and she smiled. "But I suppose," Maria began slowly, and calmly, "that until then you can sit here with the worry of never getting home."

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

"Look you two may not want to hear this, but what if she is telling the truth?" Max noticed the looks Michael and Isabel gave him. Max rested his head against the seat, and stared into the dimness of the plane. "And don't act like the thought hasn't occurred to you two." Max paused and looked at Isabel. "Isabel, remember when you felt Maria's emotions? You said they hurt. Maria already must have had underlying emotions, which were obviously very strong, and very painful for her. You also said how Maria freaked out about the doctors almost not using anaesthesia." He paused for a moment, but

Isabel remained silent, as did Michael. "Michael, you told me, that when she found out they where bleeding us she had a fit, and ordered us to be bandaged up. She was obviously trying to, to some extent, to cause us as little pain as possible. And the doctors did not like that. And when they found out about they two of you, it was an easy way to remove her. They removed her because she was not allowing them to follow through with what they planned. Which comes to one point. Why was she not allowing them to follow through?" Max asked and waited.

Isabel spoke up first. "Max, not everyone can be good. Do you find it so hard to believe someone could deceive you?"

"Do you find it so hard to believe she is telling the truth?" Max asked back.

"Yes." Michael said suddenly. He turned and looked at both Max and Isabelle. "I do. And my reasons for not trusting her, are more then your reasons to believe her."

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

Michael took in every detail of the surroundings that they passed as they came to a halt. Was this where they where getting off at? He didn't even know where it was. It looked just like the other facility they where in, and he began to fear. Guard milled around the plan, preparing things, but no one made any mention as to what was going on. The door to the jet finally opened. But no one told them to get up. He noticed the worried look and both Max and Isabel's face, and he knew his mirrored that image. He heard the door open in the back, but he didn't turn to look. The older women that had helped Maria before, walked past them carrying to small bags. She walked towards the door and paused, she turned to look at them and sighed, with a frown on her face. It didn't last long, and she soon exited the jet. Still they where not told to get up. He heard soft footsteps behind him, and the same figure he had been used to over the past few days walked passed him. Knee length tan skirt, white shirt, nametag, and neatly done hair. And she stopped in front of them. Her tag didn't read the same thing as before though. It just read Maria DeLuca.

"This is where I get off." Maria said, her voice laced with a small amount of tension. She had hoped, beyond hope, that they would understand. And she had been aware of the result, of what would happen if they didn't but she still risked everything. "You go back to Roswell. Things were taken care of rather quickly, and you will not being staring here." Maria wanted to apologize again. But it would have done no amount of good. She turned and began to walk out of the plane.

"And you're not going to be there, things are getting better and better." Isabel said loudly to Maria.

Maria stopped and turned to Isabelle. She let out a small laugh and shook her head. "You won't be seeing me anytime soon."

"We couldn't be so lucky." Isabelle said angrily, and ignored the nudge her brother gave her.

"I think you could be, you get to go back to Roswell." Maria told her evenly.

She felt herself becoming angry, for the simple fact that they where able to return, and she wasn't.

"And you don't?" Isabelle asked confrontationaly.

Maria didn't answer her question. "If you want to survive, I would recommend, do everything you are told to do. And lie, very efficiently. Because, you can't trust anyone with your secret. Because if you do, and they don't accept it, you can't return to what you where." Maria told them flatly, her voice empty of emotion. She turned away quickly and walked down the steps into the bright sunlight.

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

"They're gone." Maria said into the phone.

"How long ago?"

"About twenty minutes." Maria answered.

"I'm guessing since you aren't the plane, everything didn't go smoothly."

"No, it didn't." Maria said softly.

"I'm sorry Maria."

"Don't worry about it. I knew the consequences, and it was my choice. I wouldn't redo it." Maria said truthfully.

"Do you think you'll come back?"

Maria sighed. "I don't know. Everything in Roswell is going to be kept an eye on. I was told that I may be able to. But if the situation isn't resolved to a point, then I won't be safe. The last thing I would need is for something to blow over, and they reveal everything, because of the simple fact that they didn't believe me."

"I'm sure they will once they notice how things have quieted down, and that they are no longer being followed."

"But I don't think my parens trust me to either. They insisted on my returning back to the base. My behavior back at the facility was not exactly controlled, as you'll read in the report. Now they will hold the belief, that if I cannot hold up under pressure, I will not be able to hold up in Roswell." Maria explained. She knew her parents didn't trust her to return to Roswell. It could cause more problems.

"I need to go, I have some lying to practice. And this is going to be hard."

"I wish I could be there to help you." Maria said.

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

"Were you worried about him?" Maria asked quickly.

"Yea. I was scared to death that everything wouldn't carry out. Were you?"

"I don't know. The scary thing is, is that I was so into the part, that when they did come back at me with something, I responded easily, and hatefully." Maria said softly, condemning herself once again.

"Because you were trained to. If you had felt terrible when you said those things, none of this would have worked. I couldn't have done it. I didn't have years of it like you. I also didn't have parents like yours either."

"You better go." Maria said, her throat tightening. Her emotions were running high lately.

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

"Okay." Maria said softly.

"Bye Maria."