"Michael, slow down. Getting ourselves killed on the way there isn't going to help anything." She told him automatically for the tenth time. She knew he was worried and that he was freaking out internally about her little visit from the alien flu earlier in the day. It saddened her that he couldn't seem to get used to it.

She had.

"It's fine Maria." He snapped, but she could tell that he did let up on the gas.

"Are you okay?" Maria asked quietly, knowing that he was not. He had seemed to be briefly in a better mood after the summit with their friends about the possibility that Max was trying to contact them. He had sobered fairly quickly once they had been alone together though.

"Yup." Michael replied.

But she knew that he wasn't. She knew that he was torturing himself with guilt, with the fact that he considered himself to be responsible for the loss of Max, for Liz's frozen state and Isabel's grief. And for the biggest thing of all - the fact that she was dying.

No matter how hard she tried to convince him that while he had made a mistake, it had not been his fault. Tarsus of Dernia had played on Michael's greatest weakness, his desire for a family. He had known that Michael would leap before looking. There was no way that Michael could have known that it had all been an elaborate ruse to trap Max.

And yet he blamed himself.

It was the one down-side to the return of Michael's humanity, and consequentially his emotions, when they returned to Earth. Guilt was not the most fun emotion to have as a perpetual companion.

Yet the love that Michael showered on her now - she couldn't help but think that it had been all worth it.

Their joint trip to Michael's home world had bonded them. Although they recalled very little and could not figure out why not, they knew that something significant had occurred between them there.

Michael's stone wall did not exist anymore. He seemed to have turned over a new leaf in that department. Maria now knew how much he loved and depended on her, because even though he was still Michael and didn't say it aloud very often, he showed her in a thousand different ways.

The way he held her gently when they fell asleep together on the couch in his apartmen because she was too weak to move.

The way he tried to get along with her mother. He had actually come to dinner with Amy last night and had actually held a conversation with Maria's mom. It had amazed and touched her. Michael had once told her that he "didn't do parents." Well, he did now - for her.

The way he spent hours upon hours practicing with his powers. He ignored his most powerful ability - the ability to kill with a sweep of his hand. Rather he concentrated on the tiny inherent ability he possessed to heal. While Max's gift had been natural, for Michael it was like cutting the lawn with scissors...but he kept at it - for her, to try and save her.

That's where they had gone on their recent road-trip. They had spent three weeks camping out under the stars in the desert, Michael laying his hands upon her again and again, exhausting himself to the point that she thought he might be killing himself.

Nothing had happened but she had known better then to try and stop him.

But Michael had only stopped when Maria had told him that she needed to check on Liz. It had been useless, but he had been willing to kill himself in an attempt to save her.

"Okay, spaceboy, where are we going?" Maria asked now. Although she trusted him implicitly, the fact that Michael was becoming more tense as they drove away from Roswell was beginning to worry her.

"To where it all began." Michael told her curtly.

Maria sighed. "And that would be?" She prompted, frustrated that even now getting information out of Michael was like extracting teeth. She smiled slightly to herself, remembered a conversation they had once had when Tess had first come to Roswell.

"What happened to partners? What happened to an even exchange of information?" Maria had asked.

"I lied." Michael had replied, clearly unimpressed.

But those days were long over. She just had to ask the right questions.

Michael never lied to her now.

"The crash site." He replied as though it was the most obvious answer in the world.

I'm standing on the edge of time, Playing out a reckless pantomime, And every day's another wrong to rectify. I dream about a stranger's touch, And voices in my head I cannot hush, And every night's a hunger I can't satisfy...

It's the secret that I keep, It's the ache that makes me weak, And I know I'm in too deep, I'm gonna drown. It's the emptiness I fear, Baby, please don't leave me here, 'Cause I'm lost inside a dream, It's out of bounds.

I close my eyes and its so real, All at once I know just what I feel, And baby it's the kind of rush that terrifies. I am weak, I am wrong, Everyday I swear that I'll be strong, There's a bond between us that I can't deny.

It's the secret that I keep, It's the ache that makes me weak, And I know I'm in too deep, I'm gonna drown. It's the emptiness I fear, Baby, please don't leave me here, 'Cause I'm lost inside a dream, It's out of bounds.

Amanda Marshall

Liz flopped down wearily on her bed, stared up at the ceiling. She had managed to make it past her parents without being treated to the third degree, but just barely.

Just like everyone else, they were sure that she was close to losing her mind.

No one believed that someone who never cried was just strong.

She was stone, she was ice. She would not cry.

Liz flicked on the radio, sighed, wished that she could fall asleep right then. She KNEW that Max was waiting for her.

Unfortunately, she wasn't at all sleepy.

Oh, she was tired - in the way that she always felt tired since Max had left, but she wasn't sleepy.

And being logical Liz, she also knew that the harder she tried to fall asleep, the more impossible it would become.

So she thought instead.

"Go to where it all began...your greatest wish will be fulfilled...make the sacrifice...What the heck are you trying to tell us Max?" Liz muttered to herself as she stared at the picture of him that sat on her bed-side table. "And why did you go to Isabel and not me?"

Logical Liz knew that if it was Max who was contacting them, Isabel was the most logical choice. She was his sister, bonded to him by alien blood. She had control over her own mind in ways that the rest of them could not even imagine - in ways that Isabel was still unaware of...her entire gift revolved around access in and out of minds...

But it still hurt.

"Okay, focus Liz." She ordered herself. "To where it all began...hmmmm..."

And then she knew.

She sat up on her bed like a bolt of lightening had gone through her. She jumped up, sprinted through her door, down the hallway and past her father who was coming out of his bedroom.

"Lizzie! What the heck..."

"Be back in a sec Dad!" She called over her shoulder. "I just forgot my bio book in the restaurant."

Liz was down the back stairs and through the break room in two minutes flat.

And then she stopped. She carefully pushed open the door into the dining room.

It was dark. Agnes had obviously finished cleaning up - or had ignored doing so altogether which was more likely - and the Crashdown was closed for the night.

Liz took a deep breath, pushed through the swinging door.

A thousand memories assailed her now that she had opened herself to them.

"Max Evans is staring at you again."

"I can't imagine what you must be thinking right now."

"Ummm...I'll have an alien blast."

"Well, how 'bout it Evans? Have you ever been in love?" "No."

"Now you sound like Isabel!"

"I look at you and I know you're the person I'm supposed to be with. I've always known it."

Liz held her breath, walked forward, stared down at the spot where it had all begun.

"You're okay now."

Liz could still feel Max's hands on her, could still see him staring down at her intently, intense concentration on his face.

Liz pressed her lips together. She closed her eyes, called out with her entire soul.

MAX! Where are you??

The Citadel, Illyria

Jaxon Falconer sat on the stone floor in the cell, his forehead resting on his knees, his arms wrapped around his legs in an attempt to stay warm. He wasn't asleep, but he was in that state that lies somewhere between slumber and awareness.

* MAX! Where are you? *

His head snapped up. Jaxon stared around the cell.

There was no one there.

"Liz?"

Now, where did that come from? He asked himself, annoyed.

Tarsus was right. He WAS going crazy.

Jaxon, lowered his head back to his knees.

It didn't matter anyway - insanity was unimportant.

It might even help.

No man needed a sound mind where he was headed.

"Liz?" It was no more than a whisper, but the voice was so familiar, to Liz it sounded like Max was standing right in front of her yelling in her face.

Her eyes snapped open.

She was alone.

"Max!"