Part 5-

Part 5-

Liz massaged her temple gingerly as she glanced out the window at the passing scenery. A nasty headache had been plaguing her for the past few hours, so she tried to distract herself. She couldn't see much, just a few patches of green and blue; from the pilot's last announcement they would land at La Guardia Airport in two hours. She looked next to her at Max, leaning against her shoulder, sleeping away. Poor Max, he had barely slept since their escape, his only focus being her.

Liz's mind was awash in turmoil as she attempted to figure out what was their next step, she cursed the fact that they were never allowed a moment to interpret or even digest each new piece of life-altering information, instead they just kept coming at them with an incredible speed. Part of logical Liz tried to list everything that they had learned and tried to put it together in her mind to form some kind of rational conclusion.

1) She and Max were alien – of all the things she had found out this was by far the one that disturbed her the most. As far as she known she wasn't even adopted, until The Chamber told her that she was the result of top-secret genetic testing, the combined efforts of three different countries attempting to produce a "perfect" human being. Well, that idea was shot to hell now wasn't it? Part of her envied Max intensely, he had gotten years to come to terms with his "otherworldliness". She had received only hours.

2) She was a girl named Zera on their home planet- this was certainly freaky, but to Liz's mindset everything was. Was this from a past life, present life, or what kind of life? From what they had discussed apparently Liz was needed desperately on their planet because it was "dying" and some bad-ass named Khivar didn't seem to give a shit. This left her with one large question: How was she to help them? Max had a theory but he refused to tell her until they could get Michael and Isabel and try to get off the planet. She smiled for a moment. Her life now seemed like one of those Science Fiction movies that she and Em like to watch so often; in fact Liz pinched her arm regularly to keep checking that this wasn't some elaborately detailed dream that she was having. None of this was particularly set in her sense of reality but she did her best to adapt to the new situations.

3) The fact that they had to find two people in a city of millions- now this just seemed damn near impossible to her. She desperately hoped that Max had some miraculous solution to this besides going door to door or something like that. But hey, who was she to talk about the impossible? She had just managed to destroy a facility the size of two football fields with her mind. After that, heck, there had to be someway to discover them in that huge city.

Max stirred next to her, seeming to wake as he ran his fingers through his now red hair. Liz grinned for moment.

"What's so funny?" he asked sleepily

"Your hair" she said as she tried not to laugh while looking at the mop of curly red hair that sat atop of Max's head…

"Look at yourself" he smiled back grabbing one of Liz's new blond locks and holding in front of her…

All fun aside Liz was a more than a little concerned about Max. He looked pale and there were dark half-moons under his brown eyes. Max hadn't taken the scene at his house too well, but instead of letting her help him, he chose to bury it deep inside and to move on. He told Liz that he could deal with it all later. She doubted that even he could have that much emotional control and the voice in the back of her head kept urging her to try to get him to talk about it. Max just pushed her attempts aside though, especially now that they both felt that they were being followed. Even Liz, who didn't have any of Max's abilities, could sense the presence that followed them.

"Can you please buckle your seat belts?" asked a pretty brunette stewardess who leaned over their seats.

"We are about to land," she added as she pointed to the others who were preparing for the landing.

"Sure"

As the plane descended there was a little turbulence that shook the plane momentarily. Liz let out a little yelp but max grabbled her hand to let her know that things were all right. The shaking ceased and the plane descended perfectly. Max and Liz left the plane, carrying no baggage like the others, and headed through the airport swarming with people.

"You do have a plan don't you?" Liz asked softly

Max simply turned and smiled at her as he hailed a bright yellow taxi.

"Where ya headed, bub?" came a voice with a thick accent that Liz couldn't quite place…

"Central Park" came Max's smooth decisive answer.

"So what is this brilliant plan of yours?"

He looked a little uncomfortable as he glanced at her again.

"I've got to go back in Liz"

"What are you…."? Liz paled as she realized exactly what he was referring to…

"Max," she urged, " there has to be another way"

She shivered as she remembered the feeling of having the power released and the horror that she felt as Max had to get her to bring it in.

"Max, you have no idea what that does to me, a), how do you know that you will be able to control it? b) Max, I don't like what it feels like, heck what I feel like afterwards, I don't feel like Liz Parker, I change Max, do you understand? I change…" she trailed off, her eyes filling with tears.

Max wavered for a moment then kissed her…

"There's no other way"Max began, " New York City has millions of people, it will take forever to find them…You heard the message, we have to get you back, as soon as possible."

It took Liz a few moment but she gradually came to understand Max's logic and that there really was no better way to go at it. She kept repeating the mantra of "it will not change you" over and over again in her head. Max smiled at her grimly, he could hear her chanting and was apologetic that he had to do this to her in the first place. They rode in silence for what seemed like only a few minutes as Max formulated a plan to lessen Liz's devastating power and direct it to locating; while Liz steeled herself for the change that was soon to come.

"Here we are, da beautiful Central Park" Liz overheard the driver say…

She vaguely overheard the man quote max the price, which was quite high, and Max handed over a few of the 100 dollar bills that he had changed from the 10's that Em gave them.

Max ignored the people around them and led he and Liz to a park bench out of the busiest human traffic. Regret filled his face as he looked into her frightened but determined blue eyes. She noticed his apprehension

"Just do it Max" she pleaded, "the sooner you start the sooner it ends"

Max obeyed and closed his eyes, repeating his steps, this time easily, since her walls had been obliterated previously, he stepped once more into the familiar dark sphere and siphoned off enough energy. With as much control as he could muster he transformed the more destructive elements into a force that could seek out Michael and Isabel. In one small motion he let his grasp on the power drift and it radiated out sweeping out across the city in that familiar concentric circle. He let it scan for miles upon miles; he then began the process of reining it in.

"Liz" he ordered loudly. She summoned all her energy and gathered the energy back into her. She felt even worse then before though, and had to resist the urge to black out. She opened her eyes to find max staring at her, his face plastered in terror.

"What happened?" she said sluggishly…trying to get her bearings

Max grabbed hold of her and wrapped her in a tight embrace. "You stopped breathing" he tried to explain. "You only started once the field dissipated.

Liz broke free of his hug and looked him squarely in the eyes, "I'm fine, I'm o.k…" she tried to reassure him. She cradled his hands in her own despite how much hers were shaking. "Did you find them?" she asked, attempting to change the tone of the conversation.

He smiled weakly as he told her the good news, that he thought he had located their general area, within 2 city blocks. They sat together for a while since Liz needed to rest. Max too was somewhat exhausted…The Jet-lag was no help either. Suddenly the sunlight they were resting in was cut off by two shadows. Until then Liz has thought that there was nothing that could shock her anymore, after the events of the past few days she felt that she had steeled her mind well-enough so that she could deal with any new startling facts. Her resolve disappeared though, when she looked up to see herself and Max standing in front of her, her mind tried to wrap itself around the image that her eyes had witnessed. It succeeded for 10 seconds then failed miserably as Liz quickly blacked out.