'Liz!'

'Maxwell! What's wrong with her? If you don't tell me now I swear I will blow you to pieces!' shouted Michael. Will also looked on anxiously. He had never met his sister in this world, but according to his memories this small girl was a pretty special person.

'She doesn't know where she is…' Max' voice trailed off, his emotions peaked and his eyes became frantic.

'I think I can help,' said a small voice from the doorway.

Maria ran up to Alex and embraced him, followed quickly by both Isabel and Lana. Alex looked faintly surprised at the sight of this strange girl running to him, but hey! he thought, the more the merrier! Someone would explain it to him later.

'What do you mean?' questioned Michael in a commanding voice.

'Well, there's not many places they can have taken her,' he said disentangling himself from all the girls. He looked questioningly at Will, Adam, Lana and Sandy who were watching him.

Max nodded, 'It's OK, they know. They're aliens too. We'll fill you in on that later. How are you gonna find Liz?'

'The internet.' He said with a grin, 'The wonder of all wonders! Just give me five minutes.'

Quickly he walked out of the room, Isabel followed him and Lana looked questioningly over at Will. He smiled at her and she smiled back, then turned and walked after Isabel.

'I think we should get Ava here, we shouldn't let her get away, we may need her… We can't let her contact Kivar!' said Adam quietly.

Max winced, he hated the idea of using Tess as some kind of weapon. But as he thought that all he could see was Vilandra's dying body and Liz's panic stricken face. Slowly he walked over to the phone and picked up the receiver, as he dialled he number he wondered if Tess was aware of her true identity or if perhaps she too had been oblivious to everything.

'Hello? Sheriff Valenti's residence.'

'Hey Tess? It's Max.'

'Hey Max, what's up? Max could almost hear her smiling.

'I was wondering if you could come around, we kinda need to talk.'

'Sure, I'll be around in a minute,' Tess blew a kiss as she put the phone down. There had been a triumphant note in her voice and Max became certain that she did know. She knew everything, she had always know. He bristled in anger.

'She's coming,' he said his voice quiet with subdued anger.

'I don't think we should be too obvious when she turns up, just in case… We'll go and see what Lana's doing. Be careful!' said Adam.

'We'll be right here,' murmured Sandy as she walked out of the room.

Max watched them walk out of the room, he was left confronting the expectant faces of Michael and Maria.

'Perhaps you should go too… so you know she doesn't suspect anything.' suggested Max.

'Nuh-uh Maxwell, we're staying right here.'

'That's right, Prince Charming,' said Maria with a wicked smile.

Max gave her a weak smile. Liz was lucky to have her as a friend… He was lucky to have her as a friend! He smiled.

***

Max jumped at the sound of the doorbell. He got slowly to his feet, steadying his nerves. He had to take deep breaths just to stop himself blasting Tess as soon as he saw her. He pulled open the door.

'Hey Max,' said Tess with a blatantly seductive, 'come-hither' look.

Max forced himself to smile, 'Hey, Maria and Michael are here.'

'Oh,' Tess' face fell slightly, but hey! There was no Liz! It wasn't that bad!

'Hey guys,' she murmured as she walked into the sitting room.

Maria sat and looked at her fellow strawberry blonde haired girl. She was seeing Tess in a whole new light… this was the girl who had split up Max and Liz, she had denied them all of at least one member of their family and in a past life arranged all their deaths. Maria made an attempt to appear normal, she moulded her face into a fixed smile and pinched her arm to stop herself slapping him.

'So what's up? You wanted to talk? Where's Isabel?' Tess chirped. She smiled benignly round at them all.

'She's busy… Ummm… we needed to talk about the… ummm… Future.' Max hit on the one topic he knew Tess would love. 'And we need to discuss the past too…'

A small feeling of fear flitted across Tess' brain, but in the next second she was cursing herself for being so stupid. They didn't know anything, they still all thought that they were all destined to be together. And Liz' powers were just cos of Max healing her… That was annoying though, it put her plans awry, but it was OK now. Hopefully the FBI would get her soon, all they had needed was a small tip off.

'You want to talk about our Destiny?' she asked hopefully.

'Yeah, why not…' muttered Michael.

Tess shot a doubtful look at Maria, why was she here? 'And you understand it?' She asked them all. 'Max and me, Isabel and you. We're meant to be together. Period. It's our destiny, what's meant to be.. always.'

'And where, Ava, were you planning in including us in this?' asked a girl's voice from the doorway.

Tess swung round, Shit! she thought. What were they doing here. This was bad. Uh-oh.

'Were you ever planning on telling my brother that I exist?' Lana's face was twisted with constrained fury. This evil cow was the one who had kept her from her brother for 17 years. 'Did it not occur to you that we might want to see each other? Or perhaps you thought we didn't need each other, like you don't need Kivar, hmmm? Did you not think that maybe Leandre might just like to know why she was here? Or maybe Michael might like to know he had a brother and a sister? You just lied to them all! You kept lying you didn't even try and explain anything! You still couldn't live with the thought of Zan being happy with Leandre could you? You just had to screw everything up!'

Will walk into view and reached out an arm and laid it protectively around Lana's shoulders, she was shaking with rage.

Tess looked round at all of the people in panic. Isabel, Adam, Sandy and Alex had walked into view by now. She could see the anger in everyone's faces. Then her fear changed to anger, 'What did you care for me?' she asked. 'All I ever wanted was to be with Zan! Why could no one ever handle that? Then when I begged the scientists to send me with Zan and I thought there was a second chance! But Nascedo took me away from them for years, then when I came back I found that bitch had Max wrapped around her little finger again!'



'Don't ever call Liz that!' yelled Max all his anger showing in his face.

Tess looked at him regretfully, her face clouded with anger and hatred. Then she laughed, a bitter laugh. 'So I guess it's true, you can't change history. I tried.. but I guess that means, that your history won't change either. Seems I need to talk to my brother, arrange few funerals. Looks like you all just signed your death warrants…' she smiled, 'Again!'

'Yeah, if we let you go!' said Michael strongly.

'Try and stop me,' whispered Tess as she disappeared from sight.

'Where'd she go?' gasped Maria.

'She's mind-warping us.' stated Max bitterly, 'and there's nothing we can do about it!'

'She gonna get away, we can't stop her,' spoke out Sandy.

Lana bristled in indignation, 'You mean we're just gonna let her get away?'

'She can't run forever, and I don't think she will… She won't be able to keep away.

We'll see her again.' said Adam certainly.

'But what if she's right? What if we can't change the future? What if history repeats itself?'

'It won't if we get Leandre back…' Will spoke everyone's thoughts.

'And I know where she is,' said Alex from the doorway. His mind was reeling, he had heard some of what had past from the back, and he was confused, but he had his priorities. Liz came first, they could explain later, all except one thing that is. 'What's with all this Leandre business?'

'Ummm… it's well, perhaps you should sit down for this Alex. It's Liz' alien name…' explained Maria quietly. Alex' eyes widened and his face showed complete astonishment, that had not been what he was expecting!

'Oh.' he said bluntly, his eyes wide and confused. 'Ok, well, I guess you want to know where she is.' Everyone looked at him expectantly. 'She's at Raven Peninsular. It's another abandoned government building, it's the only one they could have possibly taken her to.'

Isabel and Lana began to glow with pride. How could he be taking everything so well? He was so strong, be had barely batted an eyelid at Maria's declaration.

'Well what are we waiting for?' asked Max impatiently.

Adam shook his head, 'Believe me Max, if we could go, now, straight away I would. But we need a plan. We can't just burst in there.'

Max sat down reluctantly and listened to the other's chatter.