Part 9 - Max POV - Circle

There are two of talking in circles
And one of us who wants to leave
In a world created for only us
An empty cage that has no key.
Don't you know that we're working with flesh and blood
Carving out of jealousy,
Crawling into each other
It's smothering every little part of me.

What kind of love is this that keeps me hanging on
Despite everything its doing to me?
What is this love that keeps me coming back for more
When it will only end in misery?

I know too many people unhappy
In a life from which they'd love to flee.
Watching others get everything offered
They're wanton for discovery.
Oh my brother, my sister, my mother
You're losing your identity.
Can't you see that it's you in the window
Shining with intensity?

What kind of love is this that keeps me hanging on
Despite everything its doing to me?
What is this love that keeps me coming back for more
When it will only end in misery?

Sarah McLachlan

We go to pick up Isabel and call the Sheriff once I finally manage to pull myself together. I am still in a state of complete disbelief that Tess could have gotten the best of us again so completely. She is supposed to be gone! We saw her blast off ourselves.

As usual, none of this makes any sense. Why is she back? And what does this mean for my son? Has he been born already?

Or is Michael right after all - did he ever even exist?

The Sheriff and Kyle are both out driving the streets of Roswell, just as we are, searching for any sign of my lunatic former wife or Liz. Maria is with the Sheriff and Michael with Kyle. It seems wisest that no one confront Tess alone, if they should stumble across her. She is strong - even stronger than I realized when I finally found out the truth about her betrayal. That she could have so easily mindwarped Michael, Maria and I AND taken Liz without even any semblance of a struggle - it is damn frightening.

It is scaring the hell out of me actually. Liz is in great danger and we have absolutely no idea where to even start to look for her.

Izzy is in the back-seat of my parent's car, I am at the wheel. She has a picture of Liz on her lap, is trying to dreamwalk her as I drive around town in circles. She is having absolutely no luck.

"Where would she take her? Why would she take her? Why is she even here? Hasn't she done enough?" These were Maria's words once she and Michael had gotten over the first shock of my accusation that it was Tess who was responsible.

The words are now winding their way through my brain as I listen to the soft sound of my sister's breathing from the back-seat. She is in a deep trance now. I know that she will not give up, but it seems hopeless.

I have no answers. Only a deep, bone-chilling awareness that we are at a turning point - again. That if I take the wrong path this time, there will be no going back, there will be no last minute reprieve like there was when we found out the truth about Tess.

This knowledge stems from one fact.

I can't feel Liz at all anymore. There is like a deep void in my consciousness where she has always existed, even when we are apart. Ever since I saved her in the Crashdown that day, I have always felt her, know when she is safe and when she isn't, know when she is hurting and when she is happy. It has become such a part of my own make-up, that it wasn't until it was gone that I even realized it was there - her presence - like a flame, drawing me to her, burning brightly, keeping us connected.

Even over the past few weeks when things were so bad between us, she had burned within me.

Now she is just gone. Completely. Like a candle snuffed out.

And so it is an even greater shock when she is suddenly there again, like a match being lit. No, that's too small. More like a small nuclear explosion ripping through my mind.

"MAX! Help me! MAAAAAXXXX!" Liz's voice is panicked, desperate, terrified. And then it is gone, like it was never there at all.

I jerk the wheel to the left, sending the car careening for the sidewalk on the main drag of Roswell. I half hear Isabel shriek as she is physically thrown onto the floor in the back-seat. I slam on the brakes, breathing heavily as the car rolls to an abrupt halt.

"Max! What the hell are you doing?" Isabel screams, opening the back door and tumbling out onto the pavement.

I ignore her. I just continue to sit behind the wheel, staring out the windshield, calling for her with every fibre of my being.

**LIZ!!!! Liz, where are you? Help me to find you! LIZ!?**

There is nothing but the void.

Isabel is shaking me now. "Max! What is it? What's wrong?"

"Liz...she's calling for me." I bring my face down into my hands. The emptiness - I can't bear it. I know right now that she's still alive, but without the connection, will I even know if Tess hurts her, if Tess snuffs out the flame permanently?

"Like when you were in New York?" Isabel asks, sounding excited.

"Sort of." I reply, looking up at her, still feeling totally bereft. "That time I saw her, this time I heard her."

Isabel is frowning slightly. "And you can't answer her?"

"She's gone again."

"Try again. This time with me helping you." Isabel says, her eyes bright with hope. "She needed me last time. Her fear might have given her the strength to reach you once, but that was it. She needs help."

A tiny flicker of hope...It is enough.

I take my sister's hand. She is kneeling on the pavement outside the driver's side door, the picture of Liz smoothed out in front of her. She has one hand on Liz's face, one in mine. As Isabel closes her eyes, she instructs me. "Call to her. Don't let any doubt come into it Max. You need to believe that you can do this."

I close my eyes, reaching out with all my senses. I connect almost instantly with my sister, who is linked physically to me through our hands. I can feel her waiting to join her strength to mine, waiting to use her gift to help me enter Liz's mind.

It seems to take forever. I can feel my will fading, can feel my belief that this will work wilting, when suddenly it feels like I am falling...

And I am in.

She is sitting right in front of me, staring at something or someone unseen beyond me. Her eyes are looking right through me for a split second before I see them dilate and focus on my face.

The first thing I notice is that while Liz is still afraid, she is no longer petrified with fear. I can feel her natural curiosity overtaking the fright that is within her. I can also feel her shock. She is deeply troubled and confused by something.

"Max." She says, not at all surprised to see me. "You found me. Come and get me my love. It is not too late for us."

"Liz, where are you?" All I can see around her is sky - dark and starry and cold. The V constellation is behind her, pointing down, as though to lead me to her.

"I am in the usual place." She replies. "Where the pieces are dropped and picked up again. The place of answers - wrong and right. The place where paths are chosen and discarded."

And with that cryptic statement, she is gone.

I open my eyes, see Isabel staring at me, back from the dream plain. "Where is she Max?" My sister knows that the connection was made but didn't see any of it it seems.

I frown slightly, wonder why Liz was speaking in riddles. But her meaning was clear. The minute she spoke, I recognized the rock formation that was appearing out of the dark behind her.

"She's at the pod chamber." I reply. "Why though? There's nothing there anymore. The granolith destroyed the entire thing when it took off. Why would Tess take her there?"

Isabel looks as confused as I feel. "I have no idea. Do you think its a trap Max?"

"It could be." I reply pensively. "But I don't think so. We'll call the others, have them meet us there."

I watch Isabel hurry around the car to get in beside me, am about to shut my door and put the car back into gear when the headlights pick up a pair of legs further down the sidewalk. They are walking towards us, until the figure melts into the recognizable form of Sean Deluca.

Great. Just what I need. Liz's knight in tarnished armour.

He saunters over to my side of the car, sneering down at me. "Evans. I hope you're not here to harass Parker again. Because if you are..." He trails off, his tone threatening.

It brings my back up. I admit it. Mainly because I know that he has gotten to Liz, has interested her, has connected with her on a level unlike any other guy since...well, since me.

"Do you see Liz?" I snap back, annoyed despite all attempts not to be. This guy didn't know the first thing about my relationship with Liz, but every time I encounter him, I feel like he is weighing me, judging me, waiting for me to do...I don't know what he's waiting for actually. Probably for me to screw up, which even I admit I am very good at.

And yet, it is beginning to drive me crazy. Because while I definitely am not good enough for Liz, this guy isn't either.

The fact that he is the complete opposite of me, personality-wise, should make me feel better - like Liz couldn't even try and replace me. But actually, it makes it worse - more like she has been trying to get as far away as possible from anything that reminded her of me, including other guys.

"I know that you did SOMETHING to her again." Sean replies. "And I'm telling you, stay away from her. For your own good." I watch in amazement as he puts his hand down on my fore-arm, which is resting on the open window frame of the car door.

A strange energy seems to be building between us. It is intoxicating, yet frightening. And not only that - it also reminds me of something that I have experienced before...

"Max, let's just go." Isabel says impatiently. I can feel my sister's hostility towards Sean coming off of her in waves, even though I am not looking at her. She seems unaware that anything is wrong. But I am TOTALLY aware that everything is wrong. It's like I am suddenly tuned into everything around me, and yet like I am being ripped away at the same time.

It is the last thought of which I am aware before I pass out.

To be continued...