A/N- This update is coming much quicker than I ever imagined it would. I generally have this little rule with myself that I'll at least wait until my stories moves down far enough so that it's off of the first page of the recently updated stories list before I add the new chapter. But... I become obsessed with finishing this story this last week, and I spent long nights awake writing and re-writing, editing and re-editing and now the story is finally complete. There is this chapter and then one more concluding chapter and they are now finally both finished. So I thought it would be silly to keep any readers waiting, so here it is! This chapter is kind of like my "take care of business and get the whole unknown story out there" chapter, so it's just kind of technical, sorry. But it does answer most of the questions (except the one huge one, of course (WHAT happened to Liz and Alex- are they truly dead or not?), which will be answered in the next chapter) so that's good. I hope you enjoy and, as always, please review.

(Final chapter will be put up soon.)

Chapter Seven

Maria and I sat in the car for close to an hour after leaving the Valenti house. I watched as the tears slid down her pale cheeks, the hopelessness evident in her eyes. We sat in silence for awhile, each understanding that what Sheriff Valenti had said cemented something- it smothered the flame of hope that existed between us.

"It- it's over, isn't it Max?" Maria asked, speaking for the first time. She turned her head, her puffy eyes staring into mine. "It's over." She repeated, nodding her head.

"Maria, don't say that," I said firmly. "Don't say it's over. It isn't over!"

"Oh come on, Max!" She screamed, fresh tears falling from her tired eyes. "It's over! You heard what he said! Their bodies were identified... by DNA traces! You can't argue DNA traces, Max. Face it, it's over. Liz and Alex are dead. I'm just so disappointed in myself. How could I have let myself hope again? How? They're dead!" She shook her head, burying it in her hands. "God, it's so hard. Having that hope and then having it torn away again. It's like that night all over again-that terrible, terrible night. I feel like Sheriff Valenti just walked into the kitchen of the Crashdown and broke my heart all over again."

Maria's shoulders shook in sobs and I sighed, letting my head fall. I didn't know what to say to her. Deep inside of me I knew that Michael was right; I had no right to include Maria in this and get her hopes up again. It was an unformed plan. I was never sure that I was right; all I had were simple hopes. Hopes that now were causing Maria a deep pain that she didn't deserve to feel all over again. I just couldn't understand why Liz had come into my dreams, what exactly she wanted me to do. What was left to prove?

I drove Maria home soon after that and headed toward my house. I entered the house and walked up to my room without a word. I couldn't talk to my parents, I had too many thoughts weighing on my heart to form any sort of an excuse for my whereabouts.

I sat on my bed in silence for close to an hour. With what the sheriff had said I knew that I couldn't hope anymore. I had to extinguish everything I'd let myself build in my heart and let the understanding that I'd had to deal with a year ago reform in my mind. Liz was dead; Alex was dead. They wouldn't come back, and they weren't trying to help me find the truth.

I heard the knock on my door and raised my eyes. I sat for a moment before finally calling out to allow entrance to the person on the other side. Isabel peeked her head in before pulling her whole body through the door and closing it behind her. She walked over to the bed and sat next to me without a word. We sat together in the silence of the room, staring at the wall in front of us without a word.

"I thought they might be alive," I finally said, breaking the silence in the room.

Isabel nodded, looking down at her hands. "I broke up with Trent."

I turned my head to look at her and she did the same. "Are you OK?" I asked.

She nodded, her lips forming a half smile. "Yeah, I'm OK. I just realized that he wasn't what could make me happy. I- I want to be happy, Max." Tears formed in Isabel's eyes. "All I've wanted is to be happy. I- I miss him so much." The words escaped her lips and she knew I would understand that she wasn't talking about Trent. Isabel spoke of the only person she'd ever felt content with and the only person she could never see again.

Isabel had become so hard after the accident. She never allowed herself to cry; she never allowed us to see the pain inside of her. She never would admit to anyone the effect Alex's death had had on her. As I looked into her eyes, I saw everything she'd never let me see, every pain, every fallen hope, and every dammed tear, and for the first time since their absence it felt like it used to.

"I'm so sorry, Isabel. I wish I could make you happy. I wish I could figure out what happened. I wish I had been right- I wish they were still alive. I wish Alex were here to hold your hand and make everything better, because I can't do that for you."

Isabel smiled, reaching up her hand and wiping the tears from her eyes. "Oh Max, I know. I know you care about me." She paused. "Why did you think they were alive?"

I laughed, looking down at my hands. "It's stupid, really. I've just been having these dreams. Dreams about Liz. Well, they weren't really dreams, though. I don't know. They were just so different from the dreams I'd had in the past. She would speak to me and they seemed so real; almost like she was out there somewhere and she needed me to know something."

"Like dream walking?" Isabel asked, putting into words the thought that had been playing at the edges of my mind for days.

"Yeah, almost like that. Anyway, I was wrong. I was wrong and I hurt Maria and... it was just a wrong thing to do. I should have never gotten her involved. We went to see the sheriff and he confirmed things. Liz and Alex aren't alive."

"How do you know?"

"It's just- well, their bodies were identified." I paused, "they were identified by DNA. If there's anything I know about science, it's that you can't fake DNA."

Isabel looked at me for a moment, letting my words process. "But what about us?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, not understanding what she was trying to say.

"What about us? What about aliens? We can change things, Max. What if an alien killed them, or whatever happened. What if an alien changed something?"

I shook my head violently, recognizing the tone of Isabel's voice. "No, Isabel. Please don't get your hopes up. Please."

"Max, it's just that we never investigated that option. It's kind of stupid, really, that we didn't. I mean, Liz and Alex had huge targets on their backs being aligned with us. Please, just think about it. What if we were wrong?"

I didn't say anything, I simply looked into her eyes. For the first time since the accident I saw something stirring inside of her. I saw determination, I saw... hope.

"Let's go see the sheriff." She said firmly. "Let's go again. Even if they really are dead, Alex and Liz deserve to have their names cleared. They deserve to have the truth be known."

We were out of the house and walking up to the door of the Valenti house within ten minutes. Isabel rang the doorbell and Tess answered, a look of surprise flooding her features.

"We need to see the sheriff," Isabel said quickly, pushing past Tess and entering the house. I followed her, jogging to keep up with her pace. She opened the door to his office without knocking and he looked up at us in surprise as we entered the small room. I closed the door behind us and Isabel took a seat.

"Isabel, Max... I- what's going on?" He asked, the bewildered expression still on his face.

"Sheriff, we need to know the truth." Isabel said simply. "We just need to know."

Sheriff Valenti paused, looking from Isabel to me. "Isabel, I told Max everything that I know. I wish I had answers for you but I just don't. Everything I know you already know."

"No, it's more than that." Isabel insisted, not waiting for the sheriff to finish his thoughts. "We know that Alex's Rabbit flew off the cliff and we know that their bodies were confirmed by DNA evidence. But what if it was more than that? What if an alien was involved?"

Sheriff Valenti stared at Isabel, obviously surprised at her determination. I could see that he didn't know what to say to her.

"Look, Sheriff. We're just still so confused." I said, trying to reason with the sheriff. "You have to admit, things don't add up. There's no way Liz would have missed her shift without calling in to let Maria know. And why were they traveling on that road away from Roswell? There are so many unanswered questions. We just... we think you may know something that you don't know. I realize that doesn't make any sense, but we want to search your memory. We think there may be something there from that night that you can't quite recall."

He sat for a moment, looking between the two of us and considering my question. Finally he nodded, "Of course. Of course, you can look. I understand that you would want to explore any options. So, yes, you can search my memory if that's going to help resolve things in your mind."

Isabel looked at me and without a word we linked hands. I reached out my hand and Sheriff Valenti took it. Slowly I took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. I heard Isabel do the same beside me. We needed to make the connection.

Suddenly, without warning, the room began to dissolve around us. I looked toward Isabel and her eyes darted toward me, alarm evident. We hadn't even made a full connection, how were we seeing a memory already?

When the room reformed around us, the three of us were in the Valentis' kitchen. The sheriff was sitting at the table, paperwork in front of him.

There was a bang on the door and Sheriff Valenti looked up, startled. Alex and Liz burst through the front door and rushed into the kitchen.

"Liz? Alex? What's wrong?" He asked, standing up to greet them in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Sheriff! You need to help us. Something- Oh, something has just gone so terribly wrong," Alex screamed, his voice breaking as he fell to the ground in front of Sheriff Valenti's feet.

The sheriff looked at Liz before quickly bending down to look into Alex's eyes. "What's wrong Alex? What happened?"

"He- he's just been like this, Sheriff." Liz explained, looking down at Alex's crumpled, shuddering form. "He won't tell me what's wrong. He just insisted we had to come and see you. He's been crying and screaming incoherent things. I just want to know what happened, but he won't tell me! Please, Sheriff. Please get him to tell us what's wrong."

"Alex," Sheriff Valenti said, taking Alex's head in his hands and forcing him to look into his eyes. "Alex, you have to tell me what's wrong. What happened?"

"She- she erased me, Sheriff. She took months of my life and made it all a lie. There was no Sweden; there was no Leanna! It was all a lie. She erased me. She... she used me."

"Who erased you Alex?" The sheriff asked, his voice firm, Alex's head still gripped in his hands. "Who?"

Alex looked up, the tears falling from his eyes. "Tess," he said, his voice barely a whisper. "Tess mind warped me."

"Tess?" The sheriff repeated.

Suddenly Tess appeared in the hallway. "Did you say my name?" She asked and then looked around at the scene in front of her. "Oh, hey you guys. What's going on?" She asked, the alarm creeping up into her words.

"Tess, what is going on?" Liz asked, her voice rising. "What did you do to Alex? He's screaming and crying. What happened? What did you do to him?"

Tess's eyes grew frantic as she looked from Alex and the sheriff on the ground up to Liz. "I- I just. I just need to fix this. I- you just can't know." She raced quickly over toward the group and placed her hand on Sheriff Valenti's head. "You can't know," she said, and the scene slowly began to fade away.

As the room reformed, I looked quickly toward Isabel and then toward the Sheriff. In the silence of the room I could feel the revelation begin to set in. The sheriff was beginning to realize what Tess had done, and the anger was beginning to build inside of my chest.

"How did I not remember that?" The sheriff asked, his voice sounding frightened and weak. "How could I forget something like that?"

I pushed myself up from the chair. "It's not your fault Sheriff," I said, my voice deep. "It's what she does."

I turned and pushed open the door, beginning to walk down the hall. I heard Isabel and the sheriff call my name behind me but I didn't turn back. I walked into the living room; I knew exactly what I needed to do. I found Kyle sitting on the couch and he looked up as I entered.

"Oh, hey Max. What's up?" He asked, turning his attention away from the television.

"Where's Tess?" I asked, looking around the room.

"She- she left," he said, confused.

"What?" My attention focused quickly on Kyle. "Where did she go?"

"After you showed up she got sort of jumpy. She said she needed to go to the store and she took my dad's jeep. I don't know; what's going on?"

Isabel ran up beside me and looked from Kyle to me. "Max? Where's Tess?" She asked, her voice filled with tears.

I turned my head to look at her. "Tess is gone."