Max goes to Past Max's house, and watches him
'Look at me, I'm just as weak as Tess said I was...ugh!' Max thought looking upon himself in disgust. He took out his cell phone. It wouldn't work because it didn't exsist yet. "Great!" Max sighed, tossing it to the side and leaving to go to a pay phone. "Liz?" He called to the person the the phone. "Max?" Liz asked. "Yeah, not your Max." He reminded. There was silence. "What?" Liz asked impatiently. "I need you to get Tess to come to the Crashdown, please. Oh! Make sure she wears her black top, okay?" Max asked. Once again Silence. "Fine." The phone hung up, and Liz was gone.
'She's soo mad at me...' Max thought. 'Good.' He proceeded to the Crashdown and waited for Tess and Liz. It felt like hours but they came. Tess walked in first even though it was Liz that had brought her, always on top of everything. Tess scanned the people, she saw Max. A terrified face overcame her and she came running. "Oh, my, God! What happened to you! Are you okay?" Tess knelt down beside Max and healed his cuts ont he side of his face. Max grabbed her hand. "I'm fine." He assured. Tess turned to Liz. "Who is he?" Tess already knew that this wasn't Max. "It's Max..." Liz shrugged. Tess shook her head, no. "It's not, he's older, somethings off, he doesn't belong." Tess turned to him, and searched his eyes. "Tess..." Max said, still holding her hand. Tess looked down at his worn out and beaten hands. "Max, but, but how?" She asked. Max smiled. "I'm from the future, I have to talk to you, in private." Max explained, turning a blind eye to Liz, who decided to leave, in a huff.
Tess followed Max to the Pod chamber. Max marvled at how nice it was, the granolith was still there. "Max, what the hell is going on, did you come all the way from the future to tell me that I shouldn't have kissed you, because I didn't ask to be kissed, in fact, I didn't ask to be your mate!" Tess was becoming defensive. Max smiled, watching her anger grow. "I love that top on you..." Max commented. Tess stopped. "Oh..." She whispered. Her cheeks blushing a little.
Tess rolled her eyes at herself. "Look I'm glad you like my body but what the hell did you come here for?" Tess asked. Max sighed. "A while from now, Alex will die, I'll try to revive him, and it won't work. Liz will blame all of us, one by one some how for his death. Then she out right blames you. I become so angery that I stop talking to just about everyone, except you. This is all just days after we make love. You become pregnant. I'm trying to decode the book, to see what we can do, what's inside you, when you fall. You are attacked with this pain, it's the baby. I run to your side and touch the child, he's dying. The earth is killing him, we have to go home." Max stopped.
Tess was waiting for the whole story before making any comments. Max continued. "Michael followed Liz and Maria on their search of Alex's killer, in the mists of it all Michael comes across the translation to the book, it gives us the way to go home. But not all of us go, infact only you go." Max explains. Tess nods. "You send me away, don't you?" Tess asked. Max confirms her fears. "Liz came running in, seconds before we were to leave, and told us all that you had killed Alex, Tess did you mindwarp him, into translting the book?" Max asked, fearfull. Tess sighed. "My God, the liengths you go to get answers. Yes. I did. Not that I couldn't have picked Liz, or anyone for that matter but I had to. I already knew that we'd have to leave, because one day our enemies would come here, and destroy everything." Tess stopped, thinking about something "Wait... he died?" Tess looked up, her eyes a little wet. Max nodded. "Yes, your mindwarping killed him." Max explained. Tess shook her head. "Thats impossible. The only way mindwarping can kill is if two people are using the same person. It would overload the person, and kill them. Normal mindwarping is harmless." Tess explained. Max sat down. "So, who else was mindwarping him?"
Max and Tess sat togteher and thought about it, outloud. He paced while she spat out ideas, just like when he was king and her his queen.
Max goes from the POD chamber with Tess to her room at Jim's
Max looked around, it was still a boys room. Kyle hadn't been so keen on giving up his room. Every poster every object was the same, only the bed was now being used by her, not him.
"What did you need?" Tess asked. Max sat down on the bed, bouncing a little with his bum, then settling. Tess smiled at him bouncing. "I need to know everything that you know, about us, about our powers, everything Nasado ever told you." Max explained. Tess looked shocked. "Why the sudden intrest. I used to tell you things and you never cared to know how or why I knew them..." Tess said, a hint of sarcasim in her voice. Max stopped bouncing and looked her square in the eye.
"I'm sorry. In my world things are so far from this, just thinking that it takes place not to long from now blows me away." Max explained. Tess sat down beside him. "I'll tell you Max, what do you want to hear about first..." She placed her hand on his shoulder, he looked at her, unable to say thank you. "I, I need to know about your powers, mindwarping, I need every detail." Max said, stiffening his body. Tess sighed and stood up.
"Okay!" Tess said, with an energetic voice. "Mindwarping is kinda like sending a message but through the mind. I give people false information and then their brain sends a signal saying it's real. It's just like when you learn something new. The body treats it like normal, everyday information. But... imagine what would happen if two people used the same person. It would be like two batteries, they'd push each other away. The force on a human brain would cause something like... a melt down. the person would evenually die." Tess took a deep breath. "That enough?" She asked, jokingly.
Max nodded. "Now how did you know about this whole double mindwarping thing, did it ever happen to you?" Max asked, carefully choosing his words. "Not to me, well sorta me... Okay! Nasado told me that when I was Ava I had simliar powers, and so did Vilondra, that we would have contests and stuff and one time it rewally hurt a guard who we were using, it was all in fun, and he was okay, but Nasado warned me that if that were ever to happen to a human, they'd die..." Tess sat down again, her body slumped against the wall.
Max came to a realization. "If that's how Alex died, then you were framed." Max said. Tess looked up. "How do you know?" She asked. Max sighed. "Because when I asked you, seconds before you left you said that you killed him, but you didn't mean too." Max touched her cheek, remembering when she woke up, sick after falling with the baby.
"I took you for granted, even after I promised not to... I'm sorry." Max said, sadly. Tess smiled slightly. "Max don't apoligize, you haven't done anything yet." Hearing those words brought a small smile to his face and they laughed together. Clearing his throat. "There was one last thing I needed to ask you..." Max said. Tess looked to him. "Okay... shoot" She said. Max cleared his throat again, he was nervous. "At the Prom, when we kissed did you feel, I mean, I felt this wonderful..." Max trailed off. "Electric energy, that made the entire world, and everything it go away, so that all that was left, was us... yes, I did." Tess assured. Max smiled.
"After you left. Me and Liz, we got together for a bit, I told her you were somethign I needed out of my system, but really I needed her out, because when I'd hold her hand I'd think of you, even just seeing your name written on a piece of paper was too hard..." Max began to cry. "Everything... every inch of my being hurt, it felt as if every nerve ending was on fire!" Max leaned on Tess' shoulder, and sobbed. She let out a tear but kept it silent. She was crying for him.
Max sat up, stopping himself, and chocking on the lump in his throat. "It's important that nothing between you and I change because I'm here, we still need us to be together..." Max began. "Thats going to be a little hard for me. Now that I know what happened because we are together, I don't know if I should..." Tess said, her voice lying, she wated too, but she knew it was indeed different now. Max shook his head no. "I'll fix that." Max touched her head, a bright white light appeared, Tess' closed her eyes. Max slowly set her on the bed, and put the blankets on her. "You'll remember only what you have too..." Max said softly, slipping out the window.
Max slips from one girls bedroom, and into antoher
His footsteps were all planed out, carfully chosen, and quiet.
Liz slept soundly. Max smiled, when he thought of how her breathing sounded like Tess'. He sat down beside her. Covering her mouth with his right hand, and touching her forehead with his left.
She struggled under his brut force, but in vain. She passed out again, and Max went on with whatever he was doing to her brain. 'There. That way you won't search for Alex's killer." Max thought to himself.
Then he went to the POD Chamber, one last time, hopfully he wouldn't exist come morning. His plans were right.
When the sun shined in on Liz's room the next day, she had no memory of Future Max coming to her again. Tess woke calm and relaxed. She didn't remember a thing. The POD chamber was dark, dim, and empty. All was the way it would have to be.
A few weeks later, at the crashdown
Maria walked promptly into the kitchen. Laughing hard about a joke the others had made. She stopped short when she saw Jim. "Whats wrong?" She asked, reacting to his sullen face.
Seconds later she came runing out, droping her plates, sending them crashing to the ground. "Liz, oh, Liz!" She wailed hugging her best friend.
"What, what happened?" Max asked. Jim cleared his throat. "There was an accident... Alex, he was killed." Jim said softly. Isabel fell to the ground, sobbing uncontrolably. Liz and Maria leaned on one another. Michael, Max, and Tess stood around Isabel, amung all their friends, still isolated.