PART SIX

Wordlessly they went back to the exam room, and Max sat back on the table, his hands clenching nervously on his legs.

Liz looked at the mess on his chest and stomach and the network of injuries that created a patchwork of horror on his body.

Getting up, she went to the drawers and took out peroxide and gauze. Max got up and went to he sink, turning it on and wetting some towels. He carefully swiped at his chest and arms, cleaning the blood away.

As Liz turned from the counter, she had to stifle another gasp in looking at his back. There were large patches of scar tissue where someone had taken very copious skin samples. Two of them had just started to heal. She turned back to the counter, making herself look busy until she heard the water go off and knew that he'd sat down again.


Biting her lip, she brought the bandages and peroxide to the table over and setting them next to Max.

She opened the bottle and poured some of the liquid on the gauze and handed it to Max.

He applied the peroxide, wincing as the sting permeated his cuts and the open area on his chest.

"Will you let me?" Liz asked, motioning to his back.

"Go ahead," he said. He felt her warm hand touch his shoulder as she stood behind him. He was painfully thin, and the patches on his back made him look as if he'd been through some war. And perhaps he had, she thought.

Taking the gauze, she lightly brushed one of the two patches or raw skin. She felt him jump as the liquid burned into his skin.

"Sorry," she said quietly.

He nodded. Somehow her touch, her gentle hand on his shoulder made his heart tighten. He had never known real kindness while he was imprisoned, but he knew it existed for beings who were humans. He read about their kindnesses in books, their gentle touches, their ability to love one another. He'd never known love or gentleness, and her kindness caused his eyes to fill with tears he had to fight back. She would not be so kind if she knew what he really was.

Liz wanted to scream in rage at the people who'd done this. How could anyone be so cruel? Why would they do this to someone who was telekinetic? Or was he just telekinetic? Was there something more to his story?

She finished and walked over to the waste bin, throwing out the bloody gauze. She pulled herself up onto the table to sit beside Max.

"Max, *are* you telekinetic?" she asked suddenly needing to know why he would be so interesting to the FBI.

"I saw you open that locked door by laying your hand on the knob. Is that why they are doing this?" she asked.

Max didn't exactly know what telekinetic was, but he got the gist of it when she mentioned the door. He wasn't sure how to answer her. If he told her he was, he wouldn't exactly be lying. He had the abilities of a telekinetic. But he was something much more powerful than that. He couldn't tell her, he didn't want to tell anyone, because he was taught that what he was, was horrible, a mutant, a freak.

"I have....abilities," he said. "They wanted to know more about them. They did....experiments to find out the source of them."

What had he been through while in the hands of those monsters?

"You don't deserve that," she said. "You shouldn't have been locked up. You should have had a choice. What about your family? Do they know where you are? They must be worried sick."

He looked stricken for a moment, and she immediately regretted asking.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything," she said.

"I don't have any family," he said.

He sensed that the others were connected with him in some way, but he didn't know if they were his family, or just like him.

"You're an orphan?" she said sadly.

"I don't know," he said.

A horrifying thought occurred to her.

"Max, how long were you in that place?" she asked.

He shrugged, looking out the window.

"For as long as I can remember," he said.

"Oh my god," Liz muttered. The implications of this latest revelation were staggering. He had grown up a prisoner? Her heart went out to him.

Just then John came back into the room with Alex and Maria.

Liz looked at him questioningly.

"We have a little bit of a problem," he said.

*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%

Liz's mind blurred at after hearing what John was saying.

"The chip has prongs, which are embedded in the veins leading to his heart. We could try to remove it, but he'd probably bleed to death before we could fix it, and that's only possible in a hospital anyway," John said.

Max didn't look surprised.

"So this thing was never meant to be taken off?" Liz asked.

"I wouldn't say that," John said. "It seems to have a cauterization mechanism that would seal the veins as the prongs came out, but that's only if we knew the correct way to release the prongs."

Alex was peering at Max's chest, brow furrowed.

"Max, mind if I take a closer look?" he asked.

Max just looked at him.

Alex came closer, and as he did his eyes lit up.

"There's an input on that chip," he said.

"Which means what?" Maria asked.

John answered.

"A computer code," he said, looking at Alex.

"I'll get the laptop out of the car," Alex said and rushed out the door.

A moment later he was back and connecting a cable to the chip. Max winced as he clipped it on.

"Be careful Alex," Liz said, looking at Max.

Alex typed into the laptop for a moment and stood back.

"Self-contained encryption," he said.

"This should take about ten minutes if that hacking program I have works correctly," Alex said. "This program has broken into the most secure computer systems in the country. I've been waiting for an excuse to use it since it was sent to me."

"Alex, why would you want a program like that?" Maria asked.

Alex looked at her as if she were crazy. This software was a programmer's dream. But he knew only other programmer's understood the rush of possessing such a program.

"What if it back-fires?" Liz asked, concerned.

"Look I can either try it and let Max take his chances, or he'll be running for the rest of his life. It's up to you Max," Alex said.

Max looked at him.

"Do it," he said intensely.

He was willing to take the risk if it meant he could be free.

Alex nodded and Liz looked at Max, worried. He gave her a small smile, the first smile she had seen from him, and her heart flipped for a moment. His smile changed his whole face, made him....beautiful. What was she thinking?

Nine minutes and 45 seconds later, freedom came. They heard a whirring noise from the chip and Max doubled over, letting out a short scream of pain as the chip disentangled itself from his veins and cauterized them, seconds later dropping to the floor with a distinct ringing as it tottered and then stilled against the white tile. Max stared at it in disbelief still doubled over.

John came over and helped him to sit up.

New blood was flowing from where the deep prongs had entered his skin, but the chip was gone, off his body.

"Are you ok?" John asked concerned as he held a steadying hand on Max's shoulder.

After a pause, he nodded. His chest was burning with razor-like pain, and his insides hurt, but he was free, finally. He felt tears well in his eyes and stumbled off the table, stomping in the chip repeatedly until he almost fell over, his balance still shaky.

Liz grabbed his arm to keep him from falling to the floor. She wanted to step on the chip herself, but she was more concerned that there might be further complications stemming from its release from Max's body.

Max was struggling to get his emotions in check, she could see. Amazingly, he managed to. She admired his strength. She didn't know how she would have reacted if she were in his situation, and she knew so little about it. Who knew how much he'd been through.

Max felt his energy, his abilities returning to his body in a slow rush. It wouldn't take much time before he was restored.

"Max, I looks like you're going to need some stitches," John said.

Max shook his head.

"No," he sad quietly.

"I'll be fine," he said.

Once he was on his way, he could heal himself. But he couldn't let them see. Alex didn't trust him to begin with, and Maria seemed frightened of him, and she thought he was just a human being. He didn't want to see that look of fright on Liz's face. Not after all she'd done for him. Soon enough he would move on and she could get back to her life, the normal life she'd had before he stumbled into it and turned it upside down.

"Max, I don't think that's wise," John said. "You could develop an infection."

"Please, I'll be fine," Max said.

John sighed.

"Ok then, I'll dress it then. I'll get you another shirt, and then you can all get going," John said.

Max turned to John and Alex. There was something he hadn't done.

"Thank you," he said, the grateful look in his amber eyes conveying the depth of his gratitude.

"No problem," Alex mumbled.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Liz, Maria and Alex left Max with John in the examination room.

"We have to get rid of that chip Liz," Alex said. "We don't know if it's still working, even though it's not in Max anymore."

Liz nodded.

"We'll drop it in the desert," she said.

"What do we do with him now?" Maria asked. "It's too late to take him to the bus station, and that's at least an hour away."

"We'll get a hotel room after we lose the chip. We can stay at the Desert Inn. It's about twenty minutes from here. Tomorrow we'll take Max to the station. I don't exactly want to go back to the Crash tonight. What if Wilkes comes looking for Jeffrey?" she asked.

"All right," Alex said.

"I can't wait to get that guy on a bus. He makes me nervous," Alex said.

"Alex he wouldn't hurt anyone. He's caught in a situation he didn't ask for," Liz argued.

"So are we," Alex said pointedly.

Liz remained silent. He was right. She was asking a lot of both him and Maria.

"It will all be over tomorrow," she said.

"Thank God," Maria said.

A moment later Max came out with John, clad in a new shirt that was probably two sizes too big on him. But it was a sight better than the bloody t-shirt he'd been wearing.

"He's all set," John said.

"Thanks for helping us with this John," Liz said, moving to stand next to Max.

"Thanks," Max said again.

"I don't know what you kids are involved in, but be careful," John warned.

"We will," Alex said.

They said their goodbyes and got into the car. Alex pulled the chip out of his pocket.

"First things first," he said, as he turned in the opposite direction of Roswell.

Max sat quietly next to Liz. He was being overwhelmed with the feelings of the others. It had started while John was dressing his wound, as another wave of power rushed over him. He barely remained still as he felt them, more powerfully than ever. And each minute it was getting stronger.

He hadn't dared to hope that he now had a chance at freedom. And he didn't deserve it without the others he left behind. He had resied himself to a life of running, because he never thought he'd be rid of the chip. Now that it was gone, he thought about the others. He had a chance to get them out, now that he couldn't be traced, now that he had his abilities.

He couldn't leave them there. He would think of a way to get them out. He had to, he could feel them strongly now with the chip gone. Their fear, their pain. He couldn't imagine living with their anguish in his head, growing exponentially stronger.

As they drove along the highway, suddenly Alex looked back at Max.

"Do you want to do the honors?" he asked, holding the chip out with one hand.

Slowly Max reached for the chip. He took it and felt he harsh metal prongs making small indentations in his hand as he gripped it in his palm.

Alex powered the window down from the front seat, and Max took one last long derisive look at the chip before forcefully throwing it out into the night.

Alex turned the car around and headed in the opposite direction.

Liz felt Max's eyes on her and she turned her head. He was looking at her with curiosity, and something else that she couldn't name.

"Are you ok?" she asked, and he nodded.

"We're going to get a hotel room to get some sleep. There aren't any busses running now, and it's stupid to go back to Roswell at this hour. You'd have to catch a bus from there to the main bus terminal," she said.

He didn't say anything. He just looked at her. It was a little unnerving. But she supposed he had been a prisoner for so long, he didn't know that people in the outside world didn't stare.

Max was looking, really looking at Liz for the first time. There was something comforting in her warm liquid brown eyes. And her hair, even in the dark, it shone like the polished metal in the labs. But he imagined it didn't feel like that. She was his savior. She was the person who gave him his life back. And he didn't know why.

*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%

The Desert Inn was quiet when they pulled in. Alex went and paid cahs for a room, and came back out with the key.

They walked to the room.

"I am exhausted," Maria said, and Liz could feel fatigue setting into her bones as well after all they'd been through tonight.

Alex put the key into the door and opened it, switching on the light.

"Welcome to Buck Palace," he said dryly.

Max glanced around the room with curiosity. Every piece of furniture, every piece of cloth in the room was drenched in bright clashing colors.

"At least it's clean," Liz said. It's only for one night."

Alex grumbled something unintelligible and flopped onto one of the two double beds in the room, and Maria crawled on next to him.

Which left a dilemma. What about Liz and Max?

"Liz, you can sleep here with Maria," Alex said tiredly.

"No, it's ok, I'm not really tired," she lied. She knew that Alex wouldn't be particularly thrilled sharing the same bed as Max after everything.

"What are you going to do?" Alex said suspiciously.

"I just want to sit and relax, besides someone should be up in case one of those agents comes around. Like a lookout," Liz said. "Max can get some sleep."

"I'll sleep on the floor," Max said, not wanting Liz to sit up all night.

"No," Liz said firmly. "You lie down. It will be fine. I have to make a phone call anyway. I need to tell Tom I won't be in tomorrow morning."

"Oh he's gonna just *love* you for calling him at this hour," Alex said dryly.

"I don't care," Liz said. "He's a jerk anyway."

Max stood uncertainly in the middle of the room.

"Max please, just get some rest. You're going to need it," she said, pulling out her cell. Reluctantly he lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

She glanced over to see that Maria had already passed out, and Alex was quickly following her, his arm thrown over his eyes.

Alex was right. Tom was none to happy at being woken at three in the morning. Liz told him she wouldn't be in with quiet satisfaction, hearing the annoyance in his tone. But after all she was the owners' daughter, she thought.

She hung up on her call and flipped the light switch, bathing the room in murk. Light from the hotel sign filtered through the window and she sighed, looking at the parking lot. She heard Maria's steady breathing and Alex's slight snore and smiled to herself. She felt Max was still awake, and she hoped that he would drift off. His body needed to rest.

"Liz," she heard his soft voice say in the dark.

"Yeah," she said quietly, watching the cars pass intermittently on the highway.

"I didn't get to tell you something," he said.

"What is it Max?" she asked curiously.

"I didn't get to say thank you....for everything."

She smiled in the dark.

"You're welcome Max," she said softly. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight Liz," he said.

*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%

A soft whimpering woke Liz about an hour later. It took her a moment to get her bearings, to remember where she was. And then it hit her. Max.

He is back at the compound, strapped to that table, the one that struck fear in his heart. Surgeons are hovering over him, taking skin again, cutting him, slicing him. He can feel it through the chemical haze they induced by injecting him.

He can't scream, he can't cry out. His head turns blearily, and he sees Pierce standing in the corner, his arms crossed over his chest, watching with a gleeful maliciousness.

Then the surgeons were gone, and Pierce stands with a remote, sending blinding bolts of pain into Max's body by controlling the chip.

Max feels rage build through his body, all-encompassing. He focused his eyes on Pierce feeling them changing, the whites of his eyes disappearing, becoming completely black, powerful.

Suddenly the chip on his chest releases. He is free.

Energy builds in his hand as he holds it out toward Pierce. The blinding energy is released as Max's alien side takes over. Pierce screams as his body is burned from the inside out, and Max watches without pity, hate coursing through his body. Bit by bit, pieces of skin are torn from Pierce's body as he is literally ripped apart, feeling every second of it.

"Noooo!!!" Max moans and Liz goes over to the side of the bed.

"Max," she said quietly, looking to see if he'd woken Mara and Alex. They were still sound asleep.

Max whimpered again and Liz touched his arm lightly and he cried out, sitting up sharply, sobbing, sweating, looking around frantically.

"Max, wake up! It was just a dream," she said, sitting down next to him, comfortingly putting her hand on his arm.

He hadn't heard her.

"Monster," he whispered anguished. "I'm a monster."

"Max, you're not a monster," she said fiercely. "You're just a boy, a boy who has been through a lot. It was just dream, you were having a bad dream."

"No," he said. "What I did....I....it wasn't me," he sobbed. "I hate him, but I wouldn't, I couldn't do that."

"Shh," Liz said, putting her arm around his shoulder and pulling his face toward her neck gently. She can feel his hot tears on her throat, and his body convulsing with his silent sobs. She feels his arms go around her waist, and he is holding on to her as if his life depended on it. Her heart wrenched to see him so stricken. She reached up and gently stroked his hair with her fingers.

"You're ok Max. Whatever it was, it's over. You're free," she said.

She felt his grip tighten even further, and she raised her legs up onto the bed, straightening them out before her, leaning against the headboard.

She sensed he needed someone to comfort him. The way he was holding onto her, she knew that he needed it desperately.

"I'll stay here," she said. "It's going to be ok Max. You're going to be ok."

She continued to stroke his hair, not wanting to touch his injured back. The feel of his weight leaning against her was oddly comforting.

Liz's touched calmed him, but the horror of that dream still stuck with him. She didn't understand. She didn't know what he was. She didn't know what he was capable of. She would never understand. None of them could.

But he wanted to believe the words she whispered to him. Her husky voice was like a calming blanket that covered him.

Her fingers continued to stroke his hair in a soothing motion, and he squeezed his eyes shut, wanting to believe, wanting to think that wasn't him, if only for tonight. Tonight he could pretend to be just a teenaged boy.

After a long period of wrenching sobs, Liz felt Max's breathing even out. He was asleep, even terror not powerful enough to overwhelm his exhaustion. She wished she knew what had happened to him. She wished she could have the chance to know him. She wished that she could see even a moment of happiness in his haunted eyes. Lightly, she touched her lips to the top of his head without thinking, and then her eyes widened as she realized what she had just done.

What was wrong with her? Why was she so drawn to this boy? Why did she feel she had to protect him? Why did she want to get to know him? Why did she wish things were different? It was crazy, and she knew it, but this moment, with his arms wrapped around her waist, was something she knew she'd remember long after he was gone.

She felt his strong steady heartbeat against her stomach, and his breathing was almost hypnotic. She should get up she knew, but somehow she knew that this was where she needed to be.

Her eyes grew heavy, and her breathing slowed to match his, and soon she was asleep, dreaming of a boy with golden amber eyes, eyes that had haunted her from the moment she had looked into them for the first time.