TITLE: Bird in a Gilded Cage (1/?)

AUTHOR: bec (bec@blazenet.net)

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything, well a 1997 Red Metro and a slightly broken 13 year old boy.

RATING: PG13 (for right now)

SPOILERS: since the beginning

CATEGORY: Michael/Maria with a bit of everyone thrown in

SUMMARY: What would happen if the Government actually did get them, and what would the government want with them?

DISTRIBUTION: You can use it, its a freebie...lol

Maria tried to snuggle into the blankets to get warm, but no matter how she tried it just wouldn't work. Her hands were tangled up in the blankets, she couldn't move them. And the mattress felt cold, unbearable cold, like it was made out of plastic. She opened her eyes, the fogginess of sleep left everything fuzzy for a few moments. She knew immediately that this wasn't her room. As her eyes adjusted she tried to make out the unfamiliar sights before her. She wasn't in her room, she wasn't in her house. She closed her eyes and tried again. Nope, same room. Where was she? She tried to sit up, her shoulders pulling up off the table she was laying on, but they slammed back down again. She looked down at her wrist. Who had tied her up? Why was she tied up. All these things slammed into her brain all at once.

"Maria"

She heard the familiar voice calling to her, she turned her head to the left, towards the voice. She saw her bestfriend in a glass room. Why was Liz in a glass room? This has to be the worst dream she has ever had.

"Liz? What the hell is going on, where are we?" Maria ask her bestfriend. "This is the last time I let them talk me into eating Tabasco sauce, you hear me. Now I'm having really weird dreams."

"It's not a dream." Another voice said.

Maria turned her head and saw Max Evans in another glass room, next to Liz. There were more rooms, 3 on each side of her, all but one room held one of her friends. Michael Guerin, Isabelle Evans and Kyle Valenti were in the rooms on her right, Max and Liz were on the left. The remaining room on the left was empty, the glass panel that enclosed it stood ajar.

"What the hell is going on?" Maria screamed, yanking on the restraints as hard as she could. She closed her eyes, the last thing she remembered was talking in the Crashdown Café, a diner that was owned by Liz's parents, Liz and her worked there, the others spent a lot of time in the small diner. Roswell, New Mexico didn't have to many hang out joints. This was there hang out, they had all decided to call it a night. They had closed up the place and were just locking the doors when Kyle Valenti showed up. The memories started hitting Maria faster and harder. She remembered Kyle screaming at them, screaming that they were coming, that they had to run, had to hide.

She turned and looked at Kyle, "you warned us, you warned us that they were after Max and them."

"Yeah, Kyle came to help us." Max said.

"A little too late if you ask me." Michael said.

"Nobody ask." Kyle standing just inside the glass doors looked to the right, but he couldn't see Michael, the walls between the rooms where made out of some kind of white tile. "I came as soon as I found out what my dad and Topolsky were up to. Hell, I thought they were nuts, I didn't believe them, I thought they had gone crazy. They thought you were aliens for gods sake."

"We are aliens." Isabelle told him just to hear his reaction.

"Isabelle." Max pointed with one finger towards the ceiling. He thought the room was bugged, whoever was holding them probably was sitting somewhere listening to everything they said.

"Yeah right, and I'm the President." Kyle said.

"Well Mr. President, why do you think the FBI kidnapped six teenagers from a hick town like Roswell then? Answer me that one." Michael said harshly. "Why do you think we're all locked up in here?" He punched the glass in front of him, out of the six young people Kyle and Michael was not known for theire control.

"Michael, calm down." Max said. "We're going to get out of here."

"Yeah, well tell me how your gonna fix this one Maximillan, huh, we can't even use our damn powers in this place." Michael stalked to the back of his cell and slumped against the wall.

Maria turned to Max, "Why can't you use your powers, I mean come on all you have to do is wave your magic little hands back and forth and get us out of here right…" no one answered her. She let her head fall back to the small pillow under. Closing her eyes she started chanting over and over again, "this is not happening, this is not happening."

Michael shot up off the floor and threw himself against the glass. "Just shut up, ok, just shut the hell up."

"Why can't you use your powers," Liz asked. "Your not hurt are you Max?"

"No, I'm ok, is everybody else ok?" Max ask.

"I'm ok, just a little dizzy, and Michael's yelling so he must be ok." Isabelle said as she turned and sat down on the bed that was attached to the wall.

"What powers?" Kyle ask.

"We're gonna have to tell him Max." Isabelle said. She drew her feet onto the bed and dropped her head to her knees.

"Why not, when they do their little "alien autopsy" thing, everybody's gonna know" Michael said sarcastically.

"Ok, everybody just settle down, we have to think here, there's got to be a way out of this." Max tried to smile at Isabelle, but she wouldn't look up at him.

"Ok, somebody want to clue me in, I mean come on, my dad is nuts right, he's gone off the deep end this time. Everybody knows he's crazy, running around trying to find little green men under everybody's beds" Kyle said.

"But everybody knows there's no such things as aliens. Right? I mean come on this is the 20th century. Aliens don't exist."

"But my boy, aliens do exist, your friends here are the reason you're here. Just ask them."

Everyone turned to the man standing at the end of the room. He was wearing a white lab coat and held a metal clipboard in his hands. He looked exactly like those science guys in all the sci-fi movies. His grey hair was sticking out from his head and his glasses were sitting crooked on the bridge of his nose, he even held a pipe in his hand.

"Hello Max, I'm Dr. Hanson, I just wanted to let you know that you and your friends won't be hurt. You have my promise."

"Where are we and what are you going to do with us?" Max ask.

"We're here to finish something, something we started a long time ago." The Dr. explained. It made no sense to the six kids but he went on anyway. "I was very young when we started our work" he moved into the room, standing at the end of the gurney Maria was laying on. "1947, you all know what happened in 1947 don't you. Living in Roswell, New Mexico of course you do."

"Finish what?" Liz ask.

"We found you. We found you in the life pods aboard the ship. The adults were all dead. We kept you in a state of unconsciousness until 1967, studied you, found out as much as we could. Then we started the second phase of our work, we released you into the mainstream of society, we've watched, we've waited. Until it was time for us to continue with our experiment."

Kyle didn't understand any of this. "What the hell are you talking about? Found who?

"What experiments?" Liz ask.

"What are you planning on doing with us?" Max ask. "And whatever it is you don't need them, let Liz, Kyle and Maria go, you have us, you don't need them."

"Oh no, we can't leave them go, they are just as important in the next phase, we need them to continue our work." Dr. Hanson explained. "I told you, none of you will be hurt."

"He ask you a question, what are you planning on doing with us." Maria was getting scared, terrified in fact. She wanted to go home, she wanted to wake up in her bed and find out this was all a dream.

We're going to find out what makes them tick." All eyes turned toward the door again, standing there was Katherine Topolsky, the blonde woman stood and with a smile on her lips she said, "we're going to find out what makes them heal, and here's the part where you come in Ms. DeLuca, we're gonna breed them."

* * * * *

Chapter 2

"Your kidding, right?" Isabelle stood up and moved to the front of her enclosure. "Breed us, with them, this is so ridiculous."

Topolsky smiled at the blonde, "Nope, not kidding, we've got a lot of plans for you."

Dr. Hanson turned and clicked his tongue at the woman. "Now, now Ms. Topolsky, this is not your time yet. I have them for two weeks, then you get them, you and your associate. Until then please refrain from upsetting them."

"Upsetting us, you're going to breed us like animals and your afraid of upsetting us. This has got to be a dream, it has to be."

"Maria calm down, no one is going to breed anybody." Liz turned to the Dr. and spoke in a very calm and controlled voice "you can't do this, we're underage, if our parents find out you would be in way too much trouble."

"The little scientist speaks." Topolsky said. She turned and walked over to Liz, she faced the girl through the glass and laughed. "Do you know what your parents think happened to you Ms. Parker, do you know what they were told?"

"Wwwhat?" Liz ask.

"Right now your parents are all at the Roswell Mortuary trying to identify your burned beyond recognition bodies." She turned and spoke to all the kids. "Unfortunately as kids will do, you we're all in Max Evan's jeep last night, driving too fast down 285 South, he lost control, crashed, the jeep burst into flames and you were all killed. Instantly." She smiled. "Your purses and identification barely made it through, just enough to let them know that Liz Parker, Maria DeLuca, Kyle Valenti, Michael Guerin, Max and Isabelle Evans all died terribly, horrible deaths. Such a shame."

"My dad would never believe that, he knew what was happening, he knows I'm not dead." Kyle said.

She turned and stood infront of Kyle, "well yes, that is true, but lets just say that your father couldn't handle the pain, the grief of losing his only child. I'm so sorry Kyle, he had to be sedated, hospitalized. He might know the truth, but who is going to believe him? They'll just think he is a grief stricken father who couldn't handle the thought of your death. He's been blaming aliens for everything that's happened in Roswell for over 30 years now. You really think anyone is going to believe him?"

"Hanks really gonna be pissed off when that check stops coming." Michael said.

"You told my mom I'm dead? But she's all alone, she doesn't have anyone else. How could you do this." Maria couldn't stop the tears from coming to her eyes. Or the anger that rose. "You bitch!" Maria started thrashing around on the gurney. She tried to raise her arms, tried to break the restraints, she threw her legs into the air, kicking and screaming. "I'm gonna kill you, do you hear me, damn you, how could you do this."

Isabelle looked at Max, she mouthed the words "mom and dad."

Max's lips moved, he whispered "I know." He turned to the wall to his right, raised his hands to the cold tile and spoke. "Liz."

Liz couldn't hear him, she had sat down on the cot, she stared at the floor. What would her parents do, my god, things like this didn't happen in real life. This stuff only happened in the movies, not in Roswell, New Mexico.

"That is enough Ms. Topolsky," Dr. Hanson strode to the door and opened it. "As I said, you do not have control of these children yet, they are under my hands. I think its time for you to go. You've thoroughly upset them enough for today. Do you hear me, get out. Now."

"I'm going Dr. but just remember kiddies, in two weeks you belong to me." She turned to walk out the door. "Oh, and don't forget about Yeager, I can't wait for you to meet Yeager, that will be quite interesting."

Dr. Hanson shut the door behind her, turning to the kids again he spoke. "Don't let her frighten you, your too important to our government for her to hurt you."

"Too late Dr., she's already done that." Max said.

"Ah, well yes, I understand, it is one of the saddest parts of this job, but you'll see, as the weeks fly by, you'll see how important our work is."

He turned and walked to a intercom on the wall, pressing a button he laid his mouth practically on the speaker. "Could someone bring in the equipment, I'd like to get started right away."

"Get started on what?" Michael demanded. He wasn't handling this well, he wanted to hit someone at the moment, but you couldn't tell that from looking at him. He coolly and calmly leaned against the glass of his cubicle.

"I have a lot of medical test to get started on, we have to find out if everything is in its proper working order." He said as he picked up a pair of latex surgical gloves.

"What are you doing with those?" Maria ask. She didn't like the fact that she was the only one out of her cubicle, she was the only one wearing this ugly hospital gown. And she could tell she was naked underneath it.

Dr. Hanson spoke to all of them again. "If you could all look in the storage bins in your cubicles you'll find appropriate attire, if you could please remove your clothes and set them in the small box in the rear of the room please."

"Appropriate attire for what?" Max ask. They had all turned and opened a long thin closet in the corner of each room. Inside was a green hospital gown, the same gown that Maria was wearing.

"For my test of course." The door swung open again and 3 technicians came into the room, one was pushing a cart. On top of the cart was various metal contraptions.

Maria and Liz instantly recognized them as the stirrups and speculum that their gynecologist used during their yearly examinations. Maria started screaming again.

"No, no way, you can't do this, I'm underage, this is illegal." She started jerking her body all around, she didn't know what she would accomplish in all this, but there was no way they were doing that to her.

"Dr. Hanson, you can't do this, you can't force a women to go through this against her will." The others could hear the anger in Liz's voice.

"What, what are those things?" Isabelle ask.

"Maria, if you cannot control yourself I will have to administer a sedative. Do you hear me." Dr. Hanson tried to calm the young girl down.

Maria threw her body into the air, her hips reached as far off the gurney as they could. "Control myself! Your gonna violate my body and you tell me to control myself. Well fuck you Mister. Your not doing that to me." She was sobbing hysterically now.

Michael cried out "Liz what the hell are those things."

Liz couldn't answer, she couldn't believe this was happening.

"I'm going to administer a basic internal examination, I understood from you family medical records that you and Ms. Parker have undergone this procedure before. If you remain calm, it's a basic examination." Dr. Hanson couldn't understand why the young girl was acting like this, she apparently recognized the instruments. She had to know he wasn't going to hurt her. He was truly perplexed by her actions.

Chapter 3 -

Maria was pulling on the restraints so hard that her wrist had begun to bleed, the anger she had felt earlier was overshadowed by her fear now. "Please, don't do this, please."

"Dr. Hanson you can't do this, you can't." Liz pleaded with the man. She threw herself against the glass, but she never felt it. She was too worried about her friend at this point.

"Liz what does he mean, what kind of examination?" Isabelle screamed at the girl.

Maria was openly sobbing now, her thrashing had lessened as fear took over her body. "Lizzie, please don't let him do this…Lizzie"

Liz felt so helpless, there was nothing she could do to help her friend. She lowered her forehead to the glass never taking her eyes from Maria's.

The Dr. turned to one of the technicians, "10cc's of Demerol please."

One of the technician turned and picked up a syringe and a small glass bottle. She stuck the needle into the bottle and up ended it, slowly pulling the plunger down. Removing the needle from the rubber cap she released a few drops of fluid into the air.

"10cc's doctor." She returned the bottle to the cart.

Dr. Hanson moved closer to Maria, he reached out and took her left arm, turning it to expose the inside of the elbow. He pushed down and tried to hold it still. "Please, Ms. DeLuca you must calm down. This hysteria is only going to cause you pain. I do not want to drug you, but you've given me no choice."

Maria's closed her eyes, squeezing them tightly closed. Preparing herself for the prick of the needle. The tip of the needle broke the skin. Her face twisting with the slight pain. The medicine rushed through her veins. She felt the warmth seeping through her, her body reacting to the medicine quickly. She suddenly felt tired, very tired. She turned her head again, searching for Liz. Eye contact was made, she saw the single tear slide down Liz's face. For a moment she didn't understand why Liz was crying. Everything was all messed up in her head, she couldn't think straight. Her words were low but clear.

"It's ok Lizzie, don't cry." Maria relaxed and let the medicine take over her body. "Don't cry."

"Maria…." Michael spoke her name softly, almost as if he didn't even realize he had said it. Maria slowly turned her head to look at the boy. She closed her eyes as her lips formed a small smile.

"Ms. DeLuca is fine, the Demerol is taking effect, she is perfectly fine." Dr. Hanson said.

Max couldn't hold his anger in any longer. "Fine!, your drugging her, and you call that fine. What kind of doctor are you? Who the hell do you think you are. You have us, let them go, I'll tell you everything you want to know, just let them go."

The doctor returned the empty syringe to the technician, "I'm going to have to change my gloves now, please remove these." One of the other techs removed his gloves and discarded them. She had a second pair ready to take their place.

Dr. Hanson faced Max and spoke slowly, trying to make the boy understand. "We need them Mr. Evans, without them we cannot finish our work. I know you don't understand what's going on right now, but one day you will, you all will. You'll see how important it is."

"Scaring a 17 year old girl is important, that's a load of crap and you know it." Max said. "Maria doesn't deserve any of this. Neither does Liz or Kyle." He dropped his head in his hands wondering how life had gone so crazy. He had always pictured this day differently in his head. It would just be him, Isabelle and Michael. He never pictured Liz and her friends alongside them. He tried one more time, he had to try, he wouldn't be Max if he didn't think that there was a way out of this. Maybe not for him or his family, but for the others, he had to try. "Use me, I give you permission to do anything you want to me, just let them go, please, they're human like you. How can you do this to your own kind."

"Mr. Evans I told you I understand, I completely understand, but we didn't choose them, you did. By associating with them, they were your choices, not ours." The doctor turned back towards Maria and walked to the end of the gurney. The technicians had placed the stirrups on the table, he stepped between them. Two of the technicians lifted Maria's legs and placed them in the stirrups. Maria moaned.

The five teenagers all started yelling at the same time. Kyle and Michael both beat on the glass shielding their cubicles. Liz and Isabelle joined in pummeling the glass.

"Stop this, I said stop it, NOW! I can't work with all this noise. Please will you all remain calm." Dr. Hanson tried to quiet them, but it wasn't working. He looked down and say Maria sobbing quietly. "Your upsetting Ms. DeLuca, please stop."

They couldn't hear him over the noise they were making. They all tried to stop what was happening, using the only weapon they had, their voices.

"That's it. Mr. Shearer please close down the cubicles, close them down now." The Dr. tried to make himself be heard over the din. Apparently someone was listening, suddenly all the cells went black. Completely dark, no noise could be heard from them either.

The Dr. turned back to his patient "ok, now we can begin. Ms. DeLuca now, if you remain as still as possible we can get this over and done with, I still have Ms. Parker and Ms. Evans to do before we are finished today.  Maria turned her head to the left, then the right. It's almost as if they are gone she thought. She had never felt so alone in her life.

Chapter 4 -

Max wondered what time it was, he had been pacing for hours. Hours of having to listen and watch as they examined each one of the girls. Liz hadn't handled it any better than Maria had, she had fought, kicking and screaming as they had lead her to that damn table. In the end they had used the drugs on her. As if that hadn't been hard enough having to sit and watch and listen to them do the same thing to Liz as they had done to Maria, then they had repeated it all with Isabelle. If they though they had had it tough with the two humans, they hadn't expected Izzie. She had gotten a few good punches in before they had called another person in and used that damn drug on her too.

He had had to sit and listen to each moan and cry every time they touched them. But no that wasn't enough, no he kept hearing that damn doctor.

He kept trying to reassure them that everything was alright.

"Try to relax now." It kept echoing in Max's head over and over again. How the hell does somebody relax when they were doing…that to them. Hell Max hadn't even understood what they were doing to them, not at first, then as he watched he had started to comprehend, it all fell into place. The experiments, the talk of breeding. They were checking the girls to see if they could get pregnant. Christ what the hell was going on. This was maddness. Every time he had pictured this scenario he had pictured the three of them being question and examined until they wanted to die, but not this, never could he have imagined this. Not Liz and her friends being tortured right along with them. He had tried to keep Liz out of this, tried to protect her. He had thought just being friends with her had taken any danger away from her. Not getting too close was the only way he had had to protect her. Hell, he had done one hell of a good job protecting her hadn't he. He sighed into the darkness.

-*******-

Michael let the sigh escape his lips into the darkness. No one could hear him, when they had shut down the lights they had also lost the ability to hear each other. They could hear what was happening in that damn room, but not each other. He was scared, scared down to his soul, hell, he let out a chuckle, did he even have a soul? He wasn't human, he didn't even know anything about his own body. He closed his eyes and pictured Maria's face the last time he had seen it. She had looked so damn scared, so frightened. Remembering her face he squeezed his eyes shut as tightly as possible, a single tear ran down his cheek. This was his damn fault, if he had never been born then Maria wouldn't have had to go through that today. None of them would. If he and Max and Isabelle had never been in Roswell Maria and her friends would be home, tucked into their safe rooms, fast asleep. They wouldn't have hurt them, hurt her. Michael had tried not to like her, hell she had driven him crazy on more than one occasion. But since the second grade when he had hit her with a water balloon in the middle of the playground she had been there, arguing with him, shouting at him, sometimes downright screaming her head off at him. And he had loved every minute of it. He had thought up ways to torment her, she had became a puzzle to him. He would sit and plan of ways to get her mad. He didn't understand it at first, couldn't fathom what made him do it. But then that day they took off together for Marathon it had suddenly come to him why he did it. He did it because it was the only way to get her attention, the only way to get her to notice him. He thought back to that night in the diner, that night that Max and Liz had gone to the reservation to find out about the necklace Izzie had found. He had said he kissed her because he wanted to calm her down. Hell he kissed her because he had wanted to. It was all he had been able to think about since that night in the hotel.  

This was all his damn fault. He dropped his head into his hands and sighed again.

-*******-

Isabelle sighed into the darkness, she couldn't believe this was happening, no matter how many times Michael had gone on and on about being captured she had never truly believed it would happen. Not like this. She reached up and wiped the tears from her face. The tears came only now that the entire place was dark, the room outside their enclosures was still lit up, but the cells themselves were all dark, it was if someone had taken black paint to them. No one could see in, so she had let the tears fall. Even now, after everything that had happened she wouldn't let them see her cry.

She just wanted to close her eyes and try and forget about what had happened. She had watched while they had examined Maria and Liz, she hadn't completely understood what they had done until it was her turn. She had heard about it, from the other girls at school, girls who had regular yearly exams, girls who had had it done so that they could get on birth control pills. But she had never really thought about it, she knew she couldn't take the chance of going to a human doctor, nor could she take the chance of having casual sex with the human boys at her school. What if she wasn't like them, what if she was built differently, or didn't have the "right equipment" as her friends would say. But then again, she had never met anyone that had made her want to get that close. Maybe she never would. She laughed, hell she'd never have the chance now. Not after this, she let the fear that had started to grow deep inside of her come seeping out. The fear that they were never going to get out of here alive. Never see their parents faces again.

She could understand what they had done to them, but why Liz, Maria and Kyle. Especially Kyle, he wasn't part of their group, he had never gotten close to them. Why him? His father had been on their side, had helped search out the three of them, why would they do this to Kyle. She had known Kyle from school, hell all the cheerleaders knew Kyle, he was the "star" quarterback, part of the popular crowd. Isabelle had seen him at a lot of the parties she had attended, but she had never really spoken to him. He had been with Liz since the beginning of summer and most of the other cheerleaders had given him up as a lost cause. Why did they grab him outside the Crashdown, why would they have included him?

She slowly got up from the floor where she had been sitting and stretched. She could feel the muscles ache, muscles that were stretched beyond their limits tonight. She walked over to the cot and stretched out on it. Tomorrow, she'd think about all this tomorrow. Max would come up with something, he always did. She rolled over and sighed as she closed her eyes and just let sleep take her over.

-******-

Liz's sigh echoed in the small room. She was sitting on the cot with her back against the wall. The tears she had shed earlier had dried up hours ago, she had none left. She was scared, more scared then she had ever been in her entire life. She wished she had her journal with her, at least it would give her something to do. Writing down her thoughts and feelings helped to calmed her nerves. Writing gave her an outlet for her emotions.

She still couldn't believe this was happening, this was all her fault. If she had not forced Max to tell her the truth then this would never have happened. For seventeen years they had lived normal lives, hidden from everyone. Well, until Liz had found out. She had ended up telling Maria and then it had become harder and harder to keep the secret. Kyle was always there, pressuring her to tell him what was going on. Sheriff Valenti, asking his endless questions about that day in the diner. She had thought she could help them, what she had really wanted was a chance to get close to Max. And then tonight, from the moment Kyle had shown up at the diner it had turned into a nightmare.

She had never really understood what Max and his friends had been running from, she hadn't really thought that the threat of capture was something they really had to worry about. No, selfishly she had been more concerned with Max's feelings towards her. She hadn't wanted to understand why he wouldn't get close to her. She had foolishly thought it was because he didn't feel the same way she did. She hadn't wanted to face the fact that they really did have to be careful, had to watch everything they did and said. She had never even tried to understand all of Michael's paranoid outburst. She had thought their only enemy had been Sheriff Valenti, and everyone knew he was nuts. In her own childish little world they had been worried about nothing.

Knowing that her parents thought she was dead caused a huge pain in her chest, she dragged air into her lungs, every time she thought about her parents she wanted to scream and rage. But at who, the people who had captured them, or herself? This was her fault, Maria, Kyle, it was all her fault. Max, Isabelle and Michael had been fine until she came into their lives. She let her body drop to the bed, her sigh echoed in the room again.

-******-

Kyle let the air out of his lungs in a deep sigh. He was sitting on the floor with his head resting against the glass partition, he hadn't moved since they had turned out the lights. He couldn't watch what they were doing to the girls, he could hear everything, but he didn't have to watch.

He didn't know what was happening here, he felt like he was in a dream, a bad dream that he couldn't wake up from. His father had been right, he wasn't crazy. Kyle let that thought settle into his brain. After years of being ashamed of him, years of asking God why his father couldn't be normal, years of watching people laugh at his dad. He had been right, all this time. Max and Isabelle Evans, and that jerk Michael Guerin were really aliens. And Liz had known about it, she had helped them. In the next breath another thought entered Kyle's head, but so did you when it came down to it Valenti, you helped them too. Why? Kyle had no answer for himself. Why would he help them. And look where the hell it had gotten him. Being held captive by a bunch of crazy people. And his father couldn't help him. Being the sheriff's son had helped keep him out of trouble, well not keep him from the trouble, just got him out of getting caught, people either thought that his father wouldn't do anything or if they did get caught his dad would pull his butt out of the fire. One too many times he used the excuse of his dad's job to let his so called friends drag him into doing something he shouldn't have. They all knew his dad would let them off. Fights, hurting people and not caring, juvenile things that he shouldn't have been involved with in the first place. But this was one time his dad wasn't there to pick up the pieces. Hell, his dad was in the same boat he was. And their was nothing they could do about it. Nothing. He felt something run down his face, when he reached up and brushed his face his hand came away wet. His father's voice entered his head <don't cry, be a man, you're a Valenti, don't let them see you cry, ever> Well dad your not here, so what the hell. He let his head fall back and released a huge sigh.

-******-

Maria chest hurt as the breath left her lungs in a sigh. She was curled up in a fetal position on the cot in her cell. Her throat hurt from crying and her head was pounding. The drug had worn off and it had left her disorientated. She wanted to go to sleep and wake up in her own bed. This had to be a dream, it had to be, this couldn't be happening. In all the time she had been crying to Liz that this was dangerous, she hadn't truly believed that anything would happen, not like this.

She pictured her mom's face in her mind. What was her mother thinking right now? Amy DeLuca had never been a strong woman. Maria had been more the parent than Amy. She had always taken care of her mother. She loved her mother more than life itself, but her mother was not the picture of "Carol Brady". She had a tendency to go off on one tangent or another. Racing off to this crystal prophet, or some guy who promised her he could make her happy. Flighty, that is what they called Amy DeLuca. But Maria had always been there to watch over her mom. Who was taking care of her tonight? Was she alone. Hopefully Liz's mom would be there for her, or Alex's. Alex's mom thought Amy needed a keeper, hopefully someone was with her.

She tried to turn over, a moan escaped her lips as the pain in her lower body made itself known. She knew the cramps would come, every time she had an internal she got cramps. She felt the heat rise to her face. They had hurt her, no matter how much that Doctor said he wouldn't, he did. Had her friends watched as they had hurt her? They had darkened the cells but when they had returned her to her cell she became aware of the fact that you couldn't see in, but you could see out. You could hear too, she remembered crying out when they had first touched her, had Michael heard her? Had they heard her, just as she had heard Liz and Isabelle's cries?

She remembered hearing Michael whisper her name, she remembered smiling at him. Oh my God, why, why was this happening. As she drifted off to sleep she released her breath in a soft sigh. Let it be a dream, please let it be a dream.

Chapter 5 -

Dr. Hanson came striding down the hall ready to begin another day of testing. As he turned the corner he almost collided with Ms. Topolsky.

"Good morning" he said as he stepped around her.

"Depends on whether or not you like my news." The woman smiled.

"What news?" The doctor ask.

"I had a long conversation with the powers that be last night. I informed them of your failure to control the situation yesterday. Let's just say they are not happy." She informed him.

"I was totally in control yesterday, I got the samples I needed, and we are well on our way?" He replied.

"Doctor, who do you think your kidding, you do not have the first ideal how to handle them. They controlled the entire situation, that cannot happen again, do you hear me. You better start thinking of them as more than children. If we hadn't taken the precautions we needed do you think they wouldn't have hurt us? Do you?" She turned and walked away. The doctor stood and watched her go.

She turned back and said "Don't you have somewhere to be doctor?"

"Yes, yes, quite right, I'm going now." He turned and continued walking  down the hall.

He entered a large control area filled with computers and monitors, things he knew nothing about, he could care less about their contraptions and precautions. He just wanted to get started on this project, he'd already waited over 50 years. He was not a young man anymore, time was catching up with him, he needed to work fast.

"Good morning Mr. Shearer, and how did our subjects spend their night?" He smiled at the young man sitting at the first console.

"It was relatively quiet in here Doc, it took awhile but they finally settled down and went to sleep." Mr. Shearer answered.

"Well then turn up the lights, lets get this day going, we have a lot to do and not much time to do it in." The doctor strode through the door, stepping into the cell area.

The lights came on suddenly, the inhabitants of the cells were unprepared for it, arms, hands, pillows and blankets were thrown over eyes as quickly as they could. A obscenity was overheard coming from one of the cells.

"Now, now Mr. Guerin is that anyway to start the day." Dr. Hanson said. "If you gentlemen would check the repository boxes there should be sample containers and everything else you will need for sample collection. I will need a sperm sample as quickly as possible. Then we can get on with the other test that I have scheduled today." The doctor walked by each cell, checking a list on his clipboard, when he was satisfied that he had seen all he needed to see he walked back towards the door. "You have thirty minutes, I will return to collect Mr. Evans to start the stress test."

As he closed the door Kyle asked "What did he just say?"

"Sperm samples Kyle, do you need pictures or will you be able to handle it yourself?" Maria ask flippantly. "What you think us girls are the only ones who are gonna be humiliated and degraded?"

"What's the matter big boy, afraid you won't be able to get it up?" Isabelle ask.

Liz couldn't believe what she was hearing, "How can you make jokes at a time like this, this isn't some school project, this is serious. I don't know about you but I'm scared to death. I'm can't stand here and act like this is a game."

"Well some of us relieve stress in various forms, humor is my way, if your way is standing there whining about it, go for it." Isabelle told her.

"Isabelle." Max scolded his sister. "We're all scared, lets not start attacking each other ok, we have to stick together in this. We're gonna get out of here, we just have to remain calm."

Michael opened the small square door and found a small plastic container and a white towel. "Yeah right, remain calm." He slammed the door shut and stalked back towards the front of the cell.

"I don't know about all of you, but the first chance I get I'm getting out of here," Michael said. "I'm not gonna sit around here acting like some trained monkey."

"And how exactly are we gonna do that, we don't even know where here is?" Maria ask him.

The door opened again and the same three technicians came through the door. They each were pushing a cart with a monitor and what looked like an older model computer on them. The carts were pushed up against the back wall, the technicians exited the room again. They hadn't said a word or looked at any of the young people in the room.

The lights suddenly went out again and Dr. Hanson's voice could be heard over a speaker system. "You now have twenty minutes gentleman, there are other ways to obtain a sample. I was hoping we could get this done without resorting to that."

-*****-

The lights came back on and the door opened again, Topolsky and another man came into the room, they had two male technicians following them.

"So Dr. Hanson tells me that you boys are not cooperating." She stopped in the middle of the room and looked from cell to cell. Her glance meeting the eyes of the teenagers. "I would like you to meet my associate, this is Yeager, but don't let the pretty face fool you. He's meaner than he looks."

The kids couldn't quite believe that. This man looked mean, meaner than anyone they had ever saw. He was at least 6' 9", completely bald on the top of his head, but he was too young for it to be a natural hair loss. His shoulders were massive, biceps rippling all over the place. He was at least 250 pounds, all of it muscle.

Maria thought he looked like one of those wrestler's her mother liked to watch on TV, especially like that guy that had just been elected governor of some state. He turned and was looking directly at her. She didn't want to believe what came out of his mouth.

"Let's use her, I like the little ones." He said. She was totally shocked when he winked at her.

"Use me for what?" she squeaked out.

"Mr. Shearer could you open Cell 1 please, Code 006-MD

A loud click was heard and Maria's door opened. As she started to back up into the room the two technicians grabbed her by her arms and practically carried her out of the cell.

She couldn't speak, she couldn't take her eyes off giant in front of her.

Yeager grabbed Maria by the back of her hair and proceeded to slowly circle the room. A loud shriek came out of the young girl.

"Listen up kiddies, I'm only gonna say this once." Yeager spoke to all of them. "The Doctor has ask nicely for his samples. He hasn't gotten them. This is your only warning, either you give him the samples or I make the little one scream, do you all understand me. He stopped when he got back to where he started. He swung Maria up in front of him, using one hand he jerked her chin up in the air. "She seems sorta fragile to me, I don't think it will take much, what do you think?"

"Let her go asshole" Michael yelled.

"Asshole" Yeager turned to Topolsky with a look of utter disbelief. "Did he just call me an asshole?"

She threw her head back with a smile, "yes I do believe he did."

Yeager dragged Maria over in front of Michael's cell. "Let me guess, you're not the smart one are you?"

"You don't have to hurt her." Max said calmly.

Yeager turned towards Max. "I take it you're the smart one, the brains behind this little group? You might want to tell the punk over there that I don't like to be called names."

"We got it, just please let her go," Max said. "We'll do what ever the doctor wants, you don't have to hurt anyone."

He pushed Maria towards the technicians, they caught her before she hit the floor. They returned her to her cell. Another loud click and the door was locked once more.

"Ok, see this is how it works, I ask, I receive, do we all understand the rules now." Yeager stated. Without waiting for a response he walked out the door.

"You got thirty minutes, if the samples aren't in the boxes, Yeager will be back. Do we really need him?" Topolsky said as she and the technicians left the room.

The cells went dark again.

Chapter 6 -

Two weeks later…

Max sat in his cell, he was turning the half used bottle of Tabasco sauce over and over in his hands. They had just finished breakfast and were waiting to see what was on the schedule for today. He didn't think there was anything left of them to test. They had been poked and prodded until they had wanted to scream. Every sample possible had been taken from them, fingernails, toenails, hair, skin, blood, every body fluid imaginable, sperm, eggs, urine and stool samples. Eyes, ears, nose and throat. They had tested their motor functions until their muscles had rebelled against them. They had scanned their brains until Max had thought his were leaking out of his ears. He couldn't imagine what could be left. They had been MRI'ed, CAT scanned, and X-rayed until they were practically glowing. After the demonstration with Maria they had done whatever had been ask of them. If they were ever going to get out of here they couldn't take the chance of any of them being hurt.

After the first terrifying forty-eight hours they had settled down into a pretty tight schedule. First breakfast, showers every other day, first the girls, then the guys. Clean gowns, then on to different test, then lunch, more test, dinner and then the nightly talk from the doctor. He came every night and informed them of what would happen the next day. Until yesterday, there had been no nightly scheduled talk. After dinner they hadn't seen anyone, about an hour later the lights had gone off. Max wondered what this meant.

"Max." He heard Liz call his name softly. He stood and returned the finished food tray back to the receptacle box. He moved to the corner of his cell, he leaned his head against the wall, he hadn't seen her in two days. Hadn't touch her in two weeks. He just wanted to touch her, take her in his arms and tell her it was going to be all right.

"I'm here Liz." Max said.

Liz looked around at the other cells, she couldn't see Maria or Max but everyone else seemed to be just sitting back and waiting, waiting for whatever they had planned for them today. "I just wanted to hear your voice. I'm going crazy without my journal. I don't have any idea what I would write but I miss it."

"Yeah, we're all going a little stir crazy. I'm surprised Michael hasn't freaked out." He said with a smile.

"Same with Maria, its been two weeks without her cyprus oil. I would have thought she'd have torn all her hair out by now." Liz added.

"Do you mind. We can hear everything you two are saying, remember these rooms are wired for sound, or did that slip your minds?" Maria ask from her cell. "And don't lump me in with Michael ok. I'm not an idiot like he is."

"You know I don't know what could be worse than being captured, wait I got it, being captured AND having to listen to your constant nagging, whining voice." Michael smiled at her. Maria stuck her tongue out at him.

"And away we go. Couldn't you two just knock the fighting off for today, just one day, I'm so sick of hearing you two constantly bickering at each other." Kyle shouted from his cot.

"Fighting, you think their fighting, no this isn't fighting, this is Michael and Maria at their romantic best. Most people flirt, not these two, they harp and pick at each other until they can jump each others bones." Isabelle said. "And when it finally does happens their both going to explode, all that's going to be left is a big pile of ashes."

"Romantic! You have got to be kidding, I don't think that jerk even knows how to be romantic." Maria said crossing her arms over her chest. "He does not have a romantic bone in his body."

"Romantic, with her, you have got to be kidding Izzy." Michael smirked.

"Well just who were you thinking about during your little session with that plastic cup Michael? Come on you can tell us." Isabelle laughed as she ask him.

"Can I say ewww to that picture Isabelle." Maria said.

"I was thinking about Kyle in those little white gym shorts of his." Michael said sarcastically. "He's kinda cute in those things, don't ya think?"

"Kiss my ass Guerin." Kyle retorted.

"You wish Valenti." Michael answered him Everyone burst out laughing. It felt good to laugh, they hadn't laughed in a long time.

The laughter stopped when the door opened and three technicians came in pushing three wheelchairs. They used the chairs to transport them, strapping them in so there was no way to escape as they moved them from the cells to the showers and back again.

"And another day begins at the Happy Acres Home for Wayward Aliens." Michael said.

Chapter 7 -

Their gowns had been replaced with white scrub pants and white tank top T-shirts. The girls didn't care for the T-shirts, you could see through them. They constantly had to cross their arms over their chest so their nipples didn't show.

After the boys had dressed they were taken back to the cells, when they got there the girls were still strapped into their chairs. Topolsky was waiting with them.

"Alright, we're moving today people, your moving up-town. We have new quarters all ready for you." Topolsky informed them.

"Why are we moving?" Max ask.

"Phase II, Dr. Hanson has performed all the test we need to date. If anything else crops up we can just run you back up here for a quick test or two. But from today on you're going to be housed in a different location."

Topolsky informed them. "And you belong to Yeager and I exclusively from now on. No more coddling from Dr. Hanson."

"Are we leaving this location for another one?" Max thought if they were outside they might have a chance at escape.

"No need for that, we have everything we need right here." Topolsky answered.

"And here being where?" Isabelle ask.

"About five hundred feet underground, you can't get out, so don't even think about it." Topolsky nodded at the technicians, they started to wheel them out of the room. "And the reason you can't use your powers, I know you where dying to ask," she smiled at them, "is because we've placed Titanium throughout the complex. They found out during the investigation in 1959 that Titanium prohibits your powers. We don't know why but it comes in handy for us now doesn't it."

"Well that answers that question doesn't it." Michael said to Max. They both knew that the Doctor had said all the aliens in the crash but them had died. But in 1959 they had a live alien, a conscious live alien to work with. Which brought up a lot of other questions.

They were rolled through a room with computers and other equipment down a long corridor. The halls were lined with doorways, some were open, others closed. They could see people moving around, they were all wearing white lab coats. They came to a large set of steel doors. There were two soldiers standing guard in front of the doors.

The blonde women spoke to the guards, "Topolsky, Access Code 2224-KT."

One of the guards turned to a panel in the wall, punched in some numbers and waited. After a few seconds a green light lit up the panel and a loud clanking noise was heard. "Access granted." The guard said. The door opened with a groan. It seemed to take forever.

Once the door was open completely they wheeled the teenagers through the door. Another long corridor, this one filled with soldiers every ten feet. Everyone was quiet, they knew their chances of escape diminished more and more the deeper they went into this maze of doors and corridors.

They entered another corridor and Topolsky stopped. There were lights crisscrossing the entire thirty-feet of hallway. You could hear a low buzzing noise. Once again Topolsky gave the same number code, there were no guards on this corridor, she seemed to be speaking to the air. Suddenly the lights went out, the buzz ceased, they entered the hallway. At the end was a large metal door. The same process was once again used and then the door clanged open. Inside this room was another monitoring room, exactly like the one outside of their cells. They were wheeled through another door, they were in a room that mirrored their old prison, although this room held only three rooms. Two on either side and one at the end of the room. These rooms were much larger than their former cells, they had the same small receptacle boxes, the long thin closets but these had larger beds, full size beds, but that was all, nothing else, and once again the motif was white, white with glass doors.

"Ok, have we done our math here, three rooms, six of us, what's wrong with this picture?" Maria questioned.

"Your right Ms. DeLuca, so it looks like we're gonna have to go with the buddy system." Topolsky said.

Topolsky walked to the first room she turned and looked at the technicians, "Subjects 001-ME and 004-EP go into Room A, Subjects 003-MG and 006-MD go into Room B." She had moved on to the second room, she stopped at the third room, smiled and continued, "Subjects 002-IM and 005-KV have Room C."

The technicians were busy wheeling each person to their respective rooms. Nothing was said as they released them and backed the chairs out of the rooms.  

"Home sweet home." Michael said as he looked around.

Maria turned to Topolsky. "No, this is not going to happen, I am not staying in a room with him."

"Get used to it DeLuca, this is your home for as long as we need you." Topolsky said. "I'm going to go over this once more. The whole point to this little experiment is to duplicate an entire new life form. One with the cunning and intelligence that we feel will come with joining our genes with theirs."

"My God, listen to her, it's Hitler all over again. You can't do this." Liz exclaimed. "Their trying to create some kind of master race. That's preposterous, it didn't work for Hitler it's not going to work for you."

"Ms. Parker you have to understand if their race found our world, then why not some other race of aliens?" Topolsky said, you could hear the emotion, the passion in her voice. "If they found their way here, then other races can find us too. Ok, granted these three aliens may not be our enemies, but what about their race back home? What happens if their relatives show up, what if their not as nice as these three young people, aliens that weren't raised in our society, on our world, what do we do then? What about other races, other aliens, what happens if their bent on destroying on world. What do you plan to do about it? Just stand back and let them destroy us, I don't think you want that do you?"

"But to use us this way, to humiliate us, use our bodies, steal parts of us to create this new stronger human race, is that the answer?" Liz questioned her. "Isn't there any other way?"

Topolsky moved closer to the young girls cubicle. "We've had over fifty years to think about this Liz, this is the only answer we could come up with. If you can think of something else, something that can protect us, just say so now, we'll consider it, frankly we're running out of options here."

Liz had no answers for her, but she still couldn't condone what they were planning to do.

When Liz showed no sign of continuing Topolsky started up again. "All right then, if we're done with the semantics, your new cubicles have some new features, you can control the lighting and sound by the panel to the right of your door frames, the green button is lighting, the yellow is sound, you want privacy you just turn them off, press them again, they come back on, but don't kid yourself, if we want to we can take control at any time. Dr. Hanson has informed me that we have no worries of contamination, you all checked out fine in the test he conducted, no diseases, and well to be quite frank, all but one of you are virgins. Plus, some more good news, all of you are quite fertile. So where do we go from here you might be asking yourself. We can do this the hard way or the easy way. The easy way is you let nature take it's course and you all do what you have to do, or the hard way, Yeager and I will have to help you out in that department. Which is it going to be?"

"You have got to be joking right, there is no way I'm sleeping with him?" Isabelle pointed at Kyle.

"Let's just get this straight, I didn't ask you too." Kyle said.

"Oh goodie, we're going the hard route, I was hoping that's what you would choose." Topolsky turned to the door. "Well people you got a few hours to get accustom to your new homes, I'll be seeing you soon."

As the door closed behind her Max turned to Liz, he could see the tears forming in her eyes. Instinct took over and he enveloped her in his arms. "Max, what are we going to do, you saw what this place looks like, we're never going to be able to get out of here."

"Don't give up yet Liz, there's always a chance." He gently forced her head back until he could look into her eyes. "Always."

"But what they want to do, I mean we've done everything they've ask of us, but this, this is just plain wrong. I can't do this." Liz cried.

"I'm so sorry Liz, this is all my fault, if I had just stayed away from you none of this would have ever happened." Pulling her head back to his chest Max tightened his arms around her.

"No, it's not your fault, I'm just as much to blame, I wanted to be with you, every time you pushed me away, I just came back." She looked up and smiled at him. "It's ironic, before this, when we were still just playing at you being your normal typical teenager…I…well…I thought of being with you," she blushed. "It's all I thought about, in fact, there were so many times I just wanted you to kiss me, hold me." Her blushed deepened. "You went on and on about the danger, but I didn't really believe it. I just thought you didn't want to be with me."

He stared deeply into her eyes, "I always wanted to be with you, it's the reason I saved your life that day. Since the first day I met you I wanted you."

Liz smiled, "you did?"

Suddenly a shrill whisper could be heard from the other cubicle, "They're going to do it, I can't believe this, they're really going to do this!"

Hearing Maria made Liz realize everyone could hear what she had said. "Oh My God." She dropped her head to Max's chest again. She couldn't have been more embarrassed.

Max turned his eyes to the other cells. "We're gonna have to talk about this, we have to discuss what we want to do."

"What we want to do? Hey buddy, they haven't given us much choice here now have they. We haven't done what WE'VE wanted to do since day one." Michael said. "If we don't do what they want they come marching in here with their drugs and somebody is gonna get hurt."

"I repeat, I'm not sleeping with him. And I'm especially not breeding with him. Yuck!" Isabelle threw herself against the wall of the cell. "I can't Max, there is no way."

"Have I ask you to, no I don't think so, so just calm down will you." Kyle tried to reassure the girl. He might act like a jerk sometimes but a rapist he wasn't.

"I don't think I could do it either, I mean I'm only 16 for Christ sake, when I pictured my first time it wasn't in a laboratory and I wasn't one of the white mice ok." Maria was very close to losing control.

"Ok, then lets take a vote, Michael?" Max said.

"I don't want to see anyone get hurt again but, no, no way." Michael said. He turned and looked at Maria, she was shaking, he could see the fear in her eyes. He raised his hand and held it out to her, she looked at his hand and then looked up into his eyes again.

"Maria?" Max waited to see what she said.

She reached out and took Michael's hand, she felt him squeeze her hand, hard but it didn't hurt. She closed her eyes. "No, I can't do this."

"Liz?" Max looked down into her sad eyes.

"No, I say we tell them no." Max smiled at her, that wonderful, glowing smile, the one that told her everything was going to be all right.

"Izzy?" he said.

"Not in this lifetime," she said with anger.

"Kyle?" Max questioned.

"I'm with everyone else on this. It might land us in a lot of trouble, but there is no way." Kyle said.

Max cleared his throat and quietly said. "Ok, then its unanimous, we don't do it."

Chapter 8 -

Maria looked into Michael's eyes. "Hi…" She said.

"Hi yourself."

"What are we doing Michael?" Her voice trembled as she spoke.

"It's what we've wanted to do, it's the only way, I can't watch them hurt you again, I can't." He told her as he moved closer. She felt the bed move under him.

Maria couldn't take her eyes off of his lips as they came closer to her, so close she could feel his breath. This is what she had wanted, had waited for. She felt his lips press against hers, his lips were warm, warmer than she ever imagined. Her lips moved over his, fitting to them, tasting him.

Michael rolled over her, fitting himself to her. Her legs opened to accept him. Maria felt something hard against her stomach, something hot and rigid. Michael's lips opened and she felt his tongue run along the edge of her upper lip, she didn't even think about it, she widened her lips and allowed him access to her mouth…her tongue. She couldn't believe this was happening, everything she had every dreamed about this moment paled in comparison. In her dreams it wasn't this hot, the feelings weren't this strong. It made her head spin, she couldn't think, couldn't stop herself. She didn't want to stop.

She moaned, "God Michael..yes…I've wanted this for so long."

"I know baby, me too, me too." Michael ground his hips into her. She tried to move closer, tried to press that hardness to her. So close, just a little more and he would be where she needed him the most. She raised her hips even more off the bed, pressing herself deeper into him.

"Maria, touch me, please I need to feel you touching me." Michael groaned the words into her mouth. She raised her arms and slipped them around his neck, reaching up and running her hands through his hair, that wonderful spiky hair. He pressed into her once more, she clenched her fingers into his silken locks. She felt Michael's hands move up her rib cage, glide over her stomach, the sensation caused her nipples to harden.

"Yes…yes…please." She wasn't even sure what she wanted, but she knew she needed something, there was something just out of her reach. She pulled her hands from his hair and clutched his shoulders. Michael moved his lips down her jaw-line, dropping kisses as he went, he lowered his head to her chest. He opened his mouth over her skin and ran his tongue along the swell of her collarbone. His hand reached up towards her breast and he enveloped it with his palm. He lightly ran his fingertip over her nipple. She thought she was going to die. A sweet agony rose up out of her, from deep down in her soul. She knew if she opened her eyes she would see stars floating above the bed. She arched her back up off the bed and he brought his mouth down over her nipple, he swirled his tongue around the hard bead.

Maria sucked air into her lungs, she hadn't realized she had been holding her breath, wanting, waiting for more. Michael lifted his head and waited for the cold air to hit her nipple, causing it to swell even more. He lightly drug his tongue over it again. "You like that huh?"

"Oh…My…God." Maria sighed. She opened her eyes and stared into his, they looked different, not as cold, not as dark. She smiled, they were actually twinkling.

"Do you want more?" he ask.

"I want it all, please Michael." She pleaded with him. She felt his weight shift on the bed again, he was moving lower, she felt his hands lightly pushing her legs up and apart. If he would have waited one more second, she would have stopped him, but he didn't, the next thing she knew she felt his tongue again, felt him stroke it along her lower lips, with one hand he reached up and held her lips open. She felt a added heat flowing over her, she realized it was Michael's warm breath. He suddenly placed his whole mouth over her. Her reaction was explosive, she brought both feet down on the bed and pushed up with all her might. She felt him lick her once, twice, and then she did explode, her whole body tensed up as ripples of pleasure washed over her. She couldn't hole back the moans that rushed up through her throat, she had never felt anything like this in her entire 16 years. As she slowly came back down she realized he was still nipping and sucking at her. She reached down and grasped his head between her shaking hands. "Michael, please, stop, no more, please." She couldn't take it, she couldn't breath, it was too much.

He moved up and over her again, gentle raining kisses on her lips. She could taste herself on him, it was sweet and spicy all at the same time. She knew she should be embarrassed, but she wasn't, she felt wonderful, she wanted him to feel it too.

Michael suddenly felt himself being pushed off of her, hard, roughly. He rolled off and prepared himself for her anger. He didn't know what he had done wrong, but he prepared the worst.

"Maria, I'm sorry." Michael said.

"I'm not." He looked up and she was smiling down at him. He didn't understand, he had thought she was mad at him.

Her smile grew and it suddenly turned almost teasing. "My turn" she said.

"You don't have to." He stammered.

If she hadn't known better she would have thought HE was embarrassed. But no, that couldn't be, this was Michael Guerin, king of the smart-asses.

She slowly slide her body down his, rubbing against as much of him as she could. "Oh but I want to," she boldly told him. She looked down, he was big, but then she thought, how would I know. She grasp him with her hands and slowly lowered her head. She kissed the tip of his cock and let her tongue reach out and caress him. She felt his body stiffen and jerk, and she smiled again. She had done that. She realized the power she held over him. She opened her mouth again and took him inside, running her tongue along the vein, he groaned loudly. He called her name… "Maria" she sucked, not hard, just enough to see if she could get another reaction… "Maria."

She looked up again, he was looking at her with those same dark angry eyes. She pulled her mouth off him, she must have done something wrong she thought.

"Maria!"

Maria suddenly sat up in bed and looked around, Michael was standing at the end of her bed.

"I'm up, I'm awake." She said.

"You were moaning, I just wanted to make sure you were ok." Michael ask. "What's up? Nightmares?" Michael questioned her.

"No, not a nightmare," she blushed as she rolled out of the bed and Michael just stared at her. "Whatever." If she didn't want to tell him, fine, he wasn't going to ask again.

-*****-

Yeager stepped up behind Topolsky, she was watching one of the many monitoring screens that were scattered throughout the room. The screens showed the different angles of the cells. Every angle was taken into account when the plans had been drawn up for this place.

"So what's up boss?" Yeager ask. "How are we going to go about this."

Topolsky never took her eyes from the monitor in front of her. "Rewarding first, I think. Lets give them something, let them relax and then we start with the psychological program. They're too tense right now, they're not any good to us this way. Let them calm down and then we start, how does that sound to you?"

"Sounds fine, just as long as I get to play…soon." Yeager said.

"Oh you'll get to play, I'll be the good cop, you're the bad cop." She moved closer to him. I'm looking forward to seeing you work again actually. I haven't seen you work since Bosnia," she looked him up an down, lingering in certain areas. "I've missed watching you, especially watching you work with some of your tools."

He reached out and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her roughly towards him. "I've brought some of my best tools with me too."

"I can tell," she said grinding her hips against his.

"I always carry that 'one' with me." He grinned.

"Maybe we should go over all your toys beforehand?" She ran her fingertips up the side of his face.

"Now?" He ask.

"Right now I have to go over some things with my assistants, wouldn't want them to get too lax you know." She ran her other hand around his hip and stroked it over his ass. "I wanted to ask you, did you bring the oil you used in Paris?"

"Don't I always answer your special request." He answered her grope with one of his own. He moved his hand inside her lab coat and slid it up under her top. She wasn't wearing a bra, just the way he liked her.

"Good, I have something special in mind for it." She stepped back and straightened her top. She turned and started to walk away. "Meet me in my rooms at midnight, the door will be unlocked."

He laughed as she left the room. He turned and started watching the monitors again. He smiled when he noticed the small blonde sitting in a corner while that punk Guerin lay back on the bed, the sound was turned down but he could tell they were arguing again. He couldn't wait to get started on them two. He smiled again as he imagined making her scream, and making the boy watch. He was really looking forward to this.

-*****-

Michael turned and laid down on the bed, he rolled to the back of the bed, pushed himself up on one elbow and with his other hand he patted the mattress, "come to bed sweetie."

Maria picked up the pillow closest to her and threw it at him, hitting him in the face. "You wish," she said. "I'm not sleeping with you." <My God if he only knew what she had been dreaming about.>

"Fine, more room for me," he stretched out and faked a yawn. "Don't know what your missing."

"And what exactly am I missing Michael, you tell me?" she leaned back against the corner and slid down the wall. "So, tell me, obviously one of us has done it, was it you?"

He jerked his head up and turned to look at her, "what the hell are you talking about?"

"Well you heard the Wicked Witch of the West, one of us isn't a virgin, I know its not me, and its not Liz cause we tell each other everything. So tell me, is it you?" Part of her wanted to hear his answer, but another part, hidden way back in the corner of her brain was churning with jealousy, what if it was him, did she really want to know. She remember the dream again, he didn't act like a virgin in her dreams.

"I am not discussing this with you." Michael laid back down, he knew if he told her the truth she wouldn't believe him. If he told her that he was a virgin she would laugh her head off. When Max was taking the vote and he had looked at her, saw her fear, he couldn't have stopped himself from taking her hand if he had wanted to. But he had wanted to comfort her, wanted that look to go away. He had liked that feeling, liked knowing that he could be the one to make her feel better, feel safer. But the moment was gone, they were back to snapping at each other.

"Oh come on, didn't the doctor ask you all kinds of questions during his test? I know he ask me about a million of them. I figured they were a standard form he was reading off of. A bunch of them had to do with sex. I told the truth, didn't you." She curled her legs up under her and waited to see if he would answer.

"You answered those stupid questions, why, what the hell we're you thinking." Michael heard a little voice go off in his head <liar, you answered those questions too you asshole, why are you yelling at her.> He rolled over onto his stomach. "What did you tell him about us?"

"Us, what us?" She said. <You know what us Maria DeLuca, the us that shared that soul searing, burn me to my toes kiss in the diner> she tried to make the voice in her head shut-up but it kept right on going. <I can't even talk about it with Liz, he thinks I'm going to tell a complete stranger.>

"You know, that kiss, that one in the Crashdown." He ask without looking at her. <stupid, why did you have to say it.>

Maria looked down, her green toenail polish was almost gone, she had just had it done the day before they were taken. "He didn't exactly ask about kissing, he kept calling it "heavy petting", made it sound like I was a dog or something. I told him no, I said that there wasn't anybody who…"

Michael looked up when she stopped talking, her voice had sounded so sad, he wondered if she had that same sad look in her eyes again. "Anybody who what?"

"Anybody who wanted to kiss me." <My God how stupid are you Maria, why did you have to go and tell him that.>

"I wanted to."

"But you only did it to shut me up." Maria still wouldn't look up.

"Well yeah, there was that, but I could've just smacked you if I had wanted to shut you up bad enough." <Way to go Guerin, could you get any smoother.>

She jerked her head up, "you would never hit a woman Michael, so don't even try it."

"How do you know that, how do you know what I would do." Michael ask her.

She looked into his eyes and said quietly, "I don't really but, you just don't seem like the type to hit a woman, I mean you get angry sometimes, well a lot. But I don't think you would ever hit me."

"I'm not my foster father Maria, I don't hit women." Michael replied.

"Did your foster fath…" Maria was afraid if she finished the question Michael would stop talking to her. She was afraid if she pushed him too far he would withdrawal from her again.

"When I was little, he hit me a lot, but a couple years ago, I started hitting back, he didn't like that." Michael said, there was no emotion in his voice.

"I'm sorry you have to live that way." Maria felt like she wanted to cry. It explained a lot of his anger. It was bad enough being an alien, but to not have anyone in your life to love you was an even greater injustice.

"You want to know something, even as bad as it was, I would be happy to be back there right now." Michael said.

Maria smiled at him, "yeah I know what you mean."

They both heard the door open and reacted together, Michael sitting up in the bed, Maria pushing her way back up the wall.

A group of lab coated technicians came into the room, they were pushing large carts with tables on them. As they proceeded to set the tables up, more technicians came in carrying chairs and boxes. The unfolded the chairs and set them by the tables, the boxes were placed in the middle of the two tables.

Topolsky came into the room and shut the door. "Mr. Thomas please open the cubicle doors."

You could hear the click of the locks and their doors opened.

"It's ok, you can come out. I brought some things for you. Books, magazines, cards. A radio. I figured you needed something to occupy yourselves." Topolsky stood back from the tables and waited. She wasn't sure if they would come out while she was still in the room or not.

Max stepped out of the cell and stepped up to the first table. He peered into the box closest to him. He looked up at Topolsky, "why, you haven't given us anything to read or do for over two weeks, why now?"

"I thought you needed some down time. Just some time to yourselves. No test, no questions, just the six of you, doing whatever you want." She started to walk to the back of the room, stepping up to a wall panel that was wedged between Rooms B and C she pushed a small panel that stuck out about a quarter of an inch. The panel slid back into the wall. "There's a fully equipped shower room through these doors. If you want to bathe, help yourself. But I'm not going to lie to you. The shower is monitored at all times. I'm sorry but I can't give you any privacy besides your cubicles, you still have control over them."

"Unless you want to turn on the lights or the sound after we turn it off." Michael said.

She smiled at the boy, "Michael I'm not your enemy here, I'm trying to make this as easy as possible for you." She turned to the rest of them "For all of you."

"I thought you wanted us to choose the "hard way", I believe that's how you put it?" Isabelle moved out of the cell and joined Max at the table. The rest of the kids moved into the main room. They moved cautiously, they didn't know how to take this "new" Topolsky.

"I admit I have a tendency to get a little overbearing, but its because of the cause. I've explained it to you, we don't have much time here. But I've also come to realize that this has been very hard on all of you. One day your all living normal happy lives and the next your taken from everything and everyone you know and loved and dropped into a very difficult situation.

"And cards and books are going to make it better? Not by a long shot." Kyle retorted. "You want to make us feel better, let us go."

"Even if it was up to me, I couldn't, we've come to far to turn back. I'm just trying to help in any small way I can." She turned and walked towards the door. "Relax, read a little, listen to some music. We'll talk again tomorrow alright." She smiled and said goodnight and walked through the door.

Chapter 9 -

They had spent all day and into the evening talking about the things Topolsky had left for them. Max and Liz had fought for using the magazines, books and radio. The rest had argued that is was just another ploy to get something from them. Although Max agreed with this theory, what choice did they have. They had been here for quite awhile and they were getting bored sitting around with nothing to do. In the end Max had changed their minds. But they had spent the whole day fighting about it, and by the time they were done they had exhausted themselves from arguing the point.

When they realized that it was time for bed they had all sat and stared at each other, none of them wanted to be the first to go back to the cells and crawl into those double beds.

"We could switch." Isabelle suddenly blurted out. "I could sleep with Max, Michael can sleep with Kyle and Liz could share with Maria." The girl smiled; in her mind she had solved their dilemma.

Michael made a snorting noise. "You really think their going to let us do that, no chance of us "breeding" if we're not sleeping with the opposite sex. They'd be in here pulling us out of bed in a second."

"Well do you have a better idea, Mr. Smart-Ass?" Isabelle ask.

Michael said nothing. Max tried to calm his sister down. "Believe me Isabelle, if we could we would switch, but Michael is right. There is no way they are going to let us change the sleeping arrangements."

Isabelle threw herself out of the metal chair, "fine, but I'm not sleeping with him." She stopped at the door to her cell, turned and looked at Kyle, "you can sleep on the floor."

Kyle tossed the magazine back on the table and stood up, "wish me luck, I'll probably freeze to death tonight." He followed Isabelle into their room, he watched as she tossed a pillow and a sheet to the floor. He bent over and snatched up the sheet. He picked up the cloth blanket that she had taken for herself re placed it with the sheet.

"I'm taking the blanket, that floor is too damn cold to just lay on a sheet. The cold will come right through it." He kicked the pillow closer to the wall and wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and dropped to the floor. Reaching up he pulled the pillow under his head.

The light went out as Isabelle smacked the control panel. She didn't bother with the sound button, if one of the others needed them during the night she wanted to be able to hear them. She mumbled a goodnight and flopped down on the bed. Can her life get any worse, she thought.

-*****-

Max turned the light off as Liz crawled into the large bed; he had given her a choice of which side of the bed she had wanted, she had chosen the side against the wall. One thought kept rolling through his mind, <how the hell was he supposed to sleep beside her, listen to her breath all night long?> He didn't think he was going to get much sleep tonight.

Liz was having trouble controlling her own thoughts. She could do this, she knew could. She turned on her side facing the room. If they stayed on their own sides and didn't touch she might be able to fall asleep. <yeah right, who was she kidding.>

The mattress gave as Max joined her on the bed. He lay on his back staring up into the dark room. She could make out his face in the shadows. <just close your eyes, close your eyes and take a deep breath.>

Max could hear her draw in a long breath. He realized she was just as affected as he was. <it was going to be one hell of a long night.>

-*****-

"I'm not sleeping on the floor, forget it." Michael ground out as he rolled to the back of the mattress.

"But Kyle is." Maria hissed. "He's gentleman enough to let Isabelle have the bed."

"I never said I was a gentleman. Hell that floor is freezing cold; why should I sleep there when we have a perfectly good bed. There's enough room for two of us." With that said he turned his back on her.

"That's not the point and you know it." Maria knew she was getting nowhere with this conversation, but she had to try. After her dream this afternoon she didn't think she could sleep next to Michael and actually get any rest.

"Either you get into the bed or sleep on the floor either one, I don't care, just turn the light off ok, I'd like to get some sleep." Michael grumbled.

Maria walked over to the light control and punched the green button, the room went dark. She stood there staring at the bed, as her eyes adjusted to the dark she could make out the outline of Michael's body. "He never listens…NEVER! I don't know why I thought he would." Michael could hear her mumbling as she crawled onto the bed and tried to get comfortable.

"You better not snore, you hear me, you snore and I swear, I'll smack you." Maria said as she pulled the covers up over herself.

-*****-

The man sat at one of the monitors in the control room. He was alone, everyone else was either asleep or off doing their jobs. He looked over his shoulder at the exit doors and waited. When he was satisfied that no one was coming, he pulled the small box out of his boot and held it in his hand. It looked like a small pager, identical to the millions that were used by everyday people. He punched in a series of numbers on the small keypad in the center of the black box. The same numbers that he had punched in every night for over two weeks now. [Evythg ok sub r 5x5 wil cntct wen al redy]

Shearer hit send and returned the small device to his boot. Everything was under control. So far the plan was on schedule. Now if only his people had taken care of their side of the situation. Unfortunately he wouldn't hear anything from them until the time was right. He sat back and returned to watching the monitors. All the rooms were dark, you could hear the even breathing of all the subjects. It had taken a few hours, a lot of sighs and much gripping coming out of Room B, but they had finally fallen asleep.

-******-

Maria moved the radio dial trying to find something. Nothing. Just one station, and all it played was oldies. No DJ's or commercials. Just songs from the fifties and sixties. She turned to the others. "I can't believe this. How can they expect us to listen this stuff. My mom listens to this crap."

"It's not that bad, its better than nothing." Kyle mumbled as he looked through a car magazine. He finally looked up, "I didn't realize how much I missed listening to music."

"If you can call that music." Maria sat down and reached across the table for a Vanity Fair magazine. They were all out of date by at least 6 months but she wasn't going to complain. On her waitress salary she hadn't been able to afford them, so she hadn't read any of them yet.

Too bad Isabelle didn't feel the same way.

"Couldn't they haven't gotten us anything more up to date. These clothes are already out of fashion." She threw the magazine back on the stack and slumped into the nearest chair.

"Beggars can't be choosers." Liz said as she turned the page on the copy of "Earth Science" magazine she had found.

"It's not like you have anywhere to wear them anyway." Kyle told her. He didn't have a good night, the floor had been hard and the blanket did nothing to keep out the cold.

None of them had gotten a good nights sleep, they were all tired and some of them just plain grouchy.

Michael turned the music up louder, too loud. The others just turned and glared at him, "what?"

"Don't you think that it's a little loud?" Max ask him.

"No, I don't think its loud or else I wouldn't have turned it up, now would I." Michael reached up and turned the dial a bit more.

Isabelle stretched across the table to turn it down. As she reached for the dial a familiar tune began to play. She drew her hand back and they all turned and looked at each other. As the tune went on smiles began to form on their faces.

(Stop)

Oh yes, wait a minute Mister Postman

(Wait)

Wait Mister Postman

"MS. JOHNSON!" They all yelled.

Please Mister Postman, look and see

(Oh yeah)

If there's a letter in your bag for me

"Do you remember how many times she played this song in music class?" Maria said.

Gladys Johnson had been the ninth grade music teacher at Roswell Jr. High School, at one time or another they had all had her class. She had loved the songs of the fifties and sixties and had used them many times in her classroom.

"Yeah, way too many." Michael replied dropping his head into his hands.

(Please, Please Mister Postman)

Why's it takin' such a long time

(Oh yeah)

For me to hear from that boy of mine

Maria got up and grabbed Liz's hand, "do you remember the dance steps she taught us?"

The two girls started dancing, they each held the others opposite hands, twisting and turning with the music.

There must be some word today

From my boyfriend so far away

Please Mister Postman, look and see

If there's a letter, a letter for me

Max laughed as he watched them twirling through the steps, until Liz suddenly turned and pulled him up on his feet. Maria continued dancing by herself, but then her eyes landed on Michael, he knew that look of hers and he started shaking his head.

"No, no way, I do not dance." She didn't listen, she took both of his hands and pulled him up. He stood for a few minutes and rolled his eyes and shook his head at the girl, but she wasn't paying any attention to him.

I've been standin' here waitin' Mister Postman

So patiently

For just a card, or just a letter

Sayin' he's returnin' home to me

Kyle stood back and watched them, he turned and looked at Isabelle. <What the hell> Walking towards her he saw her turn her head and become aware of him advancing on her. Thinking she would try and get away he moved faster, he put his arm out to grab her. He was totally unprepared when she stood and grabbed his hand and walked toward the other four, pulling him behind her.

(Mister Postman)

Mister Postman, look and see

(Oh yeah)

If there's a letter in your bag for me

(Please, Please Mister Postman)

Why's it takin' such a long time

(Oh yeah)

For me to hear from that boy of mine

Everyone but Michael was dancing, no matter what Maria did he just wouldn't move. She put her hands on his and tried pulling them back and forth. It didn't work, so she placed her hands on his hips and twisted them to the rhythm of the music. She could feel him getting into it. With his hips slightly swaying and his feet firmly planted on the floor Michael was not really dancing, but Maria would except even that little bit. She laughed up into his face and Michael actually smiled back.

So many days you passed me by

See the tears standin' in my eyes

You didn't stop to make me feel better

By leavin' me a card or a letter

(Mister Postman)

Mister Postman, look and see

(Oh yeah)

If there's a letter in your bag for me

(Please, Please Mister Postman)

Why's it takin' such a long time

Max enjoyed watching Liz dance, she looked carefree, more like she did before all this had begun. He didn't like to dance, hell he knew he couldn't dance, but if it made Liz happy he would do it.

The music suddenly stopped. They all turned. They had all been so involved in the light moment that they never heard or saw the door open. Never saw Topolsky reach over and turn the music off. As if it was by unspoken command all the men stepped in-front of the women. Maria ducked her head out from behind Michael's body.

"What did you do that for?" she demanded.

The woman actually looked contrite. "I'm sorry for interrupting the dancing, but you can get back to your music in a minute. I just wanted to ask Isabelle if she would come with me for a moment. Please."

"Ask. You're asking now." Isabelle said snidely. She had been having a good time, for a moment she had forgotten why they were there.

The woman smiled at her. "It will only take about an hour, I'll bring you right back. I promise."

Isabelle looked to Max.

"What do you want to do?" he ask her.

"I'll go," then she smiled, "but do me a favor, try and teach Michael some other dance moves before I get back, he just looks so stupid."

"Bite me Iz" Michael said.

-******-

Isabelle had followed Topolsky through another set of winding corridors, they finally came to a door and Topolsky opened it and stepped through the doorway.

"Have a seat, I just wanted to ask you a few questions, get a bead on how your feeling right now." She said as she took her seat behind a large desk.

"I'm fine. Can I go back to the others now." Isabelle answered.

"I just have a few more questions." Indicating a plastic chair in front of the desk she motioned for the young girl to sit.

Isabelle looked at the chair for a few seconds, then finally sat down. She figured the faster she answered her questions the sooner she could go back.

"I was worried about you, you weren't close to Liz or Maria before this happened." Topolsky picked up a pen and twirled it through her fingers. "Not having another woman friend to talk too can put a lot of stress on you."

Isabelle raised her eyebrows at her. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You think I'm stressed because I don't have a girlfriend here?" said in astonishment.

Continuing to twirl the pen, she tried again to reach the girl. "I'm just saying that if you need to talk, I'm here for you. I understand your feelings of resentment. Feelings of loneliness."

Isabelle's eyes had dropped to the pen, she couldn't believe Topolsky, who the hell did she think she was, did she think Isabelle was going to tell her anything, open up to HER? She watched the pen as the woman kept rotating it back and forth between her fingers, the same motion every time, the same even rhythm with each pivot. Suddenly she felt very tired. She just wanted to go back to the cells and lay down. She could hear Topolsky going on an on about something or other. She couldn't remember what she was talking about. She just wanted to sleep, that's all she wanted. She never even noticed when she slipped into unconsciousness.

Topolsky turned the pen a few more times, she called the girls name, "Isabelle…Isabelle can you hear me." She lowered the pen to her desk. She smiled.

Chapter 10 -

Liz moved slowly into the room, the technician who had brought her back pulled the door closed after him and a loud click was heard.

Only four people were sitting at the table, Isabelle was sleeping, she had returned from her meeting with Topolsky and had complained of being tired. Topolsky had ask for Liz next; it had been forty-five minutes since they had taken the girl out of the cell area.

Max moved towards her, Liz was very pale and her eyes looked bloodshot. He helped her to the table, he pulled one of the chairs out and she gently lowered herself into the seat.

Maria was worried about her bestfriend. "Lizzie are you ok?"

Liz leaned forward, positioned her elbows on the table, she placed her fingers on her temples and tried to rub the ache away. "I'm ok, I just have this killer headache, I don't understand one minute I was fine, the next my head was pounding."

"Do you want to lay down?" Kyle questioned. In the last few weeks watching Max and Liz together, he had come to understand how deep the boy's feeling were for her. He knew he could never compete with that. But it didn't mean he didn't care about her.

"Yeah, I think I'd better. I just don't understand, I've only been awake for a few hours, but I feel so tired. Liz looked up and saw the concern on their faces. "I'll be ok, all I need is a few hours sleep."

"Just like Izzy." Michael said. He leaned forward and dropped his voice to a whisper, hell, he knew they could hear them, no matter how low they spoke, but it made him feel better knowing they had to strain to listen. "That bitch takes Izzy out of here, she comes back looking like hell, next Liz, what did she do to them?"

Liz raised her hand, motioning it back and forth in front of her. "No, Michael, she didn't do anything, she just wanted to talk. She ask me a bunch of stupid questions about whether or not I missed my mom."

"With me it was missing my friends." Isabelle stated from the doorway of her and Kyle's cell. "She wanted to let me know that she was here for me." Isabelle snorted. "Like she was gonna be my new bestfriend or something."

"I still don't like it Maximillian, they both go out of here fine, next thing you know they come back acting like they can't keep their eyes open." He turned to the girls and ask, "Did you drink anything, eat anything?"

"No, she never even offered me anything." Liz replied.

"Me either, she just sat there at her desk. I just wanted to reach out and grab that damn pen out of her hand and stab her with it." Isabelle crossed her arms over her chest. She felt chills running up and down her spine. She shook her head to try and clear it.

"I know what you mean, she just kept twirling that pen through her fingers." Liz leaned back in her chair, "I've never wanted to hurt another person as much as I wanted to hurt her. I kept watching that pen, and then…I think I feel asleep while she was talking"

 "Me too, hell, the woman wouldn't shut up." Isabelle added.

A thought entered Max's head, "You both fell aslee…..

Max never got to finish, the room was suddenly filled with a loud voice requesting that they all return to their cells.

"Later, we'll finish this discussion later." Max turned and helped Liz back to their cell. When all the doors were closed and locked the door was thrown open and Yeager stood in the doorway staring at them. After a few seconds he walked into the room, the same five technicians from before trailing behind him. They were pushing what looked like a large metal frame with chicken wire stretched acrossed it.

Yeager smiled and said, "time to play."

The technicians started removing the magazines and books, they placed them back into the boxes and carried them to the wall next to the door. The radio was placed next to the boxes. Next they took down the two tables, returning them to their carrying cart, they were pushed through the doors by two of the techs. The remaining technicians started pushing the frame into the center of the room. They placed it over two large metal circles that were imbedded into the floor. One of them spoke out loud for the first time, "activate magnets." There was a loud clang, the frame shook for a second. They stepped back from the contraption and waited for Yeager to proceed.

He walked towards Room B, he smiled as he stepped up to the glass and looked into Michael's scowling face, "You in the mood for a little fun, you, me and the little firecracker?"

"I'm not your litt…." Maria's words were cut off as Michael grabbed her.

"I'll play asshole, anytime. But your not touching her." Michael shook his head as he pulled Maria behind him. He could feel her trembling. If Yeager wanted to play, fine. But he wasn't going to hurt Maria again. He wanted to wipe that damn smile off this jerks face.

Maria clawed at his back, "Michael what do you think your doing? Pissing him off is not of the good, do you understand?"

Yeager started laughing, he couldn't believe it, the little one had more spunk then he had thought, oh this was going to be sweet.

"Let'em alone." This came from Kyle who just a few weeks ago would have been happy to see Michael or Max get the shit kicked out of them by this goon. But a few weeks can change a man.

Yeager ignored him. The jock was for another day, he wanted to play with Guerin right now.

"Unlock Room B." Yeager said as he turned his back and stalked back to the center of the room.

Michael pushed the door open and stepped out into the room, without even turning to face her he said roughly "stay here."

"Michael!" Maria hissed at his retreating back.

He turned and looked at her, "please for once would you just listen to me."  Maria searched his face, she couldn't believe he was doing this. She knew he was going to get hurt, and there wasn't a damn thing any of them could do about it. When she repeated his name in a whisper, he could barely hear her, but he could hear the pleading in her voice. He smiled, "just stay here, ok?"

He turned back to Yeager, he knew he was out of his element, but if he could keep this animal away from Maria he'd let him do whatever he wanted to him.

The others watched as Michael moved closer to Yeager, they understood what he was doing; keeping Yeager distracted from Maria. But they also knew that there was no way Michael could even think of taking this man on and remaining in one piece.

"Why are they doing this? How is hurting us going to get them their damn results, how do they expect us to "breed" for them if they hurt Michael." Liz whispered to Max.

"I don't think Yeager's agenda has anything to do with Topolsky's. I think he just likes to hurt people." Max pulled her deeper into the room. He turned until he was between Liz and the glass. He didn't know what was about to happen, but he didn't want Liz to see it.

"Do you really think that you can keep me from her? Do you punk?" Yeager's lips twisted in a sneer, he shook his head back and forth, did this kid really think he could stop him. "What, you think your some kind of superhero, is that it. Maybe on the outside, but down here, you're just another little shit."

Michael's brain kept repeating the same thing over and over again. <just keep your mouth shut, just let this idiot do what he wants> Hell he hoped that whatever he was going to do, he would just get it over with as quickly as possible.

Maria stood at the glass and felt her nails digging into the palms of her hands. For the first time in her life she prayed, prayed that God would keep Michael safe, <ok, he may not be one of your's but he's still a living breathing…thing…you have to help him.> She knew her atheist mother would be throwing a fit right now, but hell she thought, I'd sell my soul to the devil if it would keep Michael safe.

Isabelle couldn't stop shaking. Up until this moment they'd had many moments in the last few weeks that could be considered "uncomfortable" some downright unpleasant, but this was different, this man wasn't Toplosky and her little psycho games. This was real, this was dangerous, Michael could be seriously hurt.

Kyle had seen Max pull Liz away from the doorway, he knew he should do that same with Isabelle, but he didn't know how to go about handling her. She wasn't Liz, she was a lot stronger, a lot meaner when it came right down to it. He reached up and took hold of her shoulders, "Isabelle, don't watch this, you shouldn't have to watch, ok."

She turned and snarled, "none of us should have to watch this, we shouldn't be here. We should be back in Roswell, at school, back with our parents. Not in this hellhole. I can't take this anymore, I can't…" her voice broke and he could see the tears rolling down her cheeks. "Oh God. He's going to hurt him"

Kyle reacted without thinking, he brought her up against his chest, surrounding her with his arms, he pulled her tighter to him. He pushed her head down and said, "I know, believe me I know." He didn't know what else to say. He had never thought he would see this girl like this, emotionally broken. Not Isabelle, he had thought she was made of steel. He just held her and watched the nightmare taking place in-front of them. He listened as Yeager taunted Michael.

"You think you can just snap your fingers and she'll sit there like a little puppy, all doe eyed and waiting for her hero to return to her. Hell I can get her ass out her quicker than you can say shit." Yeager turned to the technicians and shouted "get her out here, now!"

Michael turned to stop them, he never saw Yeager step forward, never saw him bring his ham-like fist down on the back of his neck. First he heard Maria scream his name, but by that time he knew it was too late, knew he had let her down.

The technicians grabbed Michael before he hit the floor. They pulled him up and dragged him over to the metal frame.

Through the dizziness Michael felt himself thrown back against the wire that was stretched across the frame. He felt his arms being raised above his head and felt his wrist being pressed into cold metal… "Snap". He felt the same cold metal on his ankles… "Snap" He opened his eyes and found himself looking into Yeager's face, that damn smirk was enough to make him want to puke.

"Oh and one more thing boy…shit!" Yeager stated with a smile.

Two of the technicians turned and approached Maria's cell. She didn't wait for them. She pushed the door open and stepped through. She marched right by them, she never even looked at them. Terrified beyond belief and tears openly running down her face she walked right up to Yeager and looked him dead in the eye. "You wanted to play dickhead, well lets play."

Chapter 11 -

"Maria!" Liz screamed as she watched her friend stand up to Yeager.

Yeager raised his eyes to the ceiling and shouted. "Close the damn cubicles down, would ya for Christ sakes. I don't need this whining crap!" He turned back to Maria as the cells went black.

"My, my we're full of piss and vinegar aren't we?" Yeager looked down into the young girl's face. He could see the fear, could see it flowing out of her from every pore, he could practically smell it. But underneath the fear was something else, something totally unexpected. Anger. A deep vibrating anger that made something inside of Yeager stand up and take notice. It had been a long time since he had seen this much anger in one of his victims. He liked it, liked it far more than he thought he would. Especially from this young girl. Hell, there had been a few men who had stood up to him, military men, psychotic terrorist types. They were able to maintain a shell of anger about them, but it had only lasted a short time. But he'd never seen a women filled with this much anger, and it was all directed at him. Unexpectedly he felt himself harden. That had never happened before, he had never gotten sexually excited about his play time before. At least not until after he had used the oil. For just one second he dropped the stony façade and stared back into Maria's eyes.

Maria saw the look come into his eyes, she didn't understand what it was…confusion, bewilderment, puzzlement, she wasn't sure, but she would use it to her advantage. "You have no idea what to do next do you? You expected me to scream and yell, didn't you? You expected me to come out here begging you to spare us, you want me to demean myself, don't you? Well that isn't going to happen. Go ahead, do whatever it is your going to do, but just remember one thing. You're a asshole, a huge asshole." Maria didn't know where the words were coming from but she wouldn't have stopped them if she could have.

Michael hung against the frame, he was amazed. Amazed that Maria was standing up to Yeager, totally perplexed by her whole attitude. But he was also damn proud of her in that moment. He smiled.

Yeager saw that smile. He suddenly laughed out loud. He looked back at Maria and saw that his laughter wasn't doing a thing to stop the anger, no, it was fueling it even more. This was going to be so sweet.  

Maria reached up without thinking and tried to slap him. Her hand never connected with his face. He caught it too him and spun her around in his arms, she hadn't been prepared for that. Her body swung around until she was facing Michael, her back was pressed up against Yeager's body and his arm was twisted around her stomach holding her tightly against him. His other arm snaked around her neck. She sucked in air so quickly it almost made her choke.

Yeager pushed her up to stand in front of the metal frame. She couldn't move her head, she saw Michael glaring at Yeager.

"Bites doesn't it boy, knowing that I have her, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it, doesn't it? Yeager taunted the boy. "She's a hand-full isn't she? Makes me jealous of you. Truly it does."

"Let her go!" Michael screamed. "She has nothing to do with this. She can't tell you anything."

"Who said I need anything from her, this isn't an interrogation, hell we have everything we need to know about all of you. No, this is just for fun, just a way to pass the time." Yeager moved his right hand up Maria's stomach, he rubbed it against her skin through the thin material of the tank top. "We're just going to get acquainted, aren't we honey?"

Maria squirmed beneath his touch, the anger that had pushed the fear down was losing its battle, the fear was taking over again. She tried to move her body out of Yeager's reach, but there was nowhere to go.

"Get the fuck away from her!" Michael knew he was losing control, but he couldn't help himself, the panic was starting to set in. Just knowing that pig was touching Maria was causing a ache in the pit of his stomach, an ache that was growing.

Yeager just laughed, he pulled Maria closer to him, he liked the way she squirmed against him. He felt himself harden even more. Unfortunately so did Maria.

"NO! OH GOD, let me go, get your fucking hands off me." She tried to arch her back, tried to remove that…thing from pressing into her spine. She hadn't thought of this as anything sexual, she had thought he was going to inflict pain on them, but feeling his erection pressed into her spine she realized it was another kind of pain he intended to put her through. She put all her energies into trying to get her arms free.  

Yeager gripped her tighter, he moved his leg out of the way as she brought her foot up to kick him. He crushed her to him until Maria couldn't draw air into her lungs. In a few moments she calmed down, it was either that or pass out. She held her body against his stiffly.

"Ok, kiddies listen up, we're going to play a game, you know the one, remember it from Kindergarten? It's called Statue. The firecracker here is gonna stand as still as possible, no moving, no twitching around. You're gonna keep your ass in one place, do we understand each other?" Yeager let his arms ease up a bit. He felt Maria relax even more.

"Yes," the word came out of her in a rush of air. "No moving, I understand."

"I'm gonna let you go now, plant your feet on the goddamn floor and don't even think about moving em." Yeager said as he removed his arms from around Maria's body.

Maria sagged as she felt him step back from her. She tried to hold her body as still as possible. It was hard to do, she was shaking so damn bad. She looked up into Michael's eyes. <just think of Michael, Yeager doesn't exist, only Michael.>

She heard movement behind her, but she kept her eyes on Michael, she saw him glance up and then back to her again. She wasn't going to turn around, even though the fear was telling her too, Yeager had said stand still, so she stood there, waiting. For what she had no idea.

She wasn't expected Yeager's voice when it came, he was closer than she had thought he was. "Lose the top sugar." She felt his breath on the back of her neck.

"You told me to stand still, how am I supposed to…." He never left her finish.

 "Just take your damn top off or else I will, which will it be?" He had just a touch of annoyance in his voice.

She told herself to stop shaking as she reached down and pulled the hem of her shirt out of the scrub pants. The top came off easily. The cold air hit her and caused her nipples to tighten. She dropped the top and automatically covered her breast with her arms.  

"No way, drop the arms." Yeager whispered into her right ear, she automatically moved her head away. "That was a freebie," Yeager said, "move one more time and he pays."

Maria had no idea what Yeager meant but she didn't want to push him. She took a deep breath and dropped her arms.

Michael watched as Maria's face reddened. She had no reason to blush, he thought as he dropped his eyes to her chest. She was beautiful standing there, her breast were small, but just the right size for her body, her nipples were a dark dusty rose color, tiny but beautiful. And the look on her face, if she could maintain control during this, then he should expect no less of himself. He looked into her eyes and saw the fear there, she was scared to death, but she was not going to let Yeager see it. If she could do it so could he. He raised his eyes when Yeager moved again. He watched as one of the technicians poured some type of oil into Yeager's hands. He brought his hands together and rubbed them vigorously back and forth. He turned and brought both hands up on either side of Maria's ribcage. As he brought his hands in contact with Maria's skin she sucked in another lung full of air.

"You're gonna love this, one of my lovely little creations, just relax and enjoy yourself." Yeager said.

"Enjoy myself, I highly doubt that, your callus's are scratching the hell out of me." Maria's voice shook as she spoke.

Yeager moved his hands up over Maria's breast, he raised his eyes to Michael, "Ever done this boy, ever just ran your hands all over her body? Hell, you probably don't even know what to do with a woman do you?"  

Michael pulled his lower lip into his mouth, biting down, he tried not to let the demons escape, the demons that were fighting to verbally rip Yeager's head off. No, he had to remain calm, Yeager wanted him to react, wanted him to lose control. He wasn't going to play into his hands. If it had just been him, maybe, but he wasn't going to endanger Maria's life. He had to stand and watch as Yeager touched her. He felt something wet on his lip, he figured it was blood the way he was biting into his lips to keep still.

Yeager smiled again, "cat got your tongue boy? For somebody with a small brain and a big mouth you're awful quite today."

"Michael knows he satisfies me, he doesn't have to play your stupid little games." Maria tried to sound brave, she didn't think she was accomplishing it, but she tried to keep her voice even. She thought of the kisses she had shared with him, the feel of his hands on her body.

Yeager squeezed Maria's breast, pinching her nipples, not enough to make her scream but enough to cause her to wince. As he pulled his hands away from her breast, Maria felt a heat spreading out on her skin, everywhere his hands had touch was getting warmer. He moved his hands up and over her shoulders, rubbing the oil in as he went.

"How does he satisfy you, come on you can tell us?" Yeager soothed the oil into her neck, then bringing his arms down again, he brought them up her back, starting at the top of her pants. He turned and ask for more oil, he rubbed it in again and returned his hands to her body, slowly concentrating on the lower part of her spine, then moving up along the side of her ribcage moving into the center of her spine. He missed nothing, he spread the oil over ever exposed area of her body. "Does he touch you, does he spend hours touching your body?" Down one arm, up the other. Maria remained still, keeping her eyes on Michael. She watched as a coldness took over in Michael's eyes. It was as if he was turning to stone right before her eyes. <just stay calm Michael, please stay calm, he's not hurting me>

Yeager moved his hands down the inside of her pants. Maria reacted without thinking, she violently pulled away from him, screaming at the top of her lungs, "NO!" She turned and glared at him, raising her arms in front of her.

Yeager smiled at her, "I was hoping you would do that." Without turning he raised one arm in the air, "hit it."

Maria didn't know what that meant but she knew it wasn't good, she heard a buzzing sound and watched as Michael arched his body off the metal rack. She heard a moan come out of his mouth.

"Stop it, I won't move…just STOP IT!" Maria screamed.

"Yeah I thought that's what you would say." Yeager raised his arm again and said "ok, shut it down."

Michael body sagged again.

Yeager turned to Maria and said, "till we need it again."

"You won't, I promise you, I won't move again." Maria said. She turned and faced Michael again, he hung limply against the wire mesh. "Michael."

"I'm ok." That was all he said. His eyes were closed. He tried to control his muscles as he opened his eyes. He tried to smile at her, but it came out more of a grimace. His body was still tingling from the electrical current that had been shot through it.

"Drop the pants." Yeager stated.

Maria closed her eyes as a wave of dizziness went through her head. <she could do this, she could.>

She pushed her hands into the waistband of the scrubs and slowly pushed them down over her hips. When they were pooled around her ankles she stepped out of them and threw them to the side, they landed on top of her shirt. She stood there staring at the small pile of clothes and told herself to relax. <for Michael, just relax>

She pulled air into her lungs and slowly released it. Another wave of dizziness swept across her brain. She opened her eyes and ground her teeth together. She felt Yeager's hands grasp her hips and pull her back into him. He was still excited, she could feel his erection as he pressed his hips into the cheeks of her ass.

<Don't move,> the thought kept going through her head, <do not move.>

A flutter went through her stomach, it started low and flickered over her abdomen, it was followed by a rush of nausea. She swallowed it back down. She would not get sick, there was no way she was going to make this shit head happy by puking her dinner up. The heat that had started in her upper body continued into the lower sections, where ever his hands traveled, the warmth quickly spread.

Yeager leaned close and whispered in her ear, "Is it getting warm in here, or is it me?"

"It must be you…I'm act…actually a little ch…chilly." Maria told him. The words to an old commercial that she had seen on TV flashed a crossed her brain. 'never let them see you sweat.' Well, there was no way she could control her body. She could feel herself losing control. The dizziness, the heat, it was starting to overpower her. She was having trouble thinking straight.

She felt the hands again, moving across her hips, down over her pelvic bones, he ran his fingers along them, suddenly he dipped his hands between her legs, his fingers catching on her pubic hair, yanking a few strands out as he rammed his fingers into her, she was dry, the pain caused her to cry out and double over. It took just a second for Yeager to raise his arm and yell "hit him again."

"NOOOOO…" Maria screamed as she fell to her knees. She jerked her head up as she heard the buzz again, then the nightmare was repeated, Michael had tried to tighten his muscles against the coming pain. It did not make it any better. The electricity surged through his body. He arched his back again, his fingers flexing and un-flexing. He couldn't control his muscles. Yeager waited for a few more seconds then raised his arms again and said "let'em go"

Spasms went through Michael's muscles as the current was cut off. His arms and legs twitched for a few more seconds and then he hung limply again.

Yeager grabbed Maria by her hair and yanked her off her knees, she barely had time to straighten her legs out, she felt her feet find the floor and she pushed herself up, trying to relieve the pressure to her scalp.  

"Smell that, that's the smell of your boyfriend frying, don't cha just love that smell." Yeager inhaled and let it out. He chuckled as he pulled his hands out of Maria's hair. She wobbled but straighten herself up and stood rigidly staring up at Michael. She closed her eyes tightly and a single tear ran down her check.

Yeager snatched a towel out of one of the technicians hands and wiped the oil off of his hands, "Their toasted, take em back to their cell." He walked towards the door, when he reached it he turned and said, "it's been fun, hope we can do this again sometime."

He walked through the monitoring room and thought about the night ahead of him, he was headed towards Topolsky's room. The oil would keep him going all night, he hoped she was up for it. He whistled as he went down the corridor.

Chapter 12 -

Max watched as Maria walked up to Yeager, he was amazed by the words coming out of her mouth.

"Maria!" Liz screamed.

Yeager yelled to shut down the cubicles. Their room went black, silent. They couldn't see through the glass, no sound was heard coming from the outer room.

Max pulled Liz over to the bed, "I think you should get into bed, I don't think talking is the real reason Topolsky took you and Izzy out of here. I think she somehow hypnotized the two of you. I don't know why, but both of you falling asleep while she was talking to you doesn't make any sense. But we can't talk about it now, I want you to get some sleep" He turned his head he wished he could see what was happening in the outer room.

"Sleep? I can't sleep, Max he's going to hurt them, we have to do something." Liz pleaded with him.

Max felt so helpless, there was nothing he could do, no way he could help his friends. And somehow he had to make Liz understand this, without breaking her heart.

"Liz please, I don't know what to do, if I could I would be out there stopping this, but there's nothing I can do. Without our powers we're just as helpless as you, Maria and Kyle are."

Liz knew this, down deep in her mind she knew he was being honest with her. But in her small world, no matter how chauvinistic it sounded men protected their women. Men made everything ok, how many times had her mother uttered the words…'Your father will fix it, or get your dad to fix that for you.' But not in this world, not here. She lowered her head to Max's chest and let the tears take over again. She was tired of crying, tired of telling herself everything was going to be fine.

"We're going to die here, aren't we?" He could barely hear her voice.

"NO, we are not going to die. We are going to get out of here, I promise you, we will." Max tried to console her, even if he had to lie to her.

"How? There is no way we can get through all those guards, the security. We don't even know where we are." She rubbed her faced against his chest, her arms starting moving up his back, slowly rubbing, back and forth.

It felt so good, just to stand there and hold her, Max pulled her closer to him. He felt a familiar tightness in his groin. It was so damn hard sleeping next to her at night, hearing her breathe, watching her face in the dim light. So many time he just wanted to reach out and pull her too him. Just bury himself inside of her, so deep that nothing mattered, not this place, not what was happening to Michael and Maria; what would eventually happen to all of them.

"I don't know, but I won't give up hope, and neither can you." Max said. "If we give up, they win."

Liz raised her head and looked at him. "I don't care Max, I don't care if they win or not. I'm just tired, tired of not knowing what is going to happen to us."

He reached up and placed the palm of his hand against her cheek. Liz lowered her eyes, he saw her small perfect teeth tug on her bottom lip, she raised her face to his and said quietly, "I say we give them what they want."

"What?" Max ask, he couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice.

"She's right you know, we don't have a choice. We're just six kids that have no way of stopping them from doing what they want. Up until a few months ago the hardest decision for three of us was what am I going to wear to school today." She moved her hands to the front of his T-shirt, gripping the material she said, "We have no idea how to deal with this. Eventually they are going to win Max."

"What are you saying Liz?" Max couldn't believe he was hearing her say these things.

"I don't know what I'm saying, half the time I don't even know what I'm doing anymore." Releasing his shirt she moved her hands to his back again, she leaned her cheek against him again. "I'm just tired of all of us this. I want to be back home, back where the hardest thing I ever had to worry about was whether or not you wanted me."

"I know, believe I know." Max said soothingly. He reached down and put his arm under her knees, picking her up he moved to the bed.

"Max what are you doing." Liz said.

"I'm putting you to bed, this is all too much for you, Topolsky, Yeager, you need to rest," he told her. He placed her in the middle of the bed, when he tried to pull back she wouldn't release him.

"Only if you lay down with me?" She said.

He looked down into her eyes, no he couldn't do this, being in the same bed with her was too hard. "Liz that's not a good idea right now." He looked up and saw the pleading in her eyes. He lowered his head and laid his forehead against her's. He groaned. "Your making this so damn hard."

"It's not hard, it's easy, I want you Max, I've always wanted you, and I'm so tired of pretending that I don't. I know you want me, I can feel you staring at me at night. I can feel you wanting me too." She tilted her face up, their lips were almost touching. "Please Max?"

"Oh God Liz, their probably watching us, watching us right now." Max quietly said. He didn't think he could breathe, he tried to draw more air into his lungs, but it felt like he had a band of steel wrapped around his chest.

"I don't care Max, I don't care about anything but this." She reached up and placed her lips against his. She felt his lips quiver, it was so small she didn't know if she imagined it or not. She reached out with her tongue and stroked it over his bottom lip. He released his breath into her mouth, his tongue followed it. He leaned into her and just let himself enjoy the feel of her tongue, her sweet breathe invading his mouth. It's almost as if they were feeding each other the oxygen they needed to survive.

"Max, yes, please…" Liz moved over and pulled him down onto the bed with her.

Using his elbow to hold himself up, Max pulled his head back and looked at her. "Are you sure Liz, do you really want to do this?"

She answered him the only way she knew how, reaching up she pulled his shirt off, throwing it on the floor she sat up and yanked her's off, it joined his on the floor. She turned back to him, shyly she moved her hand to his chest. Running her fingernails over his nipple she smiled. Turning over onto her stomach she placed her lips to his chest and kissed him. Opening her mouth she let her tongue trail along the same exact spot her lips had been. Moving slowly up his chest she took his small nipple into her mouth, swirling her tongue around it. She shocked the hell out of him when she took the small nub between her teeth and lightly bit down. She heard him suck in air. She did it again. A moan escaped his lips. She lapped at it with her tongue, soothing the sting away. Pushing him down she moved closer and rubbed her breast acrossed his chest. He felt her nipples harden. Max couldn't keep his hands still, moving them up to her hair he ran his fingers through the long strands. With one hand Liz reached up and lightly ran her fingers down his thigh. Max raised slightly off the bed, trying to get closer to her hand. Sitting up Liz reached out and grabbed the waistband of his pants. Max reached down to help her, tugging them down they joined the mound of clothing at the foot of the bed. Liz rolled over and pushed her's down and off. Throwing one leg over Max she straddled his hips.

"Liz, slow down, please slow down." Max pleaded.

"Don't want too, I want to feel all of you." She said as she leaned over and once again moved her nipples over him.

He reached up and grabbed her shoulders, he had to slow her down or this would be over before it had begun. He pushed her back, sitting up over his hips he could see her, all of her. He slowly ran his eyes down her body, too her perfectly shaped breast, she was bigger than he had expected. He couldn't understand how she looked so small with her clothes on. Her nipples were surrounded with small aureoles that were slightly darker than her natural skin tones. Her nipples were large, almost the size of his thumbnail. Lowering his eyes he saw her flat smooth stomach, he could see the muscles there, pulled tight at the moment. His eyes trailed down, down to the patch of black hair nesting between her legs, he reached out and gently touched the curls that rested there. Silk, they felt like silk against his fingertips.

"You are so beautiful Liz," moving his hand around her hip and up her back he pulled her down on top of him again. She moved her hands along his jawline and up into his hair. As their lips met again they both released their breath again, that sweet heavenly breath. This was no gentle kiss this time. Their lips came together in a storm of passion, he molded his lips against her's and drank his fill, running his tongue along her teeth and then back into the recesses of her month, until he finally found what he sought. Her velvety tongue. They teased, withdrew, returned to tease again. Dizziness swamped Max's brain. Air, he needed air but he didn't want to stop kissing her. Opening the corners of his mouth he drew in air again. He could feel her lips forming a smile as she too took air into her lungs.

Max moved his hands down to her backside. Pulling her tighter against his center, he pressed up into her, at the same time that she pushed down. Heat radiated from her, he didn't think he could last long enough to get inside of her. He had wanted this to be special, he wanted to make it as good as possible for her. He ran his hands over her ass, her sweet wonderful ass.

Liz groaned and pressed down again. "Max I need to feel you inside of me, now please." She reached down between them and ran her hand up his erection. She squeezed his cock and he thought he was going to die. He felt like the top of head was going to explode. He quickly reached down and circled her hand with his, pulling it away, bringing it to his lips he kissed her fingers. "Don't, if you touch me again I won't be able to be inside of you, not for awhile at least." He smiled and brought her finger to his lips again and reached out and stroked it with his tongue. Liz groaned and squirmed her hips over his again.

Sucking her finger into his mouth Max felt the heat coming off of her, especially against his cock, she was so wet, the liquid was raining down on him. He reached down between their bodies and brought his hand to her center again. She moaned. He cupped his hand over her. She moved her hips into his hand, pressing down as hard as she could.

Max gripped himself at the base of his cock and brought it up to her entrance, he slowly circled the head against her, rubbing her where he knew she wanted it. Looking up he saw her astride him with her head tilted back, her eyes closed, she had the most erotic expression on her face. He slowly pushed up into her, her warmth surround him. She moaned and he stopped. "Are you alright, am I hurting you?" he ask.

"No, it will hurt if you stop." Liz said breathlessly.

He started pushing up again, placing his hands on her hips he brought her down, slowly. She was so tight, so wet, he didn't think he could do it. He couldn't suppress the moan that escaped his lips. He pushed deeper, it felt so right, so damn right. He felt her push her hips down, he inched further into her.

"Max." Liz groaned out his name.

Max felt like he had died and gone to heaven, he pushed harder, he felt something press against him. He pushed again, Liz tensed and moaned again. He stopped.

"Liz" he questioned, he hadn't thought about it before, she had been dating Kyle, he had assumed that they had been intimate, he hadn't liked the idea but he had thought that she had done "this" before.

He tried again, but he could go any further, couldn't get any deeper inside of without breaking the thin barrier of skin. He looked up into her eyes. She was smiling down at him.

"Please Max?" She reached down and took both of his hands into hers. She laced her fingers through his. Bracing herself against the pain, she pushed down as hard as she could. At the same time Max pushed up into her. He felt the barrier tear, felt her stiffen. Heard a small cry come from her lips.

He reached up and pulled her down onto her chest, he stroked his fingers up and down her spine. "Are you ok?" he ask her. He hadn't wanted to hurt her, hadn't wanted to cause her this moment of pain.

Max felt her tongue glide along his neck. "I'm fine." She giggled. "I'm more than fine." She pulled up and smiled down into his face, "You're inside of me Max."

He smiled up at her, she answered him by squeezing her muscles around him. He groaned, he felt her lift and lower herself on him. Taking her hips in both hands he helped her. They kept their eyes on each other and adjusted themselves to a steady rhythm, Liz rode him faster and harder, its as it she couldn't get enough. He knew he couldn't keep this up, he felt his orgasm building, he was almost there. He pulled his hands down her thighs, reaching up between them he found the nub of flesh, he stroked his fingers over it, faster and faster, he wanted her to feel what he was feeling, with his other hand he brought her mouth back to his.  

"Max…what's happening to me…I can't take…it." Her voice sounded breathless, like she had been running for a long time. She felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff, like she wanted to jump.

"It's ok, just let it happen, come with me, Liz come with me." He couldn't hold back, it was happening, he couldn't stop it if he wanted to. He felt her tighten around him, it was too much, he felt himself coming, felt his warmth spread through her.

Liz watched Max's face, saw his back arch high into the air, he pushed up into with all his strength. She ground down on him. That was all she needed, she sailed over the edge, but instead of falling she was sailing, higher and higher. Nothing existed in that moment in time. Nothing but them two.

Chapter 13 -

Maria couldn't stop her body from shaking, she was shivering so bad the bed was vibrating. Michael sat beside her on the bed and watched as the shudder's rippd through her, he realized she was in shock. He was smart enough to know that he had to keep her warm, so he had tucked the sheet and blanket around her as tight as he could, but it didn't seem to be helping.

"Michael, I'm c..can't s..stop s..s..shaking." Maria's voice was raspy, making it hard for him to understand. He spread out next to her and pulled her into his arms, he remembered something from one of the few science classes that he had attended, body warmth. If he could just control the muscle spasm's he was having, he could warm her up.

"It's going to be ok Maria, just hold on to me," Michael tried to will his warmth into her. As he held her he realized she wasn't cold, in-fact she was burning up. He felt the heat radiating off of her.

"Why is this h..happ..pening. W..why are th..they doing th..this?" Maria couldn't stop her teeth from chattering.

"Cause their sick and sadistically that's why, they get off on this kind of shit." Michael told her, "I don't think Yeager gives a damn what planet I was born on, he just wants to watch us squirm."

Maria could feel the heat coming off of Michael's body, even through the blankets it enveloped her, surrounded her, she could feel it spreading through her body mixing with the strange heat that felt like it was pouring out of her soul. "I'm s..s..sorry M..michael."

"Shhh, you have nothing to be sorry for. You handled yourself so damn well out there." Michael said. "I was proud of you Maria. Watching you, the way you stood up to him, if you could do it, so could I. Hell, you made me keep my anger in check. I should be thanking you."

She snuggled closer to him, "b..but I..I moved, if..f I w..wouldn't have moved he w..wouldn't have done th..that to you."

Michael clenched his teeth as another spasm ripped through his left thigh muscle. "N..no, he would have just found another reason. He was playing with us Maria. It's what he does, what he gets off on."

Maria raised her eyes to Michael's, a tear fell from the corner of her eye and disappeared into her hair. "I..I th..thought he w..was going to r..rape me."

Michael reached up and wiped the trail of wetness from her face, he didn't know what to say, he had thought the exact same thing. He realized that if Yeager had raped Maria, he would be dead now, his anger would have gotten him killed. He knew that there was no way he could have handled that.

"Shhh, just go to sleep ok, we'll talk about it tomorrow, just sleep now." Michael told her.

"C..can't sleep." Maria said. The heat was making her spiral out of control, the shaking wouldn't stop and she felt nervous, jumpy. She kept rubbing her feet together, soon her knees joined the motion. Her legs were sliding up and down, brushing against each other.

"M..michael, something's wrong, I don't know h..how to ex..explain it. I n..need something." Maria moaned.

He raised his head and looked down into her face, he could see the anxiety in her eyes. They had left the lights off, only the night lights that they used during their sleeping hours were on. The soft light caused the shadows to jump acrossed the walls as he moved. "What's the matter, what is it?"  

"I d..don't know." Maria withdrew her arms from the blankets and reached out for him. He took her back into his arms. "Hold me, please Michael j..just hold me."

He had thought the heat coming off her was bad, but without the blankets between them Michael realized she was burning up. He took one hand and pushed her damp hair away from her face. "Maria, do you hurt anywhere, are you in pain?"

"Yessss…n..no, it's n..not a pain, I j..just need you to hold me." She clutched him to her, tighter than Michael thought possible. Her arms were like steel wrapped around him. He could feel her body moving, constantly moving.

"Lie still Maria, you've got to relax." Michael was out of his element here, he needed Max, but the doors were still locked, and he had yelled for Max and Isabelle earlier but no one had responded.

Releasing him, she reached down and shoved the blankets off of her, she immediately rolled back and wrapped her arms around his body; as she brought him against her body he felt the dampness of the bed, the sweat was rolling off her body. They hadn't bothered giving her any clothes when they returned them to their cell, he looked down and saw the light glistening off her naked hips.

"Michael I..I need you to t..touch me, p..please." Maria brought her mouth to his neck, she lashed her tongue over his Adams apple. He felt her nails digging into the tops of his shoulders.

"Ah, Maria, I don't think we should be doing this, I, ah…I mean we have to stop." Michael didn't want to stop, but he realized this is what the oil had done. It was some kind of aphrodisiac, this wasn't what Maria really wanted or needed right now. He gripped her arms and brought them down between them, keeping them apart. "You don't really want me, it's the oil, remember, the oil that Yeager put on you. It's not you talking, it's the drug."

"But I've always w..wanted you, every since the first time you k..kissed me, I've dreamed about t..this." She fought him, all she could think about was getting her arms around him again. She needed to feel his body against hers, she wanted him to touch her.

"No, Maria, it's the drug." Michael rolled over and stared at her, he could hear her uneven breathing, he could see her breast rising and falling with each intake of air. He closed his eyes and pictured her laying there, all wet and naked. <God, don't do this to me, I can't handle this.>

Maria took the few seconds that he had rolled away from her to return her hands to his body. She ran her hands up his chest, around his neck. "Don't you w..want me?"

Not want her, hell, he wanted her more than ever, but he couldn't do this. He couldn't take advantage of her like this. He felt himself harden inside of his scrubs, he willed his body under control.

Maria saw the evidence right in-front of her, she reached down to the cloth that was tented over his groin. She pressed his erection down to his stomach and gently squeezed her fingers around it. Michael couldn't control his body as he moved his hips slightly, he couldn't stop his legs from cramping again.

Maria cried out, "Michael I n..need you. Please?"

Her heard the passion in her voice, he realized he had stopped breathing when she had taken hold of him. He reached down and grabbed her wrist, he couldn't believe this, he had a naked woman in his bed, and not just any woman. Maria DeLuca, the only woman that he had ever wanted, wanted to get close too, wanted to tell all his secrets too. Sometimes he had the crazy idea that he wanted to crawl inside of her and never come out. Who cared if she talked to damn much, who cared that she constantly drove him crazy. Those are the things that had attracted him to her in the first place.

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted when she pulled her arm out of his grasp and grabbed him by the hips and rolled him over on top of her. He didn't have time to react. Reaching out with his arms to steady himself he felt her legs circle around his hips, felt the heat pouring off of her, wrapping them both in a tight cocoon. Her arms moved up under his, he felt her nails again, digging in deeper this time. He couldn't stop himself, he moaned. Looking down into her face, he thought she looked fierce, almost feral. There was almost an animalistic look in her eyes. Maybe he should have been frightened, but he wasn't, it excited him to see her like this. She was totally out of control. He felt his cock harden even more, felt her push her hips up and into him.

"I want you. Now, I don't care if it's real or not for you, I don't care how you feel about me. I want you inside of me…NOW!" Maria snarled at him, reaching down she grasp him in her hand, pushing and prodding, trying to get him inside of her. The hold she had on him almost hurt. She was clutching him tightly. He couldn't believe it, couldn't comprehend her acting like this. But at the same time he couldn't have stopped himself now if he wanted to. He felt himself slide into her, felt the warmth, the wetness. His lips opened and a sound came out, it was totally undisquishable, it made no sense, but Maria didn't care, all she cared about was getting him inside of her. She slammed her hips up at the same moment her hand clutched the globes of his ass and pulled as hard as she could. Michael couldn't stop her, he felt her tear, felt her jerk in pain. He looked down at her, her eyes were clenched shut. Tears ran down the sides of her face, collecting in the small interior of her ears.

"Maria, Oh My God, are you alright?" Michael couldn't understand why she had done that. Why cause herself such pain?

She never answered him, she raised her hips and started grinding them into him. He tried to slow her down, tried to gain control, but he was helpless, she was the one in-charge, the one in total domination. Michael closed his eyes and slammed down into her, he didn't know if he was hurting her, but she didn't seem to care. She clawed her hands up his back, pulling him down on top of her. Their bodies pounded into each other, over and over again, relentlessly.

Michael felt a tightening, this was happening way too fast, but there was no way he could stop it.

He felt Maria shudder and he could feel the ripples of release as she tightened on him. It was enough to bring on his release. Clasping each other as tightly as possible they trembled violently as it washed over their bodies.

As the quivering subsided all you could hear was their breathing as it echoed in the room. Michael felt Maria raise her hips again, she pressed herself to him over and over again. He had to stop her, it was too much, too soon.

"Maria stop, you have to stop." Michael pleaded with her.

"I can't, it's not enough, I need more, please touch me Michael I need to feel you touch me." He could hear the frustration laced through her voice. He realized she was still under the effects of the oil, still feeling the sexual tension that was driving through her body. He reached down with one hand and cupped her between her legs, he felt himself dislodge out of her.

He rolled to his side, using his fingers he tried to sooth the ache away. He found the small nub of flesh, he started circling it with his fingers. "I'll help you, but you need to relax, you need to calm down." He cupped the top of her head with his other hand and brought his lips down to hers, he had just made love to her and had never touched her lips once. He corrected that now, rubbing his lips back and forth acrossed hers, she moaned into his mouth. He pushed his tongue into her mouth and twisted it around hers. Their tongues battled as he drove her higher and higher with his fingers. So close, she was so damn close. Just a little more. Michael moved his mouth down her chin, acrossed her collarbone and took her nipple into his mouth, sucking hard he drove one finger into her, harder, as she clawed at his body.

It wasn't enough for Maria she needed more, "Bite it," she pleaded with him. "Please bite me Michael."

Michael bite down gently, but it still wasn't enough, he felt her hands pulling his head into her chest, trying to bring him even closer. He pulled his fingers out of her and pulled her legs around until he was between them. He lowered his mouth to her, driving his tongue inside of her, as deep as he could go.

Maria screamed his name and came up off the bed, a small part of her mind remembered her dream, remembered him using his mouth on her, it was enough, she felt her muscles clench, felt herself floating above the bed. Holding her eyes closed she rode out the storm. When she opened her eyes she couldn't see anything for a few moments. When her eyes finally adjusted to the dim room she looked down and caught Michael staring up at her, she slid her arms under his and pulled him up the bed. Taking her into his arms he reached over and pulled the covers over them.

He heard her mumble something, "What?" he ask her.

"It was better than the dream," she said as she drifted off to sleep. Chapter 14 -

Kyle leaned back against the wall of the cell, he pulled the blanket tighter around him. <damn it was cold in here> All the lights were still off. He could make out Isabelle's shape on the bed in the dim generator lights. She'd been tossing and turning all night, every once in a while she would make a sound, almost like a moan. Twice Kyle had almost reached up and shaken her awake to see if she was ok. But he was afraid she would just freak out on him. After last night she had been pretty jumpy, almost to the breaking point. Hell, she had held up pretty damn good for everything that had happened to them in the last month. At least he thought it was a month, it could have been longer, he wasn't sure.

Hell, he figured they all had held up pretty good, under the circumstances.

He shivered again, damn he should have ask for another blanket this morning before all hell had broken loose. But they hadn't exactly been expecting Yeager and his little rack of pain. He still didn't know exactly what had happened, but seeing Michael strapped to that thing could not mean anything good.

A click was heard and Kyle was able to make things out in the other room, which meant they had unlocked their cells and turned off the darkening switch to their doors.

Kyle decided since he was already awake and freezing he would go take a shower, that might take the chill out of his bones. He stood up and with the blanket still wrapped around him stepped through the door and headed for the shower room.

Isabelle slowly rolled over and watched him until he was out of sight. She had been dreaming about him again. She couldn't understand what was happening to her. Whenever she was with Kyle she wanted to just reach out and hold him. All day long she wanted him to touch her. And tonight her dreams had been hot, so hot that she had wanted to crawl off the bed and throw herself at him. She didn't feel that way about him. In the last few weeks they had become closer, hell they weren't really given a choice. But this all fired passion she was feeling for him just didn't seem right. She didn't understand it. <I should go and see what he is doing> NO! She pushed the thought down in her head. What the hell was the matter with her. She pulled the pillow over her head and moaned. Why, why was this happening. She heard the panel that enclosed the shower room opening. He was going to take a shower, at this time of the night? Or maybe he just had to use the bathroom, that's all, he'll be back in a few moments. <why are you so worried about him, you should be worried about Michael and Maria, not Kyle, he wasn't tortured by Yeager tonight, they were>

Isabelle laid there and let the happenings of the day meander through her brain, she wondered what they had done to Maria and Michael, wondered if they were all right. Maybe she should go and check on them. She threw the covers back and stood up. Trying to be as quiet as possible she slipped out of the cell and walked to the back of the room. She could barely make out the shapes of Max and Liz huddled in the middle of their bed, one large form under covers were all she could make out. As she approached Room B she could see Michael and Maria. Michael was on his back, he had one arm thrown over his head, Maria was curled into his side, a sheet was thrown over both of them. As she stood and watched, Michael shuddered, Maria reached up and pulled herself closer to him. He turned and nestled her more into his body.

Isabelle felt like she had been punched in the gut. They looked so right laying there wrapped around one another. It just brought it home to her that she was alone, and would probably always be alone. She turned her head and stared at the shower room door.

Kyle had turned the water up as hot as he could get it. The water sluiced down over his body, slowly taking away the chill. The damn tile was so cold, no matter how he laid he got cold. As he let the warmth seep through him, he thought he heard something behind him. He turned and saw Isabelle standing in the doorway. She looked like she was still asleep. He turned and walked across the floor slowly; he didn't want to startle her. He reached up and grabbed a towel off the rack and covered himself. "Izzy?"

"I don't want to be alone." She said.

"Do you want me to get Max?" he questioned.

"No," she moved closer to him. "I don't know what I want. I have all these feelings running through me and I don't understand them."

"Iz, maybe you should go back to bed," Kyle felt uncomfortable standing there dripping all over the floor, he didn't understand what was wrong, he didn't know how to handle this Isabelle.

She moved until she stood directly in front of him, her eyes dropped to the towel he was holding in front of himself. She didn't know why, but she reached out and grasped the towel, Kyle felt her give it a small tug. He gripped it tighter, but she persisted and the towel came away in her hands. She looked at his naked form for a few seconds, then raised her eyes to his. They both stood there staring at each other, neither of them knowing what was happening.

She didn't ask him, she told him what she wanted. "I want you to make love to me."

"What?" Kyle was astonished, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Everyday she let him know in no uncertain terms that co-habituating with him was not on her list favorite topics. And now out of the blue she springs this on him. "Isabelle, I don't understand what the hell your trying to pull here, but I think you should just go back to bed. I'm not in the mood for any games tonight."

"It's not a game," she reached out and laid her palm on his cheek. He felt so warm, so alive, and she felt so dead inside. Maybe, just maybe if she got close to him she could feel alive again.

"Please Kyle, make love to me?" She brought herself closer to him, pressing her ample breast into his chest. She felt him stiffen as she put her arms around him. He could feel her hard nipples rubbing against him.  

"Ah…did you forget you can't stand me?" he asked her.

She turned her face up to his and he could see the tears forming in her eyes.

"Oh God Isabelle." He brought his arms up and gathered her to him. His heart broke at the look of despair that was in her eyes.

"Make me feel Kyle, put your hands on me and make me feel something, anything." She begged him. The tears were falling fast now, her breath was coming out in sobs. She reached down and fondled him. She felt him laying soft and flaccid against her hand. <he doesn't want me.> But in the next second she felt him harden, felt his cock twitch against her fingers. She felt a dampness spreading in the crotch of her pants. She felt a clenching in her womb, an insistent throbbing.

Kyle prepared to take her back to the room, he had to get a grip on himself here, this wasn't right, something wasn't right here. He placed his hands on her shoulders in order to gently push her away from him, but before he could, he felt her lips pressing to his, felt her tongue slipping past his lips and into his mouth. <God she felt good.>

Kyle lost all train of thought, everything that he knew quietly slipped away to be replaced with the feelings of Isabelle's month and tongue. The hands that had been preparing to push her away now brought her closer. He wrapped his hands around her back and gently trailed his fingers down her spine.

From the moment Kyle had started returning her kiss Isabelle went up in flames. She burned, from the center of her womb outward. Her skin tingled where he touched her, his fingers felt like feathers gliding up and down her back. The more he touched her the hotter she burned. <why, why am I feeling this way> The thought was fleeting, there one minute and gone the next.

He grasped his hands under her bottom and pulled her up onto him. He could feel her rubbing herself against his naked body. Her hands were everywhere on him, moving up and down his chest, his back. He turned and leaned her against the wall.

"Isabelle…yes, touch me…yes." Kyle groaned out. He had to touch her, but he couldn't hold her up at the same time. They slowly slid to the floor, never taking their hands off of each other. As they came to rest against the cold tile floor Kyle pushed his hand down the waistband of her pants, the elastic gave way easily and he was touching her. His fingers glided over her curls, down into the wet, warmth of her. He placed two fingers over her clit and drew small little circles around it.

She enclosed his cock in her hand and squeezed with her fingers, but it wasn't what he wanted. He reached down and showed her how to move him, pumping his erection up and down, moving her hand from the base to the tip and back down again. During the entire process their lips had never broken contact, never left each other.

Isabelle drew her hand up his neck and into his hair, she gripped the strands through her fingers and pulled him closer, she had to get closer. <Oh My God, what's happening to me>

The only sound in the room was the water raining down on the floor, soon their ragged breaths could be heard, faster and faster as they tried to fill their lungs up with enough air and not lose the precious contact. Suddenly a shrill feminine cry filled the room and echoed off the ceramic tile. Kyle pulled Isabelle tighter to him as he felt both of them reach orgasm at the same time. Her hand slowed, lessening her grip but not releasing him. Kyle continued to gently circle his fingers on her. Finally Isabelle released him and placed her hand over his. He stopped.

Kyle pulled away from her and leaned against the wall. He noticed the towel laying on the floor, at their feet. He bent over and picked it up, turning he pulled Isabelle into his lap and placed the towel around her.

They sat in silence for a few moments. Then Isabelle ask the question that was looming in her mind. "Why didn't you make love to me."

"I did…sorta, but I don't think you really wanted me to…well…" He tried to think of a delicate way to put it. "I didn't think you wanted to go that far."

"I wanted to, I just don't understand why I wanted to." She sounded confused. "I mean, I like you Kyle; in the last few weeks I've been able to see a different side to you. I've stopped seeing you as the enemy a long time ago. But I don't feel that way about you."

He pulled the towel around her shoulders, tucking it in between his chest and her. "When did you start having these weird thoughts?"

"I don't know, I guess this afternoon, I had this dream and it was hot, I mean really hot," Kyle watched as a blush slowly came to Isabelle's cheeks as she spoke. "And another dream tonight, right before you left our room."

"After your session with Topolsky right?" Kyle ask her.

"Yeah, I guess it was, why?" Isabelle could see something forming in his eyes.

"I think she did something to you. Something that made you…change your mind about me. She messed with your mind." Kyle told her.

A look of anger swept across Isabelle's face. "That Bitch!"

"She probably did the same thing with Liz, I think that's why Yeager was all over Maria and Michael." Kyle laid his theory out for her. "Maria never went to Topolsky's office." Remember, Yeager came and started his game. I think it's all part of some psychological game their playing with us. To bring us together. Making us participate in their little experiments."

"And I fell right into their trap," She looked up at him. "I think Michael and Maria did too. I was watching them before I came in here. They were in bed, together. I don't know why but I think they made love. I just got that impression looking at them."

"I wonder what that bastard did to them, did they look hurt?" Kyle ask.

"No, not hurt, but they looked broken, sorta like they were exhausted. And Michael was twitching every few minutes, like chills were running up and down his spine." Isabelle told him.

They sat in silence for a for minutes, then Isabelle ask him something she was wondering about for quite awhile. "Kyle why did you try and help us? Why did you come to the Crashdown that night?"

He smiled down into her face, "I can't believe no one has ask me that yet. I kept waiting, wondering what I was going to say, cause I'll be honest with you Iz, I have no freakin idea why. I heard my father and Topolsky talking in his office. At first I didn't understand what the hell they were talking about. Aliens, who the hell believes in aliens, but then Topolsky mentioned you and Max by name. Topolsky was saying how the "plan" would go down. When I heard her mention the FBI, I thought "no freakin way."

"But you still tried to helped us?" Isabelle looked a little skeptical. "I thought you would be happy to have Max out of the way. You two weren't exactly friends."

"Yeah, that's what I thought to." He replied. "They said they would wait for you until you were on your way home, take you then. Michael was going to be taken from his house. I just thought that they were nuts, you know, my dad has had a problem with this crap for years, but here was a school guidance counselor and she was talking like it was true. She was talking about "rounding you all up" like you were cattle or something. But then they mentioned Liz and Maria. Topolsky said they had to be quarantined, had to be checked out to see if you three had "infected" them in any way. I didn't even think about it, I got out of there and drove to the Crashdown as fast as I could.

"I can't believe you went against your father, for us." Isabelle told him.

"I never thought of it that way. I just knew that Liz could possibly be hurt, and I didn't want that to happen." Kyle replied. Thinking about his dad caused an ache to appear in his chest, he wondered what had happened to him. How were they treating him, and was he here in this complex with them, or someplace else.

Isabelle could tell he was thinking about his dad, so she decided to change the subject. "You know I think that sitting here on the floor is not a good idea, you're probably going to catch a cold her something."

"Try sleeping on it for a few weeks, then we'll talk" Kyle said. "By the way, am I returning to the floor tonight?"

She smiled shyly, "no, you can sleep with me in the bed, but I don't think…"

"This isn't going to happen again, I know. I like you Iz, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't want to sleep with you just because Topolsky put the thoughts in your head." Kyle told her. "Now, when we get out of here, and you want to talk about it then, well…ouch…what was that for?"

Isabelle rubbed her knuckles, his chest was rock hard, hitting him had caused them to sting. "I don't sleep around, I've never slept with anyone actually."

"It's kinda fun if you do it right." Kyle smirked.  

"It's was you wasn't it, you're the non-virgin of our little group?" Isabelle sounded shocked.

"It was only one time, I had just made my first touchdown, thought I was really something, she was one of the cheerleaders, I thought she really liked me. Turned out I was nothing but something to brag about to all her friends." Kyle said, she could hear the pain in his voice.

"One of the cheerleaders…yuck." Isabelle's couldn't contain her curiosity, "who?"

"Angie Myers." Kyle said.

"That ho, the whole football team had her." Isabelle twisted her lips up. "She's a sleaze, you could do better than that."

"I know that now, but when you're a freshman and you've never had any, your not exactly thinking straight." Kyle started pushing his way up the wall. "I better get you back to bed before you end up getting sick. This floor is cold."

"Never been sick, actually none of us has ever been sick a day in our lives." She bragged. "And if we would get sick, we'd just heal ourselves."

"Heal yourselves, like when Max healed Liz in the diner?" She nodded her head. "What else can you do?" Kyle ask her.

"Well, when we get out of here you don't want to tick me off, cause I can do some really wicked things to you in your dreams." She said looping her arms around his neck. As they went to step through the door Isabelle placed her hand on the doorframe. "Ah…Kyle don't you think you should put some clothes on?"

Kyle's eyes lit up as he realized he was still naked. Lowering her feet to the floor he shook his head, "you made me forget."

"I made you forget, right, blame me." Isabelle told him as she watched him walk to the shower and turn the water off. He stepped to the rack and pulled a fresh tank top and scrubs off the shelf. She watched his backside as he dressed.

"Isabelle?" Kyle said over his shoulder.

"Yes Kyle?" She was trying to keep a serious expression on her face.

"Quit staring at my butt."

Chapter 15 -

The lights were suddenly thrown on, Max threw his feet to the floor, after yesterday he didn't know what to expect today. He glanced at Kyle across the room and they both had the same look in their eyes. They were mentally preparing themselves for whatever would happened today.

Topolsky entered the room, she was practically glowing. She walked from cell to cell, glancing at all her little caged rats. "I'd like to congratulate all of you. You've helped us complete Phase I of our project. And in celebration I'm giving you the day off. No games today kiddies."

"Go to hell." This from Michael, his face showed exactly what he thought of her .

"Well Mr. Guerin I can understand your sentiments, I mean Mr. Yeager was a little rough yesterday, but he did help us achieve our goal." She moved closer to him. "And you got laid so what are you bitching about."

She walked to the center of the room. Throwing her arms into the air she said. "You all got lucky last night, so why all the glum faces?"

She turned to Room C, "well sorta lucky, right Mr. Valenti. You're gonna have to work on your approach, but hey, you're half way there. Just because you know what I did, doesn't mean its going to go away. You can both fight it if you want. But in the end she'll give in. I've locked my suggestions into her and Ms. Parker's minds. They can't ignore them anymore than you can ignore me. Well I'm off, I have a very large report to make, telling my superiors all about our wonderful happy existence here in…what did you call it Mr. Guerin… Happy Acres Home for Wayward Aliens."

She turned and walked out through the door.  

Max and Liz stepped out of their rooms, Liz heading towards Maria, she didn't know if she wanted to face Max right now, she was a little embarrassed about the way she had acted last night. She had been totally out of control. She hadn't been herself. Halfway there Isabelle saw her and joined her. The walked into the room and saw Michael pulling the blankets around Maria. The girl was awake but she seemed lifeless, exhausted.

"Don't let her get out of this bed, do you hear me. You can talk to her, but she's not getting up." He issued the orders as he headed out the door.

Michael walked into the mainroom, he headed for the chairs lined up against the wall, they hadn't returned the tables to them, but they could still use the chairs. He took two of the folding chairs and set them up. Kyle walked up and grabbed two more, with Max's help they soon had all six chairs sitting in a circle in the middle of the room. The three men sat down. They didn't speak, just sat staring at the floor, the walls, anything but each other.

"So we all did it." Michael finally said. "After everything that's happened to us what the hell could you expect."

"Speak for yourself, Izzy and I didn't exactly do it…we sorta just messed around a bit." Kyle said in his defense.

"What the hell was she talking about, what did she put in Liz and Izzy's minds?" Michael ask.

Kyle sat up, leaning his arms on his knees he said, "Suggestions, stuff about wanting to actually…do it. Isabelle and I figured it out last night."

"I thought that's what it was, but I wasn't sure. From some of the things the girls said yesterday I had been wondering." Max said. "And Liz wasn't exactly herself last night."

"So now what, cause I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you, there's only one good thing in this place for me, and she's in our bed right now. I'm not gonna stop being with her. Hell, Max I couldn't stop if I wanted to." Michael said in one long breathe.

"I know, I'm not going to ask you to stop. I think that would be a waste of my time and yours." Max told him, "but I think we should take some precautions. We have to at least think of the consequences here. I don't think we should…complete the act inside of them. Last night a lot of things we're going down, we we're all caught up in the moment. But from now on we have to think with our heads straight about this."

"I agree." Michael said. They both turned to Kyle.

"Hey, I told you we didn't do it. We just got a little carried away, I did not make love to Isabelle. We've agreed that it's not going to happen again." Kyle told them.

"Are you sleeping in the same bed with her?" Michael ask.

"Well yeah, but…" Kyle didn't get to finish.

"Your gonna do it. Just give it some time." Michael told him.

Kyle turned to Max, "I swear Evans I am not going to have sex with your sister."

"Kyle nobody is accusing you of anything." Max replied.

"Max!" Liz shouted. "Maria's sick."

The men got up and ran to the cell. Liz was wiping Maria's face with a towel while Isabelle kneeled on the floor cleaning up the mess Maria had made. The girl sat on the edge of the bed, she had the sheet wrapped around her naked body.

"Maria, what's the matter?" Michael skirted his way around the back of the bed and kneeled behind the young girl.

"I feel so dizzy, I think it was the drug, I can't stop my head from spinning." Maria said through clenched teeth.

"What drug?" Max asked.

"Yeager used some kind of oil, he rubbed it on her body, it…made her…excited." Michael replied. "We think it was drugs of some kind."

"Excited? What do you mean excited." Max questioned. "It made me horny. Ok." Maria shouted. "And he put Michael up on that thing, he made him watch as he rubbed this oil all over me. If I moved he would shock Michael. I tried to stand still but I couldn't. He sent currents of electricity shooting through Michael's body. And…and afterwards the oil made me want…Michael."

"Hey, calm down, I'm alright, I'm not even having muscle spasms anymore. I'm fine. Just calm down." Reaching up he pushed the hair that was clinging to Maria's forehead back off of her face. "You should have seen her, she was so damn beautiful out there, she never let him get to her. She stayed cool, real cool."

Max and Isabelle exchanged looks, they had never heard Michael speak this way, never heard him actually compliment another the way he had just complimented Maria.

"I can imagine the words that were coming out of your mouth. Are Yeager's ears ringing this morning?" Isabelle ask Michael.

"No, he never said a word to him. He didn't lose his temper at all. He was more calm than I was."" Maria said, the dizziness was almost gone, and her stomach had finally settled down.

Max couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You never said a word to him?"

Michael looked at his friend and replied. "Hey, if she could hold it together, so could I. Bit a hole threw my lip trying to keep my mouth shut."

Maria stood up and told Isabelle she would help her remove the soiled towels. Isabelle pulled the towels out of her reach. "Just forget it, I'll take care of these, you just get back into bed." She left the room to dispose of the towels. She figured she would put them in the shower room.

Maria didn't like that idea at all. "I'm fine now, I don't need to….OH MY GOD! She feel to her knees clutching her lower abdomen, the sheet shifted and her breast were exposed. Moans came pouring out of her mouth. "Awww…."

"Maria!" Michael dropped to his knees beside her, he pulled her into his arms. "What's the matter?"  

Liz knelt down on her other side, she didn't know what to do. She gathered the sheet back over her, covering her back up. She turned to Max, "What's the matter with her?"

Kyle turned and yelled for Isabelle.

The main door was suddenly thrown open and Topolsky entered with three technicians; two of them were pushing a gurney.

"Everybody back to their cells, immediately. NOW, get the hell out of the way." The woman shouted as she pushed her way into the cell. Pushing Liz out of the way she dropped to her knees beside Maria. "Where does it hurt, tell me."

"My stomach," Maria yelled. "God, it feels like I'm being ripped apart."

"Mr. Guerin please, get out of the way." Topolsky screamed at him.

Michael had no intentions of leaving Maria. Two of the technicians grabbed him under the arms and pulled him away from the girl. The other tech picked Maria up off the floor and started to carry her to the gurney. Isabelle came running out of the shower room. Kyle grabbed her and pulled her behind him. Max stepped in-front of the man carrying Maria.

"Where are you taking her?" Michael screamed from the cell.

Topolsky faced Max. "Mr. Evans, we have to take her to Dr. Hanson, if you would kindly inform Mr. Guerin that she has to see the doctor."

"Why can't he come here?" Max demanded.

"If you care about this girl at all, you will get out of our way and let us do our job." Topolsky told him. "Believe me, we aren't going to hurt her, if I'm correct in my suspicions, she's the most important thing in this whole damn experiment right now."

"What is it, what's the matter with her?" Michael screamed.

"What do you think is wrong with her?" Liz said.

"I think she's pregnant." Topolsky stated. "Now please if we don't get her to Dr. Hanson immediately we may lose her."

Max stepped out of the way. "If anything happens to her…"

"I'm in full agreement with you, nothing will happen to her. We'll protect her with our lives." Topolsky said as she helped the technician push Maria towards the door.

"MICHAEL!!" Maria screamed.

"No, don't let them take her Max, don't let her take her." Michael shouted. He struggled to get away from the men who were holding him. But they were stronger than him. Having been tortured hours before he was still too weak to fight them.

As Topolsky and Maria disappeared through the door, the technicians let Michael go and ran to follow them. The door shut with a resounding bang.  

Michael dropped to his hands and knees. "She can't be pregnant, it was only a few hours ago, how can this be happening."

"Michael we don't know anything about our species, nothing about conception, birth, nothing." Isabelle said quietly as she watched him rock back and forth on his knees. She wanted to go to him, wrap her arms around him, but she didn't think he would accept it. Not in the mood he was in. You could feel the anger radiating off of him, anger and fear. He was scared for Maria.

-*****-

Maria didn't return, no matter how much Michael yelled and screamed no one came to answer his pleas. After a few days his shouting ceased. After a few weeks he stopped talking.  

A black cloud hung over the five young people in the holding cells. Michael stayed in his room, he ate his meals sitting on the side of his bed. The tables had been returned to them, Max, Liz, Kyle and Isabelle ate their meals at the table, but very little was said.

Michael didn't sleep much. He just lay on the bed that he had shared with Maria, staring at the ceiling. Waiting, hoping they would return her to him. If someone spoke to him he didn't answer, he couldn't. He only showered when they turned the lights off at night.

After lights out you could hear the whispers, the quiet voices in the dark as Max and Liz held each other through the long nights, they spoke of things that they didn't understand, of better days and walking in the sunlight again. They stroked and petted each other to completion, but they never succumbed to the need to be together again.

Kyle and Isabelle tried to fight Isabelle's cravings, but they always returned, especially in the darkness when they lay side by side in their bed. Kyle always treated her gently, slowly removing the ache with his hands or mouth, but never did he take her, not even when she begged him too.

They knew it was too dangerous. They had given in once, but never again.

Topolsky never came to see them anymore, no mind games where played on them, Yeager and his tools weren't seen again. As the weeks went by no one even missed them.

-*****-

Zane Shearer sat at his monitor watching the five young people in the holding cells, he turned to another monitor and watched the young girl thrash on the bed, she had monitors hooked up to her, she looked like she had sprouted cords and wires from her body. She had been unconscious for two days now. For weeks she had courageously fought off the pain that continuously racked her small body. The pain only lessened when they drugged her, but Dr. Hanson had told Topolsky today that it couldn't go on, they were losing her, and losing the child she carried. Zane knew she was only six weeks pregnant, but her swollen body told another tale. Ultrasounds had shown that the fetus was approximately four or five months along. Topolsky argued that if they could keep the child alive for another two weeks they could probably save it. The mother was a forgotten issue. She was expendable.

It was time, he couldn't wait any longer. If they weren't ready on their end so what, he had to get these kids out of here now. He glanced at the door; no one would be here for another six hours. He reached down into his boot and pulled out the device. Instead of the same message that he had sent for over two months now, he tapped another set of numbers into the small box. [NOW] He knew that he had to be ready in five hours. This was their only chance.

Chapter 16 -

He had checked the monitors over and over again. They were all sleeping. He had run through the computer program until it was imprinted on his eyelids. He had a little under one hour. Zane Shearer knew it was now or never. He pulled the program up one last time, he wanted it ready for when he returned to this room, after that he wouldn't have much time.

He stepped through the control room door, he voiced his code number. The buzzing stopped and the lights went off. He walked to the third door on the left. He knew who he would find in that room. He slowly drew the Walther PPK out of his boot. Reese hadn't wanted him to bring it, thought it was too dangerous. But he wasn't walking into that room defenseless. Not against that bitch, he didn't trust her.

The door gave a slight creak as he opened it. Topolsky was bent over Maria DeLuca as she lay moaning on the bed, she looked up at the sound. "Mr. Shearer, is there a problem?"

"Yeah, I'm afraid so." Zane replied. He brought the gun up, pointing it directly at her heart.

Topolsky straightened, with a look of disbelief she snapped at him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Zane looked around the small room, "where's Dr. Hanson?"

Hearing his name. The doctor poked his head out of the bathroom door, he saw the gun. "Oh my."

"Get out here, now, doctor. I'm going to need your assistance," he used his free hand to point at two folded wheelchairs parked against the wall. "Unfold both of them doctor. Ms. Topolsky if you would do me the honor of parking your ass in the first one. Pull the other one next to the bed."

The thin blonde woman smiled. "You're kidding right, there is no way your getting out of here, especially with her. There are too many guards, too many checkpoints. Why don't we just talk about this…Zane."

She's good Zane thought, the bitch knows how to play her head games, making it personal, hell, she'd never called him by his first name in the last two years they had worked together. Reese had worked it into his head over and over again, do not communicate with them. Speak as little as possible.

Zane wished Reese was here now. They had known that this would probably happen one day and he had to be ready, but talking and planning for this wasn't the same as actually pointing a weapon at someone and bringing all their plans to consummation.

The doctor had the chair up in no time, which amazed Zane, usually he was a klutz. Zane still had trouble believing that someone actually had assigned him to this project.

"Sit." He motioned with the gun for Topolsky to get into the chair.  

She reluctantly sat down. "I'm only doing this because we both realize you're not going anywhere. This will all be over in a few minutes." She sighed as if she was bored by the whole proceeding.

Zane picked up a roll of sterilized tape and tossed it to Dr. Hanson, "strap her in, and for God's sake tape her mouth shut. The doctor did as he was told, he didn't do it too gently either. Zane believed the doc was working all his frustrations out on her for all the times she had talked down to him.

When he had her tied securely, Zane told him to removed the cords and wires from Maria. As soon as he had all the wires removed, without being told he placed Maria in the other chair, using the straps to keep her secure. Zane checked his watch, thirty-five minutes left. "Ok, doc your driving, lets go."

Maria had started moaning and shifting around in the chair. Zane reached down and felt her forehead.

"Her fever is pretty high, are you sure about this, if you remove her from this facility she could die." The doctor's voice actually sounded like he cared.

"She won't die." Zane replied simply. "Let's move, back to the holding cells."

The doctor pushed the chair out of the room, Zane followed, he could hear Topolsky mumbling behind the tape as he tugged the door closed behind him. When they reached the controlroom door Zane gave his clearance, the door opened and as soon as they stepped through it, the buzzing was heard from the corridor again. Zane walked to the control panel and started flipping switches. The lights came on in the holding cells, the occupants never bother to get out of their beds to see what was happening.

"Can you really get them out of here?" Dr. Hanson ask him. "I mean to say, I hope you can get them out. This isn't right, when I first started on this project it was different, it was like…" he couldn't continue, he lowered his eyes to the floor.

"Like they weren't really people to you doc? Is that what your trying to say? What about the man in fifty-nine, what about him." Zane was still flipping switches, he really didn't have time for this, but he continued, he couldn't stop the anger from creeping into his voice, and the doctor heard it loud and clear. "You did your little experiments on him didn't you, you didn't have a conscience then doc."

Dr. Hanson's head jerked up, "you're right, but it was different then, he was a grown man. These are just children, I can't condone what she's done to them."

"Well, here's your chance to make up for it." Zane flipped the last switch, he watched as the counter started. Fifteen minutes and counting down. He ran to the door and opened it, the doctor wheeled Maria through the doorway.

Michael felt her before he saw her, he didn't know what it was at first, like a small tingle at the back of his brain. Then he knew, he sat up in the bed and saw the three people coming through the doorway. Jumping from the bed he screamed her name.

"Maria!" He reached her side before the others had a chance to get through the doors of their cells. Cradling her face in his hands he could see how ravaged she was. She was so pale, so lifeless. She had lost weight. He never took his eyes from her face, he started to unwrap the straps from around her, his hand bumped against her stomach. He felt her swollen abdomen, "what the hell did you do to her."

"We don't have time to explain, we're getting out of here. NOW!" Zane stated loudly so everyone could hear.

"What the hell are you talking about, how, this place is tighter than Fort Knox." Kyle didn't know who this clown was, but he didn't appreciate his little game. "Topolsky is behind this, it's just another one of her games."

"Max, Kyle's right, I don't trust them." Liz whimpered. Max gripped her hand tightly, pulling her with him as he strode into the group of people standing around the wheelchair. He could see Maria in the chair, she didn't look good.

"On no, Ms. Topolsky is tied up in the medical room." Dr. Hanson nervously informed them. "Mr. Shearer says he can get you out of here."

"And why should we believe you?" Isabelle demanded. She didn't trust this either, nothing these people had ever done to them had been this bad before. There was no way out of this place.

Zane ignored their questions and their arguments, he walked to the center of the room after shoving the tables and chairs out of the way he placed the device on the floor. He started punching in numbers. "We have less than ten minutes, we're leaving now, if it's a game you can kill me later, ok. But right now, we don't have time for this."

Isabelle had had enough. "We're not going anywhere with you. Go back and tell that bitch that we're no longer playing her games."

"Fine, but let me warn you about something, this building is rigged to go in about.." Zane checked his watch again, "…eight minutes and forty seconds. Every computer is hooked up with a small device, C4 is run throughout the network. There's not going to be anything left of this place. And I guess I should tell you that I can't take no for an answer." He brought the gun up. "We're all leaving, and we're leaving now." He was getting tired of having to repeat himself.

He backed away from the box and waited for about three seconds. Suddenly a brilliant white light came up out of the box, it reached the ceiling in a single line. It started to waver back and forth, then it grew bigger, until it was a large square, fifteen feet by ten feet.

Max watched as the light shifted back and forth. "Who are you?" he turned and ask Zane.

Zane turned to him and smiled. "I'm a friend. And there are more friends waiting on the other side of that vortex. Trust me, please I can get you out of here."

"Max, I say we go for it. Staying here is not an option anymore." Michael said. "If we stay here we're all going to die."

Zane didn't wait for Max's answer, they weren't taking a vote on this. They were leaving. "I want you all to listen to me. Walk straight into the vortex. Don't stop and don't turn back, do you hear me, DO NOT TURN BACK. You turn back and your dead."

A low rumbling could be heard coming from the light now, Zane knew it would get louder until it became a roar. The louder it got, meant they had less time for escape.

"Michael I want you to carry Maria, do not let go of her, do you understand me. If you let go there is no way she is gonna make it out. Do you hear me?" Zane was shouting to be heard over the wailing coming from the bright hole. Michael bent and picked Maria up in his arms, he didn't quite make it, he started to falter. Max reached to help him.  

Zane moved to stop him. "Don't touch her. Let Michael carry her." Max eyebrows shifted as he watched Michael tried to lift Maria again. "You're touch will cause her pain." Zane said. Michael stood this time with no trouble. He tightened his arms around Maria and prepared to step up to the light, their only hope of escape.

Michael turned and looked at Max, everything he had always wanted to say to Max was in his eyes. Max smiled, nodding his head. Michael turned to Isabelle and smiled at her. "See ya on the other side Izzy."

It was typical Michael she thought. Her shoulders shook, she didn't know if she was laughing or crying. "Not if I see you first, you jerk."  

And Michael stepped through and was gone.

 "Max and Liz your next" Zane yelled.

Max wrapped his fingers around Liz's and stepped up to the shifting, swirling hole, a light breeze blew across his face, he turned to Isabelle. He could see the tears glistening in her eyes. She suddenly threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him so tightly he could barely breath. When he pulled back she was smiling. "I'll be right behind you brother."

"Max I'm scared." Liz had lost her self-assurance in the last few week. Max hated seeing her like this.

"We're together in this, don't worry. It's going to be alright." Wrapping one arm around her shoulder he stepped into the void.

Zane checked his watch and saw that it was only a matter of seconds before this place blew up, herding Isabelle and Kyle to the exit he told them one last time, "remember don't turn around." When he felt them hesitate he gave them both a shove into the light. Turning to take one last look behind him he noticed the doctor was standing at the door, his mouth was hanging open. Zane figured he was in shock. He pitied the man. "I'm sorry doc." And then he stepped through and was gone.

The doctor heard the young man, and watched him disappear. He wondered if he should go back and release Topolsky, instead he walked to one of the chairs, sitting down; he waited. Hell, if he was going to die he didn't want his last few seconds to be spent with Kathleen Topolsky.

Chapter 17 -

Michael felt the cold seeping through the thin T-shirt and pants. It was freezing in here, wherever here was. All he could see was the bright light surrounding them. He couldn't tell where the ceiling was or any walls of anykind. Or even where the floor started. It felt like he was in a tunnel made out of smoke.

He was worried about Maria. He was relatively healthy, she was very sick, he could feel the heat from the fever through the thin hospital gown she was wearing. How would the temperature effect her?

He could tell he was in motion, but he knew his feet weren't moving. He heard Liz scream Max's name every few seconds. She was terrified, you could hear it in her voice. Michael couldn't blame her, what the hell was this thing. He thought about what that guy had said…friends…damn it, he hoped there really was a friend on the other end of this thing that could help. Michael had always been the non-trusting member of the group, but he was tired, he wondered if maybe their was somebody out there who really could help them. He prayed that there was someone there who could help Maria. They had only been in the vortex thing for a few minutes, but in that small amount of time he had watched her, she was so out of it. She had stopped moaning and quivering when he had picked her up, but she hadn't awakened. He wished she would just open her eyes and smile at him, let him know she was alright. Hell, he'd even welcome her screaming at him right now.

He heard Isabelle call out for Max, he wanted to turn and see if they were ok, but he remembered the warning, "do not turn around" if it had just been him, he probably would have turned to look, but he wouldn't jeopardize Maria in any way.

A gust of warm air suddenly came at him from behind, then a roar blasted past him, pushing him forward. The explosion, it had to be the bombs that had been rigged throughout the complex. Closing his eyes he pulled his head down to protect Maria. Damn, he hoped that bastard Yeager was still there, he liked the thought of that asshole's ashes spread out all over the wreckage. Him and Topolsky.

His head was still lowered, his eyes still closed, he never saw the swirling darkness in-front of him, he just knew that suddenly he was falling. Holding tightly to Maria, he turned taking the brunt of the impact from the fall. The voices came rushing at him, they were too fast to understand what they were saying. Certain words could be made out…medic…blankets…vitals. He felt like he was listening to one of those medical shows that Hank liked to watch on TV, usually with the sound turned up to blaring. He felt something roll against his leg, opening his eyes he looked down and saw Isabelle and Kyle wrapped around each other sprawled acrossed his legs. Turning his head he saw that Max and Liz were being helped up by people wearing pastel labcoats. A women covered in light blue reached out to take Maria out of his arms.

"No," he stammered, he didn't even recognize his voice. "You can't take her from me."

"Michael, its ok, everything is ok. We just want to help her, we need to examine her." Her eyes were smiling, but Michael didn't trust her, after his little speech to himself in the tunnel he still didn't want to trust anyone, not yet, not with Maria.

He watched at she turned to someone else and said something. He watched as Izzy and Kyle were helped up, they were being wrapped in some sort of clear plastic blankets. As he looked around, he took notice to the "room" they were in, if you could call it that. It looked like an outdoor garden, but the light was artificial, there were no breezes blowing, and no birds could be seen or heard. Plants, bushes, trees, but it wasn't real. Even the grass under him was fake.

It only took a few steps for Max to reach Michael. Liz was still clinging to his hand, she huddled on his shoulder as he bent to Michael and Maria.

"Michael, let them help her, she needs their help." Max pleaded with his bestfriend. "Please?"

"We don't know who they are Max, how do we know their not working with Topolsky." Michael voice was shaking. He wanted to believe Max, he truly did, but it was so hard, so hard to trust anyone.

A man's face suddenly came into focus behind Max and Liz. He was tall, blonde hair curled around his head, the gray shooting through told a lie, the blue eyes shining from a youthful face said he was too young to be turning gray. He looked to be about thirty-five years old. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a light green T-shirt. "Michael, your safe now. We're here to help you. You can trust us. No one is going to hurt Maria, I give you my word."

"Yeah, I've heard that before, what good is your word, I don't know you." Michael pulled Maria closer to his chest. He had to protect her. Had to keep her safe.

"My name is Reese, this is Lena," he motioned for the woman in blue. "She's our doctor, she can help Maria." The man named Reese smiled, "Michael your home, do you hear me, your home. Nothing can hurt you here. Your with your own kind."

Michael heard the man's word but they didn't make any sense. "What the hell do you mean…home?"

"It's alright, everything is going to be alright, this is the home we made when we arrived here on this planet. After the crash." The man stood and looked at the others. "You're safe here, the human's government can't touch any of you here."

Michael just stared at the man for a few seconds, finally turning to Max he tried to make his mouth work, but nothing was coming out. He felt like his brain was swirling around in his head, the feeling got slower and slower until it clicked into place. He could feel this man, feel the emotions coming from him. He suddenly realized his powers were back.  

"Max?" Michael ask so many questions in that one request. And Max understood every single one of them.

"Yes, Michael their like us," he smiled, "there not from around here either."

Michael felt this overwhelming heat flowing over him, he had thought about this every day of his life, since the first moment they realized they were different. A million different scenes had played through his mind, he had acted this moment out in his fantasies, his daydreams. And now this day had arrived and he didn't know what he felt.

The man motioned for the woman in blue to come forward again, "let them help Maria, she isn't going to make it if you don't allow us to help you?"

No one said a word as they waited to see what the boy would do. As Michael sat up he looked around him. These were his people, he was home.

He allowed them to remove Maria from his arms. The moment they pulled her away she started to shake and tremble. The agonizing moans started again. He stood and followed them as they placed her on a gurney. "Make her pain go away."

"Michael take her hand." The woman named Lena told him.  

He clasped his fingers through Maria's, holding on as tightly as he could without hurting her. The twitching and moaning ceased.

"She's calm when you're touching her, ok, just keep a hold of her hand and we'll take care of the rest.

Liz, still clinging to Max questioned, "where are they taking her?" Max turned to the man, Reese is what he said his name was.  

"Their taking them, and you to our med-tech, all of you have to be check out first, we have to make sure your all fine." Reese said as he ushered them through the doors, Max turned to follow Michael.

"Where are we?" Kyle ask as he and Isabelle followed also.

Reese turned and said, "you're in Mesa, NM, we're a little over forty miles from Roswell."

"But…" Isabelle couldn't believe they were so close to home. "Can we go home now? Home to Roswell?"

"I'm sorry Isabelle, but if you were to return to Roswell the government would find you again." Reese explained to her. "We've been able to shield ourselves from them. They don't even know we're here."

Max couldn't believe they had been so close to others of their kind all this time. "What do you mean shield yourselves?"

"A lot of the technology from home was brought with us when we left." Reese said. "The shield we use is made of natural energy forces. The government's electronics can't locate it, they can't see it, touch or feel it. As far as their concerned we're not even here."

"Why didn't you come and get Max and the others?" Liz ask, "why didn't you help them?"

"Plain stupidity, that's why. We never suspected Roswell. We never thought that any of our kind would still be there. Not with the way the government was all over the place." He turned and looked at Max, "I have to apologize for that. We had located most of the survivors from your ship. They were scattered throughout the country, but we never thought to look there."

"How many survived?" Isabelle was trying to deal with everything that they were being told. One minute they were in hell; and the next every wish that they had ever made was being granted. It was a bit too much for her brain to handle. She reached out and took Kyle's hand, he looked down at their joined fingers and smiled at her, squeezing her hand in his.

"There were a hundred unborn on your ship, five ships in all. Yours was the only incubation vessel. On board all five vessels there were a total of twelve hundred of us." Reese continued as they traveled down another hallway. "We lost one ship in route, another one was destroyed when we entered the Earth's atmosphere. We lost contact with your ship a few minutes later, by the time we were able to get to Roswell, well, lets just say the United States had the entire crash site quarantined, we couldn't get in to search the area. As of right now there are over seven hundred of us."

"When? When did this happen. And why?" Max ask him. "What were we doing here in the first place?"

"It took place in the Earth month of June, June of Nineteen Forty-seven. And the reason we were here is because our home, our own planet was dead."

Max stopped, dead…after all this time, to find out that their own world wasn't there anymore. He didn't know what to say, what to think. "What was the name of it…our home?"

"Delaina. Our world was called Delaina. I'm sorry Max, I know you weren't expecting this." Reese turned and faced the young man. He could see the pain in Max's eyes. "I know how much you wanted to hear that our world was still there. It's the same thing with all misplacer's that we have located, this need, this wanting to know that out there, somewhere was one place that you could belong, one place that you would fit in. But it's gone, it's been gone for over eighty Earth years."

"How?" Was all Max ask.

"Our planet was orbited by two suns, for billions of years they had burned bright, then like a candle they burned themselves out. Our leaders decided the best thing to do was to leave, settle in other parts of this vast galaxy. Colonize wherever we could. Unfortunately we landed here, a planet that already had inhabitants. Inhabitants that didn't want nor trust a new strange lifeform. But we had no choice we were low on fuel, low on foodstuffs, a lot of our equipment was failing. We had to land here. Or die." Reese turned and continued down the corridor. "I'll answer any questions you have, but lets get you all checked out first. Then we have a surprise for all of you."