No answer.

"Mr. Brown... Simon Brown, open up right now... this is the Seattle Police Department. We have a warrant for your arrest..." They continued to pound.

No answer.

The taller man turned to the shorter one and nodded. "Bust it down." The four policemen began pounding on the outside of the door with their batons. They finally made it into the apartment and found the place empty.

One of the policemen picked up his radio and began talking into it. "Homebase, this is 44-10 Charlie. We were unable to serve the warrant to Mr. Simon Joesph Brown... he has vacated the premises. Over."

"Roger, 44-10 Charlie, come on back to the station."

* * * * *

Part 4:

"You were close... too close, Simon."

"Who cares? If they had arrested me, I could have busted out of jail... no problem." Simon Brown looked up from the folding chair he was sitting in as his superior officer barked orders and insults at him.

"No PROBLEM?" The older man screamed, getting closer into his face. "HERE'S the problem, Simon... you bust out of jail, they see you use your powers, then you'd have to kill them! You weren't sent here to kill pathetic humans..."

"Well I nearly killed Elizabeth..." Simon grumbled, glaring up at the man towering inches from his face.

"Get over it, Simon. You pushed her towards the subject. Your business with her is finished."

Simon paused, trying not to let his tears of frustration and anger spill over.

"Now what do we do?" He asked sheepishly.

"You know what you have to do."

"Don't make me shapeshift again, *please*?" Simon groaned. "Don't make me hurt her again..."

"Simon, you won't be going anywhere near Elizabeth Parker anytime soon."

Simon thought about what his boss was telling him. "But... I want to say goodbye... before I leave... this body." He looked down at himself and felt the tears begin to fall.

"NO!" The man yelled at him. "You must NOT pull the target towards you until the time is right! It will ruin everything! The moment he sees you, he will know who you really are! Didn't I teach you ANYTHING?"

"Stop yelling. What if I... what if I snuck into her place and waited for her there? To apologize? To say goodbye?" Simon pleaded.

The man glared at him. "Your stupidity never ceases to amaze me. Why are you bothering with this... human... girl? She means nothing. I am all that matters to you. Without me, you are nothing."

Simon clenched his fists together and clenched his teeth. "I have been in this body for SIX YEARS, Nathaniel. I was with Elizabeth for the last three! Can't you see? She's a part of me-- Simon Brown is who I am now... I don't want to let that go."

Nathaniel narrowed his beady eyes into a disapproving glance. "I'm sorry... but that's unacceptable. And if you don't change now, I will change for you... and I don't think you will like what I have in store for your NEXT six years..." The man smirked, holding up his hand to Simon's head.

"No!" Simon cried. "I'll do it." He stood still for a moment, bracing himself for the large burst of energy he would soon be using. He shut his eyes and breathed in deeply, moving his hand from his head to his toes, changing his form as he went. He was now a tall redheaded man with freckles and green eyes. "There- are you happy now?"

"Yes." The man said firmly, nodding his head with a smug look on his face. "Now... on to phase two."

"What's that?" Simon asked, looking at his new face in the mirror and frowning.

"We wait."

"Wait for what?" He ran his hands through his thick head of red hair.

"They will all come to Elizabeth, they all cared for her very much. The trap will be set. We'll be able to take them out one by one."

"I *won't* hurt her, I won't. Not again." Simon said firmly.

The man looked up at him and glared at him fiercely. "You will do as you're told. You will kill them, their mates, and their children."

"I can't take them all on at the same time, I'm only one... they will be too strong for me!" Simon cried.

The man smirked and walked towards a nearby cabinet, pulling out a small dark-colored vial. He put it into Simon's open palm. "Here. When the time is right, you will shapeshift into one of them and put this into their food. But make sure it's at a time when they're all together..."

"What is this stuff? And How do you know they will all come to see Elizabeth?" Simon asked, arching his eyebrow.

"It's a drug to suppress the neurotransmitters in their cerebral cortexes. Their powers will be rendered useless. And as far as bringing them all here... we can do some persuading." The man asked, pointing to his brain and smiling with sadistic glee.

* * * * *

"I can't believe it... he just vanished into thin air..?" Max commented as he cooked dinner for he and Liz. "Liz....?" He looked towards her, his heart wincing with the pain he knew she felt deep inside her.

Liz sighed, pulling her legs closer to her body and snuggling deeper into Max's couch. She pulled her engagement ring off her hand and stared at it for a moment. It was a beautiful gold band with diamonds in a marquis setting. She had treasured it until the night before. Max put the top on the tomato sauce he had been stirring and walked across the kitchen into the living room, kneeling in front of Liz.

"Liz... are you ready to take that off now?" Max asked her cautiously. "Cause I could fix it for you- but only if... you're really ready... to let go."

Liz's eyes were filling with warm, wet tears. She nodded without a word, squeezing the ring one more time in her hand before handing it over to him. He squeezed the ring in his right hand and held her hand with his left, concentrating on the ring. By closing her eyes and touching her hand as he held the ring, he was able to connect with her. Max cringed when he saw Liz kissing Simon passionately after he slipped the ring on her finger. He cringed as he got another flash of her throwing her head back in pure ecstasy as Simon had made love to her that night. Another flash came of her waking up the next morning, cradled in his arms as he watched her sleep. Max wanted so desperately to break the connection but something inside was forcing him not to sever it.

A flash of Simon came from her then... then another quick flash of him changing into an alien. Max felt a rush of fear wash over him at that moment. Something inside of him was telling him that Simon was someone dangerous... not only to Liz, but to himself and his family as well.

Max shrugged off this ominous feeling, chalking it up to the fact that he hated this guy with every fiber of his being for what he did to his Liz.

Within moments, the flashes ceased, and Max opened his eyes. He peered down at the object in his hand, which had changed into a wide silver band with the words "With you always" engraved on it. Max smiled as he looked at it. Liz peered into his hand to see what he'd made. She gasped.

"Max... it's so beautiful!" Without thinking, he took her left hand and slipped the ring onto her ring finger, leaning his face down to kiss her knuckles.

"I'm glad you like it." He smiled. She twirled it around on her finger so she could read what it said. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Oh, Max..." She said, raising her hand to the side of his face. He turned his cheek, kissing her open palm. She felt her eyes flutter shut as Max let his mouth linger on the soft skin inside her hand, her skin burning up from his hot breath. He let his lips travel in soft circles on her palm and Liz shook her head in protest. "No, Max, we can't...we can't be... the way you want it to be... not yet..."

"Just let me be here for you... let me be with you..." He pleaded, not allowing his lips to leave her hand.

"Max..." Her breath quickened as she felt his mouth move slowly and lightly up her arm, pausing a moment to heal the fading bruises on her forearm with a touch of his palm. "Max, stop. Please." Her voice went from a quiet plea to a vocal threat. Max broke contact with her arm and raised his eyes to meet hers. God, why did he have to look at her like that?

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." He couldn't hide the upset tone in his voice.

"No, Max, you didn't hurt me." She smiled slightly, trying to handle the pain in his eyes and deep in her soul. "You could never hurt me. I'm just not... ready... for all this." She pleaded with him.

"This... what?" He looked at her, confused.

"You know, this... the kissing, the touching, the heavy breathing..." Liz shivered not so much from being cold but feeling a shockwave of desire course through her. Max grabbed a nearby blanket and wrapped it around her arms, letting them linger there. "Max...please..."

He sighed, finally dropping his hands from her arms and back down to his sides, sliding to rest on the backs of his legs . "Listen... I'm sorry for freaking you out... it's just," he took a deep breath and continued, looking at his hands so he wouldn't begin sobbing with reckless abandon. "It's just that, I'm so madly in love with you that sometimes I can't see straight, and all I want to do is... touch you and hold you in my arms ... it's not fair to you and I'm sorry. I understand that you need your space right now."

Liz smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a gentle hug. He responded by raising his body higher up onto his knees and burying his face in her neck. She still hadn't grasped the depth of Max's love for her- she didn't know if she ever would again. At that moment, she just wanted to touch him, smell him, hold him, be protected by him.

Shielded by the darkness of the night sky, Simon watched the pair embrace from outside Max's living room window with a sadness buried so deep in him it was hard to comprehend. Until that moment, he had forgotten what was really important in all this-- the reason he was on this planet in the first place. Loving Elizabeth had changed him, made him forget who he really was. But now that he saw this... saw the gentle, quiet grace, the loving, unbreakable bond between Elizabeth and his greatest enemy awakened a fire buried within him that he'd tried to suppress for years. He cursed himself under his breath as he thought about all the years he'd wasted trying so desperately to be human, to be worthy of Elizabeth Parker's love. At the sight of Max Evans so gingerly touching, kissing, and holding her, Simon realized it wasn't worth it to try to be human anymore. He had lost so much by trying to deny who he really was.

He had so much time to make up. He would make his people, especially Nathaniel, all proud... single-handedly killing the enemy race that had overrun his planet for so many centuries before.

He would be the one to do it-- to kill the heir to the throne and his entire family and to bring his people to glory and power.

He would be the one to kill Max Evans.

*****

"No, God, Max!" Isabel Evans screamed, sitting up in bed like a rocket and putting her hand to her sweat-drenched forehead. Her heartbeat began to slow as she looked at her surroundings, realizing she was out of her brother's dream and safe in her own bed.

Just then, Michael Guerin padded in from the guest room, rubbing his hands over his face and yawning. "What's wrong?" He sat next to Isabel on her bed, watching intently as the beads of sweat rolled down her face and neck and down the rest of her body before disappearing underneath her nightgown.

She reached for his hand- something she hadn't done as long as he could remember- and sighed. "I don't know, Michael... I dreamwalked Max to see what was going on with him. I kept getting these signals from him in the past few days... like something had dramatically changed in his life. Since he isn't talking to me much lately, I decided going into his dream would be the best thing to do."

"Makes sense." Michael said, leaning back on the bed to rest on his elbow and yawning again. "What did you see?"

"Liz. She was... everywhere." Isabel said, looking off to the side and wrapping her arms around herself.

Michael rolled his eyes. "So what else is new?"

"No, Michael. Max hasn't dreamed of her in a while... I wonder what's changed?" Isabel asked.

"I don't know... I haven't seen Liz in fifteen years, so I'm not exactly an expert on the subject." Michael said, his heart quickening slightly as he remembered the good times they had with Maria, Liz, and Alex Whitman in high school before the whole "Destiny" fiasco.

Isabel sighed. "I'm going to call him the morning." She shuddered. "Michael... I think he's in danger." She said quietly but firmly.

Michael raised his eyebrow at her. "What do you mean?" He moved in closer to her.

"I don't know... I just *felt* something... I felt an *evil* presence in his dreams... like something was close to him... something dangerous." Isabel said, her eyes widening with fear as she recalled the feelings she'd had while walking through her brother's dream.

"Isabel, all our enemies are dead. We took care of them years ago, remember? You have nothing to worry about."

"How do we *know* that Michael? How do we *know* there still aren't people out there that were sent here to kill us?" Tears began slipping from her big brown eyes as she looked over at the picture of the little boy on her nightstand. Michael sensed what she was going to say and replied to her unasked question.

"Nothing's going to happen to him." Michael said firmly, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm just... scared... Michael. Even more so than when we were fighting them before... because now we have *him*... oh, God, Michael... if anything happened to Seth..."

"Nothing's going to happen to him." Michael said firmly as he looked into Isabel's eyes, trying to comfort her. "We'll protect him- whatever happens."

"Daddy?" A quiet voice echoed through the hallway. Michael looked at Isabel and gave her a kiss on the cheek as he left the room and walked into the guest room where their three-year-old son was sleeping with him. "Where are you?"

"I'm here, Seth. Mommy had a bad dream." Michael said, tucking himself back into the bed with Seth and kissing the top of his head, filled with thick ash blonde hair. "She's fine now. Go back to sleep."

Seth yawned and snuggled closer to the teddy bear he'd been holding tightly in his grasp. He called it "Max" for the Uncle who had given it to him the day he was born.

* * * * *

"Lizzie, it was *so* fun. I wish you could have been there. I was the best dancer in the *whole* recital..." Six-year-old Eliza Valenti smiled, her blonde hair pulled up into a french braid. She took another bite of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that Max had made her before he went off to work. Kyle and Maria had gone out for their anniversary so Liz had babysitting duties.

Liz stared at the six-year-old across the table from her and smiled. She was so much like Maria... she was so much like Kyle. Liz was astonished at how much Eliza was a perfect mix of her two parents.

Did it *always* work out like that? Liz smiled as she imagined a little girl with slightly prominent ears, long eyelashes, defined cheekbones and long brown hair. "So, Eliza, did you and your Mom and Dad have fun at the aquarium?"

"Yes! We had so much fun and everyone was so nice. We walked by this place where people were *throwing* fish!" Eliza said, her mouth gaping with delight.

"Isn't that weird?" Liz asked before leaning her head closer to Eliza's face. "The first time I saw that, it freaked me out."

"I wasn't afraid." Eliza stated proudly. "I love this place... what is it called again?" She asked shyly.

Liz smiled. "Seattle. Seattle, Washington."

Eliza nodded. "And me, Mommy, and Daddy live in Roswell. Roswell, New Mexico."

"Very good!" Liz said, smiling. The sound of the phone ringing interrupted Liz and Eliza's little geography discussion. "I'll get it." She said, looking over once more at Eliza before picking up the cordless phone from its receiver. "Hello?"

There was a pause.

"Hello?" Liz repeated firmly.

"Can I... can I speak to... is this... Liz?" The voice shook on the other end of the phone.

Liz gasped. "This *is* Liz... Max is at work right now. Who is this?" She asked, her heart racing. She didn't have to ask who it was, she already knew.

There was another pause.

"Hi, Liz. It's... Tess."

Liz's heart dropped into her stomach. She forced herself to breathe.

*Breathe, Liz. She's different now. She's married to Alex. She's not going to hurt you ever again.*

"Tess..." Liz said anxiously. "It's been..."

"... a while, I know." Tess said, her voice wavering. "How... are you? How long... have you and Max...?"

Liz quickly answered her. "No, no, Tess... we're not *together.* We just recently... found each other again."

Tess wrinkled her brow. "Wait, you live in Seattle too?"

"Yeah. I've lived here for a couple of years. I'm getting my doctorate at the University of Washington."

"Weird!" Tess quickly finished her sentence. "Not that you're going to be a professor, but that... you and Max were in the same city... and never knew it." She couldn't help but grin at that fact.

Liz shrugged her shoulders. "Those things happen I guess."

"Well, I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to answer Max's phone!" Tess said, giggling nervously.

"Yeah, I wasn't either. So how... are you doing, Tess? I mean, how's Alex? You're in... L.A., right?" Liz asked, trying her damndest to be friendly to the girl she used to despise.

Tess grinned at Liz's curiosity. "We're fine, thanks for asking. Alex and I have been married for almost ten years. He's a music teacher at a private high school in the Valley..."

"Alex is a teacher?" Liz smiled at their shared profession. Well she wasn't a professor *yet* but she had been a T.A. for microbiology for three semesters now. "That's so awesome."

"He's wonderful." Tess said, continuing. "I do P.R. work for the Walt Disney Corporation..."

"Wow! Tess, that's... so cool." Liz said, trying to contain her mild jealously that Tess had such a glamorous profession. "So, do you guys have any...?"

"Kids?" Tess smiled. "Yes, we have two. Angelique is eight, she's in third grade. Teagan is five, he's in kindergarten."

"Wow, Alex is a dad..." Liz smiled. It was all hitting her now. All her friends had grown up. She hated herself for missing it all. She didn't regret the decision she made to end things with Max and leave him to his duty... but she missed so much of Alex and Maria's lives, and that just wasn't fair.

"He's a great dad, Liz. You should see him with Teagan... he looks like a miniature version of him." Tess smiled.

"I'm sure he's adorable." Liz mused.

"Hey, Lizzie, who are you talking to?" Eliza asked as she finished her sandwich and walked over to Liz, tugging on her pant leg.

Tess's face scrunched into a puzzled look. "Is that Eliza?"

"Yeah." Liz said, smiling. She turned to the little girl at her feet. "I'm talking to Tess."

"Aunt Tess? Tell her I said 'hi'."

Aunt Tess? Liz looked at her with confusion. "Okay." Liz turned back to the phone. "Eliza says 'hi'."

"Are they visiting you?"

"Yeah." Liz sighed. "Max called her the night after he... found me. They came up right away."

Tess frowned. "Why didn't he tell us?"

Liz paused. "I don't know... everything has happened so fast... and Max is really busy now with his residency ending and everything... he's interviewing at practices all over town."

"But Liz, Alex would have loved to talk to you. Why didn't *you* call us?"

Liz paused. She really couldn't answer that question. "I guess... I didn't want to face the past. The past that I missed."

Tess was quiet, nodding. "You've been gone a long time, Liz. A lot has happened. And just so you know, Max and I... nothing ever happened." Even though she was happily married, she still felt a slight twinge of pain in her heart.

"I know." Liz nodded. "He told me. But that's not why I left."

"Look, Liz, I don't want to drudge up bad memories with you right now. It's been good to talk to you and I hope... maybe someday... we could be... friends?" Tess's voice rang with insecurity.

Liz's jaw dropped, her mouth hanging open so wide she could catch flies in it. *This* was Tess Harding?

No. This wasn't Tess Harding, this was Tess Whitman.

Liz paused. "Sure. I mean, yes. Yes, I don't see why not."

Tess grinned. "Good. Because if you are going to be a part of our family, I want us all to get along..."

"I'm not part of the family..."

"...Not yet." Tess said, smiling.

Liz couldn't help but grin. She felt like she was talking to a completely different person.