Rina-rina-rina-rina-rina-rinarinarinarina. RINA!!!!! He'd been making love to Rina in Liz's body. OH MY GOD!! What had he done? What was he going to do?

"Zan?" Rina asked tentatively, not liking his sudden withdrawal and silence.

Unable to continue looking in Liz's beautiful face, knowing what he had done... had been planning to do, Max rolled away and got to his feet. It wasn't Liz.

She sat up and held out a slender hand pleadingly. "Zan please. What's wrong? Is it something I did? Please talk to me." Her Liz voice was trembly with desire and sudden tears.

"Rina, I can't." Max stood with his back to her, his hands clenched into fists. "I can't do this. I'm sorry."

There was an awkward silence behind him before she finally said, "Do you want me to go?"

In a near panic, Max whipped around, practically shouting, "NO!" If Rina were to leave, then he'd have to deal with explaining to Liz why she was currently in his bedroom, half-naked. Getting a grip on his spiraling emotions, he said more quietly. "No, please stay. We need to talk."

Turning around had just compounded the issue, he realized. From over here, he had a perfect view of her. Liz's body was beautiful, incredible, and right now, he felt like a thousand times a heel for noticing. Turning away, he stepped to the desk where they'd dropped his shirt earlier. After he'd put it on, he grabbed a clean shirt out of a drawer and handed it to her saying, "Put this on." He had to swallow past the constriction in his throat before he could add, "And then we can talk."

Rina didn't know what to think. She'd been enjoying his lovemaking. This body that she was wearing processed sensation differently than her own body, but it was jut as wonderful as she'd remembered it back when Zan was alive. A little different, but still amazing. Her lover had always known how to please her, and even in this body, it was still true. Zan had been with her kiss for kiss until BAM! Suddenly he was standing at the foot of the bed, looking everywhere but at her.

Confused by his change in attitude, Rina jerkily pulled on the shirt he'd handed to her. "Zan, uh, Max," she quickly corrected. "What..."

Now that she was decently covered, Max pulled over his desk hair and sat looking at her. He stopped her question by putting his hand up in a halting motion. "Rina, it's ok if you call me Zan when we're alone. In fact, I prefer it." He took a deep breath, trying to think of some way out of the deep hole he'd dug for himself. How could he tell her to get out of Liz's body without alerting her to the fact he'd thought he'd been making love to Liz all this time? Despite the fact that she seemed to want nothing more than to help him and be with him, he didn't trust her. Who knew was hidden agenda she might be working off of?

He decided that the only thing to do was be sensitive but firm with her. She needed to understand that she couldn't return to visit him like this anymore.

So he began, "Rina, I am so sorry I let things get so out of hand. This," he waved at his rumpled bed, "was my fault. Please don't think that I'm blaming you for anything.

"I told you before that I've changed since being sent here. I am not Zan. Your Tesannick is dead. He has been for a really long time. I'm Max Evans now. And as Max, I cannot allow myself to get that close to you again. Not ever. I'm sorry that it has to be like this, but it's the only way."

Her eyes overfilled with tears. They clung to her dark lashes for a few moments before making tracks down her face. "But, tonight..."

"I know." His velvet voice was a deep rasp. "I'm sorry. I got carried away, but it can't happen again." He tried to make her see reason, "I mean what kind of relationship do you think we can have? You're in someone else's body. And so am I, I guess. So in a way, we'd both be sleeping with strangers, only, I know this person you've taken over. It's going to be a while before I can look her in the eye after this. If we had finished what we'd started, it would have been no different than rape. Do you think we could honestly be together if the only way was to hurt someone else? Someone completely innocent of our past?"

Rina shook her head. She saw the sense in what Zan was saying, but still there had to be a way... "But, you're not really hurting her. We're just kind of borrowing her."

"Rina, do you really believe that?" Max was surprised she'd say something like that.

Closing her eyes, she shook her head. "No."

"Believe me, it wouldn't work. No matter how we try to rationalize it. And I couldn't."

Her beautiful mouth turned down just was more tears fell. "So, that's it. I found you only to lose you again."

Not knowing what to say to make things right, Max just reached out and took her hand. His gesture must have struck a chord in her because all at once, she was laughing bitterly. "My uncle would say, 'Well, Serena, you've really got yourself in a spot now.' I guess..." She wiped away her tears with her free hand. "I guess this is it, then. It's goodbye for real, this time."

She looked into his dark-Zan eyes. She could see a reflection of the pain she was feeling there. Her Zan. Always so sensitive to her moods and needs. How was she ever going to leave him? She couldn't bear the thought of leaving him alone on this planet, now that she'd seen what his life was like. Sneaking, hiding with no one to trust. With only the other three hybrids to talk to. It was unbearable.

She leaned forward to put her arms around his shoulders. His body was still, unyielding for a moment before his strong arms closed around her, offering what comfort he could. "Zan, how can I leave you?"

"You must. You can't stay here forever. Your energy must be getting low back home as it is. Even if we got past the fact that you're stealing someone else's life, you would always be leaving me. And besides, I'm worried about what could be happening to your body back home. You're defenseless when you're here, just like the emissaries that I met with in New York when I met your uncle. Khivar's men could find you and we wouldn't know until it's too late. That's no way for you to live and you know it."

Reluctantly, she nodded and hugged him tighter for a moment before releasing him. As he sat back, she declared, "I love you so much Zan. This is killing me."

He just smiled at her. "Nonsense. I've been dead for fifty-plus years. You got by just fine. You will again."

"I want you to know Max Evans, no matter where you go, or what happens, that somewhere in this galaxy there is someone who loves you with all her heart."

He said only, "Then I'll count myself lucky." Standing up, he said, "Let's get this body back to her home, and then I have a request to make of you. Before you go."

Twenty minutes later, they were climbing into Liz's bedroom window. Rina went into the bathroom and emerged a few minutes later in the nightgown Liz had gone to sleep in. Max watched as she climbed into the bed and arranged the blanket around her body.

When she was as comfortable as she could get, considering her heart was breaking, Max stepped over and laid a hand against her soft hair. "Rina, we're going to have to prevent this from happening again. I know it's going to be a huge temptation to jump into this body and visit me from time to time, but you can't. I would ask you to promise me that you won't do it, but I can't risk that the temptation to look in on me, even for a short visit, would become too great.

"I need you to change this body so that no one can take it over in the future. Even you. It's too dangerous for you and for me, too. I told you that this person knows about me and my purpose here. If one of my enemies took over her body, then she could become the Vilandra that causes my death here on Earth. Will you do it? Will you change her?"

"Of course, if that's what you want."

"It is."

"Goodbye, my love."

Finally, the moment was at hand. Looking deep into his eyes, so that he was the last thing she saw on the planet, Rina severed the link that allowed her to come across huge expanses of space to see him. Her love, Her Tesannick.

Just as she was leaving her host body, she reversed the change that made it possible for her to come and take it over. Max looked on, worriedly watching for the short glow that told him that something was changing. After a second, he saw it. Liz's beautiful face was lit for just a moment and as the glow faded, she rolled over on her side, sleeping soundly, completely unaware of everything that had transpired.

Max quietly placed her shirt and repaired bra on her dresser and slipped out the window. He didn't immediately return to his home, choosing instead to walk the quiet streets of Roswell with his hands shoved deep into his pocket. Now that everything was over, he finally had some time to sort through all of the information he'd been handed in the past two days.

Soon the sun was rising, and still he walked on. He thought about the Granilith. The consequences of his passion for Liz. He thought of what had happened in his bedroom just hours ago. How he didn't know until it was nearly too late that he'd been making love to Serena in Liz's body due to his inability to control his body when Liz was around.

He thought of what Rina had told him of his past life with her. How the Tess he'd married had been a child. They'd never even consummated their vows. The words "your young bride" had taken on a whole new meaning. His mother hadn't said he'd been sent to Earth with his wife, beloved or otherwise, she specifically chosen the words "your young bride." Now he knew why. And he apparently hadn't let a small thing like marriage get in the way of his pleasures. He didn't think he was the kind of guy who could cheat on a wife. Apparently, he didn't know himself as well as he thought he did. No, wait a second, he decided. Like he'd told Rina, he wasn't Zan anymore. He had his own life to live, and he wasn't going to do it while trying to avoid a dead man's shadow.

For once, he sympathized with what Isabel must have been going through after finding out about Vilandra. No wonder she hadn't wanted to talk about it o him. As far as he was concerned, Zan could stay dead and buried, never to be mentioned again.

One thing he'd learned about himself, he thought as he compared his past, future and present, he loved deeply and to the exclusion to all else. That had to stop. What had Liz said? Oh yeah, when they were together the entire world could explode and they wouldn't notice. That had to change. Two worlds had been destroyed because of his obsessions to women. If he wanted Liz - and he did, he would have to find a way of keeping his rational mind afloat.