"And if Cameron saw them, she wouldn't have just gotten on a bus," Liz added. "She would have stayed in town until she found you and told you, right, Michael?"

"Look, there's something you have to know about Cameron," Michael said, his eyes locked on the road. "Everything I told you about her was a lie, and that's because everything she told me about herself was a lie." He rushed on. "She wasn't in the compound as a test subject-she was in there as a spy for Valenti."

"Spying on you?" Maria asked softly.

"Got it in one," Michael answered. "Valenti promised her if she got the names of the other aliens in Roswell from me, he wouldn't turn her back over to her parents."

He shot a glance at Max over his shoulder. "I told her." He spat out the words as if they tasted bitter on his tongue. "I betrayed you and Isabel."

Maria could imagine what had happened. Michael had believed Cameron was a prisoner, just like him. He saw the two of them as united against Valenti and the Project Clean Slate people. Why wouldn't he tell her the truth? She opened her mouth, wishing she could say something to comfort him, but she couldn't find the words.

"Cut yourself some slack," Alex told Michael. "She already knew the truth about you. It's not like you were telling her that there were aliens on Earth."

"And she helped Adam escape," Liz added. "Why wouldn't you trust her?"

It didn't matter what the rest of them thought, Maria realized. What would matter to Michael was what Max thought. She turned and looked at him. He still seemed totally wiped out.

"You didn't betray me," Max said. "Cameron betrayed you."

The tight, guarded expression on Michael's face didn't convince Maria that he believed Max.

"So what do you think Cameron's deal is in this situation?" Alex asked. "Why do you think she didn't say something if she knew where DuPris took Isabel and Adam? She can't have any connection to DuPris, can she?"

"Don't ask me," Michael answered. "It's not like I have a great track record knowing what's really going on with Cameron. I'm the one who told her-"

"Don't even go there again," Max interrupted. "Cameron betrayed you. End of story."

End of story for Max, Maria thought. But Cameron had torn something deep inside Michael. Even when it healed, there would probably always be a nasty scar.

Kind of like the one she had. Kind of like the one Alex had. Didn't anybody's love story get a happy ending?

She took another glance over her shoulder. Oh, right. Princess Liz and Prince Max.

Liz stared up at the sky as the Jeep sped down the long, straight stretch of highway to Albuquerque.

"Looking for binary pairs?" Max asked softly.

She hadn't been, but she said yes, anyway, remembering a night not too long ago when she and Max had sat in the parked Jeep, talking about the future, looking up at the star-filled sky. That night she had told Max that the two of them were like a binary pair, two stars so close together, they appeared to shine the same light. That had been the night Max had finally agreed they could be more than just friends, a night she'd never forget.

As if he could read her thoughts, Max reached over and took her hand.

Liz felt a little shiver whisk along her spine. She couldn't shake the image of that hand, Max's hand, covered in gore. Clawing open DuPris's body cavity.

"Max, do you trust the collective consciousness?" The question burst out of her.

"I don't know what you mean," he answered, his voice flat.

"I know what she means," Alex jumped in. "She means totally without your permission-no, more than that, totally against your will-the consciousness used you to try and kill someone. Not exactly a trust builder."

"I explained to you that the beings in the consciousness were furious. Basically they just lost it when they saw DuPris," Max said. His grip on Liz's hand tightened.

"And that's okay with you?" Michael demanded. "Because you had your akino and joined them, they can just make you do whatever they want whenever?"

Liz was glad to hear that she wasn't the only one who had some doubts about the consciousness. Hopefully hearing concerns from all of them would get Max thinking.

"Not whenever," Max protested. "It was just that one time."

He didn't answer Michael's first question, Liz noted. She knew the answer, anyway. What the consciousness had done to Max was not okay with him.

She twisted her hair into a knot on the top of her head, something that always helped her think better. And something that gave her a reason to slip her hand away from Max's.

"It's already turning out to be more than one time," she finally said, working to keep her tone gentle. "Now they've ordered you to open the wormhole and send DuPris back."

"Ray Iburg is part of the consciousness. My parents are part of the consciousness. You don't think that's enough of a reason to trust it?" Max exclaimed.

Ah, there it was, Liz thought. The reason Max wasn't letting himself acknowledge that he hated what the consciousness had done to him.

"There are millions of beings in the consciousness, though, right?" Maria asked tentatively. "So what Ray or your parents want, that might not be what the consciousness makes you do."

"They aren't making me do anything," Max snapped.

Michael snorted. "Tell that to DuPris," he muttered under his breath.

Max wrapped his arm around Liz and pulled her closer against him. The wrinkled spot on his neck brushed against her cheek. She twisted around and ran her fingers over the patch of skin. It felt dry and hard, mummified. "Do you know what did this to you?" she asked. She was almost positive she knew the answer, but she wanted to hear what Max would say.

"Huh-uh," he answered. Liz felt like shaking him. She would have if she thought it would do any good.

"I know I'm not a science geek like the two of you," Alex said, leaning across Liz to check out Max's neck. "But even to me it seems significant that it appeared right after the consciousness had control of Max."

"I guess," Max mumbled.

"When they had control, it drained you," Liz said, deciding to spell it out for him since he didn't seem capable of analyzing the situation on his own. "You're still exhausted. What I want to know is-" She pulled in a deep breath. "What's going to happen to you when you open that wormhole? How much is that going to take out of you? Are you going to end up like this all over your body?" She flicked the wrinkled spot. "Are you… are you going to die?"

Max didn't answer, but Liz felt the tension filling his muscles.

"Didn't the consciousness bother to tell you what could happen?" Michael demanded.

"The knowledge I received-" Max stopped abruptly and turned his head away from Liz, peering out into the desert whizzing by.

"The knowledge you received," Alex prompted.

Liz felt as if all the air was being sucked out of her lungs as she waited for Max to reply.

"It will take a lot of strength, from me and the consciousness. There's a… possibility it could take too much out of me for me to recover," Max admitted. "But I have no choice. DuPris is evil-none of you are going to try to argue with that, I hope-and I can't just let him wander around making the world his own private puppet show."

Michael slammed his foot on the brake, and the Jeep squealed to a halt. He jerked around to face Max. "When were you going to tell us this?" he yelled. "What am I saying? You weren't. You were just going to be Saint Max and die for the good of humanity without a word of complaint."

"I'm not planning to die," Max yelled back.

Liz struggled to pull in a breath. Her lungs felt flat and useless, as if her chest had gotten too tight for them to expand. "Maybe there are other ways to deal with DuPris," she said.