BY KAL-EL

ROLE REVERSAL
ACT 2

Rating: PG-13

Spoilers: Everything up until the end of 'Chant Down Babylon'.

Cut to the Valenti house. Michael, Isabel, Kyle, Jessie, and Jim sat around it, having breakfast.

It had been a few days since Isabel was shot, she was doing better. There was still an awkward silence between the group however.

KYLE: Somebody�s gotta say it, and I guess it�s me again. What the heck are we going to do now?

ISABEL: What do you mean?

KYLE: The MetaChem guys know who you are. How long till they come after us. I hate to say it, but with Max�gone, someone has to take his place being in charge.

JESSIE: Listen to all of you. �In charge�? You�re acting like you�re fighting in some sort of war.

MICHAEL: I don�t know if you realize this, but we are.

JESSIE: You�re being dramatic.

MICHAEL: Guy�s on the inside for a few days, suddenly he can tell me what�s what?

Suddenly, Valenti stands up.

VALENTI: Both of you calm down. Jessie, I know this might still take some adjusting for you to understand all of this. You don�t have to be here if you don�t want to.

Jessie looks over at Isabel, then back at Valenti.

JESSIE: I want to.

Isabel turns to Kyle, a tear in her eye.

ISABEL: Do you realize what we�re doing? We�re basically here deciding who should �replace� Max. He died less than a week ago, and we�re�don�t any of you realize he�s gone?

Jessie takes Isabel by the hand and squeezes it.

MICHAEL: The guy was my best friend, of course I miss him. But I�m freaking out, because we�re basically falling apart here. Max and Alex are dead, Liz and Maria are both in separate states. The only ones of us that are left from the beginning are me and Isabel. All I�m trying to do is keep a clear head.

Kyle looks over at Isabel and Jessie, and bites his lip.

KYLE: You know what? I�m going to get some air.

He stands up and heads out the back door.

Kyle roamed around the yard, lost in his thoughts.

KYLE: (muttering)What in Budda�s name is wrong with me? Number One, Isabel is my friend. Number Two, Isabel is married. Number three, she has this weird death curse on her. Oh, don�t forget the whole �alien� thing. I have got to get a life.

Unknown to Kyle, three figures approached him from behind. However, they didn�t hear what he was saying.

LIZ: Hey Kyle.

Kyle smiled without turning around.

KYLE: Hey Liz. You�re back?

MARIA: Hey Kyle.

KYLE: Hey Maria.

MAX: Hey Kyle.

Kyle�s eyes went wide. There was no mistaking that voice.

Slowly he turned around, and saw Max Evans standing there. Max gives a mock wave.

KYLE: MICHAEL!!! YOU�D BETTER GET OUT HERE!

Michael, Isabel, Jessie, and Valenti came running out of the house. They all saw Max standing there, clear as day. And alive.

ISABEL: MAX!

Isabel ran up to him and swung her arms around him.

ISABEL: Valenti said that you�we thought you were�

MAX: I know. Uh, Iz, could you go easy on my ribs? I sort of fell out a window.

MARIA: Hey, don�t I get a hug?

Michael walks up to her, grinning like an idiot.

MICHAEL: I missed you.

Maria smiles.

MARIA: Same here, Spaceboy.

The two of them hug.

Max notices Jessie standing here with a serious look on his face.

MAX: Jessie, how are you?

Jessie doesn�t answer.

JESSIE: Don�t take this the wrong way, Max. But why aren�t you dead?

Max freezes, and doesn�t answer.

MICHAEL: He knows, Maxwell.

MAX: You told him?

MICHAEL: Isabel was shot, we didn�t have a choice.

Max nodded, indicating that he understood.

LIZ: How much does he know?

JESSIE: Enough.

Liz looked at Max, indicating she had a plan.

LIZ: Could I talk to you for a moment, Jessie?

Jessie nodded, and he and Liz walked off.

Valenti walked up to Max.

VALENTI: Uh, Max? I saw your body crumble into dust. From what I saw, you were dead.

MAX: I was.

A few moments later, inside the kitchen�

MAX: Weeler was made young again, as hard as that is to believe. The only difference is that I must have subconsciously altered his DNA. His face, his voice, even his fingerprints were an exact copy of my own.

ISABEL: That still doesn�t explain how�

MAX: How I�m back? My best guess is that my essence�my soul�was transferred to his body as well. At least that�s how it looked to me.

KYLE: Ok, that�s creepy. The guy was HOW old?

MAX: Not anymore. Like I said before, his body was now an exact duplicate of my own. My personality was submerged until I remembered Liz. My feelings for her, they kept me fighting.

MARIA: That�s so romantic.

MICHAEL: Yeah, whatever. So does that mean you could turn into Clayton at any time now?

Max shook his head.

MAX: When Clayton realized Liz was giving me strength, he became convinced that he could get rid of me by killing her. He brought us to Vermont, but Liz fought him back. We ended up falling out the window. Clayton died in the fall, and I would have as well. But Liz used her powers to heal me.

KYLE: Wow. Can you say �full circle� here?

VALENTI: Now hold on a second. You said �Liz used her powers��what powers?

The other five looked at each other nervously, before turning back towards Valenti.

KYLE: Ok dad, here�s the thing. Remember the whole thing with those alien clones last year? Well, one of them filled us in on a glitch in the alien super powers thing.

VALENTI: A �glitch�.

KYLE: Yeah. If Max heals someone from a fatal injury, you know�brings them back to life, he sort of passes on some powers to them. Anyone he brings back to life becomes like him, Michael, or Isabel.

Valenti�s mouth hung open for a moment.

VALENTI: I was shot when we were at MetaChem. Does that mean�?

MAX: We don�t know the statistics of the change. Liz just started to show signs of being like us a few weeks ago.

ISABEL: Not exactly, Max.

Max turns towards his sister, confused.

MICHAEL: That time you were in New York with Rath and Lonnie, she did something. Astral projection, they called it. Iz helped, but it was mostly her.

MAX: Astral projection. I�I saw Liz on the street, warning me. I thought I was hallucinating. That was actually her?

ISABEL: Yeah.

Kyle spoke up.

KYLE: Nothing�s happened to me yet, so I think you don�t have to worry for a while, dad.

Valenti walked out of the kitchen. Once facing the other way, a smile crept on his face.

Liz and Jessie walked up to the window of the Crashdown. There, she started to explain.

LIZ: It�s hard isn�t it? Accepting the truth about them?

Jessie nods.

JESSIE: Aliens. I know it, but it�s still hard to�

LIZ: Believe me, I know. This is actually where it all started.

JESSIE: Go on.

Liz took a deep breath and began her story.

LIZ: On September 18th 1999, I died. There were two people at the Crashdown who were arguing over money, then one of them pulled out a gun. It went off, and hit me in the stomach.

Jessie continued listening.

LIZ: Max ran up to me, and saw I was bleeding. Michael kept telling him to leave it be, but he didn�t listen. He used his powers to heal the bullet wound, and bring me back to life. A day later, he told me the secret. About himself, Michael, and Isabel being aliens. They didn�t know who they were or where they came from back then. But they were terrified that if anyone ever found out about them, the government might track them down and do god knows what. That�s where everything started.

JESSIE: If they were so scared of being discovered, why did Max risk their secret for you?

Liz blushed slightly.

LIZ: He was in love with me. He had been from the moment he saw me.

Jessie grinned.

JESSIE: A junior �Superman and Lois�, huh?

LIZ: Anyway�I told Maria, and later on Alex Whitman.

JESSIE: Wasn�t that Isabel�s boyfriend who died?

Liz nodded sadly.

JESSIE: He didn�t die from a car accident, did he?

LIZ: No.

JESSIE: I think I�m starting to understand why you keep all this a secret? So, no one else knows?

LIZ: Just me, Maria, Kyle, and his dad. And now you. They�re not bad people. Quite the opposite. Max is the kindest, gentlest, most caring and compassionate person I�ve ever met. And Michael and Isabel are good people. They�re just scared, thrown into a life they never asked for.

JESSIE: Yeah. Michael filled me in on the whole royal family aspect.

LIZ: Listen Jessie. I brought you here to make something clear to you. The moment you found out the truth, your life was put in danger. As long as you�re on the inside, you�re put under the same threats that they face every day of their lives. It�s a big risk to take.

Jessie thinks on this for a moment.

JESSIE: I want to ask you a question Liz. If you could do it all over again, would you change anything?

Liz shook her head.

LIZ: No, I wouldn�t. Everything me and Max have been through since�the good and the bad�I wouldn�t trade it for anything.

JESSIE: Then you�ve got my answer.

They shake hands, and Liz smiles.

LIZ: Welcome to the inside.

Jessie laughs.

LIZ: I�m going to go inside and let my parents know I�m back. Could you tell Max that I�ll see him tomorrow?

JESSIE: Will do.

Liz walks in the Crashdown and Jessie leaves.

Nighttime. Liz is sitting on her bed, writing in her journal when she hears a voice outside her window.

MAX: (off-screen)Liz?

She climbs off the bed and climbs out the window. Looking over the balcony, she sees Max standing on the street.

LIZ: Max?

MAX: Can I come up?

Liz nods and he starts to climb up to the balcony.

Once there, the two of them slowly walk towards each other.

MAX: I just wanted to see if you were all right. We didn�t have the chance to talk earlier, with the others so shocked and everything.

LIZ: Yeah, well, your brother coming back from the dead and showing up in someone�s yard would make a really awkward situation.

The both of them pause for a moment.

LIZ: I�m actually more concerned about you than I am me right now, Max.

Max looks at her, confused.

MAX: Concerned for me? Why?

LIZ: You almost died, Max. Come to think of it, you DID die. Don�t you find that the least bit unsettling?

Max looks at her, a little worried.

MAX: Do you? Do you find me unsettling now?

LIZ: No, of course not. That�s not what I meant. It�s just that, during the whole bus ride, you looked like you would shatter into a million pieces any minute.

Max looked her in the eyes, feeling a little guilty.

MAX: I was hoping no one noticed.

LIZ: Why?

MAX: I�m supposed to be a leader. Heck, I�m supposed to be a king. People can�t know that I�m�afraid. If I let people see that, they won�t trust me to take care of them.

Liz reached over and gave him a small kiss on the lips.

LIZ: I do.

Max couldn�t help but smile.

MAX: Sometimes I feel like I don�t deserve someone like you. You�ve been through so much, both because of me and by me. How can anyone be that strong?

Liz doesn�t answer. She just blushes slightly.

Max touches the side of her face and tilts her head up to look at him. They can feel the other�s breath on their faces.

MAX: God, I love you so much.

Liz smiles.

LIZ: I love you too.

They kiss again, this time lingering longer. Liz wraps her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.

Finally, after a moment, they broke apart.

LIZ: You�d better go before my dad gets here. He�s a little mad.

Max looks confused.

MAX: I thought he was ok with me now.

LIZ: Oh, you�re not the problem. I am. Do you have any idea how much money that school in Vermont cost him?

Max chuckles.

MAX: I�ll see you at school tomorrow.

He gives her one last kiss before descending down the balcony again.

Liz watches him go, smiling. Then she heads back towards her room.