Roswell Fanatics

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 3c: "Mind games" 2/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'

(October 23 2000. I'm not going to try to catalog the time periods that Michael and Maria wander through in the labyrinth, because it's *so* not the point.)

Michael relaxed once he and Maria had finished stepping up/down the freaky stairway, taking them down in lockstep from the sky, and through the steakhouse. The underground passage seemed the safest and least weird part of this whole creepy place.

"Well??" Maria drawled out, looking up at him.

"Well what?"

Maria shook her head again. "My question?" Michael must have looked blank enough for Maria to repeat. "Just what the heck do you put in those sandwhiches that you take to school?"

Michael hesitated. "Oh give me a break," Maria exclaimed. "After the embarassing story I just told you, you're worried about some sandwhich recipe??"

Michael sighed. "Okay, if you really want to know. Well..." Michael smiled as he remembered the day he had first hit on the combination. "There's pancake syrup. The imitation maple stuff. A little strawberry jelly. And... this hot red pepper spread stuff."

"Eww!!" Maria said, shaking her head. "Gross."

"Hey, don't shake your head at me," Michael said as they rounded the sharp corner to the other branch of the fork. "A hybrid I was born, and a hybrid I shall remain. Therefore I crave the things that are spicy hot and delicately sweet at the same time." He looked over at Maria as they headed along the downward-ramping passageway, and two more words slipped out before Michael could stop them. "Like you."

Mara looked up at him in surprise, and Michael looked away before she could make eye contact, focusing on the pathway ahead of him. But he could tell that Maria was thinking about whether she was going to reply to what he had just said by the sound of her breathing. Deciding against it. He heard her turn her own head to face forward, and right then he couldn't resist sneaking a sidelong glance at her. Maria was blushing.

"Well, I guess it's my turn to ask a question again?" Michael said, trying to get a reasonably safe topic of conversation back.

"Yes," Maria said deliberately. "And may I say, that was pretty much a waste of a turn."

Michael had to take a few seconds to understand the convolutions of Maria-logic there. "No," he said finally. "That *so* does not count as a turn."

"You put forward a question for me to answer," Maria countered. "I answered it truthfully and without reservation. That counts!"

"Not a chance," Michael insisted. "There has to be a distinction made between questions *in* the game and queries *about* the g..."

"Save it, spaceboy," Maria interrupted, shoving him playfully on the arm. "Weirdness ho. Snap to."

Michael looked down the passageway where Maria was pointing, and quickly he understood what she meant. The tunnel narrowed to a dead end, with a line on the floor before the final wall marking off a square perhaps five feet to a side. He approched it cautiously, not wanting to blunder into something that might be dangerous. The spikes had taught him *that* lesson well enough, thank you very much.

"Look", Maria said, pointing up to the top of the tunnel near the dead end. "Shine the light a little brighter, Twinkles."

Michael had to fight back a growl at *that* new nickname - he didn't want to give Maria the pleasure of seeing how she was riling him. But he brightened the glow from his hand by three notches and stretched it out in front of them, trying to better illuminate what Maria was pointing at.

"There isn't any ceiling above that square," Maria pointed out. "Could that be the way this passage continues?? Up!?"

Michael edged carefully even closer, being careful not to let any part of himself cross over the line yet. "I don't see how. There are no ladders, no rope -- nothing to climb. How the heck are we supposed to get up there?"

Maria considered. "Could you... you know, lift us up? With your powers??" Maria made a cute 'whooshing' gesture with both arms.

"Ummm..." Michael considered that. "I might be able to 'push' you up there... though I wouldn't make any guarantees about how comfortable the ride would be - or how accurate my aim, for that matter. I don't have that much control over my kinetic powers yet. And I've *never* been able to fly through the air myself with my powers."

"Why not?" Maria asked in an aside. "You can 'push,' as you say it. If you push down on the earth beneath you, and it's secure enough, it won't move. I would think the combination of force and resistance would make you rise into the air."

"Maria?" Michael, asked, sighing.

"Yeah?"

"Focus?"

Maria shook her head slightly. "'Lack of control.' Got it, chief."

Michael looked around. "If we had enough source material to work with, I could *create* a ladder. But all these rock walls are out of phase with us - this whole *area* is solid rock, including where we're standing. The true walls are the invisible ones." Michael focused on the nearest invisible wall, trying to reform its molecules, but got no results. Probably it was really made out of some kind of force field. No molecules meant no molecular manipulation.

"You know, maybe we're being too complicated," Maria decided. "This alcove almost looks like an elevator carriage, except no doors. Maybe there's a push button inside to make the whole thing go up." And before Michael could stop her, she dashed across the line to investigate the alcove.

Michael suffered a siege of panic. For an instant he wanted to charge in right behind Maria. Then it occured to him that if what was inside the alcove was truly deadly, she might be better off if he stayed outside and tried to use his powers to protect her or pull her back out. So, all he ended up doing was waiting to see what happened to Maria inside the alcove, holding his breath.

Nothing seemed amiss at first. Maria ran her hands over one of the alcove walls, looking for hidden switches or touch panels. After not quite two seconds, though, she became aware of something, and spun around to look at Michael. "Aack!!"

"What's wrong?" he asked quickly.

"I'm... yahh!" Unable to finish the sentence, Maria gestured at the floor. Michael looked down and immediately recognized the problem. The soles of Maria's boots were dangling about an inch above the floor, and slowly rising.

WHOOOSH. Michael didn't consciously key in his powers, but they had been on emergency standby for just enough instants to make that not necessary. As soon as Michael had recognized, alien forces rushed blindly out to coerce a solution. WHOMPP!! The impact would probably have been bone-breaking if Michael hadn't been 'pushing' against another unearthly force - it turned out to be merely startling. Maria shook off the impact and waved a hand in Michael's direction as a calm-down signal.

"I shouldn't have freaked. Come on. *This* is how we travel upwards. The alcove doesn't go up, like an elevator chamber. Only *we* go up!!"

Understanding hit Michael like a stinging softball. Of course. That had to be it! He rushed forward across the line, releasing his light kinetic grasp from Maria only when he was close enough to actualy touch her. Sure enough, soon he felt the mysterious lifting effect, first just taking some of the weight off of his feet, then more, then all. He couldn't put a finger on when they actually left the floor, but soon enough Michael estimated their upward speed as just short of two feet a second.

"Second floor coming up quick," Maria announced. She was right - though the shaft proceeded upwards further than Michael could immediately make out, a rectangular opening seven or eight feet long in one of the 'walls' indicated a possible stop coming up soon. Michael had only a second to think, so he chose what seemed like the safer course. If they let this route pass by, they would be unable to return to it without finding some way of going *down* the 'up' shaft. Whereas if Michael and Maria took this routing, presumably they could return to the shaft and continue on up.

"Come on." Gatering Maria in one of his arms, Michael kicked against one wall and the two of them sailed gracefully through the opening - only to catch their balance less gracefully when gravity reasserted itself.

Maria looked around. Another tunnel passageway stretched ahead of them, ramping upwards slightly and curving to the right. She shrugged. "Might as well check it out."

Michael reached out an arm to keep Maria from walking down the corridor. In a way that he never had before, Michael *extended* his senses down the passageway. The results were unmistakeable - and not positive. "No," he muttered, shaking his head. "This is another dead end."

"How do you know?" Maria demanded.

"I can tell," Michael explained lamely. "With my powers. Isabel just told me how."

"Isabel??"

And the full realization hit Michael only then. "Isabel's been communicating with my subconscious, from out in the real world. The whole gang is working to help get us out. This is an alien thingee called a space/time labyrinth..." Michael shook his head. "I'll tell you about it as we go. Come on." He all but dragged Maria back into the levitator shaft.

* * * *

"He got the messgages," Isabel announced in a relieved voice. "He told Maria that we're all here, pulling for them. And then he took her back into the levitator shaft - I think he was able to do what you told me about, to sense with his powers and tell that it was a blind alley."

"Great!" Alex exclaimed, smiling back at Iz. "Good timing too, because I think we're... here."

Sure enough, Max was just bringing the Taurus in for a carefree parking job in front of Jim Valenti's house. Max's Jeep and the Sherrif's cruiser were parked in the driveway. Alex looked around for Kyle's old Prowler, but he couldn't see the navy blue car anywhere.

"We'd better hurry inside," Max said. "Liz and Tess are probably facing down Valenti alone."

They rushed inside as quickly as possible. Isabel seemed to be a little dizzy after the huge effort of communicating to Michael across the time differential, so Alex offered her his arm for support as she hurried up the front walk, still clutching the blue crystal lamp in her other hand. Max led the way.

"Max," Valenti called out as Alex and Isabel were making their way through the front door. "Maybe *you* could shed a little light as to what the hell is going on here?"

"Allow me, sir," Alex replied. "Michael and Maria's lives are in danger from an alien booby trap. I think I may have an idea as to how to get them out, but it'll require the five of us working non-stop from a secure location where no-one will see things that can't be easily explained. Tess suggested we ask you if we could do it here."

Valenti looked still grim but slightly mollified. "Go on." As quickly as he could, Alex went over the essentials of the situation, trying to explain as clearly as possibly without going into things that would be too hard for Valenti to understand.

After a few questions, Valenti paused, to consider. "It's a hell of a story," he muttered. "You give me your word that all of this is so, as far as you could possibly be expected to determine,"

"I do, sir," Alex and Max answered at the same time. Alex looked around and saw that Isabel, Liz, and even Tess were nodding in support of him.

Jim Valenti nodded in acceptance. "Okay, then. Have you given any thought to what your parents are going to think when you don't come home tonight? From what you've said, this 'rescue mission' could last well into the night, if not longer."

Alex blushed in embarassment. "We... we hadn't really gotten that far, sir."

"Alex..." Isabel stage-whispered. Alex turned around to look at her, and immediately realized what was on her mind.

He turned back to the sheriff. "We can discuss alibis later - it's still early. For right now, is there a place where Isabel can relax and concentrate in peace?"

Valenti considere. "Yeah, use my room. Hallway over there, first on your right."

"Thanks." Next Max. "Give us about four minutes to make sure that the connection is stable, and then come inside quietly. I'll show you how to use the Brundis crystal to start opening a exit for Michael right here." Isabel let out a little gasp, clutching the crystal instinctively tighter.

Max went over to Isabel, rubbing her shoulder supportively. "Don't worry, Is. Everything's going to be alright." He turned to Alex. "She can do this without the crystal now?"

"Once the connection is strong, she should be able to maintain it without using the crystal," Alex explained. "And vice versa - if she needs to use the crystal briefly, it shouldn't disrupt what you're doing." He turned to Isabel. "Come on." He led her in the direction that Valenti had indicated.

Just before they stepped into Valenti's bedroom, Isabel turned to Alex. "Thank you for all of this, Alex," she said, smiling shyly. "Doing all this to rescue Michael and Maria, teaching Max and I what we need to know, helping to convince Valenti..."

"It's nothing," Alex assured her. "I want to get Maria and Michael back as much as you guys do. But you're welcome."

Isabel grinned again, then headed into the bedroom and sat cross-legged on the bed. Alex closed the door and breathed deeply. "Just relax and let the connection re-establish itself. You know Michael's mind, it's right in front of you. Reach out and touch it..."

* * * *

Alex gently took the Brundis crystal out of Isabel's hands, trying not to disturb her concentration, and tiptoed back out the bedroom door, letting Max gently close it behind him. Neither of them said anything until they had left the hallway.

"So... any idea where would be good for the exit, man," Max asked with a slightly tired smile. He'd be a lot more tired before all of this was over, Alex suddenly realized.

"Um... right here in the living room should be good," Alex decided. "Close the drapes so nobody can see in from inside - push the sofa back against the dinner table; move the coffee table to the side wall, and there'll be a nice open space to work in here."

"Oh, sure," a familiar sarcastic voice replied. "Just rearrange my bedroom without so much as a 'please.' Typical."

Alex looked up. Yeah, that was Kyle sitting on the couch. The couch that Alex vaguely rememembered hearing Kyle was sleeping on since Tess had moved into the Valenti's - apparently Kyle's sense of chivalry, which Alex had never even really seen evidence of, had balked at the prospect of keeping the bedroom and leaving Tess the couch.

"I'm sorry," Max said to Kyle. "But we're in red alert mode. Keep quiet and out of the way so we can work, okay."

"Or make yourself useful," Tess chimed in. Once again, Max and Liz turned to stare at her. "Well? We're doing the alien-human team-up thing, right? Alex is helping Isabel with the psionic thing, Liz is gonna be 'lending her energy' to Max with one of the stones. Maria is probably helping Michael out, inside the maze. Well, I'm Max's relief as the proctor, so I get a human partner too." She got up and very deliberately sat down on the couch next to Kyle. Max and Liz were still staring.

"Okay." Alex shook his head. "Moving on. Max, Liz..." He waved them to the living room floor. "Let's get this started. Tess.... Kyle, I guess you guys should pay attention." Soon Alex, Liz, and Max were sitting in a triangle on the carpet. Alex handed Max the Brundis crystal.

"Okay, now... I guess the first thing you need to do is to get an awareness of the labyrinth through this," Alex started. "Use the crystal. Think of it like... like you're trying to get a flash from the thing."

"I can't get a flash on command," Max protested.

"You can with this thing," Alex assured him. Max looked dubious, but he closed his eyes and pressed a hand more closely into the crystal - and gasped. Alex smiled slightly. "What do you see?"

"It's... it's not *see* so much as sense..." Max gasped out. "The entire layout of a maze... more complicated than any maze could be here on earth. I... I can't get more than a dim impression of the design as a whole. Once I concentrate on any part, I can sense more detail about it."

"Okay, that's good," Alex explained. "Can you see a marked exit of any kind??"

"Yes, it's..." Max drew in a sharp breath. "It's in midair - about thirty feet above the street, just outside the UFO center."

"Okay," Alex said calmly. "Don't panic about that. Just take that exit and try to *pull* it right here. To Valenti's living room."

"H-how?" Max asked, a flash of uncertainty crossing his face, eyes still closed.

"Use your powers, Max," Liz guessed.

"That's right." Alex confirmed. "Treat the exit like it's... a ball, that you're pulling through the air. Bring it here."

"Okay..." Max concentrated again. "Oh, no. The exit closed as I moved it."

"That's okay, Max," Alex told him with a small smile. "Another exit should manifest, closer to us. Once it opens, draw it near like you did the other one, okay?" Max nodded. Alex turned to Liz. "You have the healing stone?" Liz smiled and waved it in the air slightly. "Then just hold it in both your hands, and concentrate on helping Max. Just like when we were hea-" He broke off, kicking himself mentally for having forgotten.

"I never helped heal Michael," Liz reminded him. "River dog wouldn't let me. He said I was too afraid." Alex could still hear the... the shame in Liz's voice, that she felt over that.

"Are you too afraid now?" Alex asked her.

"Well... I don't think so. How would I know?"

Alex smiled comfortingly at her. "Don't worry. Using the stones to lend strength is nowhere near as potentially dangerous as a healing. Do you know what to do, Liz?"

"Um... yeah, yeah, I think so." She smiled shyly back at him.

"Okay." Alex stood up. "I'm going to go check in on Isabel, but I'll be liasing with you guys. Keep the faith." He waved slightly, then headed back towards the hallway.

* * * *

For Michael, the space/time labyrinth was starting to get distinctly routine.

Part of his mind focused on simply keeping himself moving - one foot in front of another, over and over again. Another part was devoted to 'sensing' about the maze layout, figuring out which turning to take at any time there was some sort of branch point. And whatever was left talked to Maria.

"So, when did you first realize that you were... you know." Maria shrugged. "'Different'?"

Michael considered that. They had been wandering around what looked like southern Europe for about fifteen minutes. Spain, France, Italy, some place that looked like it might have been part of the Yugoslavian war... they were moving too fast to keep track. The route was leading them back into the sky again, via a wide spiralling staircase, and Michael was just as glad about that.

"Let's see. Different? I guess there was this thing - about a few days after social services placed me with Hank. He had been drinking a little, and we got into a shouting match when he tried to get me to go to bed, and I was so angry I levitated the telephone table into the air."

"Oh my god, you didn't." Maria seemed to be holding back a gale of laughter.

"Yeah. I didn't even realize that there was anything unusual about it at the time. But Hank called social services and my placement worker came back out. She looked at the table, even asked me about it. I was so nervous I told her that I didn't know what Hank was talking about - I knew enough to guess that I had done something wrong. And then I realized that other people *couldn't* do that kind of thing."

Maria smiled. "Okay. Your question."

Michael had no idea where it came from. "When did you know you'd fallen in love with me?"

Maria tripped over a stair. Michael jumped forward to make sure that she was okay, but Maria caught her balance by herself. "Umm..." Flustered, she looked up at Michael, her bright eyes shining. "Okay, this game just blew out of the trivial category - you do realize that, right?"

"Yeah, I do," Michael said softly. "But... well, I'd really like to know."

"Okay." Maria was either concentrating on her feet and the stairs, or avoiding eye contact with Michael. "Let's see... when I knew I'd fallen in love with you?" She sighed. "I guess it would have to be that damned napkin holder. It was the sweetest thing that anybody's ever given me. And when I was heading to that shop class -- well, I just couldn't bear to hand it in and know that I'd never see it again. So I took the F in exchange for keeping the stupid thing. Why else would I have cared? It's not like holding napkins is more important to me than an 'A' grade on a daily basis."

"Oh." Michael smiled - and then it hit him exactly what he'd done when Maria thanked him for the napkin holder. He'd tried to sell her one one of his patented 'We can't be together' speeches. Let's see - that occasion had been 'I have to be a stone wall.' And she had just figured out that she was in love with him. Oh. Man.

"Let's see, turnabout is fair play," Maria decided. "Did you ever fall in love with me, and if so why?"

**Did I ever...** Michael froze. **God, Maria, I'm *still* in love with you!!** But he couldn't say that, and forced himself to step further up the stairs, noticing idly that they were above ice and snow now. It still seemed warm inside the labyrinth. "Yes... yes, I fell in love with you, Maria. It was during that whole bit with Topolsky coming back to town. Everyone was so afraid, and things were getting so crazy. After Topolsky broke into my apartment, I started worrying about what I'd do if something... scary, happened to you. Something really bad."

"And, I guess that's what love is. When you're more worried about someone else than about yourself."

"Aww..." Maria sighed. An awkward silence streched out the seconds. "God, I'm so hungry," Maria complained.

"Me too," Michael agreed. "And tired. But we can't wimp out now - there's worse to come, I bet."

"I'm not 'wimping out,'" Maria huffed. "Just commenting that I'm hungry."

"Dunno what good it's gonna do you," Michael pointed out. "I don't think you'll find a sun-dried tomato pizza just sitting here outside of the space/time continuum."

"You know, being this sarcastic is not really helping, Michael."

"Sorry."

The spiral staircase came to a stop at a T-corner intersection. Michael considered briefly, then led Maria down the right passage, which he judged was taking them in the direction of Siberia - unless it pulled another surprise on them.

"So..." Maria started out again. "How did you *think* the meeting with me this afternoon was going to turn out?"

Michael thought a bit before answering. "Hey, you had the *last* question. It's my turn."

"You didn't *take* your turn."

"Well, maybe I wanna take it now."

"Do you really?"

Michael thought. "No, I'll answer yours. But I get two turns in a row sometime later. Let's see... the talk with you..." He sighed. "I'll level with you. I had no clue. I guess I figured I'd just take it as it came and see what happened."

"Is that the reason you put me off from Saturday night? Because you were scared??" Maria's voice betrayed her surprise.

"No, I *wasn't* scared," Michael sneered. "I... well, I didn't really want to do it until the whole thing with Liz and her parents and Whittaker was done. This afternoon seemed like the next good opportunity."

"Oh." Maria was surprised again. "Oh my god, Michael, I don't believe it. When you're wrong, you're wrong!!"

Michael blinked his surprise. "What the heck do you mean by that?"

"No food outside of the space/time continuum?" Maria laughed, pointing at something down at the side of the corridor. Before Michael could get a good look, Maria ran ahead, (giving Michael a good look of *another* kind,) and retrieved the item in question. "Want some?"

It was a bag of bacon chips, three-quarters full and sealed with an old clothespin. "Hey, I had a bag like that in my kitchen. Maybe they got blown into the labyrinth with us."

"Whatever, spaceboy. It's *food*." Maria opened up the bag, plucked out two chips, and brought them to her mouth.

"No!!" Michael yelled at her. Maria paused in pre-bite to give him an annoyed look. "We don't have anything to drink. I know you, Maria - if you start eating bacom chips, you're going to drive yourself crazy with thirst."

"C'mon, Michael." Maria pouted. "I'm hungry, it's food. I won't get too thirsty if I eat a few slow, one at a time. I've done it before. Trust me."

"Okay," Michael finally relented. Maria smiled and carefully crunched into her first chip. Suddenly, Michael's sense of the labyrinth flagged him to something. "Turn here."

"Where?" Maria spun to a right angle, and noticed something illuminated in the wall to their side - an opening only about seven or eight inches wide. "You've got to be kidding me."

Michael grimaced. "Whoops." Maria turned to look at him with a questioning glare. "I sensed that there was a 'way through' here. I didn't worry about how small it might be." He put a finger on one of the edges. "The wall is moving - very slowly closing further. If we didn't take that first wrong turning, we probably could have made it through."

Maria sighed. "So which way now?"

Michael concentrated. It was hard trying to sense an alternate route when his alien senses were telling him this path was still good, but soon enough he had it. "Back the way we came. Sorry."

Maria sighed and followed him back towards the T-intersection. "So, are you going to ask your t--"

Michael shushed her. "Quiet."

There was a dull pounding sound that Michael could only just hear. Of course, since they heard sounds from the outside, it could be a tribal drum ritual from some nearby native village, or something, but if so, why was it getting *louder*??

And then suddenly, something appeared. Out of thin air, apparently, though Michael suddenly realized it was just rounding the corner from the stairs that Michael and Maria had themselves climbed, and turning through the T-intersection. (That was worth making a note of. While this thing had been seperated from them by two 'invisible' walls, they couldn't see it, although they could still see the spot in real space that it was overlapping.)

But enough of that. The creature itself was seven and a half feet tall, easily three hundred and fifty pounds. Its feet were solid racks of white bone and green meat, it had three tentacles it waved angrily in the air, and two huge claws reached forward. Where Michael would expect its head to be was just a vague bump of brown fur, where a couple of darker patches perhaps protected eyes and ears.

Michael turned to Maria and said the only sensible thing. "Run!!" He pointed in the opposite direction from the monster, the 'wrong way.' Right or wrong, it was their only way now...

TO BE CONTINUED.

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 3d: "Bet the world" 1/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'

(October 20 2001.)

As the limo turned down Maria's street, Michael fixed Alex with a serious stare. "Remember, man..."

"I know, I know," Alex sighed "Twenty-five years."

"We're all countin' on ya, man," Michael reminded him with a friendly clap on the back.

* * * * *

(October 23 2000.)

Michael hurried down the invisible passageway in the sky after Maria. Boy, could that girl *run* when she needed to!! With difficulty, Michael pulled up almost beside her, and panted out. "We can't just keep running from this thing. We're - (long gasping breath,) caught in a maze here! That kinda implies a shortage of suitable places to escape."

"You... you got any ideas, spaceboy," Maria stage-whispered as she kept booting it along, "I'm all ea--"

Maria never quite finished the sentence: she suddenly became more interested in keeping her balance as a new factor suddenly upset her physical equilibrium.

Michael hit it only a fraction of a second after Maria did. The floor was starting to slope down under his feet. First almost too little to detect, then a quite noticeable slant. The invisible floor here was quite friction-free, as the invisible walls were, and quickly at this rate the pitch would become such that traction would be impossible.

Indecision gripped Michael for a moment, but only until the monster roared behind them. Jumping forward to wrap one arm tightly around Maria's waist, he leaned back and let his feet slip out from under him. "Hey!" Maria cried out in sudden shock, but kept quiet once she realized what was happening -- the two of them slid side by side on their backs, down the chute, which was starting to twist to the left in a corkscrew pattern.

Michael tried to keep his wits about him. On any normal day, he would probably have paid hard-earned money to be going on this ride with a beautiful girl right beside him. But this was not an ordinary day. They were still stuck in the middle of a life-or-death trap, and were now following a one-way-only route into who-knew-what. The corkscrew slide was carrying them further in one direction than the other, and the ground seemed to be approaching awfully quickly. Then, suddenly, they were underground, and the slope of the slide became even steeper, until...

"Whoa!" Michael's feet struck a small ledge and glanced off, and an instant later the same thing happened to Maria. Suddenly the two of them were jumping through the air, and then a bone-jarring (but not breaking,) landing on a floor. The chute ended here.

But where was 'here'? Sheepishly Michael relit the glow on his hand. There was the chute landing, right behind them. A chamber, ceiling ten feet high, floor twenty-five by thirty-five feet big, or thereabouts. Surprisingly, there were actually furnishings of a sort on one of the walls - huge circular levers that could apparently be pointed in any direction, with backdrops marking off a circular arc divided into twenty segments. A stairway led up and away from the room.

"Good enough," Michael said, crossing the empty space in the middle of the chamber towards the stairs. His 'sense' told him that this was the right way out. He stepped up onto the first stair.

It pivoted, rather than accept his weight, forming a slope back down. Michael tried the second stair, and it and the first twisted down in unison.

"Trick stairs," he muttered, looking over at Maria. "I don't have time for this."

"The dials," Maria pointed out. "They have to be the key." Quickly she went along the wall, setting each dial in a sequential position, then rushed over to the stairs to check her findings. The first stair held, until she stepped up to the second. Maria tried to recover and jump down to the landing gracefully, but Michael was too quick with the 'coming to the rescue' move, and she ended up tangled in his arms. Michael's heart skipped a beat again.

Just at that point, of course, in the silence they could hear a distant roar and an odd 'swishing' sound.

"What the heck is that?" Maria asked, in the kind of tone of voice that suggested she knew the answer and wanted it to be *anything* but what she knew.

Michael grimaced. "Well, it doesn't sound anything like a monster sliding down a chute, that's for sure." Maria shot him a dark look. Michael smiled weakly.

"Okay, we have about ninety seconds until it gets here," he rambled on. "No way we can figure out how to use the stairs that quickly, so I guess it's do or die time. Defeat the monster or die trying." He set Maria down gently.

"Oh god." A mixture of sheer terror for him and muted pride filled Maria's face. "Do you have any idea how?"

"Not a clue," Michael muttered. He didn't even have a weapon.

* * * * *

Alex thought to himself as he watched Isabel concentrate on the link with Michael. **Boy, I really hope we get Michael and Maria out of this alright. Man, Isabel is SO beautiful... This alien knowledge stuff is weird, weird weird. I can't get used to the idea of having facts inside my brain that came from some other person - or more than one person - from some alien planet halfway across the galaxy - maybe fifty years ago, or more...**

Just then, Isabel's eyes snapped open. "Michael's in trouble!"

The paralyzing panic lasted only a second. Then Alex hurried over to Isabel's side. "What kind of trouble?"

"It's hard to tell, Michael's thoughts are so jumbled," Isabel muttered. "He's running from something - Maria too. I can't make out what... ooooh." Isabel groaned in surpressed horror. "I can see parts of it now. Monster parts. Alex, you never said anything about there being a monster in the maze!" Those beautiful brown eyes were accusing as they stared up at him. "How could you leave out a detail like that?"

"Keep focusing on the link with Michael," Alex reminded her reflexively, as much to deflect Isabel's insinuations about his carelessness as for the right reasons. He turned away from Isabel and scanned through the 'washer file' in his brain. "There's nothing in here about monsters, guardians, or active threats in the labyrinth. I'm sorry, Isabel, but your monster just doesn't seem to be... Oh, god." Stricken, with remorse, he forced himself to turn around and face Isabel.

"Oh, god, *what,* Alex?" she prompted him, paling.

"A... a footnote," Alex analogized. "At least, that's the best way I can think of to explain it."

"And what does it say, this footnote?" Isabel asked.

"High-risk version of the rite of passage, for the most daring only. An insubstantial energy creature is bound into the Brundis crystal along with the time warp. In the labyrinth, away from our space-time continuum, it can assume a deadly material form."

"And how do they stop it??"

Alex dredged his alien memories for a long moment. "I... I think that Michael can use his powers against it. Make it insubstantial again, at which point it returns to the beginning of the labyrinth. They can't kill it, but they can keep backing it off until they get out. Max can help, using the crystal." He sighed. "That's all I can get. I'll go out and tell Max."

Isabel's only reaction was to nod ever so breifly and close her eyes again. Alex knew that time was critical, but he couldn't help but feel censured.

He hurried out to let Max and Liz know about the beast.

* * * * *

The beast roared through the terminus of the chute and into the chamber, somehow managing to avoid the trip ledge that had caught both Michael and Maria. Without any mouth, it roared and screamed quite loudly at both of them, waving its claws and tentacles menacingly.

By now, though, Michael was ready for it - or as ready as he was going to be. With a massive exertion of his alien abilities, he picked the beast up and flew it into the air, pouring on the acceleration with as much strength as he could muster, then let it collide crashingly against the opposite wall and floor where they met to come together. CRASH!!! The impact was satisfyingly loud.

The monster oriented on Michael and came to charge at him again. This time, he lifted the massive creature off the floor, struggled it up until it was levitating only a few inches from the ceiling, and let its huge body drop. THUUMPPP!!!!

Yet again, the beast shook the impact off. Michael pushed it back while reconsidering his strategy. At this rate, the monster could probably take more of these crashes than Michael could have the energy to put it through. That thing was *heavy*! And Michael knew that the one thing that he couldn't afford was to leave himself too overtired. That would be the same as being defenceless against this thing.

"Michael..." Maria muttered from beside him. She was getting anxious. **Gotta try something, Michael.** Seized by inspiration, he focused on the creature and tried to send its molecules flying apart. He'd never really tried this on anything living before, though he'd thought about it and tried it on scrap metal. But it didn't seem to work against this critter. Almost like it... like it wasn't quite made out of molecules, if that made any sense.

Getting worried now, Michael tried the handprint of death strike. The one he had used on Pierce... at least no-one would put him in jail for killing *this* thing. But even that high-energy blast seemed to scarcely phaze the monster. It charged at Michael again, and this time he didn't have the strength to push its massive body back telekinetically. In fact... he didn't even have the strength to dodge.

Maria tried to pull him away, but the monster oriented on him as he moved and Michael slipped his hand out of Maria's grasp. At least *she* could get away. Maria stumbled away, caught by surprise, her momentum carrying her on without him.

And then the creature was upon him, knocking Michael down with a huge arm and standing over his body. Those tentacles ripped at his clothing, and a huge, heavy claw tore into his side, quite painfully. Michael focused his powers for one last panicked push, but the beast hardly budged.

"Take that!!" Something nudged the body of the monster, far less than even Michael had been able to move it that last time, but the tentacles suddenly left him alone as the creature oriented on someone else. It had to be... "Nobody does that to the guy I love without messing with Maria DeLucca!!!"

Maria pantomimed swinging something thick and heavy at the monster's claw, even though she didn't appear to be holding anything, and the appendage shook slightly with the impact. Maria noticed him staring. "Invisible chunk of wood or something, I tripped over it," she explained in passing before clubbing the monster again.

"Maria!!" Michael complained. "You're not hurting the thing, you're just making it angry at you!"

"Well, that was the plan all along braniac," Maria retorted - thunk - "and by the way, you're welcome for saving your life!! Now, make with the alien powers and RETURN THE FAVOR!! Yii" Maria skittered backward as the monster took a swing at her and gave it another tired bash - that invisible pillar of wood had to be heavy.

Michael groaned and lifted the monster back into the air - his strength had recovered far enough to make that possible. The alien creature seemed to be getting tired too, though not nearly quickly enough. Inside his mind, Michael was finding it hard to focus for a second on anything but how much he loved Maria - her fire, her passion, the 'chutzpah' that would drive her to piss off an alien monster like that just for his sake.

And then, suddenly, the monster reared and charged at Maria again. The beast also seemed revitalized for the moment, full of piss and vinegar or something. Michael was just about to marshal his energies for another defensive toss, when something else saved him the trouble. A glowing shield of green energy shimmered into existence down the diagonal of the room, seperating the monster from Michael and Maria. Maria looked over admiringly at Michael. "Good one!"

"I didn't do it," Michael confessed. "The only one I know who can do shields is... Max?" He raised his voice on the name for some reason.

And that's when it hit him -- Isabel's message -- or mabye when he became consciously aware of it, Michael couldn't tell. [The monster is some kind of energy being, manifesting with a body only inside the labyrinth. That's the key to defeating it - you can reverse the process and make it insubstantial again. Max will help.]

"Okay," Michael muttered to himself, though he knew only Maria could hear him, and she didn't know what was going on. He tried to reach out and focus his powers on the monster to try this out, but the shield worked both ways - Michael's power couldn't reach through it. "Okay, Max, I'm ready, let it down now."

It actually took about twenty seconds before Max let the shield slip, by which time the monster had started to get confused. Quickly, Michael reached out to let his power envelop the beast, trying to focus his energies in the way Isabel had suggested. It wasn't like anything else he had ever done before, but he thought maybe he could do it - if Max helped out too.

After a few second, he could feel another power play around the monster - working in a slightly different way than his. Immediately Michael switched to supporting the other's effort, figuring that if it was Max (it had to be,) then Max would have Alex advising him directly, and hopefully would know better what to do.

There didn't seem to be any response immediately. Michae was worried - his power levels were getting pretty far down already, and the monster had oriented on Maria and himself again (couldn't tell if it was both of them or only one,) and building up speed for another charge. Fifteen feet away. Nine, three - and then the creature's body seemed to be enveloped by shimmers, as Max and Michael's power finally started to have an effect. Within a few seconds, it was gone.

Michael turned to Maria and, caught up in the moment, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. Maria kissed back, and in a few seconds two or three of their total of four legs buckled from the exhaustion and the two teenagers ended up in a tangle on the floor, still clinched at the mouth.

It was Maria who broke away first. "Well, much as I hate to say it, we should probably get a move on." She gently but definitely took one of Michaels hands away from her waist and sat up.

"Yeah." Michael pulled himself to a crouch. "The monster isn't dead - just sent back to the beginning of the maze, or something, I think. Another little tidbit from Isabel. It'll be gunning for us again."

"Lovely." Maria stood up and returned her attention to the dials. "So, any idea what's going on here?"

"Some kind of mathematical puzzle?" Michael guessed with a sigh. Math was so not his strong suit. "How close we're getting to the correct code is somehow reflected by how many steps up the stairway we can get without being dumped."

"Okay, let's give this a try, then." Maria adjusted a few of the dials, and then went over to try the first step. It pivoted.

Michael groaned.

* * * * *

"Are you getting anything?" Alex asked Isabel nervously.

"No.... it's not a constant thing," Isabel complained. "Sometimes I can make sense of Michael's subconscious mind, more often I can't. Just have to wait for those rare flashes of insight, you know what I mean?"

Alex nodded understandingly. A cheer broke out in the living room, and Alex looked over at Isabel. "Still nothing," she snapped, in an angry tone but with a teasing twinkle in her eye.

"Okay..." she murmured after a long moment. "Yeah, the monstey's been zapped out or whatever - now Michael and Maria are working on this math puzzle thing, with dials on the walls and a trick staircase." She sighed. "Michael isn't pleased."

"Do you want my help?" Alex asked tentatively.

"Hey, you might be the big brain, but I do okay in calculus class," Isabel shot back. "I can handle it - relaying everything to you would just be a extra waste of time."

"Thanks so much," Alex joked back with a wide smile. "Well, I'll check in with Max and Liz - be back in a few." He stood up, closed the door softly, and crept out to the living room.

Tess was sitting on the couch, focusing intently on the Brundis crystal. "Hi, Alex." Kyle was sitting next to her, similarly intent on a healing stone. Jim Valenti was sitting at the desk chair, quietly watching the two of them.

"Umm... what's going on here?" Alex couldn't help but ask.

"Well, after de-materializing the monster with Michael's help, Max and Liz were really tired out, so I thought it was a good time for us to spot them out," Tess explained. "After all, they *did* just bend the laws of physics."

"If you're looking for Max and Liz, they're raiding our fridge," Kyle explained. "Using 'the inner power' seems to give *some* people the munchies. And by the way, *everybody* is chipping in when we call for pizza later."

"Oh." Somewhat caught off guard by all this, Alex stood still for several seconds, thinking, and then turned to include Mister Valenti in the conversation. "Speaking of calling later, has anything been discussed out here about the alibi situation??"

Jim Valenti sighed. "We were thinking of going with 'co-ed sleepover.'" He must have took Alex's evaluative stare as critical, because he defensively added, "'The best possible lie is the one closest to the truth.' Throw in something about study grouping for a big test or whatever."

Alex nodded slowly. "Yeah. That could fly. What about Mrs. DeLucca? She'd get a little suspicious if one of us were calling on Maria's behalf."

"I suppose I could make that call..." Valenti sighed. Obviously all of this petty deception was a little grating on the 'man of law and order.' "Make it sound as if she's 'around somewhere' but can't quite make it to the phone."

He took a deep breath. "And by the way, though the big test might not be real, I feel obliged to warn you guys, I *will* be taking my chaperoning duties seriously - I want *nothing* to happen that I couldn't tell the girls' mothers about." He stood up, headed towards the kitchen door, then paused. "Though I'm not going to tell them everything that I actually *could* tell them." Then Valenti did continue on into the kitchen, probably to pass that warning along to Max too.

"Translation for any of you who might not speak 'good ol' boy,'" Kyle announced softly, "First base okay, maybe stealing second. No further." Tess picked up one of the couch cushions and whomped him soundly with it.

* * * * *

"Almost... there..." Michael sighed, not sure whether he was talking to Maria or himself. It seemed like about an hour since they had gotten out of the dial room... though it was really hard to tell time in here... especially since time seemed to be capable of swinging back and forth crazily here in the labyrinth.

He led Maria up a stepladder that took them up above some kind of high-tech future apartment complex in Japan or Korea. From up here long wide corridors led off in four different directions, but Michael only went a short way down the rightmost. "Ta da."

"Uh... ta da what?" Maria asked somewhat impatiently as she caught up with him. Michael turned up his handlight and shone it very deliberately in front of them. A hole in the wall, four and a half feet wide by three and a half feet high, about a foot high off the ground, was thus made glaringly obvious.

"Um, okay..." Maria said, re-orienting. "What do we do, crawl inside like it's a vent?"

Michael savored the mental image of Maria climbing into that passageway ahead of him, on all fours... in those jeans... and then shook his head. "We could, but probably not worth the extra effort. This passageway is expanding. In ten minutes it should be big enough for us to walk into - though I'll have to keep my big head down."

Maria smiled slightly. "And you don't think that monster will be able to catch up with us anytime soon with an extra ten minutes of catch-up time?"

Michael sighed and focused his awarenessof the maze back the way that they had come. "I get no trace of him within detection distance. We've come a long way already, Maria. Besides, can you really picture the monster climbing up that ladder?" The question elicited a short howl of laughter from Maria. "It's going to take a lot more than ten minutes for that dumb thing to figure out how to follow us up here."

"Okay," Maria agreed. "We can afford to wait, and I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity to get off my feet." She sat down with her back up against the invisible wall opposite the crawlway, knees propped up together in front of her. "Whaddoo we talk about now?"

Michael sat down opposite her, stretching his legs out in front of himself as far as they would go. "You got me."

"Well..." Maria smiled at in that way she always did when she *knew* she was about to be difficult, and Michael's soaring heart started to plummet. "I have a topic. What did that kiss mean? Back in the dial room, after you'd whooshed the monster."

Michael tried to stifle a sigh. "Maria, it was a kiss. Why does it have to 'mean something?'"

"It means *something,* Michael," Maria affirmed relentlessly. "What, was I just the nearest handy expression of celebrating a victory in battle? Kiss the nearest wench, soldier?? Or is that what the jocks are doing after a touchdown instead of high fives? Kiss a cheerleader?!"

Michael sighed again. "It wasn't like that, Maria." **Take a deep breath.** "Being-- in this labyrinth thing with you, Maria, is reminding me very strongly just how much I love you, and why." There. He'd said it.

Maria, however, seemed none too impressed. "Okay, so you love me. So what?"

Michael couldn't believe his ears "So what??"

"So you love me," Maria repeated. "Are you a stone wall? Are you the soldier who can't afford to have a girl at home waiting for him?? Are you the killer who can't be with me because he loves me too much?! Are you the guy who'd use any cliche he possibly could as an excuse to avoid me, or are you going to *DO* something about the fact that you love me, Michael Thomas Guerin?!" Although Maria hadn't moved from her relaxed sitting posture, her cheeks were flushed and her breaths panting by the time that rant was over.

Michael was shocked, and not just by the fact that she had somehow found out his middle name. Everything Maria had just said had hit too close for comfort. **Well, what did you expect??** he realized. **Maria knows all your lines, all your tricks, and it looks like she just called you on them. What are you gonna tell her?**

"I - I don't wanna be that guy," Michael force out after long seconds of silence. "I want to be with you. But my life is *so* complicated and SO crazy, and if I were going steady with you again... deep down I'm afraid it would just mean I had more to lose."

"You'd have more to win, too," Maria reminded him softly. "And that's just about time."

"Time??" Michael repeated, confused. "Whatt's just about time??"

"It's time that we should be moving again, silly," Maria clarified, shaking her head as she clambered back to her feet. "The passageway - looks like you won't have to duck your big head much."

Caught by surprise again, Michael surveyed the not-quite-square opening. Now it was seven feet wide by six feet high or so, only a few inch's step off the floor they were now standing on - quite big enough, Michael agreed. He must have left his hand on glowing pretty bright if Maria had been able to see the opening clearly from where she had been sitting though.

They walked down the new corridor in silence for about a minute - the air still thick with tension from the emotional discussion put behind them (literally, if not metaphorically.) Finally, Maria spoke up with one last comment. "Don't kiss me again unless you've decided that the benefits outweigh the risks. Okay?"

* * * * *

Max smiled at Liz as he popped the last of the little iced pastry that had come free with the pizza between her lips. "So...."

"So..." Liz echoed. For almost a minute, an awkward silence hung over Valenti's kitchen as neither of them could think up a followup to that.

"How about that weather we've been having, huh?" Max joked, sending Liz and himself into gales of helpless laughter for no particularly good reason either of them could have given.

"Boy..." Liz said once her giggles had faded out. "Another monday night in Roswell, huh?" A gesture all around the two of them helped clarify what she meant.

"Yeah," Max agreed with a small sigh. "We never do seem to make it to the movies, do we?" Not that I'm complaining, he thought silently.

"Naw - probably just as well," Liz answered, startling Max as she nearly echoed his unspoken thought. "After all, going to movies is for normal people, and..."

"*What's so great about NORMAL?!?*" Max finished in unison with her, grinning. "Okay, fair enough. But that's still no reason that we have to be struggling against mysterious Chzechoslovakian enemies every date night. What would be your ideal beyond-the-norm evening??"

Liz blinked a little in surprise. "Are we talking do-able here, or absolute fantasy?"

Max smiled. "Up to you, whichever you'd rather share."

Liz smiled. "Well, this isn't too geographically feasible for us, but I've always wanted to go to some big city just for a night out on the town. Nothing too crazy - say, dinner at a busy, crowded deli, watching a musical, sodas afterward in some dance bar, and cap it all off with a quiet walk through the almost-empty streets." She smiled. "Is that out of the ordinary enough?"

"Yeah," Max said, trying not to let Liz catch him calculating ways and means. Suddenly a loud sigh escaped him.

Liz turned around in Max's arms and looked up at him with those big brown eyes. "I think someone's getting a bit *too* relaxed," she accused him, and then stepped gently out of Max's embrace, stretching slightly. "Come on, it's high time we took over for Tess and Kyle again."

"Do we *haave* to?" Max groaned playfully as he stood up himself. Actually, he really didn't mind the thought of 'getting back to work' considering what the job was like.

Max hadn't mentioned this out loud, but when Liz used the healing stone to send him her energy, he could *feel* it. He could sense that little piece of her inside of him - very soft, slightly cool, (in the temperature, not social sense,) and undeniably... 'Lizly.' To be honest, even if there wasn't an alien crisis afoot, Max would be all too happy to do this just for the sensation. Maybe switch and send *his* balance energy to Liz -- see what that felt like.

Probably it would be better if they put the healing stones away and didn't so much as touch them except when there was a real emergency. Max had a crazy mental image of himself on the Jerry Springer show - alien energy junkies. "I'm hooked on my girlfriend's inner essence."

All the while he had been thinking, Liz had been leading the way out to the living room. "Tag, Valenti," she declared, swatting the teenaged Buddhist lightly on the shoulder. "We're taking over." Max noticed that she made no move to actually take the healing stone out of Kyle's hands - not while Tess was still holding the Brundis crystal lamp - her pale face looking unearthly in serene repose - eyes closed, legs crossed lotus-style on the couch.

"Hey," Max said softly to Tess, and when she opened her eyes he immediately held out his hand for the Brundis. Tess handed it over, stretching and swinging her feet back over the edge of the cushions so they hung down to the carpeted floor.

"Any problems?" Max asked conversationally.

"Not a one," Tess reported. "Michael and Maria are back on the move, and Monster seems to have lost their trail." She looked from Max over to Liz and then back. "Have fun."

Max nodded blandly as Tess and Kyle got up off of the couch. Liz already had the healing stone - probably she had timed getting it from Kyle as close to Max taking the crystal as she could. Max shrugged and looked over at Liz, inviting her to choose her seat.

After a short pause, Liz crossed over to sit down where Tess had been, so Max took Kyle's seat and concentrated. Quickly and easily now the vision of the labyrinth returned to his awareness - still not quite comprehendable as a whole and confusing in its interrelations, but the basics were easy enough to figure out. Michael and Maria were...

A soft sigh escaped Max as he felt Liz's balance slide into place within him, and was answered by a gasp from Liz! "Oh, oh my god, Max! I see it!! I can see Maria, and Michael, and the path they're on... It's going around the moon!!"

Max drew in his breath as suddenly he saw it too. "Oh wow!! You're right. Boy, that must be a trip."

Liz checked to make sure that Tess and Kyle had left the room, and whispered "I'm always around the moon, as long as you're with me, Max Evans."

Max smiled giddily at the bad (if romantic,) joke and settled down to watching the labyrinth.

* * * * *

Alex sat in the chair, silently. Holding a healing stone in his hands - concentrating on it, concentrating on letting his strength sustain Isabel through it.

After a long stetch of silence, Isabel sighed.

"Any problem?" Alex asked.

"No, no," Isabel answered, opening her eyes and shaking her head. "Just tired I guess."

"Maybe you should take a break, then," Alex suggested. His immediate response was a black look from a hot blonde alien. Alex counted himself lucky that she didn't literally shoot daggers from her eyes.

Despite this, Alex recklessly pushed on. "Things are quiet. There's no immediate crisis brewing. Max, Liz, Tess, and Kyle have already been switching off."

"Yeah, well, you know who can't 'switch off,' Alex?!" Isabel snarked back. "Michael. Remember? He's doing more than any of us and he doesn't even have a damn healing stone for Maria to recharge him with."

"But your road is not his road, Isabel," Alex reminded her softly. "For better or for worse, Michael and Maria got themselves caught in that maze. They're the ones who have to trek out, and we're the ones who have to help from outside as best we can. And I don't think the best way for you to help is to stubbornly stay in the link until you collapse from the mental exertion."

Isabel started to pshaw that notion, but only got halfway through the 'h' before an uncertain look crossed her face.

Alex knew he had to follow up on the lead if he was going to convince her. "I don't have any experience with this part of mentalics, but it's pretty clear that the effort of maintaining a link this long is eating you empty inside. Remember, you had almost no experience before this afternoon. You haven't built up the kind of mental endurance or whatever your people use to do this. Now, Max and Liz are watching Maria and Michael directly through the crystal. If they need us, they'll call us. Better to take a break now rather than be facing the wall right when Michael *really* needs y-"

"Alright, *alright!!*" Isabel blurted out, finally. "I get the point. Just let me sign off and try to let Michael know that I'll be gone." She closed her eyes and went back into concentration mode. When she opened her eyes again, there was a clear quality to them that hadn't been there while she was in contact with Michael. "There. Logged off. Are you satisfied?" She laughed softly. "Or did you have any notins as to *how* we could spend our break... given that we're all alone - in a bedroom..."

"Where our designated chaperone Sherrif Valenti may check in at any moment," Alex pointed out. "And though I have *several* notions for what the two of us could do with a little prvacy, I'm afraid that the ideas that are most quickly popping to mind aren't very restful."

Isabel laughed softly. "I guess you're right."

"So why don't we get *out* of this room for a little bit, huh?!" Alex grinned. "Are you hungry? I heard Kyle talking about ordering pizza."

Isabel stood up and smiled without commenting about pizza. With a few strides of her long (gorgeous) legs she bridged the distance between them, and - still not speaking - circled her arms tightly around Alex's waist. Caught by surprise, Alex went with his instincts and draped his own arms around Isabel's shoulders. Their faces were only about an inch away from each other.

Then, after a moment that to Alex almost seemed like a year, Isabel closed that distance too, and brought her ruby lips to his. Alex kissed her back tenderly for a few seconds before he realized Isabel's tongue was peeking out from between her lips, inviting him in.

All the strength seemed to leave Alex's knees as the kiss got more intense and passionate by the second. Isabel's hands were going crazy over his back, so Alex started to run a few fingers through Is' gloriously soft hair. Finally, after what had to have been more than two minutes, Alex couldn't take it anymore and broke, smiling weakly over at his dichotomous dream-girl. "I... that was just something I really wanted to do," Isabel said after a moment. "Pizza?"

Alex smiled and took Isabel's hand as they headed out in search of hand-delivered sustenance.

T B C...

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 3d: "Bet the world" 2/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'


"Is anyone else starting to sense a pattern here?" Michael quipped.

After hours of alternating between the sky, the underground, and the near-surface of planet Earth - (with that one interesting side trip under 'water',) the space/time labyrinth had broken away entirely. Right now he and Maria were riding 'down' an escalator toward blue sky that was seeming increasingly black and letting stars through, though the sun was still out. The 'ground' or 'earth' was hovering above them and to the left, leaving Michael with the uneasy situation that either it or he was ignoring the laws of gravity he'd known all his life.

"Yeah," Maria said nonchalantly, trying to lean over the 'edge' of the escalator, and nearly hitting her head on an invisible wall. "We're heading out into space."

"Just like that?" remarked Michael in an aside. "No sense of surprise or fear?? Just 'yeah, space?!'"

"I'm exhausted and I don't get surprised by much since I met you, spaceboy," Maria informed him. "The air's obviously still good here in the labyrinth, so what's to be scared about?" Michael shrugged and didn't comment.

The escalator ended on them soon, and it was back to the endless trek through multiple intersections and corridors - Michael's alien 'sense' his only guide. The labyrinth seemed determined to make up for the featurelessness of near-Earth space around them, and Michael knew that commiting to a wrong turn could cost them hours, or even lead to another confrontation with the beast.

Eventually - he couldn't tell how long - they stumbled into a small room - another slightly furnished one. Couch and cupboard, both of them invisible. Michael could see through them even with the faint light from his hand shining off the edges.

Maria gratefully ran up and collapsed into the couch, while Michael checked the exit first. There was a rectangular panel exactly as large as the doorway by which they had entered, but it was solid and couldn't be passed through -- yet. Michael's 'Labyrinth vibe' told him that this was the right way to proceed, but couldn't inform him how. Like the moving stairs, probably - puzzling out the way to get past was a challenge.

Well, Michael didn't see any clues and he was too tired to be brain teased at the moment anyway. He went over and collapsed next to Maria on the invisible couch - wanted to say something, but couldn't figure out what could cut through all the tension hanging between them.

"Nice view, huh," Maria commented absently. Michael had let his hand glimmer low again, and they could see the stars stretching out before them. The moon - nearly full - seemed about as big as it did from earth, whereas a fair stretch across the sky the two-thirds-lit earth shone much bigger and apparently more brightly. (Michael wasn't sure of the grammar there, but shrugged it off.) Both of the planetary bodies seemed to hang at about eye level relevant to Michael and Maria's current orientation, and they were about...

"Hang on a second!!" Michael exclaimed, standing up for no particularly good reason, pointing each of his arms at the earth and moon, and then attempting to judge their seperation by the angle is arms were pointing at. "If they're... you know I think the space we're sitting in right here might be 'Lagrange point.'"

"Whose point??" Maria answered doubtfully, and Michael stifled a blush and sat down again.

"Never mind... I guess it's not important," he mumbled.

"Well... I'm curious," Maria said, her voice gentle and unpressuring.

"Okay." Michael turned to her and smiled slightly. "Growing up... once I'd realized what I was, you know... well, I started getting into space travel and all that. Going down from the trailer park to the town library and reading books about Nasa and missions to mars and all that, you know."

"Makes sense," Maria answered with a teasing grin.

"Okay. The Lagrange points... I don't remember who Lagrange was or if they were even named after a person - are the five locations in a two-body gravitational system that have simple, stable orbits." He pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket, restored cleanness and smoothness with a gesture, and started marking illustrations on it through tiny molecular alterations.

"Like if we have the earth, here.... and the moon here. As the moon travels around us, it has enough mass to pull on anything else that's in the area. The first three lagrange parts are... umm, here..." he marked a spot on the far side of the moon from the earth, "where the pull of the earth and the moon are always lined up, so it's like just one pull. Here too." This was on the opposite side of the earth from the moon. "And the third... would be here I guess." This mark was partway from the moon to the earth along a straight line. "The gravity of the moon just counters enough of the gravity of the earth to keep it in a synchronized orbit, even though it's further in."

"Umm... okay," Maria said, frowning at the picture. "I think I get it - very vaguely. Never knew much about astronomy or anything. But... we're not in any of those spots, are we?"

"No, no, of course we're not," Michael agreed. "But the thing is, those first three Lagrange points, they work out fine in theory but aren't very good in practice. The gravity of the sun," - and Michael stuck a thumb out towards the light coming from behind them, "pulls everything out of place, and unless you use rockets or something you can't correct. Gravity would keep you at the right distance from the earth and moon, but you'd slide out of phase to the side, mucking everything up."

"The fourth and fifth lagrange points are more stable, here and here." He marked two larger spots to either side of the earth-moon pair. "Each forms a triangle with the earth and moon where all three sides are equal. These are called the 'trojan points,' because of some asteroids that take up this position in jupiter's orbit around the sun, and they're totally stable because they're self-correcting. If you drift out of position, you get gently buffeted back in."

"Okay...." Maria repeated again. "But what good are they?"

"A couple of people have been suggesting that space colonies could be set up at the lagrange points," Michael explained. "Huge spheres or cylinders, inside of which you could keep breathable air and set up houses, towns, parks... whatever you want." He thought about that, looking around. "I guess either we're not in the future now - or they never did... we're not far *enough* into the future, at any rate," he corrected himself.

"Oh." Seeing the disappointment on Michael's face, Maria changed the subject. "Well, how do we get out of here anyways?"

"I'm not sure," Michael replied. "It's another puzzle room or something I guess."

"Hmm..." Now Maria was the one to get up. "I guess we'd better look for clues then." There was only one obvious locale, and Maria proceeded to it, opening up the cupboard on the wall. "Hey, weird."

"What is it?" Michael got up and joined her - (only a few steps' distance.) Inside the cupboard - was a huge level that could be pulled up and down. Nothing more.

"Well, nothing ventured..." Maria reached out and pushed the control down one notch. Something out of the corner of his eye caught Michael's attention. Quickly he rushed over to the 'doors,' which were now both impassible - solid.

"Turn it back!" he requested. Startled, Maria did so - opening the portal that led back the way they came.

"Maybe another setting opens the other door," Maria suggested, checking to make sure that Michael was safely inside the room before pulling the lever down two notches. Both doors solid again - and a meteor rock appeared out of nowhere, buzzing their invisible 'room.' Shocked, Maria continued down again even though a meteor in the real space-time continuum couldn't hurt them more than anything else could - and the rock vanished again.

"Something weird is going on," Michael commented. "That lever is changing more than the doors - it's altering the real world around us. But how? We're still in the same place, no matter what setting it's on."

Maria shrugged and continued testing different positions, while Michael kept one eye on the doors and another on space around them. A spark of light appeared ahead of them - between the earth and the moon. "What's that?" he muttered.

"Dunno," Maria replied, heading forward to join him. "That's the lowest setting... hey, check it out!"

A patch of the invisible wall apparently had magnifying capablities, and by orienting himself right Michael could take a closer look at the flare he had spotted. "Hey, that's a rocket!!" he exclaimed. "Looks like one of the later Apollo series - Apollo 16 maybe??"

"Hey!" Maria pulled it together. "What if that lever... moves this room around through time? And there's only one time where the labyrinth pathway continues?!"

"Hey, that makes sense," Michael agreed. "Try some of the settings further up from where we were."

Maria did. As they continued forward through time Michael saw more spaceships travelling between the Earth and the Moon. Suddenly a half-finished metal construction appeared - not fifty feet away from them. Another notch, and they were surrounded by half a dozen gleaming metal cylinders.

"Cool," Maria pronouned, her eyes locked on the happy expression on Michael's face. "I'm glad you got to see this, Michael."

Michael shook himself out of the trance and noticed something else. "This is our stop." Sure enough, the corridor continued on out of door number two, and his labyrinth sense assured him that it wasn't a false trail.

"And away we go again," Maria sighed, unable to hide her own smile.

* * * * *

The scene at the Valenti house was starting to actually look like a slumber party. Sleeping bags from the mountain of camping gear in Jim's basement had been set up on the living room floor, and most of the young people had changed into 'scavenged' pajamas, (read: molecularly transmuted from old towels and blankets.)

"They're approaching the moon now," Isabel mentioned to Max and Liz, demonstrating that she had re-established the mental link with Michael. "Approaching pretty close - they might end up at the moon's surface before they get around - or even under it!!"

"Wow," Liz breathed softly, then noticed the gasp as Isabel closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. "Isabel, what is it?"

"I just... I'm getting a little more from Michael this time than the sights and sounds of his subconscious re-processing the details of trying to make his way through the labyrinth," Isabel explained. "I was before, but I was able to tune most of it out. Now..."

"What are you getting now?" Max prompted.

"Stuff," Isabel muttered unhelpfully. "Mental imagery... that seems to be about the way he feels about Maria."

"Oh," Liz said, and then did a double-take. "OH!!! Um... wow. Probably you should..."

"Do your best to ignore it," Max said firmly. "And *never* ever mention this to Michael or Maria."

Liz and Isabel nodded in agreement. Alex smiled and turned his attention to Tess and Kyle, who were sitting on the floor about ten feet away. He didn't mean to eavesdrop on them, but, well... you know how the rest of that goes.

"I just wanted to mention something..." Kyle was saying. "I know I've been giving you a pretty hard time about coming here and taking over my room and stuff... but I know it wasn't really your choice. Anyways... I guess what I've been saying is that you're pretty cool to have around and I'm glad you came to this planet."

"Well, thanks Kyle," Tess said with a smile. "You're pretty cool to have around too. But I've been thinking about why I'm here. I mean... Michael is living on his own. Why can't I too?"

"Well... there's the fact that someone who was living in that house was kind of..." Kyle stopped, apparently realizing that there wasn't any way he could finish that sentence without upsetting Tess more than necessary. "You know."

"I guess..." Tess sighed. "But I promise you - as soon as we settle up with whoever killed Ed, I'll get out of your hair. Y-you're a good friend, but let's face the fact - this house is not big enough for two teenagers. I need to find my own digs."

"Okay, twist my arm." Kyle laughed. "But you'll have to let me come over and visit."

* * * * *

Michael sighed as they stood and rested while letting an unexpected feature of the labyrinth carry them along. As soon as they had turned the corner from the far side of the moon and caught sight of the earth again, Michael and Maria had ended up on a kind of moving conveyer belt that was rushing them quickly towards Earth. The chance to make progress without having to keep walking was a nice change.

He couldn't stop thinking about what Maria had told him. A part of Michael very much wanted to take Maria up on her implied proposal. He'd never been as happy as he had last year when he'd been with Maria and things were going well - even though she couldn't be stopped from busting his chops about table manners, gifts, dating etiquette and all that. He could probably manage to learn, if it came to that.

But somehow Michael just couldn't open his mouth and say the words. Was it pride? The kind of fear and concern for her sake that she mocked? Or was it something else? For an instant, the 'Isabel dreams' popped into his head. No... Isabel was like a sister to him, nothing more. Right? Just because they had been something different fifty years ago, didn't change what he felt...

"Whoo! Take my hand, Michael!" Maria called out. Michael realized that they were approaching the earth's upper atmosphere and the moving sidewalk was coming to an end. Suddenly they were slipping down another invisible slide, heading for... it looked like the Pacific ocean!

Whoosh! splash! After diving with impossible speed down through the air and the ocean, Michael and Maria came to the bottom of the slide - to find that there was a little labyrinth-water at the bottom. "What the heck!?" Maria asked. "Is the space-time labyrinth leaking?"

"There's all kinds of other junk in here," Michael reminded her. "Why not water?" He tried not to grin too obviously at the way Maria looked with wet patches in her hair, halter top, tight jeans, and patches of her exposed skin. Michael was wet too, but was willing to bear it. "Okay..." Three possible pathways - but only one would lead up away from the ocean floor, Michael's sense told him. The way out was pretty close now.

Up a stairway, down some nice big galley hallways, and soon they had passed through the suburban California coast and only a few minutes later, they were walking through the desert.

"Starting to feel like home, pod-boy?" Maria teased him. Michael smiled and kept on walking. The sun was moving closer to the east as they walked - another time thing, probably.

"Wait a second."

"What did you say?" Maria asked, turning towards Michael.

Shrug. "It wasn't me." The voice had been a baritone man's voice, so he didn't even bother accusing Maria. "Who are you!!" he called out.

"Michael, Maria!" A forty-something man was walking towards them from outside the labyrinth. "Don't walk away, or you'll move out of my time-frame. I can't see you or hear you, but I'm pretty sure that I've finally found the right place and time to pass along this message."

"Oh, my god," Maria said, staring at the man. Michael shushed her. This sounded interesting.

"Okay, let's see," the speaker mumbled, apparently trying to find his way in mental notes. "Back on your home planet, a challenge was made. The principals were Queen Emeritus Alinda... that's Max and Isabel's mother... and Kivar, the tyrant who took over Max's throne and killed you all. If the Royal Four can make their way back to Azt, the homeworld, within two Aztan years of when you received the first message from Alinda, then Kivar will step down and hand the government back to Max. Otherwise, Kivar will stay in power forever - Alinda can't lead the loyalists in rebellion against him."

The older man shrugged. "It sounds weird to me too, but there's a long tradition of that kind of thing on your planet, Michael. Great political issues are often settled with games or bets - the idea being that they're no less arbitrary and less expensive and wasteful than going to war. Kinda makes sense. So... let's see. The time limit works out to October the twenty-ninth of 2001... that date is important, so don't forget it."

"Kivar is allowed to bring four of his agents into the field of play - where they know you guys are or are going to go - and they can try to interfere with you. But they're not allowed to kill humans or expose the existence of aliens to the world in general. I know you've got to be suspicious if me telling you all this is some kind of trick - if I'm not what I seem to be here. But you can confirm what I've told you by using the orbs as communicators. The book will show you how."

"But we don't *have* the..." Maria started.

"And *don't* stress about the book being missing," the mystery man continued. "You'll find it, Maria, about... um, three and a half weeks from now. Let's see - is there anything I missed? Challenge to get back home, fate of your world at stake, deadline, enemy aliens, communicators and the book - oh, right. If you make it back home on time, you'll be heroes - the whole Royal Four - especially Max. Even if Kivar tries to go back on the deal and remain in control, not enough of his people will support him if he loses, so you don't need to worry about that. If you can't make it back in time - well, then you'd be better off not stepping foot on Ast ever again. But hey - you guys can do it. I believe in you."

The stranger sighed. "Well, you'd better hurry up and get going now. The gang's waiting for you back at Valenti's house. Say hi to Isabel for me." He made a waving gesture. and Michael, rather unsteadily, led the way on down the invisible corridor of the maze.

"Michael, did you even realize who that was??" Maria asked after they'd been walking for a few more minutes.

"Um... no. He seemed to know an awful lot about us, and he was old, but... why - who do *you* think he was??"

"Michael..." Maria was shaking her head. "That's Alex - about twenty or twenty-five years from now. I'm sure of it!!"

* * * * *

(October 24 2000, not long after midnight.)

"They're coming close," Max said, smiling. "I can feel it."

"Yeah." Liz had one hand on top of Max's on the Brundis crystal, and the healing stone in the other. "Boy... it's been a long day, huh?"

"Oh yeah," Max sighed, looking at the clock. After one-thirty AM. More than eight and a half hours had gone by since Michael and Maria had first been sucked into the labyrinth. "I can't get my brain around the thought that we have school tommorow morning."

"Then maybe we don't, silly," Liz teased him. "Should we let the others know that this is almost over?" She waved at the living room floor beyond the couch where they sat. Isabel, Alex, Tess, and Kyle had all laid down for rests, leaving Max and Liz to keep vigil alone.

"Naw..." Max replied. "It'll be a nice surprise."

"Cool." There was silence for a moment. "Anything unusual going on in there?" Liz waved at the Brundis crystal.

"No... everything still looks quiet."

"Then come here, darling," Liz giggled, waving Max over. Jim Valenti was nowhere in sight, the others were all tucked into their sleeping bags, and Max couldn't argue that they deserved a little make-out time.

But not everyone was asleep. Out of the corner of her eye and through dishevelled blonde hair, Tess Harding was watching the young man of her dreams and her dark-haired, Roswell native rival. She watched as Max sank into a passionate embrace, spreading out over the couch, french kissing like there was no tomorrow.

No-one noticed the quiet, stifled sobs that started coming from Tess Harding's sleeping bag.

* * * * *

"This is starting to look a lot like New Mexico," Maria commented. "Maybe even the year 2000."

"Yeah," Michael agreed. "If you knew it was going to be this hard, would you have been able to even get started??"

"Well... yeah," Maria said sensibly. "If I'd known what that damn lamp was going to do, I definitely wouldn't have touched it though, that's for sure!!"

"Maybe this'll teach you to listen when I say to stay out of my stuff?" Michael joked.

Suddenly a roar broke out from behind them.

"You gotta be *kidding me*!" Maria screamed. "How the heck did that thing get through the lagrange point room after we'd gone??"

"Not really caring..." Michael said, kicking up into a run alongside Maria, trying his hardest to stay ahead of the monster. He wasn't sure if the labyrinth was helping them cover ground again, but soon they were passing the Roswell city limits sign again. Dawn was falling on the city, and soon it was night. Michael strained to keep the light bright enough to run by while keeping up speed.

Suddenly, a stabbing pain hit Michael in the side. Maria jogged around to face him as his speed fell off. "What is it?"

"I don't know... a sharp, unpleasant feeling near my stomach," Michael explained. "Makes it really hard to run."

"Like a cramp?" Maria asked. Michael looked a little blank - he'd heard the word, but never experienced the reality himself. "You've never had a runner's cramp?" Michael shrugged.

"Well... you've got one now - maybe alien's cramp. Could be all the power you've been amping out today had something to do with it. Well, come on, walk it off. Walk it off."

Michael hobbled along next to Maria, and soon was able to get up to a brisk walking pace. "We're not going to be able to outrun the monster this way."

"We're not going to be able to outrun it any way as long as you've got that cramp," Maria sighed. "Max, this would be a great moment for that shield."

They hurried along. No shield, and the monster was rumbling closer. "Max???" Maria wailed, but no response.

Time was growing short. *Something* had to be done. Maria pushed Michael gently on ahead and turned around to face the monster. "Babe!'" she called out with a gutsy melody. "I got you babe! I got you babe!! They say our love won't pay the rent..."

The monster yelped and ran away. Maria hurried after Michael, pleased that her intuition had paid off.

Michael stared at her as she approached. "You scared off the ferocious alien space monster by *singing at it*??"

Maria shrugged. "It worked, didn't it??"

He shook his head and frowned. "How did you even know to try?"

"I dunno -- you have your alien powers, I have woman's intuiti..."

And right then, Maria bumped into a wall. "Whoops. Turn?"

Michael feebly managed to make his hand glow, wincing from the exertion. The corridor right-angled and headed into a house - Valenti's house, which they were standing above the front yard of. "Doh, of course."

Exhilerated, Michael and Maria rushed through the front wall of the house, squeezing in one after another as the invisible walls narrowed towards... WHOOMPTH!

"Hey! Huh?"

"What's the... deal..."

Michael took a moment to evaluate the situation. Max and Liz had just sprung apart on the Valenti's couch, he was pretty sure. Alex and Liz's sleeping bags were nearby - he had just landed nearly on Tess and Maria right on top of Kyle. "Hey, did we miss anything cool, guys?" Maria wise-cracked.

And suddenly everything was right and it all fell into place. Michael flashed an apologetic grin at Isabel and waved Maria over. "Come on, Valenti, hand her over." He swept Maria into his arms and planted a deliberate, no-tongue kiss on her ruby red lips.

Maria stared up at him once the kiss was over. "Do you really mean that?"

Michael grinned at her. "Yeah, I do. Bring on the relationship."

Someone cleared their throat. Michael looked around and saw six faces staring at them - no, seven. The rucus had brought Jim Valenti out in his bathrobe.

"What was the labyrinth like, man?" Alex asked them, as irrepressible as ever.

"Gee, where do we start?" Michael sighed and held Maria closer.

* * * * *

After 2 a.m., every one of them totally exhausted, they were still talking about it.

"I've always loved temporal cycle plotlines in my science fiction," Alex said. "I just never thought I'd be destined to re-enact one."

"What do you mean?" Isabel asked, cuddling up beside him.

"Well... Michael and Maria saw me make that speech to them in that California desert," Alex pointed out. "At least, we all hope it was really me. So... unless I'm prepared to break the chain, I'm going to have to find that place and time and tell them something. The cycle has to be completed."

"Do you want me to see if I can write down a transcript, Alex?" Maria asked.

"No... no sense in making things any squiggier than they have to be. I'll speak from experience and memory, giving you guys what I think you need. Less chance of inaccuracies perpetuating themselves through the loop that way. After all, if I tell you anything simply because you told me to tell it to you, I don't know if it's so or not. The knowledge has simply sprung to life, fully complete, inside the cycle."

"Enough of this," Michael groaned. "You guys have at least twenty years to sort *that* out. What do we do about the challenge? Or 'supposed' challenge."

"What Future-Alex said is right," Max said. "We can't afford to completely believe him, but we have to take what he's said at face value - at least until we get the book and can hopefully figure out a way to double-check it. Which means we have..." He looked at the calendar on his watch. "Only a little more than a year to master interstellar travel if we hope to get this challenge done." He turned to Alex. "First off, we need to get the rest of the information out of that alien washer of yours. Whatever's inside there, we need to know it, I'll bet."

Alex nodded. "Well, for that I'd reccomend that I need access to that little thing at all times. Twenty-four hours a day."

Max looked at him gravely. "You want me to make a duplicate to substitute in Brody's collection."

"I've been thinking about it, and I think that's the best way to handle it," Alex confirmed.

Max thought about it. "We'll talk later." Even after all the underhanded things the gang had had to be involved in, Alex could see that willfully taking advantage of Brody's trust in such a big way offended his principles. Well... he'd either have to get used to it or come up with a better plan.

"I wonder why Alex mentioned you," Maria said to Isabel. "I mean... besides the obvious - if there is a deeper reason. I mean..." she caught herself. "I'm sure you're not... not..."

"Dead in the future?" Isabel said, trying not to blanch. "I hope not, but whom among us can tell?" She forced a smile.

Michael groaned, and everybody stared at him. "Sorry... just *really* tired. It's been quite a day." The whole group broke into laughs at this.

"Do we *really* have to show up for school tomorrow?" Isabel moaned. "I mean..." She turned to stare at Jim Valenti, who was sitting across the circle from her and hadn't said a word since welcoming Michael and Maria back and expressing his gladness that they were both okay. Others turned to stare at the Sheriff as well.

"Hey, don't look at me," Jim disclaimed. "I'm not the truant officer. Personally, I'd say some of you deserved the break. But... I'm not gonna help you cover for *that.* It's up to each of you to make their own decision." He yawned. "And with that, my own bed is calling me. I expect the lights to be out in here - ten minutes."

As Maria rolled out her sleeping bag, she looked at the spot where they had come through the exit of the labyrinth. "Hey, what happened to the maze after we left? And that monster thing?"

Alex had the answer, as he yawned his way towards dreamland. "The labyrinth existed for the two of you, and ceased to exist once you both got out. The monster probably lost its body. I wouldn't be surprised it it was halfway to Jupiter by now.

"Just so long as it never messes with me or Michael again," Maria quipped.

TO BE CONTINUED...

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 4a: "Three and a half weeks" 1/3
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'

Section 3: The Mexican tango

(October 20 2001.)

"Hey, guys, come on inside!!" The faint voice clued Alex in that the limo had stopped again - this time outside the familiar DeLuca homestead. The owner of the voice had been fairly easily identifiable as Amy DeLuca. Of course she would want the dance festivities to come to her in this small way, and not the other way around. Alex, Max, and Michael piled out of the car and tramped up the walk.

"Oooh, don't you guys look handsome..." Amy cooed as they passed the threshold. "Alex... very sharp, nice suit... Michael..." Maria's mother could only shake her head at Michael's choice of threads. "Maria, they're here!!"

Maria made the traditional appearance down the front stairs. Her light brown hair was currently straight and fell down just short of her shoulders in a simple but dramatic and beautiful style. She was wearing an emerald green ball gown which was strapless and flowed down fluidly to about mid-calf, not quite meeting the laces of her ice-green leather heels. Her smile lit up the alien room as she headed over to Alex and wrapped her arms around him in a friendly hug. "Are you going to ask her?" she whispered quietly.

Alex ignored that. "Maria, you look gorgeous."

"Thank you." With a curtsey, Maria moved along to Max, presenting her hand for a shake. "Mister Evans... always a pleasure." Once the handshake was done, she came finally to Michael, "And my spaceboy." She leaned in close and planted a sweet, soft kiss on his cheek. "You'll always be my first true love."

"Have a great time, you guys," Amy called out, beaming from the living room doorway. "But not *too* great..."

"Wee wonn't," Maria called back in singsong, and Amy DeLuca caught the hint, gushed wordlessly one more time, and headed up the stairs.

"So, what now?" Maria asked, turning to the three guys. "We all head back to that big stretch limo?"

"There's no hurry," Michael teased her, "we're running ahead of schedule. Even though Allie-boy here has got us all talking about 'the old days' of about a year ago."

"Oh," Maria said, and then jumped as a thought struck her. "You did the labyrinth without me, didn't you, Michael Guerin?!!"

"Yeah, I'm sorry, we did," Max confirmed. "And of course, after labyrinth day came the 'Three and a half weeks...'"

* * * * *

(October 25 2000.)

"So, Mister 'Moral objections' caved?" Michael asked softly as Alex finished dealing out the cards.

"Yeah," Alex agreed in a matching whisper. The deal done, he picked up his own ten cards and started to sort them. "Max made the switch." He pulled the little piece of white string out of his pocket, and as it came it pulled the little 'washer' of metal that it had been looped through.

"Don't make a big deal," Maria warned her boyfriend. "Max had his reasons for not being wild about this plan."

Michael nodded and let the 'Mister morality' bit drop. "Can I have a look at it, Alex?"

"After bidding," he replied. "It's your turn."

"Huh?" Caught by surprise, Michael actually looked at his cards for the first time after picking them up. "Um... six diamonds," he called out after a second.

"Pass," Maria chimed with the longsuffering of a girl who firmly believed herself to be unlucky with cards. (*And* until recently, unlucky in love.)

"Hmm..." For a second Alex considered leaving Michael in his probably-ill-conceived bet, but that impulse didn't last long. "Seven clubs."

"Can't fight you on that," Michael replied, holding out his hand. Alex handed over the alien washer, (wondering if Michael would gasp in shock when he first touched it - if the alien device would 'connect' to Michael,) and picked up the three face-down cards that consitituted his widow.

By the time Alex had chosen his discards and his opening lead, Michael had finished his examination of the alien device, and it was clear as he handed it back to Alex that he had had no remarkable experience from it. "So, have you gotten any good 'ZAP' from it yet?" Michael asked as he laid down the joker with relish, trumping Alex's left bower.

"Not yet," Alex replied, watching as Michael led the queen of diamonds and Maria played low. "I think my brain may still be recovering from the jolt I took to get you guys out of the maze." He played a king and gathered in his first trick. "Any day now."

For about a minute the developing hand of 'five hundred' occupied the three of them to the exclusion of any alien-related conversation. At the next table, Isabel, Kyle, and Tess were also getting into the parlour game of the week. The third table was unoccupied on this occasion.

"Okay, I guess the thing I'm wondering is," Michael asked as he stole Alex's lead away a second time, "what are we supposed to be doing now? Well, Alex, from what your future self, (or the guy who Maria thought was your future self,) said, we have three and a half weeks until Maria finds the lost alien book. What do we do between now and then?" Michael finally picked a card to lead. "Sit around and play 'five hundred'?"

"No, Michael," Maria said as she played her last trump on Michael's low heart, (and giggled when Alex was forced to play the queen of hearts on top of it.) "Assuming that our alien opponents don't try anything, this is a period of quiet preparation. We lay the groundwork for the challenges yet to come - particularly the unpleasant groundwork."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Michael snapped, dropping the queen of spades on Alex's ten of clubs. "And why does it sound like you guys have been discussing this without me?"

"Well we have," Alex admitted. "No conspiracy to freeze you out, just a few idle conversations when you were't present."

"And... ?" Michael prompted.

"Max suggested... and we agree, that one of the things we could all be doing to get ready is to work on our classes at school," Alex explained. "None of us know when the next crisis may send us gallivanting out across the state or even further. Missing school is going to be that much less of an issue if we're all three days ahead of the rest of our classes, instead of a week behind."

"And the *we* who agree is?" Michael grumped.

"Me, Alex, Isabel," Maria explained. "I don't know if Liz had been told about this or what her reaction is..."

"Come on," Michael chided. "Even *I* know what her reaction is going to be." He sighed. "And you're right - I don't like the prospect but I see the point."

"It won't be so bad, honey," Maria told her sweetie. "God knows I'm not at my best when it comes to schoolwork either, but we've got some very brainy people in the circle who will be happy to help their disadvantaged friends out. Right, Alex?!"

"That's seven clubs," Alex summarized, avoiding the question. "I've made my bid at one-hundred and sixty points. Michael, you took two tricks, and Maria took one, at ten points each, so ten for Maria and twenty for Michael." He noted the figures down on a scoring sheet. "Your deal, Michael?"

Michael took the playing cards and started shuffling them with certain poor grace. "Is this a real game Alex?"

"Oh, yeah," Alex assured him. "It's really big in Australia. Or at least it used to be."

The look on Michael's face was priceless.

* * * * *

(October 26 2000.)

"Hey, Kyle!" Maria called as soon as she saw the familiar face walk through the front door of the cafe, (in a manner of speaking.) Kyle Valenti seemed to sigh as he headed over to the table where Maria was sitting.

Maria was wearing her street clothes - she wasn't on shift right now, just an ordinary patron. Kyle pulled back the chair opposite Maria and took a seat. "So, what's all this about?"

"Whoops!" Maria giggled. "Didn't mean to be mysterious about it, Kyle. I just thought that I'd like to treat you to lunch, as a small way of saying 'thank you.'"

"Thank you?!" That had obviously caught Kyle by surprise.

Maria shrugged. "Well, yeah. I've heard about how you pitched in to help Michael and me get out of that space/time labyrinth. From everyone else, the effort kinda goes without saying by now, but you're not really part of our circle, Kyle. You didn't have to spend all evening lending your energy to proctoring the maze, so I wanted to make sure to thank you." Maria had been watching Kyle's face as she said this. "Nobody else even mentioned this, did they?"

"Well, Tess mentioned something... but not in so many words, no. You're very welcome, Maria." He nodded solemnly. "Greater glory has no man than this -- that he lie down his Monday evening for his friends." Maria exploded into laughter.

"Cool," Maria replied once she had breath to talk. "By the way, I've got thirty bucks, so you can't like order EVERYTHING on the menu." Kyle chuckled. "So, what's been up in your life lately, Kyle Valenti??"

"Not much," Kyle admitted, scanning the menu. "Mrs. Bloomberg is driving me *crazy* with these research assignments. Dad's been bugging me about taking an after-school job he wants to set up. Desk work down at the station - helping to file police reports and god-knows-what. And well it comes down to what *really* matters - hunting for dates - well, 'The luck has been poor this month, dances-with-aliens.'" Kyle dropped into his best native impression voice for that last phrases. Maria broke out laughing.

Then Doris came by to take their order, and once she was done Maria started explaining her theory of how teachers over-assign homework because they don't want their students to have better social lives than they do.

* * * * *

(October 27 2000.)

Max raced out of the Jeep, pounded up the steps to his house, and yanked a key ring out of his pocket. He didn't quite have a good enough grip, and the keys clattered to the porch step with a couple of tiny ringing sounds. "Damnit, Iz!!"

Max squatted down, scooped up the ring, and finally got his house key in the front door lock. A few quick, practiced twists, and he was inside.

*Why* did Isabel have to ask him to go pick up her Chemistry books? Well yeah, she and Alex and Tess had arranged to start practicing mentalics further tonight. But Max was supposed to pick up Liz in about two minutes, so for all practical purposes he was already late and would be VERY late if he couldn't find the damn textbook. Where was it??

She said she'd left it in the living room. And why was it so dark in here?? Max's parents always left a light on in every part of the house if they were going to be out all night... 'to discourage the burglars,' his mom said. But the lights were all out and the drapes were pulled. "What's going on here??"

"Just a surprise change of plans, good lookin'!!" With those words, the sliding doors to the dining room parted and a soft, yellowish light spread through the opening. Candlelight. And a slender sillhouette outlined against the candlelight, that Max suddenly suspected would match the voice.

"Liz?" Max headed forward and to the side to get a better look as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Yes, it was Liz - curls of dark hair cascading down past her shoulders (he had known that she was getting a perm last night but had hardly had a chance to get a good look at it today at school.) She was wearing a little black dress and a smile lit up her already-gorgeous face. "Wow, you look incredible... and I am obviously underdressed." Max waved self-consciously at his t-shirt and jeans.

"Don't worry about it," Liz assured him. "I just felt like dressing up. On the other hand, if you wanted to go up to your room and QUICKLY throw on nice shirt and pants, and maybe a sport coat, I wouldn't stop you." She laughed softly. "But really that would just delay dinner."

"Dinner?" Max looked past Liz into the dining room. The table was set with ornate candelabras in the centerpiece and fancy dishes, covered serving platters, the whole nine yards. "Just how much trouble did you go to to set this up Liz?"

"Don't worry about it." Liz chuckled. "I just wanted to make you a nice dinner because I loved you, and... well, some friends wanted to help out and things snowballed a little from there, but it's nice, don't you think?" She giggled nervously, the soft pink blush of embarassment only narrowly visible on her face in the dim yellowish light, and somehow Max treasured it more for that.

"It's incredible. Thank you, and thank 'the friends' for me too, okay?" Max felt like a goofy smile was plastered over his face. He bent down slightly and kissed Liz, trying to let her feel all the love he held in his heart for her.

A few Liz-flashes popped into Max's mind. Liz out on her balcony, writing in her journal - he couldn't place it any closer than that. Riding with him in the Jeep on the old highway -- oh, that was probably just before the accident that put him in the hospital. That night out in the desert, when they found the first orb.

Max broke off the kiss and looked into Liz's incredible brown eyes, shining with just a hint of tears that Max certainly hoped were due to happiness and not sorrow. "Did... did you get a flash just then?"

"No... why?" Liz's confusion turned to play-acting resentment. "Why... what did *you* get?" She pouted dangerously at him.

"Just you, Liz Parker," Max whispered reassuringly. "Only you." That, at least, brought a smile back to Liz's face. "So, what's for dinner?"

"Well, let's see..." Liz led him over to a seat at the table and started busying herself with the platters on the table. "I'm going to be trying all of your favorites tonight, Max... grilled cayenne peppers in a sugar cream sauce... ahh yes, here - maple curry halibut, Linguine with your mom's special thickened tabasco gravy and corn syrup... and... a surprise for desert." Liz grinned wickedly at him.

"Oh, god..." Max winced. "How did you find all this out - Isabel again?"

"Pretty much," Liz confessed. "And your mom's 'kitchen box.' Don't be embarassed, Max - this is the kind of stuff you like, right?"

"Well, yeah... kind of." Max shook his head slightly. "I dunno, I guess I've found the 'sweet and spicy' kick only takes me so far anymore. I'd have liked to try *your* favorite foods."

"Oh." For a moment Liz was crestfallen, and then she put on a resolve face. "Well, THAT will have to wait for another night, when *you're* doing the detective work - AND the cooking! That's fair, isn't it??" She smiled across at him, taking her own seat.

"You've got a deal," Max promised. "Well, let's get started - pass those peppers over!"

For a minute they were busy with the trivialities of getting a meal started. And then after Liz had eaten her third pepper slice (and still making odd faces with them, Max noticed,) Liz asked "So... umm, how've you been? I mean, I feel like we've hardly gotten a chance to talk over the past few days."

"Yeah..." Max agreed. "Between serving tutoring duty, trying to pull ahead in my OWN classes, working after school with Brody, and that damn fool debate team -- busy but okay." Max kind of regretted having joined his one extracurricular activity for the year... he had signed up just after school started, when he seemed to have a lot of spare time and not much to do besides obsessing over the fact that Liz didn't seem to want to be with him any more.

Now, of course, he and Liz had reconciled, time was at a premium, and Max hadn't quite figured out how to quit the squad without disappointing his father. (Who, it turned out, had been captain of debate teams from sophomore year in high school all the way through to Stanford Law, and was delighted that Max was following in his footsteps...)

"Yeah, I hear you," Liz agreed. "Helping Maria out with her chemistry class, working evenings at Whittaker's office, and the science club." She sighed. "I'm glad we were able to get our schedules together, for at least one night."

"It won't just be one night," Max assured her. "Things'll settle down soon, I hope." He started on the fish, and something else occured to him. "I finally found a copy of that cave map, from River Dog's. Alex wants a whole bunch of us to get together, to go over it. Michael, and me, at least, and... Tess." He hated even saying the name to her. "Do you want to come along too?"

"No, Max," Liz shook her head. "I don't need to chaperone every time you and Tess are in a room together, I trust you. Besides, if you dragged me along, it might just make her suspicious." A beat. "*Speaking* of which... have you thought of a way to tell the delicate and fragile Miss Harding that we're together yet?"

"Umm..." Max could feel the hot flush spreading across his cheeks. "Well, not as such, no." Big sigh. "Maybe I'm looking for something that doesn't exist - we could just blurt it out. I mean... she knows that she has to stick with us. The challenge. If all four of us don't come together, it's pointless." Liz didn't look too convinced of that reasoning. "Come on, this night is about us. Let's not talk about Tess, okay?"

"I wasn't the one who brought her up, was I?" Liz muttered. "Okay, Max, what do you want to talk about?"

They chatted about old times, and new music, until it was clear that both of them together weren't going to eat more than about a third of all the food Liz had prepared. Then there was some making out, and some groping, but it didn't go any further than that. Max loved Liz, but he also knew that this wasn't the right time to go too far, and it seemed that Liz felt the same way.

They had ended up on the couch, Max wrapping his arms around Liz, her head resting on his shoulder, and a big warm quilt wrapped around them both, when Liz stiffened all of a sudden and jerked her head up. "What?" Max asked, immediately concerned. "What is it??"

"Umm..." Liz shook her head as if to clear out the confusion. "I think I had a dream."

"You were asleep?" Max teased her, and Liz nodded sheepishly. "Well, what was the dream about?"

"I'm not sure..." Liz confessed. "There wasn't that much to it... no sight, no sound. Just a sequence of bodily sensations."

Max's eyes grew wide. "What *kind* of sensations?"

She poked an elbow into his side. "Not THAT kind of sensations, ya big galoot. I..." she closed her eyes and seemed to concentrate. "I was sitting on a chair, I think -- hands tied beside me. I reached out and... and kicked something, and suddenly the floor tipped away at an angle and I started to fall. And that's when I woke up."

"Weird," Max muttered, wrapping his arms more tightly around Liz again.

"Yeah." Liz relaxed, then tried to sit up again. "Max... what time are your parents supposed to be home?"

Max checked the clock, and remembered what his mother had said that morning. "Fifteen minutes."

Liz forced an arm out of Max's embrace and gestured to the various personal items littering the living room floor and the uneaten food in the dining room. "We'd better start cleaning all this up, don't you think?"

Max sighed. "I guess you're right." He let Liz go and threw back the quilt, and as she went off to find her shoes, Max reached down and put his shirt back on.

* * * * *

(November 2 2000.)

"No... I'm sorry," Michael insisted. "Just look at this dialog. The woman has gone crazy!!"

"Shakespeare's using insanity as a metaphor for character growth," Maria argued back. "She's realized how meaningless the world of male ambition is and she can't come to terms with the acts of cruelty she knows she's committed. I... I feel sorry for her, actually."

"I don't!!" Michael shot back. "I mean... she nagged and henpecked Macbeth into becoming a traitor, and while he's out there fighting the final battle to protect what she wanted Lady Macbeth just gets to go crazy??"

"Macbeth wanted all that too!!"

"You guys are so lucky," Isabel commented idly. Both Michael and Maria turned to stare at her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Lucky, how?" Michael couldn't help but ask.

"I dunno, it's just..." Isabel sighed as she tried to put her thoughts in order. "Every time you guys talk, even if it's just about English Lit, you have all this passion. I... sometimes I guess I'm worried that Alex and I will never have that."

"Oh." Maria muttered, suddenly embarassed.

"But I didn't mean to get us off topic," Isabel continued, going firmly back into 'tutor mode.' "Insanity as metaphor, the fate of Macbeth versus lady macbeth, both of those are good answers, and actually they'd be good topics for your three page papers. And I think that's enough Shakespeare for now..." She picked up a printed page and looked at it. "Okay, your book reports are due in two and a half weeks, have you picked your material?"

"Umm... I was thinking 'The partner,' by John Grisham?" Maria asked tentatively.

"Hmm." Isabel considered that weightily. "Yeah, I think that'd be okay for Mister Monatee. And you, Michael??"

"Umm... 'Franny and Zooey', by J D Salinger?" Michael asked. Both Maria, and to a lesser extent Isabel, stared at him in shock. "Well, I liked Catcher in the rye so much I thought I'd try out some of J.D's other stuff," Michael added defensively.

"Every time I think I've got you figured out you surprise me, spaceboy," Maria whispered appreciatively.

"Yeah... um, those are both good, so... let's see, I have you on Saturday afternoon at one, so... I'd like you to bring your first drafts for the three day papers, and have at least half of your books read by then. And don't worry about the test on the first three acts of 'Macbeth' -- you're both gonna do great!!" Isabel smiled with a little too much enthusiasm for Maria's taste.

TBC...

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 4a: "Three and a half weeks" 2/3
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'


(November 3 2000.)

"Try to concentrate on the most general description you can. You can see specific imagery from this thing, you already know that. But as long as you're looking at the trees instead of the forest, you'll miss things -- like you almost missed that monster in the labyrinth. What's the thread that ties everything together?"

Alex nodded without opening his eyes and focused. Nothing. And then, it seemed, he started to get something. "A life. One particular... alien, a young journeyman in the power. His memories, over a period beginning not long after the Royal Four were killed and ending when the ship left for earth. I... I can get some images that have to be from his childhood, but it's predominantly that... that two or three month period."

Alex sighed and opened his eyes. "I need to take a break, I've been thinking too hard. But that was a good cue, Liz. Thanks for... well, for coming here, being my sounding board. I know you've probably got other things you'd rather be doing?"

Liz smiled at Alex from his desk chair as he still sat cross-legged on the bed. "Like what?"

"Like making more time with Max??" Alex teased.

Liz sighed. "Have I been so obvious about it lately?"

"To everyone except a certain girl with the intials T.H, yeah."

Liz nodded. "Actually, he's working on a big physics paper tonight, or at least he should be. But even if he weren't... I hope the day never comes when I don't have time to help my best, oldest friend in the world."

"So Maria's good, but where does that leave me?" Alex wisecracked.

Liz looked up at that with surprise. "Is that what you think? That I'm a better friend to Maria than to you?"

Alex thought for a second, as he stretched his legs over the side of the bed. "Well, I wouldn't have put it that way, but yeah, I feel like you're closer to her than you are to me. You've known her a few years longer, you spend more time together." Alex knew he shouldn't, but the words came out of his mouth without him being able to stop them. "You told her about the whole Czechoslovakian thing like the day you found out. I had to wait for three months."

"Oh, god." Liz rushed over and sat beside Alex on the bed. "Look, I'll admit that the circumstantial evidence looks bad," she admitted. "But I never meant it to be that way or anything. As far as I'm concerned I have TWO best friends - you and Maria. No difference. And if you ever feel that I'm not acting that way, you just let me know, okay??"

"Easier said than done," Alex pointed out. "But I'll try."

"So..." Liz shuffled down the bed to give each of them a little more space now that Alex seemed to be okay. "How are things going between you and the ice queen??"

"Glacially!" Alex shot back. "But that's okay - this thing with Isabel, we've both kind of learned to take it at its own pace. When I try to rush... bad things can happen." He sighed a little.

"You'll get there," Liz promised. "So... do you want to try some more with the doo-hickey?" She pointed at the alien washer sitting next to Alex on the bed.

"Hmmm... nah. I'll wear it to bed tonight, see if I get any good dreams." He thought for a second. "Should I set up the checker board?"

Liz laughed. "You're on."

* * * * *

(November 4 2000.)

Maria checked her watch, and then her reflection in the mirror one more time. Michael had told her to be ready at ten-thirty in the morning for an 'all day event,' and to dress 'casual hot.' (She groaned slightly at that last part, out of sheer habit.)

But she couldn't get too mad at Michael lately - her sense of sheer happiness got in the way. Michael wanted to be with her, and he was making an effort, and that made Maria feel okay about putting up with an occasional bout of 'spaceboy-ism.' After all, if she loved the big lug, tolerating any minor faults was the thing to do right?

She had even spent almost an hour trying to figure out what would best satisfy as 'casual hot' to Michael Guerin. She ended up wearing her 'only-for-special-occasion' designer jeans, (the ones that clung to her legs in all the right ways,) a cut-off tie-die-pattern T-shirt that showed her midriff off, and her mom's old cowboy boots. Michael didn't stand a chance!

And speaking of whom, Maria caught the unmistakeable sound of an engine smoothly dying away in the driveway. Michael was a minute or two early. Would miracles never cease?!!

Maria was so excited that she hurried out of the house to meet him. When Michael turned around and saw her, his jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out. "M-Maria. You look *INCREDIBLE!*"

"Thanks," Maria mumbled. Actually, she felt like Michael looked - he was in a tight t-shirt and jeans too - white above and black below, and there wasn't a part of the outfit that didn't hint at the handsome, muscular physique she knew was underneath. "Um -- you, you too," Maria stammered out belatedly.

"Cool," Michael replied with a quiet smile. Turning away from her for a second, he produced a second helmet, not quite a match for the one under his arm. "Well, should we hit the road babe?" he asked solicitously. "Ways to go."

He moved aside slightly, and it was the first time Maria got a clear view of the vehicle sitting in her mother's driveway. As she had expected (and as the helmet confirmed,) Michael had picked her up in the motorcycle he had acquired over the summer. (And by 'acquired', Maria meant that he had either bought the chassis thirdhand at the secondhand bike shop or rescued it from te scrap yard and decided that he could 'restore' it.)

But 'the Bike' didn't look like the last time Maria had seen it. Was it less obvious dust and rust? A few new brightly colored wheel guards and other esthetic touches?? A trace of polish and shine!? Feeling a little vague, Maria mumbled "I like what you've done to the bike, too," and plunked on the bike helmet. It had just better not mess up her hair *too* much.

Michael hadn't been kidding about his 'ways to go.' Maria only remembered that she still didn't know her final destination they passed the city limits sign on Main street. (285 South, didn't that bring back memories. But Michael hadn't taken the on-ramp to the highway.) Where *was* he taking her?

It wasn't easy to talk above the roar of a motorcycle engine while whizzing down the road and wearing a helmet, so Maria settled for wrapping her arms around Michael's body and watching the desert scenery parade past. Time seemed to lose some of its meaning, but with a start Maria realized that they must have been riding for nearly half an hour already.

"Where the czechoslovakia are we going, anyways??" she called out to Michael.

"Suprise," he reminded her maddeningly in a throaty shout. "Don't worry - we'll be there soon!"

The town of Dexter, New Mexico had just come and gone when Michael suddenly made his turn off of the main road, and quickly they were pulling into a parking lot. Other cars were pulling in and finding places all around them -- mostly families with kids, though some teenagers like them and older people. "What IS this??" Maria repeated as she got off of the bike and pulled off her helmet.

"County fair," Michael explained, pointing off to the side of the parking lot and up slightly. Above the trees Maria could see part of a Ferris wheel that had presumably been set up in a clearing on the other side of the narrow strip of forest - along with the rest of the fair, presumably. "I thought you'd like it."

"Awww..." As Michael pulled off his own helmet Maria swooped in and kissed him quickly on the lips, holding it for several seconds. Once the kiss was over Maria broke into a wide grin, and Michael just looked at her for a second, semi-stunned.

"What was th-- oh, never mind," he decided, taking her hand. "Come on, let's go. What do you want to do first?"

"Umm..." Maria thought as they walked towards the midway. "I want you to win me the best prize they have in the ring toss!!"

"Oh, boy," Michael groaned...

Of course, it wasn't quite that easy. In fact, Michael got onto a bit of an unlucky streak, and they had to wander around the midway a little while until he finally used his powers to knock down the bottle tower before Maria got her prize - she picked a pretty green crystal key ring and was thrilled with it. Then sharing some fried chicken and french fries from one of the food shacks, and they got strapped in together for a ride in the biggest roller-coaster Maria had ever seen. Michael said something about it being more fun than the labyrinth, with none of the monsters.

"Well, what now?" Michael asked, as they left the coaster exit. Maria slowed to a stop, still a little unsteady on her feet after all of the high-G motion, and looked around.

"Oh, they set up a tunnel of love somehow!!" she exclaimed suddenly. "Come on, Michael, we *have* to try it out!"

"Hmmm..." Michael considered the suggestion, and his eyes took in Maria from top to bottom all over again. "Yeah, I think that's an idea I can get behind."

It took a little while - (waiting in a line, mostly,) but finally the two of them were helped into a small, comfy boat by a discreet attendant and set loose to drift through the tunnel. Soon the dimness closed in and they might very well have been the only two people in the world - which was obviously the point.

"So... what happens now?" Michael asked, vaguely nervous. "Do we just start... doing stuff??"

"Umm..." Maria could understand how Michael felt. This seemed a little bit too much like the feeling she had heard about from makeout game parties in high school - where you were *expected* to kiss so much that it sucked all the fun out. (Maria had never been invited to those kinds of parties.)

"No... not yet, we don't have to," she assured Michael. "It's not like there are 'tunnel of love' rules. We can just sit here and talk for a while." She leaned back, snuggling into the crook of his arm.

"So..." Michael let that word hang in the air for a few long moments. "How've you been doing?"

"Me?" A loud sigh of contentment escaped Maria. "I've been great."

"You really mean that?"

Maria turned around slightly to look at the young man she had fallen in love with. "Well, yeah! No..." She caught herself and looked around carefully. Nobody seemed to be within earshot, but she couldn't be sure how far their voices would carry in this tunnel. Still - they weren't hearing sounds from any other boats, and she doubted that everybody would be completely quiet. A bit of caution would have to do.

"No 'out of this world' crises for the past almost two weeks... everybody in the gang seems to be getting along great... and then there's you, spaceboy." She dropped her voice to a throaty whisper instinctively for that last bit.

Michael smiled a wide smile. "Little ol' me?"

Something snapped a little inside of Maria at that point, and she swatted Michael soundly on the shoulder. "Stop that!"

"Hey!!" Michael protested, and then her words registered. "Stop what?! What was that for?"

"Being too sweet," Maria accused him. "That's not the rude, stubborn, son-of-a-bitch that I fell in love with." And she grinned teasingly at him.

"Really?!" Michael's eyes glinted in the dim mood lighting. "Well, I'm not the only one here who's been acting a little saccharine lately."

"Who, me??"

"No, the little gingerbread girl hiding in the far corner of the boat," Michael mocked. "Of course, you!!"

Maria considered that a moment, and Michael's face widened suddenly. (Was he evaluating the expression on her face the way she kept track of his mannerisms?) "Guilty as charged," she finally confessed. "I've just been so... so *happy* lately."

"And I haven't??" Michael pressed.

"Gotit," Maria nodded. "So we're agreed - we'll just have to make the ultimate sacrifice for our relationship and bitch at each other more."

"Sounds good to me, shrill and compulsive!!" Michael joked along, turning Maria around in his arms and bringing his lips to hers for a passionate kiss.

The kiss was slow, not like the one Maria had initiated in the parking lot, or the smooches they'd been trading back and forth around the fair. Luxuriant. Maria was glad that she was already lying down, because none of her muscles wanted to work the way they usually did, the way her body felt when Michael was kissing her like this. She managed to put enough effort into raising her arms to get her hands onto *Michael*'s arms, stroking them, feeling the buff lines of his skin.

Michael's hands were both at the small of her back, and when he took his lips away from hers, Maria let out a sound that seemed a mix of a sigh, a moan, and a mew - all of it dissapointed. "Don't stop, Michael -- no stopping."

Michael smiled in that infuriating way he had. "You want more of that, babe?" He waved beckoningly, sitting up beside her. "Come and get it!"

Maria took him at his word, launching herself up with an energy she hadn't realized she had thirty seconds ago, wrapping her arms tightly around Michael's neck, and kissing him as well as she knew how. It was different from the last kiss, more energetic - was that because she was the initiator this time? The difference between hers and Michael's 'kissing perconalities'? Or were serious, no-kidding-around kisses like snowflakes, no two alike?

Maria didn't waste too much energy wondering about such things, in fact, most of her concentration was razor-focused on holding Michael as tight as she could and licking at his tongue with hers. Even remembering to inhale through her nose she was starting to feel short of breath, but Maria didn't care. If she asphyxiated here in the tunnel of love, french-kissing Michael Guerin... **well, let's be honest here. What better way to check out!?**

When Michael moved his mouth away from hers a second time, Maria didn't protest. Now, she could tell from the passionate glint in his eyes that all Michael was interested in was moving on to better things. Sure enough, soon Michael's lips found their way to her neck, sucking in that way that always used to take her breath away. The way Maria was feeling right now, 'taking her breath away' seemed like a moot point, but that only heightened the effects that Michael's talented lips created througout her body as they played across the sensitive spots on her skin. The dark, water-filled tunnel was gone as far as Maria could tell, replaced by a puffy pink cloud of delerious pleasure.A current of sensation was coursing through every level of her without stopping, slowly growing more and more intense. Hotter and hotter.

And then Michael flipped up her skimpy little belly shirt, tucking it into place just under her collarbone, and started stroking at the material of her light blue cotton bra.

HHOOOOOH-MAAMMAAAA!! If Maria had thought she was in make-out heaven before, (and the thought had managed to cross her mind,) this brought everything to another level. As Michael's fingers started to fondle her chest more strongly, (and yet quite tenderly,) and his lips started to suck at her right earlobe, Maria started to become aware of a new sensation entering the mix - and a question popping into her mind.

All of the lust and energy that had been spreading throughout her body was starting to converge... at a single point, as it were, and a strong need began to build at that point. **How much further do I want to go here** Maria wondered silently as one of Michael's hands ran carressingly over her stomach. She wasn't ready to... well, you know. At least she didn't think she was. And the idea of losing her virginity (or even coming close,) in a tunnel of love at the county fair was not quite her idea of 'making it special. But the temptation to unsnap her jeans (or ask Michael to do it,) and let things proceed from there was almost overwhelming.

"Umm, uhh... excuse me?" It would be hard to say whether Maria got her shirt pulled back down before or after the blush covered her face, and Michael jumped back away from her so suddenly that the boat almost started taking on water. After staring for a long couple of seconds, Maria's vision cleared to the point where she could make out the owner of the voice - the attendant who had gotten them into the boat at the first place. Obviously, they had gotten to the end of the ride, (or maybe the beginning again, depending on how you looked at it,) and hadn't noticed.

"Ummm... I can set you off for another go round," the twentysomething man said helpfully, "but we'll have to get the boat through this channel here."

"Ohh..." Maria considered for a moment, and then got somewhat wobbily to her feet. "No, I think we're good, thanks." As much fun as 'another go round' might be, Maria suspected that she might get into something that she really wasn't ready for. Michael had at least as much trouble maintaining his balance as she did.

"Okay, uh... here we go," tunnel-guy said, helping them out of the boat one at a time. "Have a nice day at the fair. Ohh... check yourself, buddy," he whispered to Michael, so quietly that Maria could hardly hear it.

Michael looked around at himself, and blushed again. Instead of heading for the exit, he walked over and leaned against the wall as the attendant took their boad away.

Maria headed over towards him. "So... what are we doing here?"

"Umm... I dunno about you, but I'm trying to get ready to be seen in public?" Michael whispered, with a significant glance downwards.

"Oh, uh, right..." Maria muttered, blushing herself. "Gotcha."

* * * * *

(November 5 2000.)

The door cracked open, revealing a wary eye. "Come on in, Maxwell." Michael opened the door to his apartment wider. "Everyone else is already here."

Max smiled and nodded as he came in. "Thanks." After a second, he commented, "What's this I heard about you beating some college student up at the carnival?"

Michael shrugged. "Well, he was insulting Maria." Max knew he had a dubious look on his face. "Don't worry, I did my best to keep everything low-profile. It's a non-issue."

Max was about to reply, but Tess called him over to the coffee table. "Hey, Max, glad you're here -- now, can we get started??"

"I guess so." Max went over to sit in one of the living room chairs, waving hello to Alex. Michael emerged after a minute or so with a big piece of paper, a hand-drawn enlargement of the cave map. (Had Michael drawn that himself?? It was really a very good reproduction.)

"Okay, Alex," Tess said with a sardonic gleam in her eye. "Here you go. Do yer washer-y thing."

Alex ignored any edge in Tess's voice and started keenly surveying the paper. "Okay... It's a map, obviously... these icons seem to indicate particular places on the map." He gestured to about half a dozen intricate pictures, spread over the map area. "And then there are the six lines of text, written in..." he concentrated, grabbed briefly for the alien washer in his pocket, and then seemed to get it. "They're written in a very old and convoluted alphabet from your home planet - something vaguely like chinese syllable-letters."

"Okay," Michael said, pulling the couch closer (to Tess' muted surprise, since she was sitting at the other end.) "What do they say?"

"I..." Alex shook his head in frustration. "I... I don't have all the answers here."

"You don't seem to have *much,*" Tess pointed out snidely. Max shot her a glare, which seemed to quiet her down.

"Your language is huge... well, I guess most languages are huge, but this is probably bigger than most languages on earth. I... I can't sort through it all. I can't process." Alex shook his head. "I'm sorry."

"Well, let's just take it one step at a time, okay?" Max suggested calmly, and reached out to point to the first few symbols on the first line. "What's this?"

"Umm... 'Kree-tur-vant,'" Alex recited slowly.

"And what does that mean in english??" Michael asked impatiently.

"That's just the trouble," Alex growled back. "I can access a huge amount of vocabulary from this thing, but it's all hit and miss, and I can never seem to find what I want. 'Varistor' is mentalics. 'guon' is a pronoun roughly corresponding with 'she'." He pronounced the alien word almost like 'goon,' except with a slightly sharper and more intense vowel sound. "'Aditars' is a companion. 'Venrik' is the color white, but how does any of that help us??"

"It's something to start with, at least," Michael shot back. "None of us have ever been able to get as far as you've gotten, Alex. Don't quit on us now. How would the rest of that line get pronounced??"

Alex sighed and turned his attention back to the map. "Kree-turvant, eg ad itar muant. The next line begins with--"

"Wait a second!!" Tess broke in. "You just listed 'aditars' in your sample vocabulary, Alex! Is that the same as the word you listed for these three symbols?" She ran her finger along three of the symbols in the first line of the message.

"I don't... wait a second!!" Alex exclaimed. "It's not exactly the same, but it's a variant on that root meaning. I guess it would be the plural form, 'companions.' And possibly past tense." He frowned. "But why didn't *I* make that connection?"

"I think I might know," Max said. "You've got the theoretical know-how in your head, but you're human. Your brain isn't set up to make the neural associations to truly learn our language -- at least, not easily. Whereas we..."

"Yeah, I get the point," Alex broke in. Max and Michael - all of them were different. He didn't need to be reminded about that. "Well... maybe you guys should be the ones trying to read the message then, and I'll just furnish my theoretical knowledge when you need it."

"We need it all," Max laughed. "Let's start with the phonetic pronunciation of the second line." He picked up a small notepad and a piece of paper.

It took them nearly three hours, and a substantial order of barbecue chicken delivered to Michael's apartment, to finish up a reasonably accurate translation. Once it was done, Max read over it again wonderingly.

"All my companions dead,

Alone and hunted am I.

That which I could salvage,

I've hidden around this land.

When you fathom my message,

You will know where."

"It sounds a lot better in the original language," Alex assured him. "Almost poetic."

"But it doesn't tell us anything we couldn't have guessed," Michael interjected as he turned on the TV to football and turned the volume down slightly. "Presumably Nasedo wrote that long before we emerged, as an instruction in case he couldn't meet us himself. The military had killed or taken prisoner the rest of the guardians, the police and the special unit were hunting him. So he drew the map to mark anything of value he'd been able to save from the wreckage of our ship."

"Like our pods," Max repeated, seeing it. "Which is the symbol you followed to take you to the public library the night of the contest, Michael?"

"Umm..." Michael scanned over the map briefly. "This one." He pointed to a marked spot on the paper. "The same symbol that we found in the woods."

Max stared at Michael for a second. "Umm, Michael?? That *isn't* the symbol that was in Frazier woods."

"It's not?"

"No - the symbol from Frazier woods was the whirlpool, the same symbol that was on Atherton's necklace and the orbs. THIS --" And Max pointed to the map too, "is the planet-with-ring symbol -- the same one that was on the book from the..." and that's when it hit Max. "From the library."

"You followed the wrong symbol, Michael?" Tess observed.

"Hey, it could happen to anybody," Alex said. "Well, let's see... if the planet-with-ring is the library, and the four-square is the pod chamber, then the REAL whirlpool symbol would mark..." He frowned, trying to work it out in his head.

"Of course!!" Max exclaimed. "That's the old radio tower by Highway forty-two -- where Liz and I found the first orb. Which was marked with the whirlpool symbol."

"Okay," Michael said. "So, we've got three symbols accounted for so far... four left - this mountainy-looking thing, the row of little blocks..."

"I think maybe they're supposed to be cells, Michael."

"The big whirling circle that is maybe supposed to be a galaxy, and... a wheel segmented in five parts. Hey, isn't this..."

"Just like the one River dog used to heal you," Max finished. "And... yeah, the balance wheel icon is in the Mesaliko reservation. Where the map itself was... but I guess that's not a big problem." He sighed, looking at the map. "Three more caches of stuff that Nasedo was able to save from the crash. I wonder what might be there?"

"Hey," Alex piped up. "How did you know to go to the library to get the book anyway, Tess?"

"Ed told me about it," she said, confirming Alex's guess. "He didn't tell me to take it, just that it was there. I... well, I wanted something to draw Max out, since he seemed to be avoiding me."

Somehow nobody had an immediate reply to that.

TBC...

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 4a: "Three and a half weeks" 3/3
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'


(November 9 2000.)

Isabel turned Max's jeep behind a rocky outcropping and parked it there. "Okay, here we are."

Alex looked around. "And where is 'here' specifically?" The area looked a little familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. Isabel had nabbed him at the start of lunch period (which was now almost half over, they had been driving so long,) and not said a word about where they were going. Alex had gone along with it, not particularly interested in 'ruining her surprise.'

"You'll see," Iz said, pulling him in for a quick kiss, and then jumping out of the car. Alex followed as she led him up a craggy foot-path on another desert hill.

It hit Alex where he remembered this place from about three-quarters of the way up - when Max had shown him the pod chamber. "What's going on?" he blurted out. "Is something wrong?"

"No, I'd say something's right," Isabel assured him cryptically. Sure enough, she stopped at that unassuming rock face and waved her hand in the same spot that Max had. The glowing silver handprint emerged in the rock, as before, except this time Alex could sweat that it exactly matched Isabel's hand - right down to the long and slender fingers. She pressed her hand into the mark and like magic, the passageway opened before them.

"Come on in," Isabel said, stepping over the threshold. Alex followed her in uncertainly.

"Did you take me up here just to show me the pod chamber?" he couldn't help but blurt out. "Because I hate to steal your thunder, but Max already took me here, remember??"

"No, I didn't take you up here to 'show it to you,'" Isabel said, turning around to look him in the eyes. "I brought you up here for a picnic lunch!!" She waved down to the floor of the chamber, where surely enough a picnic basket was sitting, waiting for them.

"A picnic lunch," Alex repeated. "Here??"

"Why not?" Isabel shuffled over to the wall, touching a particular spot on it, and the doorway closed in on them. But the air inside seemed fresh and cool, and the light from the glowing ceiling seemed yellowish and blueish at the same time without becoming green. "No-one will disturb us here, at least."

Alex shrugged and smiled. "I guess I can't argue with that." He grabbed Isabel's hand and walked her over to the basket. "So when did you set all of this up? This morning before school??"

"Yeah," Isabel confirmed as they sat down. "Don't worry, I put ice packs into the basket to make sure that nothing went bad. A little trick I learned from mom."

"Oh yeah," Alex said, rifling through the basket. "Ice cold pasta and meat sauce. Great trick."

Isabel just waved a hand at the plastic container Alex had brought out of the basket, and suddenly it was hot enough that he almost dropped it. "Could you toss me a seven up and a tuna sandwhich, please?"

Alex did. "I keep forgetting that you can pull stunts like that."

They chatted about small stuff over the first course, schoolwork and the other members of the gang and family situations. After rooting around in the basket again and taking half of a chicken sandwhich, Alex changed the subject.

"Isabel, have you... thought any, about what this challenge means?? I mean... if we can pull it off, that means in less than a year you're going to be on your home planet, and we don't know if any of you will be able to come back."

"I dunno, I'm trying to just take it one step at a time," Isabel admitted. "I mean, it's a lot to grasp all at once." She cocked her head prettily at him. "Are you thinking about what will happen to us when I go?"

Alex smiled sheepishly, knowing that he was probably blushing. "I was trying very hard to avoid putting it in those terms, but yeah." He sighed loudly. "I mean, I *know* that we aren't really that serious, yet - but sue me, I have high hopes."

Isabel put her drink down and took Alex's hand. "Alex -- I love you too." Her eyes were locked onto his like a laser targeting scope. "And if there's any way -- I would love to take you across the galaxy with me, so that we can be together."

Alex gulped. "Do... do you really mean that, Isabel?"

She paused for a moment in self-reflection. "Yeah, I really really do!" And then, all of a sudden, it seemed as if she had launched herself at him like a... well, cliche intended, like a rocket ship. Her arms wrapped around Alex's chest and her lips found his like a guided warhead. The chicken sandwich was getting squashed somewhere between them, but nobody cared.

Isabel had initiated the kiss, but Alex could see that she was signalling him to take the driver's seat. (As it were.) That was fine with him - he felt like Isabel was always the one who was kissing him - (mostly because he never felt very certain of the reaction he'd get if he tried to make the first move. Maybe that would be different, after this.) He pushed his tongue between Isabel's lips, and the sensation when it met hers was incredible. They kissed french-style for about a minute, and then Alex moved away.

With one hand he carefully brushed Iz's golden-honey hair away from her right ear, and then bent in to kiss her on the earlobe. Isabel moaned quietly. "You're so beautiful," Alex whispered in her ear.

Alex saw a catlike smile slowly spread across Isabel's face. "Really?"

He hadn't really thought of that as anything but completely obvious. "Of course."

"What's the most beautiful thing about me?" she purred. Ahh, so that was the deal here, was it?

"Well, now, that's a tough one," Alex teased back flirtingly, planting a quick peck on her cheek. "There's your incredible heart, which has so much love for everybody who's become a part of your life..." he readjusted position slightly to look her straight in the eyes, "and there's your incredible rich brown eyes... so deep that a guy could get lost in them. He'd just keep staring deep into their amazing depths, and bit by bit -- he'd fall in, and never again know or care about the world he was leaving behind."

Isabel laughed throatily at that - Alex had to admit it had a high corniness factor, but so what? "Is that all?" she flirted back at him.

"Hmmm..." Alex kissed at Isabel's neck and gave her a playful once-over glance. "Let's see... there's your pretty blonde hair... your sense of humour... and those sweet -- lush... lips..." and Alex started passionately kissing her again.

"Alex..." Isabel moaned around their merging lips. "Touch me. Please..."

Touch her?? For a second, Alex didn't understand what she was talking about. And then a sudden flash of imagery popped into his mind. Alex's eyes popped open instantly - Iz's were still closed, but somehow he couldn't doubt that she had just used his mentalic talent on him.

Alex reached out and started stroking his hand across the front of Isabel's blouse. "Oh, yeah," she moaned. Alex started rubbing the luscious curves harder, though still tenderly, and grinned when he saw Isabel's eyes start to glaze over with pleasure. Soon his fingers found a hardening point, and started massaging into it. Isabel's moaning grew louder -- and louder --- and stopped with a contented sigh.

Alex looked over at Isabel with a pleasantly scandalized grin on his face, and found a very similar expression on her face. As they disengaged, Alex started rooting around inside the picnic basket.

"Dessert, anyone?" he asked. Isabel's eyes widened.

"No, I meant... do you want a pudding cup??" Alex clarified.

* * * * *

(November 12 2000.)

He knocked three times on Isabel's bedroom door and waited.

"Who is it?" Before the visitor could make up his mind how to answer, the door swung open. "Michael! You didn't tell me you would be coming by!"

"That's the way it goes," he said, catching hold of Isabel's fingers lightly. "Avoiding reality day."

Isabel gasped. This was a tradition that hadn't been played out between them for years - since freshman year, at least. "Why now?"

"Are you telling me you *aren't* a little stressed?" Michael asked with a bit of a twinkle in his eye. He didn't list out the possible sources of stress -- it wouldn't be in the spirit of avoiding reality (let's see, there was schoolwork to the max, alien assasins still on the loose, and a deadline looming over their heads...) But Isabel got the picture.

"Just let me change into something a little more 'young and reckless', okay??" She winked at Michael and closed the door again.

"Where are we going?!" Isabel yelled into Michael's ear as his motorcycle zoomed them down Baldon road. Michael didn't answer, and Iz couldn't see his face, but she could have sworn from the slight shrug he made that he wanted to grin tauntingly at her.

By the time Michael had turned off the main road and pulled the motorcycle off at the point where the path changed from paved concrete to packed dirt, though, Isabel knew the score. Michael took off his helmet, looked back at Isabel, and delivered that teasing smile. "Well, here we are."

Iz climbed off the bike and pulled off her own helmet. "Yep, we are here," she confirmed. "And there we go," she concluded, pointing at the leftward branch of the fork in the path up ahead, which led up Danning's hill. "Whatcha gonna do about the bike though? Wouldn't want one of them crazy junior high kids making off with it."

"Not to worry." Michael concentrated, and a wall of foliage dropped from the nearby trees to wrap up the motorcycle. It would be hard to notice the vehicle like that, and practically impossible to get it free without alien powers.

"Somebody's been learning a few new tricks," Isabel commented with a wide smile. "Are you sure those vines won't hurt the bike any? No, I take the question back - of *course* you're sure or you wouldn'ta tried it huh?" Michael nodded, taking the jibe with good grace.

He searched his mind for a conversation starter as the two of them started along the path. Most of the things he could think of to say to Isabel didn't really fall under the guidelines for 'avoiding reality.' Finally Michael just blurted out "Free association!! Blue."

Isabel smiled briefly while thinking of a response. "Gold."

"Treasure,"

"Ring."

"Phone!"

"Number," Isabel replied with a grin.

'Math' flashed through Michael's mind, but free association or not, he couldn't bring himself to say the word on an avoiding reality day. Isabel shot over a sidelong glance, probably wondering what was keeping him, and Michael's mind blanked. "Um, uhh... prisoner," he finally managed to dredge up.

Isabel seemed doubtful of the connection there, so Michael felt honor-bound to defend it. "'I will not be filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, de-briefed, or *numbered,'" he quoted. "'My life is my own!' THAT prisoner."

"Okay, fine," Iz retorted, trying to make it seem as if she hadn't forced him into that little recitation. "Prisoner... castle."

"Princess," Michael shot back as he started over the rise of the hill.

"Hero," Isabel blurted out, blushing slightly.

"Destiny," Michael answered, and then stopped short. Isabel was staring at him, wide-eyed. "I... I can't believe I just said that," he said quickly. "You don't have to respond to it if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay," she assured him. "Destiny... bad!"

Michael laughed softly. "Good."

"Great."

"View!!" Sure enough, the two of them were just getting to the point where they could look down from the clifflike heights of Danning's hill to Liberty park spreading below them. Isabel smiled at took her old spot from years gone by, leaning her back against a tree and soaking it all in. The game was forgotten now - that was as good a point as any to end it on.

Liberty park was where the Crash festival was held every year. About fifteen feet below the place where Michael was standing, in fact, was the carved out niche where a mockup alien ship perched until the height of the festival, when carefully arranged firecrackers shot it out of the rock face and swinging down a steel cable towards its doom, in a grisly (Michael had always thought,) commemoration of the Roswell Incident.

But that slightly squicky association hadn't been enough to keep this hilltop from being a favorite hangout of Michael and Isabel - and Max too - when they were young. Partly because of the incredible view of the park and Roswell itself that Danning's hill offered.

Michael looked over at Isabel. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing deeply, as if she could appreciate the vista beneath them better if she didn't actually bother looking at it. (The way she was spending so much time training senses beyond the human capacity, maybe she *could* at that.)

"When we were in the fourth grade," Michael said all of a sudden, "I used to daydream about a flying saucer coming back for us, right here." Isabel opened her eyes again and followed Michael's gesture, covering a huge swath of space near the overlook and above the park far below. "So big you almost couldn't see all of it. And they'd bring the three of us aboard with some kinda cool tractor beam thing, you and me and Maxwell, and our parents would be on board. And their friends and all our relatives and some cool alien kids about our own age. And they'd all throw a big party in our honor while the flying saucer headed for home at hyper-speed."

Isabel was smiling widely. "That's a nice daydream, even still."

Michael nodded slowly. "Yeah. But the sad reality is it's not gonna be that easy, is it?"

"Michael!" Isabel swatted him on the arm. "What is it we're supposed to be avoiding today?"

"Sorry." They stayed there for a long timee, just looking down at the park.

"Ya wanna go to the mall and set off sprinklers??" Isabel asked suddenly.

Michael thought for a second. "Yah, what the heck."

Isabel grabbed Michael's hand for no good reason he could see, and he didn't say anything about it or push it away. A long moment and a half later, Iz took it back herself, and smiled at him in the same old way she always had.

* * * * *

(November 14 2000.)

"Mercury roaster with tomato and relish, green cheese mash, and a pepsi," Liz recapped as she slid the food onto the table. "Anything else?"

"Not a thing," Alex assured her with a smile.

"Okay." Liz smiled to, and left, but when Alex looked up after taking the first bite of his megaburger she was standing near his table again, looking faintly nervous. "What is it, Liz?" he asked softly.

"Are you expecting anyone, Alex?" Liz stalled, looking around. "Iz??"

"Nah," Alex sighed. "My darling Isabel is taking a well-deserved night of vegging in front of the television. First a quick trip to Capeside, and then she'll swing by new york and catch up with Felicity."

"Sounds nice," Liz said, slipping into the booth across from Alex. "You didn't want to join in?"

"Nah... I may drop in later. But I'm not particularly in the mood for all the..." Alex searched for the mot juste, "intensity of a night of teenage soap opera. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I think so," Liz said, nodding. "Listen. My dad's been bugging me to mention something to you, but it never seemed like the right time."

Alex blinked in surprise, his curiosity piqued. "Really, what?"

"Well, remember how you and Maria were telling me about going and performing at that open mike night?"

It took Alex a moment to place the reference. "Yeah. I've been meaning to talk to Maria about setting up a time to do that again, but with the big schoolwork push and everything else that's been going on..."

Liz interrupted Alex's big ramble. "My dad's thinking about starting a live music thing here at the crashdown, and he needs some regular performers who'll do their thing for next to nothing, to start. How'd you feel about playing here in exchange for some free food?"

Alex blinked in surprise. "I feel pretty good about it. But what about Maria, does she know?"

"Not yet." Liz shook her head. "Since my dad hasn't had any luck in two years convincing Maria to so much as sing in front of him, he thought I should run this by you first. Then we can work together to convince Maria, just in case."

Alex grinned. "Sounds cool, I'm in." Liz smiled back, and stood up as she noticed Michael waving her over from the kitchen window.

"Gotta go, order's up. Oh, and you might have to deal with my dad's musical preferences. See ya!!"

Alex smiled and took a bite of his mashed potatoes, which had started to cool. "What the heck does *that* mean??"

* * * * *

(November 16 2000.)

Michael intercepted Liz as Max was walking her to her first class. "Did you talk to her this morning?" he asked in a low voice.

There was no need to ask who 'her' referred to. "No, I haven't," Liz sighed. "And I don't think any of us need to be bugging her, or just calling to say hi, or asking how she's doing more than usual. She's feeling the pressure already and it's still early."

"Yeah," Max weighed in softly. "It's only just coming up on three weeks and three days. 'Three and a haf weeks' is vague enough that it could mean at any time in the next two and a half days."

Michael sighed a sigh that was only half of a groan. "I know," he whispered. "I'm just nervous about this message-from-the-future stuff. I mean, what we learned on Labyrinth day has changed all of our lives over the past few weeks. What is Maria's life has changed enough that she doesn't find it? What if none of us ever do."

"Relax," Liz urged the teenage alien. "Future Alex would have taken all that into consideration. He knows where the book is, and if he told Maria to just wait instead of telling her where it was, it must be somewhere where its discovery by us is pretty inevitable. If not now, then soon."

"Plus, it's not like the timelines have really changed," Max pointed out. "The timeline Future Alex came from is one where you and Maria got a message from him. How else did he know where to find you guys?" Michael seemed doubtful about that.

"Maria!!" Liz called out suddenly. Sure enough, she was heading straight towards the three of them.

"You can stop talking about me," Maria groused sourly as soon as she was within range. "Good news is, I've found the damn book. Bad news is, my mother's had it all this time!!"

Liz looked from Maria to Michael and then Max - the shock on their faces echoed what she felt.

TO BE CONTINUED...

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 4b: "End transmission" 1/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'

(Still Thursday, November 16 2000.)

"I didn't ask her any questions about the book or how she got it," Maria told them quietly. The seven core members of the gang had gathered out at the table next to the school baseball diamond as quickly as they could - which turned out to be the short break between second and third periods. "I kinda thought it was more important to bring the news to you guys that it had been *found.* Plus, you know, if I said the wrong thing and perked up my Mom's suspicions, it'd make whatever we're trying to do here that much harder, right?"

"Translation, you didn't want to be the one blamed for messing this up," Isabel said, "and came to us to spread the responsibility around." Iz noticed the look on Maria's face, a mixture of hurt and embarrassment. "Don't worry, it's probably what I would've done in your place too."

"And it was the right call to make," Max decided. "So, what *do* we do next?"

"If Mrs. DeLucca knows that that book is real, she's got to be plenty suspicious already," Tess pointed out.

"But there's no reason to assume that she does," Michael counterpointed. "All of our reasons for assuming that whoever found the book wouldn't realize it was genuine hold double for Maria's mom. She makes alien Roswell memorabilia herself. She presumably found the book in her friends' alien-theme restaurant. She'd have assumed it was a fake, a prop or a souvenir."

"Yeah," Liz agreed. "Let's take that from the other side. If Amy realized it was real, it would probably have resulted in a noticeable change in her behavior. Maria, has your mom been acting any differently of late??"

"No..." Maria said slowly. "Well, she's been cutting me a little more slack, But that could just be because she's actually hearing good things about me from my teachers."

"That better be it," Michael grumbled under his breath. He and Maria had been spending a truly heroic amount of time on schoolwork over the past few weeks, time that Michael at least would rather have put to other activities.

"Well," Alex suggested, "We do need more information, and Maria, you're the one who can ask your mom questions and attract the least suspicion." He thought for a moment. "Try to keep it simple and as normal as possible. You noticed the book - which is true enough - and you're asking her what it is and where she got it." Maria nodded in quiet agreement, resigned to her role.

"If all goes as we hope and Maria's mom really hasn't noticed anything weird about the book, then you're probably the best one to talk her into giving it up, - Liz." Max had seemed an instant away from calling Liz 'sweetie' or some other affectionate name in front of Tess. "She thinks it came from the cafe..."

"Yeah, I know, I know," Liz sighed. "My mom needs it back, we've been looking for it, Agnes didn't tell us she'd sold it or whatever, as per Maria's recon. I know the drill." The bell rang.

"Well, is there anything else?" Alex asked quickly. Nobody said anything. "Well then, let's get to class people!"

As Max got up and hurried over to follow Liz, the dark-haired girl fixed him with a powerful stare. Her lips moved silently, fairly clearly mouthing 'tell her.' Her head jerked ever so slightly in Tess' direction.

Max was about to protest, then thought better of it after a second. Liz had a point. As the rest walked away, Max returned to Tess, who was still sitting at the table. Liz hung in the middle distance, trying to make it seem as if she was waiting for Max but not paying attention to what was going on.

"Um, Tess, uh..." Max started awkwardly. "There's something that I've been, er, that is, I think you should kn--"

"You and Liz are together again," Tess cut to the point simply. "I was wondering when you'd get the balls to actually tell me. Actually, Kyle thought you'd be the first to crack, Liz." Liz blinked and dropped the pretense of not listening in.

"Umm... when, I mean..."

"Labyrinth day," Tess supplied helpfully, "was when I first tumbled to it, that is. You weren't exactly discreet with the smoochies that night. And don't think I've missed the lengths you two have gone to sneak alone time on the quiet since then either. You don't exactly rock at the masters of secrecy thing."

"Oh," Max said, blushing up a storm by now, not quite sure how else to respond. "So, aside from that, how do you..."

"Don't worry, Max," Tess answered his half-unasked question a third and last time. "I'm not gonna make some embarrassing scene." She looked up at Max, and he was struck by the bittersweet expression on her face. "You've made your choice, and I hope you will be happy with what you find. I'm not about to humiliate us both by trying to force you into believing in us." A short sigh. "Again." And she got up and left.

Somewhat dazed by a reaction that he had not even considered, Max wandered over to where Liz was waiting. "Wow." A long silence resumed. "Did you have any clue that that was coming??"

Liz considered for a long moment, then shook her head. "Come on, we're late for class already." She took Max's hand and led him the way Tess had gone, towards the nearest doorway into the school.

* * * * *

"Okay, is there anything else?" Liz asked. She and Maria were up in Liz's room, discussing strategy for getting the book away from Maria's mother. The 'recon,' as Liz put it, had been done and apparently went smoothly. (Amy DeLucca had purchased the book from Agnes, the Crashdown's most irresponsible forty-ish waitress, as Maria had guessed, for the sum of thirty-five dollars and ninety-nine cents. She didn't appear to realize that it was anything other than a clever prop.)

"Just one - whose money is that? Are you paying for this mission out of pocket?" Maria pointed to the collection of bills Liz was folding into a small change purse - planned refund money. "Are you taking this hit out of pocket?"

Liz shook her head. "Nah, everybody pitched in. Well, me, Max, Michael, Isabel, and Alex. We didn't bug you about it since you were the one who had to find out what your mom knew."

"And you didn't want to face Tess again today," Maria sussed. "Well, I guess that's it, Let's go." She led Liz down the Crashdown stairs and out into the cafe's parking lot, where she had parked the DeLucca family Jetta. It was a quiet drive back to the small house she and her mother shared (and her mom usually just managed to make the mortgage payments on.)

Maria called her hellos as she walked in the front door, and her mom's answering call came from the kitchen. The strong odor of Amy DeLuca's vegetarian stew filled the air as Maria walked down the hall, made the perfunctory reference to Liz having something important to tell her about, and stepped back to let Liz make the spiel.

It worked well. Amy was upset to learn that she had purchased an item which hadn't been meant for sale, didn't seem suspicious about the hints that to mention the subject directly to either of Liz's parents would only be embarrassing for them, and she graciously refused to take back the money, since there was no indication that Agnes had put the money she originally received from Amy into the till. She asked Maria to keep an eye on the stew while she went to fetch the book back.

Liz and Maria had only shared a short smile of incipient victory when they heard Amy's footsteps coming back down the stairs. "You know, I bought this thing, I never even really had a chance to look through all of it." She reached the landing and started back towards the kitchen. "Your mother must have put a lot of detail into this, Li--" she broke off in mid-word, flipping a page and staring at it in shock, then going to another. **Oh, NO!**

Liz, at least, had enough composure to try to bluff it out. "What is it, Mrs. DeLucca??" she said brightly, stepping forward to meet the older woman half-way.

"I... these are..." Without words, Amy dropped the book and showed the page to Liz - it was the sketches of 'the royal four' as adults. The shock evident on her face, Amy flipped back through the 'teenagers' pictures to the 'children' ones.

"Oh, that, yeah," Liz said nonchalantly. "Mom asked some of our friends to model for it - I wasn't sure why at first, but it does look very 'alien-ey', doesn't it? Pictures from when they were six or seven, then current, then her guess of what they'd look like five years from now. Pretty good huh??"

"Umm... yeah." Still a little dazed-looking, Amy let Liz take the book back, and Maria couldn't help but feel a little jump on her spine as her best friend finally took possession of this thing they'd been searching for for so long. Right then the front doorbell rang, and Amy headed back into the kitchen, taking the stew stirring spoon back from Maria. "Could you see who that is, sweetie?"

Maria headed over to the door and opened it. A middle-aged man stood there nervously. "Hi," he said. A short pause in which Maria didn't answer. "Do you remember me, baby??" Maria shook her head, but something was starting to click...

"My god, Ryan?!" Maria's mom headed over to the door, heedless of the stew. "What the hell are you doing here, you son-of-a-bitch?"

If the name hadn't clicked it in Maria's mind, her mom's attitude would have. Ryan DeLucca. Her father, the one who had run out on them when she was seven.

"I think I need to sit down," Maria whispered to no-one in particular.

* * * * *

(Sunday, November 19 2000.)

Alex picked up the ringing cell phone, pushed the talk button, and held it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, Alex, it's Liz," the familiar voice announced. "Just thought I'd call in and see how the translation's going."

"It's going - slowly, but going," Alex sighed. "Still not beating a word every five minutes, but we're getting a notion what's in this book and where. What about you, how's the studying going for that big history test??"

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," Liz groaned. "Another reason why I called over there, actually - was wondering about coming over there and hanging around."

"Yeah, just a sec," Alex said, and tossed the phone across Michael's living room to Max, who caught it effortlessly in one hand.

"Hey, Liz?" Max said into the phone, and paused for a response. "Yeah, you know I can't wait to see you either, but we're just about to go back from break and put another hour or two into this. I'll come over there after we're done, okay? ... miss you too, darling."

"Don't hang up," Alex asked Max, and Max smiled and tossed the phone back - Alex tried to catch it two-handed, bobbled it, and just managed to get it onto the table without bouncing it too hard and picked it up. "Yeah, Liz?"

"Still here."

"Just wondering if you've heard from Maria about the whole 'returning father figure' thing?"

"Uh, yeah, she called me after she got back from dinner with 'him' last night. She's got a lot of issues to work through with him, but I think she's happy that he's come back and is at least making an effort to be a part of her life again."

"I'm glad," Alex commented vaguely.

"I think she'd like Michael to talk to her about the whole situation, but she's not sure how to bring it up," Liz said meaningfully.

Alex smiled. "Well then I guess maybe someone else will put a bug in mister Guerin's ear about it," he teased. "See ya?"

"Bye, Alex." He hung up the phone and looked up - the four pod squadders had gathered around the book again.

"I think this is the page to focus on," Isabel thought out loud. "It's obviously about the orbs, and Future Alex told you that we had to learn how to use the orbs as communicators. Right, Michael??"

"Yeah, he did," Michael agreed. "Hey, Alex, any idea what this word might mean? I don't think we've ever seen anything like it before."

Alex smiled to himself and headed over to help with the translation.

* * * * *

(Monday, November 27 2000.)

"Hmm..." Alex carefully scooped up some rice on the cooking spoon, dropped it carefully down onto his tasting spoon without letting them touch and gave it a try. "Hmm... yeah, that's *almost* done. Where's the chicken?"

"Umm... here, yeah." Isabel smiled as she passed a small plate heaped moderately high with little pieces of roasted chicken breast (some with browned and seasoned skin,) into Alex's hand. He poured the cubed meat into a big frying pan on the stove and started stirring energetically.

"So... how soon is this gonna be ready?" Isabel asked softly. "Michael and Maria aren't back yet, and you told me how this stuff doesn't do well if it has to wait long once it's done."

"Once it finishes cooking, it's alright if it cools for five or ten minutes," Alex assured his girlfriend, stepping up and kissing her quickly on the cheek. "Don't worry - they'll be here. Michael probably just stopped off at some point to have a talk with Maria."

Isabel's brown eyes twinkled with mischief. "Or else they're gettin' it on in the backseat of the Jetta. Are *you* ready to be the godfather of a quarter-alien crossbreed baby?"

"Very funny," Alex said, but he was grinning back at her. "You keep an eye on the rice - I'll go set the table."

Sure enough, Michael and Maria walked in the door when the risotto had been cooling for about four and a half minutes, and even Alex couldn't see signs that any more than first base had happened while the two of them were off running errands. Cake went into the fridge, videos onto the coffee table, and by then everyone was ready to sit down to dinner.

"Um, so..." Maria said after a moment, trying to break the silence that spread around the dinner table once everybody's plates were full. "How's this thing you guys are doing tomorrow going to work?"

Isabel and Michael both looked at Alex, so he shook his head and tried to explain. "Well, we all go up to the pod chamber. It's designed, in part, to function essentially as a huge communications antenna - so the orbs will work there and only there. And the direction in which that 'antenna' is pointing roughly has to match up with the planet we're trying to communicate with, which is why we all have to be out there around four in the morning."

"Because as the earth spins around every day, the antenna direction is constantly changing with respect to the stars," Maria put in.

"Yep. Max and Isabel will each take one of the orbs, key them and activate them, and will send out a message to K'starnis D. That's a colony world run by their people around 30 light years from the homeworld - we thought it'd be safer than transmitting directly to the home planet and having this tyrant Kivar or his people listening in, maybe tracking the transmission -- plus, the star maps in the book seem to indicate that it has a strong support for the old royal line."

"And then we try to get in touch with someone in charge there and verify the situation at the homeworld," Michael put in.

"So - the orbs weren't just to receive that message from your mom, huh?" Maria asked, trying to keep it all straight.

"No," Isabel agreed. "That was just the first step - probably a probe placed in stationary earth orbit to transmit a recorded message on the communicator frequency. But now we have to move beyond that, and actually make contact with another star system." Isabel shuddered for a second. "I wonder what it'll be like."

"In the general pattern, it should be very like getting the message from your mom," Alex reminded her. "You'll see the image of another person or persons there in the pod chamber. They'll talk to you in english, and they'll hear and understand you when you talk to them. They may appear considerably more human than they actually are. The holographic communication through the pods is largely mental, so things like language and physical appearance are compensated for."

It was much later that night when Alex, Isabel, and Maria finally got themselves out Michael's door. "We have... about four hours before we have to be heading out of town to get to the pod chamber," Alex commented.

"Are you complaining?" Isabel asked him in a throaty murmur, and Alex grinned and shook his head.

"You know, we didn't even take the cake out of the fridge, and though we *played* the movie, I don't know if anybody actually WATCHED it," Maria added. "I think I'm slightly upset that all of Michael's and my 'errands' didn't count for much."

"Really, Maria?" Alex asked. Maria smiled over at him.

"Not at all!"

* * * *

(Tuesday, November 28 2000.)

Maria yanked her hands back into her jacket sleeves as she got out of the Jetta. "The desert should never be allowed to get this cold!!" she muttered under her breath.

"Who're you gonna complain to, the weather control board?" Michael asked as he followed her. Maria shot him a withering glance over her shoulder. "I'm sorry, it's just... deserts are known for swings of temperature, not just heat. It's almost December, it's four AM, and it's been on the cool side for a week. Of course the desert is gonna be cold."

Maria didn't say anything in reply. Three cars had parked spread out in the vicinity of the angular mountain peak - Max's jeep, in which Liz had rode, the Taurus, in which Alex, Isabel, and Tess had come, and the Jetta. All seven young people were filing into the broken pathway that made its way up the slope.

Isabel was the first to make it to the top, and she put her hand into the outlined indentation casually, watching the doorway open with an almost blase look on her face. Maria knew that she was probably still a little nervous about the part she had to play in this morning's event.

They gathered inside the chamber quickly and let the door close again. This was actually the first time that Maria had ever seen the pod chamber, and she looked around eagerly, soaking up the significance that it held, especially in its relation to her beloved Michael. The four broken pods dominated the chamber, as far as design features. Which had been his??

But everyone else was taking their places. Max and Isabel stood near the front of the rectangular outline in the floor, facing an alcove which was presumably designed to act as a reception area for this kind of communique. Alex was hovering near Max, wanting to be able to help in any matters of protocol or alien custom that came up.

That left Maria standing with Michael, Liz, and Tess off near the solid rock wall, nearer to Isabel than Max. Michael took an orb out of his pocket and crossed over to hand it to Max. Tess fished the other out of a disguised wall recess near the pods, and passed it to Isabel, and then each of them resumed their places.

"And we're sure that this isn't gonna lead the skins right to us or something horrible like that?" Liz blurted out at the last second.

"The skins know where we are already, Liz," Alex reminded her softly. "And we can't summon any more because only four of them are allowed in Roswell at a time, according to the terms of the challenge." Liz didn't seem too reassured by that, but she waved Max into continuing.

When Max and Isabel held the orbs in their hands and concentrated, the reaction was almost instant. White spears of light burst out of them - out of the whirlpool galaxy symbols on them, Maria knew, though she couldn't see that kind of detail directly. The entire pod chamber started to brighten as the energy, the signal coming out of the pods fired up relays and transstators, and the entire chamber took on its role of 'communications antenna.'

Something seemed to be appearing in the space in front of Max and Isabel, but Maria couldn't tell very clearly what it was yet. It seemed to be just a black patch with stars sprinkled through it - of course. They hadn't made contact with anyone yet, they were just beaming a signal out into space. Communication would depend on someone else sending a signal back.

As if on cue, Max called out loudly. "I am Max of the Royal four, once known as king of the planet Azt. I wish to speak with the governor of the K'Starnis D colony!!"

They waited long seconds. Maria was all too aware that their window of communication with this planet was only ten or twelve minutes long - if they failed, they'd have to try this all again some other morning. (Well, Maria herself didn't really have to be here, she was just showing team solidarity. Next time she could beg beauty sleep, couldn't she??)

And then, suddenly, the space representation in front of Max and Isabel changed into a fifty-something bearded man dressed in something that looked halfway between medieval robes and a government worker's uniform. Maria was shocked - except for a slight whitish gleam about him that came and went, Maria couldn't have told that he wasn't physically present. "I am the one you seek," he said softly. "But 'Max,' you rule no more. I have sworn allegiance to the successor to the throne, and can obey your orders no more. What reason would you have to talk to me?"

Max was ready for this. "I am only looking for information - information about my homeland, in the long years that I have been gone, and particularly information about a challenge made between my mother and the usurper, if such a challenge does exist."

The governor blinked. "I may not speak with you about such matters. Allow me to fetch the local Arbiter of challenges. If any can tell you that which you seek, it will be she."

Max looked quickly over at Alex, who nodded. "Do so, as quickly as possible," Max instructed the older man. "We have a limited window for communicating with your planet at this time."

The old man vanished, replaced by a spinning design that looked vaguely like it might be an alien coat of arms. Max looked at Alex again. "Arbiter of challenges?"

"I'm not too clear," Alex confessed. "But I think that they are in charge of administering tests, bets, and the kind of dares like the one we believe has been issued on your behalf. Get as m..."

But Alex was cut off as the coat of arms turned into a woman - a reasonably unattractive woman, but human standards, though still undeniably human in appearance. Her medium brown hair was stringy, her figure showed few curves except for the ones near her stomach, and her face seemed dominated by a slightly mis-shaped nose. "I am Geralet, arbiter of the challenges for the K'Starnis colony," she intoned. "You claim to be of the reborn royal four??"

"I... I do," Max agreed, nodding.

"Permit me to verify before we speak further." Max, caught by surprise, had only nodded silently before the image of the ugly woman picked up a small metal rod and pointed it at Isabel, and then Max. As the red light bathed over each of them they staggered, and the red was echoed in the formerly pale blue glowing walls of the pod chamber.

And then she put her device away, and things returned to normal. "Your claim has not been disproven, so I shall proceed," Geralet continued. "You are correct in surmising that a challenge has been made by Kivar Andraikus, lately styling himself overlord of Azt, and the queen emeritus of the old royal line. Might I be permitted to ask how you came to possess this information?"

"Um, you may," Max stuttered out, and then decided it would be quicker to simply answer her question. "One of our number, and a human friend, were drawn into a space/time labyrinth, presumably by agents of Andraikus. While there, they received a message from the future self of another of our human friends."

"Interesting," Geralet mused. "Proceed, then - ask your questions."

"As far as we know, these are the terms of the challenge," Max said. "That the four of us have to return to Azt in a little over the year, and if we win I regain control of the government. If we fail to meet the time limit, Kivar keeps the power of the throne until he dies. Kivar is allowed to use four of his agents at any one time to keep us from accomplishing this, but they cannot kill humans or reveal that aliens are upon the earth to its population. Is all of this correct?"

Geralet paused to consider. "It is."

"Is it complete? Nothing of obvious significance missing?"

Geralet considered again. "Two considerations. First, you must not only reach the planet within the time alloted, but the royal palace grounds themselves. Kivar's people cannot interfere with you once you reach Azt, but time may be your undoing. Second, you must understand the limitations on your communications."

"They are these: You may use the orbs to communicate with anyone you can call by name, or make an open call for an arbiter of challenges, a common peasant, or a royalist soldier on any particular world. Of all the people you may contact, only the arbiters are bound to be honest to you, or to respond to you in any way." She paused. "Are there any other questions?"

"Yes, one," Isabel spoke up. "When we come back... can we bring others with us? Humans, I mean, earthpeople. Would they be welcome on the homeworld??"

Geralet seemed surprised by the question. "I do not believe anyone has raised the point before. But if you win the challenge, the word of the royal four will become law, and you may do largely as you please, particularly you, Max, once you reclaim your throne. I doubt that any but the followers of Kivar would refuse you in any case. One further point for he who would be king -" she turned to Max.

"Although you will reclaim the throne if you are victorious, you will not be able to pass it on to your immediate heirs. This body which is now yours is half human, and the people are not ready to accept a dynasty of mongrels. However, you may choose to select any Aztan of full blood and groom him or her to be heir to the throne, including some of your younger brothers, and one sister, that survived the purge and have been protected by the challenge."

"Thank you," Max said nervously.

"Would you prefer that I keep our discussion secret, your highness, or make it known?? I can defer to your wishes in this matter."

Max blinked in surprise. They had chosen this colony world for the sake of secrecy, but since the news seemed good (relatively speaking at least,) it seemed a good opportunity to intimidate the enemy. "Yes, let it be known that the Royal Four are coming home to free their people!!"

"I will let it be known that I was contacted regarding the rules of the challenge. I cannot pass along substanceless boasts in regards to a challenge." The arbiter fixed him with an icy stare as she said this.

Max sighed. "Very well. Tell..." Suddenly, Geralet's image winked out and the glowing walls of the pod chamber faded. "What happened??"

"It's four twenty-three," Tess said, checking her watch. "We probably just slipped out of alignment with the colony."

"But we've learned a lot," Michael pointed out. "The challenge is confirmed. There's only one question left we need answered."

"And what's that?" Maria asked, guessing what it would be.

"How the heck do we get home??" Michael asked with a sarcastic grin.

TBC...

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 4b: "End transmission" 2/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fanfiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'


(Tuesday to Wednesday, November 29 2000.)

Alex sighed as he pulled aside his covers and climbed into bed. It had been hard to go to classes and act like everything was normal after what had happened that morning. The impossible was happening to them lately with remarkable frequency, but still - to have communicated with an alien planet, more than seventy light-years away from the earth - that was special. Trigonometry paled in comparison.

After school, a meeting of the gang over euchre had attempted to develop plans for moving forward. Aside from returning to translating the book (they only had a small portion of the text transcribed to english so far after more almost two weeks' hard work,) and attempting to find whatever other 'salvages' Nasedo had marked on the cave map, they didn't seem to have many ideas. Tess seemed to think that finding the artifacts that the military had recovered from the crash site, instead of the few scraps that Nasedo had been able to escape with, probably held the key to their escape. But where did that lead them?

Any pieces recovered by the military had probably been handed over to the special unit, not long after it had been formed. The special unit was gone now, dismantled by congress after Nasedo had torpedoed it in committee hearings (under his role as Agent Pierce.) And any attempt to track down what had happened to the personnel involved in the special unit, to the objects it had in storage would almost certainly draw suspicion their way - if there was any way to find such information at all.

Alex sighed, switched the lamp on his bedside table off and tried to fall asleep. For a while, he was too nervous to relax, but he must have fallen asleep because he dreamed - not alien dreams, but strange human ones with sneaking into foreboding buildings that were serving roasted chicken, and arguing with a little handheld computer that was trying to convince him that he was the Baker. And Isabel, kissing Isabel, more than kissing her - except Isabel's hair had turned dark, so dark a brown that it was nearly black...

He woke up to feel something sharp playing up and down the side of his leg, under the covers. Instinctively, he turned to the clock - 1:27 AM.

"Now, just relax, do what I tell you, and you're gonna be just fine," a familiar voice advised him. But familiar from where? In the darkness, Alex could see a tall man's shape sitting next to his bed, holding whatever weapon underneath that had been used to wake him up.

"S... Steve??" Alex guessed sleepily. "Steve Banks??"

"Oooh, I knew you were a sharp one," Steve told him. "Well, come on now Alex. Get up and get dressed. We've got a lot to do tonight."

Alex blinked - reached out tentatively for the lamp, and when no refusal of the idea was forthcoming, he switched it on. His bedroom sprang into relief in the pale light from the corner, including his unexpected visitor. Next he lurched somewhat unsteadily to his feet and opened a dresser drawer.

"What should I... do I have to..." he mumbled.

"I don't care," Steve snapped curtly, "so long as you don't attract undue attention." Guided by that, Alex tossed an old sweater on over his t-shirt, pulled on some jeans, socks, and shoes. He was almost painfully aware of the presence of the washer, hanging by a length of soft string under his shirt, where he usually kept it, and felt determined not to draw any attention to it. This was one advantage that they had that the skins maybe didn't know about, and he would keep it that w...

"Wait a second. You're one of the skins, right?" he clarified, looking up from a half-tied running shoe. "Kivar's agents here on earth."

"Bright boy again," Steve said, but his voice was clearly impatient.

"Then what are you gonna do to me if I don't co-operate? You can't kill me, or it'll cost your side the challenge. No killing humans, right??"

"So you guys *do* know about the challenge," Steve said wonderingly, shaking his head. "Well, think about this, you little snot." He stood up and suddenly the knife he carried was at Alex's throat. "If you cross me, I know a few little things I can try out without killing you. Lifetime of pain is what we're talking about here. Plus, you've got a father and a mother in this house too, right? Don't think I won't use them as incentive too. Let's see, there's the male human sex organs, for a start, right?" Steve gestured his knife meaningfully towards Alex's crotch. "Extremely sensitive to pain, and just as a bonus, any permanent mutilation or amputation is highly traumatic in social terms! So I'm gonna tell you again, Alex -- *finish getting dressed and let's go*."

Alex breathed deeply and realized he had lost this round. The alien known to the world as 'Steve Banks' almost certainly had the power to make good on his threat - and the inclination to. He wanted Alex for something, but Alex couldn't dare refuse. Not... yet.

The two of them headed silently out the of the house, and Steve stretched out his free hand commandingly to Alex once they were out the front door. "Keys?"

Alex shrugged. "In my other pants. You didn't say to bring them!"

Steve smirked, "Whatever." Bringing his weapon hand close to the lock for a second, it spun around for a second and sound of the deadbolt sliding over could be heard. "Good luck getting back inside once this is all over."

Alex headed down the porch stairs, Steve behind him, and naturally headed right towards the driveway. A gentle poke from the knife brought him to a stop again. "Where do you think you're going??" Steve asked in a low voice.

"Umm... to my car?" Alex muttered, though he had realized that the assumption was flawed by now. Steve guided him left (straight over the lawn, of course,) to where a forest green Viper was parked. Steve fished in his pants pockets and produced a key ring, which he handed to Alex. "Get behind the wheel."

For a second Alex was surprised, but he knew that Steve meant it. As we walked slowly around the car, he realized why. If Steve was driving the car, his attention would be split between the controls, the road, and Alex. For Alex himself to be doing the driving meant one last distraction, so that Steve could concentrate totally on Alex and where they were going. He unlocked the door, clicked the master unlocker and slowly got behind the wheel.

"Where to?" Alex asked nervously as Steve got behind the wheel.

"First, your girlfriend's place. I assume you know the way, right?" Alex chuckled nervously and started down the familiar route to the Evans' house. The sports car was a lot more responsive than anything he was used to driving, and he had to make sure not to give it too much gas or turn too quickly. Soon they were there, and Steve pointed out that he should park in what was left of the Evans' driveway, across the sidewalk.

As he got out, Alex noticed a few other figures waiting on the Evans' front walk. It was Liz - and Grant Sorenson. Suddenly another aspect of the plan clicked into Alex's brain. This was bigger than him - probably a LOT bigger.

"Where were you?" the geologist growled as Steve and Alex walked over.

"Little Alex here is a deep sleeper," Steve said casually. Alex noticed that Grant was holding a hand behind Liz's back. He opened his mouth, but Grant quickly spat 'no talking,' and Alex fell silent.

Liz caught his eye as they walked towards the house though, and nodded ever so slightly. Alex wasn't quite sure what to make of that.

It followed through as Alex had expected. Grant broke into the Evans' house with his powers as Steve must have gotten into his, even disabling the fancy security system with no more than the wave of a hand. Alex was hurried up into Isabel's room, while Grant and Liz went to fetch Max. "Wake her up," Steve whispered to him.

Umm... Alex walked towards the bed. "Isabel??" He kneeled down - noticing that Steve stayed close to him as he did - and brushed a lock of Isabel's hair away from her face. "Iz, baby?? We've kinda got a problem here."

"Alex??" Isabel murmured sleepily.

"Yeah?"

"What is it?" At this point Isabel turned his way and opened her brown eyes - and nearly screamed in shock. Her mouth slammed shut, muffling a surprised exclamation -- that was probably Steve's power at work. Once she could open her mouth again, Isabel whispered softly "What is *he* doing here??"

"Keep it quiet, sweetheart," Steve said softly. "And don't go getting no brave ideas either."

"Meet Steve Banks," Alex said sarcastically. "Friendly neighborhood 'skin.'"

"Also, if you're trying to contact your brother," Steve related, "you can probably tell that he's also being taken care of. In fact... SHIT!!!" Quickly the alien tossed a small object to the other side of Isabel's bed and hurried out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind him. "SOREN! TAKE COVER!!" Alex could hear the yell from where he was.

"Alex, what's..." Isabel said, still not quite awake, but obviously with it enough to worry about what their enemy had just done. Alex climbed over the foot of Isabel's bed to try to grab whatever bomb Steve had dropped there, but it went off as he got near. Alex recognized the device.

FWOOOMM!! Again the blue pulse passed through his body without any apparent ill effect, but Isabel moaned and spasmed as she sat on the bed. Alex noticed idly that she was wearing a pretty pink shirt as a pajama top, though he couldn't tell what else.

"Alex, what was that?" she asked, instinctively crawling into his arms.

"It's like that device we found in the UFO center," Alex said, reaching awkwardly down to pick it up off the floor. "We might be able to use it, if..."

Of course, at precisely that moment, Steve Banks threw the door open again, snarling with frustration. "Okay, children, let's go. Where's is it?" Alex shrugged weakly and Steve pushed the two of them aside long enough to look over the bed. "The trithium amplifier, Whitman, *where is it??*"

"I... I dunno," Alex said with as much confused veracity as he could summon up. "I didn't see the damn thing, just what it did, yahh, to..."

Steve had pushed Alex and Isabel to their feet by this time, (probably again with the help of his powers,) quickly patted down the pockets in Alex's jeans (like they were big enough to hold the device, and rooted through the covers on Isabel's bed. "Now, how did it get here?" He muttered, pulling the generator from out under the sheets. "You're a real smart-ass, aren't you Wh--- WHOA!!"

While the skin had been looking for his little weapon, Alex had been busy too - grabbing the nearest heavy object he could find (some sort of trophy sitting on Isabel's bookcase,) and had been in the very act of whipping the thing towards the base of Steve's skull. Unfortunately, he didn't have quite enough time. With a quick narrowing of his eyes, the alien sent Alex and his makeshift weapon flying through the air and solidly into Isabel's closet door. For a second Alex's feet dangled several inches off the floor, and when the force suddenly eased, he dropped down in an uneven bump, tearing the poster of Scott Foley down as he went. (Well, not like *that* was any great loss.)

Steve grabbed Isabel's hand and charged over to Alex. "That crossed a line, Whitman!! I've been a sport about this up to now, but you have to realize that your actions have consequences here. *That* choice of action..." and he threw Isabel aside violently so that she landed on her butt next to her large armoire, "has THIS consequence." And he grabbed Alex's left forearm and drove the knife into it.

"Ahhh!!" The pain was intense and startling, but not incapacitating. Alex watched in a mixture of discomfort and morbid curiosity as his blood filled the wound and started to spread around his arm, falling to the floor of Isabel's room in a series of irregular spatters. But Steve didn't look like he was done.

"Almost - ah, here!!" He dug the knife in harder, and this time the pain was overwhelming, like a river of molten lava streaming up his arm and into his head, his chest, filling the rest of his body. His legs lost strength and after a second Steve let him fall to the floor.

The next thing Alex knew clearly, the pain was starting to fade and Steve was wrapping a length of cream-colored fabric, (another of Isabel's shirts? Or a skirt, he couldn't tell) around his arm as a makeshift bandage. "If you don't get that looked at by a doctor before midmorning, you'll probably lose feeling and motion in your left hand permanently," Steve told him casually. "Call that another incentive." With a dramatic flourish, he cleaned away the bloodstains on Alex's sweater and jeans, on the floor, and on Steve himself. "Ready to go??"

Isabel got dressed in street clothes quickly, (Alex looked away in gentlemanly fashion even though he suspected she wasn't going to let anything show any more than he did, and even Steve did her the courtesy of only watching out of the corner of his eye.) They saw Grant, Liz, and Max heading out, but the parties headed back to two separate cars - apparently they were synchronized as far as schedule but separate otherwise.

Alex got ready to get into the driver's seat again, but once again Steve stopped him. "That's not in the plan even if your arm was okay, Whitman," he muttered gruffly. He was right, Alex still had no strength left in his left hand, which would make driving difficult or worse.

"Hand the keys to Evans." Alex dug out the Viper's key ring, passed it to Isabel, and let Steve bundle him into the back seat. **This makes sense too. As long as he's got me back here, Isabel isn't likely to try anything stupid.**

"Where to?" Isabel asked dully, turning the ignition.

"Head east out of town on route 380," Steve instructed. "I'll let you know when we get to our turnoff."

For a while, there was no sound heard inside the Viper but the hum of the motor and Isabel's breathing. Alex wanted to say something to break the silence -- but what do you say in a situation like this?? He wasn't sure about directly reassuring Isabel because, well, one, Steve might not like it, and two, he couldn't promise her that everything was going to be all right. And nothing was popping into his head that seemed like reasonable small talk with the alien mercenary who's just kidnapped you and your hybrid girlfriend and stabbed you in the arm.

"Turn right here," Steve instructed Isabel. She slowed down as they left the highway (such as it was,) for a flat but almost invisible country road. "You might as well turn the brights on," their alien abductor recommended. "I doubt there's anyone else out here." She did, after a few tries to find the control, and it seemed to help. Another vehicle (presumably Grant Sorenson's four-by-four,) turned off the highway to follow them, but thankfully its headlights did NOT switch into bright mode, since that would have shone directly into Isabel's eyes through the rear-view mirror.

About ten minutes later Steven Banks was once again issuing instructions on where to park his car. They piled out, (Alex having to awkwardly open the door with his right hand,) and Steve led them over to something that Alex couldn't immediately identify in the dimness. There were tall metal poles, and crosswise support struts forming triangles. With Steve's help, they found a ladder, and Alex started to climb up awkwardly with his one good hand, hooking the left arm around the ladder occasionally for what support that could provide and lifting himself with his legs. Isabel climbed nervously after him.

Fortunately the ladder wasn't high, only about five feet. Soon all six of them were crowded onto the top of a slightly crowded metal platform (set up here, Alex assumed, so they wouldn't have to walk on or stand on jagged rocks - probably part of Grant's standard gear as a geologist.) A bright light mounted on an edge of the platform was lit, its bright beams standing in harsh relief against the night. Also - there was someone else already there, someone who Alex vaguely recognized.

With one member of the group, though, it was anything but vague. "YOU!!" Liz said, charging over to the new man. "You were the drunk who roughed me up at that party!!" She whirled back on Steve. "At *your* party! Boy, that really was a set-up, wasn't it?"

Steve smiled graciously. "Yeah, it was. Too bad it didn't work any better."

"And which of you planted the space-time labyrinth crystal in Michael's apartment??" Isabel demanded.

"Actually, I just switched it for the lamp he had actually purchased," Steve said solemnly. "But that's enough rehashing the old days. Zentar, the ray gun, please??" Steve brought out a hand, and the third skin put a gleaming red crystal that was shaped a bit like an old plastic gun into his hand. Steve pointed the device at a rock hill-face next to the platform and touched a particular spot on the crystal.

BAMMMMM!!! A spear of ruby-red lightning shot into solid rock, and within seconds a maw ten feet in diameter had opened up. Of the rock that had occupied that space, nothing remained but dusty vapor and a gray sludge that poured down the hillside underneath the platform.

"I don't like this," Alex muttered under his breath to Liz.

"I know," Liz whispered back. "But we don't dare take them on yet. Wait for my lead. If the right moment comes up..." she sighed. "I feel like I have a notion, I'm just not really sure what it is."

Steve had been inspecting the tunnel wall carefully, and now he gestured Max and Isabel over. "Come on in, guys!!"

"In... in there?" Isabel stuttered, paling.

"Yeah," Steve said simply. "The walls are still a little warm, but that's the least of your worries." His eyes narrowed at her. "You know what'll happen if you don't!"

Isabel shot one forlorn look over at Alex and marched into the tunnel. Max hesitated, but when Liz nodded at him she followed.

"Stay well back," Grant warned the two hybrids. He picked up another device, and suddenly a field of sparkling red light covered the tunnel entrance. Alex could feel the warmth from where he was - that was a heat field of some sort.

"Oh, no," Liz whispered under her breath. They all knew how deadly heat could be to individuals of alien origin, how Michael had almost died simply from spending a few minutes in an Indian sweatlodge with River Dog. Apparently these aliens knew all about it too.

Steve was watching the opening again, waiting for something. In about thirty seconds it happened - a soft pulse of blue energy coming from within the tunnel, mixing with the red of the heat field to form a temporary purple. "Looks like they went down in far enough to trigger the trithium amplifier I tossed in there," he bragged to Liz and Alex. "That should help keep them out of trouble." He turned to his henchmen. "Tie those two up in the chairs," he instructed, pointing to Liz and Alex. "Keep a close guard on them. I'm heading back into town for DeLucca and Guerin." And there was the third shoe dropping, Alex thought. Maria and Michael were going to be put through this macabre game too. That was everyone but...

"What about Tess Harding?" he asked suddenly, figuring that it was worth a shot to get some information. "She doesn't have a human boyfriend, you won't be able to control her as easily."

"We don't need to worry about Harding," Zentar told him snidely. "She's driven out to Frazier woods by now, like she does every night. She won't notice anything's wrong until morning. By which time it'll be much too late!!"

"Frazier woods every night?" Liz repeated in wonder. "What does she do out there??"

"I don't know," Grant said, swatting Zentar on the side of his head, presumably for loose talk in front of the prisoners. Alex noticed that Steve had already left. "And it doesn't matter, does it?"

Liz, meanwhile, had walked over to an unoccupied part of the platform. Alex moved next to her and raised a questioning eyebrow. Liz, looking a little confused at herself, shook her head and gestured to the other side, so Alex went over there.

Zentar walked over to the edge of the platform and concentrated. Soon a nondescript wooden chair was floating up and towards him. He took it over to Liz and started securing her to the piece of furniture.

* * * * *

(Still Wednesday, November 29 2000.)

"Wake up, Michael." The words dragged him ever so slightly out of a quiet and peaceful sleep. "C'mon, Michael, I know you're not gonna like this but you gotta wake up."

That was Maria's voice. Worried himself now, Michael rubbed his eyes and looked up. He didn't need to turn on a lamp, he never did. The streetlamp outside his bedroom let in enough light to see, even with all the shades pulled.

As Maria's warning had hinted, for a second Michael wished that he *couldn't see what was happening. Maria was standing next to his stereo table, dressed in navy sweats and a horrible paleness in her face. And then there was the tall guy standing next to her with the knife.

"I'm getting a little bored with the pleasantries already, so let's cut to the chase, huh Michael?" the unwelcome intruder, (*where* did Michael know him from?") said brusquely. "You're like that too, aren't you, straight to business, right? Well, let's see - I have your girlfriend, I have a knife, not to mention more than enough powers to match your own. Her good health depends on YOUR good behavior. Am I making myself clear??"

Michael sighed. "Painfully."

"Good." The bad guy smiled with a savage pleasure. "Well, go throw on some clothes and let's get going. The sooner this is all over the better for Maria, I think." The guy waved Michael to his dresser.

Michael sighed and went over to open one of his drawers. Just as he had finished pulling on his jeans, the enemy alien swore and bent over. Michael realized that he had dropped his knife and launched himself into a flying elbow slam. Powers could wait for a few seconds -- Michael wanted to get in about three good hits on this joker with nothing but the real McCoy before turning to the palm of death strike.

Except the guy wasn't quite where Michael had thought he was... and he *did* have his knife - in fact, the deadly blade was right in Michael's path. He tried to avoid it, but his momentum was too great to change course quickly, and the enemy was compensating for his every movement -- until he faded his weapon hand back smoothly, at the very last moment when it was actually touching the skin on Michael's neck. As he stumbled to a stop, Michael had to check his throat with his own hands. Not a trace of blood. "What the heck??"

"Just a demonstration, Michael my boy," the bad guy gloated. "You saw only what I wanted you to see, until I was ready to attack. Think about that the next time it looks like you have the opportunity to stab me in the back." He raised his free hand into the air, and a sweater flew up from Michael's dresser to him, which he tossed casually off to Michael.

What Steve wanted him to see! This guy knew the mindwarp!! That made him dangerous indeed, Michael realized. When he couldn't trust his own eyes...

"Why didn't you kill him, Steve?" Maria blurted out as Michael shrugged on the sweatshirt. Something clicked in Michael's brain. Steve - Steve Banks, from the party. THAT was where he remembered this goof from!!

But Maria was continuing to talk. "That is what you want, isn't it, to kill Michael and the others? Are you afraid?? Even with your weapon pointed straight at him, didn't you have the guts to do the deed?!"

Steve ignored her and turned to Michael. "Ever driven a Viper, kid??"

TO BE CONTINUED...

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 4c: "The hybrids strike back" 1/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fantiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'

(October 20 2001 again.)

"Oooh," Maria shuddered as they walked down the porch steps to the front walk. "I know we've been through a lot over the past two years, but that night..." She couldn't find words for a few seconds. "I hope I never have to live through something like that again."

"Or to *not* live through it," Max pointed out soberly.

"You know what I mean." Maria sighed with the stress of the memories.

"Yeah, I do," Michael said, looking tenderly over at his ex-girlfriend. "Hear, hear."

"You'll get no argument from me," Alex chimed in softly.

* * * * *

(Back to early morning of Wednesday, November 29 2000.)

When it didn't look like either of their guards were paying very close attention, Alex called over to Liz in a hoarse whisper. "Hey! How're you doing?"

Liz twisted her neck awkwardly to look back towards Alex despite her bonds. "Doing okay under the circumstances, I guess. More worried about Max than myself. You?"

"Panicked out of my mind for Isabel's sake," he confessed. "And my arm hurts like hell." He tried to gesture indicatively with the wounded left forearm, but between the way he was tied to his chair and the injury itself, he couldn't do more than twitch it a little.

It was apparently enough to draw Liz's attention to the pale cloth bandanging his arm. "Oh god, Alex," she moaned apologetically. "I didn't realize you were hurt. What happened?"

Alex sighed. "I tried to bash Steve's brains out while he wasn't looking, but he caught me at it. Gave me this as a 'consequence."

"I only wish you'd succeeded," Liz giggled, and then instantly returned to a more serious disposition. "How bad is it??"

"Bad," Alex whispered. "I can't move or feel my hand, and Steve said that if I don't get to a doctor by midmorning that'll probably become permanent. I think he intentionally damaged the main nerve in my arm." The thought of going through all his life with a limp hand gave him the shudders. Had his future self moved his left arm when Michael and Maria got the message from him? They hadn't said anything about it, and probably after so long neither of them would remember. After all, most people Alex knew hadn't clued in to Bob Dole the first time they saw him on televsion...

"Don't worry," Liz whispered, cutting in on his mental ramblings. "Once we all get out of this, Max'll heal you. He can do a better job than any human doctor." Liz smiled in pride for her hybrid sweetie.

Alex nodded somberly, unable to be as optimistic as his best friend. "That's assuming Max in particular *does* get out of this," he sighed softly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Liz shot back.

Alex groaned. "Liz, I wasn't meaning to pick on Max especially. But that..." He gestured with his head towards the tunnel mouth, since it was the only part of his body that could move much, "is a deathtrap. Once they get Michael inside too, up the tunnel goes the heat field and Steve and Grant have toasted themselves three hybrids. No fuss, no mess."

Liz's eyes were wide in stark horror, perfectly outlined by the reflected light from the floodlight against the mountainside. "Oh, my god!! And you let Isabel walk in there, knowing that?"

Liz's words hadn't been accusing, but Alex felt about three inches big. (Actually, he wished he really *were* three inches big, since then the ropes wouldn't fit him and he could scamper across the platform -- assuming he could keep from jamming his tiny feet in the grilles -- and try to turn off the heat field device. But enough about that.)

How could Alex tell his best friend that he had been terrified of fighting back again, and so had chosen the path that kept both himself and Iz alive and okay for as long as possible, hoping that some unnamed *something* would come along to save them all? That instinct, after all, was exactly what Steve and his cronies were counting on - that faced with the proper mix of authority, cruelty, and determination, the roswell home team would simply follow the path of least resistance until too late?

"Se norge a, Palex," Liz blurted out suddenly, and it took Alex a few seconds to realize what she was doing. There was a secret language that the two of them had cooked up as precocious eleven-year-olds, a mix of the french they were learning in Miss Cooper's class at the time, a little German Alex's maternal grandfather had taught them, (before he died two years later,) and a few other odds and ends, the whole of it camoflaged with a systematic pattern of spoonerisms. Cudgeling his brain, Alex ciphered out what Liz had just said to him. Switch the front consonant sounds on each pair of adjacent words, and... it was 'don't worry, Alex.'

There had to be more to it than this. The only reason Liz would suddenly start talking in 'Olde Roswellian' was because she has something to tell him that she didn't want to rish their captors overhearing. After all, they had been missing for a while, perhaps at least one of Grant and Zentar was hiding and eavesdropping on them. "Alb," he said, keeping a straight face, It was the affirmative term, the equivalent of 'yes.'

Liz broke out into a longer stream of the gibberish, and this time it came back to Alex like it was second nature. 'I'm *sure* that my dream holds the answer to this.' Noticing Alex's doubtful look, she elaborated 'The dream I had when I was with Max, weeks ago. It can tell me how to beat these guys, I know it can. I just need to be able to act at the right moment. I need you to do something for me, Alex.' When he nodded slightly, Liz continued. 'When I give you a signal, create a diversion. Make sure that all of them are focusing on you, not on me.'

Alex considered, and nodded again. "He joofnung ce queci lavaille, triz," he replied. 'I hope this works, Liz.'

Right then, things started happening. Alex couldn't see the details immediately because the chairs had been set facing towards the tunnel opening and away from the ladder, (probably intentional,) but he knew what it would be. Steve had shown up with Michael and Maria. This time Maria was tied to her chair (off on the other side of Alex from Liz,) before Steve lowered the heat field and waved Michael in. Not much had been said.

"Don't go in there, Michael!!" Alex called out suddenly, not sure why. To make up for not having warned Isabel similarly? "It's a deathtrap!!"

Michael froze and spun away from the tunnel opening. Steve was right of him (from Michael's perspective, left from Alex's,) working the heat shield controls, the ray gun at his feet, and Zentar was on the other side. Grant stood opposite him, right between Alex and Maria's chairs, fingering his automatic pistol ominously. Three against one odds, plus the hostage factor. Not Michael's best situation.

But maybe not as bad as it seemed - Alex noticed Max and Isabel walking up the tunnel cave behind Michael. With the three of them working together, it would be even odds, and Alex knew his hybrid friends were clever enough to dethread the threat against himself, Liz, and Maria.

But at the last possible moment, the heat shield blazed up again, knocking Max and Isabel backwards into the tunnel again and Michael forwards away from it momentarily. Grant must have given Steve the cue.

Michael picked himself up, looked sadly over at Maria, at Alex himself, and then turned to nod to Steve. "It's okay. I'll go in peacefully. I'm sorry, man." That last was directed at Alex, and Alex immediately realized that Michael felt the same frustrating helplessness that Alex himself did.

The heat shield was let down just long enough for Michael to go in. **Come on, Liz,** Alex thought to himself. **Give me the signal, any time now. Time is running out on our friendly neighborhood aliens.**

* * * * *

As Max groaned and picked himself up, he could just make out Michael trudging down the tunnel to meet them by the reflected light originating in the heat-field above. "Hey, man," he mumbled, disappointed. "For a minute there, it looked like we were gonna get an opening."

Michael shrugged. "Damn, these guys are good."

"So, what happens now?" Isabel asked softly.

"They start moving the heat field down the tunnel until we have nowhere safe left to stand," Max said softly.

"Yeah, that's pretty much what Alex said was the deal," Michael agreed.

"Oh, come *on*, guys!!" Isabel exclaimed. "Do we have to be this pessimistic *all* the time? They might not be trying to kill us right away. Considering all the effort these skins have gone to, maybe they're just holding us here until we can do something for th-- Oh." Max had pointed up towards the cave mouth, where the reddish shine of the field was getting brighter. Getting nearer, slightly. "Good point, Max," Isabel growled.

"Come on." Max led the way back up the tunnel until he was about three feet away from the edge of the field. Even at this distance he could feel the effects of it, the infrared radiation that had to be pouring out of that heat zone, the overexcited air molecules that were leaving it every second, the thermal energy that was spreading down the wall. He concentrated, and a wall of green energy sprang up a few inches shy of the red line. And waited.

No effect. Whatever things Max's shield was able to protect against, heat - hot air molecules and radiant heat energy - was apparently not on the list. After long seconds the red field moved far enough down to entirely swallow the green shield, and Max let it lapse.

"Let's go down to the tunnel end at least," Isabel sighed. Having nothing better to suggest, Max and Michael followed her.

"Oh, by the way," Max persuaded a large object out of his jeans pocket and handed it to Michael.

"What the heck is this??" Michael asked, though the expression on his face told Max that Michael already guessed a little.

"Trithium amplifier," Isabel told him.

"It's a skin weapon," Max explained, "that Steve used to knock out our powers when we were first tossed in here. Apparently it's the same model as that thing of Brody's that knocked you out. How he got ahold of it I don't know."

"We figured that if we get out of this alive somehow, it might be useful," Isabel put in. "Don't worry, we got it set to its 'off' state while it was recharging.

Michael nodded vaguely. They were reaching the end of the tunnel now: it ended in a vaguely semi-spherical curve. Max turned around to look behind him. The heat field was still approaching them steadily, and he could already feel the spillover heat.

It stopped about nine feet away from them. "What's up with that? Is Steve *trying* to make us suffer??" Michael groused.

"I wouldn't put it past him," Max said with an angry sigh. "Or this might be as far as the range on that generator goes, or maybe he's counting on us making a break for it and running right through the heat field." He wiped the sweat off his forehead. "One thing's for sure, we can't last forever here."

Isabel looked at both of them, and took a deep breath. "Don't try to stop me." She stepped forward, two paces towards the field, and before Max knew what was going on the air around his sister, all the way to the tunnel edges, had turned white, like a big puffy cloud stuck inside the dark tunnel. He felt cool air starting to waft back from the cloud.

"What... what's she doing??" Michael asked. He tried to step forward into the cloud, but some kind of turbulence buffeted him back.

"She... she's providing a barrier between us and the heat," Max realized. "Slowing down the air molecules before they can get to us." Already the temperature in their little pocket seemed even on the cold side of comfortable.

"But... but Isabel!" Michael exclaimed. "Not only is she bearing the full effect of the heat, but she's using her powers on overdrive! That's a double hit to her balance." He tried to charge forward into the cloud again, but again was bounced back. "We can't let her do this, let her sacrifice herself for our sake."

"I'm not sure we can stop her, Michael," Max said sadly. In his mind, he was wondering what would happen when Isabel's reserves were exhausted - would Max do the same thing to protect Michael? Or the other way around??

* * * * *

To Alex, it seemed like forever since Steve had set the heat field controls and they'd all watched the zone of red sparkles disappear down the tunnel. Alex had been watching Liz intently, trying to make it look like he wasn't, hoping for that sign she said she would give him.

Finally, after so long, it came. A small gesture with her hand, unremarkable if you weren't expecting it, unmistakeable if you were. Alex was on.

"Hey, Grant!!" he called out. The skin turned to stare at him. "So, all that time you were flirting with Isabel, that was just scouting out the opposition, right?"

Grant smiled tightly. "More or less. She's very beautiful, in any species, and the 'flirting' you speak of was fun for its own sake. But yes, I was probing her subconscious mind for information about your little group, and testing the state of her own mentalic abilities. If you choose to dignify them with that term." He laughed softly.

Oh, boy, Alex thought. Grant's a mentalic too. Plus, Steve doesn't seem too diverted by this discussion yet. The seeds of a plan started to develop in Alex's mind.

"For having no formal training, I'd say she's doing not too bad," Alex shot back. "How many years did *you* spend in the Academy to get to where you are today, Grant??"

The leading question had the desired effect. "Just how do you know so much about our world, anyway, little human child??" Grant said, moving closer.

"That's for me to know and you to try to read out of my brain, you stupid alien," Alex shot back.

"Hmmm... I guess that's right." Grant held his ground and concentrated. Steve and Zentar seemed to be following this event quite closely now, Alex realized. Come on, Liz, make your move. Any time now...

"We know that something started to change over a month ago," Grant said teasingly. "Probably just before Steve threw his party. It's as if you came into posession of a source of information right then. Not the project Nemassee book -- you only got your hands on that more recently, and it's the wrong kind of information besides. What *was* it, Alex??"

Alex realized that Grant was trying to provoke a subconscious thought about the washer, but he didn't know how to stop him from succeeding, and wasn't quite sure if he wanted to, anyways...

"Ah-ha!!" Grant strode up to Alex, reached down the front of his shirt, and pulled up the string. Soon, he had the alien washer dangling before him. "A neuralizing memory archive," he breathed wonderingly. "Didn't know the royalists had sent one of these along!! Well, since it's probably already attuned to you, we can't figure out what's on it, but that doesn't matter. Bye bye, alien memories." Grant lifted up his free hand, about to melt of vaporize the washer or destroy it forever in some other way.

* * * * *

Maria was the one with the best view of it when it happened. She was watching the drama play out between Alex and Grant, of course, but she had a good view of Liz past them. Grant had stepped back once he had the washer. Liz reached her foot out and quickly kicked a lever on the side of the platform.

WHENNKK!! Suddenly the entire platform tilted forward as the supports dropped down by about two feet on the tunnel side. Maria felt her chair sliding forward. But Liz, who had been waiting for this moment and ready for it, managed to use the energy of the lurch forwards and down to shift her weight from the chair to her feet and spin the chair around.

BOMMPPP! The side of Liz's chair, right where the seat, the back support, and one of the rear legs joined together, went crashing into Grant Sorenson's right temple. He staggered, and the chair broke away mostly in pieces. That was all it took for Liz to scramble out of the ropes that had held her, and she charged immediately for the ledge where the ray gun and the heat field control were kept.

About this point Maria's chair fetched up against the mountainside, which kind of limited her view. She heard a few ray gun blasts, and what sounded like alien cursing. Maria had just managed to turn her chair around when the three skins were surrounding Liz from various points of cover. "Come on, darling, you can't stand up against all three of us with that little toy." As if to prove his point, Steve stepped out from behind Alex's chair, (which he had been using for cover,) and when Liz took a shot at him he deflected it with a glowing purple energy field.

And that was when Max and Michael charged out of the tunnel opening screaming Braveheart-style battle cries.

* * * * *

Max saw Michael boost Steve away with a surge of telekinetic force, trying to throw him off the platform. But after a surprised second, Steve compensated, and flew with the ease of practice to land on the edge of the platform, bracing himself against the slant. Michael shot out with what looked like the handprint of death strike, but Steve shielded.

"Max!!" It looked like Liz was so glad to see him that she had stepped out of her cover, and Grant was raising the gun at her. Max acted without thinking. He lifted his hand up to point at the alien enemy, and he could feel his power reaching out.

Grant screamed in pain and the gun dropped from his hand. "God! NO!!" Max tried to stop whatever it was that he had put in motion, but he didn't seem to know how. Suddenly Grant's body exploded into a cloud of... of not even dust, just vapor, scattered molecules that merged with the air and were lost in it forever. Somehow Max knew, deep in the core of his soul, that Grant Sorenson wouldn't be coming back. That he had killed.

"You... you..." The third skin, the flunky, pointed at Max in return. "You discorporated him!!" A pulse of yellow energy streaked out of Zentar's hand and dashed Max to the floor. "You'll pay for that, boy-king."

"I don't think so!!" Liz was pointing the ray gun straight at Zentar, and he had forgotten about her. The ruby red lightning speared through Zentar's body, exploding it. Chunks of skin and bone splattered over Max, most of them looking pretty inhuman now that the facade Zentar had lived under was totally shattered.

"Maxwell!!" Michael yelled. Max brushed a particularly disgusting chunk of shoulder away from his jeans with a shudder and hurried over to see what Michael was screaming about. Steve had jumped (or flew) off of the platform and was making good time to his car. "We've got to catch him!"

"Isabel!!" Alex yelled out. His chair had gotten stuck half-way between the platform and the mountainside, very ignominously for the poor boy still tied to it. "What happened to Isabel?"

Max froze, remembering. Isabel had collapsed in a heap when the heat field finally dropped. Max and Michael had gone on ahead, somehow realizing that bringing her out of the cave would do no good until they had settled Steve and Grant. But now...

"You guys catch Steve," Michael said, gesturing to Max and Liz. "I'll make sure Isabel, Maria, and Alex are all right." The distribution of labor sounded great to Max, and he could tell from the fierce grin on Liz's face that she was up for it too. The two of them hurried down the ladder as quickly as they could (Max not being willing to try to mimic Steve's flying trick unless it was a true emergency.)

As they reached the desert floor, Max suddenly noticed that it was brightening twilight, something that hadn't been easy to see up above with the floodlight shining in his eyes. How much time had passed?

A third car was driving up to the platform, parking closer than Steve's viper and Grant's SUV, and the driver got out and intercepted Steve. As he ran towards them Max could see that the new person was Courtney Banks, Steve's 'sister.'

"What's going on out here??" Max could vaguely hear Courtney calling out. "What have you been doing all night??"

With an offhand wave, Steve sent Courtney flying through the air, landing on the sand hard enough to hurt though not, Max hoped, hard enough to break any bones. And then Steve was rushing on, heading for his viper again.

"Hey!!" Liz nudged Max. Unbelievably enough, *another* car was pulling up to the deserted site - a red Chrysler Prowler that Max recognized from somewhere. Liz was flagging it down.

As the car screamed to a stop right in front of them, Max recognized the driver - Kyle Valenti. Liz hopped into the back seat (the top was down,) and gestured that Max should take shotgun. "Follow that car, Kyle!!" Liz said, pointing at the viper screaming away.

"Uh, sure, whatever," Kyle said, gunning the motor up again. Even with all the power that Kyle had rebuilt into the classic engine, catching up with Steve's lead was slow - the viper was also a car with an extreme amount of oomph to it, and the rough terrain in this area complicated things for both drivers. Just as they were starting to pull up behind Steve, Max could see him making something of an crosshand throwing gesture through his open window.

"Kyle, look out!!" Kyle swerved the Prowler out of the way just in time to avoid the ball of purple energy that Steve had lobbed back at them. "What now?" Max muttered to himself.

* * * * *

"There you go." Michael straightened Alex's chair with an offhand pull, and then he waved his hand where the human teenager's hands and feet were tied, and the ropes parted as if they had been cut. "Don't worry," he promised. "Isabel's gonna be fine."

Alex smiled weakly, lurched to his feet, and grunted as surprise as Maria tackled him with a hug. "Oh, god, Alex..." Maria said, hyperventilating into his ear. "I didn't know if we were all gonna get out of that okay."

"Ssh, ssh..." Alex said, brushing Maria's hair, feeling a little embarrassed about holding one of his oldest friends and another guy's girlfriend like this, but obviously she needed company. "It's alright, we've won. Max and Liz are gonna catch Steve and settle him, and we're all gonna be safe."

Maria pulled back and smiled at him, the tears shining in her eyes. "Thanks, Alex. Now, do you think we can turn off that damn floodlight??" She raised up a hand to shield her eyes, which had the glare streaming straight into them. "It's almost morning."

Alex grinned, and they headed over to the lamp and figured out how to switch it off. Alex was just starting to realize how dim the morning twilight was in comparison when he heard footsteps coming up the tunnel. Only one person worth of footsteps...

He rushed over. Michael was carrying Isabel in his arms, or at least Alex could only assume it was Isabel. Her body was wrapped in the same kind of webbing that had surrounded Michael when he was in the last stages of alien heatstroke after barging into River Dog's sweatlodge. Her figure had that same awful, dead stillness, and yet there was something else wrong with her. She seemed shrunken, withered underneath the webbing.

"What happened to her??!" he asked Michael angrily.

Michael shook his head. "She sacrificed herself to protect Max and me from the heat. She used her powers to cool the air that was coming through to us..."

"So she was using her powers hard," Alex muttered, seeing it. "And exposing herself to the heat at the same time. God!! Why didn't you sto-- no, you probably couldn't not when Isabel had set her mind to it, could you??" Michael shrugged awkwardly.

"Healing stones," Michael thought out loud. "Dammit, we moved them up to the pod chamber when we were getting ready to do the communique this morning... or yesterday morning, or whatever."

The ramifications hit Alex like a medicine ball to the face. The pod chamber was practically on the other side of Roswell from them, northwest of town near the Puhlman ranch, while they were east south-east right now. It would take - probably an hour and a half to get there from here. Which looked like more than an hour and twenty minutes longer than Isabel had.

TBC...

A Roswell Homecoming, Part 4c: "The hybrids strike back" 2/2
Author: Chris Kenworthy
Email: Chris_Kenworthy@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: No, I don't own any of the Roswell characters. I don't plan to steal them and lock them up in white rooms either. I just let them out to play from time to time and see what happens.
Distribution: Distribute anywhere you like, currently based at fanfiction net: http://www.fantiction.net/~chriskenworthy
Feedback: YES PLEASE!
Category: Alternate timeline epic. Conventional couples angst leading up to UC in later parts - you have been warned!
Rating: PG-13, for now
Summary: Alien mysteries lead to an interesting year...
Spoilers: Up to 'Ask not'


"We can't keep dodging fireballs like that and keep on his tail," Kyle called out to Max over the roar of the engine. "Either you find some better defense or we'll have to turn back!! He's doing it again!!" Sure enough, Steve was lobbing another charge of energy at them out of his window.

Taking a quick chance, Max summoned the shield, trying to make it so that it would keep up with the car. No such luck. Steve's purple energy ball splattered against Max's shield, (making him wince,) and dissipated, but the barrier Max had created was stationary with respect to the ground, and thus seemed to be screaming towards them itself. Max tried to collapse the shield before they reached it, but couldn't, quite, and only luck had the car screaming past it mere inches away. "Don't do that again!!" Kyle called out unhelpfully.

Third energy charge. This time Max focused his powers on it as if it was a physical thing and *lifted.* That worked considerably better - it gave Max's powers the equivalent of hot potato to touch the energy charge, but it zoomed well above the car and detonated in the desert beyond them.

"My turn," Liz said, standing up in the back seat of the Prowler and steadying herself with a hand on Kyle's driver's seat and aiming the ray gun at the viper ahead of them. Steve tried one more energy charge again, and Max sent it screaming right of the car.

"Try not to kill him, Liz," Max suggested. "If we can take him captive, we might be able to learn something from him, even use him as a bargaining chip." And they had killed more than enough skins this morning. "Aim for the right side of the car, Steve will be left."

Liz nodded and did her best to suit action to Max's word, but her first shot rocketed too far to the right, missing Steve's car entirely. "Damnit," she muttered under her breath. (Max supposed it would be a little too much to expect Liz to be a crack shot.) She tried again, and blasted a crater in the dirt road just behind Steve's car, making Kyle growl and do a course correction again. Route 380 appeared above them, and one by one the cars turned right onto the four-lane highway, heading east out of town, towards... towards Tatum, yeah, that was the next town along this route. Not a big place.

Liz was aiming for her third shot when suddenly... "Wow, look at that!!" Steve's viper was accelerating far faster than even a car like that had any right to expect. Caught off guard, Liz took her shot, and the ruby lightning missed again, passing over the viper like a clap of thunder and disappearing into the sky. And the viper was still gaining speed.

"Must be doing better than 350 miles an hour," Kyle said wonderingly. "No, four hundred..." He turned to Max. "Unless you can give me a little help with that, I think he's getting away."

Max knew that alien powers had something to do with the speed of Steve's getaway - he could feel them. But he wasn't about to try *that* trick right now either; it had danger written all over it. "No, I think you're right." But you won't be able to hide from me forever, Steve Banks, he silently swore.

"Max!!" Liz said, grabbing Max's shoulder as Kyle slowed down to a leisurely cruise for the moment. "Alex! Steve hurt his arm, while they were getting Isabel. It's really hurt, Steve went for the nerve. We've gotta go back to the platform site so you can heal it."

"Okay," Max said, nodding. "Hope ya don't mind, Kyle."

Kyle pulled the prowler through a u-ie, and sped up as he headed back west down the highway. "I'll drive you anywhere you want if you explain what the hell has been goin' on."

* * * * *

Michael shrugged off the frustration and came to a decision. "We're heading for the pod chamber. Izzie's a strong chick, she'll hold it together until we can get there." He stood up, carrying the girl who had been closest to him in his life in his arms again, and looked out over the edge of the platform again. No way could they carry Iz down the ladder safely without spending *way* too much time on it, so... Michael stepped off the edge, focusing his powers, and coasted to the ground like he was in another invisible elevator. There were still two cars in the area, but since one of them seemed to be occupied... "Looks like we're taking the SUV," Michael called up to Alex and Maria, who were already heading down the ladder."

"Wait a second!!" Maria called out from above Alex. "The SUV... Was that Grant's car?"

"Yeah, I think so," Alex said, "Liz and Max were the only ones to ride with Grant, but I saw it at the Evans place. Why??"

"Let's search it!" Maria replied, running ahead as soon as she got to the bottom of the ladder. "He might have had healing stones in it!!"

Michael felt as if he'd missed a step. "Well, I suppose anything's possible, but why?"

"Come on," Alex hurried Michael along. "These healing stones are basic alien first-aid supplies or something, right? And Grant and Steve were heading into a dangerous mission. Why wouldn't they have brought some healing gear along?"

More hopeful now, Michael left Isabel's body laying on the ground as the three of them tore the car apart in search. "Um, Spaceboy, a little help here?" Maria called back to him from the front seat. Michael backed away from the trunk and came to see what she was talking about. It turned out to be the glove compartment, which had been locked.

Michael waved a hand over the lock, focusing on manipulating the internal mechanisms, and the compartment door popped open. A lot of papers and complicated geology handbooks, the inevitable collection of maps - a few bottles and vials Michael didn't want to know about right now, and... "Yes!!" Two familiar-looking amber crystals.

"Only two? Two people doing the healing??" Alex said over his shoulder. Michael understood his point. Admittedly, they only had three people here, if they didn't wait and hope that Max, Liz, and Kyle would be back soon, but when Michael himself had been ill, and not as badly off as Isabel, there had been four participating in the healing ritual.

"I'm one of them," Michael said softly. "I'm a hybrid, like her, and my balance is strong right now. Because she took the heat for me." He thought a moment. "It should probably be me and Maria, Alex. Your hand is hurt, we don't know if that might interfere..."

"I have to do this for her," Alex said in a low voice. Maria pur her hand on Michael's other shoulder and whispered in his ear.

"He's right. You wouldn't want to be cut out of the process if something had happened to me, or I to you. And love can work miracles."

Michael nodded in deference and passed one of the stones over to Alex. All three of them hurried back to where Isabel's body had been left.

"What now?" Maria asked nervously. "Do you need to do that thing with the water and the chant??"

"No water, unless Grant had some evian in there," Michael pointed out. "No wooden bowl."

"I think we can do this without all the external trappings," Alex said. "From what I can remeber..." and then he did a double-take. "The washer! What... no, time enough to worry about that once Isabel's all right." He sighed and tried to resume his train of thought. "Just concentrate on the stone and on your inner energy, your balance." Michael realized that though he presumed his balance was stronger, he was the one member of the group who had really no experience with these healing stones. He had been on the recieving end in River dog's cave, entirely out of it until the healing was over, and he had been inside the labyrinth while Liz and Kyle had been using the stones to boost their hybrid partners' power to help him and Maria get out.

But he concentrated, following Alex's hint, and soon enough it seemed like something was happening. The healing stone lit up in his hands, and Michael could feel his power going to Isabel, helping her, replenishing her drained reserves. Across from him, Alex's stone lit up too, and there was another stream of power buffering his own.

And then, suddenly, something was going wrong. Isabel was missing too much, and what he and Alex could provide through the stones wasn't enough. Suddenly it wasn't like they were pouring energy into her, but that something deep inside Isabel, something instinctive, primal, was *sucking* it out of them. Something that lay too far down to comprehend friendship, love, or caring, but that knew survival quite well. It was going to get enough energy for Isabel to survive or kill both of them trying.

And what if even that wasn't enough??

"What's going on here??" Michael recognized the voice, vaguely. It was Courtney. He couldn't even move his head to look at her. "What are you guys all doing out here in the middle of the night? What's wrong with my brother?? He acted like he didn't even recognize me just then." **Damnit, Courtney, not now!!**

"I got news for you babe - that wasn't your brother..."

Suddenly the conversation between Maria and Courtney -- the healing stones themselves became irrelevant as Michael felt his balance being drawn in by Isabel's...

* * * * *

Michael found himself in the middle of a snow-covered field. He caught a glimpse of himself in an ice-mirror stretching between the branches of a tree and to his surprise, he looked... older? More rugged, with a beard... like he was in his late twenties or something.

"Your ordeal is upon you, Michael Guerin." Michael jumped and found River Dog standing behind him. "I am your guide. Take the rope and pull it back that way." There was a rope and pulley hooked up to a telephone pole just next to the old Indian. One end was loose, the other stretched back in the direction River dog was pointing - into a snow-covered forest.

Michael shrugged, took a good hold of the rope, and started hauling. At first it didn't seem too hard. Then whatever was at the other end pulled the rope taught, and Michael really had to put some effort into it to get anywhere. He was so focused on the task at hand that he didn't hear the footsteps approaching him at first.

He looked up. It was Max, and he was holding out his hand to Michael. Michael sighed, made sure that that the rope was secure, and stretched out his hand to the guy who'd been somewhere between a best friend and a brother all of his life.

Something weird happened as their hands met. It didn't hurt, but Michael was sure that he saw blood between their hands - mixing, mingling. It actually felt good, revitalizing, which was good considering the job he had ahead of him here.

"Best team in the galaxy, huh?" Max asked with a wide smile, and then he faded out and disappeared. Michael shrugged and resumed his haul, realizing that river dog was trailing him without helping out. Well, he was old and probably didn't have much strength to spare, even if the vision quest guide's rulebook didn't prohibit direct assistance.

The next figure that Michael saw, just before he reached the tree line, was Maria. She was wearing a long wool skirt, boots, a shiny winter jacket, scarf, and knitted hat, and looked *incredibly* adorable and cute to Michael. She walked quickly up to him, wrapped his arms around him, and kissed him warmly and sweetly. It was like a little piece of heaven.

"Je t'aime toujours, Imzadi," she breathed into his ear after the kiss was done.

"Say what?" He pulled back to look into Maria's face, she smiled at him but didn't elaborate. "I'll see you soon, babe, back out in the real world, but I need to keep hauling this rope along. Isabel might not have much time." Maria continued to stare at him, but she didn't look like she was quite getting the message.

So Michael pushed her away, very gently, and Maria took a few steps back. Then there was this ominous creaking sound, and BOOM! she was gone. Michael stepped forward, appalled. He hadn't even realized that they were on an ice patch, but Maria had broken through, and it looked like she was having a hard time finding her way back to the open air.

"Maria!! It's over here," he yelled, not sure if she could hear him. Michael wasn't sure if he should try to use his powers to save her or just diving in himself.

Suddenly, there was a dark shape, swimming under the ice, and it took Maria with it. Michael felt a touch on his arm, and he turned around and stared accusingly at River Dog.

"The swimmer's magic will save her," River Dog said enigmatically. "And you must continue with your own task." Michael hated it, but he knew that his vision guide had to be right.

One footstep after another, he dragged himself onto the forest path. Just what was this he was pulling, anyway?? He saw another ice mirror, and peered into it. Maybe this one was magic or something, because he could see Tess, struggling through a blizzard, looking very lost and alone. And then the picture faded and he saw only the trees behind him.

Again. Again. Again. Michael's feet, his arms, his shoulders, his back were all killing him, probably some other parts of his body too. (Except this probably wasn't his real body here - so was his spirit killing him??) And then his foot didn't clear a root or something. WHHUMPP! Faceful of snow and dirt. Man that's nasty.

"Come on, Michael." He looked up - it was Liz, extending a hand to help him up, which he gratefully took. "It's not much further. I've gotta say, Michael, I really respect what you're doing."

Michael brushed some snow off of himself and shrugged. "It's not like I really had much choice."

"That's not how I saw it." Liz walked further down the path, and Michael shrugged and carried on in his own direction. **Not much further...* he repeated silently in his mind.

Sure enough, soon a forest glade opened before him. Finally now, Michael could see what the other end of his rope was attached to - a huge bundle of wood, which was being pushed into the glade from the opposite direction by a familiar twenty-something guy -- wait, that was Alex!! Older, just like Michael himself was in this vision. But when Michael had seen Max, Maria, Liz, even Tess, they were teenagers. Weird.

On a wide, flat space in the middle of the glade, there was a block of stone, and on top of the stone there was a person-sized cocoon. All three, the flat space, the stone, and the cocoon, were covered in snow. Alex was just pushing the wood into place near the middle of one side of the flat space, near one end of the stone, when Michael reached him. "Now what, Alex??"

"I have the key." Alex pulled out a lighter, pointed it at the wood, and suddenly the whole pile was burning in a raging bonfire. The snow around them started to melt away without leaving water behind, and Michael realized that what he had only seen as a flat space was actually a huge open book - THE book.

The cocoon opened from within, except it wasn't just a cocoon, it was like a perfect, silky chrysalis, and from within, like a butterfly, emerged Isabel. She seemed older, like Michael himself and Alex, and to Michael she had never looked more beautiful, more irresistable; she seemed so elegant and graceful. She was wearing a multi-colored gown, and... did she have wings? She did, Michael decided after a second, but not material ones - wings floating behind her made out of pure energy.

"Thank you," she said, stepping down off the stone and walking around the bonfire to Alex and Michael. She got to Alex first, and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply and slipping him the tongue. After about twenty seconds, (the point where Michael started feeling *really* embarrassed,) Isabel broke the kiss and stepped close to Michael, putting her arms around his chest.

Michael heard a faint tinkling around his feet, and he realized that Isabel was crying, and her tears were turning into ice and shattering. "Why are you crying??" Isabel didn't say anything. (Why could nobody answer a straight question in this loopy vision.) He reached out a hand to catch her ice-tears as they fell, and they started to melt as they came into contact with his warm skin. Then a few fell into his hand that didn't seem cold and weren't melting.

Surprised, Michael brought his hand up for closer examination. There were crystals there, but not ice crystals. They seemed like... diamonds??

* * * * *

Alex looked around, trying to get his bearings. How had he arrived here?? He was standing on a small path through a thick forest, in early spring, it looked like. How had he been moved from the desert to here?? Stepping out from between the trees appeared -- his father??

"What's going on??"

"I'm, um, your vision guide," Doctor John Whitman explained with a trace of nervousness. "Apparently. Uh, you need to start by pushing this rock, er, thataway." He pointed down the forest path.

The rock was mostly round, but with a wide flat bottom that would make rolling it awkward, and it was almost five feet high and four feet around. "Can you gimme a hand here??"

"No, I can't do anything to help Isabel directly this time," Mr. Whitman said mysteriously. "But you won't be alone - see the rope?"

There was indeed a rope wrapped around the rock, and a length of it stretched away on the far side, Alex realized. The rope pulled taut and attempted to pull the rock with it. Alex got the cue and started pushing from behind it.

After a few minute's effort and about fifteen feet's progress, the rope went slack for a bit, and Alex took a break. He noticed a pool of standing water nearby and looked into his reflection - to his surprise, he looked at least eight or nine years older!! He heard a faint voice from beyond the trees, a voice plaintively calling out for help. "Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me? It's Tess..."

"You can't find her now," John Whitman told his son. "Come on." Sure enough, the rope had gone taught again. Alex hurried over and started pushing again.

Second break. This time Alex noticed people walking up from down the path, the way he had come from. Max and Maria. "Here," Max said, taking out a little angular piece of metal and holding it out to Max. Alex held out his hand, Max put it in, and Maria followed suit with another.

"Two parts of the key you'll need," Maria explained. "Good luck. We need Isabel."

Alex shrugged, thanked them with a nod, and started pushing again. A minute or two later he noticed that he was pushing the rock past Kyle, who was standing between two kisses on the edge of the path.

"Here you go, that should finish it," Kyle said, holding out another key fragment. Alex took it. "Watch the new kid carefully."

Alex shrugged, not sure what to make of that, and when he turned around he noticed a mass of dark curls at about his chin height. He couldn't immediately make out the identity of the person, since she (or he? No, he didn't think it was a he,) was several inches shorter than he was and standing very close, so he couldn't see the face. The slender fingers of a small hand held his own hand, and a slight touch tapped him in the middle of his chest, creating a reaction that Alex couldn't immediately identify. And then she was turning away and dashing into the forest cover.

After not much more pushing Alex got the rock into a forest glade, the spring sun shining down on them. Michael was just getting into the glade too - he had been pulling the other end of the rope or something. And in the middle of the glade, on top of a giant replica of the book, was a crystal box a la snow white, and inside he could see Isabel, sleeping beautifully. He noticed suddenly that both Isabel and Michael seemed older too. (Weird.)

"Now what, Alex?" Michael asked, looking at the big rock that they had dragged here.

"I have the key," he said. It also ran through his mind that his dad had disappeared sometime just before he got into the glade. Had Michael had a guide too? He fumbled out the three metal pieces that had been given him, fitted them together into a circle, and found a matching spot on the stone where the key would fit. Suddenly the entire hunk of rock started to shine with a blue light.

Isabel woke up, effortlessly opening the lid of the case from inside, and walked towards them. "Thank you." She put her arms around Alex's neck, and kissed him passionately. He kissed back, but after what seemed like far too short a time she broke the kiss and went over to hug Michael.

"Why are you crying?" Alex heard Michael ask. And then... and then, suddenly it seemed, Alex was back in the desert. Isabel seemed unchanged, but Michael had grown some webbing himself, and was furiously trying to snatch it off of his body and throw it away.

"Come on, Iz," Alex said, bending over to look into Isabel's face through the webbing. "Come back to us!!"

And then Isabel was moving, tearing the cocoon of webbing open from the inside, dust and grit flying everywhere as it was broken. "Oh, god, Alex..." She crawled awkwardly into his arms... and Alex was once again reminded of the dead feeling in his left hand. How late was it getting?? But he shoved that thought out of his mind and focused on comforting Isabel.

"I was... I was so far away, I didn't think I'd ever be able to come back to you..." Isabel was moaning softly.

"It's okay, it's okay," he whispered reassuringly, stroking through Isabel's hair, which, like the rest of her physically, seemed full of life and none the worse for her ordeal. "We found you. We brought you back... it's alright."

Isabel turned and looked around, at Michael, who was still sitting somewhat awkwardly, the healing stone in one of his hand, and at Maria and Courtney, who were both watching. "What... what happened?" Isabel asked somewhat belatedly. "How did we get out of the tunnel?"

"Liz turned off the heat field," he told her gently, "and Michael carried you out. You had the heat stroke, like he did after going into the sweat lodge, except instantly, and worse."

"I remember... I remember stepping up to protect them from the heat," Isabel said somewhat doubtfully.

"...Which was quite a stupid idea, while we're on the subject," Michael declared, getting a glare from Alex. "Well, it was. You coulda died, Isabel."

She smiled weakly at him. "But I didn't. And because I shielded you and Max from the effects of the heat, I bet you were able to kick some skin butt, am I right?" Michael was silent, he couldn't deny *that*. "I can't use my powers to fight like the two of you can - I don't have that nerve of steel. But I could protect you two so that you could save us, and I did. And the two of you were here to bring me back."

Alex sighed with relief for that, and then got them off onto another topic, to pre-empt any further argument. "Iz... did you see anything during the healing? I did, and I think you did too, right Michael?" Michael nodded in agreement.

"Um, let's see..." Isabel closed her eyes, still relaxing in Alex's embrace, and tried to remember. "I was standing on a giant replica of the book. Max, Liz, and Maria each said something cryptic to me..." She paused here for several long moments, probably assembling the mysterious clues in her mind. "I'll go into them later. I noticed Tess, trying to get to the book, but it's like she was being dragged away by something. Kyle was a picture on the open page. And then... and then I was coming out of the cocoon, in the dream, and you and Michael were there, except you seemed older. I kissed you, Alex, and then..." She coughed and blushed. "And then... I don't remember." Alex didn't buy that for one second. The way she reacted - she remembered the end of that sequence the same way he did, with hugging Michael. She just didn't want to admit it.

"Sounds wild." All three of them looked up to the owner of the new voice, and Maria and Courtney turned around to see Max (said owner) walking towards Isabel and Alex, Liz following beside him. Kyle was still behind the wheel of his car. "So... we all good here??"

"Not bad, Maxwell," Michael said. "What about Steve, did you let the SOB get away??"

"Couldn't help it, my man," Max sighed. "He had this funky hyperdrive power that we have simply *got* to learn. Ummm... Courtney." Max turned to face the new person. "How much do you know about what's going on?"

"Only what Maria told me," Courtney said. A few stares focused on Maria, who shrugged helplessly. "That there's some weird alien invasion stuff going on, and it looks like my brother was killed and replaced by one of them. Also... from what I can tell, all you guys seem to be psychics or something??"

Max didn't challenge *that* misplaced assumption. "About your brother... that's the way it looks. I'll tell Sheriff Valenti about your brother, he... 'knows' about this sort of thing too. Are you going to be in any immediate trouble without him? Financially, I mean."

"No, the house is in my name and I'm doing okay for cash," Courtney shrugged, a stunned look on her face. "I don't know what to tell the radio station if they call to ask why Steve's not coming in to work though."

"We'll work on that," Max said softly. "For now... why don't you go on home, okay?" Courtney considered that, waved at everyone including Kyle, and went back to her car.

"We'll need to search the area," Alex said as soon as she was gone. "The washer is missing, Grant had taken it from me when Liz pulled her little kung-fu spin."

"Oh, my god," Max breathed. "I hope I didn't..." He made a 'whoosh' gesture with his hands.

"No, don't worry," Maria commented. "Grant dropped it when Liz's chair slammed into his head. I saw it slip down beneath the platform."

"But first things first." Max knelt down next to Alex, took Alex's left hand in his, and slowly unwrapped the fabric around the wounded arm. "Look at me."

* * * * *

The rush of connection images hit Max as soon as Alex locked his eyes on Max's own. Alex as a little kid - boy, he couldn't be any older than four, playing with a toy spaceship in a pretty backyard surrounded by oranging trees. Max let the memory become part of him as he focused on the healing. Alex and Isabel sitting together and looking up at the stars - this would be the Fazier woods trip, Max guessed. Before they had snuck away to investigate the 'sighting.'

Alex at twelve or thirteen, leading Maria and Liz down into a rocky canyon somewhere. The nerves in Alex's arm that Steve had so cruelly torn apart were stating to knit back together, but would they fire the same way that they had done before?? Alex touching the washer for the first time, in the UFO center. Ten years old, dressed in a black suit and sitting in a church pew - Alex's grandfather's funeral, Max somehow knew.

The images were coming more quickly now. The holding cell in the Roswell county sheriff's station, as Liz pointed a single finger and tried to explain to Alex where Max and Isabel came from. Why they were so scared. Another Isabel memory - Alex pulling the front door of his parents' house open and seeing Isabel there waiting for him, wearing a blue top -- Max wasn't sure when that was from...

And then one of those moments hit Max that seemed to transcend the term 'flash', where for a timeless moment he *became* a memory from the connection. (It had happened with Liz and her cupcake dress.)

Alex had been climbing a tree and looking down at the houses and streets below him. Alex and his parents had just moved to Roswell and he didn't have any friends here.

And then the connection was over, and Max just sat there for a second staring at Alex curling and stretching his fingers as if testing them out to make sure that they were okay.

Max would never have thought that someone human could feel the same loneliess that Max had, but there was no mistaking what he had felt from Alex. In some ways, actually, that moment had been even more intense, because as long as he could remember, Max had always had Isabel.

He couldn't find any words. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Michael who broke the silence. "Your hand okay, Alex? Then let's find that slug of yours."

TO BE CONTINUED...