Roswell Fanatics

Part 31

“Hey guys. Max isn’t quite ready and I’m surprised to see you here so soon.” Isabel eyed Liz and winked at her. She didn’t know how much Michael knew about last night but she wasn’t about to be the one to spill the beans to him.

“Well, when all you have to do is get your shoes on it doesn’t take long to get ready.” Liz was trying to keep from showing embarrassment; Isabel knew that she had been with her brother the entire night, by detouring the conversation slightly. Isabel couldn’t help but smile. Liz’s expression mirrored her brother’s; she would have to ask what it was all about later. Surely they hadn’t done anything too drastic.

“Liz if you want to, you can put your stuff in my room and then that way when Max is out of the shower you can go in next.” Isabel led the way. The two girls left the room leaving a nervous Michael all alone in the living room.

Not knowing what to do he began looking around. The Evans’ living room looked much like the one that they had in Clovis. Their parents were just as happy as his were to display goofy pictures of the kids. Michael moved from one to the other and by the time he had made his way all the way around, Max greeted him. His hair was still wet from the shower.

“Hey.” Max said as he walked into the living room.

“Hey. Look I just want you to know that I know and I won’t say anything about last night to Isabel.”

Max waved Michael off. “Don’t worry about it, she knows already. She caught me coming back in this morning. I guess she’s right when she said that siblings know what the other is doing.” Max grinned remembering how his sister acted not thirty minutes ago. “Come on, let’s go into the kitchen and get you something to eat.” Max clapped the back of Michael’s shoulder and led him into the kitchen. “I just want you to know that Liz and I…”

“Look it’s none of my business but I will let you know this. If you break my sister’s heart I will hurt you. It doesn’t matter that we are friends or anything now. The only thing that matters is that she is happy and from what I’ve seen of her this morning, I would have to say you make her happy. So just make sure she stays that way.”

“I don’t think I will have a problem with those terms. So what do you feel like eating?” Max stood in front of the kitchen cabinets waiting for Michael to request anything.

“I think I better wait until Liz gets done with her shower. I’ll let her decide. It doesn’t matter to me. Food is food as long as it is cooked properly.” Michael sat down at the kitchen table and the silence between Max and Michael was almost too much to bear.

Max sat down beside him. “So… what do you like to do?” He asked.

“What do you mean? Sports?” Max nodded his head. “I don’t play any. I like dirt bike racing. I basically blew my shot to win any money this year because I missed the big race because of my parent’s death but there’s always next year. How about you? What do you like to do?”

“To be honest. I don’t know. I try not to be out in the open. I’ve spent most my life trying to blend in because I’m so different. Isabel has cheerleading and we’ve argued about that from the very beginning but I don’t do anything. I would like to go out for football or basketball but…” Max let the sentence hang left unfinished.

“So, what does everyone have planned for today?” Isabel said as she breezed in to the kitchen and sat down beside her brother at her normal spot at the table. She placed her chin in her hand and looked between the two of them, waiting for one of them to answer.

“I have to be at work by ten this morning. I’m working the afternoon and then I’m off.” Michael was leaning back in the chair.

“I think Liz wanted to go back to Clovis and get a few more things from the house.” Max smiled even more just thinking of spending the entire day with his newfound girlfriend.

Michael’s chair came crashing down to the floor. All four legs were now making contact. “Can’t you guys wait until I’m off work to go?”

“Michael, don’t be ridiculous. By the time you get off work and we ride to Clovis, it will be dark. Liz and I can make a quick run to Clovis without a lot of people. Besides I have to take the truck back today anyways. If it’s not back by noon we’ll have to pay for another day.” Max knew what they were doing. They may not have made a big deal of him and Liz spending the night together last night but they sure didn’t want to give them any more chances of going any farther.

“Isabel what are you doing today?” Michael asked with hope that she would understand what he was getting at.

“Ummm. Actually I have plans today. The cheerleading squad is getting together to pick out this year’s uniforms and if I’m not there to decide what they all want to wear next season, they are going to have us dressed in something really outdated or tacky.” Michael stood up and grabbed Isabel by the arm.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” He smiled at Max as he pulled her over to the corner. “What are you doing? Don’t you know what will happen if they are together … alone. You know how they feel about each other. If they didn’t do anything last night then its only a matter of time before the deed is done and there is no way that I’m going to let that happen.” Michael whispered while glancing over his shoulder at Max.

“NO way am I dropping my meeting, Michael. No way.” Isabel stood firm, crossing her arms in front of herself. “If I let Pam Troy or Casey Everett pick our uniforms we’ll look like… well, we won’t look good. Those two girls are color blind and have absolutely no sense of style.”

Liz walked in at just that moment. “What’s going on?” She asked Max while glancing at Michael and Isabel arguing in the corner.

“They don’t want us to go to Clovis alone.” Max chuckled while keeping his attention on the drama unfolding in the corner. “Michael is trying to convince Isabel to skip her cheerleader’s meeting, the last time she did they picked a sneaker that had a sole that clashed with the color of their uniforms. Isabel almost quit over it.”

Liz glanced over to Michael and Isabel, her lips clenched in a tight line. “Come on.” Liz grabbed Max by the arm and they left running out of the house.

“What are you doing Liz? The argument was just getting to the good stage.” Max was laughing. He couldn’t believe that they left their siblings in the kitchen arguing with each other. “I wonder how long it will take them to find out that we left them there?” He called out to her.

“If I know Michael, and I do, they will be at it for at least another ten minutes. It will give us a chance to stop by the Crashdown get some breakfast and then be on our way to Clovis before they can even catch up with us. I love my brother to death but I want to get to know you more.” She hopped into the Toyota and Max got in on the passenger side and they were off.

They parked the truck in the alley behind the UFO Center so if and when Michael came searching for them they wouldn’t be seen. It would give them some added time. Walking into the Crashdown hand in hand they were greeted by Maria. “Well, well, well look at the two of you… Looking kind of chummy. Take a seat anywhere. Oh, Max you might want to take a look at nine o’clock, your parents are here this morning.” She pointed to her left and sidestepped them to help a customer at the register.

Max looked over to where Maria had pointed. “Come on Max. Introduce me to your parents. When I said I wanted to get to know you I mean this kind of stuff too.” She smiled at him and squeezed his hand for reassurance.

“Liz… are you sure? I mean. I’ve never met anyone that would enjoy meeting anyone’s parents.” Max hesitated for just a moment and then he heard her in his head.

’Max you must have forgotten already… You are so silly. There’s nothing that you can do that will make me not love you. Getting to know you, the you that you are now, is what is important to me. Nothing is going to scare me away. Now get a move on before they think something is wrong. She placed her hand to the side of his face. “Anyway, I already met your father and I think its time you introduced your girlfriend to your mother now don’t you?”

“So, you are my girlfriend?” He kissed her on the forehead and smiled the biggest smile that his parents had ever seen. “Come on, I think you’ll like her.”

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“Phillip look…” Diane’s mouth was hanging wide open. There in the entryway was her son and a small petite girl that she had never seen before. “Who is Max with?”

Phillip turned in the booth so he could see what his wife was talking about. ‘Max with a girl? Couldn’t be.’ When his eyes fell upon the two teens he smiled to himself. “That’s the Parker girl.” He said to his wife. He had a feeling that the two of them would hit it off.

“Really. When did they meet?” Diane had no idea that Max was so close to a girl. Her first instinct was that Max was taking things too fast. He was already holding her hand. And wait. He kissed her. “Phillip?”

“Honey, don’t worry.” Phillip waved at the two as they made their way over to the booth.

“Mom… Dad… I would like you to meet Liz Parker. Liz this is my mom, Diane and you already know my dad, Phillip.” Max was nervous. He knew that he had no reason to be this nervous but this was the first time he had ever had a girl meet his parents. And besides Liz wasn’t the average, normal girl that most guys brought home, she was… well she was Liz but his parents didn’t know that.

“Hi, Liz, nice to see you again. What brings you to Roswell besides my son.” Phillip couldn’t help but give the two of them a little ribbing about their budding relationship.

“Hi, Mr. Evans. Well…” She didn’t know why she was feeling so uncomfortable around Max’s parents. Well except the little fact that she had dream walked Mr. Evans just a couple of nights ago. “I guess you can say Michael and I are seeing if Roswell is the place for us or not. We’ve decided to live here for the remainder of the summer to try things out. You will be happy to know that we have established a residence already as well as found jobs.” Liz gave a big smile. She really wanted to impress Max’s parents but she also knew that she didn’t have to. Their relationship was rock solid and wouldn’t be knocked off balance just because his parents didn’t approve.

“Really? That sounds great.” He smiled with approval.

“Sit.” Diane finally joined the conversation. “Join us for breakfast.”

Max suddenly remember that Jose was off. “Have you seen Mrs. DeLuca lately?”

“I think she’s in the back why?” Phillip answered as Max and Liz took a seat with the Evans’

“Well if she’s cooking Liz and I aren’t staying. We were on our way to Clovis to pick up some more of their stuff and thought that we would grab something to eat before we got on the road.” Max answered his mother’s question.

Liz marveled in the way that he was so relaxed with his parents. ’They love you so much and I think our relationship has blown your mother away. Liz sent to Max. He shifted his gaze from his mother to his right and focused on Liz. He knew what she was talking about. His mother was a little off this morning and he would have to chalk that up to Liz’s presence.

Diane couldn’t help but be amazed at the depth of the relationship her son had with this girl. How could Phillip sit there and not do something? Then it hit her. Max has never been interested in a girl before and here her son sits across from her and is totally smitten with the girl beside her. Diane smiled. Her baby was finally growing up. “So Liz you said that you and your brother… Michael?” Liz nodded to let Diane know that she had gotten the name correct. “had gotten a place to stay as well as a job. Where are you guys staying?”

“Well… Mrs. DeLuca is renting the upstairs apartment to us and she has actually given us jobs here at the Crashdown.” Liz pushed her hair behind her ear and began to fiddle with her hands, which was her first sign of nervousness. Max leaned over and grasped her hands in his. He sent a soothing thought her way that didn’t go unnoticed by his parents.

“Well that’s nice of her isn’t it Phillip.” Diane was trying to bring her husband back into the conversation. He had mysteriously dazed off into his own world. His eyes locked on the two pair of hands intertwined with each other. When didn’t respond as quick as Diane wanted she poked him in the ribs to get him going again.

“Hmmm… Oh, yeah. I’m sorry I seemed to have been off in La-La land. Where is your sister, Max?”

“Well, we left her and Michael at home. They were arguing and we didn’t want to sit there and listen to it.” Max wasn’t really thinking for he had basically given his parents reason to question their actions.

“What are they arguing about?” Diane asked in concern.

“They didn’t want us to go to Clovis by ourselves. Michael has to work and Isabel has a cheerleading meeting to go to.” Liz offered an explanation.

Max instantly thought of something and decided to add his two cents in. “They didn’t want us doing all the work by ourselves and we couldn’t really wait for them because the rental truck has to be back by noon. Michael has to be at work by ten and Isabel’s meeting is at the Mall at noon.”

“And they are still arguing?” Phillip asked with a hint of disbelief in his voice.

“Oh crap.” Liz said under her breath as she looked out the window at the front of the Crashdown. She could see Max’s jeep pulling into a parking spot. Leaning towards Max, she whispered, “The argument didn’t last as long as I thought it would. There’s Michael and Isabel.”

Liz grabbed Max’s arm and started to tug him out of the booth. “Thank you for your offer to join you for breakfast Mr. And Mrs. Evans but we have to leave for Clovis now if we want to get the truck back by noon.”

“Oh, it was our pleasure Liz.” Noticing the possessive way that Liz was holding on to Max’s arm Diane realized that she had to get to know this girl better. “Why don’t you and your brother come to dinner tonight? It’s movie night so we’ll only be having pizza.”

“That would be great, we’ll be there. Michael has to work until six, so will seven o’clock be okay?” Liz kept edging towards the back of the Crashdown while talking to Mrs. Evans.

Pushing through the door to the back room Liz ran into Maria. “Hey… watch it you two. Where’s the fire?” Maria asked.

“Oh, Maria. Do you think you can stall my brother for a while? Max and I need a head start? We have the truck parked out back of the UFO Center and they may not have seen it, so it’s hard to say if they know we are here or not but Max and I need some time to get away from them. They feel the need to hover.”

Maria gave a nod. She knew what the other was talking about. Max and Liz had just started dating and by the little time that’s she’s known Michael she could understand why Liz would want a way out from underneath his strict supervision. ”My pleasure” Maria said with an evil grin on her face she would actually like this task that she has been asked to do. “How much time do you need?”

“Maria, don’t enjoy this too much. I want to live in Roswell for the summer. Okay?” Liz responded.

“Oh, me? I’ll just stall him a little, nothing that will get his blood pressure too high. I promise.” Maria innocently replied, still with an evil glint in her eye.

Liz hugged Maria. She was taken aback by her sudden action “Thanks Maria. I owe you one.”

“No you don’t this one’s on me. It gives me great pleasure to get under your brother’s skin. And besides he makes it so easy too.”

Max pulled Liz out the back door while he called back a thanks to Maria.

Just as Max and Liz exited through the rear door, Michael and Isabel came through the front. Looking around the restaurant, Michael’s eyes came to rest on Maria who had just walked through the swinging door. Walking up to her he barked out, “Were they here?

Even though she felt like snapping back at his rude attitude, Maria put her most innocent expression on her face before ignoring Michael and greeting Isabel, “Hi, Is, how are you doing this morning?”

Michael took an exasperated breath before continuing, “Maria, were Max and Liz here?” He pleaded with his eyes for her not to give him the run around this early in the morning. He really needed to make sure that Max and Liz didn’t leave by themselves. Something had happened last night and he couldn’t shake the feeling. He couldn’t help that the blonde cheerleading bimbo of a sister was no help but he prayed that Maria would be.

Maria seemed to notice him for the first time, “Why would Liz be here? She’s off today? You’re her brother. You should know that.” Maria turned her attention back to Isabel, “Would you like a booth for yourself, or do you want to sit with your parents.”

“Oh, they’re here?” Isabel responded while looking around. Spotting her parents, she grabbed Michael’s arm and pulled him over to sit with her parents.

Phillip and Diane enjoyed the show that Maria and Michael had put on. It was actually quite comical. Isabel grabbing Michael by the sleeve was the norm. That’s how she treated her own brother. Both of their worries about their daughter’s relationship with the other Parker sibling was instantly put to rest when they saw that action. “Mom… Dad… I would like you to meet Michael Parker. Liz’s brother.”

“Hi Michael.” They said in unison.

“By any chance you haven’t seen Max and Liz this morning have you?” Just as he finished his question Michael looked out of the front window of the Crashdown. The big rental truck, closely followed by the Toyota, was slowly driving in front of the Crashdown window on its way out of town. Max and Liz both were waving out their windows, big grins on their faces.

Michael swung around and was in search of Maria. “Maria!” The minute he was fully facing the opposite direction he was face to face with Maria.

“You bellowed?” She just couldn’t help it; this was just too easy.

“You lied to us. To me.”

“I did no such thing.” She stated firmly.

“Yes you did.” He insisted.

“No… No I didn’t”

“Yes… Yes you did. You told me Liz wasn’t here.” Isabel knew this was going to take a few minutes so she gave her father a kiss on the cheek before sliding into the seat across from her parents.

“Hey daddy.”

“Are they always this way?” Diane asked her daughter, her attention on the two combatants.

“They’ve been this way from the very first moment they set eyes on each other. It’s really kind of funny to sit back and watch them go at each other. We all thought they were going to kill each other last night over the furniture arrangement but Liz was able to make peace without either one of them realizing that she had extinguished their fire.” Isabel continued rambling about the past few days while Maria and Michael argued.

“Besides you can’t go with Max and Liz to Clovis you are on the schedule to work today. They are big kids and don’t need you chaperoning them twenty-four – seven.” Maria turned around after saying her bit and left Michael standing in the middle of the restaurant with every single customer’s eyes focused on him. The Evans began to laugh so he lowered his head in defeat and flopped down beside Isabel.

“Please tell me that Mrs. DeLuca isn’t cooking. If she is it tops my day off. It can’t get any worse than it already is.” They all began to laugh when Amy came running out of the kitchen. Behind her you could see flames from the grill were about three feet into the air.

“Michael… Michael… Thank god you are here… I need help.”

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Max walked out of the rental office and got into the Toyota. “I didn’t realize that they charge you extra if you take the truck one-way. Should we have taken it back to Clovis?”

“No, this is fine. I wasn’t looking forward to a two and a half hour ride alone.”

Max smiled at Liz, “But you wouldn’t have been alone.” He sent her.

“I know, but every now and then I like to see who I’m talking to.” Liz replied while squeezing Max’s hand. Reaching for her key she started the engine in the Toyota and started to pull out into traffic. “Do you want to wait until we get to Clovis to have breakfast or stop along the way?”

“Why don’t we stop at a Krispy Krème and pick up some coffee and donuts. We can stop off of route 70 and have a picnic breakfast.” Max suggested.

Liz glanced over to Max, “Good idea. Then we can discuss burglaries, and missing orbs, and keeping secrets from each other.”

Max glanced over at Liz as she concentrated on her driving. She may be small and look fragile, but being in her presence the last few days had shown Max just how strong and determined she could be. It wouldn’t do any good to try to protect her. It would just get her mad and she’d already shown that she could handle anything that came her way.

Liz glanced over towards Max, “You better believe it.” She said as if reading his thoughts.

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Part 32

Liz pulled over to the rest area that was about a half hour outside of Roswell. “This looks like as good as place as any. What do you think?” She turned to look at Max.

“Any place is fine.” He hopped out of the truck and grabbed breakfast. “I don’t suppose you have any tabasco sauce in the truck?”

Liz thought about it and then opened the glove box open. There, sat an empty bottle. “Michael! I’m going to kill him.” She rummaged through the rest and was only able to come up with a few ketchup packets. She closed her hand around them and proceeded to change the molecular combination of the ketchup so she would have tabasco. It never hurt to be alien. Before crawling out of the truck she grabbed the southwest blanket that she kept in the extended part of the truck. “Here’s a blanket so we can sit on it and I wasn’t able to find the real tabasco so I improvised a little. Hope it tastes ok.” She tossed Max the packets and then flung the blanket out so it would lay flat on the ground.

“I’m sure it’s just fine. Anything is better than nothing.” Max sat down only after Liz was seated and looked like she was comfortable. He sat for just a brief moment. Liz took a bite out of her donut to expose the crème filling. She then pour the contents of the packet inside the donut and then took the stirry straw that came with the coffee she mixed the concoction together. He smiled at her. He had never seen anyone eat a donut like that before. He took his chocolate glazed and basically laced the donut with his own packet being careful not to use too much because unlike Liz he had another donut yet to eat.

“Oh, this is so good.” She said as she licked some filling off her finger.

“I’ve never seen anyone eat a donut like that. Are the crème filled ones really that good?”

“Here try.” Liz dipped her finger in the filling and held it out for Max to try. He hesitated for just one moment and then throwing all caution to the wind he sucked every bit of filling off her finger. They both blushed. With her face as red as a beet she continued on with the conversation. “We don’t have a Krispy Kreme in Clovis yet.”

“Well I would have to say that was the best tasting filling I’ve ever had.” Max couldn’t help it. Liz was already so red from her carefree action that one more little jab at her wouldn’t hurt. Besides, Max wasn’t lying to her. That was absolutely the best; of course, it probably had a lot to do with being so intimate with the woman that sat across from him.

“Max!”

“What? It’s the truth. I’ve never eaten a donut like that and I would have to say that if you are game that’s the way I would like to eat my next one too. Maybe tomorrow we can try this again?” He smiled. It was hard to explain how he felt about her. On one hand he felt as comfortable as ever, like they had known each other forever and then on the other, he was a little uncomfortable because his other hand was moving way to fast for him. He wanted to take things slow and he wanted to make sure that everything he did and everything he said was perfect because the woman sitting across from him deserved that much.

“Well, since you’re saying the truth I guess it’s time for me to fess up. I too thought that was the best way for you to eat a donut.” Liz looked down a little embarrassed to face him and she took a chance and looked up at him with her eyes only. Max was smiling from ear to ear.

They ate the rest of their breakfast in an awkward silence. Max stood up and took all the trash and walked it to the trash bin. Liz was just finishing up with her coffee when he sat down beside her. “I had twice as much as you and I got done first.”

“Well if you wouldn’t have swallowed everything in one bite you would still be eating right now.” Liz elbowed him in the rib and by doing so he had fallen off balance.

“Hey…” He sat up and leaned towards her she backed up out of his reach and Max landed beside her, his chest to the ground. Liz began to laugh. “You think that’s funny uh… Just wait.” He crawled quickly to get her in his arms and then began to tickle her.

“Max! Max! Stop. If you don’t stop you’re going to make me pee my pants.”

“Sure… Sounds like a likely excuse. You’ve been giving me a hard time all morning. Now that I have you all to myself I’m going to make you suffer just as much as I have.” He was giggling with her as he said everything that he had to say.

“Max… Please… No more tickling, I give, I give…” She had tried her hardest to get away from his tickling fingers and by doing all the struggling she had only succeeded in laying on her back. Max looked down into her sparkling brown eyes and leaned in for a kiss. It was a slight one at first and he was given the go ahead by Liz when she wrapped her arms around his neck. His kiss deepened and she let it. She opened her mouth to allow the entry of his tongue.

Max couldn’t believe how fabulous she tasted. The bits of crème mixed in with the spicy sauce that she had created made the taste buds on his tongue sing in harmony. They finally broke the kiss when a car passed by the rest area honking their horn and a boy’s voice hollering out the window saying “Get a room.”

Liz looked up at Max and smiled. He stood up and held his hand out for her so he could help her up. She bent down and picked up the blanket and began to fold it. “Could you take this to the truck for me? I need to go to the restroom before we get back on the road.” She held out the blanket to him and when he reached to take it he was careful not to touch her. Liz noticed it and when he passed her to go to the truck she grabbed his arm and he paused. Seeing the look in his eye she leaned up and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. “Thanks Max… Thanks for having breakfast with me.”

He smiled at her and said, “If it were up to me I would have breakfast with you every morning of my life Liz Parker. There’s no need to thank me. I love being with you.” He hurried up and turned so she wouldn’t see the redness that was beginning to rise in his face.

Liz let him go and then began to run her happy little run that was a cross between a skip and a jog. She has had the best two days of her life. Having him this close to her made her realize that she wasn’t living these past eleven years at all; she was just going through the motions. Hurrying up in the restroom she tried her best to smooth her hair down but the mirrors in there was absolutely worthless. Stainless steel highly polished did not constitute as being a real mirror. She did the best she could with what she had and she left.

She didn’t have far to walk for Max had gotten into the driver’s seat and had pulled the truck up to the entrance of the woman’s bathroom. Opening the passenger side door she hopped in. “Thanks.”

“Sure.” He pulled out and merged onto the old highway that led to Clovis.

“So what do you want to talk about first?” He asked.

“Well… I’ve been thinking about who could have taken the orb. It has to be the one that ransacked our house earlier. Like you said he could have seen the tag on the Jeep and found out your home address. I wonder…” Liz let her thought trail off. She was tossing the possibility of maybe the man hanging around and getting Maria’s tag as well.

“That could be an idea…” He turned to Liz and realized that she hadn’t said anything to him by looking at the expression on her face. “Sorry. I’m not used to being this connected to anyone. Isabel and I have always been close but this is so much more intense.”

“I know. We really need to work on this link, find a way to block the things that we want to keep private. Not that I have anything that I want to hide from you.” She added on in a rush. “It’s just that there might come a day that I want to surprise you with something and what fun would it be if you already know about it.” She had hated that for a brief moment Max thought that she didn’t enjoy the connection that they now shared after last night. It simply wasn’t true she loved that he would always be there no matter what; no matter how far apart they were he was always going to be there.

“I know, Liz. I understand.” He tried to comfort her the only way he knew how. He sent pleasant thoughts of all the positive ways they could use this connection that they now shared.

They rode along in silence for a few minutes before Liz said anything to Max, “I’ve been thinking about something and I was just wondering if you have you been wondering about this connection that the four of us seem to have? It seems like I have a connection to Michael and you seem to be connected to Isabel and we have this connection to each other. I originally thought that we all had some type of connection, but Michael and Isabel don’t feel anything towards each other, I don’t sense Isabel and you don’t sense Michael. Do you understand what I’m getting at?”

“I never really gave it any thought. It just is.” Max thought for a moment before continuing, “Now that you mention it though, it seems like we’re in pairs for some reason. Isabel and I are brother and sister and you and Michael are brother and then there’s the connection that you and I have because we were married in our previous life. Do you think that there is something that Michael and Isabel should be sharing? There’s just too much missing. I wish we knew a bit more about our past. It would probably explain a lot.”

“Yeah, Max, that’s why we have to figure out how to use the orbs. They seem to be a key to everything.” Liz turned to Max, “We have to figure out who took your Orb Max. We need answers.”

She smiled at him. “Now, do you think that we should stake-out Maria’s house in the event that the unknown man decides to break in there as well. It seems awfully convenient that he was at our house and then at yours.”

“It doesn’t matter how convenient it seems the other orb is still missing. Hopefully the sheriff will find something out about the fingerprints that were picked up off my stuff.”

“Yeah, maybe.” She looked out the window. How much her life had changed in less than a week. Just last week she had stayed up all night talking to her mom about her senior year. She wanted to try and get a head start on college and her mother had sat with her through the night making lists of the pros and cons of doing so. How was she to know that both her dad and her mom would be in a fatal car accident that same day?

Max felt her overwhelming sadness for the loss of her parents he let her be but he did extend his hand for her to take some comfort in. He shared every single one of her emotions over the past five days. It’s hard to believe the complexity of it all and it was hard to believe that it was only five days and not and entire lifetime. In all reality, they had experienced a whole lifetime by experiencing their past life as husband and wife on their home planet Antar just last night.

After almost a half hour of deliberation Liz sat up and leaned closer to Max. Tilting her head so that it rested on his shoulder was comforting. It was hard to explain the pull that he had over her. Even though they were holding hands she had the building sense that she needed more. The simple contact between them wasn’t enough and she needed more. Looking up at his profile she studied him closely. She wondered if he felt the pull of her as much as she did him.

Picking up on her thoughts he bent over and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. “I feel it too.”

“What do you think it is?” She asked still looking up at him.

“It’s hard to say. Maybe if we can spend a little more time together like we did last night we might be able to get a lot more information about our past.” Max knew it sounded logical but the more he thought about it the more the little voice at the back of his mind told him to be careful of how much intimate contact he had with her. He only had so much control. He glanced back down at her to see if she had picked up on his hesitation. She hadn’t she had her eyes closed and was still leaning up against his arm. Her hand firmly gripping his bicep while the other was wrapped around his arm and was holding his hand. If the pickup hadn’t been a standard transmission he was sure that she would be sitting right next to him as close as possible.

The rest of the drive to Clovis was as comfortable as if they were an old married couple the silence was peaceful and the music on the radio was entertaining. Just being in the company of each other was enough and when they pulled into the driveway of the Parker house Liz sat up immediately. There was a car in the drive that she didn’t recognize. “I wonder who that is?” She asked as Max turned the engine off and she opened the door to exit the vehicle.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Will you get off my case? I’m not even supposed to be here right now and if your mother had the clue to not even attempt to try and run the grill the ceiling wouldn’t need replacing right now and I could be upstairs sleeping before my shift.” Michael was busy at the grill flipping pancakes for the morning breakfast crowd. After Amy came running out of the kitchen with what had to be five-foot flames rolling off the grill, Michael gave in and went to work early and he had been regretting it ever since.

“Hey! Don’t take it out on me when it’s my mother that you are really angry at. Acting this way isn’t going to get you to Clovis any sooner, besides mom said that she would let you off early so just deal with it and get my order out already.”

Michael flew around and leaned his head out the order window. “Listen blondie how many times do I have to tell you not to talk to me through this damn window? Now if you want your order out then I suggest you cut the chat. Your voice is getting on my ever-living last nerve. Now scram.”

“Humph.” Maria turned on her heel and went to fill coffee cups that had gone down. Isabel stayed sitting in the booth that her parents had occupied and when they had finished their wonderful breakfast made by no other than Michael they left with their compliments to the chef. Michael couldn’t help but don a smile on his face. He actually like working behind the grill it came easy to him and it gave him extra time to think about other things. “Michael! I told you no onions in this omelet and what do you go and do? You put onions in the omelet.” Like fingernails on a blackboard, that’s what it was. Her voice was like fingernails on a blackboard. Well he could think about other things when her yap wasn’t open.

“Maria!” Just as he was showing signs of blowing a gasket Isabel stepped in.

“Maria, I got it let me help. Ok.” She gave her a small smile and then walked through the door that led to the kitchen. “Michael what has gotten into you this morning? I haven’t seen you this agitated before. Granted I haven’t known you for that long but still. What’s up?”

“Its… its… its her. I can’t even concentrate on anything when I hear her voice. All I asked was that she not come to the window every five minutes looking for one of her orders. I’ll get them to her when I get them to her. But does she listen to me? NO! I can’t take it any longer Isabel I don’t know what I was thinking when I signed up for this yesterday. I should have known that I wouldn’t be able to be around her constantly.”

“Oh, I get it. Now I know what this is all about.” Isabel was shaking her head up and down as she pondered the real reason Maria was getting on his nerves.

“What? No you don’t. You have no idea what this is all about.” Michael was shaking his head. He turned his attention back to the grill; he flipped everything that needed flipped and then went to the refrigerator to grab the omelet mix. He had to remake the ‘Western Space Crater’ but this time he had to cut the onions. He knew that the order didn’t say ‘no onions’ and that was the reason he was letting her get to him. How was he supposed to make the food the right way when she didn’t take the order down right in the first place?

“She’s not writing her orders right. Look here.” Michael took his copy of the order. “Where does it say no onion? It doesn’t, does it? This is what I have to deal with. I don’t know if I can take it anymore. Keep her out of this window or so help Isabel she’s not going to like what I do.”

“Ok, Michael I’ll keep her out of the window just please don’t do anything drastic. It’s not just you that has to live with the consequences.” Isabel walked out of the kitchen to let him think about what she said. She knew that she had hit the nail on the head when she brought the rest of them in on his problem. She could only think that Max and Liz owed her big time for this, lord only knows what those two are doing. If only their mom and dad knew what was going on between the two of them. They wouldn’t have let them go to Clovis without someone else tagging along.

Isabel hung around the diner for a while longer, trying to play the Liz role and referee the Michael Maria Saturday afternoon fight card. She had just rang the bell on round twenty-seven when Alex came wondering in to the diner. Isabel waved Alex over to sit at the counter with her.

“Hey, Alex, you really have to see this. Michael has Maria on the run. She’s made mistakes on almost half her orders and you know she doesn’t normally make mistakes.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty good about getting her orders right. I wonder what the deal is?”

“You have to be kidding me. Right? The deal is, is that Michael is the one behind the grill. If it were Jose it wouldn’t be that big a deal. He’s been behind the grill since we were eight. No… she likes him and it’s pissing him off because he likes her too. What we have to do is get the two of them together.”

“What did you have in mind?” Alex let his smile widen with the building anticipation.

“I was thinking. Today is Wednesday what if we all go out on Friday night and then we all go off and leave them to themselves.”

Alex couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Isabel Evans was asking him out on a date. This couldn’t be, could it? “Uh… where did you want to go?”

“I was thinking of going to The Attic. You know a little bit of dancing and a whole lot of fun. We can go out to eat first and then we can go dancing.”

“Umm. Isabel what if Michael doesn’t dance?”

“Oh, shoot. I hadn’t thought about that. Well… Let me think this out for just a minute.” She concentrated on playing the scenario out in her mind when she heard Michael yell Maria’s name. She had totally forgotten about them. Crap.

Hopping up off the stool she ran to the window. “Michael! You have to quit yelling every time. This is a public place and the customer’s don’t want to hear the two of you fighting. What is it this time?”

“Nothing. You know what I quit!” Michael took the apron off and threw it down on the counter.

“What?” Maria asked as she scurried through the door to meet him in the employee lounge. “You can’t quit. I’m sorry Michael. It won’t happen again. My mom is depending on you and if you quit we won’t survive. What can I do to make you stay? I’ll do anything.”

“Anything?” The corners to Michael’s face curled up into a devious grin.

“Anything. You name it, you got it.”

“Good. Well since it’s raining outside and the only vehicle I have is my bike you are going to take me to Clovis so I can check up on Max and Liz.”

“What? No way. They deserve to have some time to themselves. No… I’m not going to do it.”

Alex decided to pipe in. “Umm, Maria. You just said not five seconds ago that you would do anything if he wouldn’t walk out on your mom like that. After all it is your fault.”

“Shush, Alex. Whose side are you on anyway? We are best friends and best friends always take each other’s side. ALWAYS!

“I’m sorry to disappoint you. But I’ve seen your orders and I would have to say that half of them have been wrong.”

“Oh, I see it… Just because he’s a man you want to stick to his side. Gee thanks, Alex, with you as my friend who needs enemies. Isabel…”

“Don’t look at me, Maria. I think you and Michael are going on a little fieldtrip when your shift is over.” Isabel turned with a broad smile on her face and Alex quickly followed suit. “Oh, Maria… You’re on your own. I have to go to my meeting. You guys be good I would hate to tell your family that you guys killed each other.”

“Alex! Aren’t you going to stay?”

“Oh, sure. Now I’m your friend. You’re on your own DeLuca. Have fun and… oh, drive safely.” As he went out the door he turned around and waved good-bye to her.

“Alex!” Maria sat down in a huff on the stool by the counter. “Lord, please help me.” She said as she looked up to the ceiling.

“No amount of praying is going to help. Get up off your tush and get to taking care of the customer’s I want to leave at two o’clock sharp so you better be ready.” Michael went back to the kitchen and put his apron back on.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“I can’t believe I’m driving you to Clovis. Liz is going to kill me if we don’t kill each other first.”

“God do you have to run your mouth non-stop? Can’t you be quiet for five minutes.”

“Look when I’m nervous I talk and you make me nervous.”

“I do? Why? I’m just a normal guy just like Alex. There’s nothing different between the two of us.”

“Oh yes there is. I’ve known Alex my whole life. We’ve had slumber parties together until we hit puberty. There isn’t anything that Alex doesn’t know about me. Alex is my girlfriend. You… You… are a guy…” she let the sentence hang but then she added, “a very cute guy to boot.” But it wasn’t meant for him to hear it.

“What was that?” He asked her.

“Nothing. I didn’t say anything. Nope this is me… being quiet.” She pretended to button her lips shut and throw away the key.

“You like me that’s why you spent so much time at the window today.” Maria continued to be quiet. “Come on tell me. What is it that you like? It has to be the hair. All the girls like it.”

“Ha!” She clamped her hand over her mouth.

“What? My hair is very in style. Spill what don’t you like about my hair?” He waited for her to say something and when she didn’t he continued. “I bet you can’t be quiet for five minutes. You’ll break. I’ve seen it before. All I have to do is keep on talking and you’ll crumble just like the Great Wall.”

“So how about those Diamond Back? Do you watch baseball?” He looked at her still Maria held her silence. He noticed that her head was bopping to the song on the radio. It finally registered. She was ignoring him by listening to the radio. He leaned forward and hit the power button to shut it off. Michael then began to count as the silence engulfed the little maroon jetta. 1… 2… 3… 4… 5..’

“I can’t stand it. I can’t stand the silence.”

“I knew you would break… Keep it up blondie and you will forever be in debt to me.” Michael began to chuckle. “So tell me what you think is cute about me.”

“I don’t think you are cute. I never said that. What I said is that your foot is in a boot.” Maria had been trying to think what she could say to cover up her slip of the tongue. That was the best she could do. ‘All she could do is pray that she could last what…’ She looked at the clock and a groan escaped her lips. “Another hour and forty-five minutes. UGH!”

“Come on Maria I heard you and there is no denying what you said. We have a long ride ahead of us we might as well make the most of it. How about we play question and answer. I’ll ask you a question and you answer and then you ask me a question and I’ll answer. You have three times to pass if you don’t want to answer. What do you say? Are you game?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool. My turn.”

“I don’t think so spikey. You already used your turn.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did. You asked me if I wanted to play. I said yes so it’s my turn.”

Michael raised his hands to the roof and said out loud, “Why me, why me?” Taking a big breath and then letting it out, he twisted his neck and it cracked several times.”

“Why do people do that?” She asked and then it registered that she had just asked a question. “That doesn’t count. That’s not what I wanted to ask.”

“Ha! Too late babe. And the answer to your question is I don’t know.”

‘Please let me get through this without revealing anything incriminating.’ Is the only thing that she could think of. “I have a rule to your game. No asking of personal questions.”

“What? There are no rules. Questions are questions…”

Maria interrupted his sentence, “And you just asked yours.” She began to laugh and Michael couldn’t help but notice the little dance she did in her seat.

“If you don’t mind keep both hands on the wheel while you’re driving. I don’t want to be road kill anytime soon.”

Just before Maria turned her head back to the road she saw Michael jerk upright in his seat, a worried look on his face. Before she could ask what the problems was Michael started to talk, “Maria you have to speed up. Liz is scared. She may be in trouble.”

Maria was going to ask how he knew, but seeing the worried look on his face she just sped up and turned her concentration back to the road.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Part 33

Isabel was leaving the mall after her meeting and was flagged down by Alex. She pulled over to see what he wanted. “Hey Alex. What’s up?”

“Hey, I was wondering if you could drop me off at home. My mom needed the car and I’m stuck here.” He raised his eyebrows up and down and then added, “please…”

“Sure hop in.” It was hard for Isabel to turn him down. She had to admit she liked him hanging around.

“How did your meeting go?”

“Pretty good. We spent most of the time trying to talk Pam out of this one type of uniform. She wanted to get these ones that were like bicycle shorts with tank tops instead of the more traditional sweater and skirt uniform. I finally had to tell her if she thinks that is what makes her sexy then she has another thing coming because the only thing a uniform like that will accomplish is making her ass look bigger. So needless to say we didn’t agree on anything but that’s par for the course. We have a few more weeks anyway. If push comes to shove we could always wear last year’s uniforms for the first game.”

“Yeah, I liked those.”

“Really? I don’t ever remember seeing you at any of the games.”

“Well, I was there. Maybe you weren’t looking very hard.”

“I will this year.”

“Isabel Evans… I do declare… I don’t think anyone has ever seen this side of you before. I’m flattered.”

“If you tell anyone Alex…”

Holding his hands up in a defensive manner he said, “Hey. Not me. My lips are sealed. You can look for me all you want. I was just saying… what would the in-crowd say if you start talking about me?”

“I’ll deal with it when it happens. So…” Just as she was beginning to continue she felt dizzy and had to pull over.

“Isabel are you ok?” Alex asked reaching over and touching her arm.

“Um… yeah. Something’s wrong. Max is in trouble.” She looked at Alex with wide frightened eyes.

“Are you sure?”

“What am I going to do?” Isabel started to panic.

“Ok. Let’s call him and find out.”

“I can’t he doesn’t have a cell phone. He’s in Clovis with Liz. Oh, god. What’s Liz’s cell phone number? Why didn’t I get her number? I don’t even know their home number.” She turned to look at Alex, her cell phone in her hands. Isabel was pleading for him to have an answer.

“Give me your phone. I’ll call Maria and see if she has Michael with her. He would know his sister’s phone number. Ok?”

“Yeah.” She handed over her phone and waited. Hoping that Michael would have some good news. Maybe he was already in Clovis and Max and Liz were doing something that he didn’t like and Michael caught them. Yeah, that sounded good. Isabel kept talking to herself while Alex dialed Maria’s number.

“Hello.”

“Maria, it’s Alex. Um by any chance is Michael with you?”

“Alex, I don’t know what to do. Michael isn’t talking. He said that something happened to Liz and that we need to hurry and get to Clovis. What am I going to do?”

“Ok. Calm down. I need you to get him to tell you Liz’s cell phone number. We need to call them and find out what’s going on, because whatever it is its happening to Max too.”

“Max? How do you know?”

“Isabel has this feeling. It doesn’t matter just put Michael on the phone.” As soon as Alex told her to put Michael on the phone Isabel took the phone from him.

“Michael… Michael…”

“No, its Maria. Hang on.” She took the phone from her ear and hit Michael on the shoulder. “Hey… Michael. Isabel is on the phone. Something’s wrong with Max.” Maria’s comment woke Michael from his daze.

“Isabel?”

“Michael, what are we going to do? I don’t know how to contact them. Please tell me you’re in Clovis. I don’t know what’s going on.”

“We’re about forty-five minutes out. I’m not going to get there in time.”

Isabel could hear that Michael was getting scared. She was scared too. “Michael, give me Liz’s phone number. I’ll call them. It’s going to be ok. You hear me? They’re going to be ok.” She was shaking her head up and down trying to convince herself just as much that they are going to be ok. “We’re on our way, Michael. I’m coming.” Michael gave her the number and she immediately called Liz. There was no answer. “Shit, she’s not answering.” Tossing the phone to Alex she said, “Call Maria back tell them that they’re not answering. Tell Michael to keep on trying. Tell him to try their home phone as well. We have to get a hold of them.” She put the jeep in drive and sped off.

Alex didn’t realize that the jeep was able to go that fast and he didn’t comment. He did what she asked.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Will you pull over? Your driving is killing me. I need to drive.” Michael couldn’t wait for her to pull the car over fast enough. He had the door open before the car even came to a stop. What was he going to do if he lost her? Liz was in trouble and he was stuck out on this damn deserted highway in a car that doesn’t travel over sixty miles per hour. He knew she shouldn’t have gone to Clovis without him.

By the time the car was stopped Michael was waiting by the driver’s side door. Maria opened it up and didn’t say a word. The expression on Michael’s face was enough for her. Something was seriously wrong with his sister. It was just way too strange that he knew it. They must be really, really close. She ran around to the passenger’s side of the car and just barely shut the door before he had the car rolling again. Dust rolled behind the car and they were once again off.

“Michael, make sure you don’t go over sixty-five. The car won’t take it.” Maria told Michael.

“We’ll just see, we have to get to Clovis as soon as possible.”

Handing her the phone Michael said, “Keep calling Liz.” Maria shook her head up and down and did as he said. After like the hundredth try at calling Liz’s cell phone, Maria sighed and tossed her phone on the dashboard. “Still no answer. I wonder why she isn’t answering?”

Michael glanced at Maria and snapped, “Don’t stop trying. We have to contact them to find out what’s going on.”

“Michael, We’ve been trying for the last half hour. If Liz were going to answer the phone she would have already. Anyway, how do you know anything is wrong? How did Isabel know anything is wrong? Max and Liz are in Clovis together, why should anything happen to them?”

“I just know, okay? I just know.” Michael responded.

“That’s not good enough. You’ve been really freaking. It’s like you know something is wrong. What...”

Just then there was a loud bang and the Jetta swerved towards the side of the road.

“Damn-it! Can anything go right today??” Michael swore.

“See, I told you not to drive too fast. Jetta’s aren’t supposed to go ninety down the highway. Especially old Jettas.” Maria snapped at Michael.

Michael eased the car to the side of the road and got out to survey the damage. Walking around the car he saw that a rear tire had blown. He banged on the trunk of the car and gave the flat tire a few good kicks to vent his frustration. Maria joined him by the side of the car, snapping, “Don’t put a dent in my mother’s car. I know you’re mad but it isn’t the car’s fault.”

Michael stopped, took a deep breath and slowly let it out before turning to Maria. “Can you get me the key to the trunk so that I can get the spare?” He hissed through gritted teeth.

When Maria didn’t immediately move to get the keys he turned his head towards her. Maria had a sheepish look on her face, “Umm, well. Uh, the spare isn’t any good.” She informed Michael.

“What?” Michael snapped. “Who the heck drives without a spare tire? And through a desert no less. Are you crazy?”

“I have a spare, it just doesn’t have any air. I had a flat last week, and I’ve been meaning to get the tire fixed, but I’ve been busy, and we usually don’t drive out of town. And …”

“Okay, okay. I get the picture. Now just get me the keys and I’ll look to see what the spare looks like.”

Maria grabbed the keys out of the ignition and handed them to Michael. As he inserted the key in the lock and started to open the trunk, he told Maria to go open the hood of the car.

“Why Michael, the spare is in the trunk.”

“Uh, the jack is under the hood.” Michael responded.

“No, it’s in the trunk with the spare.”

“Uh, open the hood to cool the engine down.” Michael wanted Maria away from the trunk.

Maria just gave Michael a strange look and went to do as he asked.

Michael quickly reached for the spare and ‘fixed’ it. “Maria? The spare looks fine. I guess your mother had it fixed and didn’t tell you.”

“What? My mother told me I had to get it fixed.” Maria responded while coming to the back of the car just as Michael pulled the ‘fixed’ spare out of the trunk.

“Want to grab the jack?” He said as he rolled the tire to the side of the road.

Maria came around the side of the car carrying the jack and lug wrench. As she started to put the jack under the car Michael stopped her, “Here, I’ll do that.”

“No, Michael, I can get it. I’ve done this before.”

“No, I’ll get it. Just let me have the jack.”

“God, you’re such a Neanderthal. Here take the thing.” Maria snapped while pushing the jack into Michael’s hand.

Michael took the jack triumphantly, set it under the car and turned to Maria expectantly. Maria stood there fuming until she realized that Michael needed the wrench in her hand. Maria handed him the tool and then placed her hands on her hips and glared at Michael. ‘God, she looks beautiful when she’s mad. Heck, she looks beautiful when she isn’t.’ Michael thought. ‘Where did that come from? Beautiful? Maria? I hate the girl.’

Michael took the lug wrench from Maria and bent down to start jacking up the car. As he started to jack the car up, Maria started to make comments, “Shouldn’t you be turning it all the way? Why do you keep taking the wrench off? If you do it this way…”

Michael took all he could and then turned to Maria, “I’ve jacked a car up before. I know how to do it.” He snapped before turning back to the car. He was so furious. His anger was rising with every pump of the jack. Not paying any attention to what he was really doing he didn’t see that he had sat the jack on a rock. As the car raised Maria again started to get in the way. “Michael, you should really do it this way.” She said as she reached down for the jack handle. Maria started to pull the handle and Maria and Michael both started to fight for possession, Maria pulling one way and Michael the other. As they fought the jack began to wobble. With a couple more tugs Maria lost her footing and slid into the jack causing it to give way.

As if everything was moving in slow motion Michael watched the car come down off the jack towards Maria’s leg. “Watch Out!” He yelled at Maria.

Unable to react fast enough Maria felt the weight of the car descend on her ankle and foot. She felt a searing pain shoot through her leg as she collapsed on the ground. Michael was instantly by her. “Maria… Maria… oh my god! Maria.” Maria looked at Michael. He was as white as a sheet.

“Michael…” She was getting lightheaded. Her leg felt like it was on fire and she didn’t know how badly her leg was injured. Michael looked at where Maria’s leg disappeared under the car and saw a growing pool of blood. Michael realized that car must have severed an artery in Maria’s leg.

Michael glanced back up into Maria’s face and saw her eyes flutter close. Panicking for a minute, Michael placed his hand under the car and lifted it enough to pull Maria’s foot from under it.

As her foot came out from under the car he saw that there was a terrible gash across her ankle and the bone actually protruded out of the skin. Not thinking of any thing else to do Michael clamped his hand over the gash. He was torn in two directions. ’What was he going to do?’ “It’s going to be ok, Maria… hang on. I’m going to call for help. He tried to make a move but Maria collapsed in his arms. “Maria!”

Not wanting to take any more chances at losing her, Michael made a fateful decision. He reached up and cradled Maria’s head in his hand while gently calling to her, “Maria, you have to open your eyes for me. I need you to look at me. Please Maria, look at me.”

Maria rolled her head so that she could look at him. “Michael, it’s getting cold. I can’t feel my foot, what’s wrong…”

“Maria, just keep your eyes open.” Michael’s hand began to glow and a gentle warmth began to flow through Maria’s ankle. Tearing a piece of fabric from his shirt he tied it around her ankle where she had been injured. “You’re going to be ok. It was just a bad cut. Keep this tied around it and we’ll take a look at it when we get to Clovis.” Michael had repaired it just enough to stop the bleeding and mend the broken bone. He minimized the severity of it just enough to keep her from asking questions. At least he hoped he did.

Michael checked what he had done and then went to sit next to Maria, resting her head in his lap. They sat there for a while, both thinking about what had just happened. Maria was in a daze. Her ankle and foot had been very painful but now it felt a lot better. She looked up into Michael’s eyes and was shocked to see the ‘concern’ in them. ’Was this the same guy that she couldn’t stand? The guy she thought hated her?’ “Are you feeling better now?” He asked.

Still in a daze, all Maria could do was nod her head. She began to sit up and as soon as Michael knew Maria was ok he went back to changing the tire. “Just great.”

“What?”

“Well when the jack slipped out from under the car it bent the wheel some. I can’t get the lug nuts off. The threads are stripped.” Hitting the wheel he said, “Damn it! Damn it!” He looked over at where Maria was sitting. She was still pale and she was just staring at the pool of blood under the car.

Fear ran through him. ’Would she know what he did to her?’

Maria finally mumbled, “Is that my blood? Was I hurt that bad? The car was on my….” She then turned her head to look at Michael.

Michael cursed to himself for not remembering to clean up the blood but tried to make light of the pool of blood, “No, you weren’t hurt too bad. It looks a lot worse than it was.” Trying to change the subject Michael continued, “Isabel and Alex will be here in a little over an hour. Are you going to be ok?”

No answer from Maria.

“Maria… are you going to be ok?” He walked over to where she was and squatted down so he was eye level with her. “Maria… are you ok?” He reached out to touch her and she scurried away from him. “Hey. I’m not going to hurt you.” He walked forward closer to her. With ever step he took she scooted farther back. Feelings of fear and pain shot through Michael. Fear that Maria knew his secret, and pain that she now feared to be touched by him. “Ok… Ok… I’m not going to come any closer. We’ll just sit here and wait for Isabel and Alex to come by.”

He sat down and just looked down the road in the direction that Isabel and Alex would be coming from. Bored to death after only a few moments he began to pick up rocks and began tossing them. One after the other he tossed them, aiming for ants that were heading for some unknown destination.

“Who are you?” She asked.

Michael turned to look at her. “What do you mean? I know the car didn’t fall on your head. My name is Michael Parker. My sister is Liz. We met last Sunday. Maria…”

“I know that’s what you want people to think. I guess what I’m asking is… what are you?”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Isabel you have to calm down. Max is going to be ok and if you continue to drive like this we aren’t going to make it. You need to slow down.”

“Alex there is no way I’m slowing down. Something is wrong and don’t ask me how I know. I just know. Max and I have always had this kind of connection.”

“I’ve read where twins have that kind of connection. It must be really cool. Have you ever tried to communicate?” Alex said trying to ease her somewhat.

Isabel let out a sigh as Alex continued talking. She didn’t know why she was worried about what he thought of her. Well… actually she did. She liked him a lot and she didn’t know how he would react if he knew who, or should she say what, she was. She shook the thought from her mind. If it were up to her he wouldn’t know.

“Hey, I think that’s Maria’s car.” Alex leaned forward in the jeep and began to concentrate on the vehicle that was sitting on the side of the road.

“You’re right. If I knew that they hadn’t reached Clovis yet I would have driven faster.” She fumed.

Pulling over behind the Jetta, Alex jumped out. “Hey guys what happened?”

“Flat tire.” Michael said as he greeted his two friends. He turned to look at Maria. She was still pale and even though he had tried to talk around her questions he didn’t think she took it. She didn’t say anything more after she asked.

“Maria! What happened to you?” Alex jogged to her side and bent down beside her. She stared right through him. “Maria?”

“She’s been hurt.” Seeing that Alex was starting to get alarmed Michael continued, “Don’t worry though. It’s just a small wound. I took care of it.”

Hearing his comment Maria finally made a sound. “Yeah, you can say that.” She stood up and limped straight to the jeep and crawled into the back seat. “Are you guys coming or what? Max and Liz need your help.”

Alex joined Maria in the back seat. Alex tried to start a conversation with Maria but she just stared towards Isabel and Michael. Michael and Isabel stood and looked at each other. “How bad was it?” She asked him.

“It was bad.” He started to walk to the jeep. He didn’t want to go any further with her.

Isabel grabbed his arm and made him wait. “Does she know?”

“I don’t know. Everything happened pretty fast. She’s acting pretty freaked, but…I just don’t know.”

“Michael, what do you mean ‘you don’t know’? This is bad. We can’t have anybody find out about us. Who knows what would happen if they did.”

“Look,” he said forcefully. “I don’t know what kind of person you are but I wasn’t about to let her die because that’s exactly what would have happened if I didn’t do anything. I’ll deal with her if she asks. She doesn’t know anything about you or Max. She might lump Liz into it with me but we will deal. We don’t have to answer to any one and if we have to we can disappear.”

Isabel nodded her head at what Michael was saying, “You’re right. You had to help her. I’m sorry I got mad.” Thinking a bit longer, Isabel continued, “So, what do we do now? We can’t take them to Clovis. Who knows what is going to happen when we get there.”

“Well, we can’t leave them here. We’ll have to bring them with us and hope nothing too strange is going on.” With that Michael turned away from her and hopped into the driver’s seat of the jeep. “Are you coming or staying?”

Isabel walked and climbed into the jeep. “Let’s go.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Note: I lied. Tess makes a brief appearance in this part.


Part 34

Max grabbed Liz’s arm. “Wait. Let’s think about this. We can’t just walk in there. Don’t get out.” Max put the truck in neutral so it would roll down the drive and into the street. He didn’t want to bring any more attention to their arrival. Once they were on the street he started the truck and began to go around the block.

“What are we going to do?” Liz asked.

“We need to be able to see if there is anyone inside. Any suggestions?”

“Umm. We can go to the neighbor’s house behind ours and climb over the fence and go in the back way. I’ve known them forever they won’t mind.” Coming around to that part of the neighborhood now Liz pointed at a house. “Look they aren’t even home. Now would be a good time to do it.”

Max looked at Liz and nodded his head. He pulled over to the side of the road and parked. “You better knock on the door just in case they are here.” He suggested.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’d hate to be halfway over the fence and have them come out and say ‘what the hell are you kids doing’.” She smiled as they both went to the front door.

Waiting for someone to answer and realizing that Liz’s assumptions were correct they headed for the backyard. “They don’t have a dog? Do they?”

“Yeah, they do. Michael calls it an ankle-biter. It’s one of those loud and yappy dogs. A Chihuahua I think. It’s a female named Tess. I really hate that dog and won’t miss hearing it yappy and barking all the time.” Liz responded.

Seeing the look on Max’s face she giggled. “Are you afraid of dogs, Max?”

“No… just wanted to be prepared for it just incase.”

“You don’t have to worry, Mrs. Johnson takes the thing everywhere and never leaves it home alone. I think she thinks it was a Mayan Princess that was reincarnated or something. Come on.” Liz went to climb over the fence first but Max held her back.

“Let me go first.” Liz stepped back off the board and waited for him to go over. “Ok, come on.”

Liz stepped back up onto the board and hiked her legs over the fence. She instantly felt Max’s hands go to her waist for support and he gently lowered her to the ground. “Thanks.” He took her hand and they began to walk to the back of the house.

“Stay behind me. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Max, I can protect myself. I’ve been doing it way before I met you.”

“Just stay behind me. Please.” He grabbed her by both arms. “Please,” and then hugged her. She shook her head ‘yes’. Max covered his hand and the lock clicked. Taking another glimpse of Liz, Max put his finger to his lips to signal her to be quiet before entering. Slowly the two entered the room. Liz could feel Max’s energy begin to power up. She followed suit as they entered.

So far everything looked normal. “Maybe we are over reacting. Maybe someone had car trouble and just ended up using our driveway for the night.” Max looked over his shoulder and then put his finger to his mouth again for Liz to be quiet. She shook her head again and continued to follow him deeper into the house. “Max head to my room. The book and the orb are still there. Michael didn’t get them the night when you guys moved our stuff.”

Max shook his head up and down. They eased their way down the hall and slipped into Liz’s room. Shutting the door behind them Max told Liz, “Get them and I’ll wait here just incase someone is in the house.” Liz didn’t answer she went straight to where the items were hidden. Waving her hand over the floorboards she reached in and grabbed what they had come to Clovis for. “Ok, I’ve got them. Let’s go.” Standing up and turning towards Max she saw him stiffen and place his ear to the closed door.

“Max, what’s wrong?” Liz asked.

“I thought there was a noise coming from inside the front room.” Max opened the door and looked to see if it was clear. Seeing that no one was in the hallway they started to creep back down the hall.

“Stay here a minute while I check ahead.” Max whispered to Liz.

“No! I’m staying with you.”

“Liz. You promised.”

“No, I didn’t. You go I go. Together we are stronger.”

Max realized that there was no way he was going to get her to stay behind and continue without her. He wrapped his arm around her and held her behind him. “Ok, just stay behind me.” They began to walk slowly, they hugging the walls as they headed for the living room. Peaking around the corner he couldn’t see anyone. “No ones there.” He whispered. They turned and started to walk back through the house towards the kitchen. Still not seeing anything they relaxed a little. “No ones here.” Liz said as she stepped from behind Max. He reached for the back door knob and just before he turned it to exit the light in the kitchen snapped on, and a deep voice said, "I've been waiting for you."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As the miles passed, Alex began to wonder just what had happened between Michael and Maria. As long as he had known Maria, Alex had never known her to go more than two or three minutes without talking and now it had been more than forty-five minutes.

Alex had glanced over at Maria a few times and it was always the same, her eyes just stared through the front windshield. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore, whispering so that he wouldn’t be heard by those in the front, he asked, “Maria? What’s wrong?”

He waited for a response, but none came. He tried a little louder, “Maria? Are you okay?” When he still didn’t get a response, he nudged her and asked again, “Are you okay? You’ve never been this quiet.”

Finally, Maria seemed to come awake. It was like she was released from a trance, “Hmm, what did you say Alex?”

“I asked if everything was okay? I actually heard the sounds of silence for a whole forty-five minutes. That’s a unique experience when I’m with you.” Something was definitely going on. Maria didn’t even bite on it. “Maria? I’m beyond worry now. You didn’t even come back with anything. Tell me what happened. You’re scaring me.”

She turned in the seat making sure not to bang her leg on anything. She leaned in closer because she didn’t want Michael to hear what she is about to say. “Ok… we were like driving and killing time by playing a game when out of the blue Michael freaks. He says Liz is in trouble. I look at him and say what.”

“Yeah, Isabel did the exact same thing. Weird. Totally weird.”

“Well anyway. He tells me to stop the car because I’m not driving fast enough for him and seeing that there is no way that I can argue with him I pull over. The man is like fricking paranoid and he gets into the driver’s seat and we take off. Well after about a million times of trying to reach Liz I give up and he looks at me like I’m some kind of freak that I did that. You know if the girl didn’t answer after the first ten times what makes him think that she’s going to answer when I call again.” Alex knew exactly where she was coming from and he wasn’t going to interrupt her because whatever had freaked her out is somewhere in this story of hers.

“I tell him not to go over sixty-five because my jetta just doesn’t go that fast and what does he do? He’s doing ninety. Ninety Alex. Did you hear me? I tell him sixty-five and he does ninety, HE has a serious hearing problem. I don’t know if there was something in the road or what but the rear tire blew out and we pulled over. He went to the trunk and my spare is flat. Remember the flat I got last week? Well I still hadn’t gotten the tire fixed. I’m preparing myself for his venom to start spewing when he tells me to go lift the hood to the car. I ask him why and you know what he says?” Alex shrugged his shoulders. “He said that the jack is under the hood.” Maria scoffs. “What kind of lunatic thinks that a car jack is under the hood with the engine. Well, anyway we argue about the location of the jack and I pull it out of the trunk. Well get this. The tire… you know the one that I didn’t get fixed?” Alex shakes his head up and down to signal that he knew what she was talking about. They had been doing this for years if there was anyone on this planet that knew how Maria thought it was Alex. He knew she was just trying to calm herself down because whatever had happened had scared the holy shit out of her.

“It’s fixed. He said something about my mom fixing it but I know for a fact that she didn’t do it. She refuses to do things that are my responsibility.”

“Well maybe she wanted to do something nice for you.” Alex suggested.

Maria shook her head no. “No. My mother doesn’t do those kinds of things. You know, parenting 101? Teach the kid responsibility? No… not possible.”

“So is that the reason you are so spaced or is there more?”

“There’s more. Well, we get the,” she does the quote things with her hands and continues, “amazingly ‘fixed’ spare tire and the jack that wasn’t under the hood but in the trunk and he starts to jack the car up. Well you know me. I tell him that he’s doing it wrong. All wrong in fact and I go to try and show him how to do it because after all it’s my car. And he’s trying to be all masculine and manly and won’t let me help, and that’s when it happens. The jack slips and the car falls onto my leg.”

“Ouch. How did you manage to get out from under it?”

“I’m glad you asked. Here’s the kicker… he lifts the car.”

“No way…”

“Yes way. I’m telling you he lifts the car.”

“Well I’ve heard that this ninety year old grandmother once lifted a car off her grandson. They say the human body is capable of doing amazing things. Maybe. You know, adrenaline rush because someone you care about is hurt?” Alex leans in closer to Maria like he’s getting ready to say something enlightening. “Maybe, he loves you.”

Maria’s eyes flew wide open. “No, No! There is no way! NO absolutely not. We fight constantly. No!”

“Aah, the lady doth protest too much!” Alex leaned back and began to laugh as Maria tried to silence him with a death glare.

Michael turned around and in the process bumped Maria’s leg that was propped up between the two front seats. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry Maria.”

Not realizing what was the big deal it didn’t register until she saw Michael cradling her ‘injured’ leg. “What? Oh, it’s ok Michael it doesn’t really hurt any more.”

“What are you guys laughing so hard about?”

“Nothing.” She said quickly. “Nothing you can go back to your own conversation. I’m talking to my girlfriend here.” Maria waved her hand for him to shoo already.

Michael turned around wearily and Maria grabbed Alex to pull him close again and continued. “Where was I? Oh, No! Anyway he pulls me out from under the car and he starts to look at my leg. Whatever he sees has him really freaking. I’m fading in and out of consciousness and he puts his hand under my head and tells me I have to look into his eyes. Did you ever notice how his eyes sort of crinkle at the corners when he’s… Oh, where was I, Oh yeah. He tells me to look at him and all of a sudden I start getting these flashes. You know like these pictures flashing through my brain.”

“You know that can be explained too. People who are in life threatening situations often see their life flash in front of their eyes just before they pass. It’s a known fact.” Alex shook his head up and down.

“No, Alex. They weren’t flashes of my life.” Maria said while pointing to herself. “They were flashes of his life.” She continued while pointing her thumb at Michael. She waited for what she had said to sink in. When she saw the reaction from Alex that she expected she said, “Yeah, weird uh. Tell me Alex what are you thinking?”

“Nothing. What else has you spooked?”

“Well anyway after he bandaged my leg up and I had seen all those flashes I was going over what had happened and noticed that there was a lot of blood under the car. I mean A LOT!”

“So?” Alex didn’t understand what the big deal was.

“I lost a lot of blood and if there was that much damage then shouldn’t I still be bleeding? Even in the movies when I person gets hurt and they wrap their injury up, it still bleeds. Do you see anything wrong with me?”

“No.”

“Look Alex. The piece of t-shirt that is wrapped around my leg doesn’t have a spec of blood on it. Its like the blood quit flowing.”

Alex looked at the bandage that was on her leg. She was right there was no blood. “I guess that is weird.”

“I’m glad you think so. Alex. Will you do me a favor?”

“Sure anything.”

“Will you look at my leg for me. Tell me what you see.”

“No. No. You know I’ll pass out if I see blood. No. Especially since Isabel’s here. I don’t want her to see what a sissy lala I am. No. You want to see, you look. Not me. Nope. Not going to do it.” Alex was shaking his head no the whole time.

“Great. Fine. You are the biggest sissy I know.” Maria huffed and pulled her leg back into the back seat with her. Taking a deep breath she says, “Here goes nothing.” She counted to three and then ripped off the bandage that Michael had put on it. “OH! MY! GOD!” She screamed. Turning around to see what all the fuss was about Michael turned white as a sheet. “Stop the car!” She yelled.

“What?” Michael asked.

“I said stop the fricking car, Michael.”

Michael glanced at Isabel who shrugged. “Nice one.” Was all she said.

Michael pulled the jeep over as requested. “Whatever it is Maria can’t it wait? We are almost to Max and Liz. I don’t think you’re going to die anytime soon.”

“No, I don’t think I will either.” Maria snapped as she fumbled with her seat belt. “Everyone get out of the car.” Maria climbed out of the jeep and immediately pulled Alex and Isabel away from Michael. “What did you do to my leg?”

“Maria… Come on this can wait. Please.” Michael started rubbing his eyebrow to beat the band as he begged for her to be silent.

“No… Tell me Michael.” She put her hands on her hips and waited.

Michael looked like a deer caught in a set of headlights. He glanced over to the three teens standing in the desert, Alex looked bewildered, Maria looked totally pissed off and when he looked at Isabel she just shrugged her shoulders and said, “We don’t have time for this Michael.”

“God, all right!” He marched over to her and grabbed her by the arm. “You want to know? Fine! But just you. Come on.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Max swirled around immediately he threw his shield up to protect Liz while she threw her hand up ready to add to the shield if necessary. They saw a middle aged man with graying brown hair and medium build sitting on a kitchen countertop behind them. The man held his hands up to show that he meant no harm.

“Who are you?” Max asked.

“What are you doing here?” Liz asked as well.

The man jumped down from his perch and walked closer to Max and Liz. “I heard about your adoptive parent’s death. I came for you.” He said to Liz. “I came to take you to the others but I see that you’ve already found them.” He dropped down to his knee and bowed his head. “I’m here to protect you your highness. You can lower your shield I mean you no harm.” The man looked up and Max slowly dropped his shield. As the shield dissolved, Liz slowly went towards the stranger.

“Liz.” Max called after her. He still didn’t trust the man and didn’t want Liz getting closer to him until he explained more about himself.

“It’s ok, Max. I recognize him from our past.” She held her hand out to help him up from his kneeling position. “Kevin?”

“Yes, your highness.” He stood up and was instantly wrapped into her arms.

“Liz! What are you doing?”

“Max this is Kevin.” Liz replied while she stepped back to Max’s side. Seeing that Max still had no idea who Kevin was she elaborated. “Kevin was my protector while you and Rath were out to war. Max, he was a personal friend of yours, you went to Antarian War College together.”

“You have no idea how happy it makes me feel to see the two of you back together again. “ Kevin said to Liz, “This is what was planned to happen.”

“What plans? What do you mean together again? We just met a week ago.” Max needed some answers and Kevin seemed to know a lot about them.

“I see you haven’t unlocked your orb.” Kevin said to Max.

“It’s gone. I’ve lost it. Well, I mean, I didn’t lose it, someone stole it two nights ago.” Max walked over and held his hand out to shake the man’s hand. “You’ve come to help Liz?”

“I’ve come to bring the four of you together. It’s time that you learn everything and I was sent to help you do just that.” Kevin responded to Max. “Where are the other two, Rath and Vilondra?”

“Who’s Rath and Vilondra? There are two others, but they’re named Michael and Isabel. And they’re still in Roswell.” Liz supplied. “How are you going to help us?”

“Well since all you have is the one orb, I will show you how to tap into it to retrieve everything that you have put into it. Then I can help Max find his.”

“You mean I can locate the other one?” Max asked.

“Yes, they are tuned into your essence.”

“Max, that would explain how you found yours so long ago.” He looked at Liz and took her hand.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“Well, I don’t know about you but I’m ready. I’ve been waiting my whole life to find out everything. I want to know.”

“Will I be able to see it as well?” Max asked. He had already seen a part of it that one night Michael and Isabel had caught them making out on the living room floor.

“If she wishes you to she can share them with you through your connection. All she has to do is touch you.” Kevin supplied.

“Do all of us have an orb?” Liz asked.

“No, just the two of you. They are for you. The orbs contain replays of your past life.”

“What about the book?” Liz wondered out loud.

“The book?” Kevin didn’t have any idea what book she was talking about. Liz held the book for him to see. “The queens?” Liz shook her head yes.

“It’s blank. I can’t read it.” She said sadly.

He smiled, “Yes you can. Once we travel back through your replays it will come to you.”

“What will the replays show us?” Max asked.

“The orbs are designed to show you what you felt was important for you to remember.”

“You mean we knew this was going to happen?” Liz asked with a stunned look on her face.

“Not really. Not the way it happened, but everyone creates an orb to pass on to their children. We never realized that your orbs would be passed on to yourselves.”

“Children? Um… Did we have children?” Liz asked quietly.

“Come on. Sit down the both of you. Let me show you how the orb works and all your questions will hopefully be answered.” Kevin led them to the middle of the room and motioned for them to sit down. “You’ll need to be relaxed. Just a word to the wise, it’s important that you don’t let yourself become a part of the replay. There is a tendency for the person that is reliving the replays to act out the actions in this lifetime.” Seeing the two in front of him start to turn red he knew that it had already happened. “I see you know what I’m talking about.”

“Yes. Um. A few nights ago, we were just sitting on the couch and one thing led to the other and before we knew it.”

Liz interrupted Max. She didn’t want him telling Kevin what Michael and Isabel had witnessed first hand. “Let’s just say. We know how it can happen.” She looked at Max and jabbed him in the ribs.

“Ok… Liz do you want Max to see your orb with you or do you want to experience by yourself first and then show him?”

Liz hadn’t thought of it that way before. “I can visit the replays more than once?”

“Yes, this is yours and you can replay them however many times you want.” Kevin assured her.

She looked at Max and he immediately understood. “It’s not that I don’t trust you but…”

“I understand. You don’t have to explain. You go. I’ll be waiting here when you return.” He reached over to grab her and pulled her into his embrace.

“You’re not upset?”

“No.” He released her and settled her in between his legs. His arms were still wrapped around her. He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “I have a lifetime to know all of you. These are your private thoughts and memories. You deserve to know what they are alone. I’ll be right here if you want to share them with me. I’m not going anywhere.”

Liz leaned back and tilted her head up. “Thanks.” He leaned over and kissed her. Liz then looked over to Kevin, “Ok, Kevin tell me what I need to do.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Part 35

Alex and Isabel watched Michael drag Maria away from the jeep. They were a good ten yards away from the other two before they stopped. “I don’t believe this.” Isabel says as she rolls her eyes and walked away from Alex so she could lean against the jeep. “Why me?” She throws her hands up to the sky as if she was asking a higher power for help. “I feel like leaving the two of them here and driving on.”

“Welcome to my world. Maria and I have been best friends forever and she’s been like this her whole life. Whatever it is; is important to her and from what I got from the back seat we all might want to be a little leery of Michael Parker. There’s something strange going on with him.” Alex had followed Isabel and was leaning against the jeep next to her. He crossed his arms while he watched Maria put her hands on her hips and he noticed the foot to her injured leg tapped the ground.


“Maria you are wasting my time. Max and Liz are in trouble and we have to get to Clovis.” Michael said in exasperation. “What is so important that it can’t wait?”

“Michael I want to know. Who are you?” She could see the wheels working behind his warped mind begin to spin. “You can come up with any story you want but I’m telling you now, I won’t buy it. I want the truth.”

“How do you know I’m not going to tell you the truth?” He asked surprisingly.

“I can tell. You have no intention of telling me the truth.” She yelled back at him.


Isabel and Alex both were able to hear that one; and they both flinched as they heard her anger. Isabel started to go over the possibilities. One, they could tell them both what was going on and they could watch them run from them like the freaks that they are. Or two, they can give them some line of crap that Michael has the capability to heal like its been known in some places all over the world. Neither option sounded very good to Isabel. All she wanted to do was run away from the situation herself. Shaking her head to get her attention back onto Michael and Maria she waited for the girl to explode and start running. It was only a matter of time. She knew that it was inevitable for anyone to have a normal reaction to their special situation.

“Do you believe in Aliens?” Alex asked, his eyes not leaving the two in the desert.

Isabel’s head snapped around and she looked at him as if she were a deer stuck in headlights. “What?” She asked.

“Do you think there are aliens here on earth?” Alex asked again as he turned his head to look at her.

“What made you think of that?” She inquired hesitantly.

“Just trying to make conversation. I’m trying to give them some privacy. I don’t want to eavesdrop on them anymore. Maria’s my best friend. This all amounts to that she actually likes him.” Alex let out a low chuckle.

“You think?” Isabel asked while relaxing a little as well as sidestepping the question that Alex asked earlier.

“Oh, yeah… the girl is gone. I’ve never seen it this bad before. Remember Paulie Stevens? Well she followed him around all during freshman year and she never acted this bad.” Alex said with a twinkle in his eye. He couldn’t help himself he was lost in his own moment. Here he was, Alexander Charles Whitman, standing on the side of the road having a conversation with Isabel Evans.

They both turned their attention back to the desert.

‘Well, here goes nothing.’ He thought, “My band has a gig on Friday night and I was wondering if you would want to come?” He inhaled deeply and held it until he heard her answer.

“Where at?” She asked. Turning back to Alex, she noticed that he was beginning to turn red. He hadn’t answered her yet. “Alex, where is it at?” Still no answer. “Alex… breathe.” She said while poking him in the side.

He let out his breath in a rush and began to breathe normally. “What was that all about?” She asked a little worried about who she was starting to hang out with.

“I don’t know if you know it or not but that was like the biggest step I’ve ever taken with a girl before.” He smiled shyly and looked up at her for the first time in about two minutes. He had been avoided eye contact for fear that he would be turned into an ice sculpture by those glacial eyes that most every single young man who ever attempted to ask her out on a date had experienced. But all Alex could see right now was warmth and a little glint of mirth.


Michael stared back at Maria. His gazed traveled from her flashing green eyes and settled on her rich red lips. He knew he was in serious trouble. Maria was too smart not to realize that something ‘otherworldly’ had happened back there, but all he could concentrate on was how it would feel to kiss her. ’Just what would her lips taste like? How would it feel to hold her in his arms?’

Michael was snapped out of his thoughts, “Well? Let’s hear it! Let’s hear you story.”

Maria waited for Michael to start talking. She watched as his face broke into a lopsided grin. ’God did he look sexy.’ It was the last thing she thought of before Michael grabbed her.


“ARGH!” They heard Maria scream. They both turned their attention to the two who were standing out in the middle of the desert. Maria’s arms were flapping up and down as she turned to head back to the jeep. She was pissed.

Alex and Isabel headed their separate ways. Isabel went to Michael and Alex went to Maria. “What the hell happened?” She spat out.

“I kissed her.” He said.

“Why did you kiss her?” Isabel couldn’t even begin to act like she understood his logic. There was no way that they were the same species, no matter what Max said.

“That’s all she wanted anyway. The girl likes me. I knew I didn’t have to tell her the truth, she wouldn’t believe it in the first place so I kissed her. It made her mad. And now she’s off the subject of her leg. We’re good to go.” They turned and headed for the jeep. Alex and Maria were already sitting in the back seat, heads together talking.

Isabel glanced at Michael as he got into the jeep, “Nice Michael. I can see all five fingers where she slapped you. Your whole cheek is red.”

“The things I’m forced to do for us all Isabel. It’s worth it if our secret is safe.” Michael whispered to Isabel as he thought, ‘It was definitely worth the slap to feel those lips. And had it been his imagination? Or had he heard her moan as he felt her melt into him just before she pushed him away and belted him.’

“You all buckled in sweetums?” He asked Maria as he reached for the ignition.

“Don’t call me that. I’m not your sweetums.” She snapped.

“Ok, whatever you say sweetheart.” He couldn’t help but laugh as she attempted to take a swing at him and miss as her seatbelt brought her up short. She was already buckled into the seat and it was easy for Michael to duck and make her miss. “Now if you don’t mind I think we’ve wasted enough time on this. Is everyone ready to get to Clovis now or is there another unscheduled stop that we will be making. Tell me now or forever hold your peace.”

“When did you become a comedian, Michael?” Isabel asked as they buckled their seatbelts.

“I have many layers Isabel. Many layers.” He winked at her as he started the jeep and once again they were off.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Liz continued to get herself comfortable. She leaned back into Max as he cradled her in between his legs. She had her reservations about finding out everything about the past and wondered if it would damage the present? Max could feel her uncertainty that was traveling through her thoughts so he gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Everything will be all right.” He whispered in her ear.

“Are you ready?” Kevin asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Liz replied.

“All you need to do is concentrate on the orb while you hold it. In the future after you get used to using it you can activate it without touching it but for now I want you to hold it.” He instructed.

“Ok.” Liz took hold of her orb and began to concentrate on it as instructed. “Do I have to think about anything in particular?”

“No, I don’t think so. Each user is able to lock their orb. If you did put a lock on it then you are the only one that will have the key. Just relax and concentrate.”

Liz nodded her head and began to concentrate again on the smooth surface of the black orb. She wondered what the symbol on it represented. She wondered what her life back then was. There were so many unanswered questions that she was hoping to find out that before she knew it she was transported back into the very first replay.


* * * * *


A 14 year-old Zan walked into his mother’s office. He normally wasn’t allowed in the working section of the palace, his mother and father, the king and queen they thought he was too rowdy for their guests. As he entered he thought that his mother was alone in the room. “Good afternoon, Mother. I hear that you wanted to see me?”

“You were supposed to be here a half hour ago Zan.” His mother chided quietly.

“I’m sorry. I was busy in the stables. Father bought a new horse and I just had to see him.” Zan tried to explain.

“Whatever. I called you here to tell you that I’ve found you a tutor. You’re doing terrible in your studies and it won’t do for a future king.” The Queen replied while brushing his excuses aside.

As he came around the chair he noticed that it was occupied. As he saw who it was he couldn’t stop what came out of his mouth, “Ah, crap Charisse. What are you doing here?” Whipping his head to his mother, “Sorry, that just slipped out. Sorry.”

The Queens eyes narrowed at her son. “Zan, I’d like you to meet your new tutor.”

“Mother, this is Rath’s sister. She’s younger than us, how is she supposed to help me with my studies?”

“Well Zan, more shame on you. She’s younger than you but she’s a grade level above you. Hopefully she’ll teach you something.”

Zan’s face and ears were burning in embarrassment when he noticed the smug look on Charisse’s face. Trying to wipe the expression off of her face Zan said, “What happened to you Charisse? You have a dress on today. What happened to the blue jeans and tee shirt? Oh, and did you actually brush your hair?”

Zan was rewarded with a flash of anger in her eyes.


* * * * *


“Inertia is a simple concept Zan.” Charisse was trying to explain to Zan. It was a beautiful June night and finals were a week away.

Just then Zan’s best friend Rath walked into the room. “Hey, what are you doing here? It’s a beautiful night. Why are you wasting it here? Let’s go for a ride.”

“Great, I’ll be right there.” Zan replied as he started to get to his feet.

Charisse grabbed his arm before he could move too far, “Zan, we’re not done studying.”

“Come on, let’s go. It will be a lot of fun.” He pulled on her arm to show that he wanted her to follow them.

“No. We’re supposed to be studying.” She resisted.

“What, are you afraid to go on a ride at night?” Zan teased.

“What??? I could ride you into the ground in any conditions. Rain, snow, night-time you name the course.” She hopped up and ran out the door Zan following her.

The night had been absolutely wonderful. Rath wasn’t lying when he said that it was a beautiful night out. The ride was almost over when Zan had fallen off his horse in the middle of a jump and had landed in a pool of mud. Charisse had jumped off her horse to see if he was ok. “Are you alright?” She asked with concern running across her face.

“Yes, I’m fine. Hand me your hand and help me up.” He said.

She leaned over and held her hand out for him to take it. Just before he took her hand Charisse saw the mischievous look on his face. Unable to withdraw her hand in time she found herself lying on her back in the same pool of mud as Zan. “Oh, Zan! I’m going to get you!” She rolled over and the two of them began to wrestle. Rath had returned sometime during the struggle, he stood on the outskirts of all the action and began laughing.

Charisse stopped her wrestling when she heard her brother laugh. Both her and Zan looked at each other and as if they were connected in someway they both chased after him and pulled him in with them. “That will teach you dear brother to laugh at us next time.” She said.

They continued to play in the mud until it was too dark to see. The moons had begun to set and all of them had an early morning. Charisse didn’t want the night to end and traveled back to the palace in silence.

Zan and Charisse were sneaking back in to Zan’s room. Charisse needed to get the books she had left when they went for their ride. Both were still covered from head to foot in mud, and dirt. Rath had stayed behind to put the horses up.

As Zan turned to shut his door, the lights in his room came on. “And what, pray tell, were you studying that got you covered in mud?”

The Queen couldn’t help but notice the way that Zan moved protectively in front of Charisse. She would definitely have to keep an eye on these two. Maybe it was time to find her a husband.

“We went riding.” He said and then he continued when he saw that his mother was beginning to scold them. “And before you start yelling at me. Charisse had nothing to do with it. It was all my fault. So can she just leave?” Zan was pushing Charisse to the door not even waiting for his mother’s approval.

She left the room with a push from Zan. She couldn’t help but smile to herself. This was a side that she hadn’t seen from him before.


* * * * *


Vilondra and Charisse snuck into the Dining Hall. This was the first state dinner that Vilondra and Charisse were allowed to attend. The guests were close friends of the King and Queen.

The two girls searched the place cards until they came to the one they wanted. Charisse carefully slipped the water filled pad out of the bag she had hidden it in and while Vilondra stood lookout she placed it on her targets chair.

“That should get him back for pulling me into the mud and getting me caught by your mother.” Charisse said as she passed Vilondra and walked into the hall.

The reception had been a success. The teenagers had huddled in the corner making comments on the various court retainers and generally trying to keep out of the Queens line of sight. Finally the gong sounded for dinner. The guests all paraded into the richly appointed dining room. The silver candelabra were gleaming from the hundreds of candles that were being used to light the room. The guests all made there way to their seats and as Zan sat down he felt a gush of cool liquid soak his pants. He restrained himself from jumping back up, not wanting to cause a scene as he scanned the room for the culprit. His eyes came to rest on a pair of deep brown eyes that were merrily twinkling with restrained mirth, and as he continued to look at their owner, she mouthed the word “Gotcha.”


* * * * *


There was a knock on her door. “Charisse?” Zan peeked in a stricken look in his eyes. Charisse immediately grew concerned for him.

“Zan what’s wrong? Are you ok? Is it Vilondra?” She went to him as he walked into her room. He quietly shut the door. She could see that whatever it was it made him sad. “Are you ok?” She once again asked.

He took hold of her hand and walked her over to the window seat. “You’re scaring me, Zan. Say something please.” She begged for him to tell her what was wrong.

He squatted down in front of her and took hold of her hands. She could see the tears begin to form in his eyes. “It’s your father. He was hurt in battle and while being treated in the medical center Khivar’s rebels bombed it. I’m so sorry Charisse. I didn’t want you to hear from anyone else. I’m here for you. Vilondra said that she would tell Rath. Mother says that you both can stay here in the palace for as long as you want. You’re family, I’ll be here for you. I can’t imagine what you must be going through I don’t know what I can do.”

Charisse began to shake her head no. The news that was being told to her was finally beginning to set in. She had to get away. “No, he’s alive. I know he’s still alive. He told me that we wouldn’t have to worry about him. After mother died he promised that he would be careful. He promised.” Tears began running down her cheeks. Zan swept her into him and began to rock her while he tried to soothe her.

“You’re not alone, Charisse. I promise you that I will always be here for you.” She looked up at him as he said it. She could see his pain as well as his commitment to her. He cupped her face with his hands and wiped her tears away with his thumbs. “You’re not alone. I will never let you be alone.” He bent down and without thinking she met him halfway and they shared their first kiss.


* * * * *


This was the saddest day of her life. Her father’s funeral was today and as promised Zan stayed by her side during the whole ceremony. Since her father had been a general, she had been forced to endure all of the many rituals required for a man of his status. The laying in state in the palace rotunda, the funeral procession, and finally, the ancient ritual of a funeral pyre. He held onto her hand for support as they watched her father’s body go up in flames. It was customary for their dead to be cremated. Rath was on the other side and he too held her hand. Charisse refused to shed anymore tears. She had to be strong. When the ceremony ended they went back to her room. “Thank you, Zan for helping me today. You can go now. I don’t want to be a burden. I won’t make your family disappointed for opening your home to my brother and me. We are grateful for your hospitality.” She shut the door and slid down to the floor.

She could still feel that Zan was waiting by the door but she couldn’t monopolize his time anymore. After all him and Rath would be going off to start training. The rebellion was rising and the king had passed a law that all men age sixteen and above that hadn’t had any formal combat training begin. They would be leaving this weekend. She would then be all alone. She couldn’t continue to rely on him. He had things that he needed to do. Eventually she felt him leave her alone with her grief.

She sat there against the door for what seemed like forever when a tap on the door startled her. “Charisse… can I come in?” Zan asked.

She stood up and opened the door. “Zan…” She wanted to ask him why he was there. She was hoping that he was there for her but she couldn’t keep on hoping that things between them would change. The kiss that they had shared was because he felt sorry for her, nothing more. She had kept on telling herself that for the past three days. He just had pity for her loss and he was just trying to comfort her like the good friend he was.

“I had to see that you were ok. You didn’t come down for a meal all day and I was worried about you. I brought you some soup.” His eyes spoke volumes but Charisse chose not to read them.

“I’m not really hungry, Zan. But thank you. You know you don’t have to look after me. I can manage. You have a life of your own and you don’t need to be waiting on me. What would people think when they find out that the prince of Antar is waiting hand and foot on an orphaned commoner?”

“Charisse, you are no more a commoner than I am. Your father was my father’s second in command. No one would see you as any lesser just because he is gone. When I take my father’s place your brother will take is rightful spot next to me. Our families are interwoven and nothing will break us apart.” He had taken her hands as he spoke. The contact between them was so comforting that Charisse found herself getting lost in the fantasy that Zan was beginning to weave for her.

She pulled away when he had quit speaking. “You have a heart of gold Zan and one day you will make some special woman very happy. You don’t need to be wasting your time here comforting me. I can take care of myself. After all your mother has already begun to search for an appropriate suitor for me.”

Zan’s eyes widen with shock. “What! That can’t be.” He stormed out of the room and did not return.


* * * * *


Charisse was riding her horse. She hadn’t seen Rath or Zan for the past week and had assumed that they had left for training already. She thought that her brother would come around before he had left and felt a little sad that he hadn’t. He was all she had left. Riding along the trail that they used to ride all the time when they were kids; she came upon a spot that had flowers strewn all about. Getting off her horse and looking around she didn’t see anyone. Leaning over and picking up one of the many flowers she smelled it and closed her eyes. ‘Who had gone through all this trouble to make a special place and then leave it unattended for anyone to happen upon.’ She wondered to herself.

Taking a good look around once again she finally was assured that there was no one here. Whoever had done this was gone. She could sit and relax for a bit. If they came back she would leave and apologize for intruding. Just as she had settled herself into a comfortable position she heard the hooves of an approaching horse. Not being able to get up soon enough she was surprised to see Zan enter the clearing. He hadn’t left after all.

“Charisse! What are you doing here?” He asked.

She knew immediately why she hadn’t seen him in the past week. He must have found a girlfriend and didn’t want to tell her. “Zan! I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to intrude. Let me get out of your way before your friend shows up and I ruin your surprise. I’m sorry.” Charisse got up and immediately was on top of her horse and was galloping away. She thought that her heart was incapable of feeling anymore grief but she was wrong. She was so very wrong. The thoughts running rampantly through her mind had kept her from realizing that Zan was following her and he was calling her name.

“Charisse! Wait!” His horse raced to catch up with hers and before she realized what was going on he had jumped from his to hers and was trying to slow it down. When the horse stopped he began to speak to her. “I’ve been looking for you all morning. I wanted to ask you to come for a ride with me. Rath and I leave for training tomorrow and I wanted to talk to you before I left. You didn’t disturb anything. You could never do anything wrong. Don’t you know that?”

“I haven’t seen you all week. I thought the two of you had left already. I was just a little surprised to see you. I was right though you did that back in the woods didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did do that back there.” He smiled at her. “I wanted you to see it.” He turned her horse around and began to ride back to the special place that he had made earlier. “I’ve been gathering flowers all night in hopes that I would be able to catch you before you left on your morning ride. There’s so much that has been happening all week. I had a lot to do and mother didn’t make it very easy for me. I had to visit father too. He’s still away so I had to get a transport to take me to him. There’s a party tonight and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind attending it with me.” They had arrived and Zan had hopped off. He outstretched his arms for Charisse to jump down into them. When she did their eyes met.

“You want me to go to a party with you?” She asked not really understanding why. His eyes were sparkling as if they were on fire.

“Well, yeah. I wanted to ask you something else too.” He turned and took hold of her hand and led her to the spot where she had been sitting before. He leaned over and moved a rock. She couldn’t really see what he was doing because he was being so secretive. He bent down on one knee and then looked up to her. His gazed locked with hers and she could see him hesitate.

“Zan? What’s wrong? You know if there is something that I can do for you I will do it.” She leaned forward to set her hand on his forearm. She could feel him trembling. “What’s got you so scared?” She asked.

“This is the hardest thing that I have had to do. Talking to my mother was easy. My father was a little bit more difficult but you…” Zan tried a lopsided smile as he continued, “I don’t know what I would do if I lose you.”

“Zan, you will never loose me. I’ll be here whenever you need me. That’s what friends are for.” She had to put that in there. She didn’t want to be jumping to conclusions. There was a party tonight something that Zan himself had set up. He wanted her there but she had no idea what it was for. “Zan?” She had noticed that he had bowed his head down. She bent down and was on her knees to. She reached for his face and tilted it up so that she could she his eyes. “Tell me what’s got you so mixed up. You’re confusing me. I could tell something has gotten you so happy beyond madness yet there is something that is concerning you. Something that is making you hesitate. Whatever it is, we’re best friends you know you can tell me.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Part 36

They hadn’t been on the road for fifteen minutes when Isabel spoke. “Damn it!”

Hearing the curse caused Michael’s head to snap around. “What’s wrong?” He noticed that Isabel was sitting in the seat with her legs crossed looking very uncomfortable.

“Um, a double mocha latte’ with whipped cream at the mall.” Isabel answered.

“What? What’s wrong with that?”

Isabel looked at Michael sheepishly, “I have to pee.”

Michael let out a groan before snapping, “No way! We’re not stopping any more. The next stop is Clovis.” He shook his head for emphasis before asking, “Why didn’t you go while we were stopped back there? You had the whole desert.”

“Oh, yeah, right. The whole desert. Uh, there’s a little thing about plumbing? I’m a girl, Michael. Remember? I can’t just walk behind a cactus and go.” Isabel replied sarcastically. “And besides there was a lot of traffic on the highway. I’d be too embarrassed. You’ll just have to stop at the next gas station.”

Michael pounded the wheel in frustration. “Okay! One more stop. But this is the last one. Damn it!” And Michael pounded the wheel for emphasis.

“Uh, Michael… I don’t like this layer.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Liz seemed to slump over as the replay began. Max looked at Kevin and asked, “Is this normal?”

“Yeah, pretty normal. She might react to some things differently than others but as long as she doesn’t forget that these are past memories she should be ok.” Wanting to continue the conversation with the man that sat in front of him Kevin continued. “How long have you and her been together?”

“I met her Sunday.” Max said with a smile. “I knew almost immediately that we were meant to be together.” He was beginning to get embarrassed.

“I would imagine you would. The two of you were so in love that I really found it hard to believe that you didn’t find each other sooner. You said you lost your orb?”

“No, I didn’t loose it someone took it Monday night. Could there be anyone else that knows about us? I mean knows who we are?”

“Yes, there is that possibility. Why do you ask?” Kevin was beginning to worry. There should be no reason why someone was hunting for them. They had lived relatively quiet lives.

“Someone broke into Liz’s house Sunday and then again Monday as if they were searching for something. Isabel and I walked in on the guy on Monday and then Monday night my room was broken into. Someone is out there that knows something. That’s the reason Liz and Michael moved to Roswell, so all of us can be closer together. I don’t want to take the chance of something happening to her and me not being able to get to her in time. I would die before that happens.”


* * * * *


A gentle breeze blew through the glade stirring up the sweet smell of the roses strewn across the grass. A few strands of hair were blown across Charisse’s face and into her mouth and she absent-mindedly reached up and pushed them behind her ear. Something big was about to happen. She could feel the waves of nervous energy rolling off of Zan.

He smiled, noticing the nervous gesture; the fire in his eyes sparkled like they were before. “You’ve always been there. I never realized how much I had counted on you being there from day to day. When your mother passed away and you and Rath came to live at the palace I wasn’t too happy. I thought that my life would change and it did but it changed for the better. All the times we got in trouble and all the times Rath cursed me for letting you come along. I remember them all. All the times that we’ve shared and when you told me that mother had already started her search for your suitor I freaked.” Charisse was looking at him with confusion.

“Is that what’s got you all worried? You shouldn’t be, I trust your mother’s judgement Zan. You don’t have to protect me anymore. I’m nearly seventeen and am getting passed the average age of betrothal.” Once again she laid her hands on his arm to comfort him. “The Queen has been like a second mother to me and I know that she only has my best interests at heart.”

He grabbed hold of it and squeezed tightly. “I’m aware of that, Charisse. There was so much that I was taking for granted and you were one of those things. The death of your father made me realize that if anything had happened to you that the grief that I would suffer would be beyond compare. I had to visit my mother, I had to see if what you had said was true. And if it was, I had to stop it.”

“Zan! How could you?” She began to stand up but he gripped her hand tightly. She stood there looking down at him. His eyes were the only thing that she noticed.

“Charisse. Look at me. I’m down on bended knee. I’m telling you how I feel about you and I’m telling you that I cannot stand to think of living my life without you. I went to mother to stop your betrothal. She sent me to my father and made me talk to him myself. Since you have no parents my father has taken guardianship of you and I asked him to let me take you as my bride.” He slipped the ring onto her finger and looked up at her. “Charisse daughter of Rathiom will you honor me by saying yes to being my bride?”

Tears were streaming down her cheeks. “But… But your duties? Your betrothal is supposed to seal an alliance with….” Zan quieted her protests by placing his fingers over her mouth.

“Charisse, I talked to my father and he realizes that I would be useless to my people without you by my side. He’s approved our being together. So, will you be my bride?”

She immediately dropped down to her knees and circled him with her arms. “Yes! Oh, Zan, Yes!” Her force at which she threw herself at him made Zan fall backwards. He laughed as they fell onto the ground and he took her face and wiped the tears away. He pulled her closer and laid a gentle kiss on her lips. The amount of love that the two were experiencing mixed and their kiss deepened.


* * * * *


As they rode back to the palace, Charisse noticed that banners flew from all of the towers casting a gala atmosphere over it. Charisse turned to Zan with a question in her eyes. Zan answered in the only way he could, he grabbed her hand and said, “You know how impatient I am. I don’t believe in long engagements.”

Charisse squeezed his hand in excitement, “Today? We’ll be bonded today? But I don’t have a dress, I haven’t gotten…”

Zan leaned over and pulled her into a passionate kiss. Coming up for air he asked, “If you would rather wait, we can but I was hoping we can be bonded before I leave.” Charisse’s eyes were glassy and she was just starting to recover from the effects of Zan’s kiss when he continued, “Anyway, everything is ready. That’s why we’ve been so busy all week. We had a lot of work to do. Vilondra had to find the perfect dress for you and then for herself of course. And we had to get everything ready for the ceremony.”

They came to a stop before the Palace and Zan helped Charisse down from her horse. While holding her in his arms, he asked, “Do you want to wait?”

Charisse looked up into the eyes that she had grown to know so well, “No, today would be perfect. If I put it off for another day I’m afraid that I’ll wake up and find that this is all a dream.”

“No, if this is a dream then it’s our dream.” Zan then captured her lips in a searing kiss.


* * * * *


The sky was shimmering with a greenish silvery iridescence quality that was common when the weather was perfect. Everything was perfect she remembered. It was night and the entire community was gathered for this special occasion. A man stood on the altar at the front of the gathering; another man accompanied him. The woman that she knew was the man’s sister was walking down the aisle with her brother. One day they would be married she remembered thinking.

She looked up at the sky and saw the two moons high above. They cast the perfect light down on top of the ceremony. She looked down at her dress. It was so beautiful. It was white and had elaborate beadwork on the bodice. The train that followed her was thick and weighed a ton. Her small frame was struggling to make her way down the aisle.

She looked over to the man that was walking her down the aisle and remembered being sad that her own father couldn’t make it. He would have been so proud of her. The man, the king, squeezed her arm and smiled down at her. His silver hair was in place and his eyes were brown with gold flecks in them just as his sons were. “This union is the best thing for you and my son. I’m so proud of the both of you. Don’t worry about all the fuss that is being made by the other worlds. We will get through this. Now come on push all those doubts away and enjoy tonight. This is the best thing for Antar and you are the best thing for my son. He loves you like I’ve never seen a man love a woman before and its even more precious because you return that love just as much, if not more.

There was music playing as they made their way down the aisle. The crowd was standing so everyone would be able to show how much they honored the young prince and the woman he loved. She was the general’s daughter and a warrior at heart but no one ever expected the prince to fall in love with her. Yes, she grew up in the palace but she was a free spirit who challenged him and everyone else to be the best that they could be. She mingled with the commoner’s and she was able to walk beside the royalty. She belonged everywhere but yet didn’t belong anywhere.

Coming to the altar the king released her arm and leaned over to kiss her veil-covered face. “Be happy that’s all I ask and may your love last for always.” He turned and shook hands with his son and told him how proud he was. Zan was beaming the gold flecks in his eyes were sparkling in the moonlight. He embraced his father and pulled him into a hug.

Charisse’s heart melted at that moment. For him to show his love for his father openly in front of his people was surprising. To have his parent’s here for the wedding made everyone happy. Their prince loved his people and wanted to share this time of happiness with them.


* * * * *


Zan carried her across the threshold into their room. White rose petals were scattered all over and they were giggling. They had come so far and were amaze at how well their union had been welcomed. Zan sat her down on the bed and then squatted down so that he could look at her without her having to strain her neck up at him. “You are the love of my life I will do anything to make you happy just like you make me happy.” He said.

Charisse was so happy. Today was the greatest day of her life. To be loved by the man that held her heart. They knew each other’s souls. They had endured death and they were still able to be happy as long as they were together.

Zan laid Charisse down onto the bed. She could feel his nervousness pouring from him. She tried with all her might to send comforting and pleasant thoughts to him. She leaned up and began to kiss him. First on his forehead and then over each eye. “I love you.” Again she went back to the kisses. His cheek, his jaw, his neck was the path that she took.

Her hands were gently caressing his chest. He moaned with pleasure. “I have only dreamed of this night since I was fifteen.”

“Like you told me earlier today, Zan. If this is a dream this is our dream and I don’t ever want to wake up from it.” Her hands began to unbutton his shirt. “Why did you have to pick a shirt that had so many buttons on it.”

“I didn’t, Vilondra did.” He sat back and with a swipe of his hand the buttons disappeared.

“That’s so much better. Now come here so I can continue, my husband.” Charisse was so in control she was sure that Zan had never figured her to be like this. It was just that he was being too careful with her. “I’m not going to break my sweet.” She whispered into his ear as she nibbled at it. “Make your dreams a reality. That’s what I’m doing now. Hold nothing back for tomorrow will come and we will have to live in the harsh reality that you have duties. But let’s let tonight be just for our fantasies.”

Her words released everything that he had been holding back. He kissed her roughly on her neck. She arched her head back to allow him better access. He sucked and nipped until she released a moan of pleasure. “Zan! Oh, yes! Zan!”

They continued to explore each other’s bodies with their eyes as well as their hands and at times with their mouths as their layers of clothing fell to the side of the bed. The temperature in the room had risen from the passion that they were enjoying. Their only chance for air was coming in short gasps in between passionate kisses.

They made love quickly the first time and after a brief period of additional exploring their bodies were once again ready to do it again. They continued that way for the rest of the night and as the dawn of the new morning began to rise they looked out their window and realized that this was not a dream. They were actually married and there was nothing or no one that would come between them.


* * * * *


People were running in complete chaos in the background. Charisse, her sister-in-law Vilondra, and the queen were once again at the rotunda for the king’s funeral. Charisse was standing in between Vilondra and her mother, both women were crying and leaning heavily on her for support. Charisse didn’t cry there had been too much grief lately. “Don’t worry Vilondra, Rath and Zan will be back tonight.”

“How do you know?” Her sister-in-law asked as she dabbed at her eyes.

“Zan promised that he would be here tonight.” Charisse reassured.

“It’s so dangerous out there how do you know. Have you already forgotten what happened to your father?” Charisse’s eyes grew with disbelief.

“No, I haven’t forgotten my father.”

Seeing that she had offended her sister-in-law, Vilondra began to apologize. “I’m sorry Charisse. I know that you could not have forgotten about your father so soon. It was bad of me to bring up your own personal sorrow.”

Charisse took her sister’s hands in hers and began, “I accept the apology but you need not do that. This is your time to grieve and I’m the only one that is here for you to take out your frustrations. Trust me, if Zan says that they will be here tonight. They will be here tonight.” She brought her sister-in-law into an embrace and as soon as she was so close Vilondra began to cry.

The funeral procession ended and the king was into the afterlife with the grandest funeral pyre that the planet had ever witnessed. The three women made their way to the palace. Vilondra immediately ran to her room and locked herself away. Watching Vilondra leave, the Queen turned to Charisse, “Charisse would you mind walking me to my quarters. I don’t think I will be able to make it.” Charisse nodded and looked around to make sure that Kevin was still in tow. He nodded to her to acknowledge her and then continued to follow.

“Take me to my desk Charisse. There is something that I must do before it is too late.” Charisse walked her over to where the queen’s desk sat. “I never knew that you would be the one. My son loves you so much and I can see that you love him just as much. The two of you together are special.” She patted Charisse’s hand as she sat down at the desk. As soon as she was settled she opened up a drawer and pulled out a leather-bound book, which held the family emblem on the front cover.

“For ages this book has been handed down from generation to generation and for ages it has all come true. You see, in this book is our past, our present and our future as the ancients have prophesized to be true. It saddens me to know what I know, because it has foreseen the death of not only my husband, but it is written that the rest of the royal family will soon die as well.” Charisse sat down when she heard that they were all going to die.

“We are not immortal your highness. Everyone will die. Don’t fret it is going to be ok. You have to believe in that.” Charisse’s words were a comfort to the older woman but it didn’t turn her from what she needed to say.

“This book is no longer mine but yours. Zan is now the king of Antar and with his succession you have become a queen. I’m merely the king’s mother now. Your lives have changed drastically with his father’s death. You are no longer Charisse, daughter of Rathmon, wife of Zan. You are the queen of Antar, and your people will look to you for strength. Your actions will be watched and monitored by your enemies. You are no longer as safe as you were.”

“Zan has already taken precautions. I have Kevin to keep me safe no matter where I go. Zan trusts him as if it were himself. Don’t worry. You’ve been through too much today to worry about me.” Charisse stood up and walked over to hug her husband’s mother. “Zan is coming home tonight. You’ll see he will make it all better.” Anna patted her daughter-in-laws hands

“This is yours now.” She took the book and passed it to Charisse.

Charisse took the book from the older lady in front of her. “Are you sure you want me to have this?”

“Yes. It is written that you will have it one day and that it will give you and the others great peace. I know this is what is meant to be. Take it. It is yours.”

“Peace?”


* * * * *


She was in their room. Stonewalls lined with tapestries of landscapes, which was her personal touch. White satin covered the bed and deep blue pillows were scattered haphazardly. She had made this their haven of peace and tranquility in a world filled with terror and grief

“Charisse?” She turned around when she heard her loves voice.

“Zan!” She ran to him as he entered their room.

The minute she reached him their need for each other exploded. His mouth took hers with all of his need. Her hands began to roam his body. “Honey, I’ve missed you so much. I was worried when you didn’t return for your father’s funeral. Vilandra took it so hard. You know that she is so dependant on you and besides that Rath was with you as well. She is so lost.”

“I’m so sorry you had to be here all by yourself. I came as soon as I could.” He looked at her with his grief in his eyes. “I just want to be with you right now. I will talk to mother and Vilondra later. Right now I want to spend with my wife and the one that I love. I have seen so much pain I just want to forget. Please make me forget.”

She kissed him so deep as if his life depended on it.

“Charisse, please I need you.” He called out to her. “It’s been so long since we’ve been together and I will be leaving again before we realize it.”

She pulled at the hem of his shirt and tried to pull it off of him. She was on a mission and had the strength to do almost anything she wanted to do. “Zan, I want to make love to you. I need to make love to you. I want to make you forget about this war that we are in.” Again she kissed him forcefully and pushed him to their bed.

They made love like they had never before. It was an almost animalistic passion born of their time apart and fear of what the future may bring. Gone were the soft tender caresses, now was a time for pure lust as they strained to demonstrate their need for each other. They both screamed each other’s names as they reached an earth shattering climax together. They were bonded together as one. She gave herself completely to him and in return he gave her him. They were the hopes of their people. They were the chance of bringing peace to a world that only knew chaos. He fought beside her brother from the first day they became men and from the first moment he saw her he knew she was the one. His mother used to say that the soul never dies but waits to be reborn again. Each soul was made up of two different parts and when joined to be complete they would forever be bound to one another.

That is what Charisse had with him. Her soul had found the other half in him. She was so small and fragile but had a heart and the strength of the fiercest warrior. They complimented one another and only made them stronger.

As their bodies cooled from making love they laid in bed talking about the future. How one day he would defeat Khivar and free his world and his people from slavery. She believed in him and knew that one day that would be.

They had been through this before because their soul was as old as time. They had loved each other over an eternity and they would continue to love each other for all of time. There was comfort in knowing this. No matter what happened to the other it wouldn’t be long before they would be together once again.

Patience was the key and they had had more than one lifetime to learn it.

When the dawn of a new day was beginning to seep into the window of their suite they fell asleep in each other’s arms. Content with the presence of one another and exhausted by the love making that they had done all night they fell asleep.


* * * * *


It’s been almost a year since they had bonded. Yet he still found the time to come back as much as possible to steal a few nights of passion with her. She was all alone again. Zan had to leave to go back and fight the rebellion. She didn’t have time to tell him that the love that they shared created a baby last night. She couldn’t wait for him to return so that she could tell him the good news. His father had died in battle just last week and he was so sad that she wanted nothing more in the world to make things better for him.

As she sat at her desk and began to archive her memories for their child the palace began to shake. Fear slipped through her. Kevin immediately stormed her room. “Get down.” He called to her. Debris came rolling in through the window. “We have to get you to safety. Khivar is storming the palace. He mustn’t find you.”

“I have to talk to Zan. He has to know about our child!” She called out.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As Max and Kevin conversed in low tones Max felt some stickiness on Liz’s arm. As he looked down he noticed that a gash had appeared on her arm. As he watched in horror another cut appeared, then another. Liz’s head was whipping back and forth by this time and she was dragging great lungs full of air through her mouth.

Max was shocked at the way Liz was reacting. “What’s going on Kevin? She’s so scared and I can’t reach her. What are these cuts? Why is she bleeding?” Max began to panic. He didn’t know what to do so he did what he had always done. He called for Isabel.

“Oh, God, I was afraid of this. She’s gotten herself too close to the replay. She’s forgotten that this is in the past and she’s reacting to it as if it were really happening. Max you’re going to have to go in there and find her. You’re going to have to connect to her.” Kevin’s expression was lacking. Max looked at the man that was still sitting in front of him as if nothing terrible was happening.

“I can’t connect to her. I’ve only been able to make connections by looking into their eyes. Liz’s eyes are closed. How am I supposed to make a connection.”

Kevin was beginning to see that Max was beginning to loose himself. “You’re always connected to her. Surely you have realized that in the short amount of time that the two of you have been together?” He could see Max thinking about it.

’It was true. Ever since they had woken up this morning their connection was open all of the time now.’ Max began to concentrate on that part of him self that was Liz. He was instantly thrown into the chaos that was Liz’s replay.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The fear that Liz was feeling Charisse harbor made her panic. She instantly began to desperately search for Max and was rewarded with his presence during this replay.

“I can’t watch this by myself. This is it. I’ve captured our death. I know I have.”

Max found that Kevin was dragging Charisse through the forest. It was night and as they ran the branches and thorns were tearing at her arms and legs. Max could feel the fear coming off of Charisse as they tried to make their escape from the palace.

Max and Liz followed because that is where the replay took them. Max marveled at how strong of will Liz had in her previous life. He reached for Liz’s hand and grasped it for reassurance, hoping that they wouldn’t have to go through the same circumstances in this lifetime.

Several days and nights passed with Charisse and Kevin travelling through the forest. They were only able to eat berries and wild fruits that they had found along the way. They were sitting next to a clear mountain stream; Charisse had her sandals off and was soaking her aching feet. Kevin was beginning to lose hope. “We’ll never make it. They are eventually going to find us.”

Charisse stood up reluctantly put her shoes back on and then began to speak her mind. “How dare you! You aren’t only giving up on yourself; you are giving up on your king. He’s close a few more days’ time and this will be over and we will be safe. Zan will make sure, I know. I’m not about to give up. There is more at stake than my life. I’m carrying the next generation and there is nothing that is going to stop me from getting to my husband. NOTHING! Now get up soldier and move it!” Charisse turned and began to move toward the pull of her husband.

Kevin got up and followed behind her making sure that their tracks were being covered.

“Liz… we had a child. You were carrying my child?” Max’s eyes began to tear. I left you alone when you were pregnant and you have been running for so long.” His head fell next to hers and he pulled her tighter to him, his hands gently rubbing her abdomen. He gently began to cry for her and what she has had to endure.

Liz turned in his arms. Gently taking his face into her hands to force him to look at her. “This is not us. This is what was before. You must remember that or else you will end up like me.” She lifted her arms for him to look at the cuts that the thorns had made on her. “Don’t forget this is our past. It’s not our present. No matter what happens we are together now. Remember that Max. We are together now.” She kissed him with every ounce of her being and then sat back down between his legs and pulled his arms tightly around her self. They returned to the memories of there past life and continued to follow the path that Charisse was travelling.

A week had passed since Kevin had had his breakdown. There was never another episode like that ever again. Kevin was tormented by the memory that he had shown doubt and had resolved to die for his queen. When the forest ended they traveled on a narrow path that climbed the mountains. “We’re almost there. Charisse called back. She began to run. Her heart was telling her to run as she rounded the top of the peak she stopped. Zan was running to her. He dropped to his knees and took hold of her. He began to cry.

“I was so worried. Mother and Vilondra have been here for over two weeks but neither one knew what had happened to you. You had shut me out and I couldn’t reach you. I was so scared.”

Charisse dropped to her knees and began kissing her husband. “Zan, it’s ok now. I’m here. You don’t have to worry… I’m safe in your arms.” She kissed him as she wiped away his tears.

“You’ve been hurt. Why didn’t you heal these?” The anguish in his eyes shown through as he waited for her to answer. His hands automatically moving to the first of many scrapes.

“I couldn’t heal them because of our baby. He needs all the energy that I can maintain.” She smiled at him realizing that he wasn’t really paying attention to her. He was too busy healing the cuts and bruises that marred her body.

“Zan, did you hear what I said?” She took hold of his hands that were so busy travelling the course of her body and placed them gently to her belly. She waited patiently for him to realize that there was something different inside her and when he did the look in his eyes was permanently memorized for her to cherish for later.

“Our son? Charisse, we are going to have a son.” He stood up and quickly picked her up. He began to twirl around in circles as he did she tilted her head down and took his mouth in hers.

He gently set her down to the ground and turned to see everyone that was special to them staring at them. “She’s ok and she’s pregnant. We’re going to have a son!” He called out to everyone. The others ran to their side as handshakes and hugs were exchanged.

They hid out at the fortress for months. Charisse was desperately close to giving birth to their child. Zan was hovering around her as if it was going to happen any minute. “Zan you are over reacting. It’s too soon. I’m not due for another three months.”

“Something’s going to happen I can feel it. Khivar’s men have come too close too many times. We need to move but you’re in no condition to travel right now.”

“We’ll be fine. You must do what you have to do. Our people are relying on you.” Just as she finished speaking they heard the bombings begin further down the mountain.

“Khivar!” Zan ran to the back room to retrieve Kevin. “Take her and go. We’ll meet you as soon as we can.” He ran to Charisse’s side and leaned down to kiss her. He connected to her and the baby and she knew at that moment what he was doing.

“No! Don’t do this. Nothing is going to happen to you. Nothing.” Charisse had begun to cry.

“Our child must survive, Charisse. Take mother with you. She has been getting prepared for the future. Take what I’ve given you and don’t look back. I will be waiting for you when the time is right. Don’t give up. Make sure our child lives.” He kissed her once again with all the passion and love that he held for his wife. “I love you. I’ll forever be with you. Now go!” He stood up and turned away from her. He suited up into the battle gear and ran out of the fortress.

“Your highness, we must go. There is no stopping it now. Its in the hands of the Gods.” He bent over and gently pulled Charisse up to a stance. He pulled her as she continued to watch Zan walk out to battle. Tears were making it hard to concentrate so she brushed them away and when her vision cleared he was gone. She took a deep breath and then did what she had to do. She had not only one precious package to deliver to her mother-in-law but two. Zan had transferred his essence into her as well. He would forever live within her heart.

As they stepped out onto the roof of the fortress where the transport waited to take them to his mother she looked out onto the battlefield just at the precise moment that Zan was hit from behind with a laser gun. “NO!” She dropped to her knees. She knew he was dead she could feel the connection that they had sever as she felt his essence grow inside her. She now held all of him inside of her.

Kevin reached for her and pulled her off the ground and carried her limp body into the transport.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

WILL SOMEONE JUST SHOOT THE DAMN DOG ALREADY? HEEHEE!

Part 37

Michael made the final turn and immediately saw something that disturbed him. What the f…”

“What?” Isabel sat up straighter in the passenger side of the jeep. “What’s wrong?”

“Anyone know whose car that is?” He asked. Isabel could hear the concern in his voice.

“Not me.” Alex offered.

“Nope. Never seen it before.” Maria replied.

“Isabel? Do you know whose car that is?” She shook her head no. She looked at Michael, the fear in her eyes clearly visible.

“Do you think we are too late?” She asked.

“No! We can’t be too late.” He demanded.

“Michael, I’m sorry if I knew that there was something actually wrong I wouldn’t have made you stop back there. They’re going to be ok.” Maria felt like a heel. How could she have been so selfish? What if they weren’t ok? It’s all her fault. She leaned over to cling to Alex. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into an embrace.

“Umm, Michael. Where’s your Toyota? I don’t see it.” Alex asked.

“I don’t know but I’m making a loop around the block to make sure that they aren’t parked somewhere close by.” Michael began to make it around the block when Isabel pointed out the Toyota.

“There it is.” She said with hope in her voice.

Michael pulled the jeep in behind the truck. “That’s Mrs. Johnson’s house. It’s right behind our house. They probably jumped the fence so they could sneak in on whoever that car belongs to.” He said. Michael thought for a minute trying to come up with a plan. “Ok, I’m going in, everyone stay out here. If the coast is clear I’ll come and get you. Got it?” Everyone shook their heads in acknowledgement.

Michael jumped out of the jeep and crossed the front yard. He crept up to the fence and when he saw that coast was clear he went into the backyard. As soon as he was out of sight Maria hopped out of the jeep. “That was a dumb plan. I’m going in with him. What if something happens to him? We’ll never know.” Not waiting for anyone’s reply she went in the same way as Michael did.

“Why does she always do this to me? Why can’t she ever listen to directions?” Alex whined as he climbed out of the jeep. Not wanting to be the only one left behind Isabel quickly followed. They caught up with Maria and entered the neighbor’s back yard just as they saw Michael start to hop over the rear fence. As the gate to the fence closed behind Alex the owner’s dog cornered them all. “Michael get this thing away from me!” Maria hollered.

Michael was halfway over the fence when he heard the yapping of the damn Chihuahua. “Maria I thought I told you guys to stay in the jeep?” As he hopped down he saw Isabel pick the dog up by the scruff of its neck and give it the evil eye. She sat the dog back down and it went whining away. Tail firmly tucked between its hind legs.

“What’d you do to it?” Alex asked.

“I showed which female was more dominant and basically told it not to mess with us.”

“The dog’s name is Tess.” Michael offered. “Never could stand it. You don’t know how many times Liz and I have debated whether or not to get rid of it forever. Does nothing but rake our nerves. Is everyone through with the dog now? Can we continue now?”

“Is there something that you are trying to hint at Michael?” Maria asked.

“Well, it seems like we can’t get anywhere unless we take a vote and then even when we all agree on something someone has to go and mess with the system. Everyone stay here and I’ll be back as soon as it is clear. Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? DeLuca… I’m talking to you. Stay put.” Michael disappeared over the fence.

“Who does he think he is ordering me around? I don’t take orders from anybody do I Alex.”

Alex let out a long sigh, “No you don’t… So we’re going over aren’t we?” Alex knew it he didn’t even have to ask. Maria always had a knack at getting them in trouble.

“Yes, my friends we are going over.” Maria waited for Alex to make a step for her. She put her right foot up on his bended knee and then threw her other leg over. She was hanging haphazardly over the edge, yes; she was stuck. “Alex… a little help, please?”

“What you want me to push you over or pull you down?” He looked at Isabel and grinned. She had her hand covering her mouth trying hard not to laugh.

“Over Alex… We are going over.” Alex reached up and gave her a little shove. She yelped because she didn’t expect it and then both Alex and Isabel heard her hit the ground with a thud. “Thanks for nothing. Now come on. Michael’s almost at the house.”

“Let me go first so I can catch you on the other side.” Alex suggested. Isabel was tall enough she wouldn’t have any problems getting over like Maria had. She shook her head and waited for Alex to give her the sign that he was ready for her. “Ok, Isabel. Come on before Maria has a fit.”

Isabel placed her foot on the supporting beam and in one swift motion she was over the top of the fence and on her way back down. Alex placed his hands on her waist and guided her down. “I’ve got you.”

“Thanks.” They both looked around nervously as they watched Maria jog across the yard to catch up with Michael. Noticing the nervous look on Isabel’s face, Alex reached out and took her hand in support. She took it without any second thought. Alex was kicking himself for doing the gesture but was surprised that Isabel didn’t say anything about it but just gripped his hand tightly. As they started after Maria.

Michael stopped in front of the door. He noticed that all the shades were drawn, so much for trying to see what was going on before actually entering. He quietly tried the door. It was unlock. Max and Liz must have entered in this way too. The door opened a fraction and Michael peeked in. So far it was clear. He half jumped out of his skin when he felt a warm hand on his back and turned to see Maria glancing past him into the house. When he was able to get his heart out of his mouth and back into his chest, he whipped around and whispered, “What the hell are you guys doing here?” He glanced at all of them in turn. “I thought I told you to stay until I knew it was clear?”

“Maria made us come.” Alex piped. Maria swung and hit him. “Ouch! Why’d you do that for?”

“SSSHHH! Will you keep the noise down!!!” Michael snapped as he closed the door for a minute.

Maria was still dealing with Alex, “He didn’t have to know it was my idea. Thanks a lot for nothing. Some friend you are.” Maria forgot that they were supposed to be sneaking into the house and turning from Alex, she walked past Michael, opened the door and walked in. Michael was too busy giving Isabel the evil eye to stop her.

Michael quickly turned to follow Maria into the house but not before the silence was broken when Maria’s scream shrilled through the air. “Maria!” Michael called out as he rushed to her side, hand extended. He was so worried about protecting Maria that he wasn’t thinking; he took aim at the first person he saw and let a blast rip.

As Michael quickly scanned the rest of the room he saw Max and Liz sitting on the floor. Max’s back was to the wall and Liz was sitting between his legs. Michael took in what had caused Maria to scream. Liz’s arms and legs were cut and scratched and were covered in blood and Max had what looked to be like a protective arm around her. The minute Michael’s blast was release a green force field encircled the two. The man that Michael had hit with his blast flew back and hit the wall that was behind him. When he began to move to stand back up Michael raised his hand again. “Don’t move if you want to live.” Michael said.

The man slumped back down and held his hands up. “I mean you know harm.”

“Yeah, it looks like you meant Max and Liz no harm too. What the hell did you do to my sister?”

“Your sister?” Kevin asked, dazed. Then he realized who these people were. “Rath? I mean Michael?”

“It doesn’t matter what my name is. Who the hell are you?” Michael snapped.

Isabel stepped up beside Michael and tried to get his attention. “Um, Michael. I think we have something else to be worried about.” She nodded her head towards Alex and Maria. The eyes of both of them were wide open as they stared with ashen faces at what they had just witnessed.

“Great! Can my life get any more difficult? Isabel, you’ll have to deal with them right now.” He looked once again at the stranger lying before them. “Who are you? And what did you do to my sister and her boyfriend?”

“My name is Kevin. I heard about your parents’ death and came to reunite the four of you but I see I’m too late.”

“What did you do to my sister?” Michael took a step forward anger flaring in his eyes.

“I did nothing to her. I’m here to protect you all. Your sister unlocked her orb. She was traveling through her past life when she got carried away and let herself become a part of the replay. Luckily Max was able to join her and ground her in this reality. She will be ok once the replays end. Her boyfriend, as you call him, can heal her when they awaken.” Kevin saw Michael relax a little and took this opportunity to stand up. He brushed off his pants and took a look at the teenagers that were behind Michael. He turned to Isabel and bowed. “Princess Vilondra, I see you haven’t changed that much. Beautiful as always.” He came up from his bow with a smile.

Isabel’s face turned red in embarrassment as she nodded in response. Before she could say anything Maria push her way to the front of the group, “Ok, wise guy who the hell are you and what do you mean by calling Isabel Princess Vilondra?” Maria was now in between Michael and Kevin, once again with her hands on her hip and her foot tapping.

“Maria will you get out of the way?” Michael shoved her to the side and then pushed her behind him. “We don’t know if what he is saying is the truth or not.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Once again they were in a hidden fortress. Charisse had distanced herself from everyone including her brother. The minute the transport landed she had closed herself off from the others. Sobs wracked her body until she fell to the floor with exhaustion. She slept that night and woke up during the middle of it. She knew what she needed to do no matter what the cost. She snuck out of the fortress making sure she stayed in the shadows. She had had a couple of years of Kevin’s constant following to know how to give him the slip.

No one was going to keep her from doing this. No one! She started the transport and took off haphazardly. The winds shifted and the transport rocked and swooned with much difficulty. Once she had enough altitude the ship smoothed out some. Maneuvering the piece of equipment to hug the mountains so that radar wouldn’t pick her up made the journey feel even longer. Landing some distance away from her original target she jumped out of the transport and made her way to where she needed to be.

Carnage was scattered everywhere. Her people that fought and died to protect her and her family lay dead on the ground. Going to the exact spot that she had last seen him she knelt down and rolled him over. His mask had covered his face and was probably the only reason he wasn’t taken back to Khivar’s camp and strung up to be made a mockery of. Tears ran down her face as she gently caressed his face. Taking his helmet off him she gathered his head in her lap and gently rocked. She had lost the love of her life and his last concern was for his unborn child and her safety. “You were a great man, Zan. We will win this war for you. Your child will live to see the rebellion laid to rest. Mark my words I will avenge your death.”

A branch broke and Charisse turned to where the sound had come from. Her hand fully drawn and powered to release a fatal blast. Realizing who it was she slumped down to hug her husband. “I couldn’t let him be alone out here. He needs to come home with us. He needs to be close right now. I want him to be able to see his son grow up. I want to be able to go to him when something is bothering me. I miss him already and he hasn’t even been gone a day yet.” Her body shook with her sobs. She furiously swiped at the tears that were running down her cheeks.

“How long have you been here?” She asked him.

“I’ve been here for most of the night. I knew you would come. He’s too important for you and you are too important to all of us. I had to make sure that it was safe for you to come.” He said.

The figure stood behind her and squeezed her shoulders. She placed her hand on his and squeezed it in return. “What am I going to do? How am I going to make it? He’s always been there and now he’s not.”

“You really want me to tell you what you are going to do? You’ve never listened to me before Charisse, what makes you think that you are going to listen now? Let’s take him home where he belongs. His people will want to give him a proper funeral, one fit for a king. This is definitely not the way for his life to end.” He bent down and picked up his dead king. Charisse held Zan’s hand not wanting to fully let go of him yet. It was unfair, so unfair. Her son wouldn’t get to know his father. What kind of life would that be?

Landing the transport back where it belonged Rath turned in the seat and took a look at his sister and her dead husband. He could see that she was changing. No longer was there warmth that resided in her eyes, as when Zan was alive there was only an unbelievable darkness that rested there. “Come on, its time to go.” He stood up and took him from her.

Lights from the fortress turned on flooding the entire area. Vilondra was the first to emerge from the hideaway. “I knew you would go for him.” She embraced Charisse in her arms. “Thank you. He loved you more than life itself, but I know I don’t need to tell you that. Come sister. We’ll start making preparations for a proper funeral.” Vilondra didn’t wait for Charisse to say anything. She pulled her through the corridors. Charisse didn’t pay any attention to anything that was happening around her. Every corner they turned their people bowed to her, paying their respects to their queen and their future king that she carried inside her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Max couldn’t believe what he saw. His wife going out after his dead body in the condition she was in. He turned Liz in his embrace and made her look at him. “I can’t believe you did that. If I had been there I would have locked you up. I can’t believe your brother just let you do that. Promise me… you won’t risk your life for me like that.” When Liz didn’t respond he asked again, “Liz, please promise me that you won’t do anything that foolish.”

“Max, I can’t promise you that. I don’t know what is going to happen. We know now what had happened in the past but can you honestly say that she did the wrong thing? It was what she wanted. She couldn’t stand to know that he was out there all alone. What kind of wife would she have been if she let her husband’s body lie out there to be forgotten? She did the same thing that I would have done. So, no! I won’t promise you that I won’t do the same thing. He meant too much to her as you do to me and besides Rath was there to protect her and I’m sure that Michael will be there if ever I need him to be there as well.” Liz grasped Max’s face in her hands and leaned in to kiss him.

The others in the room looked on in disbelief. Liz and Max were behaving as if no one else was in the room. As if Michael hadn’t just thrown Kevin across the room with a blast of power.

The replay shifted from the scene that they had been watching as they broke their kiss.


* * * * *


Lights were blinding her as her belly throbbed with pain. “You’re doing alright, Charisse. It’s only going to be a few more contractions and the baby will be out. Hang on.” Vilondra was dabbing at her forehead. Charisse could see the concern in her eyes.

“It’s going to be ok, Vilondra. The baby is fine. Don’t be so worried.” Charisse smiled at her.

“I don’t know how you can be so strong Charisse.”

“I’m strong because your brother loved me more than life. I’m strong for the baby that he will never see. I’m strong for the people that fight for our freedom day in and day out. And most importantly I’m strong because I know that I will be reunited with my love one day.” She squeezed her sister’s hand. “Don’t cry Vilondra. This is a time of joy, for a part of your brother lives in this child that is about to be born into this chaotic world of ours. Be strong for him if for no one else.”

Minutes later their child was born and his cries were heard throughout the fortress. Rath ran in instantly. Charisse knew he chose to stay outside for he couldn’t stand to see her in pain. “He’s beautiful Charisse. Absolutely beautiful.” He was smiling from ear to ear and as he wiped her sweat from her forehead he leaned over and laid a gentle kiss on her temple. “I love you little sister.”


* * * * *


There was a blanket spread out on the ground. The monument loomed in the background. Charisse was lying on her belly making goo-goo sounds to her young infant. He too was lying on his belly. Charisse rolled over on her back and then rolled back over on her belly trying to encourage her son to do the same. When he did she jumped up for joy and then picked up her son and began dancing. “Did you see it Zan? He did it! He rolled over!” She twirled around and around with her son in her arms looking down lovingly at him.


* * * * *


“Did you see that Rath? He’s crawling. Can you believe it? He’s crawling.” Charisse began scooting back as her son made his way to her. “Come on. You can do it, little one.” She leaned down in front of him so she was at his level. “Come on, get mommy.”

“Charisse if you keep on teasing the poor kid he’s going to grow up getting back at you. Quit scooting away from him and let him reach you. He wants to be in your arms. He’s going to wear out before he even gets there.” Rath laughed at her and his nephew.

“What are you laughing at?”

“You. I’m so happy you have him.” He got up and left but not before Charisse noticed the tears that were beginning to spill.

“Rath?” He never came back.


* * * * *


“Be careful,” she said to her son. Her mother-in-law was sitting on a bench that rested beside her son’s monument. Charisse was squatting down and clapping her hands trying to encourage him once again to take his first step. Her smile widened when he placed one foot in front of the other and then the other followed. The minute he let loose of the monument Charisse stood up to catch him in case he fell down. He didn’t though. One step after the other he finally reached his mother and once again they twirled with happiness.

“Liz, I remember this. I remember our son rolling over. I remember his first steps. I remember all of the firsts. How can that be?” Max asked in awe.

“There’s something that I need to talk to you about Charisse.”

“Yes, Anna?”

“It’s about the future. I’ve been working in the labs and I think we’ve found away for us to ensure that the Royal Family survives this war.”

Charisse looked up to her mother-in-law. “You have?”

“Yes, my only regret is that I didn’t have it done when Zan passed away. If only we could have preserved his essence we would be able to make sure that he too would return.” She was shaking her head in her own disappointment.

Charisse stood up with her toddler firmly gripping her pant leg. “What are you talking about?”

“Zan’s essence. We have found a way to genetically duplicate the Royal family by using their essence once they have left this lifetime. If only we would have had it developed we could have captured his essence right after he was killed and he would be able to live with you again when the time came.”

Charisse shook her head in disbelief and then began to laugh. “He knew… I can’t believe he knew.” She picked up her baby and once again began to twirl around in circles. Tears of joy running down her face. “He knew! He knew!”

“What Charisse? He knew what?” The elder woman was looking on in concern.

Charisse stopped her twirling and sat down in front of her son’s grandmother. “Zan came to me and connected to me just before he left that day. He told me to make sure to take you with me for you were working on something for our future. When he connected to me he gave me a piece of him and then later when I saw him shot down his essence grew inside of me. He’s always been here.” She placed her hand over her heart. “Here in my heart, my love has been with me.” She looked up at the woman and saw the tears of hope running down her face.

“You and my son will never cease to amaze me? The connection between the two of you has always been so strong.” She stood up shaking her head and began to go back to her research. “It’s true. The prophecy is true. You and my son will return to free us from our prison. I didn’t believe the prophecy when I read it so long ago but now, for the first time, I truly believe that everything is going to be ok.”

“Do you hear that? You will get to meet your daddy one day.” Charisse picked up her baby and kissed him on his cheek. They walked down the well-beaten path that led to his monument. “I never doubted you Zan. Never. Soon my love we will be together again.”


* * * * *


“You see what you did? You gave me a part of you that has never left. That’s the reason you are remembering these scenes. You were always there?” Liz gently rubbed his face and then turned back to the replay as it began to play again.

Charisse was in full battle gear. “Rath! Let’s go! The rebellion is here. It’s not safe anymore.” She hollered for her brother. For the last few years they had been fighting side by side. She had tried to stay away from the fighting to raise her son, but with the death of Zan she was the queen of her people and she couldn’t live in safety while others were dying.

“Momma, Momma, don’t go. I don’t want you to go.” Her son was firmly grasping her hand before she ran out the door.

“Patrik, you know I have to do this. Be strong for me. I’ve told you that even if something were to happen that it will all be ok, for your grandmother has found a way for us, including your father, to return one day. That can’t happen until my time is done.” He looked so much like Zan. “I love you so much. Thank you for being there for me all this time but the rebellion is getting too close. Soon we are going to be moving. You will need to go with Kevin now. Listen to what he has to say and do the best that you can.” Charisse looked into her son’s eyes and the connection flared.

She gave a little of herself as well as a little of Zan that was harboring in her heart. “We will always be with you. Don’t ever forget that.” She kissed her son’s forehead as a tear began to slide down her cheek.

Just like his father had done all those years ago he slowly lifted his hand to caress his mother’s cheek. “Don’t cry mother, I know now why you must do what you do. I’ll be ok; Kevin will look after me. Know that I will cherish this gift that you have given me for always.” He kissed her cheek and hugged her fiercely.


* * * * *


The replay ended. Max and Liz abruptly woke. “Patrik! NO!” Liz yelled which startled everyone in the room. “Kevin… What happened? The replay stopped. I have to know what happened.” Liz grabbed Kevin by the collar and began to shake him. “The fortress was under attack and my son was still there.” She turned around to search for Max. Panic was in her eyes. “He was still there and I didn’t get to see what happened.” Liz looked down at her arms and hands; blood was running down the length of them. She was instantly hit with a wave of dizziness and began to faint. Michael ran to her side and caught her just as the room went black.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Part 38

“Max! Help me.” Michael said as he gently laid her to the floor.

Max not being able to concentrate fully crawled to where Liz was lying. “Move. I need to get to her.” He grabbed her face gently and closed his eyes. The connection opened and his hands began to glow a golden color. Everyone in the room shielded their eyes from the blinding light. After a few seconds the light dimmed and Max cradled Liz into his lap; as she began to reawaken sobs wracked her body.

Max looked up at Michael and then at the others in the room, “She’s going to be ok. She just over exerted herself in the replays.”

Maria had watched what had happened with a shocked expression on her face. Hearing Max say that Liz would be okay broke her out of her trance, “Look at her arms, my god, they’re healed.” Maria said. “How is that possible?” She asked no one in particular. Turning to Michael, “Michael, is that what you did to my leg? Is that what happened in the desert?” As Michael took a step towards her, she retreated, “Who are you guys and what was she talking about her son?”

Kevin stepped between Michael and Maria. “Why don’t you two come with me? They need some time alone right now.” He attempted to corral the two humans out of the front room but Maria was not going to move.

“I’m not leaving this house until I have answers. I want to know what the hell is going on and I want to know now!” She demanded.

“Maria, come on. It’s going to be ok. Let’s let Michael, Max, Isabel and Liz alone for a little while.” Alex pulled Maria by the arm and quickly walked outside. “We’ll just be out front if you need us.”

Isabel walked over to them. “Thanks guys. I really appreciate this.” Turning to look at Alex she took his hand. “I promise we’ll fill you in on everything. Please, just keep cool about it until then. Ok.” Isabel gently squeezed Alex’s hand but he gently pulled away from her. He didn’t see her expression change because he had already turned his back on her to follow Maria out the door.

After the room was cleared the four of them sat in a small circle. Liz was still situated on Max’s lap and he had managed to calm her down. She was the first one to speak. “Our, son… he was beautiful. I have to know if he’s ok.” She was beginning to work herself up again, which was the last thing that Max wanted to happen.

“Shh, Liz. Kevin will come back and tell us what happened. After all, the replay told us that we sent Patrik with him so that he would be safe. If Kevin is here now surely our son is ok. Just a little bit longer.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As soon as they got to the yard Maria turned on Kevin and started, “What the hell is going on here? Who are they? WHAT, are they?” Alex tried to calm Maria down by placing an arm around her but she would have none of it. She shrugged off the arm, “Stop it Alex” and stood glaring at Kevin.

“Well, I think you already have a pretty good idea.” Kevin answered. He continued while shaking his head in disbelief, “I can’t believe that Isabel and Michael brought you here.”

“They didn’t have much choice. Michael needed a car… Mine. And Isabel had Alex with her when she started to freak out and head for Clovis.” Maria paused for a minute. “You’re very good. You still haven’t told us what’s going on here. What was that glowing egg thing? Why was Liz all bloody, and what was all that about a son?” Maria started to make a come-on gesture, “Answers, I want answers.”

“Okay, I’ll tell you what I can. It’s not really up to me to tell you anything. Zan and Charisse, uh, er, Max and Liz will have to decide what they want to tell you. Is that okay?”

“What do you mean ‘not tell us anything’? I just spent two hours in a car speeding across New Mexico.” Maria started pacing back and forth as she listed off every detail of her trip. “I had a car fall on me. I had someone who I don’t even like kiss me with no mouthwash or tic-tacs in sight. I’ve been told that something terrible is happening, but nobody will tell me how they know because we were on the other side of the state.”

As Maria took a deep breath to continue her rant Alex put his hand over Maria’s mouth to shut her up. “Yeah, that will be fine. Tell us what you can.” Maria bit his hand hard and Alex pulled it off her mouth and began flinging it to relieve some of the pain. “Damn Maria. Did you have to bite so hard?”

“Well, if you would stop trying to calm me down? Don’t you want answers too?” She asked him. Her hands firmly placed on her hips.

“Yeah Maria. I want answers. But we won’t get any unless you stop talking.”

“Uh, yeah. You have a point there.” Maria turned to Kevin, “Okay, we’re all ears.”

“Okay, Max, Liz, Isabel and Michael are, I guess you can say that they’re not from around here. They’re hybrids actually, part human, part alien. They mean you no harm.” Kevin started.

“Why are they here? Where did they come from?” Maria prodded Kevin.

“They’re from a planet called Antar and like I said, they mean no one any harm. You have to believe me. As to why they’re here and how? That’s a very long story and I have a feeling that I’m needed back in the house.” Kevin looked at both Maria and Alex to see if he was getting trough to them.

Maria shook her head, realizing that Kevin wasn’t going to tell them too much. “Look, I know that something important is going on. Can you at least give us an idea of what it is? Will everyone be safe?”

“All I can say is that Liz accessed her orb. It’s that “glowing egg thing” you referred to. It’s sort of a diary. It shouldn’t be dangerous as long as it’s kept under control.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Are you guys ok?” Isabel asked her brother and Liz. “What happened to you two?”

“Liz unlocked her orb. It’s like a diary of our past. We actually traveled back through her past memories. We had a son and we don’t know what happened to him.” Liz shuddered at Max’s words and curled into his embrace even deeper.

Michael reached out to touch her arm. “Liz… are you ok?” She had yet to say anything after she went after Kevin demanding that he tell her what had happened to her son. She shied away even further from his grasp hiding her head in Max’s chest.

Max could feel her fear. He kissed the top of her head and sent soothing thoughts. ’Wait for Kevin. When he returns we’ll find out what happened to Patrik. Don’t turn away from everyone. We are all here for you.’

Liz looked up and gently caressed the side of his face but continued to rest her head on his chest. Max tightened his embrace around her for support. It had to have been tough on her seeing him die and then having to carry their child while facing their enemies. He had only known this woman for a few days but his love for her had grown with leaps and bounds.

Michael stood up and began pacing. “Who is Kevin and how do you know that we can trust him. For all we know, he could be out there killing Alex and Maria.”

“We trust him because he took care of Liz while you and I were off fighting against the rebellion.” Max told them. “We trust him because he made sure that our son was born and was safe. We trust him because he knows more than we would have ever known if we didn’t.”

Looking at Michael Max saw that he still didn’t seem convinced, “Michael think. Try to remember. Kevin was one of our best friends. We met him at the academy.”

Michael had tuned out Max’s explanations and was peering out the front window when he started to laugh. “You guys should see this. Maria’s arms are moving just as fast as her mouth. If she continues at this rate she’ll be in the air.”

Isabel stood and walked over to where Michael was peering out the window. “Let me see.” He moved over but continued to hold the blind open for her. “What if they run? I don’t know how we will survive if they tell anyone who we are.” Her voice was filled with concern and worry.

“Isabel, if they haven’t ran yet then they aren’t going to run. We’ve known Alex and Maria for forever.” Max tried to soothe her worries.

“It’s just that we’ve never let anyone in before and now we have Michael and Liz as well as Alex and Maria. It’s just a lot for us to get used to. I can only imagine what they have to be going through.” Isabel began to nibble on one of her nicely manicured nails. Slowly nibbling it down to where there was no more to get.

“Stop that.” Michael said sharply. “It’s annoying the hell out of me.”

“Well, I’m nervous. Maria is still flapping her arms. Will she never stop?” Isabel retorted as she huffed off and began to pace.

Michael continued to watch Kevin try and calm the two humans. “I think it’s working. Whatever he’s telling them it’s working. Maria is calming down.” Michael sounded like a baseball announcer calling the play by play.

Isabel walked back over to the window and began on another finger. Max continued to hold Liz; she still didn’t want to move from his side. She was clutching his arm like there was no tomorrow. “Everything is going to be ok, Liz. Kevin will tell us what we want to know.”

“I’m just scared Max. Our son, he’s been out there for so long. All alone. Or worse yet, dead. I keep seeing the death of Zan and instead of him it’s Patrik. What kind of mother was I to leave my child and go and fight? What kind of priorities did I have? Surely I should have known that I would die. I had to have died because I’m here with you now. But where is he?” Liz began to cry. Her body began to shudder.

“Shh, Liz. You were the best mother he could have had. You went to fight for his freedom. You went to fight beside the people that fought for you. And when the end came you gave him the greatest gift any son would have wanted. You gave him a piece of his mother as well as his father to be with him at all times. Just like I was there when he was learning to crawl and walk, I’m sure I was there when he had his first kiss. It’s just that we haven’t unlocked all of our past yet. Don’t feel so down right now. You should be happy because you now know how you came to be here on earth and why you were sent in the first place.”

“I have to learn how to read the book. Kevin said that once I unlocked the orb that I would know how to read the book but I didn’t see anything in there that told me how to do it.”

“Let’s wait for Kevin. Surely he can fill in the blanks for us.” Max leaned down and kissed Liz’s forehead.

She nodded her head and then returned it to his chest. She felt safe in his arms. It was like wrapping up in one of her mother’s quilts out on the hammock at night. This is where she belonged. At least something was a given. There was no guessing on whether or not Max was the right one for her. Their love had survived a lifetime only to be returned now. After her parent’s death this was a very comforting thought.

Liz closed her eyes and just began to drift off. Everyone and everything faded into the background. She was brought back out of her silence with the sound of the front door opening. Kevin walked in and shut the door behind him.

“What are they going to do?” Isabel immediately asked.

“Yeah, is Deluca going to go to the FBI?” Michael threw out while he began to pace. “I knew I should have never kissed her.”

Kevin held his hands up to stop everyone from asking anymore questions. “I think you don’t have anything to worry about with those two.” He turned to Michael. “Especially Maria, she is so smitten with you.” He could see that Michael was going to argue but continued anyway. “She may protest too much, and so do you, so you might as well face it because the sooner you do the better off you are.” Kevin smiled when he saw Michael give up his fight.

“Kevin…” It was Liz who spoke up now. Her voice so small and the way she was huddled into Max’s arms made her seem even smaller. “Can you tell me now what happened to Patrik? I have to know. It’s killing me not to know.”

Kevin hopped up on the bar and took in a deep breath. It was going to be hard to tell these young people what they wanted to know. It’s going to break their hearts. Looking over each one individually he realized that it wouldn’t do anyone any good by putting it off any longer.

“Let me start off by telling you a little about myself. Until Max finds his orb and recovers his past memories there isn’t a lot that any of you are going to remember about me.”

“I don’t get it. Why didn’t Liz’s orb give us that information?” Michael interjected.

“The orbs only capture what their owner wants it to capture. What they feel is important to them. For instance Charisse’s orb focused on the personal side of her life. Zan, their marriage, Patrik. Zan always saw the larger picture, his duty to his people, history. I have no doubt that he wouldn’t have put more advantageous information in his orb in order to help the future generations to come. Does that help any?” Michael shook his head not really believing what was being said but not wanting to keep Kevin any longer from telling what they wanted.

“You were going to start at the beginning.” Isabel offered.

“Oh, yes. Thank you. I met Zan and Rath at the academy when we were sixteen. Zan and Rath’s training went in a different direction than mine did. I came from a family of protectors. Instead of being trained solely for combat I was trained to be an adjunct to the royal family. Our paths crossed many times over the first year. But during our second year at the academy I became a roommate of Rath and Zan. When Zan had asked for Charisse’s hand in marriage, he also asked me if I would stay behind to protect Charisse. I couldn’t refuse. So I was sworn to protect Charisse, the queen and when the time came for her to bear children my duties would also include them.” Kevin had forgotten about everyone in the room he stared off as if he were actually reliving everything that he was saying.

“Zan had been one of my closest friends and I deemed it an honor that he would trust me with her life and the life of his unborn child. I don’t think I need to go into any great detail about what kind of life you lived. Max and Liz basically relived most of them. I’ll touch on the highlights so that Michael and Isabel can understand as well.” He finally looked at everyone to see if that was ok with them. Seeing that there were no objections Kevin continued. “Zan left the day after their wedding night to go back to the academy to get further training. The rebellion, which was led by Khivar, was growing more and more. All of the men that were of age were to go back to the academy, which left the women to themselves. During the first year that Zan was away his father had passed away. Charisse, Vilondra and the queen were the only ones there for the service.”

“Khivar’s men didn’t wait too much longer before they took the castle. Zan and Rath had just left the estate and Charisse and I were pinned down. Unable to go anywhere we barely escaped. During our three-day trek I was ready to give up but she wouldn’t let me. She made me realize that there was more at stake than just our lives. The life of the unborn prince’s life was at stake as well. We made it to the hidden fortress and Zan and Charisse were once again reunited. Zan’s death followed a few months later and I was the only one left to protect them both. Charisse changed after the birth of her son. I had always knew that she was a spirited woman and when she put on battle gear to go fight beside her people I knew that I wouldn’t be able to protect her. There came a time when my duty to Charisse and Patrik started to conflict. I had sworn to Zan that I would keep Charisse safe, but her people needed her just like they had needed Zan, in sight, leading the royalist troops. Charisse had ordered me to switch my duty from protecting her to protecting her son.”

“Khivar’s men had heard of the royal heir and were furiously searching for him. My job as his sole protector had become increasingly difficult. The royal family became trapped in their central citadel. As the siege progressed, Zan’s mother and I came up with a plan to insure the safety of Patrik. We decided to hide him in plain sight. As long as he was a member of the royal court, and under my protection, he would be in danger. We decided that the best way to insure his safety was to place him in a home far away from the royal family.”

“You’ve never told us what the rebellion was about. Why was Khivar so against the royal family?” Max asked.

“Khivar’s biggest argument was that the people of Antar needed a more democratic government rather than one that was ruled by one family. Many people were easily swayed to think that that was the best thing for our home world but little did they know that Khivar had plans of being the leader of it all. He’s a manipulative man and will do anything to get what he wants.”

“Okay, that tells us about the war on Antar. But, why were we sent here? Why earth?” Isabel asked.

“Anna, Zan’s mother had been conducting experiments with cloning and reincarnation. Luckily, the experiments were just bearing fruit when the rebellion reached its climax. Originally, the plan was to recreate Zan and Charisse. Anna knew that Khivar was a liar and that once the rebellion was over, he would become a tyrant that he would never give up any power. She knew that once the people found out the truth about Khivar the royal family could stage their own rebellion. When Charisse and Zan died, Anna started the process. Rath and Vilondra were still alive but not for long. They were travelling to the central citadel for protection and were ambushed while in route. Anna managed to acquire the required essences’ as well and the plan to recreate the Royal Four was put into action. Once we reached the citadel the group of specialists began to do what was needed to be done. The four of you were created and sent here.”

“Were we sent here by ourselves or was there someone else? We were well hidden I know that but I can’t imagine being sent to a foreign world without some kind of protection.” Michael was looking at Kevin with questioning eyes.

“We had originally sent two protectors to be with you at all times. Their objective was to get you integrated into the human populace. I’m not sure what exactly happened since the craft that you were sent to earth in had crashed. We have never heard from either one of your protectors but the fact that you’re alive and well indicates that at least one of them survived. You were sent to earth before you were fully developed and would have been hidden until you developed enough to survive here. So someone had to hide your pods somewhere.” Kevin paused he was sure that there would be more questions at this point.

“Is there any way to track them or to contact them?” Max asked.

“I’m afraid not. I’ve been here on earth for the past three years and haven’t seen anything to indicate where they are.”

“Wait a minute. You’ve been here three years?” Michael asked. When Kevin nodded in agreement he continued, “And you went to a military academy with Zan and Rath on Antar?” Again Kevin nodded his head wondering where Michael was going with this.

Michael suddenly raised his hand ready to fire a blast at Kevin. “Get away from us. Back into that corner. Make sure you keep your hands where I can see them.”

Max jumped to his feet. “What’s wrong Michael? We’ve been through this. We can trust him.”

“Think Max. If he’s the real Kevin he has to be at least seventy-five years old. He doesn’t look anywhere over thirty. He has to be a plant.” Michael snapped out, never taking his eyes off of Kevin.

Kevin chuckled before saying, “Rath. Never one to trust someone easily.” He looked at the group in front of him. “There’s an easy explanation for that. I’m not like you. I told you, I’m a protector.”

“So, what the hell does that mean?”

“Oh, I forgot, you don’t remember. Let me show you.” Kevin put his hands in front of his body, closed his eyes and looked like he was concentrating. Before anything happened his eyes snapped back open and he said, “You’re going to see a bright, glowing light. It’s normal so don’t shoot me for it.” He again closed his eyes.

As the group watched, his body started to give off a blinding light. It lasted for a few seconds but when the light died down they were all looking at a perfect replica of Max.

“Oh. My God.” Isabel said with awe. All of the group just stood there staring at Kevin.

“Protectors have the ability to change their appearance. To shape shift. I just picked an appearance that would be familiar to you.”

Michael shook his head as he dropped his hand. “I’m sorry. I guess you are who you say you are.”

“How were you able to find us?” Liz asked.

“Your orb is what attracted me to you.”

“If you were able to find us because we activated the orb will there be others that will be able to do the same thing?” Max tightened his hold on Liz to comfort her and him as well.

“There is that possibility. I was scared when I arrived and found that the house was empty. That was probably the wisest decision that any of you could have made, for this is the location that they will hit first.”

“Kevin, I know this is important but you haven’t said anything about Patrik. What happened to him? Is he alive? I have to know. If he is still alive is there anyway for us to get to him and help him?” Liz was sitting determinedly to find the answers that scared her so much.

“I’m sorry, Liz. It’s so easy to get off the subject. Ok, two things worked in our favor. One, Patrik was the perfect combination of Zan and Charisse. He didn’t look like either one but if you looked closely enough you could see some of each in him. Two, there were never any pictures taken of him. Charisse wouldn’t allow it for security reasons. Now the only thing required was a suitable home and that’s where the queen came in. When she was at college, a gifted professor of psychology, Cundip Pring, mentored her. He was well respected by everyone even though he had pro-democratic leanings. The professor had a married son about the same age as Zan and Charisse so it was decided to place the child with him.”

“We think it was the perfect cover. Who would think of looking for the Crown Prince in the household of a well known member of the democratic opposition? And of course the professor thought it was a golden opportunity to raise a future ruler to believe in the democratic way. The only problem was that all ties to the royal family had to be severed, no contact, no protectors.”

“After placing Patrik in his new home, I made my way back to the citadel. I knew Patrik would be as safe as we could make him so my duty was to return to protect my queen. I was too late. It had taken me two weeks to take care of Patrik and in that time the citadel had fallen. Charisse had died in the fighting and the queen mother had disappeared. It seems that Charisse feared capture, she didn’t want to be subject to a mind-rape, so she made sure that she was in the middle of the heaviest fighting.”

Kevin stopped and looked at the teens sitting around him. He saw that all of them were hanging on his every word. It was like a fairy tale to them, a space opera.

“How could her troops allow her to put herself in danger? Didn’t she have a guard?” Max asked.

Kevin shook his head chuckling, “You never saw Charisse in action. She was absolutely amazing. I’ve seen wizened old generals cowed before her. She was no bigger than you are now Liz but when she got mad? Nobody got in her way. No, the generals and her personal guard wouldn’t be able to dissuade her if she knew she was right.”

Kevin chuckled again before continuing, “It wasn’t until months later that I heard about the queen mother’s experiments. The successful experiments. By then the planning for sending you off world were well under way. I finally reunited with your mother when they were deciding who and where to send you. The rest as they say is history.”

Kevin looked around trying to gage the reaction to the story.

Liz was the first to break the silence she was getting frustrated with Kevin talking around in circles. “Well, did it work?”

“Of course it worked. You’re here now aren’t you?” Kevin answered smiling as he teased her.

“No, I mean hiding Patrik? Is he safe? What happened to my son?”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Part 39

As soon as the door closed behind Kevin, Maria flew up the stairs of the porch and jammed her ear to the door. Alex came up behind her and tried to pull her away from the door, “Maria, he said he’d let Max and Liz tell us what’s going on. You don’t have to ease-drop.”

“I don’t want an edited version. I want all the dirt.” Maria responded as she tried to shrug off Alex’s hands and then returned to the door. She had just started to catch snippets of what was being said when Alex again grabbed her arm and tried to pull her away.

Maria turned to face Alex, fire in her eyes, she tried to pull her arm free from Alex and when she couldn’t she snapped at him, “Alex, if you ever plan on using that hand to play your guitar I would suggest you let go of my arm.”

“Right. I think you could give that Chihuahua dog Tess a run for her money.” Alex went back and sat down on the front steps. There was no way that he was going to let Maria bite his hand again. After all he had a gig in two days and Isabel said that she would go.

“I didn’t get the reputation for the gossip center of West Roswell High by accident, Alex. You know I can get information and this is information that I feel necessary in getting. Don’t you get it? They are aliens. They aren’t from around here. They could possibly have a mating ritual that includes killing their partner for all we know. And besides, I want to know how Liz could have a son and what’s happened to him.” Maria pressed her ear closer to the door she wasn’t able to hear anything. Damn Dry Desert Door Company, why did they have to make the best doors in the country?

“Why would you be interested in alien mating rituals?” Alex asked. Suddenly his face lit up with a huge grin. “Oh, Michael. Planning something for the future?”

“No way!” Maria snapped back. “I’m worried about you. I’ve seen the way you look at Isabel. And how about Max? You know I worry about all of my friends.”

Alex sat back and just waited. Maria could always work herself into a corner and this time would be no different. “You know I should just leave you to them.” Alex stated.

“Fine, see ya.” Maria quipped back.

“Well, I would if I hadn’t have ridden here with Isabel. You know we’ve known Max and Isabel forever and for you to react like this with them is uncalled for. They have never given us any reason for us not to trust them.” Maria whipped her head around to glare at Alex and before she could say anything he continued, “Sure they’ve always been distant but now you know why. How would you act if you were in their shoes? Would you be miss socialite of all the balls or would you frown against having any long lasting friendship in case your so-called friends accidentally found out your secret you’ve been harboring since you were born?” Alex was fuming the more he talked about it the angrier he got.

“Will you be quiet I can’t hear anything that they are saying.” Maria flapped her hand without looking at Alex to shut him up. Needless to say Alex ignored her antics and continued.

“If anything I have more respect for them. I can’t imagine living my whole life alone. It’s no wonder that it took her so long to acknowledge that she liked me.” Alex was thrown back to Monday night. Isabel was actually flirting with him.

“Ooh, wait, Isabel was named…” Maria said with her ear pressed to the door.

“Huh? What?” Alex snapped as he raced to put his ear next to the door. He listened intently for a moment before noticing the huge grin on Maria’s face. He leaned away from the door, “Thanks, Maria.”

Maria burst into laughter before returning her concentration to the door. “See, you want to know as much as I do.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Ah, yes. Your son. Well it partly worked.”

Patrik was definitely his parent’s son. He was a born leader. Cundip and his son Jordan raised Patrik and trained him well. He became a thorn in Khivar’s side. You see Khivar had gained support for his rebellion by cloaking it in a democratic aura. He promised to overthrow the monarchy and convert Antar to a democracy. But of course he was lying. Antar traded one monarch for a true despot.”

Kevin looked at Liz with a gleam in his eye; “Patrik has been in and out of jail as a major member of the democratic opposition. First as a student and now out of school.” The shrill ringing of Isabel’s cell phone made everyone jumped and interrupted Kevin’s tale of Patrik.

“Hello?” Isabel answered as soon as she gained her composure. “Hi, mom… Do I have a way of getting a hold of Max?” Isabel looked at him from across the room. She hadn’t told her mom that she was going to be heading for Clovis. “Wasn’t he going with Liz to Clovis? Hang on a second, I think I have the Parker’s number.” She covered the cell phone mouth piece, “Liz what’s your number. My mom wants to talk to Max and I forgot to tell her that I was here. I will be grounded for a week if she finds out that I’m out here.” Isabel pleaded with her brother’s girlfriend.

“Here.” Michael said as he took one of his dad’s business cards off the counter.

“Mom, didn’t I give you this number like two nights ago? That’s what I thought. So you don’t need me to give it to you again? Ok. Oh, mom. I’ll be late coming home tonight. The girls can’t make up their mind on the uniforms. Yeah, it’s a repeat of last year all over again. Ok, I love you too mom. See you when I get home tonight.” Isabel slapped the cover to the cell phone shut and took in a deep breath.

“What was that all about?” Max asked.

“I have no idea. Mom wanted to talk to you.” Isabel informed.

“How did she sound? Was she worried?” Max didn’t know if he could take much more. He had just learned that they had indeed lived another life on a planet far, far away and that he may still have a son living on said planet. He held Liz closer to him not so much to comfort her but to comfort him.

“I have no idea Max. If you want my opinion I would say that she sounded pretty happy. Just wait she’ll be calling here in a second.”

Just as Isabel had finished her statement the Parker phone rang and Michael instantly picked it up. “Hello.” He waited for Mrs. Evans to say what she needed instead of just giving the phone to Max. “Oh, Hi Mrs. Evans. Max… Yeah, sure he’s here. Oh, Maria and I drove down here when our shift ended. We couldn’t see Max and Liz doing all the extra packing by themselves so we came by to help them. You know what they say… the more the merrier.” Michael chuckled a fake chuckle and then continued. “Yeah, hang on. Let me see if I can get him to the phone.” He took the cordless phone over to where Max and Liz had been sitting the entire time. “It’s your mom.” He handed the phone to Max.

Max took the phone and before he started to speak he took in a giant, relaxing breath of air. “Mom? Is everything ok?”

“Oh, Max. You’ll never guess what your father and I found today while at a flea market.” Diane said happily.

“Umm. I have no idea what you found at the flea market today.” Max repeated everything his mother had said so the rest of the group that was listening in could know what she was saying. The room full of people seemed to close in as Max listened to what his mother was saying.

“Well you know your father and I were going shopping today and we were on our way back when we decided to stop by the flea market we had gotten that little toy house for you so long ago. I couldn’t believe it when we happened by it. I swear Max, if I didn’t know better, I would say that this is your house. It looks identical to the one that’s missing.”

“Wow, I can’t believe the luck that you two had. That’s amazing.” Max was throwing in a little bit too much enthusiasm but he knew how to take care of his mother. “I can’t believe you think the toy house you found at the very same flea market is mine.” When Max repeated his mother’s words all eyes widened in shock at what they had heard. “I can’t wait to see it when I get home.”

“Ok, honey. Be careful on your way home. I can’t wait for you to see it.” Diane said as she hung up the phone.

Max hung up the phone and looked at everyone. “Mom thinks she’s miraculously found the missing toy house.”

“The one that has your orb in it?” Isabel asked.

“Yeah, it couldn’t be it? Could it? I mean… it is from the very same flea market that mine came from. Who’s to say that it’s not from the very same artist that did mine.”

“But Max… it could be yours. Who ever stole it could have hocked it there and got some money for it. It could be yours and if it is… then you have your orb back.” Isabel’s face was lighting up from the very thought of getting her brother’s orb back.

“Wait a minute. You think your orb could be in this toy house that your earth mother has found for you? Why would you think it would be there?” Kevin had no idea what was going on.

“Max hid his orb when he was little in this toy house. When his home was broken into Monday night that toy house was the only thing that was missing. He wasn’t able to find it when he cleaned up his room.” Liz explained

“It can’t be it.” Max stated.

“But it could be.” Liz debated. “There’s nothing more that we can do here that we can’t do in Roswell. I have my orb and the book. I say let’s get out of here. Kevin said that if there were other’s out there this is where they will come and look the first chance they get.” Liz stood up. She began to wobble some because she had been sitting too long on Max’s lap. “I’m fine.” She said firmly when everyone reached for her. “I’ve been sitting way too long. Max is going to need more help than me. I’m sure he can’t even feel his legs.” Liz left the room and headed for her bedroom. “I’m going to get a few more of my things. I don’t know when we’ll be back here.” She wanted to grab a few personal things. She only knew who would be trampling through their house looking for clues of who they are.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The front door suddenly opened and Maria fell through the door into the legs of Kevin. “Well look here. A little nosy aren’t we?” Kevin said.

Michael walked up behind Kevin and helped Maria to her feet. “I’ll take care of her. We’ll talk on the way back to Roswell. I’ll make sure she knows how important the secret is.”

Michael took Maria’s hand and started to lead her back through the house to their car. “Come on, we’re going back to Roswell. Max’s mother thinks she found…. Oh, yeah. You probably know all this.”

“Kevin, we’ll meet you at the Crashdown in Roswell. We have to stop and fix Maria’s car on the way back so you just go ahead.” Michael added over his shoulder.

As they reached the back door Max, Isabel and Liz were waiting. “Caught our little CIA agent with her ear to the door. I don’t know how much she heard.”

“Hey, I told her not to do it.” Alex quipped as he walked up next to Isabel. Alex chuckled before continuing “But she wanted to know about alien… Ow!” Alex shouted as Maria hit him in the arm.

“Don’t say another word Alex.” Maria warned while giving him the evil eye and pretended to play the guitar. Warning him to be quiet if he ever wanted to play again..

“What the heck was she so interested in Alex?” Michael asked.

Before Alex answered he looked at Maria again and decided that he did like to play his guitar, “Oh, I can’t tell you that. But, Michael, you’re going to love it.”

They started back through the yards and as they crossed the rear fence Tess ran up to the teens yapping. As Isabel landed on Tess’s side of the fence the dog turned and headed back to the house, whining. Mrs. Johnson opened her rear door to see what was wrong with Tess and saw the teens crossing her yard. Mrs. Johnson looked like she was about to comment when Liz walked over to her, “Hi, Mrs. Johnson I hope you don’t mind. We parked our car on your street and we’re just cutting through to get to them.” Before any questions could be asked Liz politely waved and turned to leave. “Bye.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He never thought they would leave. He saw everything. Kevin, the protector of the reincarnated Queen of Antar was the first to show. He could feel the other’s getting closer but he forced himself to think of it as only his imagination from a long forgotten prophecy. He would wait to see what the protector was doing here. If he were here for the same thing that he was after, he would have to make sure that the orb didn’t fall into his hands. He would take the needed measures to ensure that. After all the weight of the world rested on his shoulders and his alone. The resistance was making a stand that Khivar could not defeat. Whether or not he succeeded on this trip made the decision of whether or not which side would win. And if he had anything to do with it his side would be the one to win. Antar had survived without the Royal Four and he would make sure that it could continue to survive without them.

As if they were travelling in slow motion he saw them. The wind had been knocked out of him. There in a truck driving down the road as if they were ordinary teenagers were Zan and Charisse. Sure they didn’t look like they did when they lived on his planet. He didn’t look like he did when he was home. But he could tell it was them. He could tell by the tiny little hairs on the back of his neck that stood at attention. He wondered if they could tell that he was close. Surely not. He wondered how long they had been together. They looked comfortable sitting beside each other. Together in companionable silence. Her head resting gently on his shoulder. A small smile sitting firmly on his face.

Khivar would go through the roof if he knew this information. He wondered who would be the first to tell him that the prophecy was actually true. He wondered what Khivar would do if it were him that told him first. Seeing the look of surprise in his eyes. Knowing that he would have a second chance at killing them all over again. He had to think about that some more. There would be a time and the place for everything once he got what he wanted. Khivar would then have no choice but to give him more.

He was a little surprised that they pulled back out of the drive. It made him wonder what was wrong. Did they know that he was watching them? He was wondering whether or not he should move to a different location. Should he set post up somewhere else? He watched them make the corner and continued. He got up and walked down the road and looked around the corner. They had parked at the house right behind the one he had under surveillance. What were they doing? Didn’t they know that they would be safe with the man that was in the house? Why were they trying to sneak up on him? He needed to get back to his post. It was only a matter of time before the other’s showed up. But his interest was piqued. He needed to move in closer to see what was happening.

As he made his way to the house he found that he wouldn’t be able to see anything. Kevin had done the best thing he could. He had closed all of the blinds. Kevin. He had mixed emotions about him. He had failed his King and had let his Queen die, yet he had done something that made the difference. He had been able to keep their heir from being discovered by Khivar. Most Antarians felt the same way as he did about Kevin. They wanted to hate him for the death of those held so dear to them but how could they condemn the very same man for saving something even more precious to them. The heir was still unknown to Khivar. But that was one of his objectives. He would make sure that everyone knew who the heir was and he would deliver him to Khivar himself.

A smile passed over the man’s face as he resumed his spot at the corner. He needed Charisse’s orb to make his mission complete. Hopefully his plan will fall into place. He was a brilliant strategist he knew if he watched this house long enough he would find everyone. Many had been sent to do this task but only one would have enough heart and wits to accomplish it and he was going to make damn sure that it was him.

Hours had passed and he was still sitting at the corner when a jeep holding four more teens drove by. Not much action happened in this town. He was surprised when the hairs on the back of his neck did the same thing as before. Could it be? He narrowed his stare in on the passengers of the vehicle. Focusing on the eyes he knew that his gut was correct in assuming that this was indeed the others. They didn’t have the same look of happiness as the first two did but there was something forming between them all, he was sure.

They too rounded the corner and once again he walked down the road and peaked around the corner to see that they were parking right behind the other vehicle. The driver, Rath, had gotten out and looked like he was issuing orders. He went ahead and he didn’t have to wait too much longer to see the others follow. He wondered whose idea it was to follow. If they didn’t know who was inside then why were the humans following? Rath would have Vilondra’s hide for not following his orders and she knew this because she was the last to follow.

He wished that he could get closer so he could hear as well as see everything that was going on. How he wished that he, to coin a human phrase, could be a fly on the wall. He shook his head in realizing the reality of the situation. There was no way that he would be able to get the orb now. Not with the four of them together and especially not now that they were with Kevin. They were too much to take on by himself. He would have to sit and wait and hope that Kevin doesn’t advise them to move the contents. He was still kicking himself for not going into the house sooner. He had wasted too much time following them around in Roswell. Seeing them at the restaurant was almost amusing. They had no idea how lucky they were to be here on this planet. While the rest of them suffered through a war that seemed to have lost its focus when the four of them had died.

Things heated up when Kevin brought the two teens out to the front of the house. They were talking in low voices. The blonde was one that he would not want to encounter under any condition. He wondered once again what was going on. Could it be that no one knew what was going on? Is that the reason there had been no activity for so long? Kevin walked back in and a few minutes later the front door once again opened and the blonde who was listening in as if she wanted to hear what was being said fell in. He had to hold back his laugh that was tempting to escape but it wasn’t the hardest thing that he had to do. It was easy not to laugh when you don’t remember the last time you last did that action.

As soon as everyone was out of the Parker house, the dark figure who had been sitting down at the end of the street pretending to be reading the newspaper while he waited for the bus got up and made his way into the house. He closed his eyes and concentrated. A hologram of the entire day began to play. The man opened his eyes and watched.

That was why there had been no signal from the orbs. They didn’t know what they were. He watched as Kevin told Zan and Charisse how to do it. He watched as the boy cradled the girl for support. He saw what happened when the others showed up. He knew why Kevin took the other two outside for awhile and he now knew why the blonde was so intent on listening at the front door. Seeing what he needed to know he let the hologram dissipate. Reaching in his pocket he retrieve a small device. He turned it and then pressed his fingers in the appropriate recesses and then he set the device down in the center of the room and left.

Weird alien symbols began to pass by. This location was no longer needed and he didn’t want anyone that could have followed him to find what he had just found out. What had happened would be available to anyone that had the power as he did for some time to come. He was lucky that he had had the chance to gather all the information of the two that had lived there before he destroyed their childhood home. That kind of information could be used in many different ways and he was the very type of person not to let any kind of leverage go unused.

By getting the second orb, he would end over fifty years of bloodshed. Not to mention how it would finally put the royal family right were it should be. As he walked back to his car a small smile crossed his aged face. He now knew the truth, what had only been fairy tales told to him as a young boy was confirmed, the Royal Four had survived and he now knew where they were. Opening the door to his car he got in. It looked like he would be travelling back to Roswell. He needed both orbs to get what he wanted. He didn’t come all this way to get just the one. Time was running out, if he didn’t get the other orb then anyone would be able to get it. At least now he had more information than the others did, getting the other orb now would be easy. The hardest part would be getting it without being caught.

From the looks of what had happened in the house today the four had yet to combine their energy to be the complete unit that they were designed to be. Time was of the essence and if he didn’t do what he came here to do they would be strong enough and with the help of Kevin would be able to travel back to their home planet. He couldn’t let that happened. If he had to he would have to take drastic measures to ensure that would not happen before he was ready. As he started his car and turned it around in the direction of Roswell a loud explosion ripped through the air and a cloud of black smoke billowed up into the air. It wasn’t the best way to take care of the house but it was effective.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The jeep lead the way out of town followed by the Toyota and then behind them was Kevin in his Buick. Liz wanted so bad to ride back to Roswell with Kevin, but Kevin thought that it was best for her and Max to be together after learning what they had. “There will be time to talk more.” He had told her. She wanted to protest but she knew that there would indeed be more time to talk later. What were a few more hours? She had already had lived a lifetime without knowing that she even had a son and what about Max. Surely he was going through the same things she was. He needed to know just as much as she did. She got after herself for not thinking of his feelings as well.

She didn’t know Max that well, but she had known Zan. And even though Kevin said that he was always prepared and that his orb would have a lot of information for the next generation she knew that she knew the side of Zan that no one had been able to witness and that was the side that Max showed everyone. Not knowing what to talk about Liz reached over and turned on the radio. Searching the radio for a station that was actually playing some music she settled on one and then sat back in her seat. Max could feel her discomfort so he did the only thing he could. He reached for her hand and enclosed it in his. Sending thoughts of comfort with a firm squeeze.

Michael resumed the driver’s position in the jeep. Maria was firmly attached to Alex’s side. There was no way that they were going to be separated. Michael looked in the review mirror and couldn’t help smiling. He had the perfect view of Maria’s face. He could tell that she was turning over all the information that she had had to consume today. Hell it was a lot of information for him to handle. It was no wonder that she latched on to the only thing that she knew for sure. Michael shifted his gaze to Alex. He had to admit that Alex’s expression was pretty much the same expression that he always carried on his face when Isabel was around. Pure adoration.

Looking over at Isabel he noticed that the she was looking intently at the finger that she had been gnawing on in the house while Kevin was outside with Alex and Maria. He leaned over and waved his hand over hers making the stub of the nail form back into uniform perfection as the rest. She looked up at him and smiled. “Thanks.”

“Hey I saw that. How can you just do that with a wave of your hand like that?” Maria was now sitting in between the two front seats. Looking at Isabel for an answer.

“Um... We have the ability to change molecular structure.” Isabel offered.

“Like you guys can regenerate appendages and things like that?”

“You’ll have to forgive Maria. She’s not the brightest when it comes to the sciences. She’s been in the remedial science class for the last two years. I think this will be the year that she passes just so Mr. Selegman doesn’t have to see her in summer school.” Alex was now squeezed in between the front seats alongside of Maria.

“That is so not true. I’ll have you know that I’m now in the regular class with the rest of you guys. Well… not Max. Max is in AP Biology this year.” Maria was beginning to ramble on about the subject of everyone’s science classes when Alex put his hand over her mouth. The memory of her vicious bite returning before Maria had the chance to chomp down on it. He pulled his hand away almost instantly.

“I didn’t forget.” He said before she was able to say anything. “What Isabel meant is that they can change the structure of things.” He didn’t know how to explain it to Maria and he knew the only way that she would get it straight was to see it demonstrated again. “Show her what else you can do.”

Isabel looked hesitantly at Alex. “Ok… It’s simple really. If I want to have pink nails I just concentrate on the polish that I currently have on and imagine the color that I want and somehow I just know what needs to be done and then…” her nails changed color, “—their that color.” She smiled at Maria. “It’s really hard to explain. But basically it comes in handy in all sorts of situations.”

“Oh, I get it. But what about the arm and leg thing? Say I lost an arm… could you make it grow back?” Maria asked Isabel seriously.

“I don’t know. I’ve never had to try and do that.” Isabel looked at Michael for assistance.

Just as he was getting ready to help answer Maria’s question they heard a loud BOOM from the direction of Clovis. “What the hell?” He said. He pulled the jeep to the side of the road and the remaining vehicles followed suit. Everyone climbed out of the vehicles and gathered in a small semi-circle to look back a huge cloud of black smoke.

“That’s not good.” Kevin said.

“Why is that not good?” Maria asked.

“That was an Antarian disintegrater.” He said.

“A what?” Maria would have to get a tutor to help her in science this year. She had to get up to speed with the rest of these guys if she wanted to continue to hang with them.

“It wipes out everything, especially memories in a specific place so no matter who happens upon it they won’t be able to tell who or what had happened there.” Kevin told the group.

“Why would anyone want to do that?” Maria asked.

“There’s only one reason anyone would want to do that and I’m not sure if you really want to know.” He looked at the group. Concern was clearly visible on each and every one of their faces. “Someone is wanting to wipe away all traces of your very existence.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Part 40

“Everyone back in your cars. Michael when we get to the stranded car you will need to fix it as quick as possible. Take the car and follow the rest of us. Once we get back to Roswell we need to separate. Who ever is out there knows that we will be heading to Roswell. They will know each and everyone of you. It won’t be safe for any of you anymore. No one is to travel without someone else.” Kevin looked directly at Maria and Alex. “And no one is to be without one of us.” Maria gripped Alex even closer.

“What are you saying? Someone is hunting us?” Liz asked. “You can’t expect Maria and Alex to go into hiding. They're human, they don’t have anything to do with us.”

“It’s true they are human but being in that house has put them in with everyone of you. I’m sorry, if there was any other way to do this I would do it that way but there isn’t. We don’t have much time. Move out! NOW! We’ll meet back at the Crashdown.” Kevin left the group and got back into his car. Everyone else followed suit.

“Isabel you drive that way I can hop out and fix the car and you guys can get back on the road without waiting for me.” Michael was the first to get back in the jeep, Isabel quickly followed. Maria and Alex were a little slower for Maria didn’t have any idea where she was going to sit. “If you’re not in this damn car in two seconds we’re leaving your asses here. NOW MOVE IT!” He saw Maria jump into action as she jumped into the back seat of the jeep with Michael. Alex had a smile on his face because he was able to finally sit next to Isabel.

The jeep took off and Max and Liz followed. They were quiet for the first ten minutes. The silence was broken when Liz spoke. “What do you think they are after?”

“I have no idea.”

“Maybe Michael and I should just give ourselves up to see if that would protect the rest of you.”

“Are you crazy Liz? There is no way that I will let you just hand yourself over to the enemy, no way. We will find a way to get around this. We’ve done well so far.” Max glanced over to where Liz was sitting. She was looking out the window. He reached for her hand and she turned to look at him. He could see her despair. “This is not your fault. I hear what you are thinking and I want you to stop this. My life is only complete with you here and I’ve waited over eleven years to find you. I’m not about to give you up now. Where is the person that we saw in your orb? Where is the fighter that is within you?” Max could see that Liz was going to protest and he knew exactly what she was going to say. “I know you are no longer that person but somewhere inside she is there. I love you for who you are not who you were. All I’m saying is that you are not the person to give up so don’t give up on us. Just don’t give up.” Max squeezed her hand and she gave him a small smile and then turned back to looking out the window.


The jetta came into view sooner than anyone expected. Isabel slowed down and before she had time to stop the jeep, Michael was already jumping out. “Go!” He yelled as soon as his feet hit the ground.

“Wait!” Maria hollered. “That car goes no where without me.” Maria stood up just as Isabel applied pressure on the brake and she about flew into the front seat of the jeep. “Driving skills must run in the family.” Was all she said as she pulled herself up and miraculously jumped out of the jeep unscathed.

Isabel tossed her a ‘go to hell’ look and then began to accelerate. “Be careful you two. Maria call me on my cell phone if you guys run into any problems.” Maria waved them off and by the time she had turned around Michael already had the wheel back on the car and was beginning to put the flat and the rest of the equipment back into the car.

“Are you going to wait for the bad guys to come take you away or are you going to get into the car?” Michael slammed the trunk closed and hopped into the driver’s side of the car. Covering the ignition with his hand the little car sprung to life.

“I’m coming. I’m coming.” Maria closed the door to the car just as Michael peeled out onto the highway. All in all years of watching NASCAR had helped. Granted it wasn’t a fifteen second pit stop but it was a damn good one if he did say so himself. He smiled to himself.

As Michael accelerated up to speed he just knew that there was no way that Maria was going to keep quiet on the long trip back. He began to slowly count to himself, one banana, two banana, three banana, and sure enough he didn’t have to wait too long.

“There is no way that I’m going to be constantly surrounded by you. No way!” Maria crossed her arms over her chest and huffed.

“Who said that I was going to be the one to guard you?” Michael glanced over to Maria and a smile slowly grew on his face. “I’m getting to you. Aren’t I? You like me. Face it Deluca you like me.” Michael nodded his head up and down and smiled even bigger. He enjoyed the idea of her liking him back. If only they could get passed this animosity that was between them. They didn’t have to fight all the time.

“In your dreams, Parker. There is no way on this earth that I would even begin to think about liking you.”

“That’s not what Kevin said. You know he has the power to read minds and he said that you liked me.”

Maria’s head snapped around, her face flaming red, as she opened her mouth in shock. “He didn’t. There is no way that… I’m going to kill him when I get my hands on him. Doesn’t he know that a girl’s private thoughts are just that. PRIVATE.” Michael looked at Maria and smiled one of the biggest smiles that she had ever seen on his face. Maria couldn’t believe it. She covered her head with her hands as she groaned. “Kevin doesn’t have that power does he?” She said into her hands.

“Nope.” Michael replied as he shook his head.

“You think you’re smart don’t you.”

“Yep. Why are you denying it so bad? I’m not all that bad am I?”

“No, take away the attitude, the hair, the clothes and the…. Uh, you’re not all that bad. It’s just…”

“Just what, Maria?”

“I don’t know you and the first thing I do find out about you is that you’re an alien. Do you know if it’s even possible for us to have a relationship?” Maria peeked up from hiding her face in her hands. Michael was quiet. “You don’t know. You have no idea what you do to me when you are around. I’m not usually this wacky but just being around you does something to me that I just can’t explain.”

“I know what you mean. I don’t usually act this way either but damn, woman, must you be so difficult?”

“I’m not difficult. You are.” Maria protested.

“Me!”

Maria could see that they weren’t going to get anywhere. “Ok… ok… truce. No more arguing about whose fault it is. Ok?” Michael nodded his head. “Ok. So tell me about yourself. Let’s get to know each other.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Alex. You’re being awfully quiet. Are you ok?” Isabel was nervous. Here she was with a cute boy. A boy that she was beginning to have feelings for. A boy that just learned that she was an alien, and a boy that wasn’t saying a word. It was killing her.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” Alex was drumming his fingers on his knee.

“You don’t have any questions that you want to ask me?” This was the best way for her to handle the situation. Attack her problem head on.

“Nope. No questions.” Alex replied while shaking his head.

“Really?” That shocked the hell out of her. “No questions at all.”

“Well, I guess there is just one question…” He looked at Isabel. She could see his fear beginning to surface. She wasn’t so sure whether or not she wanted to hear it but then she couldn’t chicken out now. Alex saw Isabel’s expression change. He couldn’t let her continue to think that he was scared of her. “I was wondering, since I know the real you, and with all the stuff going on, if you were still going to come to my gig on Friday night.”

It took awhile for the question to register in Isabel’s mind. “What? Your gig.”

“Yeah, Friday night. You had said earlier that you would come. I was just wondering if that had changed.”

“That’s it? With everything you heard today, you’re worried about your gig?” Isabel just didn’t understand Alex at all. He had just learned that she was an alien and the only thing he had on his mind was whether or not she would be coming to his gig.

“I can get you in for free. One of the perks of knowing me.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down and she broke out laughing.

“Alex you amaze me.”

“Well, Isabel you have always amazed me and no matter what I find out about you. I will always feel the same way about you. It doesn’t matter where you come from. It doesn’t matter that you are a reincarnated princess from some planet far, far away. I would like to be able to get to know more of you. That is… that is if you don’t mind.”

Isabel swiped a run away tear from her cheek. “I would like that, Alex.” She leaned over and grabbed his hand and took it in hers. “I would like that a lot.” She took her eyes off the road and looked at him and gave him a smile. “Thanks. I don’t know what I would have done if you were to act like Maria. I don’t know how Michael is handling it.”

“Don’t worry about Maria, she’s ok with the whole thing. You just have to run it through the Maria filter to understand her actions. She likes Michael a lot and knowing what she knows about him hasn’t changed anything. She still finds him irresistible. She’ll come around and once she is cool with everything there won’t be anything that she won’t do for all of you. She’s a friend for life. She just has a weird way of showing it.”

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“Liz, you ok?” Max was still worried about Liz. She still wasn’t saying anything.

“Yeah, I’m ok. Just thinking. That’s all.” How would he act if she told him that she thought that Kevin was overreacting?

“Are you sure?” Max wasn’t convinced. She was blocking her thoughts from him. Sure he could get them but he wanted her to give them to her freely. This connection that they shared was great but he didn’t want to take anything for granted. “You know you can tell me anything. What are you thinking about?”

She turned in her seat and adjusted her seatbelt so that it wouldn’t cut into her neck. Max glanced over at her and held her gaze for just a few seconds. “Don’t get mad at me.” She started. “I just think that Kevin is over reacting about this whole evil alien thing.” She could see that Max was going to argue so she held her hand up to prevent him from talking. “Just listen.” He nodded his head. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her right ear and began. “Who ever destroyed my house did us a favor. Kevin said that they destroyed the house to keep others from replaying what happened there. I was just thinking that if they were evil, why would they care if any others found out what they had found out? Does this make any sense?” She let out a big breath and began to bite on her lower lip.

Max looked at Liz and took in her expression. She was grasping for straws. “I can see how you would think like that but think of it this way. They could have destroyed your house so that no one would be able to find you guys and protect you too. It can go either way Liz.”

“But they could have attacked us and didn’t. Doesn’t that count for something?”

“They just missed us. We left too soon.” Max glanced at Liz. “We can go on like this the whole ride back to Roswell. The main point is, that until we know more I don’t want you doing anything foolish. I don’t want you to go anywhere without being accompanied by, Kevin, Michael or myself. Ok? I just found you I don’t want to loose you.” Max took hold of her hand in his and pulled it up so that he could kiss it. “We’ll get through this.”

“It’s just that knowing us has turned everyone’s life upside down. Our parents are dead. Maria and Alex find out that there are aliens among them and not only that they have to go into hiding because they know us. You and Isabel had a normal life. Don’t try and argue with me. Face it. Nothing good has come out of knowing Michael and me. Nothing.” She pulled her hand away from his hand and turned her body back towards the passenger side door.

“Liz…” She ignored him. “Liz… listen to me. I’ve known Maria and Alex for a long time. They are good people.”

“Yeah, they are and they shouldn’t have been thrown into our world. Don’t you get it Max? We can never have a normal life. Everyone we interact with will be put in danger until this whole war thing is over. Khivar is out there and he now knows we are here. I have no idea whether or not Patrik is safe but if there is a way to go back I will. I will go back.”

Max waited for her to say something else. “Liz we don’t know if there is a way back or not. Our ship crashed.”

“There’s a way back. Kevin’s here, and who ever blew up the house is here. There’s a way back.” She leaned her head against the hot window. The air conditioner vent was blowing directly in her face. “I’m not going to put anymore people in danger, Max. I’m not. This is my life and this is my responsibility as far as I’m concerned they are only after Michael and I. I’m sure he will agree with me. As soon as we get home, we will be leaving. I just hope that who ever is following us doesn’t blow up the Crashdown.”

“Are you listening to yourself? Liz you just can’t leave. Like you said, whoever is following US blew up your house to cover your tracks. They will blow up anything and everything you have come in contact with whether you’re there or not. Don’t you owe it to Maria and Alex to be there for them? To protect them.”

“I am trying to protect them, don’t you get it?” Liz snapped.

“Liz, I love you but I’m not going to let you run away just for the sake of trying to protect us. We make our stand here and we make it together.” Liz didn’t hear everything that Max was saying.

“What did you say?” She had to hear him say it again.

“I said… I’m not going to let you run away. We do it together.”

“No… no, I mean before that, tell me again how you feel about me.”

Max ran his statement back through to see what she was talking about. Coming over the part that he knew she wanted him to say he turned to her again. “I love you. Liz… I love you and…”

He wasn’t able to finish. She unbuckled her belt and leaped for him. Throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him on his cheek. The car swerved on the highway and after Max got it back under control Liz continued, “I love you too. I love you too. You’re right. Running now won’t make any difference. I’ll stay and we will face who ever is out there together.”

“That’s all I had to say? Well, if I would have known that I would have said that at the very beginning. I thought you knew how I felt about you.”

“I knew how Zan felt about Charisse but I didn’t expect you to feel that way about me.” She sat back down in her seat and buckled back up.

“Sometimes I think you think too much. I’ve been telling you that you complete me for the past five days and for the past five days you’ve been dodging everything.”

“I have haven’t I? It’s just…”

“I know.” He said as he took hold of her hand once again. “I know.”

They traveled the rest of the way in silence. Liz was still going over her options. It was comforting knowing that she had Max and Kevin to rely on as well as Michael and Isabel but she couldn’t help the thought passing through of what was going to happen to Maria and Alex. Just like Max and Isabel, even though she had only met them this past weekend she felt like they were closer to her than they should be. Those two were rare. Very rare.

They pulled into Max’s drive and they both got out. “Well, let’s go see what Mom and Dad have found.”

“Ok.” Max walked around and grabbed Liz’s hand.

He opened up the door and they walked in. The living room was empty. “Mom… Dad… I’m home.” Max called out to what appeared to be an empty house.

“In here, honey.” His mom called out from the kitchen. “We weren’t expecting you this soon. Hi Liz. Did you guys get everything that you needed to get?”

“Yes, Mrs. Evans there’s nothing left in Clovis for us to get. It’s all taken care of.” Only Max and Liz got the double meaning that Liz was referring to.

“Well that’s good. I’m so glad to hear that.” Diane rubbed her hands on the front of her apron. “Come look Max. I can’t wait to show it to you. Your father and I couldn’t believe when we came across it.” She walked out to the living room while Max and Liz followed. Diane reached for the toy house and when she turned her face was covered with a smile that reached from ear to ear. She held it out for Max to take.

He was so nervous. He didn’t know what to think or how to act. Liz urged him forward for him to take the gift his mom was so anxious for him to have. “I can’t believe you guys found one like it.”

“I think its yours Max. Look at the bottom.”

Max turned the house over and noticed that who ever had taken it didn’t bother to cover up the inscription that Diane had written on it so long ago. Max looked up at his mom. “I can’t believe it.” He turned to Liz. “It’s mine. It’s the one that they took.”

Liz smiled at him. You see. Some things are just meant to be. she sent to Max.

“I’m going to go put it in my room. Come on Liz.” Max had already started for his room before he remembered that Liz would still be standing there. He held his hand out for her to take and the two of them headed for his room. The minute the door was shut Max turned around and looked at Liz.

“I can’t believe they found your orb.” Liz began. “This is great. You’ll be able to see what you kept to be passed on to our children.”

Max didn’t want to break Liz’s bubble but he needed to let her know. “Liz… the orb isn’t inside.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. The house is too light. Whoever took it the other night was one of us. They were able to change the molecular structure to get the orb out.”

Liz sat down on the bed. “Oh.”

There was a knock on the door. “Kids, will you be staying for supper? It’s almost ready.” Diane asked as she opened the door and stuck her head in.

“No, mom we won’t. Everyone is meeting at the Crashdown and then we are going to help Michael and Liz with the things that we brought back from Clovis.”

“Thanks Mrs. Evans. Maybe next time.” Liz smiled sweetly at her.

Diane shut the door. She thought that the two of them would have been happier after Max received the house.

“How did it go?” Phillip asked.

“I’m not sure but I think there is something that we are missing.” She said as she sat down at the kitchen table.

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He pulled his car around the corner and parked. He had seen all of the vehicles parked outside the restaurant when he drove by. Now would be the right time to go get Charisse’s orb. He would sneak upstairs and get it before anyone realized that he was there.

Walking around to the end of the brick building he made his way up the fire escape. He couldn’t help but smile at how easy everything was going to be. Easy in and easy out. He would be gone before they realized that anything was gone. Climbing over the wall and landing on the roof he was instantly hit with a wave of emotions. He staggered and in order to remain standing he had to grab hold of the wall. He shook his head to clear it and then began to walk to the window.

Passing his hand over it he watched as the latch moved to unlock the window. Reaching down he pulled it open and he stepped inside. He looked around and took in the furnishings. He ran his hand over the desk that sat to his left. He picked up a few pictures that littered her dresser. Flashes passed through as he touched each one. The emotion that she was feeling when each one was put in its frame.

He quickly sat them back down. He was getting sidetracked. He was here to do a job and he couldn’t get caught up with this now. Maybe there would be a time for it later. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the room. Once again a hologram came to life and he watched and waited to see what she had done with the orb. The hologram didn’t move. It wasn’t here. She had yet to bring it up. “Damn it.” He swore. Why couldn’t this be easy? Why was everything that he was supposed to do be so difficult? Granted, getting Zan’s orb was easy but for some reason Charisse seemed to be one step ahead of him at all times.

He dropped his hand and with it the hologram dissipated. He walked out of the bedroom and into the main part of the apartment. He once again closed his eyes to capture the replay of the room. He opened his eyes to watch what had happened. If it weren’t here he would have to wait awhile for it. And more than likely he would have to take it with force. He didn’t want to have to do it that way but if he had to he would.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Where’s Liz going?” Isabel asked as her brother walked into the diner.

“She’s just going to take the book and the orb upstairs.” Max told the group. He looked at each and everyone of them. It had been a long day and their bodies told the story. “I know it’s going to be difficult at the beginning but I think we have a diverse enough of a group to do it. I don’t want any of us to go anywhere alone until we find out who was in Clovis. No matter what anyone is thinking none of this is any one particular person’s fault.”

“Who said it was?” Maria asked.

“Liz thinks that if her and Michael wouldn’t have been involved with any of us that none of us would be in this situation now.”

Everyone was quiet. “It’s true.” Michael finally broke the silence.

“What! You’ve got to be kidding me.” Maria slapped his arm. “This is not your fault. Neither you or your sister asked for any of this to happen to you.”

“Michael, you have to promise me, under no circumstances are the two of you to leave Roswell without us.” Max continued.

“I agree.” Kevin finally spoke. “Running will only make matters worse.”

“I agree.” Everyone shook their head when Isabel seconded Kevin’s statement.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Liz bounded up the stairs to her apartment. She didn’t know what she would do if she didn’t have the group of people downstairs. They were her family now and no one was going to take it away from her. She didn’t know if it was the idea that something dreadful could happen to them because of her or if it was something else but she continued into her apartment.

Opening up the door she was hit instantly with the shock of seeing a stranger in her living room. She instantly froze in the doorway and stared at what he was doing. A hologram was being projected from his hand and he was staring at it intently. She couldn’t move from her spot, the stranger… There was something about the stranger that held her there.

He was too engrossed in the hologram to recognize that his hair on the back of his neck was once again standing on its end. When the door opened it was too late to finish what he was doing. He dropped his hand and the hologram disappeared. He turned to see who it was and when he saw the petite brown haired girl from earlier he smiled.

Her eyes were wide with shock and she made no attempt to move. He took a step forward and was instantly hit with a golden force field to halt his progress. “Don’t come any closer.” She said with backbone. He stopped and just looked at her. The minute she locked eyes with him the shield dropped.

“You. Its you.” She shut the door. For whatever reason she wasn’t quite sure. She wasn’t operating on her own will. Something else was driving her. Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to make the right decision she called out to the one and only person that would be able to help her. MAX!

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