Chapter 3: Histories

A/N: Well it's been a while since my last update, but I've been out of the country so that's kindof taken the front seat in terms of things to do! Anyways, here's chapter 3 now; to be fair, it's pretty long. I've started chapter 4 now, so hopefully that'll be up in the next week or so. Thanks for the nice reviews everyone...it's nice ot know that people are still into this show even though its been over for a while now!


"Eww."

That was the first word that had been uttered in the last five minutes, and though he didn't necessarily share his sister's choice of word for the situation they found themselves in, Max Evans agreed wholeheartedly with the sentiment. Eww was right.

"They live in a sewer?" Michael asked in disgust, though it wasn't really a question. He knew that they would never be down there unless they knew for sure. Isabel squeaked suddenly as a rat scurried by, clutching tightly onto both Max and Michael's arms.

"Oh my God," she muttered, shaking her head. "Let's hurry up please," she begged them. "I just want to get out of here."

Max nodded and stepped in front of them, leading the way that he remembered from his lone visit there two years before. After a couple of more minutes of walking they climbed up a final ladder, to a raised level of sewer, and came out onto the platform of what had at one time probably been a rail route. It now housed a makeshift home, the same furniture that had been there two years before.

The dupes weren't there right now, but as Max looked around he was flooded with memories from the last time, and he could almost see their faces. Michael picked up a guitar (missing one string) briefly, strummed the remaining strings once, and then set it back down on the sofa. A flash of Rath and Lonnie on that same sofa passed over Max briefly. He reached down to touch an abandoned hockey stick and suddenly remembered Tess flinching as a series of rocks ricoched off of the brick walls, and his orders to Rath to knock it off…the look of gratitude on his face when he sat down close beside her…

Isabel was staring transfixedly up at the pods, embedded in the brick wall, with a look of pity on her face. Michael joined her, staring hard at would have been his pod. "They were born here?" she asked quietly, he voice breaking slightly. "Into…this? Why would their protector let them stay here?"

"He had another life by the time they came out," Max told them, in no way defending the man. "He told them just enough to keep them together."

"Makes Nasedo look like the fatherly type," Michael noted, his hand unconsciously going up around Isabel's shoulders. She leaned into him, clearly feel guilty about the dupes' situation, even though she despised them.

"They sent two sets," Isabel shook her head. "They needed us to survive so badly that they sent two sets of us down here," she turned her attention to Max and Michael now. "Eight of us were born and there's only six of us left! And we still don't know what we were supposed to do here, or how we're supposed to get home!"

"We belong here Isabel," Max insisted. "We're human too, and we belong here on Earth."

"Do we?" Michael asked, still eyeing the pods. "We were sent here for a reason Maxwell—"

"And we were left to figure everything else out on our own!" Max yelled, cutting him off. Isabel blinked back at him in shock but Michael was visibly biting his lip from retorting to that. "They sent us to make our way here with a murder, and they sent them to be abandoned! We're better off on this planet!"

"What about Antar?" Isabel insisted, her voice a little shaky. "Are they better off with us here? What if we're subjecting them to…they sent us here so we could stop Khivar. We can't just abandon them—"

"They abandoned us," Max cut her off too. "They know that we're here now, without a protector, or anyone who knows about Antar. They know, and they haven't done anything about it! They must know that Tess is dead…they just stopped trying to reach us!"

"Or maybe we just stopped trying to listen," Michael pointed out. "We've been hard to pin down lately you know—"

"No," Max shook his head stubbornly, knowing that he was being unreasonable but not caring. He took a deep breath and looked around the room again, one more time seeing those same images of the people that once stood there, the Royal Four. "I'm done letting them decide my destiny for me. I'm done even entertaining notions that we're supposed to go back there, okay? Coming here has just solidified that fact for me…I'm choosing to live my life here on Earth with Liz. Not on some distant planet with someone who no longer even exists. I have a new destiny now."

Michael stared back at him defiantly, but wisely chose not to say anything. Isabel just continued to stare up at the pods. Max couldn't bring himself to hold Michael's gaze any longer, and so he instead allowed himself to wander around the space a bit, seeing more than he had the last time. The others did the same.

Isabel found a rickety old bookshelf, filled mostly with old skin magazines, and the odd ripped book. She picked up a copy of Nineteen Eighty Four and flipped idly through the pages. Michael started snooping through a stack of abandoned CDs, most of which were scratched badly or broken in half. Max inspected a corner that had a variety of faded posters on the walls.

Old band posters and once-colourful Broadway show pictures seemed to have been their only real effort at making the place homey. A Stomp poster swung precariously from the lone piece of blue tack that was still holding it up. He moved his arm to re-stick the poster, but the slight breeze caused it to sway and flutter down to the ground. That got Isabel's attention and she looked over, following Max's gaze to the lines that had been carved into the wall. He must have been staring intently, because she came over to join him. "What is it Max?"

He pointed wordlessly to what looked to be charcoal lines that made their way up the wall. Growth marks. Each line had a name scribbled beside it, the lowest ones in childish writing, and the higher ones in the steady hand of a grown up. Isabel's eyes teared up a bit looking at it, and Max found himself staring hard at the first set of lines, and the name Zan printed in small capital letters. Ava had always been the smallest, Rath the biggest.

Michael was behind them now, looking at the markings too. Wordlessly he reached around Max and tugged at another poster. It fell away to reveal a couple of chipped bricks. Something had obviously been carved into the stone, deep and jagged, as if made with a knife or another rock. The other posters came down quickly after that.

Within two minutes they had cleared several feet of wall space that had apparently been used as a sort of makeshift scrapbook over the years. Black paint and various markers spelled out things like "Antar", "Destiny", "New York", "Punk Rock Prom Queen", and "Royal Four". There were a couple of sketches painted there too, small ones, like those that Michael had done in the past, obviously remembering battles and things from their past lives. And finally, carved deep into the brick, in the very middle of all of the writing, were two large hearts with two names carved in each. Zan and Ava. Rath and Lonnie.

"They were a family," Isabel said lowly from her spot between them. She shook her head and Max could hear the trembling in her voice. "The four of them…they obviously loved each other. What happened to them? How did they go from the four of them to…what they are now?"

"They grew up," a harshly familiar voice growled from behind them. Max was embarrassed to admit that it surprised them, and they all jumped, turning around suddenly. In the entranceway to the tunnel Lonnie stood facing them with a smirk, cold and harsh. Rath stepped up behind her silently, mirroring her cool gaze and eyeing Isabel with a glint of desire in his eyes…and something much more sinister. "They learned the ways of the big bad world," Lonnie continued, moaning a little while Rath let his hand rub the back of her neck, his gaze never wavering from Isabel. "They started to remember things…and they started to realize that nothing on this planet is worth a damn thing except for themselves." Rath kissed her neck and his eyes flashed dangerously.

Beside him Max felt Isabel staring back in fascination, looking at the man that looked so much like the boy she'd grown up with. Max knew that fascination though, because he'd felt the uncomfortable tug in his stomach when he saw Ava, the almost twisted variation of Tess. The Dupes were repulsive, being murderers and all, but there was something about them that was hard to ignore. Max supposed that the feelings stemmed from the unconscious desire to pair off with their destined mates; and the Dupes offered the physical desire without the messy complications of being people that they knew through and through.

Isabel continued to stare at Rath and Lonnie in a mixture of fascination and fear, and Max could hear her breath become slightly more laboured. Michael frowned at the Dupes and took a step closer to Isabel.

Rath let his hand cup Lonnie's backside briefly before stepping around her and striding confidently into the room. "You know breaking and entering is actually considered a crime," he mocked them, coming to a stop a few feet in front of them and leaning against the couch back. He looked Isabel up and down obviously and leered. "But Issy… is sure is nice to see you again doll."

Isabel's look of fascination quickly vanished and she scowled at him. Max felt his stomach tighten in anger and from the clenching of Michaels fists, he guessed that he wasn't the only one. Lonnie rolled her eyes and walked over too, managing to look terrifying and yet oddly beautiful as she stood in front of them, effortlessly taking command of the room.

"What the Hell are ya doin in here?" she demanded. Her voice didn't sound angry, just annoyed, but Max wasn't fooled. She was pissed.

"We were just checking to see if you guys were okay," Isabel answered lamely, shaking her head even as she said it. Rath ran his tongue over his teeth but she looked pointedly at her own Dupe.

"Aw, how sweet," Lonnie drawled exaggeratedly with a sardonic smirk. "Golly gee Isabel that sure is nice of ya."

"We've had some trouble with the FBI in the last few months," Max cut off her mocking. Him speaking seemed to make Lonnie shut up easily, and he wondered if that was something that she could help, or if it was subconsciously engrained in her. Or maybe she was just imagining how to kill him. "We were just checking in, to make sure that they hadn't found you guys yet either."

"As if they could," Rath snorted.

Lonnie smiled again, this time a little mysteriously and not quite so cruelly. "We can take care of them Feds just fine on our own Maxie," she assured them. She crossed her arms and took a seat on the couch back beside Rath. He slung a heavy arm around her shoulders and they both stared back challengingly.

"What about Ava," Max pressed, not knowing why he needed to know.

"Ava?"

"Oh please, we haven't seen that idiot since we left her ass in New Mexico two years ago," Rath laughed, obviously amused with that. Michael and Lonnie both rolled their eyes at that.

"Where's Tess?" Lonnie countered, raising an eyebrow. Michael, Isabel and Max all shifted uncomfortably at that.

"She's dead," Max admitted reluctantly. Lonnie and Rath didn't laugh at that, but they did just nod silently, accepting it and not caring to ask for a back-story.

"And then there were six," Rath said instead, not quite joking. He leered at Isabel again even as he rubbed a hand up and down Lonnie's arm with the unconscious actions of a well-familiar lover. "Maybe we should repopulate the planet?"

Isabel snorted in disgust at him, but Max thought he saw her cheeks flush a bit. From the way Michael's jaw seemed to set and his shoulders stiffened, Max was sure he wasn't the only one who saw that.

"Well, now that we know you're alive I guess we can be going," Max said decisively, leading the way out of the tunnel. Isabel and Michael followed, him being sure to stay between her and Rath at all time. He had seen the way that creep looked at her, and worse yet, the way that she'd looked back. She'd tried not to but the fact was that she was as drawn to Rath as he was to Lonnie. Neither of them were stupid, they knew that there was a biological predetermination for attraction there….but they also both knew that the turn on wasn't really that they were meant to be partners. It was that they looked just like…

"What? You're just going to leave without staying to chat?" Rath called back, pressing a hand to his heart in mock pain. "Don't cha wanna know what we've been up to? Who we've been playing with?"

"I can only imagine," Max replied dryly, pausing briefly in the doorway. Lonnie was up off of the couch in a flash, Rath close behind her, and standing only a few feet in front of them.

"Come on now kiddies," she drawled, eyeing Michael hungrily. "Let's not be rude. Stay and play a while…just think of all the fun and games that we can get up to."

"We really need to be going," Max returned stoically. Michael felt parts of his lower anatomy tighten uncomfortably as he watch Lonnie sway slightly on the spot. She held his gaze unabashedly, even as Rath touched her back. Michael didn't know if he was more weirded out by the fact that her boyfriend didn't care, the fact that she was so blatantly hitting on him, or the fact that he was so close to letting himself be persuaded. She was beautiful, those same large eyes, long lashes, full lips, perfect curves…she looked so much like-

"Suit yourself," Lonnie shrugged, leaning back into Rath comfortably. She gave a cheery wave which was meant to do absolutely nothing other than mock them. "Oh, and Zan?"

Max froze again at that, they all did – you could hear the distant sound of the subway trains running it was so quiet in there -, and he paused to listen without actually turning back.

"If we find you in here again, going through our shit, we'll be one more King down," she told them, all traces of joking aside. Michael felt his blood run cold at that, and the attraction that he was feeling for her drained away almost instantly. Behind her Rath watched them soberly, the serious expression on his face as chilling as hers. Isabel shivered slightly and Michael put a comforting hand on her back unconsciously, letting her know that he was there and that they should just keep moving.

Lonnie stared coolly at Max's back, he still hadn't moved, and Michael suddenly thought that she looked less beautiful now. Isabel was far prettier, though they were biologically identical, because she lacked that cold, emptiness in her eyes. She radiated warmth, and Lonnie…Lonnie just wasn't her. Even if she tried.

Max didn't answer that, he just kept walking out of the tunnel and down the ladder. Isabel went next, pausing at the top of the steps when Lonnie called out to her. "See you later Vilandra." Michael looked down at her, from his place a few steps above, and she stared up at him, all watery doe eyes, and managed to keep a straight face though he could swear he saw her lower lip quiver slightly. Michael held her gaze steadily, comfortingly, and she descended the ladder to the bottom, where Max helped her jump down the last couple of feet.

Michael took his turn next, looking over his shoulder at Rath and Lonnie, waiting for whatever smart remark they would have for him. He need not have bothered, for they had lost interest in them. Michael's mouth dropped open a bit as he saw them kiss deeply, Rath's hands running up underneath her shirt and moving down to pull her roughly against him. Michael caught one last view of them tumble onto the couch, lips still crushed together, as he got a sudden flashback. Stars, rocks, blonde hair, a blue dress, and two suns—

"Michael!" Isabel cried, rushing over to him as he missed a rung on the ladder and dropped the last couple of steps. He caught himself before hitting the ground though, and managed to climb down the rest of the way just fine though his legs didn't feel incredibly sturdy when his feet managed to land on solid ground..

"What happened?" Max demanded, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I had a flash," Michael told them, shaking his head. All he could see now was the darkness of the sewers, lightened slightly by the lamp from above, and Max and Isabel standing beside him.

"What did you see?" Isabel asked eagerly, her hand grabbing his arm and unconsciously taking a step closer to him.

"I saw you," Michael answered her automatically, his traitorous gaze holding hers and almost forgetting that Max was there, though his hand was still resting steadily on his other shoulder. "I saw you, and we were on Antar. There were two suns…" he trailed off, not sure what else to say.

Isabel stared back at him, looking like she wanted to ask more, but perhaps realizing that it wasn't the time or place. Max nodded and clapped Michael's shoulder once more. "Let's get out of here," he told them, more a command than a suggestion. "We can talk about it when we get home."

Michael nodded at that and Isabel agreed meekly. She shot Michael a look though that clearly told him that this conversation wasn't over. He sighed.


He ran a hand through his wet hair and pulled on a clean shirt with a heavy sigh. Even though he'd had a shower he still felt that he reeked like sewer. The thought made him cringe a little bit so he sprayed himself with a bottle of cologne that was left over from his days of dates with Maria. At least now he smelt like perfumed sewer!

Michael tousled his wet hair one last time and left his bedroom, padding barefoot into the living room. Isabel was sitting cross legged on the floor, also fresh from a shower, wearing a tank top and pyjama pants. She looked up at him with a faint smile when he entered. That's when he noticed the mirror in her hands. He walked over to stand in front of her and took in the wet strands of her hair. She smiled and reached up to touch the ends. It was much longer now, and blonder.

"It just…it looked so much like hers," Isabel told him, with an embarrassed smile. The way she said her left no question in his mind on who she was trying to distance herself from. "I just though that maybe it was time for a change." Michael returned the smile and lowered himself to the floor in front of her, sitting himself cross legged so they were facing each other.

"I like it," he told her. She smiled again, a different kind of embarrassed. He did like it though. She was always beautiful, she would be even if she shaved her head, but the golden halo of hair that she used to sport made her look…well she looked the opposite of Lonnie, despite their identical features.

"Michael, what did you see when you had that flash?" she asked him abruptly, jarring him out of his thoughts. Michael would have laughed at her eagerness if he hadn't been dreading that question.

"I already told you Is, I saw you," he replied vaguely. She shook her head.

"Yes but what were we doing?" she clarified. "Why do you think you had it?"

"It was just a flash," he lied, using his "I'm fine" tone. "I don't know why I had it. I just saw quick flashes of you, and the two suns."

"How do you know it was me?" she asked seriously. Michael did smile at that.

"I know it was you," he assured her.

She accepted that and nodded at him. Michael felt suddenly uncomfortable then, sitting there in front of her, but found he had no desire to get up and move away. Isabel let her fingers run over the ends of her hair once again and stared at a spot on his shoulder.

"Seeing the Dupes again," she started quietly, eyes flicking up to meet his. "It was…" she didn't seem to know how to finish that thought.

"Yeah," Michael nodded, knowing the words that she couldn't quite find. He figured she meant "strange", "uncomfortable", "exciting", "scary" all at the same time.

"Rath and Lonnie are just so…" she shook her head in disgust. "They're awful, but I can't help but feel that there's just something about them. I think that we can learn something from them Michael." She met his gaze earnestly. "I think that we can start to remember something."

He remembered the way that Rath had looked at her, and felt himself shaking his head automatically in response. "No way Isabel," he insisted. "Those two are insane – they're as likely to turn us over to the feds as they are to help us."

"I know that they made you have that flash Michael," she snapped, her eyes a little frosty at his quick rebuff. "I know that Lonnie remembers life on Antar, and I know that Rath could be…persuaded to help us get our memories back." She flushed at that and stared at that point on his shoulder again, unable to meet his eyes.

Michael felt his eyes widen at her words. He knew that she was right, and part of him wanted the same thing that she did; to remember why they were there, so that they could decide what they were supposed to do with the lives they'd been given. But the other part of him, the one that sounded like Max, knew that the Dupes were bad news, and that they should probably just stay away.

"It doesn't matter Isabel," Michael said slowly. "Because Maxwell would never agree to it."

She caught his gaze again. "I want Max to do this with me…with us," she said in a pleading tone. "But if he won't then I will do it anyway. Max doesn't want to be our King anymore then fine, but he doesn't get to dictate what we can and cannot do then."

"I don't trust Rath," Michael told her with a sigh. "Lonnie is just as whacked as he is, but the way he looks at you…" he stopped talking abruptly, knowing immediately that he'd said too much. That she would know that he was jealous of his duplicate, and sickened by the thought of Rath touching Isabel.

"Then you'll just have to come with me," she smiled sweetly, knowing that he would cave.

"Fine."

Well, he never could tell her no.


'Nice ass,' he thought to himself with a smirk as he tilted his head to the side and checked out the shapely backside of the waitress as he strolled by the outdoor café. Just for fun, he repeated the thought out loud to her, playing with his tongue stud and waggling his eyebrows at the waitress. The girl looked at him in disgust, and beside him Lonnie snorted in amusement.

"Smooth," she drawled. Rath shrugged it off and slung an arm around her shoulder heavily, nuzzling against her neck.

"You're hotter than her anyways," he purred into her ear and nipped at her earlobe. Lonnie rolled her eyes but didn't pull away. "She's not really my type."

Lonnie stopped short and nodded towards a curvy blonde hurrying across a busy street. "She's kinda your type though isn't she?"

Rath frowned and looked up, just in time to see a once again blonde Isabel Evans hurry down a set of stairs into the nearest subway stop. Rath and Lonnie followed her wordlessly, knowing that this was their chance to find out where their less-than-fun Dupes were staying. New York was a big city, and since the Roswell aliens weren't using their real names, they'd been having trouble tracking them down.

"Lucky running into her like that huh?" Rath commented, as they slipped into the subway car behind hers. He could see her through the connecting doorway; he smirked as she failed to notice his staring, because she was wrapped up in talking to an old lady sitting beside her.

"Yeah," Lonnie nodded, but she didn't sound too convinced. That girl was a bit of a mystery, he'd be the first to admit, but he knew her well enough to know when she was suspicious. "Lucky."

"What?" he laughed. "Do you think it was destiny?" When Lonnie didn't answer he laughed harder.

"It's not funny," Lonnie snapped. Rath stopped laughing, murmuring an apology that he didn't really mean. He was all man, of course, but he had no trouble admitting that Lonnie ran the show. She was a real force to be reckoned with, and he'd learned to say sorry very quickly when she got irritated. He figured that, back on Antar, Vilandra must have been some kind of goddess or something, because she had an ability to make him walk blindly into oncoming traffic with just a look. He wondered if Michael had that same problem with Isabel too? Or maybe it was just his Lonnie; maybe she was just special. He wondered if the preppy versions of themselves understood what it was like to be as dedicated to one person as he was to Lonnie…did Michael live and breathe for Isabel too?

"We'd better keep on her then," Rath said instead, keeping his gaze trained on Isabel but leaning up against the wall and tugging Lonnie close to his body. She nodded at that and let him pull her close. "We might get lucky."

"She might lead us to Max," Lonnie smirked. "Keep watching her." Rath nodded at that, and a slow smile spread across his face when he felt her hands start to wander.


Sometimes Liz Parker hated working in a bar. Even at four thirty in the afternoon there were drunks all over the place, and it disgusted her to no end. It also made her extremely glad that her friends couldn't drink. She checked her watch, only a few more minutes until her break. She looked back up and felt herself jump in shock.

"Holy –"

"Sorry, did I scare ya?" Michael asked her with a smirk. He leaned on the bar and laughed openly. She tucked her hair behind her ears in embarrassment and smiled at him.

"Of course not," she lied blatantly. "You just…surprised me…what are you doing here anyways?"

"Just wanted to say hey," he shrugged. Liz frowned a little at that and peered at him closely.

"Really?" she asked suspiciously. "I would have thought that you would still be angry." He looked back at her blankly. "About last night…the fight you guys had with Max?"

Michael shrugged nonchalantly. "If I fought with Max then why would I be mad at you?" he demanded. Liz didn't know what to say about that. "Besides, Max is usually right anyway, so I should probably just let it go."

"Okay…" she laughed again, confused even more now. She never really did get him. "So, I get a break in five minutes. Did you want to get something to eat?"

"Actually I need to go and meet Isabel soon," he countered quickly. "But I went and locked myself out…"

"Of the apartment?" she laughed at that, and grabbed her purse from her cubby under the bar.

"Uh yeah," he ran a hand through his hair and shifted uncomfortably. Liz smiled kindly and, finding her purse, slung it over her shoulder.

"Well it's a good thing that I have a spare at home then isn't it?" she laughed. Michael nodded silently. "Joe I'm taking my break…I'll be back in fourty-five!" Her co-worker nodded in acknowledgement and Liz and Michael slipped out onto the wet pavement outside.

He was acting really odd. "So, uh…" she didn't quite know what to say as he trailed along behind her, clearly wanting her to lead the way. "What are you and Isabel up to tonight?"

"Movie," he replied quickly, and forced a small smile. Liz nodded slowly and looked both ways before hurrying across the street and into their building.

"Are you coming?" she asked him, slightly impatiently, when she held the door for a few seconds and he made no move to follow her. He had been staring at something down the street but he turned to look at her quickly when she spoke.

"Yeah," he grabbed the door and followed her in. "Sorry." They clomped up the three flights of stairs silently and down the hall to her apartment. She opened the door and strode right over to where her and Max kept their spare keys hung on a peg on the wall. Michael hesitated in the doorway, looking around the apartment curiously.

"Michael?" she put a hand on his arm carefully. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he nodded quickly, grabbing the keys from her hand. "Sorry…um, thanks for the keys."

"No problem," she smiled again and stepped back out into the hall. "I'm going to run to the café down the street and get some lunch. I'll see you later?"

"Yeah…see ya later," he nodded, inspecting the key chain now. He ran a finger slowly over the 312 written in Max's familiar scrawl on a piece of tape. Liz walked with him as far as his floor and then left him there, continuing on her way down. She checked her watch again, only thirty minutes left in her break. She was hungry…and she didn't stop to wonder why Michael didn't just open the door with his powers.


"She bought that?" Lonnie snorted in disbelief as Rath opened the lobby doors for her and let her into the building. "Doesn't she know that you don't need a key to open locks?"

"Guess not," Rath laughed too and led her up to apartment 312. "Let's go look through their shit." Lonnie nodded and opened the door, not bothering with the key.


Isabel stretched her arms above her head and yawned. She reached for the remote control and turned the TV off. God she was bored. She'd been spending her evening doing her laundry, but that was growing old fast. She wanted to go out later, if only…

As if on cue, the door opened and Michael walked in. She sat up and smiled widely. "Thank God you're here!" she chirped, jumping to her feet and hurrying over to him. He raised his eyebrows at that but didn't say anything. "Let's do something tonight! I got another bonus at work…let's go and spend it!"

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather stay in?" he asked, his voice low and a bit more sultry than usual. That made her raise her eyebrows now, and she looked at him carefully. He was wearing his favourite jeans and the blue button down that she'd bought him for his birthday the month before.

"Where's your uniform?" she asked. Michael paused at that.

"Uh…left it at work," he said. "I don't really like wearing it around when I'm not working."

"A little too Village People?" she nodded sympathetically.

"What?" he looked surprised. "Village People? Really?"

"Only a little," she lied quickly. "Besides, some girls like a guy in uniform…anyway, do you want to go out tonight? I'm so bored."

"Well since you asked so nicely," he rolled his eyes.

"Do you have plans?" she questioned.

"Of course I don't," he snickered sardonically. "I never have plans. In fact I don't even know how to have fun."

"What?" she frowned, not getting it. Was he joking?

"What did you want to do?" he asked instead, eyeing her sweats a little longer than he usually would. Why was he looking at her like that?

"A club maybe," she suggested, crossing her arms self-consciously over her chest while he stared. "Or a movie. I know you've been wanting to see that stupid Vin Diesel one that just opened."

He nodded slowly and held her gaze. "I'm hungry," he said suddenly. "Do we have any food?"

"Well I got groceries yesterday," she reminded him. "So there should be something—"

"Could you make me a sandwich?"

She sputtered. "Excuse me?"

"A sandwich," he repeated, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "Ham and cheese would be fine."

She didn't know what to say to that. Michael had never told her to make food for him before…in fact he was a great cook and usually like to make dinner. What was wrong with him? Bad day?

"Are you okay?" she asked, fearing the worst.

"Fine, why?"

"You're just acting a little…strange," she admitted.

"Well I'm an alien," he pointed out. "I was born strange." She smiled slightly at that but moved into the kitchen and opened the fridge, pulling out a packet of lunchmeat and some cheese.

"So…you uh, got a bonus today?" he asked her.

Isabel smiled broadly and grabbed the mustard and bread from the cupboard. "Yeah, can you believe it? They just keep giving them out like candy," she laughed and took a place and knife out of another cupboard and started making a sandwich for him. "I guess the Pritchard wedding that I helped with went better than they expected, and the family gave an extra thousand dollars for a tip, so as the planner I'm entitled to 15 percent of it."

"That's great doll," he remarked dismissively, slumping down onto the sofa and turning the TV back on. She paused at that and stared over her shoulder at him in confusion, but decided to let it go.

Once the sandwich was finished she put the bread away and carried the plate over to him. He looked up at her and winked, snatching the plate from her hands. "You're welcome," she said bitterly.

"Thanks babe," he said around a mouthful of sandwich. "Do we have anything to drink?"

"Are you sure you're okay Michael?" she asked again, hands falling to her hips in the natural position that they did when she was preparing to scold him.

"Yeah."

"Then whey the hell are you acting like such a…"

"Such a what?" he asked, a little darkly. He swallowed the sandwich and stood up to face her, tossing the place onto the coffee table carelessly. It landed with a clatter. He must have recognized the look on her face because he quickly backtracked. "Look I'm sorry," he slung an arm around her shoulders heavily, oddly familiar, and pulled her to his side a little. "I just had a really long day."

"Okay," she nodded slowly and let herself lean against his shoulder. His hand began to move up and down her arm slowly, a bit unlike him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Nope," he said, releasing her abruptly and hopping back down onto the couch. "Why don't you go and put on something that shows off your goodies a bit more and we can find that club you wanted."

"What?" Isabel looked down at him in shock.

"Have you changed your mind?" he asked cockily. "Do you want to stay here? I'm sure we can think of something to do."

"N-no—"

"Then go get dressed," he shrugged and turned back to the TV.

Oddly enough, he was being a lot more demanding than usual, and more…well, creepy…then usual. "I wonder if Kyle and Maria will want to come with us…should I go ask them?" she took a step back from him to put a little distance between them, just in case.

"Yeah, why not," he shrugged. Within a second he was on his feet, staring in shock at her. She'd sent a blast of energy from her hand at the TV, turning it off to get his attention. "What the hell?!"

"You aren't Michael," Isabel said lowly, her voice steady and not at all showing her nervousness.

"What? Of course I am—"

"Where's Lonnie?" she demanded, cutting him off.

"How should I know?" he tried to look confused at her actions, but Isabel saw is fists clench. He didn't want to get caught, but he obviously didn't consider her much of a threat.

"I know you aren't Michael, so you can just cut the crap," she hissed. "I want to know what the hell you're doing here, Rath. How did you find out where I live?"

He opened his mouth to protest once again, but seemed to decide against it. "We saw you on the subway yesterday and then followed you."

Isabel was shocked, and knew that she probably looked it too. "What? Why? Did anyone else follow us?" she demanded, lowering her hand and hurrying over to him in panic.

"No—"

"Rath I'm not kidding," she grabbed his arm desperately. "The FBI has people out there looking for us, looking to kill us, or worse even. We're all in danger…you and Lonnie too!"

"No one followed us," Rath assured her, seemingly a little confused at her panic.

"What are you doing here?" she asked again. "What do you want?"

"What do I want?" he leered and waggled his eyebrows. Isabel stepped away from him again.

"Don't even try it or I will make you cry like a little baby girl," she warned him, holding her right hand up in warning.

Rath rolled his eyes. "Calm down Peaches," he taunted, not appearing to be very scared at all of her. Most likely he knew from Lonnie that Vilandra's powers didn't stem from raw energy like his did, and that she wasn't much of a physical threat. She almost felt sorry for him: apparently Rath and Lonnie didn't hear what she did to Congresswoman Wittager. Almost.

"Just tell me what you want, and then get the hell out of here," she repeated.

"Fair's fair Princess," he smirked. "You came poking around our place so we're just returning the favour."

"Where's Lonnie?" Isabel demanded again.

"She's not here," he ran a hand through his hair but didn't move his eyes from her, watching for any sign that she might try to attack. For some reason she believed that. When she didn't say anything else he sighed in annoyance. "So, what now? Can I go or…"

"Now we wait," she told him shortly.

"For what?"

The door opened behind her and she could feel the relief roll over her like a warm blanket. "Michael."


He'd had the longest day. As strange as it sounded, Michael actually preferred the night shift to the day one, because there were no people there, and he just got to hang out with his guys. But he'd been stuck on days all week, and was glad that it was Friday and his turn for the weekend off.

His tie had been loosened the second that he stepped out of the door, and now hung from his pocket, the top buttons of his shirt undone, and his shirt tails un-tucked completely. His body felt tired and heavy, probably from the long shift and early start, and he mentally cursed as he began to trudge up the stairs. He'd do anything for an elevator right now.

When he reached his door he dug around in his pocket for a key. They'd been trying really hard lately to not use their powers at all in public, and so even though he was exhausted, he still looked for the damn key.

The sight that greeted him when the door opened was not a relaxing one though. Rather, the exhaustion left his body immediately and he mentally prepared himself for a fight, his senses put on high alert. Isabel stood with her back to him, her hands up as if to defend from, well…him. Standing directly in front of her was Michael, or at least someone that looked exactly like Michael. He was even wearing the familiar jeans and shirt…

"Isabel!" the real Michael called from the doorway, rushing to her side, the door closing behind him, and his hand going up to mirror hers, the raw energy already crackling around his palm. "That's Rath!"

"I know," she nodded, her hand not going down at all but the tenseness in her shoulders visibly relaxing. Michael seethed at the thought of his Dupe showing up here, looking like him, obviously trying to fool everyone.

"What happened? Did he hurt you?" Michael demanded, fighting back every urge to blast his twin to itty bitty pieces.

"Hey to you too bro," Rath snorted. "Just chill man, Princess is just fine. Not a scratch on her pretty ass." Michael growled slightly at that and turned to his friend.

"Is, are you okay?" he repeated softly. She nodded and caught his gaze, putting her hand down completely.

"I'm fine Michael," she assured him, putting her hand out to stop him from blasting anything. He lowered his hand wearily, not sure where she was going with this. "If he had wanted to hurt me he would have tried already."

"What do you want?" Michael demanded, eyeing his twin coolly.

"Like I told blondie here, just paying you a little turn around," Rath smirked. "You come poking around our pad, thought I'd return the favour."

"So why show up here looking like me then?" Michael demanded.

"Uh, you might not have noticed this yet, but I always look like you bro," Rath snorted.

"Where did you get my clothes from?" Michael demanded.

"Lonnie and I popped by yesterday, picked up a couple of things," Rath laughed gleefully, clearly getting off a little on fooling them.

"What?" Isabel and Michael both cried out in protest.

"Look, kiddies," Rath sighed, slumping onto the couch again. "I'm only here to mess with ya a bit, not to start anything. Truth is that when Lon an me saw Issy on the subway yesterday it freaked her out a bit. Lonnie thinks it's some kinda destiny crap, and that we should be keeping an eye on you all, in case something goes down and we need to get together."

"Why should we trust you?" Isabel demanded. "You tried to kill my brother and Tess two years ago." Michael knew that she was concerned, but he also knew that she was excited...because it was only a week ago that they had sat on the floor in front of where they were now standing, and talked about contacting the dupes again.

"That's up to you I guess," Rath shrugged confidently. "But I think that if you didn't believe me this conversation would be going a lot less smoothly."

Isabel and Michael didn't say anything, and he found himself wondering one thing: 'where should we start'.


Michael and Isabel sat facing each other on the floor, their palms pressed together and resting on Michael's knees. "Rath said that the best way to start remembering is to just let the flashes start happening," Isabel reminded him.

Michael nodded stiffly at that. It had been really hard for him to allow Maria to see the flashes, and he wasn't sure if he was ready to let anyone else in that closely…no matter how much he wanted to know about Antar. He closed his eyes and was hit immediately with flashes of Isabel…breaking out of the pods…headlights on a deserted desert highway…crying herself to sleep…watching Michael from her table in the lunchroom on the first day of third grade…Kyle Valenti kissing her on the cheek at the eighth grade dance…Alex…

"Michael I'm not seeing anything," she broke the connection and opened her eyes. He found it hard to meet her gaze. "Are you holding back?"

He sighed and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. "Is, I'm sorry…I just," he almost couldn't even say it. "I don't know how to not hold back."

She smiled sadly. "Michael it's never easy to show anyone who we really are," she pointed out. "It's hard for all of us, to open up like that, to trust someone enough. We just have to remind ourselves that what we're trying to learn, trying to remember, is important enough to take the plunge. I have to trust that you'll still be here when you know everything in my mind…trust that knowing is going to be worth it all."

She often left him speechless, but just then he was at a loss for words entirely. He knew her before he knew who he was, and he knew that if there was anyone in the world that he could trust with the truth, it was Isabel. Michael put his hands out again and this time cupped them to her cheeks, letting that mental barrier fall down, and his memories flowed out, mixing with her own. He saw her view of the ship crashing, and knew that she saw his too. Dream walking Alex…Michael kissing her on the cliff…roses on Alex's casket…Grant's dead body in her arms…two brightly shining suns…the four square symbol…the baby that could have been…the Pod Squad standing in the Granilith chamber…the Dupes in the UFO centre…Liz and Max's wedding…Kyle disappearing into the departures gate…Rath looking back at her from their sofa…two brightly burning suns-

Michael pulled away in surprise at that and they shared a grin. "Did you see them too?" he asked her, to which she nodded enthusiastically.

"You saw the suns in the sewers too, right?" she asked. He nodded. "Lets try to focus on any memories that may be from Antar and see what else comes to us."

Michael shrugged. "Seems like the thing to do," he agreed. He thought about the two suns, crackling red and orange with bright burning flames…about the swirling streams of light from the stars that flew by, when their ship soared through the night sky…the cool stickiness on his skin when he pushed his way through the goop of his pod…the warm weight of Max and Isabel's hands as they held tight to his…the salty sweetness of Isabel's lips and the sliding fabric of that blue dress…

And then it happened.

He saw himself in a large room, with towering pillars and a sleek marble floor. He could feel a heaviness on his shoulders, and inexplicably knew that it was the weight of the metals pinned to his shoulders and lapels, decorating his uniform. He held his hand out expectantly, and a pale, soft hand slipped into his grasp. He knew it was her immediately, though he couldn't quite see her face yet. She wore a gown of deep burgundy, the same colour as the sash that ran across his torso. The necklace adorning the pale column of her neck was unlike anything he had seen before, an intricate twining of a metal that shone brighter than gold, and stones that sparkled brighter than diamonds. For some reason it stood out in his memory brighter than anything else…it was how he knew it was Is. She was warm, and bright, and beautiful, and she made his chest burn with an intense feeling that he had not yet experienced in his current life. It was enough to shock him out of the memory…

Michael was then once again aware of sitting on the floor with Isabel. His hands were clasped tightly to hers, still resting on his knees. He let out a strangled gasp and her eyes caught his, her mouth open breathlessly. "Did you…" he couldn't quite find his voice.

Her hand moved up to her neck, feeling for where the necklace used to be, and Michael knew immediately that she had seen the same thing as him.

"Yeah," she nodded, her voice thick and intoxicating. She leaned forward towards him in excitement, her hand falling away from her neck. Michael felt himself smile and his hands moved unconsciously up from her hands, up to her shoulders, and wrapped around her arms. She grinned in return and pulled him into a hug, her face pressing into the crook of his shoulder and her breath warm against his skin.

"It was amazing Is," he could tell that he was gushing uncharacteristically but he didn't care…they'd wanted to remember for so long now, and this was such a promising start. "I couldn't see your face, but I knew—"

"I knew too," she grinned and pulled away from the hug, her hands settling on his shoulders and fingering where his medals would have been. "I could see your uniform, with the white and the burgundy sash, and the medals." She picked up his large hand in her two smaller ones and ran her fingertips over the ring there. "You wore a ring like you do now, and even though I couldn't see your face I just knew, like when I saw you that day in the cafeteria. It was you."

He nodded and was suddenly struck with how amazingly beautiful she was, how the curve of her lips and the long column of her throat were perfectly formed, and achingly familiar. Michael almost frowned when he felt his chest tighten momentarily, a brief flicker of what he felt in that memory. He licked his lips and nodded slowly, his voice feeling thick and heavy.

"Yeah."

And they had barely started yet.


"I can't believe they caught you," Lonnie screeched at him, tossing an old CD at the wall and watching it smash to the ground and break. Rath snorted at than and slumped down into the couch, knowing that she would blast the CD apart if she had the powers to do so.

"Shouldn't we be more interested in the fact that they wanted to tips on how to remember life on Antar?" he pointed out. Lonnie kicked viscously at a chair, knocking it over, before collapsing unceremoniously onto the couch beside him.

"Maybe," she replied huffily, in full-on pouting mode now. Rath smiled at that, knowing that she wasn't really mad at him, just frustrated at the situation. It would kill her if their dupes remembered their lives before they did…if Max and the others figured out how to get home before they did…

"It was just Michael and Isabel anyways," he reminded her. "Who cares what they figure out. I got the distinct feeling that Maxie wasn't in on the loop for that one."

Lonnie nodded slowly and gnawed on her fingernails distractedly. "Do you think they remembered anything?"

Rath snorted again. "Probably not," he shook his head. "Issy's eager but Michael's definitely the reject Rath clone. The guys the most close-minded dolt I've ever seen." Lonnie shrugged but smirked slightly. "Besides," he continued, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "I didn't tell them the best way to remember anyways."

She smiled a true smile at that and leaned into his kiss easily. Rath smiled when the flashes started, the familiar scenes of this life and their last life melding together into a kaleidoscope of colours and visions. The only time he felt entirely right was when he was with Lonnie. "Even if they remembered something," he mumbled huskily between kisses. "They're still the reject dupes…they'll never remember what we do."

She ran a hand over his scalp slowly, holding his eyes in a sultry gaze and reached down to unbutton his jeans. Rath paused for a minute and looked at her, really looked. She was almost too beautiful; her perfect lips, the smooth column of her neck… Rath wasn't the kind of man to show his feelings, or admit to weaknesses of any kind. But he loved Lonnie more than anything in any world, and sometimes he worried that she didn't know that. She was a handful, and he knew enough about their lives on Antar to know that she maybe couldn't always be trusted, but it just didn't matter to him. He would die for her, and he lived for those few fleeting moments when she looked at him the same way, and touched him the same way, and showed that she loved him just as much.

That was what assured him that they were the true members of the Royal Four…how he knew that no matter what Michael and Isabel remembered they could never touch what he and Lonnie had. They could try all they wanted, but they would never know what he knew instinctively since he was six years old.

He would know her anywhere. She was his destiny.