Part Four – London, Present-day

Max and Liz burst into the girls' hotel room early in the morning, before dawn. They had rushed from Stonehenge to the car rental drop-off and straight to the train without checking to see how long they'd been gone. Liz hurried to Maria's bed and shook her awake while Max ran through the connecting door and woke up Michael and Kyle.

"Wha…Liz?" Maria's voice was groggy. "Liz, what are you doing here?"

"How long have Max and I been gone, Maria?"

Maria reached over and turned on the bedside lamp.

"What are you talking about chica? You've been gone a day, like you said you'd be. Of course, we thought you'd decided to stay in a B&B…but obviously not. The honeymoon over?"

"Huh? No. We went…"

"You went WHERE?" Michael's startled voice interrupted Liz from the other room.

"Shh, Michael. Liz," Max called, "group meeting over here, okay?"

"Yeah," Liz replied. "C'mon Maria, we'll explain."

Maria and Liz crossed into the boys' room and sat down with Michael and Max. Kyle was sitting up in his bed, leaning against the headboard and looking expectantly at Max and Liz as they settled down on Max's bed.

"So, Max…you said you went back in time?" he questioned.

"Back in TIME?" Maria shouted. She began babbling incoherently in a way that reminded Liz of the way she babbled once she finished screaming after learning that Max was an alien.

"Maria, be quiet! Let us explain."

"How…why…umm…okay, Liz, sorry."

Max took Liz's hand and began to explain what had happened, starting with the Antarian writing on the stone and ending with Larek's words to him. Liz broke in periodically to give her take on something. Michael, Maria, and Kyle sat and listened without speaking.

"So we rushed back here as fast as we could because we couldn't be sure of how long we'd been gone and we wanted to tell you guys what had happened as soon as we could," Max finished softly.

"Wow…" breathed Maria.

"Do you know what that means, Maxwell?" Michael used the name with more emphasis than usual.

"What, Michael?"

"That all this time while we thought that we were gonna have extra problems because we were going against what we were told was our destiny…we were really making it easier…doing it right!" Michael pulled Maria in close to his side. "We don't have to be the Royal Four…we can be the Royal Six."

"Yeah…" Max said, then kissed Liz's head.

Kyle, who had been sitting on his bed listening intently, suddenly got up and started pulling on his jeans.

"Kyle?" Liz ventured. "What are you doing?"

Kyle glanced over at Liz, then headed towards the door.

"You said the ship left a crop circle?"

"Yeah," Liz said, perplexed.

"I'll be right back."

"Okay…" Liz looked up into Max's puzzled eyes. "I wonder what that's all about." She looked towards Michael and Maria, who shrugged and shook their heads.

Minutes later Kyle came striding back in, a tabloid newspaper in his hand.

"Look at this." He handed the newspaper to Max and Liz. Max looked over the headline and quickly scanned the story before reading aloud to the rest.

"Crop circle appears near Avebury. Multiple UFO sightings reported in the area."

Liz gaped.

"You don't think…" Max started to shake his head as if to imply he didn't know, when suddenly a picture of the circle caught his eye.

"Michael…look a the picture…do you recognize that symbol?"

Michael took the paper from Max and stared intensely at the picture for a few seconds. He started to shake his head, then a stunned look crept into his eyes.

"Michael?" Maria shook Michael gently, as he seemed to be spacing out.

"It's my symbol…my family's…like medieval heraldry, we had symbols. I just remembered from looking at this circle." Michael's amazed gaze flew to Max. "You remembered, too."

"Yeah." Max got up and strode over to the small writing desk. He picked up the pen and drew something on the hotel stationary. "This was my family's symbol."

Liz looked at it and gasped.

"Max! That bit at the center is on the necklace you gave me when you thought you were leaving!"

"Yeah…I think that meant that the person with that necklace was going to be a part of the royal house but wasn't yet."

"Like an engagement ring…" she said smiling dreamily into Max's eyes.

Kyle had been watching the proceedings and putting things together rapidly as Max and Michael were still trying to dredge up any more shards of memory from the symbols.

"So if that crop circle is in the shape of Michael's symbol…that must mean that whoever landed the ship here must have been part of Michael's family."

Michael's eyes lit up then dimmed slightly as he remembered something else.

"Actually, the symbols were more for clans like in Scotland than families like in England. So we could be only very distantly related. If I recall correctly, people in the clans even married each other as long as they weren't directly related…like brother and sister or cousins."

"But still, Michael…" Maria said hopefully, squeezing his hand as she did so, "whoever that was is in the same clan as you…which is as good as family, yes?"

Michael gazed off into nothing for a few seconds before replying.

"My family…" Michael turned to Max. "I have to go check it out…see what the real story is."

Max nodded.

"I'm coming, too," Maria stated firmly.

Max nodded again.

"We'll leave as soon as the next train to the near vicinity of Avebury leaves."