"No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Marian screamed as the bullet pierced Michael's chest and he fell to the ground.
She dropped to her hands and knees and crawled to him as fast as she could. She was bent over him her hand on the wound looking into his face. "You're gonna be fine. You'll be fine. Please don't leave me now. I love you." She whispered. She could feel her energy draining as she healed him.
*5 Years Ago *
"Please Sheriff, do they know, can they help me?" Maria asked in a voice barely more than a whisper.
"Stay right here, I'll be right back."
Maria sat quietly waiting. The Sheriff came back with the two boys and two girls who had been standing behind that counter. Liz looked closely at her. Her hair was different. Before it had been short and blonde and now it was long and light brown. Could she be one of them? "This is Max, Michael, Isabel, and Liz. They would like to talk to you about what you saw and what you just told me."
Maria nodded and when the Sheriff left she looked at Max and spoke directly to him. "You, you're different. You have powers, don't you?"
"Who are you?" he asked ignoring her question.
"My name is Maria Deluca, I just moved here from Round Rock, Texas. I grew up jumping from foster home to foster home. The first thing I remember was waking up in the desert, alone, scared, lost, confused, when I was 10 years old. I don't have a real family or if I did they didn't care about me. I don't know who I am, where I'm from. All I know is that I'm different."
"Different how?" Michael asked fiercely.
"I can change things."
"How?" Isabel asked.
"I don't know how I do it. It just happens. I want something to be different and it changes." She reached out towards Liz's uniform and turned it black.
The four looked on amazed. "How long have you been able to do that?" Liz asked.
"For as long as I can remember. Most people think I'm a freak. I started to believe it myself but you, Max, you're like me aren't you?"
Max looked at her. It was possible that she really was one of them and she had no idea who she was or she could be a skin, really good at acting. "Will you let me do something? I promise I won't hurt you I just have to make sure that you are who you say you are."
"But I don't know who I am," she whispered.
"If you don't have anything to hide you'll allow me to do this."
She looked at him and nodded. "I have nothing to hide."
He moved closer to her and put his hands on both sides of her face. "Just close your eyes and relax your breathing. Let your mind go blank."
"What are you gonna do?" she asked a hint of fear in her voice.
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you."
She closed her eyes and her breathing became even. He began to see flashes.
~A little girl with soft blonde hair emerging from a pod~
~Maria at 10 unconscious on the sandy desert floor a man standing over her scowling~
~Maria at 12 giving her foster brother a cold for ruining her Barbie doll~
~Maria at age 13 crying herself to sleep in a dirty little room, bruises on her arms~
~Maria at 14 changing the color of her favorite shirt~
~Maria at 18 running away from Round Rock, Texas and never looking back~
Max opened his eyes and took his hands away from her face. He looked at Isabel and Michael. "She's one of us."
***
Maria could feel something happening but she didn't know exactly what it was. It felt like he was sorting through her memories, seeing her whole life. He moved his hands away from her face and she felt a jolt as she came back to the present leaving the past behind her once more.
She opened her eyes and Isabel, Max, and Michael were all looking at her like she was from another planet. "But Max, its not possible. There were 4 pods, you, Michael, Tess, and me. It just doesn't fit into the big picture. How can she be one of us?"
"I don't know Isabel, but she is."
"I am what?" Maria asked realizing she was the topic of their conversation.
Michael looked at her and said with a smirk, "You're an alien."