'Michael, what the hell's going on?' screamed Maria as Michael dragged her towards the car.

Michael's eyes were wide with panic as he rushed to the Jetta and tried to unlock it.

Suddenly he felt an arm on his shoulder pulling him round.

'Rath?'

Michael looked straight into the faces of the four teenagers from the café.

'Who the cr*p are you?' he shouted.

'Get in the car and drive then we'll tell you.'

All four of them pilled into Maria's car, Maria looked on in horror, 'What are you doing? Are you crazy?' she yelled as Michael jumped in too.

'Get in Maria!' he yelled and when she hesitated, 'NOW!'.

Protesting Maria climbed into the car and Michael shot off along the high street and out of town.

***

Max ran down the street, his eyes were wide with panic. He had let them get Liz! Why had he left her alone for a second? He could feel all of Liz' fear, but he couldn't form a connection. They must have done something to her. The ran the last few steps of the street in agony as he saw the dark car pull out of sight. He raised his arm, about to blast and the felt Isabel pulling it back down.

Isabel shook her head, 'You could hurt Liz.' She raised her arm and put it around his shoulders, leading him back to the house like a small child. 'We have to wait for Michael…'

***

'Will someone please explain to me what's going on!' piped Maria.

'We are the protectors, the final four of the royal court,' said one of the girls in a low voice.

Maria turned incredulous eyes on them and then turned to Michael, 'You knew this?' she asked accusingly.

'Nope, can't say I had a clue,' he said quietly, his eyes focussed on the road ahead..

'Why are we going back to Roswell, and what was all that about back in the café?' she demanded.

'Liz is in trouble,' said Michael in a quiet voice as he accelerated the car even more.

'Huh?' Maria squealed in fright. 'What's wrong with Liz?'

She stared round at all of the people in car expecting answers, but all their faces were blanks. Then she turned to the dark hair boy in the back of the car, 'I want answers, and I want them now, don't even think of messing with me!'

'Still the charmer, Marila.' he replied with a smile.

'What?' said Michael and Maria in unison.

'I don't think they know,' said blonde girl timidly.

'You've got that right,' said Maria.

'What do you know about our planet?' asked the boy.

'Our planet? Whoa hold up there, alien boy! Your planet, my planet is Earth! You

alien, me human! Got it?'

'This could take a while,' muttered the blonde haired boy. Maria just glared at him.

'First lets get some names, I'm Adam,' said the dark haired boy. 'And this is Sandy and

Lana.' he said indicating to the dark haired girl and then the blonde haired girl.

'And the annoying one is Will, ' said Lana with a small laugh.

'Great now we've got that straight, which one of you lovely people plans on telling me why you just called me Marila?' asked Maria which sarcasm clearly evident in her tone.

Adam began to speak, 'Perhaps because it's your name.'

'Nuh-uh, my name is very obviously Maria, that's M-A-R-I-A!'

Will smiled, 'Hey I warned you! It I gonna take a while. Looks like our friends here need a history lesson. Hey Rath pull over.'

Both Adam and Michael shook their heads, 'We don't have much time, Leandre's in trouble.' declared Adam.

Maria turned incredulous eyes on him. Leandre, where did that home wrecker come into this? Just hearing that name made Maria bristle for her friend. 'Who the hell is Leandre?' she demanded.

'Rath's sister, and your friend Liz.'

Maria almost choked. Liz?? 'What the hell?' said Michael. Liz? His sister? Whoa! Way too weird!

'You didn't know?' asked Sandy, speaking for the first time. 'You never found the inscriptions?'

'Inscriptions? What?' asked Michael. He was speeding the car up to it's full speed, if what they were saying was true then he had a sister in serious trouble.

'The inscriptions, they were sent in Zan's pod.' explained Adam. 'They explained everything, how the six of you had been sent and why only three of you were in pods.'

'Whoa there? Firstly Liz is human! We have proof of that! She has a mum and dad! Human mum and dad! Even thought she does have freaky alien powers! Secondly three pods? Are you sure?' asked Maria.

'Hey, we read our inscriptions!' said Will. Maria just glared at him.

'Why?' asked Adam.

'We had four,' said Michael. 'Four pods.'

'You can't have done! That's not right!' said Sandy.

'And what was that bout six? There were only four of them!' said Maria confusedly.

'No,' said Lana gently. 'There are Six of you.'

'I am Human!' said Maria spelling it out to her. 'I was born of my human mum and some creep of a dad!'

'Hey, come on! You think that if we had scientists that could get dead people and send them to another planet to live again, that they couldn't make it so you could be born of human parents! Those scientists were cleverer than you can imagine!' laughed Will.

'Then why do it to just three of us? Why not all?' asked Michael. Maria turn amazed eyes on him.

'You're listening to this? I am not an Alien! And what about Tess? where does she come into all this? How will they explain her?'

'Tess? Who?' asked Lana.

'Tess! The fourth pod person!'

'There were only three pods!' Repeated Sandy, getting annoyed.

'Yeah but we have a fourth pod!' reiterated Michael, even he was getting confused now. 'She came about a year ago, and told us about our destiny!'

'Your destiny? What did she tell you?'

'That Max and her are destined to be together, and Isabel and I. We are the Royal four!'

Will burst out laughing but Adam remained serious. 'She's lying! That's not true at all!'

Will just managed to get out, 'Yeah that'll be the day!' and collapsed laughing again.

'Vilandra prided herself on her taste,' said Sandy with a smile.

'Hey, you've never met Isabel!' Michael said in a warning tone.

'What else did she tell you?' asked Adam cutting off their jokes.

'She told them their history,' explained Maria. 'You know, how they died, and how Vilandra betrayed them.'

Even Will stopped laughing to stare at her in consternation.

'Rubbish!' He shouted, 'Vilandra loved Zan. They were closer than any brothers and sisters I've ever met! She was there when Kivar burst in! She gave her life trying to protect Zan and Leandre!'

'But Tess said she was in love with Kivar!' burst in Maria.

This time Will nearly roared in anger. 'If Kivar had even tried to come near Vilandra Alathon would have blown him to pieces!'

'Alathon?' asked Maria, Not another one, she thought..

'Alex…' whispered Michael in an awed tone.

'What?' shouted Maria, she stared round at the four sitting in the back. 'Oh no! Hold up there! First you try and tell me I'm some royal alien thing, and then you say my obviously human best friend is too! You guys have cracked!'

She threw her hands up and slumped back into her seat. Will just let out a wry smile.