"Disclaimer: You know the drill…the characters aren't mine. A lot of stuff in the beginning is taken from End of the World. God knows THAT'S not mine. Anything that makes sense and makes it all better, now that's mine. Seriously, Roswell and all characters belong to Jason Katims, 20th Century Fox etc. I'm just borrowing them.

Rating: PG-13 – possibly to R

Love Changes Everything

Chapter Twelve – Are They Live, or Are the Memorex?

Alex rushed into the UFO Center and started to run down the stairs. He stopped turned and looked back to see Michael, Isabelle and Tess dressed in what could only be Halloween costumes.
"Hey guys," he said in between laughs. "Nobody told me we needed costumes for today. "Are we going undercover or something?"
"Yo!" said Rath. Alex looked past the oddly dressed threesome through the large plate glass window that looked down onto the main floor of the UFO Center. There he saw Max, Liz, and Maria, along with Isabelle, Michael and Tess. He stammered for a second, and then took off at a run down the stairs.
"You guys!" he shouted. "You aren't going to believe what I just saw!"
"You're late, Alex," began Max, but he stopped, speechless at the sight of the three others following Alex down the stairs.

"Oh my God," Maria whispered to Michael. "I knew they existed, and I figured you'd find them sometime, but not like this." Michael took Maria's hand in his and squeezed it tightly.
"Don't say anything," he whispered.
"Who are you?" asked Max.
"D'uh, we're you," said the Michael look alike.
"I don't get this?" said Isabelle.
"Hey, chill," said the Isabelle clone. "Don't get all freaky on us. We're like the same as you, ya know?"
"There were eight pods," said Michael softly, remembering back to his meeting with Hal Carver several weeks before. Hal had been involved with the crash in 1947, and in essence, was responsible for the survival of the four podsters.

"So you know about that, huh?" asked the Michael doppelganger.
"All we knew is that there were eight pods originally. We didn't know what happened to the other four," said Max.
"New York," said the copy of Michael.
"Yeah, the Big Apple, New York, the place where it's at!" said the Isabelle clone.
"But there are three of you," said Liz.
"Yeah, we had our fourth, but we lost him."
"His name was Zan," said the Tess look alike, finally speaking.
"I'm Max. What happened to Zan? How did you lose him?
"It was stupid," said the Michael clone. "I mean the dude had like these powers ya know, and he died in a street accident. Yo! I'm Rath."
"Lonnie," said the Isabelle clone.
"Ava," added the Tess look alike.

"I'm Isabelle, and that's Tess," said the Isabelle.
"And that's Michael, and this is Liz, Maria and Alex, they're our friends."
"Yo, look, I need to talk with you. Somethin's up. Somethin that's gonna effect us all," said Rath to Max. Max nodded and led Rath into another area of the UFO Center.
"So, what's up?" asked Max
"Yeah, see, there's this thing cookin, and we got the 4-1-1 on it," said Rath. "We got a message from some dude's from the home world, and they wanna hook up with the Royal Four."
"The home world?" asked Max. "You mean where we came from originally?"
"Yeah, see these dudes want to hook up and talk about chillin. Zan was gonna represent us. That's why we need you."
"Well, I'll need to talk to the others," said Max. He motions to Rath and they walk back into the main part of the UFO Center.

"So, there were two sets of us?" asked Isabelle.
"Yeah, like they screwed up and didn't get one of the sets quite right, so they made another set. But things in the home world were so screwed up that they sent both sets to Earth. It was a whadda ya call it, a worst-case scenario thing," explained Lonnie.
"So what? You guys were the defective ones, right?" asked Michael.
"Ah, no!" said Rath. "That would be you four. You are like way to human to exist in the home world. But hey, no hard feelins, huh?"
"Were the four of you together from the time you came out of your pods?" asked Max.
"Yeah, man, we were tight. We were together from the beginning. Me and Zan, we were like brothers. Zan, he was the MAN, ya know what I mean?" said Rath. Max nodded, and turned to look at the others. Isabelle and Lonnie were sequestered on the staircase talking, while the others talked with Ava.

"Okay, well, we obviously have a lot to discuss," said Max. "Do you guys have a place to stay?" he asked the New York contingent.
"Yo! What? You sayin we can't crash at your crib?" Lonnie asked Max from across the room. "Don't worry, it's cool. I'm guessing your crib is way to Mayberry for us anyhow. We got us a place to stay, no sweat. There's a no-tell motel outside of town. We'll crash there."
"Fine," said Max, a bit abruptly. "We'll meet up tomorrow morning and let you know what we've decided.
"Do us all a favor, leave them here," said Rath, pointing at Alex, Maria and Liz. "We don't need them screwin with us."
"We'll see you tomorrow," said Max firmly, herding them towards the stairs.

Max followed them up the stairs and made sure they left the UFO Center. Once they were out of site, he went back downstairs to find his friends staring at one another silently.
"What do we do now, Max?" asked Tess, finally breaking the silence.
"Damn it, I don't know," said Max, turning on her in rage. "Why does everybody expect me to have all the answers?" Liz kicked him surreptitiously, and he quickly wiped the look of annoyance off his face. He reached over and took Tess's hand in his.
"I'm sorry Tess," he said. "It's just seeing them really confused me. To see another you, and Isabelle and Michael, well it was a bit unnerving. And then to find out that the other me died, well it really made me question my mortality."
"That's okay, Max," said Tess, smiling sweetly. "You're right. It was really strange. And I know that you'll come up with a solution."

"What I think is that we should all get the hell out of here before Brody shows up," said Michael. "We should all just back off and give Max some space to think about this," he continued. "He'll tell us his decision when he's ready." Michael looked around the room and saw his friends staring at him with varying degrees of shock and amazement at his pronouncement. "What?" he said. "I can't think logically once in a while?" he asked.
"Well, yeah, I guess you can," said Maria. "But you picked now?"
"Yeah, well it seemed like a good time," said Michael. "Max is looking a bit freaked. Why don't you guys head out? I want to talk to Max alone for a minute? Liz, can you tell your dad I'm running late, and I'll be in as quick as I can?
"Yeah, sure Michael," said Liz, as she and Maria and Alex headed for the stairs.
"Come on Tess, I'll drive you home," said Isabelle, and they followed the others up the stairs and out of the UFO Center.

"You're entitled to think logically?" Max asked sardonically, once they were alone.
"It was weak, I know, but it was all I could come up with," said Michael.
"No wonder we lost the war," Max quipped. "What do you think?"
"I don't trust them," said Michael.
"No, me either," agreed Max. "Can you get everyone to meet out at the quarry tomorrow morning? Just after sunrise?"
"Yeah," said Michael. "But by everyone, I'm assuming you don't mean Tess.
"No, definitely not Tess," said Max. "The six of us can figure everything out tomorrow, and then we can tell her what we think she needs to know."
"Sounds good," said Michael. "I have to get out of here and get to work if I want to keep my job."
"Tell Liz I'll call her later," said Max.
"Sure thing," said Michael bounding up the stairs. Halfway up, he stopped and turned back and looked at his friend.
"Hey, Max!" he said.
"Yeah?"
"Word! You are the Man!" he said," he said raiding his fist.
"Shut up, Michael," Max laughed as he watched his friend leave the building.

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