Chapter 5

Author's Note: Okay, so here's the deal; In this story, there is no 'Harvest' or 'Wipe-out!" Oh, and after they discovered Courtney was a skin, she fled town (sorry for anyone who liked her).

I had to include this cause it made me giggle: "Liz needs to hurry up and let Max back in!" -That was from a review I got. Fear not, Max and Liz will find their way back to one another soon!

Author's Note II: After chapter 6, it may take a lil longer for me to write the chapters; I can already foresee issues with writing plots, trying to keep it similar to the show, and yet not. (You may notice some of the dialogue similar to on the show. I'm not trying to claim that as my own!)

Everything around him seemed to fade out as Max sat in the back booth, watching Liz busy at work taking everyone's orders. It had been a few weeks since she had turned the concert tickets down, and the sting of her rejection still hurt. Furthermore, Max was still trying to adjust to the whole Tess/Liz thing. He couldn't help it, it had thrown him a bit through a loop seeing the two of them talking in the halls, or sitting together at lunch. How was it she had time to make old enemies friends, but not to give their relationship a second chance?

"You know, this could be considered stalking," Michael said, sitting across from Max at the table. He had given up a little while ago trying to get Max's attention away from the brunette. Max forced his attention from Liz to Michael.

"What?"

"You know what I'm talking about, Maxwell. I spend my free time in here even when I don't have to work." Michael sighed. "You need to stop moping around. Move on."

"It's not that simple, Michael," Max said. He looked over at Liz, who was at the moment, laughing at something Tess had said. "I love her. She's my soul mate. S-"

"I know, I know. Your like a broken record." He turned his attention behind him, to where Liz was standing.

"So what is she hiding? Why all of a sudden she and Tess are friends? Why is she pushing me away?" Max asked. Those were only a few of the many questions he had swirling around in his head.

"Who said she was hiding anything? She's a chick; they always do things that make no sense to the rest of us." Michael looked back over his shoulder, his focus catching on Maria. "Trust me, Maxwell. Liz isn't the only one who's like that."

As if on cue, Maria appeared beside their table with Max's food. "That's one Space Burger with a side of Saturn Rings. Anything else I can get you or you just going to watch Liz a little longer?" Maria asked, catching Max off guard.

"I-" he began. "I wasn't watching her."

Maria laughed. "Sure you weren't Max. Just keep tellin' yourself that," she smiled. She then looked over in Michael's direction, her smile instantly fading. "Anything for you?" she asked.

"I'm all set, thanks," Michael said. Maria nodded before quickly disappearing.

"You two in another fight?" Max asked, feeling the tension between Michael and Maria.

Michael shrugged. "No idea. She's been acting like that since the whole Courtney incident." Max frowned.

"She's still upset about it?"

Michael nodded. "I don't get it. Courtney isn't even in town anymore; how can she still be upset?" he asked.

"Did you talk to her about it?" Max asked before taking a bite of his food.

"Yeah," Michael said. "Well… actually she sorta accused me of cheating on her then walked off…"

"I thought I had relationship problems…" Max said. "Look, word of advice; talk to her about it. Whatever happened between you guys isn't just going to go away and I mean, she's obviously upset about it."

Michael sat there, thinking about it for a second. "Thanks Maxwell." Max nodded before taking another bite of his food.

"So I know we haven't really taken the training wheels off of this friends thing yet, but…" Liz began, sitting across from Tess. The two had gotten a lot closer in the past few weeks, which was great. The shocker however, was that despite Maria's protests, she had a feeling Maria was starting to warm up to Tess as well. She would never verbalize this though, Liz knew.

Tess smiled. "You wanna know about me and Kyle," Tess guessed.

"Feel free to tell me to buzz off; I just couldn't resist asking," she explained.

"It's fine," Tess assured her. " She grinned. "Actually it's more than fine. I thought that living with the Valenti's would be…boring. I mean, not to mention I barely knew them."

"I'm guessing things have changed."

"Actually, they have," Tess admitted. "Kyle and I are sorta… involved now. It's sort of weird though; living with your boyfriend."

"I can only imagine."

"The other morning, Jim found me and Kyle sleeping together on the couch. And I mean, we had fallen asleep watching the television, but did that stop him from lecturing us the rest of the morning?" The two girls laughed. Thankfully, she had never been caught in any sort of situation with a guy by her parents. Although she had had a few 'close calls.'

She thought back to the year before; She had been caught sneaking through the window by her mother coming back from being with Max. That was nothing; a few hours before that, she had been caught in quite the predicament when Maria had walked in on her and Max at Michael's apartment. Just thinking back to that particular make out session with him… how intense and hot it had gotten (before Maria caught them).. Made her cheeks redden slightly. She looked up and over to the back booth where she knew Max was sitting. She still remembered what his bare skin had felt like, the smell of his hair, the taste of his kisses…

"Maybe you should go over there and talk to him," Tess suggested.

"Who?" Liz said, her attention back to the then and now. "Oh, um, that probably wouldn't be a good idea."

"Liz, if you think that being with Max again is going to rattle our newfound friendship, don't. I don't feel that way about him; I'm with Kyle for crying out loud," Tess reminded her.

"No, I know. Everything's just-"

"Different?" Tess finished for her. Liz tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and gave a small smile.

"Something like that."

"Liz, I know I never apologized…"

"Tess, it's okay," Liz said quickly.

"I want to," she assured her. "I'm really sorry for messing things up between the two of you. When I had finally found the four of them, I was so focused on being with Max…simply because he was this person from my past." She shrugged. "I don't know. I guess the thought of being with him made me feel safe. Nasedo had always told me I was destined to be with him that that's all I could think about. Our 'destinies.'" She laughed at the word. "The important thing to remember Liz is that…he may have been mine in the other life we lived, but…that wasn't me, that wasn't him; that was whoever we used to be. He's with you in this life."

"Thank you Tess," Liz said, with a smile on her face.

Tess grinned. "Now that that's out of the way…" She grabbed her purse. "I gotta get going. Seems Kyle and I have plans this evening," she explained.

"I totally understand." Liz stood up. "I should be getting back to work anyway."

"Talk to you later," Tess said.

Liz smiled. "Bye."

Later that evening, Max stepped out of the public library after studying for a bit, having no other plans. The "alien drama" the group was usually put through was, for the time being, non-existent. Therefore things have been quiet -aside from the relationship drama that seemed to never really end. Max sighed, wishing for the millionth time Liz wasn't pushing him away. As much as she denied it, he knew that was exactly what she was doing. Maybe he should do what Maria told him to do: let Liz go. He shook his head, knowing he'd never be able to let her go. All he could do for the time being is keep reminding her how much he loved her.

Just as Max passed a line up of small stores, a strong hand grabbed his arm and pulled him in between the buildings. Max's adrenaline shot up, feeling his powers tingle in his fingertips. He lifted his hand to the man, and was about to give him a good jolt when the man spoke up.

"Hey, man, chill out!" Max stopped instantly, the voice seemed familiar and yet...not. He looked up and blinked, unable to believe what he saw in front of him.

"Michael?" he asked. "Wh- you said when I left the Crashdown you were going home." he stopped, suddenly sensing something off about the 'Michael' in front of him. Suddenly Max pinned him against the side of the building.

"What are you?"

"Hey! Let 'em go!" a voice said behind him. Max quickly turned around to find what looked like Isabel, but with shorter hair.

"W-what the-" he began, loosening his grip on the Michael look-alike. "What are you?" he asked.

"Ya got someplace to go?" the Isabel look-alike asked. "Seems we got some catchin' up to do."

Max paced back and fourth in the UFO Center, thankful Brody went home early the past few weeks. He looked down at his watch as he continued to pace. He had called Michael, Isabel and the others soon after their new 'visitors' finished explaining things; his head still swam from all the new information they had given him. He looked up at the two, Lonnie and Rath, unable to get over how much they looked like Michael and Isabel. His attention then turned to the third one, the one who had shown herself after Lonnie and Rath. Ava was her name. She looked just like Tess, only with a calmer and quieter personality. She looked up at him and gave him a small smile.

"Yo what's the deal? They comin' or not?" Lonnie said, standing up.

"They'll be here," Max assured her. He tried to wrap his mind around it all. Just then, he heard the front door open and voices as they arrived at the UFO Center.

"Max?" Isabel called out. Max stepped forward, so they could see him. Michael led the way, with Maria, Isabel, Liz, and Alex trailing behind.

"So you asked us all to meet you here; what's-" he stopped in mid sentence when he looked over Max's shoulders and noticed Lonnie, Rath and Ava sitting in the background.

"Ohmigod," Isabel said. She looked at Max. "What..?

"What the hell's going on? What are they?" Michael said, taking a step towards them. Max held his hand out, stopping them.

"More like who," Rath said as the three of them stood.

"Were you," Lonnie explained. "Or at least, the other set."

Isabel looked at Max, obvious confusion filled the room. "Max?"

"It's true," he assured them all. "Apparently there were two sets of pods; the other pods were sent to New York." He paused. "

"So if you guys are the other set of pods, shouldn't there be four of you?" Liz asked, noticing the absence of their fourth member.

Ava's expression saddened, looking at the other two before looking down to the ground. "He's dead."

"His name was Zan," Lonnie said. "We uh, we just lost him. Back in New York." Liz looked over at Max, not able to picture what she'd do if Max died.

"H-How'd he-"

"Bus hit him," Rath explained. "Out of all the ways… a stupid bus." Again silence filled the room.

"I'm sorry," Max said. Lonnie nodded. She looked at Isabel, both noting their similar appearances.

"This is my sister, Isabel," Max said.

"Lonnie."

Michael stepped forward, towards his look-alike. "Michael."

"Rath. How's it goin'?"

Tess looked at her look alike, also perplexed and a bit spooked at how much they looked like them. "I'm Tess," she said to the girl who looked like her.

"Ava," she said in a soft voice.

"Um, this is Liz, Maria and Alex. Their our friends," he explained.

"Well… now that we know everyone's names…. What are we doing here? What are they doing here?" Maria asked, her arms folded over her chest.

"Well ya see, we've been contacted," Rath said. "Back in New York; seems the peeps from our hood wanna have a little sit down."

"I'm sorry… the 'hood'?" Maria asked, trying hard to suppress her laugher.

Lonnie sighed. "Our solar system. Ya know, our home?" She cracked her knuckles as she spoke. "Seems there's a big war goin' on up there and now the ruling familes of the five planets wanna have a sit down with the royal four to try and sort this all out," she explained.

"With Zan dead, you're the only leader we got. That's why we're here," Rath said.

"I-I don't know anything about the war going on. I don't even know what it's about," Max confessed. Whileas they had learned a lot in the past year, there was still a lot they didn't know about their origins.

"From what we know, some kind of revolution happened. We were all killed; our former selves at least. We were then sent to earth to be reborn." Rath shrugged. "Ever since then, the hood's been a war zone. Now they want peace."

"That's where you come in, Max. You gotta come back with us to our hood so we can have this summit meeting thing," Lonnie said.

"We'd all be going right? Michael and I?" Isabel asked.

"No, just him," Lonnie said.

"Then there's no deal,": Michael said quickly. "We don't all go, no one goes."

Max spoke up. "Michael."

Michael looked at Max. "Maxwell, you can't seriously be thinking about going alone with them to New York?" Max looked over at Liz, then over at the New York group.

"Can you give us a few minutes?" he asked them.

"Sure," Lonnie said. Max forced a smile before leading the others to the other side of the room.

"This isn't a good idea," Isabel said as soon as they were out of ear show from the three.

"Yeah, I mean what if this is all some sort of set up?" Liz said, just as worried as Isabel sounded. Max stood there, thinking about the different scenario's in his head as Alex, Isabel, Tess, Liz, Maria and Michael stood in a circle, watching him.

"They're right, Maxwell. You can't go alone." He looked over at Rath, Ava and Lonnie, then back at Max. "There's something about them… I don't trust them."

"And I mean, what if this 'summit meeting' doesn't even exist?" Tess said. "If their leader is dead, this means you really are leader now."

"But what if it does?" Max said. "What if our planet is really trying to contact us?"

"What I don't get is why would they try to contact them and not us. You guys. Whatever," Maria said.

"Maybe they thought we had been killed?" Isabel said.

"Doesn't matter," Michael said. "All that matters is that they are trying to contact us, and now they want you to go back with them, halfway across the country."

"One of us should go with you," Tess said. "In case something happens."

"She's right. And I think I'm the one that should go with you," Michael said.

"Okay, slow down a second," Isabel said, her right hand going up to her forehead. "Maybe you shouldn't go Max. I mean, not only is it sketchy, but have you forgotten what's just around the corner?"

"Isabel, our planet may be trying to contact us. Hundreds of lives rest in our hands. Thanksgiving isn't a big concern of ours at the time being," Max said, trying to decide what to do. He looked over at the three on the other side of the room, then back to their group.

"I see no further point to discuss this thing. You and I are going back with them," Michael said. Maria looked at him as if he had insulted her.

"I'm sorry, all of a sudden it doesn't matter what the rest of us think?" she asked. "Michael, what if I don't want you to go?"

"Maria, right now there are bigger things going on than our relationship. If for some miracle our home planet is trying to contact us, there's no way I'm just going to sit here in Roswell," Michael said.

"Fine, you know what? Do what you want. I'm sick of this," she said before walking away. Michael watched as Maria walked off, a part of him wanting to run after her.

"Maria, wait!" Liz said. She looked over at Max once more before running after Maria. Max watched as Liz walked off, away from them. Away from him. After a few moments, he tore his gaze away from her and focused back to the group.

"You'd be ready to go as soon as tomorrow night?" Max asked Michael.

Michael nodded. "Sure."

"Alright then, you and I are going back with them tomorrow evening," Max said, making up his mind. Isabel opened her mouth to protest, but Max interrupted her.

"Isabel, were going; end of subject."