First Wave: "The Lost Prophesies"

Chapter Five – Royal Flush

Summary: The stranger tells the Sheriff all about Max, Isabel and Michael's origins.

Disclaimer: See Chapter One

"If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run - and often in the short one - the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative."

- Arthur C. Clarke

Sheriff Valenti leaned in close to Cade and prompted him for more information "mind telling me why these kids are so important to you?"

"It's a long story, I won't go into all the details, but the short of it is that there is a race of aliens trying to take over earth and with the help of previously undiscovered prophesies from Nostradamus I've been fighting them. A while back my partner and I managed to decipher another quatrain of Nostradamus's prophecies; basically these four are our only hope for survival."

The Sheriff quietly tried to understand what he was hearing. Was Max another species of alien trying to take over the earth? Until now he'd believed that Max was the only one, now he considered the possibility that his sister, Isabel and his friend, Michael were also alien, but no one else sprang to mind. "You're mistaken; there are only three of them, and what is it that you mean by only hope for survival?"

"No there are four, but this means you've found the third one too? I thought that only two of them were in Roswell. Which leads me to my question, who is the third alien?"

"Look Mister Jackson, I'm not about to divulge any information to you until I know that I can trust you." Or more correctly, that he wasn't some alien hunter nut case.

"All right, I'm willing to tell you what I know, but only because they trusted you." He paused. "Some time ago I was convicted of the murder of my wife, I was framed by the Gua. The Gua being the race of aliens I mentioned earlier. It was part of some of their experiments on the human mind and endurance, anyway I escaped and with some information managed to find these journals of Nostradamus's, he predicted me, he predicted the Gua and he predicted the destruction of earth in three terrifying waves, the first wave is already here. The Gua are an evil race of aliens, they are here to destroy us and take over earth, I've been fighting them for some time now, but I'm only one man and the truth of the matter is that they're too powerful, we don't stand a chance."

He paused. Taking a deep breath, he continued.

"Or so I believed until I deciphered the quatrain predicting four aliens as our only hope, it is remarkable what they are capable of and I need to find them so that I can set their destiny in motion, I'm willing to believe that they don't know about their destinies or even how powerful they are. Sheriff, I can't stress to you enough how important it is that we find them, our whole world is at stake."

"How did you track them to Roswell?"

"The quatrains were pretty explicit, mentioning a crash in the forties. My first thought was the Roswell Incident in '47. So I started investigating the town. That's when I discovered your investigation into Max Evans and the shooting at the Crashdown Café. That led me to investigate Max, which is when I discovered that both he and his sister Isabel had been found in the desert in the eighties. This fit in with the information I deciphered from the quatrain. All of this led me to you, it was obvious that you had discovered their true identities and were helping to protect them, and since I can't find them, I've come to you."

Jim Valenti wasn't sure if anything he'd just heard made any sense whatsoever, but he continued with his questioning none-the-less.

"How would I know that you're not one of those Gua people setting up some sort of trap?"

"You don't, we're going to have to trust each other here, and you have to realize that I am also at risk here, you could be Gua, and even if you're not, you are a Sheriff and I am a man wanted for murder."

The Sheriff smiled, he could not believe his luck, naturally this guy could be a nutter, although he was also not surprised by the fact that Max was an alien, he'd long since suspected it and probably even had enough evidence to prove it. And now sitting before him was a man verifying his suspicions and a felon to boot. This was too good to be true.

Sheriff Valenti decided to sit on all this information and see where it took him.

"Okay Mister Jackson, I'll help you find these kids, but I want to be involved with everything from this day forward."

"Deal. By the way, the names Foster, Cade Foster."

Phillip Evans opened his door to find Sheriff Valenti and another man standing on his threshold expectantly.

"Sheriff?"

"Phillip, mind if we come in and talk to you?"

Phillip let the men in and led them to his study, the whole time his mind wondered at the significance of the visit.

This could not bode well, Isabel had told him how the Sheriff had become obsessed with Max after the shooting at the Crashdown and now he was in his house.

Phillip sat behind his desk and waited for the men to seat themselves and explain their presence.

"What can I do for you gentlemen?"

"How's Diane holding up?" Asked Jim, deliberately avoiding the question.

Phillip gave the Sheriff a look of confusion before answering. He knew the man was not here to ask about his wife's well being. "She's doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances, how about your boy, how's he doing?"

"Kyle's good, he's in college now on a football scholarship" Jim answered, a touch of pride in his voice.

Phillip nodded, but said no more.

"I need to talk to you about your kids Phillip."

Phillip felt his heartbeat increase at the mention of his children.

The Sheriff indicated Cade "this is Cade Foster, he has an interesting tale to tell you."

"I'm afraid sir that what I have to tell you may come as a shock" began Cade.

Jim used the opportunity to study Phillip's reaction to the story. It came as no surprise to him that Phillip seemed to be aware of his children's alien status. Which begged the question, why was Phillip Evans protecting them. Could these kids really be the good guys in this whole scenario. Had he been chasing the wrong aliens this entire time? And if what Cade said was true, that these kids were here to protect earth, then he had made a grievous mistake by chasing after them.

In fact, his investigation into Max was probably what had led to the young mans disappearance. Had he just cost Earth their only hope at survival…or was he placing too much importance on one teenage boy?

It was a troubling thought.

When Cade had finished repeating the same story he'd told the Sheriff earlier Phillip Evans was dumbfounded, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry, they were talking about his children and the burden that they were now forced to carry at such a young age, it just wasn't fair.

The Sheriff sat forward "Phillip, I think it's time you got Isabel back here."

PART THREE: THE RESCUE

Isabel took a deep breath and knocked on Maria's door, it was opened by Alex who reluctantly let them in.

They greeted each other then stood nervously in the foyer uncomfortable and unsure of what to say.

Maria walked in then and led them through to the living room.

Once they were all seated and sipping on their soda's Maria spoke up "Okay, I think it's time that you guy's told me everything."

Isabel gave Michael and Liz a look before answering "we don't know much really, only that we think we were in the 1947 crash and were kept in a sort of stasis until 1989, after we left the pods I guess we were all separated."

"Wait! Are you speaking about the infamous Roswell Incident…as in aliens? As in my sister is an alien?" Interrupted Alex.

Liz nodded "Isabel will explain everything."

Alex snorted in disbelief but said nothing; instead he gave his sister a look to indicate his disdain for the whole conversation, she, however, chose to ignore him. Her attention focused solely on Isabel and the story she was being told.

"You were still in your pod and Michael didn't want to come with us, so Max and I were the first ones found. We were lucky and got adopted; Michael was found later and put into foster care. About three years ago we found the pod chamber – which is where we were in stasis for so many years. It was then we realized that there were four pods and so therefore another one of us. It was a hard discovery to make, because we had no idea where you were, if you were okay. Immediately we started investigating, trying to find anything about you or your whereabouts. We discovered from old newspaper articles that you had been found outside of our house, but you were taken away before we even knew you were there. Then Max went missing and we became lost. We had nothing to go on, no clues to either one of your whereabouts. We stumbled on like that for two years, grasping at any clue or idea until about a year ago. That was when I had a vision about you that's how we knew you were somewhere here; my vision corroborated everything we had already discovered from the police reports and newspaper articles. We've been searching for you and Max for the past three years." Finished Isabel, her voice choking on the last couple of words.

Tears welled up in Maria's eyes, she knew Isabel was telling her the truth; she had the memories, memories that she had repressed for many years in fear of being crazy. In front of her sat her sister, her blood. Maria was unable to deny her past nor the fact that she was something other than human.

Standing up from her seat she stumbled over to where Isabel was sitting and hugged her; eventually the newly reunited sisters pulled away from each other smiling through their tears.

Maria looked at Liz "are you…"

Liz shook her head, anticipating the question "no, I'm not one of you, I'm just the poor sucker who fell helplessly in love with your brother, and who is hopelessly lost without him."

Maria reached out a hand to Liz "I'm sorry."

She then turned to Michael, instinctively she knew that he was also one of them, maybe not family through blood, but family through their shared secret.

Isabel looked nervously at Alex, unsure of what his reaction would be to all of this, he caught her look and correctly interpreted it's meaning.

"Don't worry about me, we've always known about Maria's uh…differences, especially after her psycho ex foster father tracked us down, he'd seen her do some things when she was in his care and wanted to exploit her for money. Of course this whole alien thing is new, although maybe not as crazy as it first sounded like. If Maria says you're for real, then I guess I'm on board with this whole alien thing. But only because I believe in 'Ria, you three I'm still a little wary of. Don't take it personally though, I'm a little over-protective and paranoid after the action packed life of panic we've had to endure. I'm sure you're all nice…aliens, but it'll be awhile before I trust you."

"That's why you changed your name from Whitman to Deluca, to hide from Aaron." Said Liz giving Alex a sideways glance as she spoke to Maria. She wandered if Alex was as comfortable with the news as he made out, the last thing they needed was a panicked Alex running around screaming 'Alien's are living in my apartment complex and they're trying to convert my sister to one of them' to all who would listen.

"Enough about the past, I think it's time we joined forces and started looking for this brother of mine that I've yet to meet, and yet I get the feeling he is someone remarkable by just the way you guys talk about him" said Maria through her tears.

Liz, Isabel and Michael grinned, they couldn't have said it better themselves.

Back at their apartment Liz saw that the mail from Mr. Evans had arrived, the trio went into the living room to open it. Whilst paging through the reams of information the phone rang, so Isabel put down the pages she was holding to go and answer it.

"Hello?"

"Isabel? I'm so glad to finally get you, I've been phoning all night."

Isabel frowned, her heart jumping in her chest as she heard the edge of panic in her father's voice "Is everything alright?"

"Isabel, I think it's time you came back home to Roswell."

"Why? What's happened?"

"You guy's are in danger, you need to come home, there's a man here, Cade Foster, he can explain everything to you, please sweetie come home."

Isabel hesitated, her father sounded really scared. Running the options through her head she decided that they would have eventually returned to Roswell to follow up on the Eagle Rock lead, so she agreed "Okay daddy, just give us a few days to sort things out here."

Isabel put down the phone and looked at Liz and Michael who were looking at her with worried expressions, before she could explain there was a knock at the door, Michael opened it and found a flustered Maria standing there. "You guys have got to see this."

They all sat around Alex as he printed something from his computer.

"When you guy's left I decided to get some more information on aliens and anything UFO related" explained Alex.

"Are you crazy? What if there are people out there tracking anyone who looks for this kind of information in case it turns out to be an idiot like you who can lead them straight to a bunch of aliens?" Growled Michael, angry that Alex might have endangered them.

Alex gave Michael a look of disbelief, obviously Michael was one big ball of paranoia waiting to explode. Or crazy. Either way, maybe it wasn't so great that Maria had found her long-lost-family, these people had major issues, and he didn't want Maria getting hurt by any of it.

Remembering his promise to Maria to give them a chance, Alex continued "highly doubtful, but my connection is untraceable anyway, so we're safe."

Turning his attention away from Michael, Alex pulled the sheets of paper out of the printer "anyway, this is what I found" he handed them each a copy of what was titled the Paranoid Times, it's creator being a guy named Cade Foster and another man called Eddie.

Isabel gasped "this is they guy who is in Roswell this minute waiting to talk to us."

At the questioning look on everybody's faces she explained about the call from her father.

Michael glanced at the page in front of him, but chose not to read the article "so what is this Paranoid Times s'posed to be?"

"Well according to this Cade guy, Nostradamus predicted all of this, by this I mean you guys and also another race of aliens, evil aliens called the Gua who are here to destroy earth. It doesn't go into much detail about it; my guess is he's keeping it to himself for now. The rest of his theories and what he's managed to uncover so far are interesting to say the least."

"This guy sounds like his lift doesn't go all the way to the top" grumbled Michael, annoyed that he'd rushed over for an article about evil aliens.

"Yeah but it's too unbelievable, that's what makes it believable!" Exclaimed Alex excitedly.

Michael looked at Alex as if he'd completely lost his head.

Isabel spoke up before Michael could make another disparaging remark "what does it say about us?"

"It just mentions a pre-ordained destiny about four aliens who arrived on earth in the 1940's but who only entered society in the late 1980's."

"So how do you know that it's us?" Asked Isabel.

"Who else?"

She couldn't argue with that, it certainly seemed like the article was about them, and now this guy was in Roswell claiming that they were in danger.

"So I guess we're going home" stated Liz.

Everyone nodded.