Maria starred around her in amazed awe. The palace was magnificent, the road leading up to it a soft lilac, with delicate sapphire flowers trailing over medium size white balls, which framed the walkway like a picture perfect scene.

The castle was a stroke of genius in its self, three large towers being the starting point from which three tower walls ran, joining each tower to the other in a charismatic winding curve that had a touch of Whimsy to it, as if it had taken on a personality of its own.

The beams of wood protruding from the side to form a gently sloping roof over little pathways a floor below the towers, clearly telling of many times were they would sit outside having meals or banquets, the paleness of the palace walls off set by the many pots of flowers scattered through the palace, I many arrays of different colours.

In the middle of the courtyard a large silver statue stood at least twelve feet high, water pouring down the side in a gentle trickle to the multi coloured earth tone pebbles placed strategically at the bottom.

To her right stood an even larger building, the large yellow windows taking over much of the front of the building, the windows framed in an ivy silhouette which Maria found strangely comforting.

She spotted Nimissa standing in front of it, and forgetting about what was to her left, headed in the archways, no doors for this room, and suddenly found herself in a pure white room, gold filigree framing the arches of each of the four hallways that lead of that one room.

Heading down the farthest one to her right, she slowing walked down it, her steps echoing in the deadly quiet. She vaguely realised that she was wearing very high heels, and not the same clothes she had started with, when she came to the first of them, a still life picture of a beautiful woman, with long purple hair, the top of which reminded Maria of mow-hawk, which flowed down over her right shoulder. Her neck was surrounded by tiny intricately placed beats, swirling around her neck like a rope, ending just behind where her dress began, a chiffon gold material, scooped in the front, her hands demurely folded in front of her. But it was her eyes that held Maria's attention; they seemed to be happy and sure. Like she knew who she was, like she was in love. The smirk on her face speaking of so much that Maria had felt at one point but somehow Maria knew this woman had had a happy ending.

In a daze her hand reached up as if to touch the picture when a hologram appeared in front of her, she jumped back in shock. It was the woman again, but this time there was man with her.

He was holding her close as if he would never let her go. She was dressed in a pale white halter neck, lilac ivy framing her face, and as she twisted in the mans arms, Maria drew in a shocked breath. The way she wore her hair, with it draped over her right shoulder left her back clear for Maria to see that the tattoo that had framed her face and disappeared just above her ears went all the way around her neck, and flew in a lone line down her back, the braches stretching across her back, Maria could almost swear she could see it move on the womans skin.

Right between her shoulder blades it changed, spreading to form a diamond shape in the branch structure. Maria couldn't see what was there, leaning in closer, she squinted her eyes, hoping that she could see what was there. Drawing back, she blinked, she couldn't be sure but it looked like a flattened piece of rose quartz shaped into a diamond to fill the area the ivy had left.

That was really cool she thought, not even bothering all that much with noticing the guy other then to take in that they were obviously very in love with each other, holding each other close, the guys large frame ready to jump in front of her seemingly diminutive size standing next to him.

That was so, so… her thought trail ended. Damn it she wanted that.

With Micheal.

But that was as likely to happen as she was to fly, in real life, realising bleatingly that it had already happened here.

Suddenly little balls of light appeared over her head, and Maria couldn't help but compare them to an airplane landing strip.

Shrugging her shoulders in resignation, she started following them; there gentle light casting a soothing shadow along the empty hallway.

She came to a stop suddenly, and looking to her right and left, noticed that there was three others entrances, Must be where they all lead she murmured to herself.

In the middle of the room a statue of a family stood, carved in gold, immortalising there every feature and expression. The skill involved in producing something so amazing, well amazed her. Damn she thought, today wasn't her day for adjectives.

The statue fascinated her. There was only a woman and three children playing around her, one hiding behind her skirts, seeming to peek out. The other two sat in front of her holding on to each other, sisters she determined, so close she thought. Kind of like her and Liz, even thought they weren't technically related.

Coming to stand before the statues, she read the inscription.

Erected in loving memory of Queen Sarafina, and her children three.

The only queen to have more then one child to inherit the thrown.



Maria ran her hands over the inscription, whispering its meaning underneath her breath, strongest as one.

What the hell did that mean? she thought to herself. It was times like this she wished she had Liz's warped mind. She had always loved these kinds of riddles.

Catching a glimpse of someone in the corner of her eyes, she twirled on her heels, to look and found herself looking in a mirror, but the reflection she saw was not her.

The woman she saw was tanned, toned, had a body a Maxim model would kill for, and had fabulous taste in shoes. Her hair was long, black and curled gently over her right shoulder. She had the same markings as the first woman she had seen in the picture, but she had a crown, gold in colour like her dress, coming in a point between her eyes disappearing under the starkness of her hair.

The shoes were at least five inches from the ground, a mixture of thing straps of gold chain, and the starkness of black, the straps curving around her leg, which emphasised the small size of her legs and even smaller ankles. The dress a strappy gold number, with gold chiffon sleeves attached with gold wires crisscrossed in the middle allowing a tanned piece of skin to show through. The dress flared to the ground in gentle waves from the hips were a gold whip hung from a thing gold belt, the top fitting like a second skin.

It was as Maria thought she heard a noise behind her and turned to investigate that Maria realised something very important.

The woman was she.

The she in the mirror was Maria.

This was a lot to take in.

Twirling in the mirror, she found the same markings on her back that the other woman had had, only were the woman had rose quartz, she had a green moonstone.

The heart of the artist.

Nope, she didn't have to take in anything. She loved this body; she felt at home in it, unlike what she had felt in her other form. And she knew it had only been a form.

Suddenly a shout echoed through the still halls, and Maria spun around ready to defend herself.

Heading towards her was a solider, or at least she guessed he was, she wasn't sure about the uniform though.

"Princess, we're under attack. You have to get to safety!" he reached for her, and as his hand passed through her skin, Maria turned in slow motion to see another woman, similar to her except a lot taller, being lead away through another hall way, away from her. It was as the first explosion came from outside that Maria disappeared, not in a flash of light, but a shimmer, as if she had never been there in the first place, merely a trick of the light.

Maria awoke on the ground outside her house. Picking up her bag, she stumbled into the house and dropping everything on the floor inside the house, stumbled to her bed, not seeing the sun as it went down for the second time since Maria had left, the first just as she had disappeared.

Snuggling deeper into the pillows as the phone rang insistently from the living room, alternating between her mobile and the house phone. Maria ignored both, giving herself up to the pull of exhaustion.

Liz stumbled through work on Sunday, thankful they were only open half the day, working on automatic pilot as her mind worked on the plant problem that was still following her around.

The sooner she found the damn plant the better, she thought.

When her shift had ended, she closed up and making sure everything was in order for the next day, before heading upstairs, gratefully taking of her uniform as she went.

The clothes she had worn for the last two days seemed to keep her warmer then they normally did, they made her want to go around in shorts and bikini tops.

Stepping under the shower, she washed all the grim and smells she had accumulated that day walking in and out of the kitchen in the diner.

Grabbing a long black muslin shirt, she pulled it over her head, and tying a dark chocolate weaved belt with a large silver belt buckle over it. Strapping two silver anklets on her right and left ankles, she grabbed her lap top and climbed out through her window to her own private sanctuary. Decorated with little fairy lights, layered with colourful cushions and a garden lounger with a colourful throw rug thrown over it. She went directly to her secret compartment outside. Pulling out the matches, she began to light the various candles spaced through out the roof.

Tying her hair back with one hand as she started to write all the ideas that had occurred to her since she had started work.

Suddenly she was over come with an almost inhuman desire to write.

To put thoughts other then scientific on paper.

Engrossed in her story she didn't hear her phone ring inside her room.

This time it was Max that hit the red phone of with an angry swipe. Just what the hell were they doing back in Roswell that they couldn't answer their phones.

He didn't want to entertain the possibility that maybe the FBI, or somebody worse had gotten to them.

Turning to Micheal, he issued an order that Micheal was for once more then happy to obey "Pack up. Something's wrong in Roswell."

In the middle of the night as four worried teenagers crossed borders back into Mexico heading to Roswell, two girls, more joined in spirit then they could ever imagine started to undergo changes as well.

For everything one did, the other did the opposite.

One, her hair turned pure white growing longer in shaggy waves, her skin paled to an almost Albino texture, her limbs grew limber and subtle.

The other, her hair turned black and also grew longer in soft curls, her skin turned a honey tone, her limbs grew longer and more muscley.

But in each, they shared one change.

The tattoo's grew more prominent on each of them that had started to form just before Max left. But still the opposite action was still in play, one having a gold tattoo, the other a back tattoo.

In a house across town, two guys arms started to glow with tattoo's that stayed even after the sun had come up.

The morning sun rose over Roswell, and the sounds of broken, shocked screams echoed through the small town of Roswell welcoming the sun and the four teenagers back to it.

To the home of the weird.

okay,

I have so many ideas, I want the damn clothes though and the tattoo's and Maria's shoes, I wont go on…

Anyway review

Laters

Willow1986