A Phone Call

Once the meal was finished and the glasses refilled, Michael sat back in the comfortable chair and felt the fresh air on his face. "Okay I'm ready. Hit me. Or well…don't…on second thoughts."

A small smile flickered across Max's face as he lent forward onto the table. "Okay, I'm not going to give you a long summary of the past eight years. It would just take too long. So we will start with the need-to-know stuff first, how about you just ask and we'll answer for now?"

Michael nodded understandingly; he too couldn't really tell them in one succession what he'd been through. So much he still hadn't told Maria. "Right well why are there two of you and Tess? How did that happen? And most importantly, is there another handsome bastard like myself running around, because that would be really cool."

Maria paled and stood up quickly, knocking over a glass of water. "Oops! Sorry, clumsy me!" She trilled. "I just need to go…bathroom." nd with an apologetic smile to the table of startled onlookers she sprinted back into the house.

What's wrong with Maria?" Michael frowned, watching her retreating back slip into the kitchen and away from sight.

"Well when you gotta go…" Kyle laughed nervously, his eyes darting over to Max.

Max continued, "When our ship crashed there were two sets of us. One was left here and the other was left in New York. Your clone is called Rath and Isabel's is called Lonnie, these were our names in our previous lives on Antar, they approached us not long after you left. There's a race of aliens that were our enemies called the Skins, whose leader is called Khivar. Khivar was in control of Antar. He arranged a meeting in New York and only wanted the true king to attend, which was myself as Zan didn't pass the test. The meeting didn't go well, Khivar asked for something I wouldn't give and in the end we went home."

"So what did Khivar want? And where are Lonnie and Rath now?"

Max shifted slightly. "Khivar wanted a powerful device called the Granolith, which was hidden behind our pods. It's sort of the Holy Grail on our planet. Well…we haven't spoken to Lonnie in a while. It turned out Lonnie was working with the Skins. Lonnie tried to kill Zan but luckily she was stopped by Ava and Zan banished Lonnie away from New York and Roswell." Max looked down at the tablecloth, remembering the story they had agreed upon while Michael was passed out. "Rath was used as a backup second in command, since you weren't there, but once the battles were over Rath took off and we haven't seen much of him since then."

"I guess me and him are pretty similar then." Michael smiled a little bitterly, but Ava's eyes rounded in horror.

"No! You much better than that low life. He was scum." She spat.

Everyone shifted nervously, their eyes not quite meeting his. Michael frowned, something was off. "Am I missing something? Maxwell?"

Max grimaced. "Rath was part of the attempted assassination on Zan, before they realised that Zan wasn't the true King. We believe he may also have been behind other failed assassination attempts of Max. Rath thought he would make a better King, less of a pacifist."

Michael smiled wryly at the familiar phrase repeated back to him. "What about Maria? What was she doing during all of this?"

Max shook his head sadly, "You have to ask Maria, that's not our story to tell. But she wasn't in Roswell at this point."

"What about Liz? Where is she? I would have thought she'd be here with you."

Max openbed his mouth to answer but a muffled version of 'Nothing Else Matters' by Metallica started playing in the background. Michael fished in his pockets and looked at his phone, it was Rory. Christ, he had forgotten about his other life. "Shit, sorry guys, I gotta take this."

Michael walked through the house and into the empty front room, not noticing that Maria was sat on the stairs beside the door. "Hey Rory, how's it going?"

"Michael! Dude! Where have you been? We looked everywhere for you when you disappeared like that! Did you hook up with someone? "

Michael laughed. "No not exactly. I'm in Roswell, visiting …err...family."

"Oh right, so how's it going with Maria then?"

Michael was stunned. "How did you know about her?"

"You mumble in your sleep. It doesn't take a genius to see you're hung up on someone from your past, all the girls…plus your art… as I don't remember any of your girls being blonde and green eyed." He could see Rory's face, smug and satisfied at being right. "Oh yeah and Cara's gallery is pretty insistent for an answer, she was also wondering where you had disappeared to. How long am I going to have to cover?"

"I dunno how long I'm going to be here, a few days perhaps? Don't worry I'll call Cara. I just need some time and some space… I need to figure some things out before I make such a big commitment."

"Michael, only you would consider having your artwork put up in its own gallery show as a 'big commitment'. You know, you should tell Maria about it before you do, considering half of your show is of her image."

"Yeah I know, I'll tell Maria when I can. Timing isn't right at the moment. Everything is pretty….intense. Anyway will speak to you later, I'm in the middle of a family dinner."

"Okay then, good luck; ring me when you've talked to Cara."

"I will. Bye."

Michael turned around at the sound of an engine and watched as Maria's car sped off loudly into the darkness.

"Maria!" Shit, he cursed, had she heard the entire thing? He'd probably scared her off. At some point, she had obviously moved on, okay the guy was bastard that needed a good ass-kicking but he hadn't moved on; he had just painted her over and over. Obsessive much?

Michael ran out, jumped into Max's army jeep and drove after her. He had to sort this out once and for all.

Authors Note: I know its short but theres another chapter I'm posting after this! So sorry about the length of time, my life is just drama drama drama. Everyone is so fantastic for sticking with this.

Paradise Desdemona - Thank you for the fb, glad you enjoyed it. Ah yeah Liz, you will hear more, I promise.

Scorpio6 - Thanks :) Here's two more chapters for you!

Magali = Yep that is some of the reasons to it. Fear, loss etc More will be revealed about liz. Thanks for the constant fb.

Maji343 - Sorry to make you wait, but got extra chapters and another being written aswell. Hope you enjoy.

Lucas4everPeyton - Yes many do owe apologies. But then they did try and get Maria to stop. I am a little confused by your fb, is it better if liz is in this or if liz isn't? Thanks for reading though :) Will definitely try not to take so long finishing.

Charming Seductress - Hey thanks! Glad you're enjoying it. I'm also interested in knowing where its going hehe.