He saw Liz put her hands in her face and begin to sob.

Max screamed in outrage and then put his head in his hands and muttered silently to himself. He looked up to see Liz's reaction and felt like he had been punched in the gut by the tears he saw in her eyes. He always knew that being with humans would be dangerous and Michael's declaration had only proven it to be true.

Isabel had leaned forward and screamed "What?" and then began to pace the room. "OH MY GOD!!! This is horrible! Maria can't die. We can't let her die. We have to do something. We have...," she continued to rant and throw her arms all over the place.

Alex was staring at Maria and she saw his eyes were shining with unshed tears. "You can't die Maria," he squeaked out and shook his head frantically.

Maria slapped Michael on the arm and said "Great! Way to scare the shit out of them!" Then she stood up on the seat of the booth and yelled, "WAIT! WAIT! EVERYBODY CALM DOWN!!!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing. Liz looked up at Maria, and Maria saw the tears in her eyes. "You see what you did?" she slapped Michael again. Then to the group she said "Look, I'm not dead. I'm right here and still alive! If you sit down calmly, we'll tell you the entire story. Please, just relax." She sat back down and slowly, everyone took their seats.

To Michael she said, "Now, tell them the story and try not to scare the shit out of them again. You think you can do that?"

He nodded softly, and to her he said, "I'm sorry." Then he said it again, much louder this time so the group would hear him. "I didn't mean to scare you. I'll tell you everything, but I want you guys to promise you're not going to freak out on us again. Much of what I'm going to say will be pretty unbelievable, but it's all true. And if you look at me and Maria, you see we're just fine. So don't worry about the stuff that I'm going to tell you about us, because we came out of it fine. Please remember that. Okay?"

Everyone's eyes were on him, and he saw the nodding of heads around the circle. "Good. Let's see, where was I?"

Isabel's forehead wrinkled and she opened her mouth to yell when he stopped her. "Oh, now I remember. Well, the mans name was Ashtar and the others he took us to see were, Danys, Riorma, Sintama and...and...they're right at the tip of my tongue here. They were...."

Maria sighed and then grinned at him, "They were Lyson, Disora, Kisa and Lana."

"Thank you," Michael said.

"Wow, those are some really interesting names, to say the least," Isabel said.

"Yeah, they're their real names. Their Dilana names," Michael said, holding eye contact with Isabel and then Max.

"Is that the name of our race? Dilana?" Max asked leaning forward, an anxious look on his face.

"Yes, but first, I need to go back. I'm getting ahead of myself. So, we were introduced and they wanted to know about me and my life, and how Maria knew about of us. It was like they were scared of her or something."

"50 years of having to hide out will do that to a person," Isabel muttered.

Michael nodded grimly. "So I told them everything about us three and how we got out of the pods; what life was like for us, being raised by different types of parents. I told them how we were inconspicuous until the day of the shooting, where you saved Liz's life, and how everything went crazy from there. I let them know all about the troubles your actions brought to us three, but I also let them know that Maria, Liz, and Alex have helped us continuously, even to the point of sacrificing themselves, and kept our secret. I knew I had to convince them that there are humans out there that we could trust."

"They finally began to tell me about themselves. About us. First off, they had questions about Nacerro, which I answered to the best of my knowledge. From what I told them, they figured out that he is a different race than us; from the same planet, but not the same. His race is called the Tyrvanas, and they're warriors who took over our planet. They massacred our people in mass and only thirteen ships got away. A few ships came here, and one of them crashed in Roswell. Lyson and his wife, Kisa were both on that ship. The weird thing is that he didn't know who put our pods in the cave, he said all seventeen of the survivors ran for their lives, that there was no time to hide the pods."

Max said, "Someone had to have done it."

Michael shrugged. "Who knows. So anyways, about Nacerro. Huble was right; he is a cold, ruthless murderer. He is a bounty hunter of sorts from our planet and it's possible that he has tracked us down. Oh, and he's a shapeshifter which means we need to be on guard."

Isabel was looking down at the Formica surface of the table, deep in thought. "What is the name of our planet, Michael?" she asked so softly that he almost didn't hear her.

"Pearlan."

"That's pretty," she said, finally looking up. Michael saw that there were tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong, Iz?" he asked, shocked. It was the first time he had ever seen Isabel cry. She was always so rock hard on the outside.

"It's just sad. I've always believed deep down inside that we were going to eventually go back to our planet, and now I'm finding out that it's never going to happen," she said sniffing and wiping a tear that spilled over.

Max moved in to put an arm around her, but she pulled away. Instead, she walked over to Alex and sat on his lap, her legs off to one side. She buried her head in his shoulder. Everyone was amazed; But none more so than Alex. He hadn't really talked to her much since she told him that he was suffocating her. He hesitated for a moment and then wrapped an arm around her and used the other to stroke her hair as she silently sobbed. He could feel her hot tears running down his neck.

No one knew what to do, so they waited. Finally, she pulled back from his neck and told Michael to continue with the story. She didn't, however, leave Alex's lap.

Maria spoke up. "Well, I was right about something, You guys do glow! Your auras glowed when you were on Pearlan." Everyone smiled, slightly impressed.

Michael continued. "So, I don't remember what exactly happened but I screwed up and laughed out loud at something Maria sent me silently and they all found out we were linked."

They called it trance'," Maria added.

"They all seemed really confused about how that could be possible. They asked us to tell them when it started and how it happened. So we told them about...being intimate, which freaked them out. Big time. We also told them about her sweet and spicy craving and my new powers. And we told them about my Cyprus oil incident." Everyone looked at him confused. "Oh yeah. I didn't tell you about that. When we discovered the link, well naturally we freaked out. We were yelling at each other and I cried out in frustration and then dug through her purse for the oil. I didn't realize how odd that was until afterwards."

"Well, they all went twilight zone on us, and started to totally freak." He told them about Lana touching their heads and discovering that they were soulmates and how they were the first Dilana-human soulmates that they had ever heard of.

Liz and Max looked at each other quickly, and both thought to themselves that there were actually two sets of Dilana-human soulmates.

Michael continued. "Well, after the initial shock of finding out we were soulmates...,"

"Grandasa," Maria piped in.

"That we were grandasa, they asked if we did the ritual. We had no clue what they were talking about and they freaked out again and that's when they told us that Maria was going to die if we didn't do the ritual."

"What was the ritual?" Liz asked, glancing at Max.

"It's a Dilana wedding ceremony where soulmates join souls and minds," Maria said as Michael's arms snaked around her waist.

"A wedding ceremony?" Isabel questioned. Then the fire returned to her eyes as she made the connection. "YOU TWO ARE MARRIED?" she yelled.

*Good to see she snapped out of it,* Maria thought and Michael laughed.

"STOP THAT, YOU TWO!" Isabel yelled, not liking their connection thingy one bit.

"Fine," Maria said looking Isabel straight in the eyes. "I said it's good to see that you snapped out of your little stupor so you could yell at us again."

"You're pissing me off, Maria!" Isabel said, giving her a dangerous look.

"You're pissing me off, you bi..." Maria started to stand but Michael held her down.

"Cut it out you two. We have better things to do than watch you argue." he said.

Isabel rolled her eyes and wrapped her arms tighter around Alex's neck. Michael rearranged his body so that he was sitting sideways in the bench and he pulled Maria's back to his chest and wrapped his arms around her waist. Maria closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of being so close to Michael.

"But yes, Isabel, to answer your question we are married. Maria is my wife." He kissed Maria on her high cheek bone and squeezed her tight. "But listen, some things happened. Bad things."

"Miraculous things," Maria murmured, her eyes still closed.

"That they were," Michael agreed softly, as though to himself. Then to the group he said, "Now, here's where you have to remember your promise not to freak out."

Maria sat thinking to herself how miraculous her entire life was at the present moment and how wonderful it was to know that Michael was always going to be by her side.

*Always Maria,* she heard his mental voice say and she felt her body warm from head to toe.

Aloud, Michael said, "Maria and I made the connection and we shared everything. We saw images from the past of each other that I couldn't even remember ever happening. There was so much information shared."

Maria opened her eyes and said, "We saw each other as we were growing up and how we always felt about each other. It all came together. Liz. Remember the valentine I got in second grade that wasn't signed? The pretty lacy one?"

Liz nodded and giggled. "Of course, Maria. You still have that thing in you room."

"Well, it was from Michael," she said, and everyone looked at him amused.

"Thanks honey," Michael said with fake cheerfulness, not liking the patronizing glances his friends were giving him.

Maria turned and smiled sweetly at him. "Anytime."

"Will you get on with it, Michael!" Isabel said, back to her own bitchy self. "Nothing you've said so far has been so 'shocking,' she said the last word dramatically, and made air quotations with her fingers.

Michael was fed up with Isabel's attitude and he exploded. "FINE, IZ. HERE'S THE SHOCKING PART THEN. THE IMAGES WERE TOO MUCH FOR MARIA'S BODY AND SHE DIED!!! IS THAT SHOCKING ENOUGH FOR YOU?!!! OR HOW ABOUT THIS? I'LL GO ONE OVER THAT! I STOPPED MY OWN HEART TO TRY AND SAVE HER. IT WAS THE ONLY HOPE I HAD AND I DIDN'T HESITATE! AND WE BOTH ENDED UP DYING! LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU'RE SHOCKED, ISABEL BECAUSE I CAN GO ON AND ON.!!!"

Isabel no longer looked bitchy. Her entire face reflected astonishment. "I'm sorry," she whispered. Then, "You really took the chance of dying to save Maria?"

Michael nodded, his angry edge smoothing away. "I love her, Isabel. I would have done anything to save her."

"That's beautiful," Isabel said. There was no sarcasm in her voice. She really meant it.

"I would do the same thing," Max whispered, staring at Liz. Liz's eyes got watery again and she looked away, trying to suppress the familiar sting of pain inside at his saying they needed to be apart.

"What happened then?" Alex asked, trying to help Liz out by causing a distraction.

Michael sighed and he told them about the room and the impostor Max giving him a second chance and him begging for the impostor Max to save Maria instead. He told them about how the impostor Max was touched by Michael's selflessness and granted him the ability to go back as well. "I know it sounds pretty out there but were telling you the absolute truth," Michael finished.

Everyone was stunned into silence.

"The elders were amazed to say the least when we woke up." Maria said, laughing softly at how ridiculous it all sounded, but was nevertheless the truth.

"I'll bet," Alex agreed, amazed himself.

Maria continued. "We told them about what happened afterwards and agreed that they would give us more information if we came back with Max and Isabel. Then we came home." Maria said.

Michael squeezed her again and said to the group, "The only thing we don't know is whether or not Maria is pregnant. We don't even know if it's even possible."

Everyone sat in silence for a while, reflecting over the crazy tale they had just heard. Maria was getting a little stiff so she stretched her arms above her head, her shirt riding up, and yawned. The sound of Liz's gasps brought them all back to the real world.

"Maria!" Liz said, her forehead puckered in worry.

"What?" Maria and Michael spoke together.

Liz swallowed, her eyes focused just under Maria's face and said, "I might know the answer to your...question."

"What are you talking about, Liz?" Michael demanded.

"Maria, pull up your shirt again," she said, her voice a squeak.

She did and everyone gasped. "OH MY GOD!" Isabel yelled, standing up sharply.

Maria craned her neck down so she could get a look. What she saw made her freeze. There was an extremely small handprint on her stomach.