Max and Liz were the first to arrive in the quad. Max sat, straddling the bench facing Liz, who sat in between his legs facing the table leaning against his chest. They shared a brief kiss before slipping into their own train of thought.

Absent mindedly, he began to run his fingers through Liz's soft hair and over her shoulders. As he did so, he pondered about what information they needed to cover when the others arrived. Also, what needed to be done within the next few hours to assure that everything goes as smoothly as possible, and how best to get it all done.

Liz was thinking more about Tess, and how every one of her friends had suffered in some why since the first day they met her. She was far from one of her favorite people in this world, and there for a while she actually hated her more than she hated Pam Troy.

It was something about those impressions' she received during her visions that were changing the way she felt about Tess. At first she thought it was because she no longer worried she could lose Max to Tess, or that she would in some way interfere in his destiny. However, slowly she was realizing there was more to it, she actually felt sympathy for Tess. She tried to pin point when her hate for the blonde changed, the best she could do was to realize it had to do with what she learned during those visions of Max and Tess in their previous life. The feeling of love shared between them was special. It was their deep love for each other that was causing her to feel empathy for Tess.

It was so clear to her now, how much Max and Tess had shared, and how loving their brother/sister relationship was. Max was lucky, he had Isabel to share a similar relationship with, but Tess, she had been alone. Really alone, not only had she been without her brother, but she didn't even have the benefits of a mother and father to care and love her. Sure she had Nesado, but he didn't know how to so love, and because of him she never had to chance to even have the benefits of friends to lean on. If only she had been raised by someone, who could have shown her what love was. It she had, she would have turned out a different person.

The more she thought about Tess's life with Nesado, the more she realized she could no longer harbor any malic toward her. But that her hatred was being aimed at the wrong person, there was a more deserving recipient, Nesado.

She wondered if she was the only one who found it odd that Nesado left the area with Tess? If he had really wanted to find Max, Michael, and Isabel when they were young, wouldn't he have stayed in the area. Somewhere close to the pod chamber and conducted some sort of search looking for children who were adopted or placed in foster homes within the same time frame? What was his reason for leaving the area? He seemed pretty skilled at hiding from the government. Would it have been so hard to maintain one identity, and pretend to be normal? It seemed like he should have been able to pull that off if it meant succeeding in finding and protecting all four of the ‘royal four' as he had called them. Was there a reason he didn't want to find them earlier, to set things the way they were supposed to be? If so, what was it?

Did all of this have to do with why he lead Tess to believe she was destined to be with Max, or had he simply mistaken her for Isabel? It seemed far fetched at best. If he was one of their protectors, shouldn't he have known they were to find four humans in which they would fall in love with and preform a ceremony of great importance?

Liz was going round and round with all the questions running through her head, and they were getting her no where. She figured they would need answers, but they weren't going to get them without confronting Nesado. She worried what his reaction would be if they did confront him. Would he try to hurt them? What if he wasn't who he said he was, of even if he was, how far would he be willing to go in order to succeed in whatever his plan was? She felt it was best to talk to Max about this in private before mentioning it to the others.

Her thoughts then returned to Tess, she would be the one most affected if Nesado was intentionally misleading them. She wondered where Tess's loyalties would lay. Would she follow Nesado, or would she side with them? Under the circumstances, she was sure Tess would side with Nesado. They had given her no reason to believe them, or trust them for that matter. This only added to what she felt she had to do. She had to do whatever it took to help Tess realize the truth, and to help her feel more welcomed into the group. The big question was to go about it?

Liz had been so lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice Michael, Maria, Alex, Isabel, and Kyle had joined her and Max at the table. It was the sound of Maria and Kyle arguing that brought her out of her thoughts.

~*~*~

Maria, Michael, Isabel, and Alex arrived at the table almost at the same time, and were quickly followed by Kyle. As soon as Kyle was seated, Maria turned to Max saying, "We're all here, well everyone that counts that is. So, can we get started?"

Kyle didn't hesitate to correct Maria, "Tess still isn't here. I personally think we should wait for her."

"Why bother, if she can't be here on time, I say forget her. It's not like she would contribute to this meeting anyway."

"Why don't you just give her a break? She hasn't done anything to you."

"Are you kidding me? She's brought pain and misery to everyone here through her lies about a fake destiny."

"How can you blame her for that? If you haven't realized it, she's a victim in this too, and she's been living it a lot long than you have. On top of that, she's been bounced around from place to place, never given the chance to have any real friends."

"So we're just supposed to forget everything she's done because she had a terrible childhood? I don't think so."

"Why not, we do it for Michael all the time." Everyone turned to look at Alex surprised that he said that out loud. "Well we do." He declared in his defense.

"Shut up Whitman." Michael warned with a half scowl, half smirk on his face.

Kyle didn't veer from what he was saying, but stayed on task. "What you do or don't do is your prerogative, all I'm suggesting is you lighten up on her. None of this has been any easier on her than it has been for you. In fact I think it's harder on her, because she feels all alone. She doesn't have anyone to turn to unlike you. Come on, at least we all have friends. Who does she have? If we don't start to let her in, she's not going to have anything to hang onto when she does find out that guy. The one that raised, has been lying to her all her life."

Kyle was hoping that he was getting through to not only Maria, but to everyone at the table. There was so much that he wanted to say, but at the same time he didn't want to push this to far at once. He felt they were going to have to realize some of what Tess has been through on their own. However he did have one more thing to say. "Look, from what I know, she has been looking forward to the day she was united with Max, Michael, and Isabel. The problem was, when they found out who she was, it was nothing like what she must have thought it would be. Everything she put her hopes and dreams into is turning out to be a lie. How would any of you feel if you found out the basis of your life was a lie?"

Deep down Maria knew Kyle was right, Tess had been dealt a raw deal, but then no one had it perfect. And with everything the gerbil had put them through, since the day she came into their lives, she wasn't about to feel guilty for the way she felt. "As said, she's had a crummy life, we aren't arguing that. My problem with her is what she's done to our lives since she's been here. We each have problems, I mean look at you and your dad. Everything hasn't always been smooth sailing. But do you go around taking it out on other people? No, you found a way to overcome it. She has to learn to do the same."

"Like your making that easy for her to do. Have you forgotten she still has this big secret, and has been raised not to let people get to close to her because of it? Think about how closed off all of you have become since you found out their secret. I mean the whole school can see how tight knit and closed mouth you guys are."

Maria didn't know what to say, which is a rare thing for her. Even if she did, she wouldn't have gotten the chance to say it. Michael had covered her mouth with his hand as he gently turned her head to the side to see that Tess had entered the quad. Reguardless of what Tess had done, he still felt she was important to the group. She was one of them and that was all that mattered at this point. With that in mind, he knew it wouldn't be good for her to hear what Maria was saying about her, at least not for now. They had to follow the clues Max and Liz had for them, and if Tess was upset, he wasn't sure she would be of any use to them.

Trying to hide the smile on her face, Liz raised her hand to casually to her mouth. She couldn't have been more happy about Kyle's reaction to what Maria was saying. It confirmed everything she had seen in the mine, Kyle really did have a thing for Tess. On top of that, everything he was saying made it apparently clear she wasn't going to have to help Tess fit in all by herself.

As Liz watched Tess approach, she noticed the long stemmed yellow rose she was carrying in her left hand. She also noticed Tess glanced over at Kyle briefly and smile. Liz did the same feeling pretty sure he had been the one who had given her the rose. It only made since, after all Tess didn't have to many fans, and she doubted anyone else in their group would give her a rose that stood for friendship. She locked eyes with Tess and smiled thinking, *This is as good of a time as any to start closing the rift between Tess and us.* She saw only one problem, what could she say that wouldn't be misconstrued as being fake or up to something?

"Tess, what a lovely rose." Short and sweet, that was the best thing she could think of.

Tess was a little surprised Liz was even talking to her, let alone in a voice that actually sounded friendly. With her suspicious nature, she still wondered what was up. In a dry tone she replied, "Yeah, I guess." Hearing her own voice, she realized how cold she must have sounded to everyone else. She wasn't going to made to look like the bad guy her. Besides she didn't want Kyle to think she hadn't appreciated his offer of friendship, so she added in a more pleasant voice, "It's from a friend."

Kyle, Maria, Isabel, Michael, and Alex were equally surprised by Liz talking to her as Tess had been. They figured hell would freeze over before Liz would act friendly toward Tess. Max on the other hand smiled to himself as he ran his hand up and down Liz's arm. He knew Liz was a good hearted person, and that she was doing what she felt was right. Liz's good heart had always been one of the things he admired so much in her.

He decided to follow her lead, it was time to make peace, and hopefully bringing the last of the couples together. "Why don't you sit there by Kyle, Tess, and well get started." He smiled a relaxed smile as Tess sat down. "We'll keep this meeting short, only because we have some things we really need to do before we can really meet and workout what to do next. First off as some of you suspected, Liz and I did have another vision last night. We're hoping that it leads us to the next orb."

"What did you see, Maxwell?" Asked Michael hoping they would be able to find all the orbs and get all the answers they have been looking for.

"We saw a cemetery, and a gravestone being lowered into a hole from above. The gravestone belonged to a man named Gregory Hall who was buried just over two years after the crash."

"That's it, some guys grave. So lets go to the cemetery and get it."

It's not that easy Michael. First we have to find out what cemetery he was buried in. I've already asked Alex to check into that. Isabel can you go with him and see if between the two of you, you can find this guy?"

"Sure, but let me get this straight. You did say he was buried two years after the crash?"

"That's right." Max was sure she was thinking the same thing Liz and he had been thinking last night, but he waited for her to ask. "If Nesado was being held at that time like Pierce told you, and Nesado confirmed, then who buried it?"

"We don't know, but logic says there could be another one of us out there."

"That's not possible." Interrupts Tess. "If there was someone else, why wouldn't they have come forth before now?"

"I can say Tess, but someone hide whatever we are supposed to find." Not giving anyone else a chance to interrupt, Max continued to tell them what needed to be done. "While we are searching for these orbs we are going to need a cover story as to where we are and what we are doing. Liz came up with and idea." Max turned to her, wanting her to explain it.

"It's simple, for those of us who have a thing called curfew, we needed an excuse to be gone for long periods of time, and an acceptable explanation if we were to return late. I was thinking if we told out parents we were checking out some of the local and not so local New Mexico sights we would have that excuse. I already mentioned to my mother that we were thinking about it, and she seemed okay with the whole idea."

"Sounds good to me, I know if your parents agree to it Liz, then so will my mom. What about your folks Alex?"

"I don't see a problem. That just leaves Isabel, Max, and Kyle."

"Actually I was thinking we would tell the Sheriff where we really are. That way if there's a problem, or an emergency someone knows where to reach us. As for mine and Isabel's parents, I don't think their will be a problem either. With that settled, we need some information to show our parents about where we plan to go. Kyle, can you and Tess head to the library, and anywhere else that would have information on tourism? Gather whatever you can on places like the Carlsbad Caverns, Whites Sands National Monument, and any other historic sights you can come up with. The more the better."

"Not a problem." Answered Kyle. He was glad for any reason to spend time with Tess.

"Michael, since we can't rule out the local cemetery, why don't you and Maria go check it out."

"Me in a cemetery, I don't think so." Piped in Maria. The idea of going to a cemetery creeps her out.

"Oh come on Maria, I'll protect you from the ghost and goblins." Michael said jokingly. He really wanted to look for this Gregory Hall's tombstone, and he was pretty sure that Max and Liz didn't want Maria tagging along with them. Besides with everything that's happened over the last few months he didn't want Maria being alone. He figured that's why Max was sending everyone out in pairs.

Max then turned back to Tess, "Can we meet at your place around five Tess?" He could see she was a bit surprised by his request, so he simply explained his reasoning. "I don't think meeting at the Crashdown to talk about this is a good idea, and yet I don't feel it's necessary to head out to the mine."

"That's fine." Tess answered. She was surprised by Max's suggestion to meet at her place. He seemed to, actually they all seemed to dislike the idea of even being near her place in the past. So much so, that this would be the first time Max, Michael, Alex, and Maria's actually enter her house.

Once everyone agreed to meet at Tess's in four hours, and understood what they were to do they left the quad and headed their separate ways. Max was glad no one had bothered to ask what he and Liz would be doing. He half guessed they assumed they would be trying to generate some more of their visions. As good as that sounded, it wasn't his first priority at the moment. But he figured were they where going, it wouldn't matter. They would be able to do both.