“No…” Liz exclaimed. “This just isn’t possible. Whose pod is this, Max?”

“It’s Tess’s.” Max explained in a distant voice. “How is this possible? That pod shouldn’t respond to anyone other than Tess. Wait a minute…touch it again, Liz.”

Liz touched it again, with the same response. A slight glowing emanated from deep within the pod, as if it knew Liz intimately, inside and out.

“What’s going on Max?” Liz asked him nervously, as she racked her brain for possible explanations for this.

“The pod responds to you, but it doesn’t respond to Tess.”

“What do you mean?”

“A few weeks ago I came here with Tess and the others. She was being normal Tess, going off on how we needed to follow our destiny, and saying that this all happened for a reason. She touched that pod to emphasize her point. It didn’t glow. The pod doesn’t know Tess…but it knows you, Liz.”

“But Max…I’m not alien. I’m human.”

“Yeah, I know.” Max rushed up to the pods to grab the two orbs that they had stored there since they had been activated. “Liz, will you try something with me? Maybe we can get some answers.”

“Okay…what do you want me to do.”

Max held out an orb in each of his hands, reaching them out towards Liz. “Take an orb, Liz.” She slowly took one from Max, and followed his lead, as he held his orb out towards her flat in his right hand. He covered her hand with his left one, and she in turn did the same to his, so that each of them was holding one of the orbs, and each other.

“Now, concentrate on the orbs, Liz. There is nothing, but you, and me, and the orbs.”

“But, Max…I don’t have powers. And we already know that you can’t activate them alone.”

“Just try…please Liz? There is a possibility that there is more going on here than we think.”

Liz nodded in agreement, and focused her gaze on the orbs. She remembered back to the first time Max ever connected with her. “Take deep breaths and let your mind blank out.” He had asked her. She did the same now. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, Breathe out.

Suddenly, just like that day in May, a bright light erupted from the symbol in the orb, casting a blue glow all around the two teens. And just as that day in May…the figure of Max’s mother appeared before them. She smiles softly at them, before starting to speak.

“We have been watching you for a long time now, and we are all so glad that you have found each other. You two are each other’s destiny. On our world, you were married, a marriage filled with the most beautiful, pure love in existence. You, Liz, are Max’s love and inspiration. You have always kept him going when the fighting gets rough, and helped him out in all times of trouble. You are true soulmates. Without one, the other cannot exist. So when you died on our world, we sent you here together, in hopes that you could find each other in this life. Only through your love, can you have the strength to defeat the skins, and save our people. Liz, you were recreated in a purely human body, because your role in this war is to support Max. Without your support, he cannot survive. We did not give you special abilities, in order to make his stronger. You are a part of each other. What we give one directly effects what we gave the other. Because of this, your period in the pods was significantly less that the others, so you came into this world a few years earlier than Max. The one you know as Tess is a skin who was planted in the pod chamber by our enemies, in an attempt to come between your love. They knew that this was the key to your destruction. Be wary of her. She will do anything to defeat you. To help yourselves in the war, you have the power to retrieve the memories you lost from your past lives. Your pods are the key to the past. And remember, your love for each other is your strength. Cherish it, and each other always. I look forward to the day when I can be with you both again, and welcome you back into our world.”

Max and Liz watched in silence as the figure faded away, and the blue light settled back into the darker green glow.

“We are meant to be…” Max cried out in awe, staring at the spot where his birth mother had just stood. He turned to face Liz, and saw a desperate, fearful look on her eyes. “What is it, Liz? Are you okay?”

“My entire life has been a lie…my parents have been lying to me…” Liz gasped. She was numb from shock at everything she had just heard. She was an alien too. Not in the same sense as Max, but still…her entire world had been turned upside down. She couldn’t even think about Max and her at the moment.

“I’m sorry, Liz. Why don’t I take you home? I know you probably need time to think, to let all of this settle in. Take all the time you need…I’ll be here for you when you’re ready.”

Liz nodded, speechless, uncertain of how to take any of this. Home…yes…she needed rest. She silently let Max lead her out of the pod chamber, and down the path towards the jeep.

Diane Evans watched her son speed away in his jeep, and waited until he was out of site before getting in her own car and heading back to Roswell.

All of her questions had been answered…that was for sure. Her kids were aliens, sent to earth to fight a war against some people called the skins. They weren’t murderers…they were just trying to protect themselves. And she would do the same. Whatever help they needed, she would give them.

Diane shook her head in amazement. Wasn’t this what being a teenager was all about? Hiding your real life from your parents? She doubted that most teenagers had to deal with this much…it seemed like her kids had grown up…and she hadn’t even been there to watch.