Alex and Isabel only nodded. They didn’t want to confuse Kyle any more so they didn’t explain anything more. He kept asking the same questions over and over and over again. Isabel’s temperament couldn’t handle much more. It was like feeding a child with candy and the child throwing it in her face, not even realizing it’s candy. Why the hell didn’t she listen to Max? They could have said they were practicing for the next time the circus came to town. Introducing the Evan, Guerin, Deluca and Whitman show: the Circle of Fire and Ashes. Stay for the after show and maybe we’ll show you how to make a delicate gerbil entree. They could make fortunes.

“No, no, no, wait!” Kyle exclaimed. “You ARE alien, I am human.”

“YES, KYLE, YOU DUMBASS, WE ARE GODDAMN ALIENS.” Isabel’s fury bounced off her with uncontrollable recoil. She was taking deep, heavy breaths by now, and her eyes were widened with immense irritation.

“Uh, maybe I should take it from here,” Alex said, wanting Isabel to stay somewhat calm. Telling Kyle aliens existed and then killing him the same day could really raise suspicions about their alien reputation. Not that there was really one they could protect.

“Ok, Kyle, just let me run through this one more time, all right? Don’t ask any questions until I’m done. Are we agreed?” Kyle nodded his head. “All right. Max, Michael, Isabel, Liz, Maria and I have this alien past. Max was an alien king of the planet Antar in his past life with Liz as his queen, and Michael his second-in-command. Izzy, Maria and I each had our own positions in the kingdom. Max, Michael, Iz, and Liz are all from the royal heritages, Antarian and Nalan. Michael and Liz are brother and sister. Max and Iz are brother and sister too. So, we have your typical love story. Two royalties fall in love, marry and rule a planet together. They form what’s called the Royal Court, with each of us having a position as I stated before. Things were happy wappy for years until evil bastard, or space beast, as you’ll hear Maria call him, decided he didn’t like us having the throne. Details are presently shady, but the queen, a.k.a. Liz, was kidnapped and killed. The Royal Court fell apart afterwards, basically handing over the throne to the enemies. We were defeated. Afterwards, we were all sent down here to someday return and gain the throne back.”

“Uh huh…” Kyle said, nodding his head. If he pretended he understood maybe one day he would actually understand. And then that little illuminate flashbulb appeared above his head and the troubled clouds seemed to dissipate from his eyes. Hey! It worked!

“Royal aliens,” Kyle said, pausing. He had to think this out in his mind for his whole essence to absorb it. Ok, people who are aliens and aliens who are people. Living on his planet, planet Earth. Ex-girlfriend is an alien. Ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend, and the rest of their clan are aliens.

“If Liz, Alex and Maria are aliens then how come no one knows? Because of blood tests and all, I mean. All of you have been to the hospital at one point or another.” Alex didn’t want to wipe the grin off his face because Kyle, jock supreme, was finally getting all this through his thick head. Of course he’d have questions, who the hell wouldn’t?

“In our past lives, Maria and I never really had advanced powers because of our lack of royal blood. Liz primarily had mind powers, which for whatever reason doesn’t make a big difference in the general mold of the body. It only affects the brain so our blood is perfectly human. And that’s why we came out of human bodies during birth rather than incubation pods.” Alex could see the trouble Kyle was having digesting all the new information, but he never doubted Kyle’s loyalty. Especially since he knew Liz was involved. Liz always said Kyle was a really good guy, maybe a little misguided, but all in all, a pretty good guy. That’s all Alex needed to trust him. Plus the fact that he hadn’t gone run screaming and crying the instant he saw Michael and Max using their powers didn’t hurt either.

“All right, this sort of makes sense, in that whole out-of-my-body experience type way. But what about Adam? He just appears one day and you all take him into your elite group here. He’s alien too, isn’t he?”

“Bingo, brainiac,” Isabel commented. She stood up and paced the length of the room as she continued to answer Kyle’s questions. “On Antar he was Liz’s protector and part of the Royal Court. He didn’t know anything about his alien heritage until he started having dreams about our past lives. His parents were killed in a fire caused by Khivar’s men and he fled. He started searching for Liz and the rest of us, and surprise, he ends up here a year later.”

“Then where are they? Adam and Liz?” Isabel glanced at Alex momentarily before resuming to her previous cold stature. She was unsure whether to divulge all of their secrets, but Alex’s confident appearance made her uncertainty melt.

“Another brief history lesson: there was a girl named Tess. She was whore and tried to get into my brother’s pants to gain the throne and an heir. Tricked us all, before Adam showed up. He revealed everything he had learned in his dreams and we found out Tess was the blonde bitch she had always been. Some… uh… things happened and Tess died. But that was after we found out Khivar was on his way to Earth so he could mate with Liz and secure the Antar throne for himself forever. That, and to kill the rest of us.” Kyle twiddled his fingers. Interesting.

“As great as the guy sounds, remind me never to get on his bad side.” Kyle gave a small smile, but quickly dissolved it when he saw Isabel’s hard face. “Uhhh- anyways, that doesn’t answer my question. Liz and Adam?”

“Well, if you’d shut your trap then I would answer.” She gave him a sharp look, but before she could continue, she was cut off.

“He wants Liz, and came looking for her,” Max answered, sauntering into the room. “Basically blew the Crashdown to pieces, and before we knew it, Adam took Liz off to ‘protect’ her.” Max dropped himself on to the couch beside Alex. “And no, we don’t know where they are. They’re just not here.”

Alex glimpsed at Max and saw what he expected to see. A weary, jaded teenage boy who literally had a planet on his shoulders. The dark bags were growing larger every night, and Alex suspected most of it had to do with the lack of Liz in his life. At first Alex thought Liz would connect to Max every night but apparently, she hadn’t. She couldn’t have if Max looked this shitty.

“How’s Maria?” Alex asked Max. Max looked up at him, seeming as if he hadn’t even noticed Alex was sitting right next to him.

“Oh, she’s all right. Still hasn’t woken up.”

“She’s just sleeping right? No funky mind blockades or anything, right?”

“Yeah, when I tried to heal her earlier, it seemed as if she was just unconscious. But I think she’s having troubles waking up, for what reason though, I have no clue.”

“Maria’s made of Teflon, she’ll make it out.” Alex gave him a reassuring smile. He had no reason to fret. He believed everything he said down to the core. Maria was strong, just like his Liz, and those two girls could make it out of anything.

Alex heard the bedroom door swing open behind him. “Speak of the devil.”

Maria came bounding out of the bedroom, her whole appearance in total disarray. Michael was following her, apparently too confused to stop her unexpected actions.

“PRINCESS, KHIVAR, PRINCESS! LEANDRA!” Maria’s voice screamed as she darted to each side of the apartment, her entire body jiggled with boisterous movement. Her frantic eyes whooshed through the room, not stopping on anything specific. This wasn’t the type of entrance from Maria that Alex expected.

“Maria,” Michael said slowly, gradually inching his way towards her. He was afraid any rash movements might provoke her. “Maria, calm down. We’re right here. Don’t worry, Khivar-”

“KHIVAR! LEANDRA!” Maria started flapping her arms around and Michael had to step back as to miss her hit.

“Someone stop her!” Michael shouted. Alex and Max both rose from their seats and steadily walked towards the uncontrollable blonde pixie.

“Maria,” said Alex. “Look at me, Maria. Maria, it’s me. Alex. Alex Whitman. Your best friend. Look at me.” He took a step closer to Maria and reached out to touch her. The moment his hand touched her body, Maria’s whole existence stiffened tightly but didn’t pull away. “Maria, babe, you got to look at me.” Slowly Maria’s head raised and her eyes locked on Alex’s. “Good, good. Now Maria, what’s going on? What can I do?”

“Alex,” Maria cried, tears pooling at the edges of her eyes. “Oh god, Alex.”

“What? What is it, Maria? Come on and talk to me. Remember? Me good. You, me and Liz-”

“LEANDRA!” Maria screeched. Her body started to tremble.

“Right, Leandra. You, Leandra, and me, we’re all best friends. We share everything. What’s wrong? You can tell me.” Alex smiled at Maria, struggling to make Maria comfortable so she could confess what was plaguing her mind. But Alex was terrified… something was terribly wrong.

“Leandra… Khivar… kept telling me… WOULDN’T STOP! MAKE IT STOP!” Maria screamed incessantly. Alex placed both of his hand on the sides of Maria’s head and forced her to continue eye contact with him.

“What did Khivar say? I can’t make it stop until you tell me what it is he said.”

“Khivar,” Maria whispered. “He-he told me. Last thing he told me. Kept talking. Won’t stop playing.”

“Uh huh, Maria, what did Khivar say to you?”

“Said- he said that Leandra, our precious Leandra, she’s his. Told me to-” Maria stopped all her reckless motions abruptly and ripped herself away from Alex’s hand. She pointed her finger towards Max and stared at him with wide eyes.