"It seems that way," Max said.

"This is so not good," Maria groaned.

"Look, I've been thinking about this," Max said, "and I'm not so sure that we're talking about the big invasion, here."

Maria muttered, "Yeah, it's a little early for that."

At the same time, Michael asserted, "Hey, I know what I saw, and I'm telling you that I am not making this up."

"No, no, Michael, what I'm saying is that they may not be sending their physical bodies all the way out here. It may be another gathering like the summit in New York, where they posses a human for a short time. Rath told me that he was the one they'd contacted the last time they wanted a get together, not Zan. So, maybe they're trying to let us know that what they want to do is sit down with us again..."

"Yeah," Isabel said. "That does make sense."

"How did they know to contact Michael and not Rath?" Alex wanted to know.

"To tell you the truth, I'm not sure how they knew who to contact the first time." Max answered. "I mean how did they know about the four of them in New York in the first place? Nicholas was there, you know, which I'm still trying to figure out since we killed him, but he knows who the four of us are; knows we have the granilith, thanks to Courtney, so why not come to us right from the beginning? Why get Rath and the others involved?"

"Maybe because they knew those two vipers would have done anything to return home. Zan may have taken the deal, you know." Isabel pointed out. "They didn't know where the granilith was, but since they could impersonate us so easily, we would have led them right to it without questioning if they had asked. Or if they had connected with us..."

"Connected? What do you mean by connected?" asked Maria who was trying to follow the other girl's line of thinking.

"I'm betting the Lonnie has the same powers as me which means that she could have dream-walked any one of us. Plus there's the flashes we get from you guys..." Isabel waved her hand in Maria and Alex's general direction.

Michael said, "That's right, I didn't even think about that. It's a good thing Rath didn't try to kiss Maria, because she's been to the Granilith... He could have seen that and who-knows-what else about us."

Maria suddenly gasped and punched him in the arm. "Oh, my god, Michael, that's it."

"Ow! Will you guys stop doing that!"

"What's it? What are you talking about?" Max demanded.

"Liz. Remember how when we met them in the UFO center, Liz had said she and Rath had met?" he nodded, but Maria was already pushing forward. "She told me that he had come up to her at school and kissed her. It never occurred to us to wonder WHY he had done it, but I'll bet he had tried to connect with her."

"Oh my god." Isabel looked to Max and Michael to see if they were thinking what she was.

Alex's thoughts were running on the same lines as everyone else's. "So, the next question is, 'What had he seen?' I remember he'd said something about getting the lay of the land."

Isabel agreed, "Yeah, like he was a solider plotting a plan of attack."

"Maria." Michael said suddenly. His mind had quickly gone over everything the two doppelgangers had said to him in the few hours they'd been in Roswell.

"What?!" Maria practically shouted. "What about me?"

"He knew about Maria and me. I didn't pick up on it at the time because... well I just didn't." Michael wasn't about to admit to having been jealous of Maria spending time with another guy. "When Maria covered for us with Brody by inviting him out for breakfast, Rath asked me if I wanted him to kill him for me. How did he know that Maria meant something to me? I mean, logically, he should have assumed I was with Isabel, right?"

"That's right." Max agreed. He remembered watching Rath and Lonnie tussling around on their filthy, stinking sofa back in New York enough to know that those two had fully embraced their so-called destinies. Logically, Rath should have assumed the same of Isabel and Michael. "Did anyone say anything to Lonnie, Rath or Ava to make them think otherwise?" Max asked the others. They all shook their heads and each recounted their conversations, if any, with the three visitors. "So, Maria could be right. Rath could have gotten that information from Liz when he kissed her." Max could barely force the words through the tightness in his throat. He turned to Maria. "You're sure that Rath did kiss her?"

"Lips, tongue and all." Maria confirmed.

Max's fist clenched at the mental image that provoked. He was discovering that he hated Michael's duplicate more and more everyday.

Unable to stop herself, Isabel wondered aloud, "Why didn't Liz say anything to one of us? I mean, how could she not warn us that there was another set of us in town?"

Everyone turned to look at Maria. Liz's best friend gulped and looked away. What could she say? The truth was as bizarre as the reality. Finally, she mumbled, "She thought it was Michael."

"WHAT!" Michael yelled. "You mean, the whole time we were standing there listening to Max ramble on about some stupid star a zillion light years away exploding, she'd been standing less than ten feet away thinking that I had kissed her that afternoon? And she didn't say anything to anyone? Including Me?!"

"Yeah, that's about it." Maria admitted. Seeing that he was about to explode, Maria asserted, "Hey, she didn't say anything to me, either, mister, so you might as well just drop it. She's been under a lot of stress lately, first with the whole Max thing, then everything that happened afterward. Maybe she thought you were testing her in some way. I don't know. All I know is her life has become a need-to-know basis, and if you don't need to know, she ain't talking." Maria had said far more than she had intended, but it was too late to take the words back. Instead, she fought to bring the conversation back on topic by saying, "So we can assume that Rath had been contacted for the first summit because Nicholas, or whoever pulls his strings, knew he'd be easier to manipulate than you guys."

Alex continued the thought, "And getting the location of the granilith would more than likely be child's play for them. Sounds to me like Nicholas learned his lesson the last time he came to Roswell. It was just his bad luck that Zan had been killed before the summit could take place, and Max here had to take his place. That must have been an unpleasant surprise for him," he smirked, imagining the short alien's reaction to seeing Max in New York.

Max, too, was thinking of Nicholas' expression when he'd walked into the room where the summit had taken place, and he came to an even more unpleasant realization. "He wasn't surprised. Not even a little."

"What do you mean, Max?" Isabel asked.

"He knew I was there before he walked into that room. In fact, the only one of us he commented on was Tess. He knew me, called me by name, in fact, but he wasn't surprised to see me with Rath and Lonnie instead of the two of you." Max took a step away as he recalled every detail of the original meeting of the summit when Nicholas had taken him by surprise by walking into that room. "He knew. How did he know?"

Isabel whispered, "Lonnie."

"Or Rath." Michael also stated the obvious.

"No, it was Lonnie. If she gets to go home, then she can continue being Velandra, Khivar's lover." Isabel could barely speak through the horror that was crashing through her. "Nicholas told me that he was here to take me back to Khivar when he came back to Roswell, and that he had a thing for Velandra himself."

"That little pip squeak?" Michael scoffed.

"That little pip squeak has killed you once already," Isabel reminded him. "He's Khivar's second-in-command, and power hungry himself. Do not make the mistake of underestimating him," Isabel warned her lifelong friend. Michael nodded. "If anyone was doing a double cross, it was Lonnie, I'm sure of it."

"Ok, guys, as disturbing as this whole conversation has been," Alex interjected. "Let's move back to the present. If they're coming to Roswell for another parlay, then I say we don't listen. Don't agree to a meeting, don't let them catch any one of us alone."

"I would agree," Max said, "The only problem with that is that my boss is a likely target for an emissary to take over. Or, if they're smart, they could take over you, Maria, our parents. Anyone around us that we trust. We don't know how this possession thing works, you know."

"Poor Brody," Maria sympathized for her friend. Michael had to suppress the surge of jealousy that accompanied her soft exclamation.

"For now, all we can do is stay alert. If anything strange, and I mean anything, no matter how trivial or embarrassing it happens to be," he said the last looking at Maria, still upset about Rath kissing Liz, "you tell me right away. In case Rath or Lonnie are coming back to town, for now, we all have to be careful what we say to Michael and Isabel." He looked at his sister and friend who both nodded reluctantly, agreeing to the wisdom of this. "And nobody touches anybody for any reason. Is that clear? The flashes could be too dangerous."

"Isn't that a bit extreme?" Michael questioned. Alex was nodding his agreement.

Maria understood where Max's caution came from. "The granilith, Michael. If they're coming, that's what they want, I guarantee it."

Max nodded curtly. He was looking at Maria in speculation as he told the group, "We have to protect the granilith at all costs. No one must know its location. It could be too dangerous."

"But why, Max? I mean, none of us even knows what it does, or what it's for."