"Oh my God.....That was my father." Michael whispered quietly. Maria had come to his side while his father spoke and now took him in her arms and hugged him tightly. "I never thought I had a father, not alive anyway. What can we do to help them? What knowledge can we possibly have that they don't?"

"He said we would find all the answers we needed here on the ship. It must be here, somewhere." Max said looking over the pile of stuff they had found. "Let's get this stuff packed up and back to Michael's. It is getting dark out there and I don't want to spend the night out here and the girls shouldn't have to walk back in the dark. Who knows what we might stumble on out there." He continued.

They put everything in their backpacks and walked towards the entrance of the ship to leave. As they left Max reached up and closed the door by waving his hand over a spot on the wall. They all looked back as they walked away. They made the long trek back in complete silence. Each one of them clutched the hand of the person they loved and tried to come to terms with the inevitability of their departure. When they arrived at the cars they all hugged and agreed to meet at Michael's to go over the things they found in the ship.

Since they hadn't eaten anything all day they were all starving so Liz called ahead and ordered a couple of pizzas. They figured by the time they got back it would be ready. Michael and Maria were the first to arrive at his apartment and they went in to clear a few places for the things they had retrieved from the ship. Shortly after they had arrived the others pulled up and came to the door laden down with pizza, pop, and other assorted junk food.

"I figured this would be an all nighter and I always get the munchies during those." Kyle said grinning at his friends. They all laughed and the tension lessened somewhat.

"Come on guys, let's eat before this pizza gets cold." Liz said grabbing plates and a bottle of Tabasco sauce from the cabinet. They all settled in the living room and began to eat. They all talked of everyday occurrences such as the movie they all wanted to go see 'The Cell'.

"Sounds kinda creepy, but I want to go, as long as your lap is there to jump into." Tess said looking at Kyle and smiling.

"Sure thing babe," Kyle replied grinning like crazy. They had finished eating so they cleaned up the plates and threw away the trash before delving into the momentous they had retrieved from the ship. They had looked for a few minutes when they came across a book made of the same material that of the one Tess had taken from the library.

"This must be it. So far it's the only thing we have found that looks like it might be important." Max said as he opened the book. "We're in luck, for some reason it's written in English." Everyone was quiet as Max looked through the book slowly.

"All right Maximillion, read it out loud or put in the middle so we can all read it too." Michael said.

"Okay. Here is what it says. It says that our powers are the strongest of our people. When used in sync they will over take our enemies in a short time. Our enemies want us dead for that reason. Which is why we weren't called back before now, that and we had to mature and learn to use our powers. They had to let us grow up without knowing any of this because they were afraid if we had this knowledge we might slip up and be captured. It says that we all must return, like your father said Michael, or their...our home planet will be destroyed. It will take all of our powers, combined, to defeat the enemy. If we all don't return they will die." Max said slowly as if willing the words to change before he read them. Everyone was quiet as they let it all sink in.

"Does it say anything about when you have to return? Does it say anything about coming back?" Liz asked quietly, trying to fight back the tears that were taking up residence behind her eyelids.

"Let me look." Max said, his eyes returning to scan the pages of the book in front of him. "It says that we have to leave in two days..."

"T-tw-two days?" Maria stuttered losing her battle with her tears as they streamed down her face. "Only two days.....you have to be wrong we need you for longer than that. Michael you can't leave me.....not now. I need you here....our baby needs you here." Maria cried burying her face in Michael's shirt. She felt as if her heart was being torn out and thrown in a fire. This is what she had been afraid of, him leaving her, alone and with their baby to raise alone. Everyone always left her....eventually.

Michael clasped her to him as tight as he could without hurting her. He felt the same way she did, he didn't want to leave her but his people....his parents needed him. This was something he hadn't experienced before. All of a sudden he had so many people depending on him, but he had to decide who was more important, his people or the woman he loved with all his heart and soul; the mother of his child. He knew he had to make a decision and soon, he also knew this would be the hardest thing he had ever done before in his entire life. He felt tears building behind his eyes and he tried frantically to blink them away but it was no use. He buried his face in Maria's shoulder and tried to stop his tears from flowing.

Meanwhile all around them the others were going through the same situation. This was going to be hard on them all. If only there was something in the book about being able to return to Earth once their planet was saved. Liz blinked away her tears and asked Max once again if there was a way that they could return.

Max looked in the book again and shook his head "It doesn't say anything about being able to return." Max's statement started off a fresh peal of cries from the girls. The guys of course were trying to hide their own tears from each other but were failing miserably. Michael took the book from Max and looked in vain for something Max may have missed. It was an awful feeling they were all having knowing that they were all going to have to lose each other most likely forever.

Liz was the first to recover. "Look we have to figure this out. Maybe there is something we're missing somewhere else in this pile of stuff." She gestured toward the relics and continued "This will take all night and we don't have much time left so we are all going to have to stay here tonight. If we're expected home we better call and give our parents a reason for us not coming home."