“Hello Luke. I suppose you’ve come to kill me now. Well, don’t get your hopes up, Luke. I’m stronger than you.”

“That may be, but you don’t have full control over your powers. You’re going to die, then I’m going to kill your friends.”

Maria felt her blood boil at the thought of him killing her friends, especially Michael.

Clenching her fist, she said through gritted teeth, “You are not going to kill my friends.” With a flash, Maria transported herself so she was right in front of Luke and delivered an undercut to his jaw, which sent him flying backwards a good number of feet. Before he could get up, Maria transported herself again and picked him up by the neck. “Now, what was it that you were saying about my friends?”

”I said I’m going to kill them.” Luke smiled knowingly and kicked Maria in the stomach. The strength of his kick sent her flying backwards across the basin and smashed her against a large rock, which crumbled apart and the pieces fell on top of her, burying her under a pile of rocks.

“No! Maria!” Michael cried out as he tried to get to her, but Max and Isabel held him back, but barely. Luke chuckled evilly and turned to Maria’s friends. “Oops. Did I do that? No worries. You won’t have time to miss her.”

“Wanna bet?” Luke turned around to see Maria, parts of her skin battered and bruised, her clothes torn in places, and pieces of rock floating above her, but they weren’t the blunt pieces that had fallen on top of her; they had been fashioned into stakes.

“You may have been able to turn around the ice stake that I threw at you two days ago, but let’s see you turn around all of these.” Without warning, Maria sent all of the rock stakes flying towards Luke.

He was able to dodge most of them, but one of them got him in the ankle and he went down. He quickly healed his ankle and sent a stream of fire towards her, very identical to the one he sent her two days ago. But this time, Maria couldn’t get away fast enough.

It hit her leg and she went down, hitting her head on the ground. Luke calmly walked over to her and picked HER up by the neck. “Now, where have I seen this before?” Luke asked as Maria struggled to get his hands off of her. “Ahh yes, you look just like your father before I killed him.”

Maria’s eyes widened and she felt her strength come back two-fold. She placed her hands on his chest and pushed as hard as she could. As hoped, he went flying backwards and landed on his back. Before he could get up and regain a sense of balance, Maria wrapped an invisible cord around his neck, efficiently cutting off his air supply.

“Ooh, I like watching you suffer,” Maria said as she watched Luke struggle to loosen the invisible cord. “Try as you like, but you said it yourself that I was stronger than you, which means you won’t be able to loosen that cord short of an act of God. So, let’s see, how can we make you pay for killing my father? There are so many ways that I have in my book.”

She beckoned the book out of Isabel’s hands and it came to her. Thumbing through the pages, she found the desired spell. “Ooh, look, necromancy. This is a good spell. This will suck the life out of you slowly, but if I put a little more power into it, it’ll kill you in about a minute, which is a generous ending for you, you little shit,” Maria said. Looking down at the book, Maria chanted the spell in the most musical language that Max, Isabel, Michael, Liz, or Alex had ever heard before. It sounded like she was singing.

When she was finished reciting the spell, a translucent black cloud surrounded Luke and the scared onlookers watched as Luke’s face became gaunt and pale, his bones starting to poke out of his skin.

Maria waved her hand in the air and a small gun slowly formed. Pointing it at Luke, she said, “Hasta la vista, baby,” and shot Luke in the heart, killing him immediately. As the cloud dissipated, Maria lowered the gun and said, “I always wanted to do that.” Her hand let go of the gun and her knees buckled, but before she could hit the ground, Michael was there to catch her.

“Are you alright?” Michael asked slowly. Maria looked up at him and said, “I’ll be fine. I just haven’t used this much power before. Give me a few hours and I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Michael asked, extremely worried for Maria. She gave him a reassuring smile and said, “I’m sure.” All of the sudden, Ander appeared next to Maria. Maria saw him and said, “Ander!”

“Maria, are you alright?” Ander said, speaking their language.

“Yeah,” she responded in the same language. For the other people surrounding her, it was fascinating to hear her speak. The language suited Maria so perfectly. While they didn’t understand what the words meant, Maria and Ander did.

“What happened?” Ander asked as Maria healed her burnt leg.

“Luke, he came and attacked me for the second time.”

“The second time?”

“The first time was a couple days ago. He hurt me really bad and told me that he was going to come again in two days. So, I memorized the last three books, well almost all of the last three books. I’m halfway through the last one. Anyway, I memorized as much as I could of the books in order to beat him. I was practicing here when my friends showed up and I, being curious…”

“Just like your mother,” Ander said. Maria shot him a look and continued. “As I said, I, being curious, decide to see what they’re talking about by making myself invisible and floating over them to listen to what their saying. Well, Michael hits me accidentally and I come down, make myself visible, and tell them about my powers. Then Luke shows up and that over there is the final product,” Maria said, pointing to the dead body of Luke lying on the ground. Ander smiled and said, “By God, Maria, you did it, I bet your father would be proud of you.”

“Oh, believe me, I am.” Maria jerked her head up to see to spirits in front of her, the couple from her vision two months ago.

“Dad?” Maria asked in English, her voice quivering with tears.

“Yes, my daughter, it’s me.”

“And don’t forget your mother,” the woman beside Maria’s dad said. Maria looked at the woman and with the exception of hair length, Maria was almost identical to her mother.

“Mom? Is it really you?”

”Yes, it’s me. Though your father and I can’t stay long. As it is, we’re not supposed to be here, but we had to see you once and this seemed as good a time as any.” “We’ve missed you,” her father said. Looking down at the book in her hands, he said, “Are you still memorizing those spells?”

“Yeah. I’m almost finished though. I only have half of the last book to go.”

“Aww, come on. Those are where all the fun spells are. Well, to save you the trouble, I’ll give them to you.” The spirit of her father floated over to Maria and he placed his fingers over her temples, giving her the knowledge of the rest of the spells. Maria scanned through her memory and said out loud, “I can see the future and the past?

Wow, that’s really cool.”

“But you mustn’t use them unless it’s for a good cause,” her mother warned.

“Yes, mother,” Maria said mockingly, but there was tenderness in her voice.

“I’m sorry to say, but I’m afraid we have to go,” her father said, “We love you very much, Maria. And we’ll always be watching over you.”

“Goodbye. I love you,” Maria said softly as her parents’ spirits disappeared. Sighing, she turned back to Ander and said in her language, “Well, can I teach them my language now?” Ander only laughed and said, “Sure, why not?”

Maria smiled widely and turned to her friends. “How would you guys like to learn my language?” They only looked at her, confused, and Isabel said, “You might want to try speaking in English.” Maria blushed slightly and said in English, “Oops, sorry. It’s hard for me to go back into English when I’ve been speaking my language. It’s so much fun to speak my language. Hey, when you do learn, you’ll be able to go with me to visit my family.”

“Your family?” they all asked.

“Yeah, that’s where I was for 5 days. Well, it was actually 4 hours. It took 2 and a half days to get there and 2 and a half days to get back. Needless to say, I went home to my planet, but as much as the people were exactly like me, I wanted to stay here with you guys. But, my original question, in English this time: how would you guys like to speak my language?”

“Yeah, that’d be so cool,” Liz said. “I don’t see why not,” Max said.

“If it brings me closer to you, anything,” Michael responded. Maria nodded and said, “Good, now, the lessons begin.” She did Michael first. She placed her fingers on his temples and closed her eyes, transferring the knowledge of her language over to him. When she was finished, she opened her eyes and said, “Well, how’d it go?”

“I think it worked,” Michael said. Turning to the others, Maria said, “Did you understand him?” All she got were shakes of the head. She looked back at Michael and said, “Yeah, it worked. To switch back, just think about English and it’ll work. It’s just like speaking any other language around here, except it sounds way different.” Maria went through and did the same for the rest of her friends, happy that she could share this language with them.

After a half a hour of practice, they were able to go back and forth between English and Maria’s language easily without much trouble. “Hey Maria,” Max asked in English, “Your father said you could see into the past. Do you think you could find out why Michael, Isabel, and I are here on Earth?” Maria looked at all three of them individually, seeing the hopeful looks on their faces. “Ok, I’ll do it, but if you don’t like what you see, then don’t get mad at me.”

Maria held out her hand and said, “Ok, now, I want you to grab onto me. When I say the spell, the past will be shown to you and you’ll finally know the truth, all right?” Maria asked. The three other aliens nodded and grabbed onto her. Michael, who was closest, grabbed onto her hand, Max grabbed her wrist, and Isabel held on to her upper forearm. Maria chanted the spell and all of the sudden, a rush of power went through her and into the three who were holding on to her arm.

They saw the surface of a planet slowly turn red and explode while a lone ship escaped. They saw the same ship crash outside of Roswell, New Mexico. They saw their parents pull their pods out of the ship and place them in the cave, leaving a message for their children. They saw their parents leave the cave and get killed by humans. All the while, they felt the emotions that were affiliated with what they saw. They felt fear, sadness, and pain all hit them at once with an intensity that caused them to succumb to tears.

Maria felt the power flow slow to a trickle and thought it safe to open her eyes. She pulled her arm away and opened her eyes to see the three aliens with tears running down their faces. Slowly, she walked over to Michael, who had squeezed his eyes shut to keep the tears from escaping his eyes, and wrapped her arms around him. Michael did the same, wrapping his arms around her waist as he continued to cry over the loss of his planet, the one that he had been desperately trying to find, only to find out that it had been destroyed and that he and Max and Isabel had been taken to Earth to live. He felt stupid, like he should have known all along that he was here to stay, that it wasn’t an accident. But, part of him was relieved that he finally had an answer to a question that had plagued him for years. Plus, he could now stay with Maria, who also wanted to stay on this planet.

He almost laughed at the thought of Maria being an alien as well, but it made him happy. It meant that they had more in common that they thought. Michael stopped crying and pulled away from Maria slightly only to rest his forehead against hers. “Hey, Maria,” Ander called out. Maria turned and looked at Ander. “Yeah?” “I should probably head on home. Delilah will be worried about me. Oh yeah, speaking of Delilah. She wanted me to give this to you. She said you left it at home before you came back.” He held out his hand and gave Maria the ring that her grandmother had given her. “Oh, it’s my ring. Thank you, Ander. I’ll see you soon. Tell Delilah I said hello.”

“Will do, Maria. I’ll see you later.”

Ander disappeared from sight, obviously going home, and Maria looked at the other two couples, who were wrapped up in their own worlds, so Maria decided to be wrapped up in her own world with Michael. “What’s that?” Michael asked, indicating the ring, “It looks too big to fit on any of your fingers.”

“Yeah, I was offered the choice of resizing the ring, but I decided not to.”

“Why not?”

”Because I want to give it to you. The stone that’s in it is called star stone and according to my grandmother, it’s a stone that’s unique to my planet. It was in my mother’s jewelry box and since it didn’t fit me and it reminds me of you, I decided to give it to you.”

“No, Maria, I can’t take this. I…”

“Take it, I have earrings made out of this stone. I’m not losing anything. I remember you telling me once that you never felt more comfortable then at night around the stars. Well, maybe if you wear this, you’ll feel close to the stars all the time. And seeing how as you can’t go home to your planet seeing how as it isn’t there…”

“How did you know that?” Michael asked.

“I can read minds and your thoughts were totally broadcasting everywhere. I’m sorry about that, by the way, I know how much you wanted to find home. But, if it makes you feel any better, you can come with me when I visit my grandparents and Ander.”

“Speaking of visiting, how did you get to your planet, anyway?”

“I transported there. It’s not that hard and it only feels like you’re traveling for a couple of minutes. You’ll love my grandparents.”

“I’m sure I will, Maria. Thanks for the ring. Are you sure your grandparents don’t mind you giving it to me?”

“Oh, they already know. It seems that with my thoughts, I have the same problem in that I broadcast them too. They knew before I even said anything that I was going to give it to you. Here, put it on.” Maria slid the ring onto the middle finger of his left hand and said, “Perfect fit.” Michael only smiled before pulling Maria into a long kiss, one that told Maria that they would be together forever and Maria intended to live up every moment of it.