“I’m going, I’m going to get you a psychiatrist, that’s where I’m going. You- you are crazy.”

“No, I’m not!” Anya stamped her foot on the ground and grabbed his shoulder, whipping him around to face her. Yeah, it was a little six year old-ish, but sometimes regression was necessary. “You, you don’t know what it’s like to never know who your parents are, or if they are even still alive. Because you grew up in your safe little home, with your safe little parents, in your safe little hick town. Me? I grew up in four different foster homes. Just imagine for a second what that’s like... If you had the chance, wouldn’t you want to find your parents? Wouldn’t you?” Where did that all come from?

“Let’s go for a drive.” He took her hand an led her over ot his car. She was overexcited and from vague memories of the past, she needed to calm down, he knew that much.

“Why?”

“Come on, we can talk.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Setting: Max’s Jeep, Kevin is driving, Anya and him are talking.

“So, if you’re 14, why are you driving?”

“This town is small, and farms are a big part of it. We have to learn how to drive tractors by 11 if we want to make money, so cars just come naturally.”

“What about the-”

“Cops? They don’t care. Just as long as we aren’t drunk or speeding to much.”

“Oh, ok.” Anya was getting used to awkward silences, but around they weren’t so awkward, because he didn’t have to talk for her to know exactly what he was thinking. It was the kind of thing she’d dreamed for since she was a little girl. “So, what were we going to talk about anyway?”

“There are things you don’t know. About your father, about why they disappeared that night. I don’t think my parents told you because they didn’t want to scare you. But they’re your parents and you deserve to hear the truth.”

“Ok.” Anya had thought she wanted to know everything about her parents, but the way Kevin was warning her compelled her to give way to second thoughts. but Kevin persisted on, as if it had been building up in a mental dam, and he couldn’t wait for the story to burst free.

“First of all, your father wasn’t exactly a full-fledged alien. His essence, his soul was from another planet but his body was completely human, just engineered to use all of the brain’s capabilities. In other words, his soul had lived before on a different planet. Understand?”

“Yeah, I think.”

“Ok, well, my father, Max, he was the leader of the aliens on earth. Your father was the second in command. Isabel, Max’s sister, was betrothed to Michael. And-”

“But I thought you said my mom’s name was Maria. And I‘m only half-”

“I know. Michael was betrothed on his planet to Isabel. It was their destiny on that planet, but were’re on earth. Destiny isn’t always as it seems. Fate likes to step in. But don’t worry about that for a minute. Max was married on his planet to another alien named Tess. All four of them were sent with a protector named Nacedo.”

“Visitor,” Anya whispered.

Kevin whipped his head around to face Anya, surprise lighting his eyes. “How did you know that?”

“I just knew. Go on.”

“Fine. So the reason our Pod Squad, we’ll call them, ok?”

Anya couldn’t help the giggles that bubbled up inside her. “Kinda derogatory to our parents, but ok.”

“So, anyway, the reason they were hear in the first place. The home planet, for the sake of understanding, we’ll call it Bob.” The giggles continued. “Bob was being held captive by a race of evil aliens called, hmm, let’s see-”

“Evil aliens, just a thought.”

“Sarcastic as usual. Yeah, so the evil aliens enslaved the home planet and now are targeting earth, already having some of their people on Earth, posing as normal humans.”

“Tell me you’re reciting a bad horror film.” Anya looked for the amusement in his eyes. But there was none. He was dead, straight serious.

“I wish, but no, It’s all true.”

“Oh my god...”

“Don’t worry, just let me finish. So the Pod Squad’s mission was pretty much to find out the evil alien’s weaknesses, destroy them on Earth, and then return to the home planet to annihilate the enemy there, too. Are you okay?’

“Are they all gone? The evil ones, I mean,” Anya barely whispered. Say they are gone, please, say they are gone.

“No, I’m sorry, that’s part of why your parents aren’t here right now. Our fathers are strong and smart, they almost did it. They almost got rid of all of them.”

“But something happened. Just like in the movies. It can’t end happy.”

“I wish I could say you were wrong. But it’s true, Anya, it can’t end happy. There are still a few bad aliens out there. Roaming free. And they’ve got the the aliens and our mothers under close surveillance. If any of them do anything to try and move forward with their mission, they’ll be killed. Just like that, no sympathy.”

A tear slowly slid down Anya’s face and she felt like she was listening to someone reading a sci-fi book. Not her parents, it was all too wretched. He’s joking, just look at him, look at his eyes and you’ll know if he’s joking.

So she did. And instead of helping, it unleashed a whole new set of emotions. Because his eyes showed no amusement. Just pure sadness, lines of anger entwining the whirlpool of grief.

“They’re stuck, Anya. Moving forward isn’t an option We are going to live and die in Crawford, and fail, fail our mission, doom our planet.” He turned the car to the side of the road and parked, unable to concentrate on aything but the pain of that realization.

“No, Kevin, we are not stuck! They have your parents under surveillance, not us! Don’t you get it? We can do anything we want. I mean, to them, we’re just a couple of teenagers on a crazy trip.”

“It’s too dangerous, Anya. We can’t risk it.” Anya stared hard at him, daring him to repeat that stament, challenging him to show her up.

“Would your father have said that?” There, that got him. The fire in her eyes built up, her whole face set straight unmoving. Sure, Anya could be the girliest of girls, but when it came down to it, she was as strong as iron, stubborn, unbending.

“Fine,” he whispered. “We’ll go. Just consider yourself warned.”

“We’re going to find my parents Kevin. We’re going to save our planet. Don’t you get how important this is?”

“Someone’s gotta be rational, and it’s obviously not you.”