"Ten minutes." He says. T-212. Ray. It seems like an eternity since I last killed him. To protect Michael and Maria. He's forgiven me for that. We all take off in different directions, to destroy everything here.

I walk over to the pods. Those damned pods. I pick up a 2X4 and break them all. I dump a canister of gasoline all over the pods, preparing them for the main event. They will never bring anyone back again. Especially me. I smile.

"In trouble again?" Shit. I turn around. Big. He isn't supposed to be here yet. Where is everyone? I call them.

"I am really disappointed in you, T-416. You failed again." The blast hits me square in the chest. I fall into a cabinet. Something is under by back. Where are they? I can feel them. They are close.

"Not close enough." I look at Big, startled. He reads my thoughts so easily. He picks me up by the neck.

"Good-bye." But I have other plans. I stab him in the eye with a syringe. He screams, dropping me on the ground. I find a metal container. Liquid nitrogen. I open the lid carefully, but quickly, and throw the canister after him. I pick up another container. Sulfuric acid. It quickly follows the other. I can feel his agony as his body parts began to freeze while other parts burn.

"Viola!" They ran through the door. I can feel their shock at seeing Big weakened. But they don't hesitate to act. And neither do I. Six identical blasts of light attack him, sucking the life out of his alien body. He struggles, tries to fight back. We are weakening against him. He is still more powerful than us. But not as a whole.

I look at Michael, Max, Isabel, and Tess. "We couldn't let you do this alone. . . " I don't know who spoke. I don't know who those words were spoken to. I don't suppose it really matters. We are all part of one, yet all individuals.

Four more blasts of light join our own. I can feel them. I smile. We are not part of six. They are not part of four. We are all part of ten. And however invincible Big sees himself to be against us, the power of ten overwhelms his own. And he dies.

I stare down at the mutilated figure in front of me. I feel sick to my stomach. Not again. Not another death. I feel arms wrap around me. I bury my face in Michael's shoulder. I hope that this isn't the last time I feel his arms around me. I watch as the others check to make sure Big is really dead.

"You're not a monster." How does he understand me so well?

"Neither are you, Michael."

We leave his body on the floor as we overload the system. Barrels of gasoline are spilled in the halls and down the stairs. Rooms are torn apart, destroyed. Weapons are melted into heaps of metal and wood. And lastly, small bundles of C-4 are left in select places around the compound. We want it all gone. Except this. I hold my ring in my hand. I don't know why Big kept it. I thought it was lost years ago.

But I for one don't argue with miracles.

We rush out the door. Maria, Alex, Kyle, and Liz wait in two vans in the parking lot. We all climb in and drive away, turning down dark alleys as the explosion destroys the last of what had been a life- sucking inferno on earth.

I climb onto Johnny's lap, making room for Maria beside Michael. They look at each other, perfect harmony and contentment passes from one to the other and back again. They love each other so much. It makes their pain fade away. It makes Michael's pain fade away.

I can't help but pray that my pain will fade away after I say my good-bye in Roswell. ______________________________________________________________________

I am so nervous. I look at the stars. They are just as beautiful as I remember. Just as endless, as ethereal. I didn't really expect any different. I see nothing but sand and stars. The desert outside of Roswell hasn't changed at all since 1947. He walks up next to me.

"I used to think it was an alien thing. . . " I look at Michael. He gives me a half-smile. "The stars. . . to dream of getting away. . . "

I take his arm in mine. "I suppose feeling alone is universal. . . Like heart-break. . . " I don't try to mask the hurt in his voice. He knows by now. I did, after all, show him everything.

He holds me tighter. "Don't worry. It will be over tomorrow." I let his arm drop. I walk away from him, sitting on a rock. THE rock.

"It will never be over for me. . . " My eyes brim with tears. "You know that as well as I do. . . "

He does. He walks up to me and rests one hand in my hair. Playing with my curls. I smile despite myself. They all like to do that. "You still have me. . . No matter what. You will always have me."

"That's not true either, Michael." I don't try to hide my thoughts. He probably knows this too. "I love you." He pulls his hand away. I close my eyes and wait. Wait for him to leave me. For Maria.

That is my only consolation. Aside from my broken heart, I am glad they have each other. Because they are happy together. And if the one you love is happy, then you must be too.

I remember a time when I believed that.

He doesn't leave me though. Not yet. He wraps his arms around me and holds me close. I feel connected to Michael. More than all of the others. Which is why it hurts to let him go. But then again, he was never mine in the first place. He was only a sweet, honeyed dream that lasted long enough to make me depend on it.

Depend on him.

He kisses me. A simple, brief kiss. But still more than I ever hoped for from him. He lets me go slowly. He looks deep into my eyes, flicking my chin with his hand.

"When I see a pale blue like yours, I think of someone who sacrifices herself for the sake of others. Because she knows how to love that much."

He pulls away from me with a all-knowing smirk. I watch in a daze as Michael walks away, hands deep in his pockets, turning once to give me a fleeting smile. I sigh. It figures that I would get a smile out of him at a moment like this.

I feel someone else behind me now.

"You love him." Johnny. He sits on the ground in front of me. I twist his hair around my fingers. It is baby soft. I smile at the memory of how many times I've done it before.

"Yes." I slide off of the rock and let him wrap his arms around me in a tight embrace. I try not to feel guilty for loving Michael. Guilty for forgetting my fiancee.

"Don't." Johnny read my thoughts. Again. Nothing new, but somehow quite surprising, in a comforting way. "Don't blame yourself for moving on."

I push the thoughts of love and heartbreak to the back of my mind. Because there is a reason to be happy. "We're finally home, Johnny." I think for a minute. Is Roswell, New Mexico still home for us? Yes, I decide. Home. Always, forever.

"I visited them tonight. My parents." I can feel his hurt. I can feel my own.

"We should have been there. Here. They died thinking that we abandoned them. Thinking that we didn't care." I start to cry. A note. I left a stupid, insignificant note. "I didn't even say good-bye."

Johnny pulls me closer. I climb onto his lap, letting him rock me like a baby as I stroke his hair. "Neither did I, Viola." Even though we are so close, I can barely hear him. "Neither did I."

We lay in the desert, thinking the six of us. Reminiscing on all that has happened in these last two weeks. We have all been back home now. We all know who we were, who we are. Johnny, Ray, Yvette, Hannah, Edward, Dennis. Viola. We were all taken somewhere between Arizona and New Mexico. Although we have never died, we are all stuck in the past. As if nothing between 1947 and 2000 has happened. As if it were all a dream.

I cuddle closer to Johnny. We are all so confused. I can't help wondering if the future has a place for us. I know that they are all wondering the same thing. Sometimes, it's all I can do not to forget that time exists, and live back in the past when I was in love and engaged. Other times, I feel as if I can't breathe until I see Michael again.

And then there is Johnny. My eternal friend. My brother. My lover. And once again, my everything. I thank God every day for giving me Johnny. Because he is always there for me. I can't live without him.

We sit there, crying together in a tangled heap on the desert ground, until morning, when they come for us. Kyle climbs out of one side of the squad car. Wiping away sand and tears, Johnny and I walk towards him, hand in hand.

"Oh my Lord. . . " The sheriff climbs out of the driver's seat. Kyle's dad. Jim Valenti. He stares back and forth between us, from Johnny to me and back again. And we stare at him. Because no introductions are needed between us. We all know who each other is. ______________________________________________________________________

He's there. Sitting right there. My breath catches in my throat. My heart pounds so fast that I feel like I'm going to faint. But not before my heart bursts. Because I am so full of love.

"Jimmy. . . " I kneel in front of him. Time has taken a lot out of him. His skin is pale and wrinkled, his eyes empty and full. I can feel the tears roll down my cheeks. But I don't bother to wipe them away. Jimmy looks at me.

"Viola. . . " I smile.

"Yes! Yes, it's me, Jimmy!" I look behind me. They're all watching me, smiling at me. Jim, Kyle, and Johnny. "I told you, Johnny! I told you he's still alive!" I turn back to Jimmy.

"I thought you left me, Viola. . . " His voice is so weak. It scares me. He's trying not to cry. It makes me love him even more. He always hated crying. Always had to be a man.

I try to keep my voice from breaking. "Never. . . I could never leave you. I just. . . " A moment of panic. What do I tell him after all this time? But I don't know if he understands how much time has passed. Jimmy looks at me the same way he did the day he left for Europe with the army. "I went to California with Johnny. . . To feel close to you. . ."

I can't talk anymore. It's all to much. Jimmy. . . MY Jimmy. . . Back from the war. . . Back to me. . . I have to stop, I know. I feel myself being sucked back in time.

All of a sudden it is 1947, and I am the same naive eighteen year old girl had who promised herself to Jimmy Valenti the day he enlisted in the army. The same girl who sat in the desert day after day living on the hope that her sweetheart would one day come back.

He's stroking my hair. I lay my head on his lap, letting him wind his fingers around my scarlet curls. He always loved to do that. They all did. I sigh. I don't want to leave Jimmy here. But it's too late for us.

"Viola, I'm sorry I didn't wait for you." I look at Jimmy. I can see the tears threatening to spill down his aged cheek. I climb into his lap and cradle his head in my arms.

"Don't be sad, Jimmy. I was gone for so long. . . too long. . . " I sigh. My Jimmy. I finally have my Jimmy back. But he isn't my Jimmy anymore, and I can't be his Viola. He wraps his arms around me, and we sit there, rocking together.

It's almost time for me to go. I don't want to, but if I don't, I think I might stay forever. Johnny comes up to us.

"Jimmy. . . Jimmy, it's me. . . your brother. . . " Jimmy looks at him and smiles.

"Johnny. . . " He reaches out his hand. Johnny grabs it tightly. I smile as the two brothers shake hands. Johnny struggles to stay strong, like his brother. "Thanks, Johnny, for taking care of my girl."

Johnny looks at me. I know we can't tell him what really happened to us, but it hurts to confirm it. To actually agree with Johnny not to tell the truth.

"Jimmy, we have to go." Johnny pats his brother on his shoulder as he says that. It's too hard for him. Too hard to be so close to the proof of all the years we have lost.

I turn to Jimmy. I kiss his temple, his cheeks. They are damp. I look into his eyes. They are cloudy. But not with feeble-mindedness. With the knowledge that I want to keep from him. So that he will stay my Jimmy. But he knows somehow, through his senility, that time preserved my youth as his faded. And this is good-bye.

I kiss his lips. As he kisses me back, I am brought back in time again. Back to the days we spent in the soda shop drinking floats and planning what our lives would be like when we got married.

I pull away. I don't look at him as I walk out the door. He understands. I feel that he does. I wait outside with Kyle and Johnny as Sheriff Valenti says good-bye to his father. I can't help but think that Kyle should have been my grandson. But that is all in the past now.

He searched for me, his son told me as we drove to the retirement center. Little Jim Valenti. Jimmy's son. Jimmy searched for me and his brother, became the sheriff of Roswell so that he could gain access to the police files about our disappearance.

He had thought we ran away. To be with each other. And I know that it must have left him broken all these years to think that we would betray him like that. Because he had so much love in his heart then, but never truly shared it with anyone else after we were gone. I hope that seeing us again gives him some peace of mind.

I wish I didn't have to leave Jimmy alone. But maybe he never really was. Because I can feel that he always carried me with him. Even with all of the hurt I caused him, I could detect remnants of myself on his aura. I can only hope that he is imprinted on mine.

I suppose that this is what happens when you are stuck in time like I am. I am in love with a man who is buried in the shadow of age. I am in love with another man who is buried in his love for another woman. Both equally beyond my reach, but both equally as unforgettable.