I drew my pillow over my head when sunlight suddenly streamed through the window and directly onto my face. "What?" I asked groggily.

I knew it was Michael who had thrown open the curtains to the guest bedroom in River Dog's house...why couldn't he ever just leave me in peace? I had been having the best dream - about Liz... in it, she stopped on the cliff near the pod chamber when I asked her to, turned around, told me she loved me and that she would never leave me... trust Michael to interfere again. I still hadn't forgiven for him for not letting me go after her...maybe it would have changed things.

"Get up Maximillian... Today's the day... today's the day we learn who we really are."

I groaned. I threw my pillow at him. He caught it, scowling. "You say that every day Michael - and so far all I know is that I'm still Max Evans, so-called leader of my people, who would rather just go back to sleep."

"You're the one who decided to stay here Max. Don't you think Liz would want you to learn everything you could? Isn't it why she left you in the first place?"

Low blow.

I sat up and glared at him. "Fine." I crawled out of bed and stumbled to the shower.

Michael was sitting on my bed fiddling with something when I returned. I saw that it was one of the blue communicator orbs.

"What are you doing with that?" I asked suspiciously. "We agreed we weren't going to use it again...Nasedo warned us that it could be dangerous, that it could let the other race know where we are..."

"River Dog told me to bring it - we're meeting him at the cave." Michael explained.

I quickly dressed, poured myself some orange juice in Nasedo's sunny kitchen and then followed Michael out the door. "Where's Tess?" I asked, not really caring, but pleased that she wasn't around.

"River Dog told her to go back to Roswell last night after you went to bed to sulk." Michael told me.

"And she went?" I asked, surprised. Tess had not let up on me since Isabel, Alex and Maria had left the Reservation a couple of weeks ago. I had told her that she was only allowed to stay if she dropped all that destiny business, but she hadn't gotten it through her thick, destiny-obsessed skull. It was really annoying...

But Tess had been useful in other ways. She knew a lot more about what Michael and I could do then we did - she had grown up knowing...she had been helping Michael mostly...the extent of his power to destroy was actually kind of scary. He didn't seem to like it either.

"Who's going to help us now?" I asked, a little annoyed that River Dog had been so high-handed. Sure, he had been really helpful, but it annoyed me when he tried to tell me what to do. I didn't think he liked me very much sometimes. I kept remembering how he had told Liz to make sure she could trust me way back when we had first met him... he seemed to like Michael a lot more...in fact, always had. I remembered the Father's Camping trip and how annoyed he had sounded when Izzy and I had shown up at the place where Nasedo had left the message...like we didn't belong there or something.

Basically, I thought River Dog was weird - and I didn't understand why he was so eager to help us.

But Michael trusted him...and Michael needed people to trust these days. I knew that he still thought about having killed Pierce all the time. He needed to focus his thoughts elsewhere and River Dog gave him that outlet.

"The Dog said that he could take it from here." Michael informed me now. "He told Tess that she was distracting you, that you hadn't made any progress because you kept having to push her away from you. She finally agreed that this was probably true and left." Michael looked momentarily nonplussed. "It was actually kind of weird Maxwell - she just suddenly changed her mind...like she didn't really but just said she did..."

I frowned, but didn't have time to reply. We were at the cave.

Michael ducked his spiky head, entered. I followed my best friend warily. Everytime I came here I was reminded of the time Michael had almost died...it had been one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Sure we fought - a lot - but he was my brother. If there was any reason to trust River Dog, the cave always reminded me of what it was...he had saved Michael's life that day.

River Dog was seated in the centre of the healing circle as we entered the large chamber at the end of the tunnel. He had his eyes closed, but they popped open when I accidently tripped over a rock, sending it scuttling against the stone wall. Michael turned and glared at me. "Sorry." I mouthed, feeling like I was two years old.

"Did you bring them?" River Dog asked without hesitation. Michael nodded, placed the orb in his hand on the ground in front of the old man, pulled the second blue communicator out of the pocket of his jacket and set it down.

"So, what are we doing today?" Michael asked eagerly. I never saw my friend as animated as he was when he was about to learn something to do with our heritage - well, except when he had been bickering with Maria. I smiled sadly to myself. Thinking of Maria made me think of Liz...

I shook my head, pushed the thought away, tried to focus on what River Dog was saying. "Today is the day you learn the truth about me boys." He told us, glancing affectionately at Michael, barely including me.

It was weird how he did that - his concern always concentrated on Michael... like he was the more important of the two of us... but wasn't I the leader?

Great Max, I thought to myself, arrogant much? It was good that Michael was the centre of attention to someone. Lord knew he had rarely experienced that in his life.

"What do you mean?" Michael asked suspiciously. River Dog just gazed at him, one eyebrow raised.

"I think you know Michael." I glanced at Michael, totally confused.

My best friend blinked, the said quietly, "You ARE one of us..." My head snapped back around to stare at the native elder. He had a slight, knowing smile on his face. "Are you my father?" Michael asked, his eyes brightening in excitement.