Maria was awoken by the loud continuous beep, it couldn't be her alarm clock.

No wait, the memories came rushing, the man in the middle of the road, her swerving hitting into a tree. 

Thank God for airbags, she thought as she lifted her head shaking off the glass which had fallen on her.  The windscreen was a mess, a tall branch had crashed through sending glass everywhere including on Michelle, Maria realised as she unbuckled her seat belt and climbed over to check on her daughter's still form.

"Shelley," she said softly as she carefully pushed back her hair to feel for a pulse.  She nearly jumped when her head moved.

"Mum?" she said as she raised her head and shook off the glass.

Maria sighed with relief, they were both fine.

"What happened?" she asked as Maria continued to get rid of all the glass particles from her body and made sure her legs, her arms and fingers were intact.  Apart from a few scratches they were both fine.

"I don't k-" 

A piercing, screeching sound stopped Maria mid-sentence, her jaw dropped as the door to the driver's seat was…ripped. Blown, sent flying from the car crashing into a nearby tree.

What the heck!

"Mum", Maria could hear the fear creeping into her voice.

"It's okay," she reassured her, heart beating, palms sweaty she siddled back to her seat and was about to exit through the now gaping open door when a shadow blocked her.  Startled she jumped back.

The shadow leaned into the car, it was a young guy, probably her age or older.  Maybe he was the guy in the middle of the road, she'd missed.

"Hey," she said.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his blue eyes glistening with concern.

"Yeah, we're-"

"Good," he said briskly, then with a flick of his fingers Maria felt a wave of pressure suddenly hit her head and then nothing.

 

Michael wearily opened the door to his dark apartment.  It was late, he figured since the sun had gone down a couple of hours ago.  He'd spent that time driving aimlessly around in the rain, then after remembering he had a meeting broke the speed limit in getting there.  All because of Maria. 

Damn that girl, he thought.  She'd been in his life for a day and suddenly his life was…a mess.

The phone rang.  He ignored it, he'd turned off his phone, he didn't need Isabel or Max ringing to make sure he'd talked to Maria and to see how he was holding up.  Right now he needed sleep, the machine would get it.  His greeting came on and asked to leave a message.

"Michael, it's Max," his urgent tone made Michael freeze halfway up the stairs.

"Listen, I tried your cell but you're not picking up…um-"

"Max I'm here," he said breathlessly.

"Michael…why aren't y-"

"never mind what's up?"

The silence at the other end of the line made Michael feel uneasy.

"Max"

"It's Maria."

Michael sighed with relief, he was as expected checking up on him. His relief however was only momentary.

"There's been an accident."

Michael stopped cold, "what? Where?"

"I don't know, Amy just called us, Liz said she was too upset to be clear but just that there's been an accident and she's at Central.  Liz and I are on our way to the airport we should be there in a couple of hours.  Michael are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here" he yelled as he grabbed his coat, "you're on speaker, I'm on my way". 

 

Max heard a door slam, "Michael?" he called.

No reply.

Hanging up the phone, he turned to Liz who had been staring straight at the road. 

"He's on his way," he said softly.

"Good," she smiled as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"She's going to be okay, Liz," he said stroking her hair, "if it's serious, we'll heal her."

"I know Max," she said, "it's just Maria is my best friend, she is like my sister and I lost you once….I just dont want to lose her too," she finished as a fresh set of tears rolled down her cheeks.

"You're not going to lose her, Michael's there, he won't let that happen."

 

Michael swerved like a maniac through Los Angeles traffic ignoring the beeps and honks he received from fellow drivers.  Screeching to a halt infront of Central hospital, he ran through the sliding doors and screeched to a halt.  Around him in the waiting area were cameras, notepads and of course reporters.  Rolling his eyes, he walked up to the welcome desk.

"hi, I'm Michael Guerin, I'm here to see Maria Deluca"

The dark haired, rigid wicked headmistress nurse narrowed her eyes and said, "are you a member of the family?"

"well no-"

"then I'm sorry sir, but as you can see, there are reporters out there many who have pretended to be a friend of the family, so I'm sorry but I can't let you in."

Frustrated Michael showed her his company id, "look I understand, but Ms Deluca is a client of mine and so I would like to know how she is."

Her eyes still dubious, he said, "call Amy Deluca, she'll vouch for me…please."

"okay," she signed as she punched in a number on the phone.

"hi, Miss Deluca, I have a Michael Guerin here, says you know him?  

"Uh huh. Okay, I'll send him right up."

Michael sighed with relief as she hung up the phone, "second floor, room 312," she told him.

"thank you," he nodded as he headed for the stairs.

Running up the stairs gave him time to think first about Maria; what had happened if she was okay and then her mother.  He hadn't seen Amy Deluca  in years, did she know her daughter was living with an alien or had an alien daughter and would she even speak to him, afterall he didn't exactly stick around to be with her daughter.

Wracked with thought, Michael opened the door to the waiting area.  It was small, but luxurious, figured the hospital didn't want to stick the mother of Maria Deluca in a grey, hard-chaired room.

Her mother looked up as he entered the room.  Her red eyes held his for a moment, was that a flicker of anger he saw in them?

"Hi Michael," she greeted him, still sitting down eyeing him.

"Hi Amy," he replied settling himself in a corner.

"So what's going on?" he asked after a silence.

"I don't know what's going on," she replied her voice breaking, "they called me and told me that there was an accident and told me to come here, now they have me stuck in this room and won't tell me where the hell my daughter and grand-daughter are."

Scenarios ran through Michael's mind, maybe they tested Michelle's blood and found out that she was an alien, maybe the FBI or someone else had-

Stop! He ordered himself as he ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.  Until he knew what was going on, the best thing to do was stay here with Amy.  Michael had never seen her look so weak and drained, the fighting Deluca spirit, that sparkle Maria had inherited was gone, washed away by tears.

"it's going to be okay," Michael assured her.

Granted an empty gesture, not backed up by fact, but that was all he could think of.

She sighed in reply.  Michael sighed, this was not his situation, he was action man, not waiting around man and definitely not comforting guy.

"Do you want a drink or something?," he offered.

"no thanks I'm okay," she replied.

"okay," he nodded and went back to staring at the white ceiling.

 

Maria's head hurt, a moan escaped her.

"Well," said a voice pulling her to consciousness, "you're awake."

Eyes wide open in panic maria surveyed her surroundings, she was in a cave or something with bluey green lighting, it looked like the pod chamber back in Roswell before Max and Michael left but it couldn't be could it?

"  Who are you, Where am I?" she asked eyeing the figure as he moved into the light, it was the same guy from the car and the road.  "Where's my daughter?" she demanded.

"Wow, hold on there," he said his tone casual and friendly, " one question at a time. You're back in Roswell in my space ship, landed in the caves and your daughter is back in L.A. right where you left her, although somebody's probably found her by now."

With each sentence, he had been inching closer and closer to her, Maria tried to move but the jiggling of chains told her she had no chance.  That and the fact that she was in a space ship. She could feel the fear overtaking her paralyzing her as he bent down till they were nose to nose.

"As for who I am, I'm Khivar."

She looked clueless, into his expectant green eyes.

"Uhh-"

"You don't know who I am?" he asked surprised.

"Well if I did I probably wouldn't be asking" she replied.  Despite the fear, there was one thing she couldn't control, her mouth.

"I'm Khivar, the enemy" he said making invisible quotation marks around the word enemy, " the royal four left earth to fight."

Maria flashbacked to her conversation with Michael, Khivar, the evil power mad but good looking maniac who Isabel in her past life had betrayed her family for, the Khivar who had wanted to kill them.

Panic and terror were now coursing through her veins on overdrive. This could not be happening, it was one of those things which just didn't happen.

Wake up Deluca, you thought aliens didn't exist, you were wrong.

"Ah," he said acknowledging the terror reflected in her eyes and enjoying it, "now you know me."

"Yes," she nodded, pressing herself against the wall, "what do you want with me?"

"Simple, I want to use you for revenge," he shrugged, " you see they stole my power and my throne and now I want payback.  Tess, rest her back-stabbing heart, told me a little about their earthly relationships here.  You and Michael, Max and the brown eyed brunette and Isabel and….well he's dead.  So it took me a while but I got here.  I tried to get Liz but those two are inseparable so you won the draw"

"So you want to…"

"Basically ruin their lives by destroying their loved ones"

Maria didn't know whether it was the panic and sheer nightmare like structure of the situation but a small laugh escaped her, then it grew and grew till her sides hurt. 

"What's so funny?" asked Khivar confused.

Breathless, she said, "You should have stuck with Liz.  Michael doesn't love me…at least not anymore, things have changed the last time Tess was here.  The only reason that he's going to come with them is that we're friends….maybe not even that, but the point is he doesn't love me, so revenge won't be soo sweet."

"Huh," he said, "well that's disappointing, so is the lack of fear in your eyes. The point is they will come, I will kill you in front of them, then kill Liz in front of them, then kill them.  But meanwhile," he said approaching her with what looked like an electric taser.

Slowly he bent down till they were nose to nose again, Maria's eyes grew wide as the blue electricity danced before her eyes, "lets see that terror again."