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 Isabel, Maria, Michael and Kyle carry the coffin up to the Pod Chamber entrance. As Michael opens the entrance, Kyle looses his footing and drops his end of the coffin.
"Careful," says Isabel.
"Hey, I'm not 17 anymore. Okay"
Michael puts his hand on Kyle's knee.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing?"
"Relax, dude, I'm not feeling you up."
"Now, that would be a sight," says Maria.
"I'm just trying to fix your knee."
"Well, don't," says Kyle.
"Whatever," says Michael, removing his hand.
They pick up the end of the coffin and bring it inside. They maneuver it into the Granilith and place it on the floor.
"Now what?" asks Maria.
"I've no idea."
Michael begins to open the coffin.
"What are you doing?" says Isabel.
"I'm just making sure," says Michael and finishes opening the top.
Ava's body lays still, an odd grayish pink.
"It's Tess," says Kyle.
"No," says Isabel. "Ava."
"How do you know this isn't Tess?" asks Kyle.
"Now there's a good question," says Maria.
Kyle touches her arm.
"OMG," he says. "She's not dead."
"What do you mean she's not dead?" says Michael.
"Touch her," says Kyle. They all hesitate. "Go on, touch her. She should be cold and stiff as a two by four."
Isabel gets close to the coffin and puts her hand to her face. It's warm and soft to the touch."
She looks at Michael.
"Kyle's right," she says, "She's alive."
Maria is the first to notice the broken jars.
"Does anybody know what was in these jars?"
Max and Liz lay comfortably in each other's arms. Liz listens to the rhythm of Max's heart; Max takes in the slight floral scent of Liz's hair. For a moment, life returns to normal. It is what they both long for, time to enjoy simple pleasures of life, the novelty of just being. But, of course, it's only fleeting. Liz already feels Max begin to tense and her brain starts going into overdrive.
"It's really bad, isn't it?"
"Yes," he says.
Liz holds Max a little tighter. She recalls the many flashes of Max's life on Antar when they had made love and knows how hard it's been for him and how lonely. She feels so deeply for him, the years in a dark prison alone, away from Isabel -- neglected, starved, abused, madness close to setting in; then his liberation and coronation, his fears of failing, not being able to remember, not knowing who to trust; not being able to relax; the great calamities -- from the basics of feeding his people to resolving the Antarian Intergalactic War and coping with the galactic repercussions of the war -- the perilous black hole -- she had seen it all through him. The weight of the universe on his shoulders ... and hers. At least, this time, they face it together and she no longer had to hide anything from him. She couldn't live through that again.
"What did you find in the files?" asks Liz. "What were you looking for?"
"An alien pathogen and its delivery package."
"Biological warfare."
"That's part of it."
"Ava," says Liz, realizing that the Skins were using Ava as the delivery package. "That's why she was in Boston. Ethan's research ..."
"Yes," says Max.
"And the wartech?"
"Do you remember back in school that unusual supernova?"
How could Liz forget? Max held completely shut her off then. It surprises her that it still bothers her.
She nods.
"Well, it wasn't a supernova."
"What are you saying ... that it was some kind of bomb?"
"The new wartech dwarfs that."
Liz turns to study Max's face.
"Would Kivar really use it?"
"He exploded the bomb 14 years ago. And, when I visited you back in 2000 ..."
Liz already knows the end of that story.
"How do you know about that?" she asks. "You said I told you. I never told you that."
Max reaches over to the nightstand and opens the draw.
"You gave me this."
He hands her her diary.
"Oh, oh," says Kyle, looking at the smashed bottles. "Did I do that?"
"Maybe we should call Liz," says Maria.
"Hey, there's nothing we can do about it now," says Michael. "Let's just shut the coffin."
"Maria's right. We don't know what this is," says Isabel.
"They'll be here soon enough," says Michael. Michael closes the lid on the coffin.
"I gave you this?" says Liz.
"Well, a different version of you," says Max."Yes."
"How could you have this?"
"You were the back-up plan. You see, when this other version of myself went to visit you in 2000, you came to me with this."
"When? ... Why?"
"In case I was wrong."
"And ..."
"I was wrong."
"So you're saying we have to do this again -- go back in time?"
"Yes," says Max.
"Hey, yo, ... Let me out of here?" There's a banging on the lid of the coffin.
"OMG!" says Isabel.
Michael reopens the coffin.
"God," says Ava, eyes adjusting to the light while she sits up and brushes the glass and stuff from her clothes. "A person could die in there!"
"Ava?"
Ava looks around her, perplexed.
"What you all lookin' at?"
"You were dead," says Maria.
"Do I look dead?" says an annoyed Ava, jumping out of the coffin. "Where the hell am I?"
"You're in Roswell," says Isabel.
"How did I get here?"
"You flew," says Kyle.
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