Michael threw out an image of Adam eating a piece of toast, looking amazed as if it was some kind of miracle. Maria shot back an image of Adam doing the alien bop. Alex added a picture of Adam intent on understanding the circuitry of an electronic device. Isabel showed them Adam taking off his sunglasses and tilting his head back to the sun. Liz answered with a picture of Adam's bright green eyes, eyes alive with wonder and hope and love.

Then together they directed the power of the connection toward the mound of earth on the far side of the hole and slowly filled in Adam's grave until it was indistinguishable from the desert around it.

Each of the two Stones of Midnight was smaller than Michael's thumbnail. They weighed almost nothing. But their presence in Michael's pocket was almost intolerable. It was like carrying around two armed nukes.

He pulled out the worn map of the United States from the little cubbyhole carved into the soft limestone wall of the cave. It was one of the few things left in there. Now that Michael lived on his own, no more a human pinball in the machine of the foster care system, he didn't spend much time at the cave. It seemed odd now that it had once been his second home.

Michael unfolded the map. He needed a place, a safe place, a place no one would think of looking for the Stones. His best bet would be to find somewhere that he had absolutely no connection to-someplace he'd never even heard of. Someplace random.

"Round and round she goes, and where she stops, nobody knows," he muttered as he closed his eyes and ran his finger in circles over the map. He tapped the paper, then opened his eyes. He'd chosen Montauk, New York, a little town at the tip of Long Island.

It was a little risky to teleport. Who knew who'd be nearby on the other end? But it would be dark on the East Coast already, and the odds of re-forming right in front of a Clean Slate agent weren't all that good. Michael focused his thoughts on a stretch of beach in Montauk, then let his molecules get slippery enough to slide away from each other, trying not to resist as his body broke apart.