Chapter Fourteen ~ Tangled Threads
Liz stared at the tall and lanky figure with horror in her eyes. Had they created a skin to look like him? Was this an alien or some FBI trick to prey on her vulnerability? Fighting the twin urges to tackle hug, and blast, the thing who had stolen the appearance of her best friend, she took a step forward, warm green currents forming in the palms of her hands and racing up and down her arms. If she could have seen her eyes, Liz would have seen that their color had changed to a matching blaze of green.
The man in front of her however, could see them, and to her surprise his shoulders slumped as he let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God you’re alive; you even have powers, that’s perfect.”
Liz blinked, not quite sure what to make of that unexpected reaction. “Who are you, and what are you doing in my best friend’s body?!” She demanded, refusing to let down her guard.
He just smiled and held up his hands in a show of defenselessness. “I am Alex. Not your Alex admittedly.” He said with an ironic twist of his lips, sending a jolt of fear, confusion, and hope through her chest. “But I am the Alex who grew up in Roswell with his best friends Liz and Maria. The Alex who had no luck with girls, was too geeky for his own good, and just happened to fall in love with an alien princess.” A shadow passed over his face as he spoke the last words, but it quickly vanished as he resumed smiling, his tone sad and sarcastic. “I take it I’m dead in this timeline?”
His words were far too calm for such a question, and Liz shoved down the hysterical laugh that was threatening to come bubbling to the surface. “Yes, you are, and what the hell do you mean by this timeline?” She was so angry that her voice shook and hot tears burned at the corners of her eyes.
How dare he be so blasé about the worst event in her life? Grief choked her and she shook her head wordlessly, staring at his strange but achingly familiar features. Dread was spooling in her gut, threatening to drown her with vivid memories of the last time an alternate timeline had impinged on her own and sent her life spiraling into a pit of loss and despair.
He sobered, smile disappearing into a grimmer look, and he reached a hand towards her, pulling it back with a resigned look when she flinched. “That will take a bit to explain, do you mind if we sit?”
Liz debated for a moment, exchanging a wary glance with Ava, whose presence she had almost forgotten in the heat of the moment, before nodding to the nearest table.
He moved towards it, pulling out a chair each for her and Ava before taking a seat himself, once again letting them have the advantage. Liz hesitantly sat down and opened her mouth to ask another question, but pressed her lips together instead when he held up his hand for silence and then closed his eyes. To both of the girls’ shock, his hands started to glow with a faint purple light, and with a sharp gesture he raised them, palms up, sending a wall of dark energy away from him that settled over the walls and ceiling for a brief moment before disappearing. “Now that we have some privacy, let’s begin.” He stated, smiling slightly at the open mouth that Liz was sporting.
Liz just couldn’t wrap her mind around Alex, any Alex, using alien powers with such confidence and obvious experience. Her Alex hadn’t had any powers. If he had, the bitch wouldn’t have found him such an easy target. Once again she blinked back angry tears and turned her attention to this Alex, noting the shadows under his eyes as well as the ones in them, attesting to experiences her Alex had never had, and revealing a darkness that she had never seen in his warm, blue eyes before.
“I am from a different timeline, or dimension might be a better word. I traveled to this reality using the Granolith in order to prevent your death and to kill Tess Harding.”
Liz barely reacted to the shocking statement, her brain already overloaded with the surprises revealed so far. Her eyes darkened with their own shadows at his declaration of intent and she replied bitterly, “Well, you’re a little late. Tess is gone, back to Antar with no one but her bastard child for company, damage done and plenty of ruined lives left in her wake.”
Ava glanced from the clearly surprised stranger in front of her, to Liz, finally understanding why she never spoke of Tess and why she had attacked without provocation when Ava first found her. Tess had killed Alex, or so Liz had said when he appeared, and somehow left with Max’s child, stealing Liz’s best friend and boyfriend in one fell swoop. She couldn’t blame her for not being able to let go, and she was humbled by the fact that Liz never looked at her like she was seeing Tess; Ava didn’t know if she could be so understanding if she were the victim.
Alex frowned, clearly not having expected that answer, and muttered to himself. “But she didn’t leave until after she killed you, and Max went with her.”
Liz stared at him, anger and confusion still evident on her face. “What are you talking about? Tess killed you; after making you translate the book, then left after she got pregnant. We figured out what she’d done and stopped Max and Isabel from going with her. She never even tried to kill me.”
He didn’t stop frowning, but spoke directly to her instead of himself. “Our realities are a lot more different than I originally thought. Did you go to the cave with Max after we rescued him from the White Room?” She nodded slowly and he let out a breath. “Okay, let me start from there and see if we can pinpoint where they diverged.”
After a moment of internal debate, Liz nodded in agreement while Ava kept quiet, absorbing everything and waiting patiently to see if they needed her input.
“After what they learned, you left, visited your Aunt in Florida. But you came back after less than two months, and after a few weeks of dancing around, you being your usual self-sacrificing self, the two of you got back together.” Liz’s eyes were filled with calculation rather than surprise, so Alex hurried to continue, anxious to hear her version of events.
“Tess, as you can imagine, wasn’t very happy with this and started distancing herself from the group. A few weeks later you suddenly broke up with Max, claiming that you needed space and had been right all along about him needing to follow his destiny. You started pushing him towards Tess and pulling away from everyone, even encouraging Maria and I to end things with Michael and Isabel, and pushing Kyle away from the group entirely.” Alex shook his head, face dark with remembered pain. “None of us could figure out what had changed until Maria and I went to visit you to try and talk some sense into you, and found you writing in your diary, the same three words over and over again – I’m a liar. I’m a liar. I’m a liar.”
Liz’s eyes widened, visions of headless pictures and ‘Leanna isn’t Leanna’ running through her head; she had a feeling she knew where this was going.
“We realized that Tess had been mindwarping you for over a month, first to get you to break up with Max, and later to try and drive a wedge between the humans and the aliens. No one believed us but Michael, and the others wouldn’t listen to him. By then Max had given in to Tess and was openly dating her. You wouldn’t leave the Crashdown – your mind wasn’t always there anymore, but you knew you had to stay away from Tess.”
He paused, eyes closing in anguish for a moment as the memories washed over him, the image of Liz’s brown eyes wide and pleading as she begged him to tell her who she was and what she had done, why she was a bad person burned indelibly into his psyche. His fists clenched and when he opened his eyes again, they were burning with rage and misery. “We confronted Tess on our own and she threatened to kill you if I didn’t translate the destiny book for her. Hoping it would help us, I agreed, and then secretly recorded our conversation when I gave her a highly edited copy of the translation.”
“The next day, before we could show the others and prove her betrayal, Max announced that she was pregnant and that they would be leaving. We played the recording and Michael backed us up, but Max didn’t care. He was completely under Tess’s control by then and didn’t even care that you were dying; your brain had been destroyed by Tess’s manipulations. Michael was furious, we all were, but all Max cared about was Tess’s baby and so he left, not even trying to heal you.”
Liz rocked back in her seat, tears coming to her eyes at the thought of Max, any Max, not caring if she died. She knew he had betrayed her, and that he believed she had betrayed him, and she didn’t think she could ever forgive him for letting Tess go, for not believing in her, but a part of her still held onto their connection, to the fact that he had once treated her like the center of his world. Yet he had let her die, not in this world, but she could easily see how their timeline could have happened that way if she had never received a certain visit and Tess had chosen a different victim.
“Isabel went with them. She didn’t want to leave, but she wanted to protect her nephew and I believe that she thought we would never forgive her for her involvement in your death. Michael tried to stop them, but Tess attacked all of us. Michael saved my life, healed my burns, but it was too late, they were gone. Michael tried to heal you, but your mind was too far gone; only Max could have saved you.”
¬There was a stretch of silence as he gave them a moment to absorb the shock of his story before telling them the end. “I developed powers as a result of Tess’s attack and Michael’s healing, and with his help, and my translation, we figured out that they hadn’t actually taken the Granolith, just used its power, and that we could use it too. I left a few months after your funeral and was attempting to go back in time in order to prevent her from ever warping you in the first place, but I knew it might not work and apparently the Granolith decided to put me here instead.” He shrugged. “That was one of the risks of using it once we learned that it isn’t just a machine and has a sentience of its own. I suppose I could use the power of your Granolith to try again, but that would probably be tempting fate.”
Ava nodded vehemently. “If the Granolith wanted you here, it was for a reason, and I don’t think it would take too kindly to you disagreeing with it.”
“What happened to Michael and Maria? And Kyle and the sheriff?” Liz asked softly, still trying to process everything he had lived through, and wondering deep inside how she could have ever made such an error in judgment. She had always prided herself on her ability to tell someone’s true character, but she was beginning to think that she had never really known Max, and she knew that she had never really known Michael. She had seen more in him than the others perhaps, but clearly not enough or things might have turned out quite differently.
“If I was not successful in changing the past, Michael and the others were planning on hiding the Granolith and leaving Roswell to start a new life somewhere else, after faking their deaths to throw off the FBI and any other aliens who might come looking for them. As I am here and did not succeed, I assume that is the course they took.” Alex explained, and then looked expectantly at Liz. “I know this is all shocking, but I would like to know what happened in this timeline, and maybe then we can figure out why the Granolith brought me here.”
Liz nodded and gathered her thoughts, digging her nails into her palms to keep herself under control as she shoved the new revelations aside, and purposefully relived the events of the past year for the first time since fleeing her home. “I know where the timelines diverged.” She said quietly, causing both Alex and Ava to straighten as they wondered what had happened to Liz, though for different reasons and with different concerns.
“I didn’t get back together with Max. Before I could decide to I had a visitor – a visitor from the future.” Glancing up she gave the two of them a wry smile that barely masked her pain. “The Granolith seems to like bringing me visitors.”
She sighed and looked back down at the table, away from their startled and probing gazes. “That time it was Max. At first I didn’t want to believe that it was really him, but he proved it beyond a doubt. He told me that in the future, he and I were married, but because of us being together, Tess had left, abandoning the group, and so when our enemies came, they weren’t strong enough to defeat them. Isabel and Michael had already been killed and a friend of ours had helped us devise a plan to use the Granolith to come back in time to make me break up with Max, so that he and Tess would be together and the future would be safe.”
Ava and Alex exchanged bitterly amused glances at the fallacy of that plan, before turning their eyes back to the hunched over figure of their friend, who radiated pain and regret although she still refused to look at them.
“I believed him and proceeded to persuade Max to leave me alone, finally pretending to sleep with Kyle in order to convince him that I no longer wanted to be with him. It worked and gradually he and Tess became closer. At some point during that year, Tess began warping you, or rather our Alex,” She stated, forcibly separating them in her head. “And had him translate the destiny book while he was supposedly on an exchange trip to Sweden. But after returning his mind had been damaged too much and he eventually died.”
Her fingers were white as they locked together, and she struggled to keep her voice even and calm, refusing to cry. “Tess covered up his death with a car accident, but I didn’t believe it and tried to convince everyone that his death was alien related. No one believed me, so I tried to find proof on my own. Before you, he, died, and unknown to all of us, Max and Tess had slept together. While I was still searching for proof that Alex’s death was not an accident, Tess realized she was pregnant and she and the rest of the foursquare made plans to leave for Antar using the Granolith once they realized the baby couldn’t survive in Earth’s atmosphere.”
Ava’s breath sucked in sharply and Liz finally raised her head, seeing the truth in the blonde’s blue eyes. “She was lying wasn’t she?” Liz said, more of a statement than a question, and Ava nodded, leading Liz to close her eyes briefly as a fresh surge of anger boiled through her blood.
She kept them closed as she continued, clamping down fiercely on her emotions. “On the day they were supposed to leave, we finally figured out that Tess had killed Alex when Kyle broke the warp she had placed on him after he witnessed Alex’s death. We managed to catch them before they left, but Max let Tess go anyways, because of the baby” Liz said with a sarcastic twist of her lips. “Max thought I would forgive him and I left. I couldn’t handle being around him anymore. I haven’t been back since, but according to Isabel, Max has been trying to find another way to Antar since the baby has been contacting him for help somehow.” She trailed off, eyes sliding open and staring at the ceiling while the other two watched her.
Liz and Ava were both lost in thoughts of how these revelations, how this not-quite-stranger’s presence, were going to change things, while Alex was wondering how he was going to complete his mission. Liz was alive and that truth had his stomach somersaulting with joy, but that didn’t change his other goal. Tess was going to die, one way or another, and her leaving the planet and becoming a mother wasn’t going to stop him.
~*~
Michael stared determinedly down at the light brown, calloused hands folded in his lap, refusing to look up at the mockup for the new display that Brody was raving about. Telling the man the truth had been the right choice, given what had happened to Alex, and the fact that Kyle had been strong enough to break the warps on his own; it had been the only choice. And, since they had let him in on the secret of their existence, he had proved to be an invaluable asset.
His connections and mass amount of resources, were paramount to helping them understand the information in the destiny book, and in beginning a search to locate any other aliens, as well as seeing if there was any way that conventional, human means, could detect their abilities and presence. All of which were undeniably useful.
But the man was annoying. Learning the truth that aliens had abducted him, and in fact, were very present in his life, had not dimmed his passion for finding new alien life, and he was still very involved in his other pursuits, convinced that the Antarians could not be the only extra terrestrials on Earth. Michael didn’t necessarily disagree; he just didn’t care. But, as a result of being one of the only ‘people’ who didn’t think the man was insane, and who knew the ‘truth’, Michael had become his new sounding board and it was slowly driving him stark raving mad.
An idea bloomed in his mind and a smile crossed his face so fast that a blink would have missed it as he finally raised his gaze to the wiry and excited man. “You know, Isabel is a lot more into science than I am, and she’s done a lot of her own research. You should tell her about this, I think she’d be really excited.”
“You think?” Brody asked hesitantly. “I got the impression she didn’t like me much.” He fluttered his hands nervously. “She’s so…” He trailed off, clearly not sure what descriptive word to use, and Michael resisted the urge to fill in a few adjectives himself, instead shaking his head and smiling as innocently as he could manage.
“That’s just Isabel. I’m sure she’d love to talk you about all this.”
Brody smiled, his eyes bright. “Okay, well if you’re sure. I’ll give her a call!”
Michael nodded again and grinned, rising to his feet. “Sounds great. Sorry to cut this short, but I do have homework to get to.”
“Oh, of course, say no more.” Brody said, ushering him to the door. “I’ll let you know if my programs turn anything up.”
Michael thanked him and left, walking down the street with a rare genuine smile on his face. Life was good. Aside from Max, nothing alien was an immediate or pressing issue, and they knew more now than they ever had before. He had just gotten payback on Isabel for the vacation, and for sacrificing him to Brody’s curiosity, and he still had most of his day off left.
It had been several weeks since Maria left, and he no longer had to fight the urge to explode everything breakable in a thirty-foot radius when he thought about her. He loved Maria, probably always would in part, but he had come to the realization that he had never been in love with her. She had never truly accepted him for who he was, not as an alien, or as a person aside from his differences. Even Liz, her best friend, hadn’t hesitated to point out how much Maria had tried to change him, constantly telling him what he was doing wrong and how he could do it better. Not all of their explosiveness had been due to chemistry, and not everything had been his fault.
Both he and Isabel had been visiting Liz’s dreams almost every night since the night he broke down, sometimes together and sometimes alone. She had been instrumental in his ability to move on, and her casual acceptance of her best friend’s flaws had done wonders for his wounded self-esteem. She had also been thrilled when he told her that her parents had given him the assistant manager position, although she’d made it clear that if he screwed up her parent’s business, she’d kick his ass. Which, given the powers she had displayed, wouldn’t be that hard.
Liz had revealed to them that Ava was staying with her and had taught her everything she knew, including the information in the destiny book, which apparently wasn’t as unique as they thought. He had mixed feelings about the hybrid, who had yet to join them on the dream plane. Knowing what he did now about their past, he felt drawn to her as the family he’d always craved, but Tess’s betrayal was still fresh in his mind and he didn’t know if he would be able to separate the two of them in his mind as Liz had; something he wasn’t particularly proud of admitting, but that couldn’t be denied.
Ava wasn’t Liz’s only secret though, and he was convinced that she was hiding something else. The brunette was an excellent liar, something he approved of, but his own increasing powers included an ability he remembered from childhood: aura sight. Liz’s aura was a beautiful gold color that shimmered with darker streaks, streaks he blamed on Max and the alien abyss. Whenever she spoke to them about anything alien related, her aura flickered instead of holding a steady glow and it worried him.
Liz trusted them, of that he was certain, just as he trusted her more than anyone aside from Isabel, and if she was hiding something from them, either she was being threatened, or, she was protecting someone or something and he wanted to know what it was. He was sick to death of secrets, of the constant layer upon layer of deception that made up their lives, one of the many reasons he had wanted to tell Brody, and wanted all of them – Isabel, Liz, Kyle, and even Ava, to know everything each other knew. That was the only way for them to be safe from their enemies, and to prevent another Alex, or another Tess.
To quote a cliché, honesty was the best policy, and it bothered him more than he liked that Liz wasn’t being completely honest with them. Well, if he was really honest with himself, it bothered Michael that she was lying to him, not just the group.
He had felt inexplicably drawn to her ever since she appeared in the book, since before that if he was willing to admit it. Trusting Liz hadn’t come easy, but bit by bit, she had proved herself – helping them at the Crash festival, warning him about Topolsky despite Max’s disapproval, and of course the things he had read in her journal – all led to him giving her his trust, and respect. Many times over the past two years, she had proven her loyalty to all of them, not just Max, and he had come to rely on her coolheaded responses and innate intelligence to get them out of the innumerable tight situations they got into.
And because of all of that, he refused to believe that she had cheated on Max with Kyle, partially because he knew Kyle better than that, but mostly because he knew Liz, of all people, was incapable of that kind of betrayal. He didn’t know if that was the secret that Liz was currently hiding from them, but he was determined to find out the truth of that incident if nothing else. Once he reached his apartment, he headed for the bedroom and pulled out his favorite sketch of her, laying down on the bed with the drawing propped up on his chest, then closed his eyes as his fingers rested on the picture.
The now familiar beach appeared, indigo waves crashing beneath a stormy grey sky. The sky’s color changed with her moods, and since she liked storms, he had rarely seen the sky in any other state, although the ‘weather’ only grew truly violent if one of them was upset. The dream plane could give any mood ring a run for its money.
He walked along the shore, reveling in the feel of the wet sand beneath his now bare toes, and wished that graduation wasn’t so far away as he wanted to see the ocean in reality. Liz was sitting in her usual spot, hair blowing in the wind and her fingers tracing patterns in the sand as she stared out across the sea. Glancing down at the tracings, he was surprised to see the familiar foursquare symbol.
Looking closer, he saw that she had altered it, adding two additional squares. Ava would account for one those squares, but what about the other one? Surely she wasn’t thinking of Max… Losing himself in thought, he didn’t realize that she had noticed his presence and he started when she cleared her throat, looking down to see her staring up at him with a puzzled expression on her face.
“What are you doing here Michael? It’s ten in the morning, don’t you have work?”
Seating himself beside her, he studied her face for a moment, watching her concern grow at his silence. “I need to know the truth Liz, why did you pretend to sleep with Kyle?”
Liz’s mouth fell open and she paled, fighting the urge to flee the dream and Michael’s penetrating gaze. “Did Kyle tell you?” She stammered out, hands clutching convulsively at the sand.
“No.” He shook his head, shaggy hair shifting over his eyes. “I’ve always known. You’re incapable of cheating and I want to know why you lied.”
“Max didn’t know that.” She said bitterly, and then looked away from the empathy in his implacable stare, wondering how much he was going to hate her for what she was about to say. “The night before I pretended to sleep with Kyle I had a visitor. It was Max, but he was different, older. He told me that he was from the future, and that he had used the Granolith to come back in time to warn me.”
Michael blinked in shock, definitely not having expected that answer, and then frowned, knowing that she would have had this visitor prove he was who he said he was, and wondering what the hell was so dire that it demanded time travel. “That’s why you told Max the Granolith was important; you knew it was more than just a one-way trip to Antar.”
Liz nodded, relieved that he believed her without protestation, and continued. “I didn’t trust him at first, but eventually it was clear that he wasn’t lying. He told me that he and I had been married in Vegas after graduation, and that because of our love, because he refused to follow his destiny, Tess left, and that without the power of the foursquare we weren’t strong enough when our enemies came. He told me that you and Isabel had died, that the world had ended, and that I had to make him fall out of love with me and convince his younger self to be with Tess, since that was our only hope of survival.”
She gave a soft sarcastic laugh, still looking away from Michael, not yet ready to see his reaction. “Obviously he was wrong; horribly wrong, but I believed him and tried everything I could, finally using Kyle to convince Max that I no longer loved him.” She shrugged, the nonchalant gesture doing nothing to hide her tension. “As you know, it worked, mostly, and he and Tess did eventually get together. Which clearly did not save the world; I probably just sealed our fate sooner. At the very least, I caused Alex’s death since he,” her voice broke, the knot in her throat threatening to dissolve into sobs, “He danced at our wedding.” She managed to say, her voice dark with self-loathing as she curled in on herself, wishing she still had her long, protective curtain of hair.
Michael touched her shoulder, ignoring the flash of Liz looking lovingly up at a leather-clad Max as they danced on her balcony, and pulled her into his arms. “You are not responsible for anything. Max, the future one, is the one who made an idiotic decision, the present Max chose not to trust you, and Tess is the one who betrayed us. You are not to blame and you are not allowed to beat yourself up over this.”
Gently tilting her head so she had to look at him, he stared into her eyes, willing her to believe the truth of his words. “You have done so much for us, given up so much; I could never blame you for anything, none of us could or would. We should be kneeling at your feet in gratitude.”
Giving a half sob, half laugh, she finally managed a tremulous smile, the sight making his heart beat faster. “That’s ridiculous.”
Michael shrugged, the right side of his mouth curling into a smirk. “Maybe, maybe not. The point is that what you did, while misguided, was incredibly brave, and Max is an idiot for ever believing that you could betray him, or any of us.”
“Well, I don’t completely agree with you, but I do know that Max is an idiot, so at least we have that in common.” She said pertly, flushing with self-consciousness when she realized he had his very strong arms wrapped around her and was holding her disturbingly close.
Michael laughed, noting her blush and wondering at himself that he found it kind of sexy. Carefully setting her back down on the sand next to him, he scratched his eyebrow and turned to look at the ocean, unaccustomed to the strange intimacy between them, although emotional breakdowns seemed to be par for the course for their new friendship. “So what are you still doing in bed at ten in the morning, Parker? Kind of lazy if you ask me.”
Giving him a mock glare, she lightly shoved his shoulder. “I’d like to see you handle drunks all night and still look fabulous with five hours of sleep.” Tossing her hair she grumbled. “Lazy my ass, hmph!”
Fighting a sudden half-jealous, half-protective urge to quit school just so he could glare at the patrons in her bar, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and laughed. “Don’t get your panties in a twist, Parker, I was kidding.”
After some more grumbling, the two of them fell into a companionable silence, staring out over the imaginary waves, and both trying their hardest to ignore the tingling warmth where their bodies touched.
Chapter Fifteen ~ The More Things Change
Alex glanced up from his computer screen as his attention was inevitably drawn back to the blonde moving happily around the kitchen while humming ‘Hotel California.’ Watching her was like an itch that had to be scratched, almost painful but utterly irresistible. The first week he had seen Tess every time he looked at her, had had to fight the urge to wrap his hands around her delicate throat and squeeze. The second week he had only seen Tess in certain moments, certain glimpses, as Ava’s distinct personality made itself known. Now, in his fourth week in this new world, he wasn’t quite sure what he saw when he looked at her.
Her mixture of boldness and sweetness confused him, her sharp wit and cleverly disguised intelligence baffled and intrigued him by turns, and the pain filled shadows he sometimes caught lurking in her eyes made him feel things he didn’t want to feel. She was the physical duplicate of the only woman he had ever hated, but as much as he wished otherwise, he could no longer deny that appearance and past were the only things she shared with Tess. In all other regards, they were two completely separate individuals and it was frustrating the hell out of him.
Hating her would have been easy. Grudging tolerance would have been acceptable. Liking her, it was inconceivable, but somehow he found himself smiling whenever she was in the room.
Cursing under his breath he jerked his gaze back to his computer screen, irritated by his wayward thoughts. Maybe he could blame it on his emotional instability. He knew that after everything that had happened, he was no longer the poster child for sanity and mental health, his obsession with murdering a certain blond, however justified, was proof of that.
Sometimes he would catch Liz watching him, worry clear in her eyes if something he said was too bitter or sarcastic. Being here, seeing her alive and happy, it helped. But the months of grief and near constant study of the book, the Granolith, and his growing powers, had taken their toll, and he wasn’t anywhere near normal yet. Nor would he ever again be the lighthearted computer geek who just wanted to make music and keep his girls happy. Some things were irrevocable and the loss of innocence was one of them.
The fact that he was constantly plagued by dreams that made no sense, of people and places he’d never seem but were somehow familiar, certainly wasn’t helping, although he wasn’t quite ready to discuss those with either of his new roommates.
However, he could make more of an effort. He wasn’t willing to let go of his anger, or his need for vengeance, but if he was here to stay then maybe it was okay to let himself be happy. He found himself watching Ava again and sighed, not bothering to look away. Maybe it was even okay to befriend her.
~
“So Billy finally took me on a real date, bought me roses, we had champagne, it was the perfect New Years.” Maria said with a sigh, her green eyes sparkling as she stared out over the New York skyline.
Liz smiled at her, glad that she was happy, and that her best friend’s happiness meant that she could feel a little less guilty for her own growing feelings for her best friend’s ex. She flushed at the thought and quickly asked another question before Maria could notice, not yet ready to admit to those growing feelings and knowing that her friend was surprisingly perceptive when she wanted to be, despite her frequently ditzy demeanor. “How is the singing going?”
“Well the CD deal fell through, but I have a regular gig at a very popular club, sometimes with Billy and sometimes alone, so I don’t care. Who needs soulless music contracts anyways?” She said flippantly, only an edge of hurt to her voice.
“Not you.” Liz said with a chuckle, wrapping an arm around Maria’s shoulders. “I’m so happy that you’re doing so well. It makes me feel better about you being alone and so far away.”
“I’m fine; I’m more worried about you, what with the freaky alien powers and freaky alien roommate.” Maria exclaimed, her free arm waving dramatically.
“Maria, Ava is not freaky.” Liz said with a warning eyebrow raise. “And we couldn’t talk like this if it wasn’t for those alien powers.”
Maria sighed. “I know, I know, but it’s still weird to think of you, Liz Parker, working as a bar tender by night and learning how to be an alien by day. I mean, did you ever picture your life turning out like this? Even after Max healed you?”
“No, I didn’t.” Liz said, shaking her head. “But I choose not to think about the what-if’s. My life isn’t what I planned, but I’m making the best of it, and I’m actually happy for the first time since Max was taken by Pierce.” It was true, a realization she’d made just a couple weeks before, a realization that still made her smile with genuine relief. Her life wasn’t conventional by any means, but it worked for her, for who she was now, and that was all that mattered.
Maria studied her, noting the smile, and gave a wistful one in return. “Well, good. I want you to be happy, even if it wouldn’t make me happy.”
Liz pulled her into a tight hug, feeling wistful herself over how much their friendship had changed, but glad that it was still intact and that not all remnants of her childhood and its dreams were gone.
~
Liz shifted sand through her fingers, both anticipating and dreading Michael’s appearance in her dream. They had become even closer since he confronted her about the whole Future Max debacle, and for the first time since the shooting, she felt like she could call him her friend, and not just one of the group, bound together by lies and secrets but no genuine feelings. And, if she was honest with herself, something she was getting really sick of doing these days, maybe even a little bit more than just a friend.
That fact, that frustrating and kind of exhilarating fact, was why she knew she had to tell him about Maria, about the fact that she was in contact with her, but dreaded his reaction. A reaction she couldn’t predict, despite how much better she knew him now. Would he be angry with her, with Maria? Would knowing about Billy hurt him? How would she handle it if it did? She didn’t know how deep his feelings still ran, and frankly she was terrified of finding out, and destroying the fragile bond they were oh-so-carefully building between them.
Warm water lapped at her bare toes, and an equally warm hand touched hers, stopping her idle movements, jolting her out of her reverie as a shiver of electricity ran down her spine.
“Stop thinking so hard, Parker.” Michael said with a soft smirk as he dropped down unceremoniously next to her on the beach, and she managed an almost sincere smirk back.
“Well one of us has to do the thinking, Guerin.”
He laughed, glancing down at her with warm, whiskey eyes, before returning his gaze to the ocean, his hand still lightly resting on hers, completely ruining her concentration. “So what deep thoughts are causing that wrinkle in your forehead today, Parker?”
She bit her lip and pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them after reluctantly pulling away from the warmth of his skin, feeling a pang of loss that worried her. “I’ve been talking to Maria.”
He had turned to look at her when she pulled her hand away and so she saw his eyes darken momentarily at her words before lightening again as he nodded. “That’s good, you have been friends for a long time, and you’ve lost enough because of us.”
Liz’s own eyes widened at his statement, before narrowing in irritation. “Anything I’ve lost, is not because of you, so please do not start with that.” He opened his mouth to speak again and she arched a pointed eyebrow until he closed it again. Her expression softened and she smiled. “And it is good. I’ve missed her. It’s not the same of course, but it’s nice to know she’s doing well.”
She hesitated, not sure whether she should mention Billy or not since he didn’t seem too upset, when he preempted her. “She’s seeing that Billy person isn’t she?” His voice was calm and his gaze steady and so she nodded, heart beating strangely fast as their eyes remained locked, unable to conceal her worry. After a moment he shrugged and bumped his shoulder against hers. “I kind of figured; she’s not the type to remain alone long.”
She smiled her agreement and finally found her voice again. “I know you don’t talk about feelings, but are you okay with this?”
He looked away so all she could see was his profile, much harder to read than his eyes, before nodding once and stating simply, “Yes.” Before glancing back at her with a barely there smile that made her heart echo in her ears for a brief moment before she looked away to hide her own eyes, feeling a sudden surge of affection for her best friend, for reasons she didn’t care to examine at the moment, while the body heat of her best friend’s ex seeped comfortingly into her. She’d had enough self-honesty for the day, for now she was content to enjoy the moment.
~*~
“So just how close do you think Liz and mullet man are getting?” Kyle asked Isabel, leaning back in his chair as she spread peanut butter onto some bread slices, still silently amazed and amused that she let him see her doing such domestic tasks.
She flicked him a disparaging glance at the nickname, before shrugging, her lips pursing thoughtfully and making his definitively teenaged mind stray for a moment. “I’m not sure. Michael isn’t exactly big on feelings, but whatever their relationship is, she’s been good for him.”
He nodded, forcefully yanking his thoughts back to more appropriate venues, something that had become increasingly difficult lately as the two of them grew closer. “He’s definitely been less broody lately, and, Buddha be praised, I’ve even see a few smiles.”
She chuckled and handed him a plate, sitting in the chair next to him with that inherent grace that made even the most mundane gestures mesmerizing. He realized he was smiling in a soft, dopey way he could never admit to his brooding alien friend, and quickly took a bite of his sandwich before his feelings manifested themselves in words that he wouldn’t be able to take back, and wasn’t quite ready to say.
Although he had told her he was willing to just be friends, he had come to the realization that he had been wrong, and that the more time went on, the more he wanted to be a lot more than friends with the beautiful, intriguing, and vulnerable blond. He had never been so close to a member of the opposite sex, not even Liz, and definitely not Tess; in fact he wasn’t sure he’d been so close to anyone before.
They had always been aware of each other, he and Isabel, both members of the popular clique. And as such she’d been the one of the aliens he was most comfortable with, even prior to their new closeness. But now, in the wake of Tess and Liz’s departures and all of the subsequent revelations, they’d been drawn together while Maria and Michael both withdrew, and she had quickly become his best friend, even over his growing bond with Michael as the best male friend he had ever had, other than Alex.
Alex was the reason he was holding back now, both his remaining guilt over his friend’s death, and over falling for the only girl he had ever loved. In addition there were his worries that Isabel hadn’t moved on, and that if she did see him the same way he saw her, it was only because of her grief. So he maintained their closeness, but did his best not to indicate the true depth of his feelings, at least not yet.
“Excellent sandwich my dear.” He stated after swallowing, giving her a charming wink and silently preparing himself for the possibility of being zapped for his impudence.
Instead of zapping him, she merely raised one aristocratic eyebrow, before plastering on a simpering smile. “Thank you kind sir.”
He shuddered. “Don’t do that.”
She rolled her eyes, and then grinned before taking a dainty bite of her own sandwich. He couldn’t help but grin back; mentally tightening the reins on his self control and returning to his own sandwich, vowing that he wouldn’t wait too long before telling her the truth. Sometimes boldness outweighed patience as a virtue.
~
“So brother mine, what brings the smile to your face?” Isabel asked, dropping onto the bench across from Michael and grinning smugly at him. He shot her a half-hearted glare and pointedly took another bite of his burger, ignoring both her, and the curious looks of his fellow students who were scattered around the lunch area. Between Alex’s death, Liz and then Maria’s disappearance, and Max’s incarceration, the remaining members of their little group were subject to intense scrutiny by their peers, especially since both Kyle and Isabel had withdrawn from their prior groups of ‘friends.’
It was something they all endured with as much calm and cheer, or in the case of Michael, stern stoniness, as they could manage. Isabel got off lucky, since she only dropped by the campus for the occasional lunch with Michael or Kyle, and the Albuquerque college students couldn’t care less about high school drama. But, even for Kyle and Michael it would end soon enough. It was January, which meant they had less than six months left before their graduation, when they could leave Roswell with its memories and rumors behind. It would always be home, as long as her parents, and Alex’s grave, were here, but she was more than ready to move on.
“So how is Liz doing?” She asked, already knowing the answer, but unable to resist needling him. She knew he cared for the brunette, and although he might not yet realize just how much, she could see the signs and frankly she was thrilled. Liz had become a good friend, the best female friend she had ever had, and if the two of them could find happiness together, well, it would just be one more way to keep her family close, which was all she had ever wanted.
He took his time chewing and swallowing before setting his burger down and glaring a little more intensely at her. “She’s fine, as you know, since you talked to her last night.”
Her smile widened but she relented, not pushing the point further. “And how are you? Heard anything new from Brody?” She queried, voice growing a little sharp at the end as she flashed back to the disturbingly perky phone call she’d received from the man after Michael had implied that she would make a good sounding board for his all of his crackpot theories. She was glad he had taken their secret so well, although it hurt that this relative stranger knew the truth while her parents still did not, and respected what he had been through, but that did not mean she saw him as anything more than a useful annoyance; her ice princess tendencies were not entirely a façade.
Her brother snorted and then smirked at her. “He’s doing fine, making progress on figuring out why and how to sense our energy. We still haven’t figured out how to call Larek to him though, either that or he’s not responding for whatever reason.”
She hummed in thought, wondering if her powers would be successful where Michael’s were not, given her aptitude for the mind, but not quite ready to suggest it. They might need information, but not immediately, and she wanted to enjoy their current peace while it lasted, since she was smart enough to know that it had to end, and sooner rather than later if her other wayward brother had anything to do with it. One more semester without any alien madness, that was all she wanted.
~*~
The chamber was silent, the last echoes of the day’s council meeting long since faded. Khivar leaned back in his throne, studying the play of light on the room’s solid crystal ceiling, his mind settling into familiar, morbid patterns. Thirty cycles, or fifty-nine years if one used earth terms, that was how long it had been since he had first sat on this throne, wearing robes still stained with the blood of Zan, Ava, Rath, and his beloved Vilondra. He had not slept more than one night in ten in all those cycles; every time he closed his eyes he saw Vilondra throwing herself in front of the blast intended for the spy in his ranks.
The hate he had felt for Zan in that moment had surpassed rationality, had surpassed reason, had driven him to madness, madness that turned his well organized coup into a bloodbath with repercussions that made themselves felt to this day. That hate still dwelt within him, dulled from a raging inferno to a cold ball of ice over time, ice that lingered in his veins until even his own men were afraid of him, of his hard, lifeless eyes that they refused to meet unless absolutely necessary.
His lips quirked for a moment with dark amusement. He knew how they referred to him, the whispers that he was empty, hollow, mad. They weren’t wrong, and their fear kept them in line, so he never punished the rumor mongers, even encouraged them on occasion.
He had ordered another town under martial law at the meeting, a decision bound to increase the people’s hatred and discontent. The method of his ascent into power, the death of most of the Royal Court, had ensured that the people would never love him, would never serve him of their own will, as they might have had his original plan to rule with Vilondra by his side, with as few death’s as possible, succeeded. Unrest had begun the day after his reign began, the first riot occurred soon after, followed by the first use of military force on the civilian populace. By the time the fledgling rebellion had been subdued, all chances for earning the trust of Antarian people, or the trust of the rest of the alliance, were destroyed.
So he had not bothered, instead becoming as ruthless and cold as they assumed him to be, until it no longer took effort, and he almost came to enjoy the palpable aura of fear and despair that lingered wherever he went.
Unfortunately, not all were content to live in quiet misery, and that fledgling rebellion had gone underground, gained a backbone and some supporters from the other planets, support he could never prove. Not to mention those blasted clones on that blasted planet he wished he had never heard of. Losing the Granilith when the meddling old Queen interfered had been bad enough. Although the general populace had long since lost awareness of its true nature, it was still an important symbol, the loss of which removed any possibility of using it to his advantage. But the rumors that the so called Royal Four, only named and legendized in death, had somehow been reincarnated, would yet be his downfall. No matter how his long withered heart leapt at the thought that he might see Vilondra again.
The arrival of Ava, with her bastard brat, apparently the result of some plan Niklan had concocted without his consent, had seemed fortuitous. But she was ignorant and uncooperative and the existence of her son under his control had done nothing to soothe the people, nor did he particularly care to soothe them. No, he would keep them alive for leverage until the remaining clones on Earth were dead, and then they too would perish, in as public a spectacle as he could manage. For he had become accustomed to being hated, and if he could not rule with reason, then he was content to rule with fear.
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Anyways, thanks for the review! and I hope you enjoy this part even without the nookie.