Author: Mac
Disclaimer: The characters of “Roswell” belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.
Pairings& category: Will be M/L eventually, and the rest of the couples will most probably be CC as well, but I’ll cover my bases and not guarantee anything other than a Max/Liz pairing. This is an Alternate Universe with Aliens story.
Rating: Mature, just again to cover my bases as there may be violence and mild sexual situations in future.
Summary: Liz Parker has lived her life on a battlefield; it is there she has endured her greatest losses and there she has had her greatest victories. She knows no other life. And when she sacrifices herself to end the turmoil that has raged for longer than she has been alive on her planet, the turmoil in her own life has only just begun… Only this time it isn’t on the battlefield, this time she is on entirely unfamiliar ground.
Special thanks to Amelie... an amazing friend who made this fabulously beautiful banner especially for me despite the fact that she has never watched or read Roswell... you are a star!!! Also to bettylove8
without whom I could not have posted this banner because I'm technologically challenged... you're a sweetheart and I send huge thank you's and lots of chocolate your way! Authors Note: This is my first Roswell story, so I’m a little nervous about it.
I don’t have a whole lot of writing or life experience, which may show… hopefully this hasn’t been too much to my disadvantage. I would really appreciate any feedback; constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated as I believe it helps me to grow. 
There is a Sci-Fi type element to this story which is also extremely new to me, I generally have a seriously overactive imagination but it has never really ventured too much into the world of Sci-Fi. If anything therefore seems unrealistic or just plain silly, please tell me! Otherwise… enjoy! Prologue
Roswell, Earth 2100
The scorched earth blackened her small bare feet as they made their hesitant path through the bodies. She stumbled and grazed a knee, but pushed herself back onto shaky legs, and smudged dirt across her cheek as she tried to wipe away a tear. She was scared, and she couldn’t find her mommy.
He walked, upright and grim, through the town-turned-battlefield that had seen the Antarians latest strike. Polished boots crunched with every step on the baked desert earth, and military stoicism contrasted sharply with the raw grief expressed by the civilians around him. His measured gaze surveyed the damage the Antarians had wrought until it fell upon her.
Her dark tangled hair formed a halo around her face, and through the smoke he could see her chin trembling. It was her eyes that really drew him to her, big brown wells of tears, so full of helplessness and confusion, but so brave at the same time. As he watched a single tear streaked through the dirt on her cheek before she sniffed and brushed at it with a grubby hand. She was maybe five years old, standing in the middle of the battlefield looking like a fallen angel in her short white dress.
He strode towards her, stepping over countless faceless corpses, and knelt down in front of her. She looked up at him, her face scrunching with the effort of holding her tears at bay and in a shaky voice that he barely heard said;
“Where’s my mommy?”
“I don’t know,” he replied in a voice that was not unkind, but had clearly never been used to speak to a child. “She may be dead.” At this her chin again began to quiver, and the good sergeant was made aware that this was possibly not the right thing to say.
“Stop crying,” He told her earnestly, “you’re fine now, and you can come with me.” She sniffed a few times and then nodded her head, so he awkwardly picked her up and carried her away from the battlefield that had once been her home and that was now littered with many thousands of bodies including her mothers.
“What’s your name?”
“Liz”
“I’m Sergeant Parker, Liz, and I’m going to take care of you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Human temporary base camp, Nevada desert, Earth, 2114
Lieutenant Liz Parker strode through the bodies in what had once been a thriving military community, searching for movement. Casualties of war were rare in the wake of the Antarians technology, but not non-existent. She swiped her sweaty palms across her fatigues, and prayed for this to go quicker, so she could give her report back, go back to her own camp, and curl up on her palate away from all this death.
Because Liz Parker had grown up on a battle field, and her young eyes had seen much too much death already.
For an hour and a half she walked among the dead; bending to check pulses, swivelling at the slightest noise to find not a survivor, but someone’s untouched tray of rations blown to the ground, or an unzipped tent flap fluttering in the breeze. When she had systematically gone through the entire camp, she closed her eyes, and bit her bottom lip, willing away the tears that threatened to fall.
There had not been one. No man or woman spared, and she hated that every time she did this she allowed herself to hope that perhaps she would be able to bring someone back, only to have that hope destroyed. It was always the same afterwards, the feeling of complete hopelessness, and powerlessness. Even if there were survivors there were never enough. Every person she saw dead should be alive; the hollow eyes that haunted her dreams should be sparkling with life and emotion.
Liz bent over and retched, then shook her head disgustedly at herself; this was nothing that she hadn’t seen a thousand times before, in fact she had helped to cause similar scenes for their enemies, yet every time it got to her. She stood ram-rod straight again and strode purposefully away from the destruction into the surrounding dessert. She took a deep cleansing breath of air that was untainted by the smell of burnt flesh, pulled out her com-pod and pressed her thumb to the activation point that would scan her fingerprint.
“Command, this is Lieutenant Parker requesting transport from site 10067 to headquarters.”
“Request granted,” Said the tinny voice over the speaker. “Any survivors for the med-bay?”
“Negative”
“Copy that, transport for one coming your way.”
The red light that signified the termination of communications flashed on the surface of her pod, and she stuck it back in her pocket and glanced around for the thin disc of metal that would materialize to transport her to the human headquarters to give her report. After a minute or so she heard the tell-tale buzz that always preceded materialization of a depot point, and walked to it when it appeared a few metres away from her. Stepping on to it, she announced her name and rank, and waited for the sensors to do the necessary voice recognition and image scans, as well as check her heat signature. A mechanical “Identity confirmed” came from the machine, and Liz clearly enunciated “Ready for transport” before she was whipped away without further thought into the void.
Liz had always hated this form of transport; in the few seconds it took to get almost anywhere on earth you couldn’t breath, you couldn’t think, you couldn’t see, there was nothing but the deafening roar that made your ears ring for hours afterwards, and the excruciating pain that came with having your molecules compressed into almost nothing, hurled across a planet and then rearranged on the other end.
Some people would step off of the depot discs looking for all the world as if they had just stepped out of a day spa. Liz Parker was not one of them. On her arrival at headquarters she bent over double gasping for breath, her body wracked with hacking coughs.
“Graceful as ever, aren’t we Parker?”
Kyle always seemed to take a perverse sense of glee from seeing her in this condition. He had been a friend of hers since childhood, the only other child she’d been able to interact with for years in point of fact. After Jeff Parker had adopted her she had gone to live with him at a military base in New Mexico, Jim Valenti had been one of the brass there and the single father of a six year old boy. Together Liz and Kyle had been the only two kids for miles around, and had paired up for lack of other companionship. Two years later Jim had married single mother Amy Deluca and Liz’s life had been greatly improved by the companionship of 7 year old Maria. Not long after that the Whitman’s had relocated to the base when Mrs (or Doctor) Whitman was offered a job in the infirmary, and their little circle was enlarged to include Alex.
The four of them had grown up together, constantly in each others company, getting up to mischief as only kids can in the military facility they called home. Kyle was like a brother to her, and when he made smart-ass comments as he had moments before, it made it all the more easy to loathe him.
Liz straightened up, shot Kyle a venomous glare (which he only laughed at) and then strode off into the heart of the base with as much dignity as she could muster.
The human headquarters was a dingy underground building that could have been anywhere for all anyone knew, the only way to get to it was via depot disc, and the only people on earth who knew its physical location were the very highest ranking military officials. Her father was one of them, and it was to him that she was now to report.
He sat in one of the many uniform and depressing rooms that made up this section of the base. It was one of the few wings that Liz was familiar with, as it was often used for report backs, possibly for the reason that it was quickly and easily accessible from the transport bay, and didn’t give low ranking officials such as herself the excuse to snoop around the maze of passages that made up the rest of the base. Liz herself could attest to the fact that it was a maze of passages because although she may not know what went on in the many hundreds of rooms they contained, she had managed at the tender age of 14 to get lost looking for her father when he had made the fatal error of bringing her along for lack of anywhere else to take her (because he may not have been the best father, but he was not going to leave her in the middle of a battle to be caught in the crossfire.)
Her father looked tired and grim, as usual, as he sat with a panel of equally grim faced military personnel. All of them had translator tubes running into their left ears to enable them to understand her and each other, Liz herself was fitted with one on her arrival in case they needed to ask questions. They were a diverse bunch, men and women of every race and every walk of life, forced together by the common goal of defending their planet.
Liz did not remember a time when countries were at war with each other, when it mattered if you were black, white or purple, when it was almost always men in positions of power, or when those in power made up governments. After over 70 years of war on Earth none of this mattered, because everything was far too different now.
Under the strain of war with a distant planet they knew almost nothing about, governments had collapsed and military control had ensued. In the fight for survival unity had become the only option; race, gender, age and nationality became irrelevant, every human was a citizen of Earth and therefore they were all allies fighting a common, alien enemy. The armed forces of every country had been forced to band together, and now they fought side by side and civilians lived side by side. Earth had become a global community.
Perhaps, Liz thought, it was the sole good thing to have come out of the war that had been waged since before the births of most of Earths citizens.
The report back went quickly, Liz was nothing if not efficient, and she had done her job well. She rattled off the facts in a detached manner; the body count, the damage to the base, the weapons recovered, the air toxin levels, the results of preliminary autopsies and the list went on. She had done it so many times before and this was the easy part, this was just the facts and figures. It was too easy to detach yourself from all the death when it was only a number. She wondered how many of the people in the room with her had ever had to evaluate the aftermath of an Antarian strike. She supposed too many, after all, these people wouldn’t have risen to their rank without seeing things.
When she had answered all their questions she was dismissed. She couldn’t get out of there fast enough. She pulled the translation tube out of her ear and threw it into the sterilization bin next to the door, then hurried back down the corridor to the transport bay. She was almost at the front of the outgoing dep discs line when some fresh faced kid right out of training informed her that General Parker requested her presence back in the report rooms. She resisted the urge to snap at him, and made her way back down the corridor, her body tense, her steps quick, barely suppressed rage coming off her in waves as the corporal scurried after her; clearly intimidated by both her manner and her identity.
God, she was so sick of being “the general’s daughter”! So sick of being known by everyone wherever she went, and not being sure, no matter how hard she worked, that promotions and praise had been earned and not simply given to her because of who she was. And now he was making her take a private meeting with him at HQ, in full view of God and everyone, which would only further entrench the view of her as “General Parker’s kid” in everyone’s minds. Couldn’t he use that famous intelligence of his that came in so handy tactically, to figure out that the last thing his daughter wanted right now was to see him? Couldn’t he see that all she wanted to do was have a break!?
She stepped back through the doors into the report room, which was now empty save for him.
“You summoned.” She bit out, unleashing a small fraction of her ire. He was completely unaffected.
“Lizzie”, he said, nodding his head in acknowledgement of her presence, then turning to the boy and dismissing him with another nod of his head and a “That’ll be all corporal”. The poor boy, who was clearly still feeling intimidated, almost tripped over his own feet in his haste to make himself scarce. Liz rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration.
“What do you want Daddy? I thought we agreed that you were going to treat me like any other Lieutenant? Lieutenants don’t usually have private meetings with the big boss!” She said, her frustration seeping into her words.
“Liz, I was just trying to have a private conversation with my daughter, which you have made almost impossible through every other channel!”
“That’s bull; you could have sent communications through our comm sector at base!”
“I’ve tried.” He bit out.
“I’ve been busy” She defended
“Now you’re not”
She ground her teeth and glared at him, taking a seat in the chair across from him and crossing her arms over her chest.
“So how are you?” He asked, in a fruitless attempt to start a conversation.
“We both know I’m not here for tea and a chat, just get to the point.”
He sighed; lately he couldn’t seem to do anything right with Liz. It had started when she had informed him she was joining up three years ago; he’d attempted to forbid her from doing so, and when he couldn’t stop her, attempted to at least protect her using his rank and influence to make sure she wasn’t assigned anywhere where the action was. Of course being Liz, she hadn’t been satisfied with sitting on the sidelines. He should have realized that she wouldn’t be after growing up in the thick of things like she had. She’d found out what he was doing, and demanded to be put on the front lines. And she got her way. Things between them had been tense ever since, which was not to say that they had been perfect before, because they both knew he’d never been cut out to be a father, he was a military man through and through.
“The Time wants to do an article on us, I told them yes.” She didn’t blow up like he’d expected her to, but she sat a little straighter, and her jaw clenched even tighter, though he wouldn’t have thought it possible.
“No.”
“Liz, I know you don’t like being in the public eye, but this could be a good opportunity.”
“A good opportunity for what!? I’m not doing an interview and that’s all, I will not let you turn me into some sort of figurehead! I’m going back to my unit where I can do some real good.”
“Liz, I’m not trying to turn you into a figurehead, its one interview, you’ll be away from your unit for two days, and you’ll have the chance to do some good. Think of what this article could do. The people need their spirits lifted, think of it as a way to raise morale.”
She knew she wouldn’t win on this one, as stubborn as she was he could match her, and he had ultimate power over her as her General.
“Fine” she spat out.
“I am not forcing you to do this.”
“Keep thinking that Dad”
“You’ll take a dep disc to the Tokyo base, Kyle will be waiting to escort you to the Valenti residence where I will meet you tomorrow for the interview.”
The interview was tomorrow! It took all of her will power not to scream at him. She swivelled and stormed out of the room toward the transport bay, walking right past the queue of outgoing personnel; strait to what Maria called the ‘VIP section’. She flashed her badge at security, not that she needed to; they all knew who she was, and stepped none-too-happily back onto a depot disc, bracing herself for the journey.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Base Camp, Tokyo, Earth, 2114
Kyle was again waiting for her when she emerged coughing and spluttering into the transport bay of site 003, otherwise known as the Tokyo base camp. Recovering herself much more quickly in her fury, she stormed past Kyle towards the shuttle bay and attempted to ignore the renewed ringing in her ears, and the fact that her lungs didn’t seem able to function properly yet.
Kyle strode after her, catching up with her in only a few long strides, much to her annoyance.
“Don’t I get a ‘Hi Kyle, how’s it going?’?”
She turned to face him, plastered an obviously fake smile onto her face and injected her voice with sickening sweetness.
“Hi Kyle, how’s it going?”
Kyle didn’t turn a hair at her antics, and proceeded to take part in a one sided conversation in which he told her exactly what he had been doing in the two weeks since she had last seen him, as if her question had been genuine. Liz pointedly ignored him the entire time, but couldn’t help but listen even if she was pretending she wasn’t. At last Kyle caught her smiling at the tale of one of his many misadventures, and poked her in the ribs.
“See, I knew there was a smile in there somewhere Parker.” And she couldn’t help but smile a little wider at the goofy grin on his face and his eyes dancing with victory. She sighed again, remembering the reason she was seeing him.
“You know why I’m not in the best of moods, so how bout you just give me a rest for now okay?”
“Oh come on, it can’t be that bad Liz! I mean, you get to come to our beautiful city rather than being sent back to a camp in the middle of nowhere, you get to eat food that doesn’t taste like cardboard, wear clothes that have colour, take actual baths, and to top it all off, you get to see Maria and I! I’m not seeing a down side to this plan, plus it means that I get leave to escort you around.”
Liz rolled her eyes. “How do you always manage to make everything about you?” She teased.
“It’s not too hard, because as we both know; the universe revolves around my God-like self.” He replied puffing out his chest and strutting ahead of her.
“Oh Kyle,” She said in a breathy voice, fluttering her eyelashes for effect, “You’re, like, sooo amazingly gorgeous Kyle,” She fanned herself with her hand, “I feel so privileged to have the honour of being in your divine presence!”
She caught his eye and burst into hysterical giggles, leaning on the doorway to the shuttle bay to support herself. Kyle glared at her, but couldn’t help but break into a wide grin, shoving her forward into the shuttle bay, and then dragging her towards the fastest and most expensive looking shuttle while she clutched at her stomach, and stumbled blindly along beside him.
“Jeez Liz, it wasn’t that funny,” He finally stated with a raised eyebrow as he got the shuttle running. “In fact, it was slightly disturbing.”
“I know, I know,” She said, finally calming down enough to form a coherent sentence, “It’s just been one of those days you know?”
“Yeah, I know.”
And he did. Kyle was one of the few people who could. The only person, in fact, who shared both her childhood, and her compulsion towards the military. So maybe some days she wanted to kick his ass, and maybe he was often the biggest morons on the planet, but he got her, and that would always count for something.
Liz leaned back into the soft, expensive leather of the shuttle and closed her eyes. She needed sleep, and besides, she’d rather not be awake to witness the many near death experiences that they were likely to have with Kyle piloting.
“Try not to kill us please.” She remarked even though she knew it was futile.
A manic grin spread across his face, his eyes were alight with mischief, and his body tensed with suppressed energy that seemed to crackle in the air around them.
“I’m not making any promises,” He threw out wickedly, before grabbing the controls, and sending them catapulting out of the bay at a speed that Liz would have preferred not to even contemplate. She sighed and closed her eyes again; her life just couldn’t be boring could it?
