Nefarious (POV, UC/CC, Mature) 1/1

[Traitor]

Title: Nefarious
Author: Traitor
Category: AA, Tess centered
Rating: Mature to be on the safe side
Pairings: Ava/Zan (past lives and insinuations to their current selves), Khivar/Tess
Summary: Pre-cannon. Just how did Tess get to be so deliciously evil?
Disclaimer: The characters of Roswell belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

A/N: I got bored at work and this little one shot was the result. lol. Hope you guys enjoy! *runs to hide*

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Nefarious

“No one ever became extremely wicked suddenly” --Juvenal

Her fingers have gone numb from the cold. She rubs her hands together in the futile hope that maybe the friction will thaw her frozen digits. She hates this place, hates it with everything in her. Mostly though, she hates him… Zan, or whatever the hell name he was going by now.

She hates that she is forced to move around this planet from place to place. She hates that every day for the last ten years she has been dragged from town to town, country to country, in search of her former husband, her former king.

She fights the urge to vomit at the mere thought of him and a low dry chuckle escapes her lips. Her warm breath hit’s the cold air, turning to puffs of fog that float and dissipate into the air.

She huddles under the blanket her 'protector’ left with her in the abandoned cabin and shudders, teeth chattering against her tongue. Damn Nasedo for his latest venture to find the Royals. Really, no one with even a fraction of a brain would ever live in this arctic hellhole that she finds herself in now. Even Zan had more sense than this, and that really wasn’t saying much in her opinion.

She had tried to question Nasedo about this decision when he had informed her of where they were jetting off to, but he had brushed her doubts away as if they were nothing, swearing to her that this lead was indeed reliable. But he had sworn to that fact so many times now that she had utterly lost count and interest.

This place, like so many others, had, of course, turned up nothing….less than nothing to be completely honest. Just as she had suspected, there wasn't a thing here but backwater humans to stupid or high to realize that their so called, ‘alien encounters‘, were little more than airplanes or drug induced fantasies.

She hates this planet more and more every passing day.

She used to wonder why anyone would ever have thought that it was a brilliant idea to have them reborn here on this disgusting rock. Oh yes, she knew why, because they were idiots, idiots who believed they would be safe here, fools who believed that they would be loved with the four-square intact, each with their so called “soul-mates”.

Her stomach turns at the thought of ever having loved that pathetic man she once called her husband.

When she came out of the pod all those years ago, cold and alone (much like she found herself now), Nasedo had been adamant about how in love Ava and Zan had been, about how utterly blissful they had been. For years, she had believed him, content to live in her fairy tale fantasy of love and longing.

But her fantasy was shattered when the memories of her past began to surface, creeping their way into the forefront of her mind bit by bit. The first or her memories had been so wonderful to her that it only furthered her resolve to find her king….red seas and stolen moments by the rocks with the sounds of the waves crashing in the background, hot languid kiss’s in the warm cleansing rain that were so intense they made her whole body shiver in anticipation, making love for the first time under a canopy of stars…. But then, about two years after the onslaught of thoughts and images first began, her memories had taken a very dark turn and these overshadowed any thoughts of happiness or love that she had once clung to so desperately.

She, as Ava, had begged for Zan to stop the war, to step down from his position as King of Antar and hand over power to Khivar. They didn’t need this planet, let Khivar have Antar and they could rule her home planet together. They would be free to have a happy life there, a life free from all of these tiresome burdens they faced here, a life where Zan would be free to do nothing but worship her as he once had when they first met and married.

But Zan had not even considered her pleas, had tossed her ideas aside with nothing more than a bitter chuckle and a hard icy stare. He spoke cruelly to her of how little she and their happiness mattered when Khivar threatened the lives of millions of free innocents. She hated him then, hated how hard he had become towards her, hated how he chose his people over her.

Five more years, the war had waged on, five years of being shut off from her happiness, of slowly losing herself to the void of insanity. Zans beloved people fell and Khivar drew closer and closer to killing them all. Zan didn’t even bother to touch her anymore, let alone speak to her. Her bitterness grew with every passing day, as did her resolve to survive this entire pointless war.

So she went to the one person who could guarantee her safety, who could save her…

Khivar.

She had anticipated their secret evening meetings every moment of every day, had marveled in the soft adoring touches he bestowed upon her, thought about him endlessly while Zan droned on in the day about battle plans and strategies. It had been so long since she had felt loved…….so she told him of Zans secrets, about where their army camps were, she had even been the one to instruct him how to woo Vilandra to cover up her own nefarious ways. It had all worked perfectly, Zan never knew a thing…

Well, that wasn’t entirely true.

Her lips twist into a smile at the memory.

He had known the truth, but only in his final moments. He had looked at her in shock as she plunged his own sword deep into his belly and twisted. She had laughed gleefully as she watched him fall.

Her only mistake in her endeavors was to make sure that he had been truly dead before she turned her back. She had heard the choke of Zans breath catching, had looked back just in time to see him raise his hand towards her…..and then….nothing.

But her past mistakes mattered little now. She is here, on this dirty rock, searching aimlessly for the very man whom she had once loved, despised, murdered, and been murdered by, not that Nasedo needed to know any of those sorted details. The only ones that knew the truth, since Zan would not have ever had the chance to recover his own memories without a protector, were herself and Khivar and she would do whatever it took to ensure that it stayed that way.

She has a plan, one that she has drawn out carefully and cautiously over the years, and right now it all hinged on Nasedo. She needed him to find Zan, after that, Khivar could do with the shape shifter as he so pleased.

When Nasedo locates him, which he inevitably will, she will insert herself back into his life, play the loving and dutiful wife, be his trusted confidant and lover, and then slowly and painfully rip apart everything and everyone whom he has ever held dear.

She laughs, the sound echoing off of the cabins bare walls, at the thought of delivering his head to her lover on a silver platter. She will be welcomed home with open arms and finally they will all worship her as they were meant to, Khivar, Antar, they would all be hers, would all love her.

After all, that was all she had every truly wanted. To be loved and adored.

Nasedo rushes into the cabin suddenly, the hard crash of the door being slammed haphazardly behind him breaks Tess from her thoughts. Her face softens, taking on the mask of innocence that she has grown so accustomed to wearing around him.

Play the part, live the lie.

Feign stupidity.

“Nasedo?” She looks at him with false concern as he leans against the door and catches his breath. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Nasedo’s eyes sparkle happily as he looks at her.

She almost can’t believe how utterly foolish he really is. He can’t even see what’s under his nose.

He rushes to her side, pulling her body to him in a fierce hug and she has to fight the urge to beat him over the head with any available blunt object. How dare he touch her, the queen?!

He pulls back, hands still on her shoulders. “The orbs! The signal!” He pants excitedly. She wants nothing more than to kick him into making sense. “Don’t you see!” he exclaims. “We’ve found them! Tess, after all these years of searching, they’ve activated the signal! We’ve found them!”

He pulls her back into his embrace and she finds herself genuinely returning the gesture now. She fights the urge to scream in triumph at the news. They had finally located Zan. Now her plan can be put into motion, now Zan will finally get what he deserves…. And so will she.

In her mind, she is certain of the outcome of this life.

Zan will once again die by her hand, only this time, she will happily take the throne while he lays bloodied and broken on the floor and she will listen as the people chant her name like it’s a prayer to something holy….

She smiles maliciously.