Title: Destiny Broken
Author: Angel Parker... angelof7days@hotmail.com
Banner By: Me... Angel Parker
Category: Tess-Liz POV, respectively.
Rating: Mature...
Disclaimer: All TV characters are copyright of their original owner, I do not own them in anyway shape or form... I'm just having fun borrowing them.
Setting: A follow up to Thoughts Unspoken and Broken Time. (Note: I highly recommend reading those before getting into this one.) All her life Tess was taught to fulfill destiny, to be the bride of a great King. But this fate swirled out of grasp in one single moment and though Tess has found family, she has lost everything she was fighting for. This story is part of the Multiverse series.
Prison gates won't open up for me
On these hands and knees I'm crawlin'
Oh, I reach for you
Well I'm terrified of these four walls
These iron bars can't hold my soul in
All I need is you
Come please I'm callin'
And oh I scream for you
Hurry I'm fallin'
[CHORUS]
Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I'll show you what I can be
Say it for me
Say it to me
And I'll leave this life behind me
Say it if it's worth saving me
Heaven's gates won't open up for me
With these broken wings I'm fallin'
And all I see is you
These city walls ain't got no love for me
I'm on the ledge of the eighteenth story
And oh I scream for you
Come please I'm callin'
And all I need from you
Hurry I'm fallin'
[CHORUS]
Hurry I'm fallin'
~ Savin' Me, Nickelback
Destiny, it’s what I’ve always been taught I had. A destiny which would come forth and make me a Queen. Not of this world but of another in a far away place that is unreachable by human means. Nasedo trained me to both understand what my destiny meant and how I was to control it. I didn’t understand then how wrong it was, that if it was my destiny or fate as some say, it would just happen.
All I wanted was to be happy again.
I was happy once, before the shape shifter found me. I lived with a family who loved and cared for me. I don’t remember the first two years away from the pod much anymore, only wisps of feelings. The smell of apple pie sometimes brings an image into my mind. It’s not a strong one though and often vanishes before I can fully recall it.
Even now as I sit in the rocking chair by the open window I can not remember her name. She used to rock me to sleep when I cried at night in a chair very similar to this one. She is the one who first saw me in the desert, who made her husband stop in the middle of nowhere and I can’t even visualize what she looks like.
It is because of Nasedo that my memories are blocked. He said they made me weak and I was too young and foolish to think anything else. I allowed him to lock them away inside my mind long ago and now I realize too late that I am lost without them. He calls me a woman, says that I am grown up and ready to take my destiny, but I am still a girl. I realize that now.
A light breeze catches my hair and I instinctively close my eyes. This is the moment I have been waiting for, it feels like an echo of the past. I know that if I can just let go long enough the memory lingering beneath the surface will break through.
Gr..
It is almost here, the warm humid air is bringing the memory into view. There is a woman standing in front of me. Her charm and the gentle smile she carries on her face invites me to tell her everything I know. Her lips are moving, she is saying something to me. But I am so little her words do not make sense.
Grace, the woman’s name is Grace. The sweet smell of apples hits my senses with such a strong force and suddenly I remember.
There is a nurse in the room she is checking my blood pressure, writing an occasional note on her clipboard. She is making sure that I am in good health as Grace sits next to me. The woman I have thought of as my mother has taken hold of one of my hands and is trying to ease my fears.
“My name is Grace. What’s yours little one?” Her soft red hair flowing gently in the breeze as she turns her head slightly to look directly into my eyes. I want to answer her but I do not know what my name is. It seems like I should know and yet it is beyond my young minds grasp.
“Don’t. Know.” I stutter, trying out the way my voice sounds. It is strange to my own ears, I have never spoken before. Never had any reason to do so because I was alone when I woke from the pod. Three other pods stood ominously empty, signifying that I had been left behind. Forgotten about. Abandoned. Maybe not on purpose but I was still alone.
I remember reaching out with my mind for anyone to hear me but all I got back was silence. It was scary to be alone and even scarier to leave the place of my birth, though it was a haven it kept me isolated. My mind struggles to focus back on the original memory, how Grace became my Mother. Because this is the main memory that Nasedo said made me ineffective in my own destiny, I am sure of it.
I can see the nurse pulling my mother aside, hear her whisper in a hushed tone something I wasn’t supposed to understand. “Mrs. Pierce, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
My mother shakes her head, the ringlets in her hair bouncing in the movement. Her jaw is moving as well but there is no sound coming out. She has mouthed something to the nurse, who looks worried, before turning her attention back to me. Her smile is as bright as ever and there is a twinkling in her eyes, in a way that makes me realize I am safe as long as I am with her.
“Tessa was just saying.” She pauses, pointing to the nurse. I can’t remember for the life of me why but something in that moment made me speak up. It changed everything and from that moment on I became in entangled in Grace’s heart.
“Mine. Too.” There is confidence in my tiny voice.
“What sweetie?” My mother asks. Tilting her head to one side, a gleam in her eyes.
“Name is, Tessa.” My heart beat quickens and strangely I know my mother will accept my choice. The nurse, who’s name I have taken, however is a mystery to me and my fear of her rises.
“Well isn’t that interesting.” Grace winks at me, her smile broad. She is pleased with the name just like I knew she would be.
“Police open up.” My eyes snap open, the memories dropping below the surface. But this time they are not lost only set aside for the moment. My true surroundings becoming alive again, the scent of blood invading my senses. My hands are covered in it and I find myself daring the police to enter at this moment. Because right now I do not care if they find me, do not care if everything Nasedo said about the Unit is true.
Somehow I doubt it was, he lied about many things to control me. To make me stay true to my destiny. He did not truly understand the way emotions work and that was his downfall. He wanted me to love only Max Evans, a boy whom I’ve never met. Despite the promises he gave me I could not make my heart obey.
I fell in love with another boy and though I told myself it would not last, that I was destined to be with someone else. My heart would not give up the hope that this football player from Roswell could stay in my life in some way. That Destiny could still be fulfilled even though I would never really be in love with my husband to be.
Nasedo did not see it in the same light. He became enraged when he found out about the football player. Did not care that Kyle would leave Florida once football camp was over with. I was to leave him alone and wait for my destiny to be found, isolated from any romantic love.
For a time I convinced myself and Nasedo that I could let go of someone who was not my intended. But as each day passed without seeing Kyle my heart grew quiet. It became increasingly difficult to keep true to a boy who perhaps didn’t even know about me. That’s how it started, I kept telling myself that I had been alone when I awoke. That maybe this Max Evans had seen me in the caves and decided on another girl. He’s a king after all, he didn’t have to choose me.
With those thoughts I let my heart beat again and soon I was sneaking off in the middle of the night to see Kyle. Reveling in the knowledge that my soul had become alive again. It was easy to fool the shifter, who was gone at night in search of my destiny. He didn’t care that I wasn’t at the apartment when he got back because he had already forgotten about the boy. The thing with the shifter is that, he could shut his emotions off so easily. Had done so, so many times that he didn’t really understand what they were anymore.
“Mr. Harding, if you can get to the door, open up.” The police officer’s voice causes a small giggle to escape from me. If only they knew the lunacy in what they’ve asked, that even if the shifter was alive he would never open the door to them. No, he would be grabbing the small traveling crystal, which has allowed us to evade the Unit and we would both be gone.
My thoughts turn to Kyle as the pool of blood surrounding the shifter expands. Anger surges through my veins and I wonder why Destiny meant so much to me? Kyle was who my heart chose, he made me alive. But I was too foolish to listen and now Destiny is all I have left. The shifter made sure of that once he learned the truth.
He eliminated what I loved and I took his life for payment.
The baby kicks inside of me and I know that I need to leave this place. That even if the shifter was wrong about the unit I can not allow the police to take me. They won’t understand what I did was necessary, that he was evil and had to be stopped.
Standing up I walk towards the crystal that is just inches away from the shifters hand. In his last moments he became terrified of me. Knew then he’d made a mistake killing Kyle or at least telling me about it. He had tried to escape from me by using the crystal but in my fury I knocked it out of his hands with ease. He was so surprised that he actually froze up for just a second, it was all the time I needed.
The shifter never got the chance to do anything else.
Tears slide down my cheeks as I reach for my escape. Kyle never got to know he was a father but what’s worse is that he never knew how deeply I loved him. He never got to know that I would have chosen him over the destiny that was demanded of me. I will never get to tell him that but at least I can ease a father’s heart before I take claim to the life of a queen.
I can feel the rush of power as my fingers grasp the clear crystal. Hear the wood cracking as I close my eyes. A whirl of light surrounds me and though I can’t see it with my eyes I can sense it. The baby moves with delight and in this moment I am happy.
I am free of the shifters grasp.
My baby will be happy and Max Evans will not be forced to think it’s his child.
(December 22nd, Roswell Nevada - Five Months Later)
I knew I should’ve never trusted the shifter’s Intel, after all he was never completely truthful when it came to my future. So why I believed him when he said he’d found Max Evans in Costa Rica is beyond me. Oh there was a Max Evans there alright! But he was definitely not an alien or anyone you might confuse as a king for that matter. No he was just a small time crook with ties to a much bigger crime family.
It was a beautiful place to be and though some part of me never wanted to leave I couldn’t stay there. My guilt became too great, the truth is that I never did tell Jim Valenti what happened to his son. I wanted to, I came here to do just that. But when I saw him standing near the towns small diner dressed neatly in his sheriff’s uniform, I froze.
It’s not that I didn’t know he was Roswell’s sheriff, because I did know. It was something in the way he carried himself. The way he looked so happy, so at ease with who he was and the position he carried. I knew I couldn’t be the one to tell him his son was dead. Couldn’t be the person to break his heart and so I ran instead. Following the last lead on Destiny the shifter had given. How facing destiny was better then facing Jim Valenti, I don’t know.
Like in the many other places I’ve been, destiny was nowhere to be found in Costa Rica. My life once again hit a road block and even though I was in a beautiful paradise I wasn’t happy. I missed the way I felt before the shifter took me. The family I had once, loving and kind. But they’ve been gone for a long time. Now the only family I have is a man who doesn’t know I exist and who’s son was stolen away because of me.
Once a upon time I thought I knew what destiny meant. Max Evans was mine for the taking and mine to manipulate however I wanted, it’s how I was raised. Then everything I thought I knew changed when I fell in love with Kyle Valenti, a human.
The shifter never approved of humans, always said they were worth less than us. For a while I believed it, used them to my advantage just like he did. Even for a short time after Kyle’s death, I lost my faith in the love I’d found with him. Kyle was gone after all. How could he have been strong if he couldn’t survive for me?
Nase... The shifter was evil and much more cunning then I gave him credit for. The lead on Costa Rica and my destiny turned out to be an elaborate mind game. Exactly what he planned to do with a fake Max, who wasn’t even alien, is beyond me. But once again I felt alone, completely isolated from anyone who could really love or understand me.
Roswell...
I’ve run away from this place before, afraid of what it meant if I stayed here for a human. Emotions make me weak or so the shifter used to say. He was my guardian and at one time I wanted to believe everything he said, but my love made me feel alive. Something the shifter never wanted me to understand. The power of love, he knew what it would do, how it would free me from blindly following his guidance.
It already had, Kyle was proof of that!
The shifter’s evil influence has been gone awhile now, still my thinking sometimes falls into the traps of his upbringing. The decision to find his version of destiny instead of following my heart has made it evermore clear. I knew this was where I belonged and I still ran. Leaving behind whatever life had in mind for me.
Heartbreak has followed me most of my life. Why I’m still surprised when it strikes and hurt by the sting of reality, I’ll never understand. I should be used to it. I was trained to expect the unexpected and adapt. But as I stare at the newspaper clipping I’m once again surprised as the pain inches closer. A local boy shot and killed protecting his girlfriend in a botched robbery attempt at the Crashdown.
It isn’t the article I was looking for but it has pulled all of my attention in. Not the headline so much as the picture with the article and the name below.
Max Evans.
It’s foolish to cry for him, this boy I never knew. Max was a destiny the shifter planned for me and even so he would’ve been furious to know that I was crying over Max’s death. Would say I was over reacting and would already be planning our next move. He would be cold and calculating, wanting the same from me.
But I am held in grief.
I was never meant for Max in the way the shifter wanted, my heart knows this. But Max Evans was the only one like me he’d ever talked about. Soulless as the shifter was he never understood my need to know if there were others like Max, like me, out there.
I am alone now.
“How did you get in here?” Her voice startles me.
“I could ask you the same thing.” I snap, closing my eyes to focus on the warp. Power builds up within me as a flow of new memories form to replace the ones of my presence. This girl will not remember meeting me here. She might be a little confused as to what did happen, but she’ll be unharmed.
A shiver of guilt runs through me as the baby kicks.
“I’m sorry I must have fallen asleep.” It’s one of the tricks I was taught, a ploy to get inside someone’s mind. Distract with an untruth, use my gifts to make them believe and then alter whatever I need to. Only it’s not working with her. Images I didn’t intend to share are being pulled to the surface.
There is a power within this girl, stronger then I’ve felt before.
Turning to face her I half expect to see the dull evil eyes of the shifter peering at me. His face changing to one I would recognize. I know better, he’s gone and this girl is far from evil but my mind still doesn’t fully believe. Except instead of a controlled calm her eyes are wild and tear stained. Her gaze still solid, like she is looking directly into me. Seeing some fallow truth I’ve let go of finding.
She knew Max!
This is Elizabeth Parker, the one he died protecting. Understanding hits me with full force and a slight sliver of jealousy courses through my veins .
The shifter would want this one to suffer for breaking the destiny he’d worked so hard to plan. He would mess with her mind and emotions, leave her lost and confused, begging for an end. I’m not like that! Instead I realize my heart aches for the loss she has felt. For my own loss with Kyle and for the ease in which I took the shifters life.
Evil? Yes!
Deserved his fate? No question!
But from my hand? I don’t know. The shifter’s death has caused me to become detached from my feelings just as... As the... As Nasedo wanted. Tears stream down my face and I know that unless something changes I will turn into what I hate most... Evil!
Images of Max Evans’ smile pour into my mind. Liz didn’t have to let me see him, yet she did without a second thought. I don’t know if I’d have done the same thing if I was in her place. The smile that comes to my face is unstoppable and in this moment I know exactly what I have to do. This place is my home and I never want to leave. Can’t even allow myself to have the temptation of running away.
Since Nasedo’s death I have clung to the crystal, allowed it to be my lifeline, but no more! Liz Parker needs it more than I do and without hesitation I place it into her hands.
“It’ll allow you to travel anywhere you want to go.” Fresh tears blur my vision and I close my eyes to shut them out.
“Thank you.” Her voice is almost inaudible.
The hair on the back of my neck stands up as the air starts to tingle with energy. The smell of smoke hits my senses, I know it’s not really there. That it’s another echo of the past and I want to push the memory away but it comes unbidden.
An orange glow of fire is in front of me. I can feel the heat radiating from it, intriguing and scary at the same time.
“Pretty, isn’t it little one?” The voice is familiar and strange. I know it, but it’s not the same as I remember.
My mother stands next to me staring at the fire instead of me. She seems strangely entranced by the flame and I want her attention. I want her to tell me what’s going on and ease the fear that’s slowly making it’s way into my mind.
“Pretty, isn’t it little one!” Her voice repeats in my mind. I’m not sure if it’s because she has spoken again or if it’s just an echo. But I feel the chills running down my spine and I want to get away from this moment.
“It’s a game little one. How hot can we make the fire.” Finally my mother turns to look at me but all her grace and charm is gone. Her eyes are dull and gray, lifeless for a moment, before they shift to the beautiful colors I remember. Still there is no life in them, no joy or the sweetness that held my mind at ease.
This is Nasedo, I know it now, but back then I was confused and lost. I didn’t understand who I was or that someone would want to take advantage of my gifts.
All I knew was that my childhood home along with the rocking chair I loved so much was being consumed by the flames. The memory becomes clear and I remember how he tricked me to keep the fire going, to make it hotter and more intense. How he used the form of my mother to gain my trust and make me obey.
We are outside of the house now and the image of my mother is gone. Instead a man from next door stands beside me with the same lifeless eyes.
Firefighters rush past me seemingly unaware of my presence. There focus is putting out the blaze and for awhile I go unnoticed. My cries gain their attention and the neighbor insists I tell them nothing about playing with fire. Instead I scream for my parents, wanting to know they’ll comfort me when this is over.
My young mind still doesn’t grasp what’s happened.
The blaze took the life of my parents and the neighbor who supposedly rescued me. People thought it was a miracle I survived, thought that perhaps it was an angel who rescued me that night. Thought I was lucky to find a foster father so quickly but I know the truth, at least the worst part of it.
Guilt for surviving floods into my mind and I know now why Nasedo blocked this memory.
“Forget the past. Destiny, will make you great.” With that he put his hands on my face and I was all too willing to let the pain vanish. Never realizing just how much he would take from me.
Epilogue Coming Soon....
She was rather fun to write! I don't think we've seen the last of her yet, though the epilogue is a journal entry from Liz.