The Name of the Rose (Tess POV,TEEN) 1/1 [COMPLETE]

[Doublestuf]

The Name of the Rose
Rating: TEEN
Category: Tess POV
Summary: Tess lets us in on what's really been going on all this time
Disclaimer: not mine, not mine
Author's Notes: I'm thrilled about this new board - think it'll give us lots of room to play - and wanted to contribute, to help it get its feet off the ground. Sadly, I have no time to write something besides Ghost. I did, however, remember this little piece I wrote ages ago and don't know if I ever posted here (it's up over at the old Roswell Underground site but I think that's it). Anyway, I spruced it up a little and thought I'd bring it out for the big event.
This pov is set sometime not too long after Max in the City (which was when I wrote it and had no idea that I was a little more on the money than I thought).


"A rose by any other name,
The perfume and the prick's the same."
- "Bring on the Men", Jekyll and Hyde





I'm not as stupid as they think I am.

And I'm sick and tired of not being able to bask in my own glory.

People have little sayings that include animals. You know, sly like a snake, cunning like a fox. That's me. I'm sly and cunning, so they can call me a snake or a fox or panther or a vulture or a bitch. I don't care; why would I? The only reason for people to call me such names is that they know just as well as I do how smart I really am. But there's the paradox. They won't call me any of those things because they don't know the truth about me. If they did, then I wouldn't be so smart, now would I?

I, little ole blond haired Tess, have done more than Nasedo ever dreamed. I hated him, I truly did. He never thought I could be anything on my own, thought without him I would be helpless and wouldn't know what to do.

What a crock.

At first I watched him, learned from him, but soon after he took me under his unloving wings, I surpassed the bastard in all the games he loved to play. The disciple became stronger than the "master." And I never let him in on it, never let him know that since the time I was about nine, I was the one who really ruled our little dysfunctional group. At nine years of age, I was already so good at being bad that I even had those who I knew hated me bowing down before me like the pathetic hangers-on that they are.

Even Nicholas.

Oops, well, I guess the cat's out of the bag. Not that I care. Maybe it's good you know, maybe you'll start worshiping me like I deserve.
The thing is, you probably already knew, about Nicholas I mean. That whole fireball crap. Hello, can we say "mind-warp?" I thought they would have caught on, at least had a clue, when Nicholas appeared in New York. But no, they didn't even get a whiff of the truth. Which is just as well, I suppose. Still, sometimes I want to shout to the world and have them all tremble before me. But that would be kind of like eating all your popcorn before the movie starts. You gotta have something to last you through the whole thing. Don't be in such a rush; savor it all. That's what I keep telling myself.

And I'm savoring it all right. I'm just loving the sensations that come over me, consume me, when I see everything that's happening around me, everything that I made come to pass. It's must be like what a playwright feels seeing her work performed for the first time. God, it feels so good.

What can I say, I get off on power and, damn, I'm powerful.

I've got everyone on both sides of this little intergalactic squabble looking to me, following me when they think they’re the ones leading. Nicholas, Rath, Lonnie... they think I'm on their side. Max, Isabel, and Michael think the same. They're all too dumb to know the only side I'm on is my own.

Maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s why this has all been so easy. Maybe I’ve just been gifted with a mind that has never seen its equal. How else can you explain how I’ve got everyone eating out of the palm of my hand? I had always suspected I could do it, could manipulate the whole world, no, universe to revolve around me. It wasn’t until I had Nasedo killed that I finally felt free to spread my wings and not just fly, but soar. Oh, right, you probably didn’t know that part, huh? Like I said before, I hated him and his plans were so juvenile. Destiny? What a load of crap. I knew when he came up with it wouldn’t work, not in the long run. Still, I played his game, mainly because I knew it wasn’t quite time to unleash what I had been holding back. Not quite.

So why exactly am I doing all this? I know you’re dying to find out. This, in your mind, is the scene in the movie where the good guy asks the bad guy why’d he do it, stalling the bad guy long enough to some how get out of evil’s clutches and save the day. I know this may sound egotistical, but nobody is escaping my clutches. So we can talk all day about motives and means and anything else I damn well please.

Hmmm, I think that’s it right there. The answer, I mean. Why am I playing with these poor pitiful creatures? Because I want to. It’s not so I can rule the universe or anything. Really, how predictable is that? No, I just think it’s funny to watch these little bugs running around in my ant farm.

It’s a challenge, and I like challenges. I love to see if I can do anything I put my glorious mind to, and so far it seems that I can. And I’m not a snob about it or anything. I’ll take on the smaller, less impressive tests of my abilities.

Take this Max and Liz thing, for example. They’re soulmates, boring if you ask me. Still, they say nothing comes between true love, so you know I had to give it my best shot. While Nasedo’s destiny line may have gotten Liz to run away at first, I knew it wouldn’t hold. I was thinking of something to do when all of a sudden what I had been trying to achieve happened, and I hadn’t done anything. When Max told me what he had seen in Liz’s room I didn’t doubt for a second that something else was going on. Come on, Kyle going for Liz when he could have me? Right, in that case I’ve got beachfront property in the Sahara Desert I want to sell you. It didn’t take me long to find out what really went on, a little journal reading will do the trick every time. When I discovered what had happened, I laughed my ass off. This whole “Future Max telling Liz the world ends because I leave thing” is hysterical.

Come on, it’s classic. It’s perfect. It’s totally me.

I’d bet you anything that in that alternate reality or whatever I managed to get Max thinking the world was coming to an end because of me, which to be honest was probably true, but definitely not because I left Roswell. Only I could out-do myself. Had me laughing for a week. Oh, I know you think it’s funny too. Laugh. Go ahead. No? Fine, but don’t think I don’t know you’re cracking up on the inside.

I brought up this whole Max and Liz thing for another reason. I didn’t have to do anything to tear them apart because another me did. I am my own best partner, my own best conspirator, my own best friend. And now, you can be that best friend. I know you’re like me. You don’t play by their rules either. No, you play by your own. I knew it the moment you stood up to Rath and refused to go with us back to New York. I could see me in your eyes, which I guess makes a lot of sense. You are me.

Don’t shake your head. You know it’s true. You’re just too afraid to let it all out. But Ava, you can’t deny it. You burn for the power I have just as I always did. I know you. You’re just as brilliant and just as wicked as I am. What’s that line? Not Shakespeare’s dullard version, but... Oh, I remember now. “A rose by any other name, the perfume and the prick’s the same.” That’s you and me. Doesn’t matter what you call us, Tess or Ava, we’re the same.

Still disagree? That’s fine. I understand, I’m stubborn too. Besides, things are going just fine right now. I just thought it would be more fun with someone to share the ecstasy of it all with. You think about all I’ve said while you're here in those chains, and I’ll be back tomorrow to see if you’ve changed your mind. I’m sure you will.

After all, like I’ve said before, you are me. You can’t help but want to be bad. It’s in your blood, which by the way I hate to have to spill, but don’t think I won’t. I won’t let anyone stand in the way of what I want. Not Nasedo, not Nicholas, not Max, and not even myself.

I’m having too much fun.