Defying Destiny (UC,Mi/L,TEEN/MATURE) Ch 42 6/30 [WIP]

[Polarchica516]

Chapter 21: Empty Spaces
Michael

I knew Liz was hiding something from me. I wasn’t quite sure what it was but it was just *there*. At first I didn’t notice but over the last couple of days, she would just get sad for no reason and then just brush it off that she was alright. At first I assumed it was about her parents but whatever it was, it was causing her more distress than that. I was worried about her because whatever she was keeping from me, it was so big that she kept it out of the connection.

That night at a hotel on the way to LA, Liz was in the bathroom and I was laying on the bed with my arms cradling my head. She stepped out in her pajamas and smiled at me. Not wanting to bring down her mood, I smiled back and pushed my thoughts in the back of my head.

Liz laid her head on my chest and said, "I keep thinking about who this Cal Langley is."

"This could just be a dead end," I reasoned.

She frowned, "I hope it isn’t. Tomorrow we’ll have the answers."

I nodded. "I think I like it here in California. We can move here when we’re older you know."

Distress shot through our connection and before I could say anything, Liz pushed herself off the bed and held herself tightly. "You think that far ahead into the future?"

"Yes. I couldn’t be with anyone else but you, Liz. Unless you have a problem with that," I mused. Maybe I was getting too far ahead of myself, I thought as doubt began to creep into my head.

"No, I don’t. It’s just that maybe we should just think day to day. The future is a long time away."

Raising from the bed, I asked, "Why are you acting like this?"

"I just think that maybe we shouldn’t think about the future too much."

"Don’t you want a future with me?" I asked, my voice cracking with emotion.

Liz’s eyes met mine and I saw the love shining in them that I needed to reassure myself. "Of course. It’s just that we shouldn’t get our hopes up."

"Liz, what is going on here?" I asked in confusion. "Does this have anything to do with what you aren’t telling me?"

Her countenance went a deathly pale and she shook her head, "I’m not hiding anything from you."

"That’s a load of crap and you know it! So you’re just going to stand there and lie to my face?" I asked, angry and hurt now.

"I’m doing it for your own good," she said pinning me with a glare.

"Don’t you think that maybe I don’t want you to do things for my own good? I can make that decision for myself!"

"No, Michael, you can’t! This goes beyond your free will!"

"No, Liz. It doesn’t. I love you and it hurts to watch you do push yourself away from me."

I watched as Liz faltered but than she said softly, "I’m trying to protect you, Michael."

"So why don’t you let me protect you?"

Liz’s tear brimmed eyes met mine and she said in a defeated tone, "Because no one *can* protect me, Michael. It doesn‘t matter how hard you try. No one can *save* me."

Staring at her disbelief, I watched as she left the hotel room. She stayed with Isabel that night, only a room away, but I felt as if she was a hundred miles away from me.
*****
"Is this the place?" Alex asked. We stood in front of a LA restaurant and were trying to glimpse inside to find out if Cal Langley was here. Liz and Isabel had convinced his associates that they were his new interns and they needed to find him quickly. They told us we was eating with a client.

"I think so," Kyle said.

"Maybe he left already."

"No, there he is," Isabel said and she gestured towards the exit. It wasn’t that hard to recognize him. Cal was a director and the three bodyguards that surrounded him kind of gave him away. "Let’s go."

When Cal passed us, Liz went into motion putting the mind warp on his body guards. Cal watched in shock as they kept walking, obviously thinking he was still with them. He looked even more shocked when Kyle and I went on opposite sides of him, each grabbing an arm and guiding him towards our van. OK, so maybe kidnapping him wasn’t such a good idea but we only had a day to figure all this out.

He tried to pull away but we held him with a firm grip, "Who are you people?"

"Funny, we’re here to ask you the same thing," Kyle quipped.

When he stopped walking abruptly, Kyle and I looked at him in confusion. He seemed to be staring intently on something. Someone. Liz. "Are these idiots yours?"

Liz looked shocked at first but quickly recovered. "You know who I am?"

Cal raised an eyebrow at her, "It’s kind of hard not to. You being the girl whose going to save Earth and all."

"You can tell?"

"Of course I can. I’m your protector."

******
Liz
I definitely wasn’t expecting this. Gesturing for Michael and Kyle to let him go, I asked, "Let him go."

Kyle and Michael looked at me in shock. "Liz.." Kyle warned.

I held up a hand to stop their protests, "He can’t harm me."

They reluctantly let Cal go and he wiped off his sleeves. "What brings you here, Princess? You already know about the prophecy."

"I don’t care. I want to stop it."

He laughed, "There isn’t a bone in my alien body that could lie to you, Princess. So trust me when I say that there isn’t a way to stop it."

I didn’t have time for this. "Are there anymore of you, aliens, that could help us fight?"

Cal scratched his head, "There is another protector on Earth and than there are the extras."

Well at least we were getting somewhere now. "He’s dead. And who are these extras?"

"Antar sent two sets of the royal family. One, I’d assume, is you guys. The others are in New York."

"Do you have an exact location?"

Cal shook his head, "No. Sorry. But if they are meant to help you than you’ll find them. Can I speak to you alone?"

"Why?"

"I have a feeling that you don’t want other people over hearing this," he said knowingly.

Turning to Kyle and Michael, I said, "Go to Isabel and Max and get the van ready."

Kyle nodded and went off in the direction of the van and Michael held my gaze for a moment. I could tell he was hurt by the fact that I told him to leave. Pushing the feeling back, I turned back to Cal when Michael dejectedly stalked off.

Cal smirked at me, "I take you have some questions."

"Let’s get a few things straight. Whatever I have to do to stop what is meant to be from happening, I will do it."

"There isn’t any choices."

"No! There is *always* a choice!"

Cal shook his head sadly, "Choice is delusion. The so called choice that you make, it’s already written out what it will be. Choice is a false security given to us by destiny. There are no choices; just what you *aren’t* going to do and what you *are*.

"You don’t have to save the two worlds. You see there are two things that can happen. You can stay alive but you’ll be alone. There will be war on Earth between the Skins and the humans and you will have to stand by and watch it. All of your friends will be dead. The second thing that could happen is that everyone lives. A planet that was once will be again. One path leads to destruction. The other leads to happiness. The choice is yours which one you want to take. That is quite possibly the only choice that you will be able to make in your entire lifetime. But you already know what path you’ll take, Princess."

I hated him. I hated him because he was right. "I’ll be leaving now," I said through clenched teeth.

"Wait! Before you go, I just want to tell you one more thing."

"And what would that be?"

"The most powerful of warriors die with honors, their dignity. That’s a given. But sometimes, they die alone. They push the people they love away because they think it is what they have to do. But they don‘t--you don‘t."

The thought of Michael immediately popped into my head. "Goodbye, Cal Langley. Enjoy your life."

He looked at me in confusion, "You don’t want me to come with you."

"Back to Roswell? Of course not. You have a life here. You may annoy me but I wouldn’t do that to you. We’ll dream walk you if we need anything."

And I turned and walked away.
****
You cannot quit me so quickly
There's no hope in you for me
No corner you could squeeze me
But I got all the time for you, love

The Space Between
The tears we cry
Is the laughter keeps us coming back for more
The Space Between
The wicked lies we tell
And hope to keep safe from the pain

It was raining outside. Tomorrow morning, we were heading back to Roswell. As much as I didn’t want to realize it, Cal was right. I was pushing Michael away because than I wouldn’t have to say goodbye.

I didn’t want to die alone. *I didn’t want to die alone.*

So here I stood outside of Michael’s hotel room. When he opened the door, he seemed surprised to see me. I looked at him and said simply, "I don’t want to die alone, Michael."

His face immediately softened and he moved aside to let me in. He closed the door and asked, "What are you talking about?"

I closed my eyes and began to recite the prophecy I didn’t read before. "There will be a war and the vessel with two seals will be surrounded by death. The royal family will be dead. The granolith--the source of infinite energy-combined with the vessel’s energy will rebuild the Earth and bring back to life its people. It will also bring Antar back to it’s golden age. All will be right in the worlds. The vessel will die but will leave behind a legacy of greatness and begin an age of prosperity."

I wiped away the tears that I didn’t even know I was crying and said, "I didn’t want to tell you because than that would mean I would have to say goodbye to you. I can’t do that. So I tried to push you away but I realized Michael that I was so worried about you guys living out the rest of your lives that I forgot that I’m still living mine too. And I want to live with you. If I die tomorrow or today, or twenty years from now, I want it to not--I don’t want to do it alone. I love you so much."

But will I hold you again?
These fickle, fuddled words confuse me
Like 'Will it rain today?'
Waste the hours with talking, talking
These twisted games we're playing

Michael held me so tightly that I almost couldn’t breathe. His warm tears mingled with mine. He pulled away slightly and said, "I love you too. And we are going to find a way to fight this. I’m not going to lose you, Liz. I’m *never* going to lose you."

"I hope not. Because I don’t want you to lose me either."

Michael tenderly wiped the tears off my cheeks and gently kissed my eyelids. My heart felt like it was being ripped apart. How could I ever leave him?

{How can I ever live without *you*?} he thought in my head as he read my thoughts.

We both felt like we are being suffocated. His pain was my pain. My loss was his loss. Never leaving each other’s embrace, we fell asleep after talking for two hours.

In a way, we both knew that we couldn’t stop it. We wanted to but we both knew that was impossible.

We're strange allies
With warring hearts
What wild-eyed beast you be

The Space Between
The wicked lies we tell
And hope to keep safe from the pain
Will I hold you again?
Will I hold...

Look at us spinning out in
The madness of a roller coaster
You know you went off like a devil
In a church in the middle of a crowded room
All we can do, my love
Is hope we don't take this ship down
---The space between by the Dave Matthews Band

[Polarchica516]

Chapter 22: 365 Days
Michael

The hotel alarm clock went off the next morning at six. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and turned to see that Liz was still sleeping. Her hair was fanned across the pillow and her hands were resting on my arm. I sighed contently and decided not to wake her. She needed all the sleep she could get.

Moving away from her and out of the bed, I watched as she moved from her former position and curled on her other side. The sheets drifted around her slender hips and her tank top rode up exposing her symbol. My heart lurched at the sight of it.

It represented who she was--what she was meant to do. God, she was so small. How could she be the one who has to save the world? Liz deserved a normal life. She deserved *life*. Wiping my damp eyes with my palm, I pulled on a shirt and a pair of jeans.

We were supposed to be leaving at seven. So, I went to check on the others. I opened the hotel room door to find Isabel standing outside. She looked at me sheepishly and said, "I just wanted to check up on Liz."

"She’s sleeping. I figured I’d let her sleep a bit longer."

Isabel nodded. "Thanks for letting Liz stay with you the night before last."

Isabel frowned, "She was really upset."

I noticed that Isabel paused before she replied, as if choosing her words carefully. "Did she tell you what it was about?"

Looking flustered, Isabel began to stutter. A nasty nervous habit of hers. I narrowed my eyes at her. "You knew, didn’t you?"

Feigning innocence, she replied, "Knew what?"

"About the prophecy. Liz told me last night."

Isabel gave up her act and nodded solemnly. "You alright?"

I met her eyes evenly and sighed heavily, "Not really. It’s just really hard to accept. My first instinct is to fight it, y’know but I can’t. I can’t save *her* and I don’t think I’ve ever felt this helpless in my life."

Isabel hugged me lightly and said, "I think she’s waking up. Talk to her, Michael. Don’t hold these things in."

I said goodbye and saw Liz open up her eyes as I closed the door. "Good morning."

Liz smiled lazily at me and stretched out languidly. "Morning to you too. What time is it?"

"A little bit after six."

"We should probably get packing. We do have school on Monday, you know."

I laughed and went over to her. "You are the only person I know who loves school so much," I said as I kissed her on the forehead. Liz closed her eyes and leaned into me slightly.

"I’m strange like that," she joked.

Rolling my eyes, and going to retrieve my bag so I could get ready, I noticed that Liz was watching me with a frown on her face. "What’s wrong?"

I went into the small bathroom and began to brush my teeth. "Nothing. I was just wondering how we plan on finding your extras. Four extra people to help fight the Skins would be really nice."

Turning the faucet off, I used my powers to do my hair. "New York is a big state, Liz."

I heard the springs bounce in the bed when Liz got off of it. "I know that, Michael. There just has to be something we can do to find them."

Liz was leaning on the doorframe of the bathroom with her tooth brush in hand. "Hey, we’ll figure something out," I said in a comforting manner. Liz smiled sweetly and stood next to me and began to brush her teeth. I watched mesmerized until she was done.

"What?" she asked.

I came up to her from behind and wrapped my arms around her, my hands clasped at her waist. Liz relaxed into me and placed her smaller hands on mine. I reveled at how perfectly our bodies molded together. As if we were made for each other. "You’re so beautiful, Liz."

She blushed a pretty pink and said, "And why are you telling me this now?"

"Because I want to. Because I’m not quite sure if I’ll get to tell you again," I replied frowning deeply.

"Michael.." she started.

"I know. I do, it’s just that I’m so used to you waking up next to me and us sharing a bathroom. And it kind of just hit me that one day, I’m going to wake up and you won’t be there."

Liz turned around and wrapped her arms around my neck. Her brown eyes gazed into mine. "One day. Not now, not tomorrow. Maybe not for years. Let’s just *live* right now, OK?"

Nodding, I held her tighter and than we got ready to return to Roswell.
***
"Kyle, not again!" Isabel complained from the back seat.

Rolling my eyes, I mumbled, "We never should have left him sit in the front."

Liz and I shared a look, "With CD and radio privileges!"

Alex let out an sigh as he tried to make himself comfortable in the back. "If I have to hear the freakin’ Spice Girls one more time, Kyle Valenti, I will have no choice but to rip my ears off."

Liz laughed and added, "And my eyes. Because that whole dancing thing, is just plain strange."

Kyle stopped his ’dancing’ and said, "It’s not that bad you guys!"

That led to protests for about ten minutes about to what degree we planned to harm ourselves or Kyle if he continued to play the Spice Girls. Turning to Liz, I joked, "I cannot believe you dated this loser."

"Right. I’m the loser," Kyle drawled with a pointed glare in my direction.

Isabel pretended to think and than added, "I think that you definitely went downhill when you dated my brother."

"Hey!" Max protested.

Max and Kyle both turned to Liz. Max only glanced for a second because we was driving. "This is where you defend our poor manly honor," Kyle hinted.

Liz raised an eyebrow. "Kyle, I don’t think have you have any many honor."

Kyle feigned hurt and Isabel said, "She has a point."

Gesturing towards Alex, Kyle retorted, "Like Alex has manly honor."

Alex made a flexing motion and placed a scowl on his face. "Oh, please, Valenti. I practically *ooze* manliness."

"Manliness. Estrogen. Same thing right?" Liz joked.

Alex stuck his tongue out at Liz. "That’s because you and Maria made me soft."

"I hate to ruin this moment, but we need a plan for when we get to Roswell," Max said. Always the leader.

"I think we should try to contact Henroz," Liz suggested. "It worked last time. Maybe he can give us some information."

"I agree with Liz," Isabel said. "But what about our extras? We can’t just search the whole state of New York."

"Let’s see what Henroz has to say first."

We all went silent when we saw the ‘Welcome to Roswell’ sign. As much as we loved Roswell, a part of all of us knew that no matter what happened, we would always end up back in Roswell.
****
"We should really make this place more roomy."

We were all standing in the Pod Chamber waiting for Max and Liz to get the orbs. We had decided to get this over with before we went home. Max and Liz came in, holding an orb in their hand, with worried expressions on their faces.

"What’s wrong?" I asked, expecting the worst.

"It’s just that last time, we didn’t call Henroz. We called *us*. Maybe it doesn’t work two ways," Max mused.

Isabel gestured to the orbs in their hands. "Well we won’t know until we try. We have nothing to lose," and she glanced pointedly in Liz’s direction.

Liz gave her a small smile and tucked her hair behind her ear. "You guys have to stand back."

Alex, Kyle, Isabel, and I stepped back until we were against the wall. Liz and Max placed their palms together while holding the orbs tightly. We watched in amazement as a soft blue light began to emit from their hands. Max and Liz exchanged looks.

A hologram of an old man appeared in front of them. He took in the four of us against the wall and smiled gently at us. "I suppose you have questions."

Liz nodded. "Do you have answers?"

Henroz chuckled lightly. "You have all the answers already. The details are what you seek."

I could tell Liz was getting frustrated. Good thing Max stepped in. "We know about the prophecy."

"No, my King, that you don’t. You know what you have been told."

Max looked at us in confusion and Liz glared at Henroz’s image. "Where are the extras?"

"You will not need them in Roswell. The Skins don’t plan to just take over one town, but the world. New York will be protected my the other set of hybrids."

"Which leads up to my next question. How do we stop them?"

"You can’t."

"Fine, then. How do we fight them? How did Antar fight back?"

"We had vast armies when they attacked. We lost." Henroz paused, almost as if he were reliving a painful memory.

I couldn’t take this anymore. "So what can *we* do? We are six teenagers. Vast armies can’t stop the Skins so how can we? Why have us fight a war we can’t win?"

"Because that is how it is fated. Three thousand Skins will attack but you have a considerable amount of power between the five of you."

"Wait. I’m confused," Isabel said. "You said five."

Henroz glanced at Kyle, "Just because the seal is not transferred to him does not mean he has no gifts."

Kyle looked like he was about to faint.

"How long?" came Liz’s soft question.

Henroz looked at her sadly, "The skins will arrive on Earth in 365 Earth days."

Liz looked up at Henroz with sad eyes, "So why me?"

*****
Liz

Henroz gazed at me fondly and smiled. But it didn’t quite reach his eyes. "I cannot answer that. There is no reason. For some reason, Elizabeth Parker, you were selected to have this fate. To fight for your planet and save it and Antar."

"But don’t you get it? I don’t *want* this!"

"But you cannot change your past," Henroz said solemnly.

Sadness ripped through me. "But I want a future."

"You are giving a future to many people. You are paving the way to peace on two planets. Haven’t you ever wanted to make a difference? Well here’s your chance. Since you are very important to the cause, you are now invincible. No human or alien power or device can kill you."

Defeat overwhelmed me. "What’s the point if I end up dead anyway?"

"The point is that your death brings live. Your death brings joy."

And than Henroz disappeared.

The silence was broken when Kyle said, "Am I going to get antennae now?"

No one laughed. All eyes were on me. Max glared at me, "What aren’t you telling us?"

I looked away but Max yelled louder, "He said that we know what we have been *told*. What haven’t you been telling us?"

Isabel and Michael came on either side of me in a protective manner and glanced at me and than back at Max. "We aren’t going to lose this war."

Kyle and Alex looked at me in confusion. I took a deep breath and said, "The granolith is basically a source of infinite power and energy. If I combine my energy with it than I can save Earth and Antar. Antar will be reborn again and Earth will be rebuild also. No war. No skins. But the thing is, it uses all of my energy. I’ll die, Max. All of you will be brought back to life and you’ll live your lives fully. I won’t."

Kyle took a shuddering breath. "So we all die and you bring us back to live?"

I nodded mutely. Alex looked at me with tears in his eyes. "Than I’ll die then. Than you don’t have to save us."

"Me too," Kyle said.

"You shouldn’t have to do this for us. I’ll die too," Max said.

Isabel’s gaze met mine, "You know I agree with them."

Tears shimmering in my eyes, I turned to Michael. "I don’t even have to say it."

My heart lurched. They cared about me enough to give up their lives. "If only it were that easy. I don’t just bring you guys back. Everyone who dies because of the war will be alive again. Innocent people who didn’t ask for this. And Antar will be restored. I love you guys so much but I have to do this."

Michael wrapped his arm around my waist. "I don’t want to be a hero. But as much as I want to deny it, I am. We can’t change that. I’ve decided that I’m going to give all I’ve got to fight the skins. So we need an army. So we may not stand a chance. Does that mean we stop fighting?"

Max gave me a small smile. "No."

Isabel nodded. "It just means we fight harder."

"We need an army. I know where to get one."

Kyle looked at me in confusion, "How are you planning on assembling an army?"

I took a deep breath. "This is going to sound crazy but there’s a meeting between government officials to discuss what they plan to do with an old nuclear site outside of Roswell. Alex, can you get the map to the Conventional Center in Albuquerque?"

"Of course," he replied. "Why?"

"Because we are going to get in. And we are going to convince the United States Government to help us stop the end of the world."

They all looked at me as if I had grown an extra head. "You cannot be serious," Max said.

"I won’t expose you guys. Just me. I’m invincible now. You heard Henroz. We have to try and if they don’t believe me than I take it out of their memories. We have to try," I pleaded with them.

"They won’t believe you. You’re telling these people that not only do aliens exist but another race of them are about to take over the Earth," Kyle tried to reason.

"I’ll show them my powers. I’ll make them trust me."

They knew that we have to try. Alex looked at me and asked, "How soon do we need to do this?"

"In a week."

Alex nodded. "We should give it a try. We have nothing else to lose."

So we all agreed to plan to invade the Conventional Center and were about to leave the Pod Chamber when Max grabbed my wrist gently. Everyone but Michael had already left. I nodded at him and Michael told us to meet him in the car when we were finished.

Turning to Max, I asked, "So what’s up?"

His sad eyes met mine. "I never should have brought you into this."

My heart broke. "This isn‘t your fault and you know it. Something made you heal me that day. It wasn‘t so much you but the fact that you were doing what you were supposed to do. I get to save the world. And I haven‘t looked at it that way yet. All I saw was that I would be leaving you guys but I‘m making the world a better place."

Max suddenly held me tightly and whispered into my ear, "This isn’t a world without you."

"You’ll find it. I know you will."

I pulled away from him and gestured towards the exit. "Now, we should probably get going before Kyle forces the Spice Girls on us."

Max laughed, "Or Isabel gets Hanson in *before* Kyle can put in the Spice Girls."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Oh, please, Max. We saw the New Kids on the Block CD in your case. Were you by any chance hiding that from us?"

Max’s face turned red from embarrassment up the tips of his ears. I laughed heartily and pushed Max out of the Pod Chamber.

I still had to make one more stop though before I went back to Michael’s apartment.

We had 365 days until the end of the world.

[Polarchica516]

Chapter 23: Loose Ends
Liz

It's been a long, long time since
I looked into the mirror
I guess that I was blind
Now my reflection's getting clearer
Now that you're gone things will never be the same again

I twisted the strap of my backpack that I took to LA with me nervously. I stood in front of the Crashdown and stared blankly at my father while we have counting checks. Every time I would take a step forward, I hear his voice in my head.

*If you aren’t human, what are you?*

It had only been five days. Was he ready to accept this? Accept me? At the Pod Chamber, I had realized that I didn’t have all the time in the world to wait for my parents to come around. I had to take care of this as quickly as I could. Taking a deep breath and pushing my fears aside, I used raised my hand to the glass and knocked.

I heard my dad yell, "I’m sorry but we’re closed."

Not trusting my mouth to work, I just knocked again. This time, he turned to see who was at the door and took my presence in. He slowly stood up and made his way to the door. Our eyes locked as he opened the door.
Silently moving aside, he let me in. I waited until he locked the door again until I said, "Hi."

"Good to see you, Liz. Agnes told me that you canceled your shifts for a week. I was going to call you to make sure you were OK, but…"

Anger shot through me. "But you didn’t," I spat out a bit harsher than I intended to.

It never occurred to me how angry I was with him. He practically denied my existence. He was my father and he looked at me as I was a complete stranger. It hurt.

Guilt etched his face, "Liz.."

There's not a minute that goes by every hour of every day
You're such a part of me
But I just pulled away
Well, I'm not the same girl you used to know
I wish I said the words I never showed

I held up a hand to silence him. "Don’t. Let me talk first. What I am…*who* I am, I wanted to tell you but I was afraid. Ever since I found out that I wasn’t human any more, I have not once regretted it. Despite everything that has happened, I haven’t. Maria left, in part, because of who I was. Because of what she would be *in* if she stayed."

Checking to make sure my dad didn’t try to speak, I continued. "So I was really scared because my best friend left me. And as much as I feared telling you and mom and as much as I doubted the whole situation--how you would react--it never occurred to me that you would react the way you did."

Blinking away tears, I composed myself. "You see, the think is, you’re my father. You aren’t supposed to look at me the way that you’re looking at me now. You’re supposed to love your children no matter what. And I’m not quite sure if whoever came up with that considered they would change species but the point is that I was very disappointed you. I was hurt. *You* hurt *me*."

My father looked at me in silence. Finally he spoke. "It was a shock to us, Liz."

"No. Don’t drag Mom into this. *She* was shocked and I know for a fact that she can get past this. The question is can you?"

"It’s too soon."

"WE DON’T HAVE TIME! I DON’T *HAVE* TIME!"

"I failed you as a father, Liz."

Confusion ran through my body like lead. "You what?"

"Ever since that day you were almost shot here, you distanced yourself from us. And slowly and slowly, we were losing you. You didn’t even tell us you were leaving for Florida until we caught you packing. You came back and you barely step foot into the house. Somehow, you became a…who you are and you changed emotionally. What kind of father does that make me? I let all of this happen! I’m supposed to protect you and I failed."

My heart breaking at his confession, I replied, "You didn’t fail, Daddy. You just aren’t a part of my life as much as you used to be."

"I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did and I know that. I *hope* that we can get past that," he said hopefully, his eyes pleading.

"We can. But you have to answer my question. Can you get past what I am? I’m still Liz."

His eyes sadly met mine, "I need more time, Lizzie."

My heart sank. I bowed my head slightly in defeat and said through held-back tears, "Tell mom to call me."

He nodded. He looked like he wanted to say something--reach out to me.

But he didn’t.

I was about to leave but I turned around and looked him in the eye. "When you come around, I really hope that I accept you back."

I know you had to go away
I died just a little, and I feel it now
You're the one I need
I believe that I would cry just a little
Just to have you back now
----Here with me by Michelle Branch

******
Two days later, at school, I was idly staring into my locker. I couldn’t seem to get my father off my mind. I just didn’t understand why he needed more time. As much as I tried not to think about it, it always popped into my head.
"I just thought of something."

Jumping about ten feet, I dropped my books and closed my locker. Kyle was looking at me with a worried expression on his face. "You what?"

"This doesn’t make any sense."

Narrowing my eyes at him in confusion, I asked, "Are you OK?"

"Don’t you think that it’s a bit strange that right after Tess dies, we found the disk? We don’t even know why Cal’s house on that disk."

Considering this, I gestured for Kyle to follow me. While walking, I mused, "What are you trying to say?"

Kyle began to speak but was silenced when a couple of our classmates walked by. Worried someone would overhear, he grabbed my elbow and dragged me into an empty classroom. "There is something we’re missing. I know it. If Tess knew about the prophecy, she should have figured out it was you when Michael healed you."

Kyle was actually making sense. There were too many loose ends. I got an idea. "When is your free period?"

"Now. Why?"

"We’re going to Tess’s house. Maybe we can find something there."

Kyle nodded and smiled at me. "We can take my car."

Kyle and I, on the way out of the room, bumped into Max. "What’s the hurry guys?" he asked as he picked up his books.

Kyle and I exchanged guilty looks. If we told Max than we’d tell everyone and six people going to an abandoned house is awfully suspicious.

"No time."

Grabbing Max’s hand roughly, Kyle hurriedly explained why were leaving school grounds.
****
"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Max asked nervously. In reply, I used my powers to open the front door and shot him a look.

"Kyle was right. There has to be something we’re missing here and hopefully this is where we’ll find it."

Kyle and I waited while Max battled out his doubt. He sighed and pushed open the door. "We get in and than we get out."

Kyle and I shared a triumphant smile as Max peeked his head in cautiously. Giving us a signal, the three of us went in the large house. Everything looked in place, except it had an eerie haunted house feeling to it. I closed the door behind me and said, "Kyle, you look downstairs. Max, you come with me."

Kyle went in the direction of the kitchen and Max looked at me questionably, "Where are we going?"

Beginning to go upstairs, I replied, "It there is one thing I’ve learned from befriending Alex, it’s that you can find out anything you want to know about a person from their computer."

At the top of the stairs, I looked around at all the doors. "Do you know which one is her room?"

Max shook his head. "Ok, than. We’ll just try to find it then."

After opening about three doors, I found it. It was an austere room. Tess must not have spent a lot of time here. "Bingo!" I shouted as I spotted the computer in the corner. Pulling out a chair, I proceeded to turn the computer on when I got flashes.

FLASH
Tess talking on the phone with Kyle saying she was running late

FLASH
Tess downloading something

FLASH
Pulling out a disk and stuffing it in her book bag

FLASH
Hurrying out the door

FLASH
Looking for the disk at Kyle’s house but not finding it

I pulled away from the computer with an audible gasp. "Max! Kyle!"

The two came running in and look at me in alarm, "What did you find?"

Typing hurriedly, trying to find the file I was looking for, I said over my shoulder. "I got these flashes from the computer. Tess downloaded the file before she came over your house. She lost it, Kyle. She couldn’t find it. She never read the actual file."

Kyle curiously looked at the computer screen. "Than why are still on the computer?"

"Don’t you want to know who she downloaded the file from?"

"I didn’t think of that one."

Almost there. "Hold on. I’m almost into her files."

The computer beeped a couple times and I smiled in victory. "It was sent by UFL. Who’s UFL?"

Max and Kyle looked at me with blank expressions on their faces. Than Kyle’s face lit up and he ran out of the room. I quickly turned the computer off and Max and I followed him. Kyle was in the kitchen going through a stack of papers when we found him. "What are you doing, Kyle?"

Stilling shuffling through papers, he said, "I saw a couple letters in here…aha!"

"Oh my god, Kyle." He was holding up a letter that said UFL across the top corner. It was opened already. Grabbing it from him quickly, I retrieved the letter from inside. "UFL stands for the United Friendship League. Why would they send Tess the prophecy?"

"I don’t know," Max said. "Read the letter."

My eyebrows wrinkled in confusion. "It’s blank. The only thing on here is the header."

They moved so they could look at the letter. "Tess must have erased the text," Max concluded.

"Or Nasedo," Kyle added.

"But why?" I asked. "What was so important that they didn’t want to leave evidence?"

Max snatched the letter from my hands and said, "Well, here’s a phone number. Let’s call."

Kyle looked at him with wide eyes. "Are you out of your mind? What are we going to say?"

"We are going to tell them that we work for the police department and we are informing them that Nasedo has passed away and Tess is missing so they shouldn’t send anymore mail."

Grabbing the phone, I began to dial. Kyle and Max tried to get as close at they could so they could hear the conversation. "Hello. You have reached the United Friendship League."

For someone who worked for a Friendship League, he sounded awfully angry. But than again, Nasedo and Tess wouldn’t be the best candidates to join a Friendship League either.

"Hi," I said. "I’m with the Roswell Police Department. While searching through Mr. Harding’s house, we found a letter from your company. Mr. Harding has unfortunately been murdered and his daughter Tess is missing. The house will be going over to the state soon, so we would appreciate it if you stopped sending mail to this address."

"Ok," came his gruff reply. "Is that it?"

Looking at Max and Kyle questionably, I said, "Yes."

Than he hung up. Placing the phone on the receiver, I turned to the guys. "What kind of Friendship League brushed off someone’s murder and disappearance like that?"

"He didn’t sound too friendly," Kyle said.

The sound of the front door opening, made all three of us turn our heads in panic. Who could be coming in? Peeking around the corner to see who it was. "It’s Valenti and Hanson. What are they doing here?"

Kyle’s eyes widened in recognition. "They’re probably investigating the house because of Tess’s disappearance," he hissed back.

Taking the letter and stuffing it inside of my jeans pocket, I whispered, "Wait until they get upstairs and then we’ll go out the front door."

They nodded. We finally heard the sound of boots thumping against wood stairs and the three of us bolted out of there.
*****
"You went WHERE?"

Apparently the fact that Kyle, Max, and I risked our lives to get more information meant nothing to the two angry aliens in front of us. Michael was scowling with his arms crossed (bad sign, ALWAYS big sign) and Isabel was shooting daggers at us.

"How do you think we feel when the three of you suddenly go missing in the middle of the day!" Isabel shouted as she began to pace. "And you go to *Tess’s* house! Do you know how dangerous that was!?"

Kyle, Max, and I exchanged guilty looks and hung our heads.

"Good!" Michael added. "You *should* feel guilty."

"But we found something," Kyle excused.

"That does not.." Isabel began but than his words sunk in. "What did you find?"

I pulled out the crumpled UFL letter. "Turns out that Tess never actually read the disk. She lost it at Kyle’s house before she could read it. So that’s why she never thought that I had the protector seal too."

"And," Kyle added. "The prophecy was downloading from the UFL. The UFL is the Universal Friendship League."

Michael looked at us in confusion, "This makes no sense. Tess and Nasedo seem to be the last people I would put in an organization like that."

"Well, we called the UFL and the guy was real nasty. Something is up. Tess or Nasedo erased all the text in the letter," I said, pushing the letter towards them. "This UFL isn’t what it seems. It’s a cover for something."

Isabel leaned against a tree in the school courtyard and sighed. "So what do we do? We are heading down in five days to invade a government meeting and now you want to investigate the UFL?"

"I know it’s a lot," I began.

"Liz, it’s too much. We don’t even know where this UFL is."

"It’s in Albuquerque. We are already there for the convention. What can it hurt?"

"Maybe when things settle down," Max proposed.

I was getting frustrated now. "But they aren’t going to. I get flashes for a reason. We’re supposed to do this."

Isabel’s eyes flashed anger. "Bullshit! This is a suicide mission. Investigating is finding stuff on the web not walking into the UFL not knowing what it is. They know about the prophecy and who knows what else?"

"That’s what I want to find out."

Michael put a hand on my shoulder to calm me down, "Maybe she’s right. After we figure out this whole thing with the convention…"

Seeing as we were all stressed, I decided to drop the subject. I rubbed my eyes tiredly and relented. "Fine. We’ll figure this out later."

Everyone seemed to relax a bit and than we all went to our classes. Isabel and I were walking in the same direction. She looked at me and said, "I’m sorry if I yelled at you back there. I’m just really tired."

"No. It’s OK. I mean we probably should wait."

She nodded and stopped when we got to her class. "I’ll fill Alex in next period."

"Ok," I said and waited until she got into her class.

Turning around, I saw Kyle running up to me. He stopped and bent over, catching his breath.

"Kyle, what’s wrong?"

"My dad just called to tell me he’ll be late tonight for dinner," came his panicked reply.

"I don’t get it."

"Liz, he’s been in Clovis investigating a case *all day* with *Hanson*."

Than it hit me. "Than who was in Tess’s house?"

His eyes met mine. "I don’t know but I doubt they were human."
*******
Kyle and I decided not to bring up the issue with the Valenti and Hanson impersonators until later that night at the Crashdown. Everyone was too stressed out about the UFL. I know I was.

I couldn’t quite place my finger what the deal was with the UFL. It didn’t make any sense about how they knew about the prophecy. Which begged the question whether or not the UFL was human or alien. There were so many scenarios, there was no sure answer to my questions.

The answers were in Albuquerque. Unfortunately, I was the only person who wanted to see this one through.

Maybe I could convince them. Running a hand through my long hair, I waited for the gang to arrive. Michael came first and I couldn’t help but smile widely. "Hey," I said and he slipped in next to me.

Immediately sliding his hand into mine, he kissed me lightly before asking, "Where is everyone?"

"I’m not sure. I don’t know why you guys wanted to meet here," I said fidgeting.

Michael sent waves of reassurance through our connection. "You have to face your dad someday."

Frowning, I sighed heavily. "I don’t think that I’m the one who is having problems facing things. My mom wants to me to meet with her for lunch in a couple of days. She said my dad isn’t making any improvement."

Michael put an arm around me and squeezed my shoulder. "But your mom has been great about it."

Smiling, I replied, "Yeah. It kind of sucks that I can’t tell her everything."

"Why can’t you?"

"I’m not the only one involved. I’d have to expose you guys too."

"Good point. I’m sure if you just ask them, they’ll understand."

Before I could answer, Isabel and Alex walked in and smiled at us. "Hey," Isabel said and she and Alex slipped into the opposite side of the booth. "Where’s Kyle?"

"He should be here soon," I explained. "Let me call his house real quick."

I went to the back room and dialed his phone number. Finally, someone picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Sheriff, can I talk to Kyle?"

The line was silent. Than I realized something. Wasn’t Valenti supposed to be home late tonight? I hung up the phone and hurriedly called Kyle’s cell phone. "Hello?"

"Kyle, this is Liz. Is your dad still out in Clovis?"

"Yeah. I just talked to him."

"Kyle, I just called your house and Valenti picked up the phone."

"Do you think it was the impostor?" Kyle asked frantically.

"If you just talked to your dad, yeah. Kyle, I need you to come straight to the Crashdown."

"Alright, Liz."

I hung up the phone and went out to the gang. "Kyle needs a ride so I’m going to pick him up," I said quickly hoping they wouldn’t ask questions. I noticed that Max must have arrived while I was in the back.

"Where is he?" Michael asked.

"Uh, at the park. He was playing football with some friends," I lied quickly.

They seemed to let it go at that. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"No. It’s alright. I really should get going."

I told them I’d be back soon and drove off towards the Valenti residence.

[Polarchica516]

Chapter 24: Bonding
Michael
“How long does it take to pick someone up from the park?” I asked frustrated. Liz had been gone for about ten minutes and we were getting anxious. I knew she wanted to bring up the UFL thing and quite frankly, I didn’t like the idea of running in there without knowing anything about it. But I knew it was necessary.

Isabel and Alex were gazing at the door worriedly, “You don’t think something happened to them, do you?”

Glaring at Isabel to stop her train of thought, I quickly denied it. “How much danger can someone get in at a park?” I reasoned, ignoring the doubt creeping in the back of my head.

It didn’t help when Kyle briskly walked into the Crashdown with a look of dread on his face. Alex, Isabel, Max and I exchanged looks of panic. Kyle immediately came to our table and asked, “Where’s Liz?”

Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit! Rubbing my eyes in frustration, “She isn’t with you, is she?”

Kyle looked alarmed, “Was she supposed to be?”

“She said she was going to pick you from the park,” Max said.

Kyle’s face went pale. “Holy crap, Liz. I know where she is. Someone get their keys.”

No words were needed so we all got up and headed for the Jeep.

We all got in with Max at the wheel and he asked, “Where to?”

Kyle frowned, “My house.”

As Max was pulling out of the Crashdown, we bombarded Kyle with questions. “What the hell is Liz doing at your house?”

“When we were at Tess’s house, my dad and Hanson came in. I thought it was because they were investigating Tess’s disappearance,” Kyle began.

“Wait,” Max said. “What do you mean, you *thought*?”

“My dad and Hanson have been out in Clovis all day and won’t be back until late tonight and I told Liz in school but…”

“Than who was at Tess’s house?” Isabel asked, eyes wide.

Kyle shook his head in defeat, “I don’t know but whoever they were, they are at my house.”

Sighing, I concluded, “And Liz went to go find out who they are.”

When no one denied it, I slammed my hand on the dashboard. “Well she is invincible,” Alex noted.

“She also went off on her own,” I growled back.
****
When we finally reached Kyle’s house, I was so focused on getting to Liz that I didn’t even see the car that had followed us. We opened the door cautiously and when we heard no sound, we went inside. Just than a live body came flying towards us. “Hanson” barely glanced at us and went running back into the other room.

We followed him to find “Valenti” and “Hanson” blasting energy balls at Liz who had her shield up. “Liz!” I shouted. She turned towards us with a shocked expression on her face.

“What are you guys doing here?”

“Hanson” and “Valenti” turned to us too and Max sent an energy blast at them sending them up against the wall before they could attack us. Alex went to go watch the door and Liz ran over to us. “What the hell are you guys doing here?”

Before we could answer, “Valenti” and “Hanson” recovered and sent an energy blast at us. We weren’t expecting it so we all threw our shield up. The balls bounced off and hit a nearby wall.

In the back of my mind, I heard Alex yelling at the front door but before it could register it, the world went into what seemed like slow motion. “Hanson” raised his hand and aimed it at Liz while “Valenti” aimed for Kyle.

Than a green shield surrounded Kyle and his hand was raised. Shock went through me. Did Kyle do that? We were all so shocked that Kyle had demonstrated powers that he didn’t hear Alex yell again and Mr. Parker came running into the room.

Mr. Parker? I watched in panic as “Hanson” went to blast Mr. Parker. Liz closed her eyes in concentration and Mr. Parker disappeared. Liz must have “moved” him like I was trying to move that rock. With Liz distracted, “Hanson” sent a blast at her but since Liz didn’t have her shield up, it hit her right in the chest.

But instead of hurting her, it simply fizzled out when it came in contact with her body. “Hanson” and “Valenti” eye’s locked on Liz and they said, “It’s you.”

Isabel, Max, and I raised her hands ready to attack unless they gave us some answers now. Isabel turned to Alex, “Go check on Mr. Parker.”

Alex nodded and went in the direction of the door. I turned to the imposters and said through clenched teeth, “Who are you?”

In reply, they placed their hands on her faces and suddenly they changed forms. “Valenti” now as a tall male about our age with sandy brown hair and “Hanson” was a petite girl.

The girl spoke, “My name is Serena and this is my brother Tristan. We were sent by Henroz to help you. We didn’t know it was you. I swear.”

I faltered at the emotion in her voice. She sounded absolutely stricken that she had attacked Liz. But we still remained on guard, “Why are you at my house?” Kyle asked.

“We were looking for Liz Parker’s records. We thought that maybe there was something at Tess‘s house but there wasn‘t. We needed to find you,” came Tristan’s reply.

In our connection, I felt that Liz had calmed down and was beginning to believe them. “How do we not know that you’re skins?” Max asked.

Tristan rolled his eyes, “Because Skins have different powers than Antarians. How do you people plan to fight a war if you don’t even know your enemies?”

“You know about the prophecy?”

“All Antarians do--or at least what’s left of them. You, Liz Parker, are a freakin’ hero,” Tristan said while smiling at her. His eyes lingered on her a little bit longer than I would have liked.

Liz winced. “I’m not a hero.”

Tristan smirked and gestured at the rest of us. “You guys can put your hands down now. We aren’t going to hurt you.”

We put our hands down and Serena smiled at us kindly, “We should probably go somewhere else and talk.”

Liz agreed but than said, “These guys will show you the way. I have to take care of something else first.”
****
Liz
Alex was unsuccessfully trying to hold back my father outside when I saw them. “What was going on in there? If my daughter is in danger than I have a right to know!”

Alex frantically tried to soothe him. “Just hold on, Mr. Parker.”

“Alex, you can go inside now,” I said, alerting both of them of my presence. Alex nodded and mouthed ‘good luck’ before he went in the house.

My dad screamed, “What the hell was that?”

“First of all, you shouldn’t have followed them. That was dangerous--you could have been *killed*,” I lectured.

“So could have you, Liz!”

Taking a deep breath to calm myself. “It’s complicated, Dad.”

“No, Liz, it’s not. What is going on here?”

My face grew flushed with anger. “You can’t have free license to demand what’s going on with me if you don’t have any intentions to try to understand. This is the life that I’ve been living behind yours and mom’s back. I get attacked and I attack other aliens. It’s not always going to be as simple as you want it to be!”

My dad stood silent an expression of exhaustion crossed his face. “Than explain it to me, Liz.”

“Why were you even here?”

“I heard your friends talking about you and than they rushed off in a hurry. I thought something was wrong. Do they know about you?”

“Yes, they do.”

Hurt etched his face, “You told them before you told me. Why?”

Before I could answer, Isabel said from behind me. “Because we’re aliens too.”

Turning around to look at Isabel in shock. I saw that Michael and Max were with her too. My dad turned pale. “All of you?”

Growing defensive, I replied. “Yes.”

"Actually," said Kyle as he approached us. "Me too--kinda."

The four of us looked at Kyle and he smiled widely at us. No fear, just acceptance.

My dad shook his head in disbelief. “This isn’t happening.”

I stepped back so that I was standing next to Michael. Sending them grateful looks for backing me up, they gave me small smiles. I looked at my dad expectantly. Than I saw the utter confusion in his eyes and the sadness and it hit me that he would never understand. He would never understand my life.

Blinking back tears, I said resolutely. “I love you. But I can’t do this anymore. This my *life*! These people standing behind me are my family. If you can accept me than please just say something--anything. If not, this is it. I walk away.”

His eyes met mine and he sighed heavily.

His silence spoke volumes.
****
I was sitting in the kitchen later that night when Tristan said from behind me, “Thanks for letting us stay here.”

Startled, I jumped about ten feet and Tristan smirked at me. There was something about him. I don’t know what it was but he always had this guarded expression on his face. “No problem.”

He scratched his head nervously and replied, “It’s that just you seemed like the only one who really trusted us.”

Nodding in agreement, I remembered how it was like pulling teeth convincing the group to let Tristan and Serena stay at Michael’s apartment with us.

But he didn’t leave. He just stood there and gaped at me. He finally said, “I always wondered what it would be like to meet you.”

“Why?”

He sighed heavily and replied, “Because I’ve been waiting for you my entire life. My dad used to tell me stories when I was little, and the hero would always save the day. That was you.”

Grimacing, I quipped, “Don’t call me that.”

Raising an eyebrow, he glared at me. “You have no idea what you mean to my people, do you?”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t.”

“We’ve spent the past five years looking for you. When everything that you’ve ever known is taken away, you tend to grasp at hope. You were our hope. And when Henroz informed us that they found you, we were all so happy.”

Growing emotional, I retorted back, “That doesn’t make me your hero.”

His eyes flickered with pain and than hesitation. He sat down next to me as if he were making a decision. “When the skins attacked Antar, I was thirteen. It just happened so suddenly. I was reading a book, right, and than I looked out the window and the whole city where I lived was on fire. There were this people screaming and than my Dad came running in and picked me up and told me to wait in a closet.”

His closed his eyes momentarily and than continued, “I don’t know how long I was in there. But when I came out, I saw my dad and mom’s bodies. Than I found Serena and she couldn’t find her parents. Henroz found us not too soon after that. He took us to a neighboring planet and I grew up. I still have nightmares about it sometimes, y’know? Serena doesn’t even remember it. We think she may have gotten hit on the head but either way, she’s lucky.”

Shocked by the vulnerability in his usually gruff voice, I struggled for words. “I’m so sorry.”

“Serena and Henroz became like my new family but I still couldn’t forget that I used to have one of my own. I don’t want to see that happen to Earth. I lost my family.”

Bristling, I remarked. “Don’t think that I haven’t lost people too.”

His eyes met mine. “So I understand why you wouldn’t want this responsibility. You are about to never see your family again or your friends. It’s ironic because I’m stuck between wanting you to bring Antar and my parents back and beginning to realize that you‘re losing a lot too.”

Looking down at my hands, I frowned. “I guess I’m stuck too.”

“What do you mean?”

Wondering briefly why I was revealing this to someone I just met a couple hours ago, I began anyway. “I *know* that by me dying, I bring this sense of joy to Antar and Earth. I’m willing to die for my friends and my family. But there are times when I think about what I’m giving up. I haven’t even fulfilled the prophecy and I’ve lost a lot. I want to see their future and I’m stuck between wanting to see it and wanting to save it. I’m not selfless. I may be close but I’m not. And sometimes, I just want to forget about Antar and Earth and I want to *live*. I can’t fully justify to myself quite yet how I’m going to die for people I’ve never met--in a distant galaxy and I don’t think that that’s very heroic.”

Tristan gave me a small smile, “I don’t think that any hero was completely selfless. It’s not wrong to be selfish like that. I wouldn’t want to die for someone I’ve barely met either. But it’s not my *destiny*, it’s yours.”

Wanting to change the subject, I asked him, “So you and Serena aren’t really related?”

“No but we might as well be,” he said with a small smile.

My eyes were drawn to the clock at it read two in the morning. A question bubbling in my mind, I decided to ask him. “Is that why you couldn’t sleep? The dreams?”

His face changed to his guarded expression and he said, “No. Serena snores.”

I would have laughed if he weren’t lying. Instead, I replied, “Goodnight, Tristan.”

“Goodnight, Liz,” and he went back to the pull-out bed we had placed in the other room. Apparently, Michael’s ‘closet’ was huge and had enough room for us to move the couch in it.

I had to admit, hearing Tristan’s story opened my eyes to how much Antar had truly suffered. Fatigue creeping up on me, I went back to bed.

[Polarchica516]

Chapter 25: Trust Issues
Michael

In two days, we were supposed to be heading out for the Convention. Kyle, Isabel, Alex, Max, Liz and I were figuring out last minute plans at Max’s house the next day. We had already agreed that we weren’t going to investigate the UFL quite yet. Liz didn’t like it but she agreed.

"So we are completely clear on what each of us is doing?" Liz inquired--in leader mode.

We all nodded.

Liz’s eyes narrowed and than asked again. "Are you guys sure because *everything* has to work for this to go right."

Max rolled his eyes and mumbled, "And you guys said *I* was the control freak?"

Liz sent him a glare and asked, "Just one more time, guys? Just humor me here."

We all sighed dramatically and Alex went first. "As soon as we’re sure that all the officials are in the facility, I hack into the computer system and turn off all security cameras and systems. When I get that done, I call Isabel."

"When Alex contacts me, Max and I take out the security guards in the north corridor," Isabel added.

My turn. "I take out the guards in the south corridor and than tell Liz its safe to go to the officials."

Kyle groaned. "And I keep watch. I mean, really, guys. *Human* Kyle kept watch. I technically am an alien now. Don’t I get the good jobs?"

Alex laughed but stopped when Kyle glared at him. "Even computer-geek over there gets to do like secret agent hacking stuff. And what do I do? *Keep watch*!"

"When we get back, we’ll practice your powers. All we know you can do is put up a shield and you don’t even know how you did it," Liz reasoned.

"Besides instinct," Alex mused.

"Anyway," Liz changed the subject. "I want to talk about Tristan and Serena. What do we suppose we do with them while we are in Albequerqe?"

Bristling, I voiced. "I don’t trust them that much."

Isabel snorted. "Michael, you wouldn’t trust the Pope."

Before I could comment back, Kyle jumped in. "I trust them. I don’t know but there’s this…thing…and I have this feeling we can trust them."

"What do you mean ‘a thing’?" Max asked.

"Nevermind. It’s stupid. It’s just that when I saw them, I just got this sense about them. It was like I could *read* them."

I watched as Liz’s face got the expression she got when she was thinking about something. Her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, "I think that that is one of your powers. It makes sense. It’s kind of like heart reading. It’s a Antarian basic power."

Kyle’s eyes glistened in excitement. "See? Power! Now can I have a cooler job?"

Liz just ignored him and than said. "I trust them. I think we should take them to the Convention with us. Before you all argue, it’s ideal that we have extra fire power. They are good fighters and you guys have mentioned numerous times that this is mission is risky. It’s less risky with more people."

I knew she had a point but there was something off about Tristan. Besides, he kept making googly eyes at *my* Liz. Hoping someone else would be on my side, I noticed with much dismay that everyone else seemed to be actually considering this.

Liz caught this too and went in to finish the deal. "Their stories are straight. We can rent a bigger car and maybe the money will be running a bit tight in terms of the hotel stay but we can do this."

Damning Liz and her persuaviseness, I relented after everyone agreed but me.
******
Liz went out to lunch with her mother so I was the one who had to tell Serena and Tristan that they were coming with us to Albuquerque. I opened my apartment door to find Serena sitting in the kitchen with her face supported by her hands as she watched Tristan play.

*My* Play station.

My *beloved* Play station.

I was going to kick his alien ass.

I marched over to where he was playing and glared at him. Getting no response, I moved in front of the television and he looked up at me with an annoyed expression on his face. "Do you mind? I was playing."

Grabbing the controller from him and turning off the console, I remarked. "You aren’t anymore."

"What crawled up your ass and died?"

Growing angry very fast, I tried unsuccessfully to calm myself down. "Watch your mouth, Toto. You aren’t on Antar anymore."

Tristan rolled his eyes, "No duh, mullet-man."

Oh no he didn’t.

Before I could remove some of his major body parts, Serena stepped between us. "How did the meeting go?"

Sighing, I went behind the kitchen counter and began to pull out some bread. Nothing cures anger like a sandwich. "Good. In fact, you guys are coming with us to Albequerqe in a couple ofdays. We have some business we have to attend to there. Hopefully, you can help."

Serena smiled at Tristan and than at me. "Sounds like a plan. May I ask what’s in Albuquerqe?"

"The government," I said simply as I pulled out a Snapple from my refridgerator. "It’s Liz’s idea. She wants to ask the government for help. You guys do know what the government is right?"

"We have Antarians here on Earth that send us back information. Entertainment--stuff like that. You forget, we’ve been looking for Liz for a long time," Tristan said.

Narrowing my eyes I him, I replied, "I noticed."

Matching me with a glare of his own, he retorted. "We aren’t stupid. We know what a government is."

"We’ve heard *things* about the government here. From what I’ve heard, they don’t like us that much. Why would they help us?" Serena asked.

"Because for some reason, Liz thinks they will," I said.

Serena frowned. "I hope Liz is right."

"Me too," I mumbled with a deep frown.
*****
Liz

I missed my mom. I felt bad having to push back our lunch dates because of all that was going on but I wanted to talk to her before I left for Albuquerqe. I don’t think that its possible how grateful I was that my mom was handling this so much better than my dad.

"So how’s Dad?" I asked once we were done eating and walking through the park.

We had avoiding talking about him but I just wanted to know. My mom looked at me sadly, "Not so good."

When I didn’t reply, she put her arm around my shoulder. "He’ll come around, Lizzie. He loves you."

"Mom, but that’s the thing. I don’t think he will."

"I’ve accepted it. I know he will too. So you have to finish your story."

"Ok. Well after Tess came things just got really complicated. Apparently she and Max…." And I told her mostly everything. I had decided to not tell her about the prophecy quite yet. When I was done, we settled on a bench and she looked at me.

"It’s amazing how you managed to do that at your age. All the things you’ve been through--all the things you’re going through now."

Sighing heavily, I replied. "It’s hard but that’s life, right?" and gave a small chuckle.

"You know, Lizzie, it feels like you’re all grown up. You don’t live with me anymore and you are just so mature. It worries me how much you’ve done that makes you mature so quickly."

I gave her a small smile. "Does it make a difference? You’re going to call me Lizzie either way."

She hugged me and whispered into my hair. "You’re still my little girl."

With tears in my eyes, I choked out. "Thank you."

She pulled apart from me and said. "Now this Michael boy. When do I get to meet him?"

Laughing I replied, "Never. He’ s not a real people person."

As much as I tried to push the thought out of my head, it kept popping in how I was going to say goodbye to her. I had realized by now, that I had to think day by day. Right now, I was thinking ahead to the Convention.

And the UFL.
*****
Leaving for Albuquerqe could possibly be more difficult than we had planned. There were two cars. Unfortunately, splitting the group up into two groups was an obstacle in itself. Tristan and Serena wanted to be in the same car. Michael and I wanted to be in the same car. Isabel and Alex wanted to be in the same car too. Kyle was perfectly content sitting in his porch listening to the Spice Girls in his discman (which he could not take the CD out of if he wanted to live) while we tried to figure this out.

Michael, Kyle, Tristan, Isabel and I ended up in the first car. I have no idea how it happened but it did. God help us all. Which left Serena, Max, and Alex in the second car. Luckily, it was only a 45 minute drive.

"Let’s play that car game. Y’know where you count how many cars go by," Kyle suggested. I couldn’t blame him. The tension in the car between Michael and Tristan was suffocating. All they did was glare at each other. Or scowl.

Isabel and I exchanged a look. "Not now, Buddha-boy," Isabel said to him.

Kyle slumped back in his seat. "This sucks. Next time, I’m not riding with Dumb and Dumber back here."

Michael and Tristan both sent glares his way.

When we finally reached a motel, we broke up into our separate groups. The Convention was tomorrow morning. Michael fell asleep the minute he hit the bed. I waited until he was dead asleep before I got up.

That’s right. I have a plan. A possibly suicidal plan. Quickly grabbing the book bag from the corner and I checked my watch to see it was almost eleven o’ clock. Slipping on a new pair of clothes, I left the room and ran into no other than Tristan.

"What are you doing here?" we both asked in surprise.

Tristan held his hands up in surrender. "I’m not the one in dark clothing with a backpack. You going to rob a bank?"

I laughed dryly, "Funny. Now leave me alone."

Turning around and heading towards the car, I heard the sound of my backpack unzipping. "Hey!" I yelped. I turned around to see Tristan clutching at a big piece of paper. "Give that back!"

"Care to share as to why you have a map of a building in your bag?"

Snatching it away, I said defensively. "Not really."

Smirking, he replied. "Than I’m sure the others will explain it to me. I’m going to take a guess here and say that they don’t know you’re sneaking off into the middle of the night."

Dammit! I couldn’t let him run back and tell them. Growling, I came to a decision. "It’s the map for the Universal Friendship League Building. I have evidence to believe that someone in that building knows about the prophecy. They were in contact with Tess and Nasedo--they crossed us. Now, I don’t know what’s in there but I want to find out. Are you in or out?"

Tristan smiled widely, "You bet."

"Good. Let’s go."
*****
It was huge. Not that I was expecting a tiny cottage but this was a corporate building. "Wow," Tristan said. "You want to break into one huge ass building."

"It has to be at least 20 floors," I said in awe. Breaking out of my stupor, I turned to him. "The only person in the building after closing is the security guard. With our powers, we should have no problem getting in and out."

He nodded and began to get out of the car. Sighing heavily and glancing at the huge building again, I got out too. Beginning to walk to the back entrance, he asked, "So do we have a plan or what?"

"Not really," I replied as I used my powers to melt the lock. The door opened with a small pop. "You ready?"

"It’s a little bit too late now don’t you think?"

"Good point," and I stepped cautiously through the door. Breifly listening for any voices or footsteps, I motioned for Tristan to follow me. Closing the door gently behind us, we creeped in.

"We must be in the lobby or something," Tristan observed. Nodding, I pulled out the map.

"The computers should be on the tenth floor. Let’s find us some elevators," I proposed. "They should be on the left two hall down."

We broke out into a run and finally found the elevators. Tristan used his powers to get the elevator door to open. With a small beeping noise, the two doors pulled apart. Stepping in, I promptly pushed the button to floor ten. When we were about to get out, we both were on alert incase something was waiting for us on the other side of the elevator. After making sure no was there, I went to the nearest computer. "Keep watch," I instructed him.

He nodded and stood by the elevator but where I could see him. As soon as the computer turned on, I typed quickly to find what I was looking for. "Bingo," I said when I found it.

"What did you find?" Tristan asked.

"Their mailing list."

"Wouldn’t that be secured?"

"It was until I hacked in. Oh my god. Look at this. There must be ten thousand names on this list," I said as I scrolled down the database. I kept going until I found Tess and Ed Harding on the database. I opened Nasedo’s file. "This is weird, Tristan. It says he was terminated."

"Well you did say that he was murdered."

"But terminated? Something isn’t right. Hold on, let me pull up Tess’s file. This is strange too. It says ‘stationed in Roswell, New Mexico’ and than, down here, it says ‘missing’. Why would they station someone?"

Tristan gave me perplexed expression and walked over to look at the screen. "Wait. What’s that?"

"What’s what?"

"That link at the end of her file," he said pointing. I went to click on it and several screens came up.

"That’s us," I gasped.

They had files on Isabel, Michael, Max, and I. School records ---everything. It also pulled up articles about the shooting and any strange happening that went on in Roswell. With wide eyes, I turned to Tristan. "They have everything. Who are these people?"

Tristan began to look nervous. "I don’t know but I think we should get out of here soon. They know more about us than we know about them."

"Just one more thing. I want to try to pull up the prophecy. It’s its on the mainframe system than not just one person sent it."

But before I could begin to search, we heard footsteps. Tristan and I both froze. Tristan and I exchanged a glanced and he went to go check it out.

Quickly, I grabbed the floppy disk out of my backpack and shoved it into the computer.

Waiting impatiently for it to load onto the disk, I began to panic when a deathly silence occurred. What had happened? There were no footsteps--just silence.

Deciding to go to find Tristan, I pulled the disk out and put in my bag. Than suddenly, the room went black.

[Polarchica516]

Chapter 26: Escape
Michael

"Isabel, what the hell?!" I shouted as I struggled to pull the covers over my head. You wouldn’t be too happy either if you’re sleep was interrupted by someone pulling the sheets off of you.

She’s lucky I didn’t sleep naked.

"The car! Michael, someone stole the car!"

"What?" I yelped.

"I left something in the car and I was going to run out real quick and it’s gone!"

"You probably just didn’t see it…I mean," I stopped at Isabel’s panicked expression. "What?"

"Michael, where’s Liz?"
******
Liz
Damn, that hurt. Remind me to thank Henroz for not clarifying that I couldn’t be knocked unconscious. Trying to open my eyes through my hazy disoreintation, I was met with a serious headache. I heard a groan next to me and remembered what had happened.

"Tristan?" I asked, finally opening my eyes I bit.

"Yeah. I’m here. Have any ideas how we can to get out of this one?" came his frustrated reply.

I opened my eyes completely and gasped at my surroundings. "Oh my god," I gasped. Tristan must have finally examined his surroundings because he froze in awe. The room was huge and in it were this tubular structure filled with goop.

Human bodies floated in them. But they were missing eyeballs and mouths. It was like it was just the outer covering of the skin. There must have been thousands of them. "This isn’t good," Tristan moaned.

"You’re telling me."

"No, Liz, this *really* isn’t good. Skins can’t live on Earth unless they have a protective coat--a husk. But they die out because they are temporary."

Than it all came together. The database, the mail, the files. The Skins operated their headquarters right under everyone’s noises the whole time. The mailing list was a list of all the people working for them and they had the files on us because Tess was reporting on us.

"We walked into freakin’ Skins central," I concluded. And now we are tied up with a basement with the pod people. Great.

"That’s right. Not very smart now are you?" asked a shadowy figure advancing towards us. As he got closer we saw that we looked in his mid-twenties with a very suave demeanor. But the hatred in his eyes directed at us was not mistaken.

"Who are you?" Tristan growled.

"You can call me Khivar. However, it would really boost my ego if you called me master," he replied with a smirk.

Khivar? As in Tess’s Khivar? Seems like Tess’s kind of guy. Evil. Pain in the ass. Right up Tess’s alley.

Tristan narrowed his eyes and said to him, "How about I call you an asshole? That works too."

"Just as arrogant as your father," Khivar replied with malice.

Tristan made an animalistic noise and pulled and tugged at his bonds. Khivar noticed this and smiled in satisfaction. "That’s right," Khivar continued. "I may look young in this skin but let me tell you, I’ve been around for a while. I, personally, saw to it that Antar was destroyed. Killed millions--it was glorious. In fact, I even remember killing your father and mother."

Tristan struggled even harder, barely containing his rage. "Tristan of Ozbarth, right? How does it feel to be one of the last of your kind?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

Khivar turned to me and frowned deeply. "Liz Parker, right? You seemed to have single-handedly ruined my plans. Interesting how someone so small can do that. But you aren’t so weak are you?"

My eyes went wide in fear. Did he know who I was?

He chuckled deeply. "Don’t worry. I won’t kill you. We both know that that’s impossible."

Oh crap. He knew.

"But that’s about to end in about two minutes. Henroz blessed you with that invincibility. It’s actually quite simple. You kill the person who grants it and--poof!--it’s all gone. We know where the remaining Antarians are. Most of them anyway." He walked over to me and kneeled in front of me. "And soon they will be dead and you will join them."

I turned my face away so I couldn’t look at him and than I saw my backpack laying in a corner. The disk. When Khivar turned to walk away, that when I saw Tristan working his bonds apart. He mouthed to me ‘distract him’.

Thinking quickly, I yelled. "She isn’t missing!"

I didn’t have to clarify who I was talking about because he stopped dead in his tracks. "That’s right," I continued. "I killed her. She’s *dead*." Glancing frantically to find Tristan was almost done with the bonds, I kept going.

"You’re lying," he growled out as he turned around. His jaw was clenched and his eyes locked on mine.

"Am I?" I challenged. "I was there, Khivar. She told me about how she got one our lame ass lackeys to kill Nasedo and than I *killed* her! It’s not so fun now, is it, when you’re on the side that loses someone?"

He raised his hand in a blind rage to shoot an energy ball at me and than out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tristan undo the bonds. I moved my backpack to me with my powers quickly when Tristan sent Khivar flying several feet with an energy blast. Tristan undid mine and we ran in any direction that was away from Khivar.

He got up and was about to blast Tristan but I put a shield up around him and kept running, clutching my backpack tightly. "We need to find a door!" I shouted at him.

"This way!" he yelped and grabbed to elbow to steer me to the left. I sent up an huge energy blast to destroy some of the surrounding husks and the sound of rushing liquid reached my ears.

We finally found a door and somehow ended up in the first floor. "I think that back door is here somewhere! There!"

Making a break for it, we frantically ran out the door and slammed it loudly behind us. We jumped into the car and I fumbled to put the keys into the ignition. "Go, Liz! Go!"

The engine roared and we were off. The silence emphasized our heavy breathing. "Hey, you OK?" I asked Tristan.

His sad and angry eyes met mine. "I’m not quite sure yet, Liz."

Nodding in understanding, we drove back to the motel.
****
Michael
"This is all Tristan’s fault!" I growled as I began to pace. After finding out that Liz, her backpack, and Alex’s map of the UFL was missing, we pretty much figured it out.

Liz was off on a kamakazi mission with Mr. Reckless.

"Michael, you need to calm down!" Max tried to calm me down. The six of us were in my motel room thinking up any kind of gorey, dangerous, crazy scenerio that those two were probably getting themselves into.

And *NO*, I’m not jealous that he’s with her. I’m not. Really.

"Tristan doesn’t normally sneak off in the middle of night," Serena defended her brother.

"He’s angry! He’s reckless! He has serious authority problems and he’s stubborn! Not to mention his poor attitude!" I screamed.

Isabel covered her mouth with her hand and than said, "Michael, he’s you."

Before I was respond, Liz walked into the door. She came in quiety as if she was sneaking in and when she saw us, she froze. She gave us a small guilty smile. "So you guys know."

I crossed my arms and glared at her. {What the hell made you think that you could go off like that?} I angrily thought to her.

{It’s a long story.}

{Well than you better start talking.}

Alex interrupted our internal conversation. "Find anything interesting, Parker?"

"Like maybe your lost sanity!" Kyle added.

"I know you guys are angry but there’s a lot of information Tristan and I have to update you guys on. You can yell at me all you want later but we have a bigger problem that me sneaking off."

Tristan came in and together they told us what they found out. About Khivar being on Earth and how we was basically running his plans through a corporate building. I couldn’t help but notice the anger in Tristan’s eyes whenever he mentioned Khivar. As much as I hated to admit it, I knew what it felt it to have that kind of anger inside of you.

"We have to do something about that building," Max mused.

"We can’t just blow it up, Max," Tristan said. "Even I’m not that stupid."

Rolling my eyes, I remarked. "I wouldn’t say that."

"Maybe if we destroy the husks," Liz suggested.

"Maybe if you would stop doing stupid stunts like this," Max growled, catching all of us off guard.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, Max?" Liz said defensively.

"What do you think it means? We’re a *team*, Liz. Not just *you*. You can’t run off and do missions like this without telling anyone. What if something had happened to you guys?"

"Don’t order me around, Max."

"Well, someone has to do it, Liz. You may have missed this, but I’m the King here."

Liz’s eyes narrowed at him. "Well, I’m sorry I forgot to wear my leash, Max!"

"This isn’t something to joke about. I’ve sat back and let you do your thing! And you run off with Tristan over here in the middle of the night! Do you know how worried we were!?"

"We screwed up. We get it," Tristan said bristling.

"No shit you screwed up!"

Liz glanced at Tristan. "This isn’t his fault. I dragged him with me!"

"Will you guys please just stop arguing?" Isabel yelled.

Suddenly, Liz collapsed holding her stomach in pain. Her face contorted in pain. I immediately rushed over and watched in horror as she began to writhe in pain. "What’s happening to her?" I shouted to anybody.

Tristan watched with terror. "What’s happening!?"

Tristan closed his eyes. "He’s dead. Oh god. He’s dead."

"Who?" Alex asked.

"Henroz. When he dies, the invincibility on Liz disappears because he’s the one that blessed her with it. Oh god, he’s dead," Tristan explained and held Serena when she began to sob softly.

"Is she going to be OK?" I asked Tristan.

He nodded and it appeared that Liz’s pain was lessening. "I think that she’s just getting the pain that she wasn’t getting before," Kyle suggested.

After a few minutes, Liz recovered but said. "I think I need to lay down."

Putting Liz’s safety before anything else, I quickly instructed everyone to leave so she could rest. Tristan was the last one to leave so before he could get out the door, Liz said compassionately. "I’m sorry."

It seemed like with just two words, Tristan relaxed a bit. He smiled at her sadly and replied, "It’s always me, Liz. It’s always me."

His shoulders slumped with defeat, he stalked out.

[Polarchica516]

Chapter 27: Decisions
Liz

I woke up the next morning to find Michael staring at me intently. Propping myself up on my elbows, I asked lazily. "What are you thinking about?"

"I don’t think we should do this government thing, Liz."

"Michael…" I began.

His resolved expression stopped me. "Liz, I was worried about you going in when you were invincible but now you aren’t. It’s too dangerous. Don’t you think you’ve had enough excitement last night?"

"Are you upset about that? Last night, I mean."

He sighed heavily. "I’m upset that you went alone, yes."

"I just can’t explain it, Michael. I have this overwhelming instinct to protect you guys."

"Why is that?"

"I guess because I love you guys so much. It’s not that I think I’m dispensable--it’s just that I have all this power and I’m less likely to get hurt on a mission like that. If it weren’t for Tristan, I’d probably still be in that building. It kind of just hit home that I’m not alien superwoman."

Michael shook his head. "No one said you had to be."

Looking down at my hands, I confessed. "But I thought I had to. At the time, I got my powers, our group was just coming together. And somehow we all kind of switched positions. I’m the one ordering everyone around instead of Max and he’s right. As much as I hate it when he throws that King crap in my face, he’s right. He’s the leader--not me. I guess that all that power kind of went to my head. Just because I’m invincible doesn’t mean I’m not a part of this team."

Michael smiled and kissed me on the lips. "I’m glad you finally realized that."

"Me too."

"So, out of curiosity, how is it that I switched places?" Michael asked.

"Well, you’re the one waiting for some crazy half-alien to get home from a crazy mission instead of going out on those missions."

Michael chuckled. "I guess this my payback for giving el presidente gray hairs, huh?"

"I just wish I could have done something to save Henroz," I said with a deep frown. Even though I wasn’t that close to Henroz, it still pained me that he was gone.

Michael pulled me closer and said, "It’s not your fault, Liz."

"It’s just that he’s a causality. And I know that this is a war but somehow it’s become awfully real of a sudden."

Michael sighed. "It seemed awfully real to Tristan."

Propping up on my elbows and smoothing out a worried wrinkle with my finger, I confessed. "Henroz was like his father and Serena’s too. It really was close to home for them."

"What about her real parents?"

"He says that Serena doesn’t remember much of anything. Khivar admitted to killing Tristan’s parents at the UFL, Michael. He’s lost so much, Michael."

A strange look flickered acrossed his face. "Isabel said something really strange the night before."

"Really? What?"

"That Tristan is like me."

That took me by surprise. "How so? I really don’t get it."

"But she’s right. I mean, he’s reckless, a smartass--everything I was before I met you. Even, on an emotional level, he’s just kept in."

I realized that Michael spoke the truth. Tristan and he were similar, I guess. "But he’s not you. No one could ever be you."

Michael smiled. "Thanks. I really needed to hear that."

Smiling a bit, I teased. "Are you jealous of Tristan?"

Looking flustered, he struggled for an answer. "He keeps making googly eyes at you. I don’t like it. And I mean, you get along with him so.."

Grabbing his face gently, I scolded. "Hey, stop it. You know there’s nothing between Tristan and I. Don’t you?"

"It’s just that I heard you guys that night when he told you about his parents. I wasn’t easedropping but I went to go find you and I heard your conversation. If you were having problems, Liz, you did you tell him and not me?"

"Because I didn’t want you to think less of me," I admitting, averting my eyes from him.

Michael immediately began to protest, "What? Why would I think any less of you?"

"It’s just that you guys think that I’m this strong person. I thought that I’d disapoint you guys if I wasn’t strong."

"How could we think less of you Liz? You have a heart of gold. You’re mourning the death of someone who you’ve met two times. There is no doubt in any of our minds that you’re a bad person."

Shaking my head, I tried again. "It’s not just that but Antar or at least what’s left of it, has been waiting for me to save them. I mean, it’s not just Tristan. There are other people who have been waiting all of their lives for me to bring back their families. And I just feel bad that I don’t want to leave mine for them."

"You don’t have to be strong, Liz. We don’t expect you to be. Nobody wants to--"

We both grew silent at the word that I had begun to hate more than ‘destiny’.

Die

Taking a deep breath, I tried to change the subject before my hold on sanity weakened. "You really don’t want me to do this government thing do you?"

"I don’t want you to get hurt, Liz."

Nodding, "You understand that this may be our only chance right?"

Placing his hand on my cheek and letting his thumb caress my lips, I sighed into him. His eyes met mine and he said, "I don’t want to lose you."

By the overwhelming emotions running in his head and reflecting in his eyes, I wasn’t quite sure he was even talking about the government anymore.

I curled up against him and he draped his arm around my middle. He kissed on my forehead and buried his face in my hair. "I love you," I whispered.

Michael swallowed hard and than replied, "I love you too, Angel."
******
Michael
Liz had called a group meeting so discuss what we were to do about the government now that there had been some changes. Liz and I sat on the bed and Isabel had the couch. The rest of the group was sitting on the floor.

"We should probably make this quick," Max said. "Doesn’t the convention start in an hour?"

"Actually that’s what we want to talk about," I said to be looked at by six expectant faces. "I don’t think we should do the mission anymore."

"What?" Isabel asked. "We came all the way out here."

"It’s not like we aren’t going back empty handed. All that information we got at the UFL and when we get back, we can look at that disc," Liz reasoned.

Max rubbed his face tiredly, "So why aren’t we doing this mission?"

"Because Liz isn’t invincible anymore," I explained. "I don’t want her walking into a government facility with her normal powers."

Everyone went silent as they considered this. Kyle spoke first.

"I agree with Michael. It doesn’t matter what mission it is, we don’t put people in direct danger like that."

Isabel sighed. "I agree with Michael too."

Alex agreed also and when it was Tristan’s turn to voice his opinion, he said to Liz. "It’ s your decision. I don’t want to put you in danger like that but if you think that you can do it--it’s your choice, Liz."

"You can’t seriously mean that," Kyle said, eyes narrowed. "We’ve seen what the government can do. It’s not even an *option* to send her in there."

"I’m not saying that we should put her in danger," Tristan began but Kyle was protesting immediately.

"Yes you are!"

"Look, *Lyle*, you seem to forget that Liz is a very powerful person. I know. I’ve fought with her. She can take care of herself. She’s isn’t just Liz. She’s the *vessel*!"

"My name is Kyle," Kyle ground out.

"He’s right, Kyle," Liz said from next to me.

Kyle turned to her in shock. "You can really be considering doing this, are you?"

Dread consuming me, I looked at her with wide eyes. "Yeah, are you?"

Liz looked at me apologetically. "I still have powers. Strong powers that can protect me. Tristan and Serena can come with me. And you guys just go along with the original plan."

"Liz, you can’t do this."

"No, Michael, you don’t *wan’t* me to do this," she said gently. "I promise this will be alright."

"What do you want us to do?" Serena asked.

Max stood up and said, "Let’s take a vote. Isabel, what do you think?"

"I don’t want to put Liz in danger but if she thinks we can do this, than I vote yes," Isabel said and Liz smiled at her.

Max nodded. "Michael?"

Glancing at Liz, I sighed. "I don’t think we should go through with this."

"Kyle?"

"No," Kyle replied and than looked at Liz. "It’s too risky."

"Alex?"

"No."

"Serena?"

"I think that any help we can get, we need it. So I vote yes."

"Tristan?"

"Yes."

Liz looked at Max and said, "It’s down to you. You know I say yes so if you say no, it’s a tie. If you say yes, than we have an hour and a half to get ready. What do you vote?"

Max looked at me and I just shrugged. It was his decision, not mine. "Here’s what I’m thinking. I have a feeling that you can pull this off, Liz. But at the same time, if you can’t, I would die if they did to you half the things they did to me."

"I’ll have Tristan and Serena with me, Max."

A conflicted look passed over his features and than he said, "The minute anything goes wrong, you get out of there."

Liz nodded and we went over the plans. We even made a few changes.
*****
Liz, Tristan, and I were sitting in van number one. Serena was supposed to help Alex break into the main computer room so he could shut off the cameras and than she would meet Tristan and Liz by the back door. We all stared at the cell phone in anticipation.

Isabel was stationed outside the west corridor and ready to take out the guards upon my signal. As soon as Tristan and Liz got out of the van, I was supposed to get to the east corridor and take out some guards myself.

Kyle stood at the entrance of the building with a pout on his face. Max in the lobby of the facility in case any thing went wrong and we needed someone who wasn’t caught up in the exclusive part of the building.

The cell phone rang and Liz and I exchanged a look while Tristan confirmed that Alex and Serena had the cameras off and Serena was on her way to the back door.

He ended the phone call and said, "Showtime."

The three of us got out of the car and Liz and Tristan went off in the direction of the back door. Liz was already on her way and I grabbed Tristan’s wrist before he could follow her. He jerked his arm away. His wild eyes met mine and I said, "Be careful."

Tristan rolled his eyes, "I’m sticking to the plan, Michael. Don’t worry."

My patience running low, I tried to remain calm. "We don’t have room for mistakes."

"I won’t make any," he declared with his chin raised and eyes challenging.

Sighing, I tried again. "Look, I don’t care how you do it or whatever. Just bring her back."

Tristan, for once, didn’t snap back. He nodded and replied. "I don't plan on leaving that building without her."

I watched them leave and broke out into a run to the east corridor.

Showtime.

[Polarchica516]

Ch. 28: Infiltration (Part One)
Liz

Serena was already at the back door when Tristan and I got there. The three of us were supposed to wait until Michael contacted me before we went in. The three of us huddled together and went over the plans.

{Liz, the corridors are clear.}

{Thanks, Michael. We’re going in.}

I opened the door a bit, trying to see if anyone was guarding the back door. "The coast is clear you guys," I announced. Turning fully to face Tristan and Serena, I asked. "Ready?"

They nodded and I pushed the door open gently, careful to not make any noise. Gesturing for them to follow me, we headed towards the conference room. There were no guards at all and I sent silent thanks to Isabel and Michael for that one.

Stopping in front of the door where the officials were meeting, I pressed my ear to the door. The soft sound of conversation confirmed we were in the right room.

Nerves suddenly creeping up on me, I began to doubt our plan. What if they didn’t believe me? My hand rested on the doorknob for a while and Tristan placed his hand on my shoulder. "It’s your choice, Liz."

Glancing at Serena, who met my gaze evenly, I opened the door. The eyes of four men in tailored suits were trained on me. I took a deep breath and as Tristan closed the door, he said softly to me. "It’s time to be a hero, Liz."

Turning back to the four confused men, I opened my mouth to speak. But one of the officials spoke up first, "How did you get in here, miss?"

Taking the time to look at the officials, one of them caught my eye. He looked familiar but I couldn’t quite place it. His gaze locked with mine and he looked away quickly with a strange expression on his face. I turned my attention back to the sixteen eyes that were staring at me.

"My name is Liz Parker and what I’m about to tell you may shock you but you have to listen to me," I began. "I need your help. There’s going to be war soon and I need you to help me the resources I need to fight as hard as we can against it."

The man sitting at the far head of the table, whose name tag read Hal Carver, leaned forward on his elbows with a scowl across his face. "If this is your idea of a joke, young lady."

"This is no joke."

"Who are you saying is going to attack us?"

Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself for their reactions to this one. "The Skins. Aliens."

Hal gapped at at me openly and sat back in his chair. The man who looked familiar to me began to look nervous and the two others began to yell.

One of them, Jonathon Meru, stood up in his chair. "This is nonsense. Aliens? They aren’t even real."

Glancing at Tristan, he gave me a small nodd and I turned back to the men. Waving my hand slightly, I placed my shield up. The green sizzling energy fascinated them and they looked on in fear. Putting my shield down, I stared at them evenly.

Tristan snickered from behind me. "It doesn’t get any more real than that, does it boys?"

Sending Tristan a glare, I focused my attention back to the now pale grown men. "I’m not lying."

Meru shook his head in disbelief, "I don’t believe you. This cannot be real."

"I know this is hard to digest right now," I said, trying to calm the hysterical man down.

"How do you know this?" Carver asked. Wondering why he seemed calmer than the rest of them, I pushed the thoughts aside. He was willing to help and I was going to take all I could get.
"Because it has been foretold and it’s happened before to another planet."

"Another planet?" Meru asked with wide eyes. "As in your home planet?"

I fumbled with an answer because I never really considered Antar my home planet. Before I could reply, Tristan stepped up next to me and said. "As in *my* home planet. I’ve seen what the Skins can do. If you don’t want to see destruction and your whole planet in ruins, I strongly suggest you listen to Liz."

The man sitting next to Meru who had been quiet until now, Ronald Berkes, looked at me and said, his voice shaking. "I think that we need some time to think about this."

Shaking my head, I replied. "I’m sorry, sir, but it doesn’t seem like we have a lot of time. You see, the Skins are landing in 358 days."

The four men all looked at me and I met their gazes. It just seemed awfully surreal that in a matter of fifteen minutes we had revealed the secret we had been trying to protect for as long as I had known the aliens.

Hal Carver intrigued me. I had a feeling he knew more than he was letting on and I had the same impression from Richard Dodie, the man who I recognized for some odd reason. Meru and Berkes I knew needed a lot more convincing.

Taking a deep breath, I waited for their responses.
****
Michael
"Iz, move over now. The broom is pressing into my side!"

"At least you don’t have a leg cramp," Isabel shouted back. "You could have at least showered, Michael."

Isabel and I were in the janitor’s closet watching the corridors in case someone else came in. I had taken some walkie talkies off some guards so if anyone went on, we could hear it over the frequency. You could say it was cramped in here.

My mind reached out to Liz to make sure she was alright. I was worried that something would go wrong. Isabel noticed my nerves and said, "She’ll be alright."

Her words didn’t comfort me very much. The sound of the walkie talkie fizzling broke me through my thoughts. "Johnson, we have a problem in the control room."

Isabel and I looked at each other in panic. Alex was in the control room making sure the cameras stayed off. Isabel gripped my shoulder painfully. Our attention was completely on the walkie talkie. "Marcus, I’m going in to check it out."

Isabel gasped and immediately began to get out of the closet. I grabbed her arm to stop her. "What?" she said angrily.

"Isabel.." I started.

"Don’t, Michael. If it were Liz, you’d save her."

Torn between going after Alex and making sure that no guards came in to protect Liz, I glanced between the door and the walkie talkie. "Try calling Max. Maybe he can get Alex out."

Isabel reluctantly grabbed her cell phone from her pocket. Stabbing the phone with her fingers to dial the number, she waited impatiently for Max to answer. She growled at the phone. "We must be in a dead zone, Michael. I can’t get a hold of him."

Knowing that we had no choice, I peeked my head out of the closet. "No one’s in the hall. We should go now."

Isabel nodded, her concern for Alex evident, and we went to the control room. Searching frantically for the control room, Isabel and I became easily frustrated.

You would be too if you were in what seemed like an endless hallway of doors. Finally we reached the control room. Isabel burst in.

"What the hell?" Alex asked. He sat by the main computer with his lap top connected to it. "Did something happen?"

Isabel ran over to him and hugged him tightly. "No, Alex. The guards are coming. We have to get you out of here."

"But the cameras…"

"Can’t you disable them permanently?" I asked.

Alex shook his head.

"Well figure out something soon, because we don’t have much time left."

That’s when we heard it.
****
Liz
There was silence in the room until Meru asked, "Say we believe you, what do you want us to do?"

Grateful that we were finally getting somewhere, I addressed the question. "There’s a lot of Skins. They outnumber us by a lot. We need some fire power."

Berkes slammed his fists on the table and glared at his three collegues. "This is crazy talk! You can’t really believe her! You’re being lied to."

"No," I said, my anger at the ignorant man building up. "*You’ve* been lied to. You’re beloved government system has a unit designed to capture aliens and experiment on them. The government *knows* there was a crash and they *know* that we exist. I’m telling you the truth. The truth is that your people were cutting up and interrogating the wrong people. *We* aren’t the enemies. You’ve chased us down and hunted us because we’re different. Well guess what, Mr. Berkes, *we*, the aliens, are about to save every single human on this Earth whether you help us or not. So I would strongly suggest that you open your eyes to the world around you and begin to see who really lives in it."

Berkes mouth formed a perfect ‘o’ and he slumped back in his chair. Richard Dodie, the man who looked familiar, wore a worried expression on his face. "I believe you. But if I go up to one of my bosses and declare that we need nuclear weapons to fight an alien race, than I’m going to lose my job."

I was happy that the majority of them were coming around even if we had a long ways to go. "Before we discuss this any further, I had to know now who is going to help me. If not, than I’ll erase your memories of everything you just heard."

Carver spoke first. "I took this job so I could help our country and its people. I’m with you."

Dodie nodded. "I agree."

Turning to look at Meru, I was pleasantly surprised by the strength in his voice. "I agree also."

Berke glanced at me and than reached for his pocket. "You’re the danger," he said, malice and hatred in his voice.

Then there was a gun shot.

And a piercing scream.

[Polarchica516]

Chapter 28: Lessons from the Past (Part Two)
Liz
A sound less scream escaped Tristan’s mouth as he watched his sister collapse to the floor. I raised my hand to knock the gun out of Berkes’ hand and sent him flying against the wall. Plaster flew from the impact of his body hitting the hard surface.

The sight of Serena lying on the floor with blood seeping through her shirt made my heart stop. Tristan was by her side and looked up at me pleadingly, “Liz, you have to heal her.”

Kneeling down next to Serena, I placed my hands on her stomach. “Serena, you have to stay with me, OK? Open your eyes.”

Her eyes fluttered open and then closed shut again. Forming a connection with her, flashes hit me as I repaired the tissue and damaged organs from the gunshot wound.

FLASH
Finding Tristan as he stood over two bodies when she was a child

FLASH
Tristan and Serena finding Henroz

FLASH
Serena telling Tristan and Henroz she didn’t remember her parents or who she was

Suddenly, her energy shifted and the flashes began to go by so quick that I couldn’t see them or separate one from the other. I briefly registered a pair of hands pushing against me and a voice. It began to get louder until I heard it fully. “Get off! Get off!”

Serena was the one pushing against me, her eyes wild. I felt myself being flung away from the now-healed girl. Tristan went over to her but she pushed him away. Her eyes turned to me. “What did you see?”

“Some flashes. I don’t know,” I replied trying to figure out what had happened.

Serena looked at Tristan with a strange look in her eyes. “I remember.”

Before I could make sense out of all of this, Michael, Isabel, and Alex burst into the room. Carver, Dodie, and Meru pulled out their guns to shoot but I put up my hand and said. “They are friends. Don’t shoot.”

The three men put down their weapons and looked at me wearily. “Is Berkes alright?” Carver asked as he looked at the unconscious man on the floor.

“He’s just knocked out.”

Meru gestured to Isabel, Michael, and Alex. “Are they aliens too?”

I looked at Isabel and Michael and communicated that it was up to them whether or not they wanted to expose themselves personally. Michael nodded at Meru and so did Isabel.

“How many more?” Carver asked with a strange look in his eyes.

“One more,” I replied.

Carver and Dodie shared a look. Dodie looked at Michael and Isabel and rasped out, “The four sacs.”

Isabel raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

I looked at Isabel in confusion. Dodie asked slowly, “Were you in sacs before you were….born?”

Isabel and Michael’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. “Why do you ask?” Michael asked flustered.

“Because we saw your parents and *you* when you were in the sacs.”
******
Michael
The room became silent. Isabel and I froze and Liz looked at us intently.

Parents.

Taking a deep breath, I addressed the man known as Richard Dodie. “How is that possible?”

Dodie and Carver exchanged a look. Carver cleared his throat and began his story. “The day after the crash in 1947, our captain called us in. The way it works is he tells you what to do and you don’t object. He told us to not ask any questions about the crash. Don’t touch anything or talk to anybody. It seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through for a weather balloon.

Our captain gave us a jeep and told us to drive cargo to Eagle Rock and not to look at the cargo at all. To make a long story short, we looked in the back and found these eight sac-like objects. They were all glowing and had what looked like human fetuses in them. After some serious shock and denial, we realized that they weren’t human and since they were cargo from the crash--the crash wasn’t human either.”

Isabel looked at me fearfully, “What did you do with the pods?”

“We didn’t know *what* to do. If they were dangerous than we didn’t want them to go free but if they were innocent, we knew what the government would do to them. Then we saw this really bright light. We were in the middle of a road in a desert so we knew it couldn’t have been a car or else we would have heard it. We heard this noise--it sounded like a wounded animal--and I felt this energy. I couldn’t see where it was coming from but I *felt* it.

I was terrified. I mean, I’ve seen the movies and I thought they were here to kill us. The light kept getting closer and warmer and than it was gone--and so were the pods as you call them. That’s when I realized that sound we heard--it was the sound that a mother bear makes when she’s protecting her children. They didn’t come to harm us but to get back their children.

So we called our captain and said that we got in an accident. Dodie and I had flipped the car over. We told him when we woke up the cargo was gone.”

The six of us looked at Carver and Dodie. Liz now stood next to me, her hand gently holding mine, and Isabel and Alex stood the same way. Serena still looked like something was off but she and Tristan were fascinated by Carver’s story. I had known these men for about two minutes but I was grateful to them.

They saved our lives.

Isabel had tears in her eyes. We had never known our real parents and to know that they had played some part in our lives, whether they were Isabel’s parents or mine, was an amazing thing.

“You saved me,” I said soberly. “Thank you.”

Carver just nodded and Dodie gave us a small smile. Meru glanced at the two of them and then at us. His eyes weren’t filled with disgust, maybe a bit of confusion, but he stood up and said in a strong voice.

“Three men aren’t going to be able to get weapons. We need to get more people involved.”

And suddenly it hit me the true meaning of River Dog’s words.

*Everything happens for a reason.*

The crash had to happen so Isabel, Max, and I could arrive on Earth.

Dodie and Carver had to be there that night so they could save us and, at this point in time, accept Liz’s words.

Carver stood up, as did Dodie. “The limousines will be here to pick us up soon. We have to figure out a way to convince other people that this war is actually going to happen,” Dodie said.

Liz stepped away from me. “Mr. Dodie, I think that we should start with convincing people that aliens exist. There’s a department of the government that has files on our kind. If you can somehow get those files, we have a chance.”

Somehow, by some stretch of a miracle, the eight of us had gotten to this point. We were negotiating the next time we would meet with Dodie, Carver, and Meru. They hoped the Head of the Department of Homeland Security would be convinced of this war. We parted our ways and we basked in the knowledge that maybe we had a fighting chance in this war.
*****
The eight of us sat in the motel room later that afternoon. We had two hours left before we could get back to Roswell in time so we decided to just hang out in the motel room. We couldn’t help but be in a good mood. We had convinced the freakin’ government to help us.

Liz sat cross-legged on the floor while Isabel played with her hair. Five hair colors later, Isabel finally gave up. I thought the brown looked the best anyway.

Max, Kyle, and Alex were playing poker and Tristan and Serena stood on opposite sides of the room. Kyle turned to Liz with a mischievous look in his eye. “Hey, Liz. Truth or dare?”

Liz rolled her eyes. “Kyle, you barely have a large enough of an attention span to play poker. Why confuse yourself more?”

Kyle stuck his tongue out at her. “You chicken, Liz?” he challenged.

Liz’s raised her chin defiantly and scoffed, “Truth.”

“Whose a better kisser, Michael or yours truly?”

Max and I both looked at each other and than at Kyle, both of us glaring at him. Liz winked at me and than said to Kyle, “I’d have to go with Michael. Not that you’re a bad kisser, Valenti. It’s just that a girl can only take so much slobber.”

Kyle gasped and his eyes went wide. “Funny, Parker. I know where you live.”

“Funny, Valenti. I know where you live too. Don’t make me burn your Spice Girls CD,” Liz threatened.

Kyle dropped his playing cards and Alex took the opportunity to look at his cards. “You wouldn’t,” Kyle said in disbelief.

Isabel smiled. “I’ll help,” she volunteered.

Kyle narrowed his eyes, “You better stay away from my CD’s. I already had to down a whole thing of Tabasco for you people. Do you guys torture Alex like this? No! Way to go, guys. Pick on the amazing heart reading wonder! Wait until I get some *real* powers.”

Alex smirked behind his cards. “I’m not stupid, Valenti. I didn’t have to down Tabasco. Only you.”

Kyle’s eyes started to bug out of his head and his mouth hit the floor. “You’re kidding, right?”

Our laughter answered his question. I laughed even harder when Kyle turned to Liz and said dangerously, “This was all you, wasn’t it?”

In response, Liz bent her head down and placed her hand over her mouth to control her laughter. Her small body began shaking from the power of her laughs. “Kyle, you have to admit, it was kind of funny.”

“It wasn’t funny,” Kyle protested.

“Your ears were turning all red,” Max mocked.

“You *so* do not want to bring up the ears, Dumbo,” Kyle playfully growled out.

Max ignored his comment. Isabel added, “And your face was all red. Kyle, it was funny.”

Kyle was about to say something but stopped. He held his hands up. “You guys got me, I admit it. But it’s only fair that Alex and Liz have to do it too.”

Liz shook her head. “Hey, I don’t think so. I get special privileges.”

“And how do you figure that?”

“I’ve got connections.”

“Liz, dating all the alien males in our little group isn’t connections.”

Chuckling, I joked. “That’s called getting around.”

Liz feigned anger and made the pillow next to me hit me in the head with her powers. Tristan said from the corner, “If it makes you feel any better, Liz, you can get around me anytime.”

Liz blushed furiously and everyone laughed because they thought Tristan was joking. I, however, knew he wasn’t and was about to smack him.

“What’s with this whole truth or dare thing?” Tristan asked.

“It’s a stupid game,” Alex said. Than turning back to face Max and Kyle, he added. “Now, back to our game that I was whipping you guys in.”

The three of them went to back to their game. Liz smiled at me and then said to Isabel, “Let’s try the purple on *your* hair.”

Isabel immediately protested and the two of them bantered about that for a while.

It was strange to look at these people and realize that we had just infiltrated a government building and convinced the government to help us fight an impending war. These seemingly carefree teenagers were the strongest people I had ever met my entire life.

I was broken out of my thoughts by the phone ringing. Liz went and picked it up. “Hello?”

I watched as her face turned as white as a sheet. “Who is this?” she asked in a shaky voice.

We all turned our attention to her and looked at her in concern. She put the phone back on the receiver with a haunted expression on her face. “He said that even the vessel has weaknesses.”

“Who?” I asked.

Her eyes met mine. “Khivar.”

“But that makes no sense, he knows you’re not invincible anymore. How did he even get the number?” Tristan mused.

That’s when Alex looked at Liz in terror. “What was that that Nasedo always said? Humans makes you weak?”

“Humans make you weak,” Liz recited in a bare whisper as if she were analyzing the phrase. She gasped and then said to Alex, “I won’t let him hurt you Alex.”

When Alex looked at her in confusion, Liz added. “You are the last human here.”

“No, Liz,” Alex said. “I may the only human *here* and Khivar isn’t stupid enough to come against you. He knows that I’m with you. Your parents, Liz. They’re the only humans left.”

Liz’s panic seeped into the connection. “And they’re alone in Roswell without me to protect them.”

[Polarchica516]

Chapter 29: Where the Heart Is
Liz

I was clutching the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles were beginning to turn white. I was waiting impatiently for the gang to load up the cars. Why had they brought so much luggage? My parents were in mortal danger and I can hear Alex and Isabel arguing about who gets shot gun in the second car.

Leaning my head out of the window, I began to lose my patience. “Can we hurry this up?”

Everyone immediately got in his or her respective cars. Tristan opened the car door and said to me, “It’s going to be alright, Liz.”

Letting my emotions get the best of me, I choked out. “We don’t know that, Tristan.”

I looked away from him so he wouldn’t see the tears that were beginning to form in my eyes. I felt him put a hand over mine on the steering wheel. His eyes met mine and he was about to say something when Michael and Serena got in the car.

And then we were off.
****
“Dammit!” I yelped. “No one is picking up!”

I had been trying to call my parents all afternoon and I was still getting to answer. We were only ten minutes away from Roswell but it felt like we had been driving for hours. All I could think about was my parents laying in a ditch somewhere. Various scenarios ran through my head.

Khivar was evil and I knew he would stop at nothing to get back at me.

I wondered briefly that using the fact that I had inadvertently killed Tess to distract him back at the UFL might have angered him more. Michael, sensing my thoughts, tried to calm me down.

{Liz, babe, think positive thoughts.}

{Kinda difficult to, Michael. I can’t lose them, Michael.}

My eyes caught his in the mirror and he mouthed, “You won’t.”

I turned my eyes back to the road. We finally saw the ‘Welcome to Roswell’ sign and I pushed my foot against the pedal.

“Oh my god,” I gasped. They followed my eyes as the car came to a screeching halt. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The Crashdown was covered in ashes and it had been basically flattened to the ground. I felt like I was going to be sick. “No,” I said in anguish.

I blindly got out the car and bolted out into a run towards my house. A policeman tried to pull me back once I got to the yellow ‘caution’ tape. “Excuse me, miss, but this is a crime scene.”

I turned angry eyes on the officer. “That’s my house, sir. I suggest that you let me by, *right now*.”

“Are you Elizabeth Parker?”

“Yes, I am,” I said impatiently.

He moved aside and I ducked under the yellow tape. I felt numb as I stepped through the ashes. This was my home and it was *gone*. “Oh god,” I rasped out as the tears began to flow.

I made out a few tables and Tabasco bottles. Something caught my eye. I bent over slowly to pick it up and wiped the dust off of it. I stared blankly at the picture of my parents and me. The edges were charred.

Shouting to the nearest officer, I asked. “Where are my parents? Are they alright?”

His sad eyes looked away from my face. “No. They aren’t.”
*****
Michael

Liz didn’t say anything except for telling us to get into the car. She had a pained faraway look on her face. I tried to communicate with her but she didn’t answer. It felt like she couldn’t comprehend anything that was beyond the fog of anguish and anger that resided in her head.

Before I knew it we were at the Roswell Memorial Hospital. Liz didn’t even wait for us to come out; she just hopped out of the car. I was assuming that her parents were here.

The nurse escorted Liz to the ICU room and than looked at seven of us. “I’m sorry but only family can go back there.”

I glanced at Liz and she said to the nurse. “Can I just bring one person in?”

The nurse, whose name was Mrs. Tikons, gave Liz a small smile. After the rest of the gang went to the waiting room, the nurse opened the room. The smell of hospital was unusually strong in this room and my eyes rested on Mr. And Mrs. Parker. Liz stood frozen, her eyes wide, as she took in her parents.

Mr. Parker had a large wrapping around his head and a leg and arm cast. Mrs. Parker had an arm cast and the right side of her face was covered in band-aids. They both had their share of minor burns.

A small moan escaped her throat and I wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her from falling. “Mom? Dad?” she squeaked out. Their eyes remained closed, their breathing even, but they did not answer. The only noise in the room was the noise of the machines and Liz’s shallow breathing.

The door opened and a man in a white coat, probably Liz’s parent’s doctor came in. “Are you Elizabeth Parker?”

Liz nodded numbly, her eyes glued to her still parents.

The doctor looked at Liz in concern. “My name is Dr. Lionel. I’ll be taking care of your parents.”

Liz turned her attention to Dr. Lionel. “What’s wrong with them?”

“Well, it seems as if the authorities got them out before the fire got really bad so they managed to avoid any major burns. But they told me that they were found under a lot of rubble. Your mother arm is broken and her face on the right side managed to get severely burned. We’re waiting for the CAT scan from her so we don’t know about concussions and that sort.”

“What about my father?”

When you see the light
You could imagine
Where you can go
And when you walk outside
You could've had it
You felt alone
You felt alone

Dr. Lionel’s hesitation was making Liz more edgy. I could feel it from our connection. He took a deep breath and glanced at Mr. Parker. “Well, your mother was found on the top floor and we found your father on the bottom floor. It seems as if a section of the top floor fell on top of him. Until the authorities investigate and find another cause, that’s all we have to go on. He has a broken leg and wrist. It also appears that he sustained some internal bleeding and severe head trauma.”

Liz’s hands flew to her mouth and stopped a sob before it came out.

“He is currently in a comatose state, Miss Parker,” Dr. Lionel sympathetically.

Liz buried her face in my shirt and grabbed at me tightly. I looked at Dr. Lionel and asked for Liz, “What the chances of him waking up?”

Dr. Lionel shook his head. “We’re trying to be optimistic but the odds aren’t that good. Mrs. Parker, however, is just momentarily unconscious.”

So why'd you say those words to him
If you could start over again
When you asked for this
It was a gift, yeah
They let you have

Liz moaned into me and Dr. Lionel gave us a small smile. “I’ll be outside if you have any questions.”

“Thank you,” I said on Liz’s behalf.

When he left, I gently pushed Liz away from my body. “You alright?”

Liz shook her head mutely and her small hands grabbed the side of my shirt. She looked so small and fragile in that moment. “This is all my fault.”

“No,” I protested. “You can’t blame yourself.”

Liz stepped back and flung her hands up. “Why not, Michael? It was an accident, Michael. Khivar set that fire because of who I *am*. And now my parents in a hospital and my dad may not even make it!”

I had felt her feelings begin to mount up. The guilt and the anger were beginning to consume her and when she was done speaking, the tears escaped and she collapsed to the floor.

Her fingers curled in her hair and I just let her cry. There was nothing else I could do. “Can you please just go, Michael?”

I shook my head. “I can’t leave you now, Liz. You know that I can’t do that.”

Liz shook her head. “I wanted him out of my life, Michael. I wanted him to just go away. All I wanted was for him to accept me. The things I said to him…”

“Liz,” I began.

“No, Michael. I’m going to make this right,” and she got up and went over to her father. I watched as she placed her hands on his hand and her hands began to glow.

“Liz, what if someone comes in?” I asked worriedly as I locked the door with my powers.

Her glazed eyes flew up to meet mine. “I don’t care anymore.”

Liz closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on her father. Her hands began to glow a soft light again and sweat began to collect on her brow. Her body began to shake and the light died out. But her father still made no movement.

Her defeated eyes met mine, “I don’t get it. Why isn’t it working?”

I looked at her blankly because I didn’t have the answers. Liz kissed her father on the forehead. “I’m so sorry.”

I unlocked the door and a minute later, Dr. Lionel came back in. “Ms. Parker, the police are outside and would like to question you.”

“Now really isn’t a good time,” Liz said tiredly.

“OK. I understand. Well they just want to know if your family had any enemies. They can’t find any evidence that the fire was intentionally started.”

Liz glanced at me and said in a soft voice, “No enemies.”

“Well than it was probably just a faulty wire,” Dr. Lionel said, trying to make her feel better. “The police will figure it out.“

“Yeah--a faulty wire,“ Liz said with a hint of sadistic laughter in her voice.

“Do you have someone to stay with tonight?”

Liz nodded and once Dr. Lionel left, I realized that her eyes were now filled with anger. “I’m going to kill him, Michael. He has no right to come to *my* planet and *my* town and then to burn down my house.” Glancing at her parents’ still forms, she said in a dangerous voice. “He’s going to pay.”

And once you've seen the light
You will remember
Where you could go
When you would go
Away

And when you tell those words to him
Be sure to start over again
And when you tell those words to him
Just be sure to start over again
Yeah, just be sure to start over again.
--Pete Yorn’s When You See the Light
******
Liz
The minute Michael and I stepped out of the room and into the waiting room area, I was being attacked with hugs. Sheriff Valenti had even shown up to show his condolences. The hospital told to come back tomorrow morning because family members weren’t even allowed in the ICU to begin with but Mrs. Tikons said that I was a special case.

Tired, I just wanted to go back to Michael’s apartment. I leaned on Michael and we headed back to the apartment. Later that afternoon, I was sitting on the couch eating ice cream when I heard the door open. “Michael, you’re back already?”

“I didn’t even know Michael wasn’t here,” came Tristan’s reply.

“Oh. Hey, Tristan. He went out to drop Serena off at Kyle’s. I had to practically beg him to leave my side.”

Tristan sat down next to me and said, “If you want to talk, I’m right here. I probably understand what you’re going through more than the others.”

Putting the cap back on the ice cream, I placed the pint of goodness on the table in front of me. “I’m not really into talking right now.”

“I didn’t say that we had to talk now.”

“Tristan, just leave me alone,” I growled out. I was not in the mood to talk about my feelings.

Something sparkled in his eyes and he said coldly, “Why? So you can wallow in your self pity?”

My anger flared at his comment and I stood up, my posture tense. “You don’t know anything about that.”

“Really?” Tristan mocked. “That’s what you want, isn’t it? For people to feel bad for you? Little Lizzie Parker can’t cut a break. Do you think that it’s your fault that your dad and mom are in the hospital? Do you?”

I could feel my hand began to heat up and the gentle humming of energy began in my head. “Stop it, now,” I growled out.

“Well it is,” Tristan finished.

I closed my eyes and felt like a force was taking me under. “No! It isn’t!” I shouted. All the electricity in the apartment went haywire. The lights flickered on and off. The light bulbs exploded sending small shards of glass everywhere. The refridgerator began to shake.

Tristan watched with wide eyes. When everything calmed down, I collapsed on the couch because the power that I had used was a bit more than I’m used to. I opened my eyes and said to Tristan, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

Tristan smiled. “Only because I know what that anger feels like. You want to get back at Khivar, don’t you?”

I nodded. “I never thought that I could hate someone.”

Tristan looked down. “Well it’s not an average thing to meet the murderer of your parents.”

“Thanks. I could have hurt someone with that much energy.”

Tristan gave a small laugh. “It’s not everyday someone thanks me for pissing them off.”

“You’re lucky I didn’t kill you,” I joked.

Tristan smirked. “Like you could.”

I regarded Tristan solemnly and asked, “Is that why you’re a jerk sometimes? Because you’re angry?”

Tristan gave her a side-ways glance, “A jerk, huh?”

“You know what I mean.”

Tristan frowned. “I’m a complicated person.”

“Let me guess. You have this idea that you have to be strong because if you don’t than you have to experience the pain of your past. You have this kind of stonewall up and you’re waiting for the right person to knock it down. Your emotions drive you--your powers, your decisions, everything--it’s based on your strong emotions. But inside, you’re this soft kind-hearted person.”

Tristan didn’t expect the way I thought he would. Instead he smiled at me and said wistfully, “How is that you see right through me?”

When I didn’t answer, he continued. “When Henroz first found me, for the first two cycles--time runs a bit differently where I lived--I wouldn’t even talk to anyone. I wouldn’t even talk to Serena. I would sit in this room and I would think about my parents and everything. I basically spent a lot of time making myself this person that I wasn’t. The boy that I was when I was thirteen is a totally different person than who I am now. And I regret not noticing that sooner because now I can’t go back to that little boy completely.

You make me feel like that little boy again.”

I was touched. I truly was. His blue eyes met mine and I shifted my gaze to his messy raven hair. I realized that I had never met anyone with blue eyes and his hair combination. It must be an alien thing. Tristan was taller than any of us--just an inch taller than Michael and he was lean but not scrawny. I wondered briefly as to why I never really looked at him. Then I had an idea. “Let’s go somewhere.”

His eyes went wide in surprise. “Where?”

I stood up. “Well, you see the thing is, I would like to feel like a little girl again. And it looks like I won’t get that very often. We are going out and we are going to have fun.”

Tristan narrowed his eyes. ‘I didn’t take you for the spontaneous type, Liz.”

Placing my hands on my hips, I shot back. “I didn’t know you were such a wuss.”

“Fine. Let me get my coat,” he said.

I knew that we would probably get in trouble when we got back but right now I needed to get away from the pain.

Tristan emerged from the closet with his jacket. “You ready?”

“Yeah.”

“Where are we going?” he asked as he opened the door.

I flashed him a wide smile. “No idea.”

Tristan smiled back with a glint of mischief in his eyes. “I like the way you think.”