The Power of Eight(CC,TEEN)Complete

[pooklette]

Timelord31 - They're going to have to fight someone very soon...the question is, who will they be fighting?

Empress_luci - Unraveling the mystery is half the fun. Liz's journal gives them a whole bunch of answers and yet more questions. Very soon they will find out exactly what is going on.

Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

Chapter 11: Future Max Strikes Again


Liz paged through her old journal, turning to the last page to see what her final entry had been. After the Future Max fiasco, she had abandoned the journal. The memories inside had been too painful to relive at the time. As she turned to the back cover, a curious lump beneath the binding caught her attention. She explored the anomaly with her fingertips and realized that something had been sealed into the back cover. She grabbed her nail file and pried the paper backing off the cover. A small sheet of lined paper fell out. Nervously, Liz reached down and picked it up.

It was a note, written in Max’s meticulous handwriting. As she inspected further, she realized it was not exactly Max’s handwriting. It was that of Future Max. He had left her some kind of letter before he disappeared.

My dearest Liz,

Even as I feel the events of your timeline changing mine, I can’t help but feel remorse for what will never be. You are my soul mate. It pains me to think that your Max will never know the happiness that I have. I know this has caused you pain and for that I am sorry. In my timeline, you were adamant that I come back and change things. You knew that it was the only way to save the others but I always had my doubts. I never doubted you, but I did doubt myself and I still do. I don’t know that it’s possible for me to fall out of love with you. On some level, you always knew that we could not win the fight against our enemies without Tess and I watched a little part of your soul die everyday from that knowledge. Even knowing what I do about the future, I can’t help but wonder if we could have found another way to fix things. I see an emptiness and pain in your eyes now that was never there before. If only we’d had more time…

I know that we cannot predict what the outcome will be now that we’ve changed the course of time. I have no way of knowing if Tess will stay in Roswell because deep down I think we both know that I will never love her the way I love you. You told me as much the first day I approached you and as always, you were right. I feel my time here drawing to a close. I want to leave you some information about my timeline in the event our plan goes astray. You must never tell the others the things I am about to tell you unless these events come to pass again. We have no idea what the consequences are of knowing too much about the future. We must guard against changing too much and making things worse.

The enemies I spoke of were from Antar, lead by a man named Kivar. Somehow they found our location and came to Earth to end the royal line for once and for all. They looked human. Some of them were shape shifters, some were beings we called ‘skins’. They infiltrated our group before we even knew what was happening. For years we had managed to elude the scrutiny of the FBI but the arrival of our enemies alerted them to our presence. Soon, there was a full-scale war going on between Kivar’s men, the United States government, and us. As you can imagine, there was no way we could have won. We were being hunted by two of the most formidable forces on the planet.

We never did find out exactly how Kivar and his men found us. Before he died, Michael was absolutely convinced that Nasedo had been working for Kivar. He speculated that Nasedo might have betrayed us to the enemy before his death and consequently, they knew right where to start looking. We were never able to find Tess after she left and we could only assume that the enemy had eliminated her first.

The guilt that I feel for bringing you, Maria, Alex and Kyle into our alien existence haunts me to this day. You developed some powers, but the others had none. They had no way of defending themselves when our enemies came. I wasn’t strong enough to protect any of you and that will always be my biggest regret.

I wish you good luck in your new journey through life. I do not know what these changes will bring for you, but I can only hope for happiness and peace in your future. That is what is most important to me now. My time is over and I did what I could to make things better for the rest of you. I hope that in time, you will be able to forgive me.

With love always,

Max

Liz sat in stunned silence for a moment after reading the letter. He knew his plan wasn’t going to work. On some level, he had known all along. Liz was wavering back and forth between blind anger and pity. She pitied him because he had been so desperate to make things right but she was furious that he insisted on making her follow through on a plan that he knew wasn’t going to work.

She was crying softly when her mother entered her room. Nancy immediately rushed over to her side. “Honey, what’s wrong?” She asked.

Liz didn’t respond. Her anger was starting to win out over the sorrow. The lights throughout the apartment began to flicker. She held the letter out for her mother to read just as her father rushed into the room. “What’s happening?! The lights…are you alright Lizzie?” Her father asked in concern.

As the windows started to rattle, Jeff looked around wildly and ran from the room. He returned with the telephone in his hand and could be heard asking Max to come over immediately.

Talia, Liz’s royal guardian realized that something was amiss and mentally put the other soldiers on alert. As Talia cautiously peered into Liz’s bedroom, Jeff saw her and went over to explain the situation.

“Everything’s all right Talia. There is no danger here. Liz is upset so her powers are a little out of control at the moment.” Jeff said. Talia eyed him skeptically and stood her ground.

Both Max and Maria arrived less than two minutes later. Max had jumped in his Jeep the second Jeff called him. Maria had overheard her guard, Connor, speaking to one of the other soldiers about the situation at the Parkers’ and had also rushed right over. Nancy finished reading the letter from Future Max and she looked to Liz for permission to let the others read it. Liz just nodded stiffly and continued trying to calm the raging storm of her emotions.

Soon, the entire group was assembled at the Parker residence and had read Future Max’s letter. Now they knew that the enemies Future Max spoke of were more than just a small group of Kivar’s men.

“There is so much they never knew about. No wonder he was desperate. He honestly had no idea what was going on.” Isabel said in wonder.

Max shook his head. “I can’t believe he didn’t put two and two together about Tess and Nasedo. His Michael knew Nasedo was a traitor, Tess disappeared without a trace, the enemies knew right where to find them…it just seems so obvious! Tess switched sides, even in that timeline. I can’t believe he didn’t see it!”

Max no longer felt guilty for the choices Future Max made because it was obvious that he was not going to become that man. He had a number of advantages that Future Max never did, namely, the translation of the Book and knowledge of Tess’ treachery. More importantly, he knew he would never concoct some hair-brained scheme to save the world by making Liz break up with him. He wondered how his other self had ever been so blind as to think that their love alone would destroy the world. No, Max Evans would definitely not become that man.

“You know what? I bet in his timeline, Tess took the Book with her when she left. She was always the one who kept the Book before so it only stands to reason that she did in that timeline too. They had no way of ever knowing that they were going about things all wrong because she took all of their information with her.” Kyle mused.

“So this could be a good thing then. Don’t you see? Everything has changed! Maria, Alex and Kyle didn’t have any powers so that means the Royal Four never actually bonded. They didn’t have Ava on their side and it certainly sounds like they didn’t have the royal guardians that you guys do now.” Dianne pointed out.

Liz, who had been very subdued as they all discussed the letter, finally broke her silence. “So at this point we are safe to assume that Kivar might not be careful about covering his presence if he ever sends troops to Earth. If that’s the case, then he either vastly underestimates our government or…he knows that they don’t stand a chance against his army. I don’t know which one is more frightening.” Liz said.

Michael prepared himself to say something that he knew the others didn’t want to hear. “So things are actually worse than we thought.” There were a few angry glares shot his way, so he elaborated.

“Do you have any idea how hard it will be to fight against both Kivar and the FBI at the same time? We can outsmart one or the other but both at the same time? The way the letter was worded, it doesn’t sound like the FBI and Kivar were working together though…it sounds like all three groups were fighting each other. That means the eight of us might potentially have to defend ourselves from two separate armies…at the same time.” He explained.

“Things could be worse…obviously they were worse in Future Max’s timeline…but things certainly could be better too.” Alex agreed with Michael in a roundabout kind of way.

Jim sighed. “At this point, we’re just going to have to be thankful that you have advanced warning that these things could happen. Our odds are much better now that we know. We can’t control everything so we’re just going to have to use what we know and go from there.”

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this but, Future Max did actually help us.” Maria saw Liz’s hurt look and raised her hands in defense. “Look, I agree that he went about things completely the wrong way but he did make enough changes to give us a fighting chance here. He gave up too easily and didn’t think things through but it seems like we’re in a better place now because of that not despite it…ah, no offense Max.” Maria added.

Max smiled. “None taken. I think I know exactly what you mean. Indirectly, Future Max convinced me to suggest translating the book. I wanted to prove that I didn’t have to be with Tess. Apparently, because of what Future Max told her, Liz wanted to translate it for the opposite reason…to prove that I did have to be with Tess.” He said.

“In a way, Future Max changed my entire life I guess. Maria didn’t have powers in his timeline. That means we never bonded…” Michael mumbled with a shrug.

“That’s what helped us put two and two together about the whole ‘bonding creating powers’ thing. The sudden appearance of my powers is partly what made us decide to translate the Book so quickly because unlike Liz, I had never been healed by one of you guys.” Maria added.

“I honestly think that’s what finally brought Alex and I together too.” Isabel confessed. “After Future Max muddled everything up, it was like our whole group split down the middle. I felt like my family was coming apart. Alex was the only one who could make me feel better. That’s when I knew I had to tell him how I felt…”

As the group sat around recounting all the many ways Future Max had made their lives better, Liz started to let go of her anger. His plan had been terrible and for that, her future self had been partly responsible.

Slowly the people in her room started to head for home. There was no need to stay up all night talking about how Future Max could’ve done things differently, because honestly if he had done things differently, the end of the world still might have come and they wouldn’t be nearly as prepared to fight.

Only one question remained. Was the gang being followed by the FBI, Kivar's men, both...or none of the above? Were they just being overly paranoid about a few strangers on campus or did they really have something to be afraid of?

[pooklette]

A/N: I'm very sorry for making you guys wait so long for an update! I know I hate it when a story I'm following suddenly gets abandoned. I didn't abandon this story, I promise. I was rereading what I had written so far and suddenly realized that I really hated the direction the story was taking. I ended up rewriting almost half the story. So...here are a few more chapters and I hope you can forgive me for the awful delay.

(Quick summary for anyone who has forgotten where we are in the story: The gang is busy as ever in college. Recently their guards spotted a few too many new faces on campus and so the gang is in kind of a state of high alert wondering if Kivar's men or the FBI are on their tails. In light of these new concerns, the whole group is trying to come up with emergency 'just in case' plans for escape. The FBI is investigating the pod squad again because their intense practice session in the desert over Christmas break alerted the government to their presence. Thus far, we know for a fact that the FBI really is hanging around campus but our beloved podsters don't know that for sure yet.)

Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

Chapter 12: Planning for the Worst

Early the next afternoon, the families gathered for a cookout at the Evans’ residence. Aside from the allure of home cooked food, they also wanted to use this time to make some last minute ‘worst case scenario’ plans. The Evans family had a fenced in backyard so as long as they kept their conversation at a relatively quiet level, no one would be able to overhear them. Michael decided he should be the one to begin the discussion.

“I had all night to think about this and I have a few ideas. We don’t know for sure that the things from Future Max’s timeline will happen again but, I think we’ll be more prepared if we assume that they could.” He began. When the others nodded in agreement, he continued.

“I don’t think we have to go on the run right now but I do think that we should have everything planned out in case the time comes that we do.” He concluded.

Max nodded. “We should keep the emergency supplies stowed away in the getaway cars at all times. We can never be seen anywhere near those cars unless we’re prepared to leave for good.”

Liz chimed in. “I know we’re planning on having the soldiers make a show of driving those cars every once in a while but we should remind them to keep the gas tanks as full as possible.”

Maria voiced a concern. “What if the evil trio joined Kivar? I mean if Kivar’s goons do come…our parents will probably be in just as much danger as we are. If everything goes down just like it did last time, the FBI will after us too. Both sets of bad guys will know right where to find all of us.” She said.

The color drained from every face in the group. How could they possibly keep that many people safe?

Jim recovered first. “What if we come up with a series of meeting points? If we have to run, we all run. Parents too. Then we all meet up at the scheduled meeting point to check in.”

Jeff started to protest. “Now wait a minute here. We can’t all just pick up and run. A group this big would to stick out like a sore thumb!”

Liz gasped. “You’ll have to, dad!”

Jeff shook his head in response. “If we run, we might lead the enemy straight to you.”

Max saw the hurt in Liz’s eyes so he tried to reason with Jeff. “Sir, it’s entirely likely that our enemies would try to use you to get to us. We’re just trying to keep everyone safe. We’d never be able to live with ourselves if…” Max didn’t even need to finish his sentence. He saw the acceptance dawn on Mr. Parker’s face.

“All right. I understand…but we’re going to have to come up with a better plan than just having the whole lot of us meeting up at some campground or something. I’m serious…we’ll bring too much attention to ourselves.” Jeff conceded.

Michael called Kaden, his royal guardian, over. “Kaden, would it be possible for you guys to teleport us on to your ships if we were in danger?” Michael asked.

Kaden shook his head regretfully. “I’m sorry Sir. We cannot bring other people with us when we teleport. We can bring inanimate objects, but not living beings. We might be able to get you to the ships by more conventional methods but in order to get you onboard; we’d have to drop the shields. The ships would be completely exposed.” He said.

“Oookay…so obviously we’d call more attention to ourselves by going to the ships than we would if we tried to hide down here. But if things ever get too bad here…we could retreat back to the ships, right?” Maria asked.

“Yes ma’am. If we retreat back to the ships, we would probably have to leave Earth’s atmosphere though. Your government would surely detect the ships and your cover would be compromised. You would not be able to stay here any longer.” Kaden pointed out.

Michael’s eyes narrowed in thought. “Are you saying that we all could survive on another planet? Antar, or Saria for example…would humans be able to survive there?” He asked.

Kaden nodded affirmatively. “Absolutely, sir. The atmosphere on any of the Alpha system planets would be conducive to human survival.”

“So it’s settled then. If we have to run, we all run…parents too. We try to hide out down here for as long as we can. If that’s not possible, we head for the ships. Are we all in agreement?” Michael asked.

“If we join our powers, can’t we just transport ourselves somewhere else like you guys did with the Granilith?” Kyle asked. “Then, we wouldn’t have to worry about being followed or anything. We’d be able to just…poof…relocate.”

“We can’t count on that to work. We don’t know if we’ll all be together when the bad guys show up. Plus, where does that leave our parents? We were able to move the Granilith but we don’t know for sure that we can move sixteen living, breathing people. Remember all the dents and dings we put in the Jetta when we were practicing? Well what if that was us?” Alex pointed out.

Amy shot a glare at the gang. “Dents and dings?! You never told me that part…” She trailed off at Maria’s exasperated look. “We will discuss this later young lady.” Amy muttered.

Jeff chuckled and tried to get the group back on track. “All right everyone. So the plan is to use conventional methods in the beginning and then if that doesn’t work, we get more creative. I don’t think we’ve come up with any meeting points yet, have we?”

Kyle turned to Michael. “If we have to run, how long do you think we’ll be able to stay in one place without moving on?”

“I have no idea…no longer than a week I guess.” Michael said with a shrug. He’d been mentally preparing to run for years but he wasn’t really any more prepared than the rest of them.

“Can we mark weekly meeting points on a map and then just keep them in the vehicles? I don’t know that we’ll be able to remember too many different locations…much less in the correct order.” Nancy pointed out.

“That won’t work if any of us really are under surveillance though. If the wrong people get their hands on those maps, they’ll know exactly where to look for us. We might as well walk around with neon signs advertising our location.” Philip said quietly.

Kyle scrunched up his face in thought. “Maybe we don’t need to memorize all of the locations right away. Can we just pick like two or three locations today and then if we go on the run, we’ll decide on new locations every few weeks?” He suggested.

“That could work. The only drawback is, if we get separated we might not all be able to meet back up in time to find out the new locations.” Liz pointed out.

“I don’t know how you guys would feel about this but…Alex and I would be able to dreamwalk the missing members of our group if we got separated. We could just tell you the next few meeting points on the dream plane.” Isabel volunteered.

Dianne cocked her head in thought. “I wouldn’t have a problem with that honey, but that might be a little…invasive…for the others.” She pointed out gently.

“What is it like? Being dreamwalked, I mean. Do you just appear in a person’s dream and then start talking to them?” Charles asked.

“It’s something like that. I connect with you on a subconscious or psychic level I guess, just after you’ve entered REM sleep. You’d see me and we’d be able to talk to each other pretty much the same way we are now. When you woke up, you’d remember all of it.” Isabel explained.

Gloria smiled in awe. “And you can do this now too, Alex?”

Alex blushed. “Well…sort of. I’m not nearly as good at it as Isabel is. It’s kind of tricky to find people on the dream plane. I know I can reach Isabel. I’m sure that I could contact you or dad…probably Liz and Maria too.”

“I will be the first to admit that I’m a little terrified of the thought of someone bouncing around in my head with me…Lord knows, there are enough voices in there already.” Amy made a weak joke to cover up her apprehension about the whole situation. “I’m OK with it if it’ll keep everyone safe though.”

Jim nodded. “I’m in too. After all the hocus pocus I’ve seen in the last two years, having a chat on the ‘dream plane’, or whatever you call it, will be like a walk in the park.”

Liz looked over to her parents nervously. All of the others followed her gaze as it landed on her father. She knew that if anyone were going to protest about being dreamwalked, it would be Jeff.

Jeff nodded in resignation, surprising the group. “If we get separated and that’s the only way to keep in touch, then so be it.” He wasn’t thrilled with the idea that Isabel could just pop into his head at any time but he knew there might come a time when there wasn’t any other option.

“Well that settles it then, right? We’ll pick the first few meeting points now and then we’ll deal with the others when the time comes.” Gloria said.

“Which way do we head first? We can probably rule out going South right now because there’s no way we want to tangle with the Mexican border patrol.” Ava said.

“I agree. I guess what we really need to figure out is…are we safer in rural areas or will it be easier to blend in inside larger cities?” Max asked.

“There are no campgrounds in large urban areas, so we’d be forced to stay in hotels. I don’t think that’ll work…too expensive. It’ll have to be rural.” Liz mused.

Maria shook her head. “Yeah, but if we stick close to touristy places, there will be campsites and lots of people to blend in with.”

“That could work. No matter where we go, we’ll stick out a little bit because we’ll be outsiders…unless we go to well-known tourist traps. Look at Roswell! All sorts of weirdos show up here every year for the Crash Festival and us locals never really took much of an interest in them.” Kyle quickly agreed with Maria.

“Maybe you never took much of an interest in the outsiders, but everyone else in Roswell noticed them. They stick out like crazy!” Isabel said.

“Actually, I think agree with Kyle and Maria on this one. Yes, we noticed all the tourists, but do we actually remember any of them? We noticed their costumes and their stupid questions, but we never actually knew anything useful about any of them. We won’t be wearing garish costumes or asking any questions that twenty million other tourists haven’t already. Maybe tourist traps will be our best bet.” Max said.

“I know exactly where we could go for our first two touristy spots! First, we could go to the Grand Canyon. We could probably blend in there for a week no problem. Then, we could head out to Yellowstone. Both places have tons of campgrounds and more importantly…they’ll have tourists from all over the country to blend in with.” Maria suggested.

The group thought it over for a minute. They’d be heading straight into the heart of the Rocky Mountains if they took that route. On one hand, it was a risky plan because the mountainous roads could prove to be an obstacle if they had to make another quick getaway. On the other hand, they really would be able to play up the ‘tourist’ charade and most of the land between those areas was remote enough that traffic wouldn’t be a big problem.

“Well, I’ve always wanted to see Yellowstone.” Liz commented.

Michael shrugged. “The whole outdoorsy scene isn’t really my thing but I think it could work.”

“I guess it could be worse.” Isabel said with a sigh. She was absolutely dreading the idea of being stuck in the wilderness but it beat being in the white room.

“Who knows…maybe it’ll be relaxing. I’ve always wanted to travel…” Alex said, trying to see the positive side of the situation.

One by one, the others nodded in agreement. Philip and Dianne had been to the Grand Canyon years ago and they suggested that everyone meet at the Arizona Trails Resort. It was honestly the only campground in that area they could remember the name of, so that would have to do. The Yellowstone plans were much simpler. The group planned to meet up at Old Faithful and then they’d find a campground from there.

Michael and Maria had a short conversation with the soldiers while the others got ready to have lunch. The soldiers had overheard most of the conversation so they were already aware of the ‘evacuation plans’. It was agreed that the soldiers would memorize the locations of all the meeting points, as they were chosen. They were capable of tracking the Royal Eight by way of the royal seals, but Michael and Maria wanted them to know exactly where each meeting point would be without relying on the seals. None of the parents had a seal and if the group got separated, it would be imperative that the soldiers know where to find everyone.

[pooklette]

Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

Chapter 13: Too Many Players on the Field

After hammering out the details of their getaway plans, the gang had to head back to school. They all wished they could stay home just a little longer but their tight class schedules wouldn’t allow it.

The drive back to school was fairly uneventful, aside from a minor blowout between Michael and Maria over who was going to ride shotgun in Ava’s car. Kyle beat them both to the punch and squeezed into the front seat while they were too busy bickering to notice. Eventually their arguing quieted to a dull roar and they cuddled up in the back seat together.

The gang watched carefully to see if they were being followed. Isabel even tried to use her powers to lightly scan the thoughts of passing motorists. It proved to be difficult to get a good reading but Isabel caught enough fleeting images to encourage her to continue practicing that skill for future use. Overall, the coast looked clear and the gang made it back to school in plenty of time to squeeze in some study time for the next day’s classes.

As soon as the pod squad arrived on campus, the soldiers quickly dispersed and started patrolling the campus. Now, more than ever, they had to be aware of who was near the royals. Many of the guards went ahead to scout out the gang’s dorms and the usual few started subtly inspecting passersby around campus.

While the girls were hauling their bags back up to their dorm rooms, they were too busy chattering to notice two figures watching them from down the hall. One of them, a woman who appeared to be getting ready to go for a jog, knelt down to tie her sneaker and studied the girls intently. The other onlooker hung back in the shadows with a look of feverish concentration on her face. As they disappeared into their rooms, the jogger hurried off. The other onlooker faded back into the shadows and disappeared out of sight.

Minutes later, the jogger entered a private office in the Physics Complex.

“Professor Harrison, can I have a word with you?” She asked carefully.

“This room is secure Agent Foster. You can speak freely.” Agent Harrison said.

“Sir, the subjects have returned…” She looked around nervously. “They’re not alone though…”

“What do you mean they’re not alone? How many of them did you see?” Harrison asked while pulling out his cell phone.

“Sir, I believe that some of their ‘friends’ are more like guards or protectors of some kind. One of them, that Sondra girl who hangs around with Subject 3A, entered the dorms just before they did and paced the entire length of the hallway before turning right back around and disappearing outside again. Within less than one minute, our Subjects entered the building. It was as if Sondra was their lookout.” Agent Foster paused, unsure if she should reveal the true source of her worry.

“So they have guards…we can deal with that.” Harrison studied Foster’s face for a moment. “You’re holding back Serena. What aren’t you telling me?”

Agent Foster looked away. “I saw something that I can’t explain…” She started.

Harrison snorted. “You’re going to see a lot of things you can’t explain Agent. Care to elaborate?”

“Subject 4A, Tess Harding…she doesn’t go by the name Tess anymore. They call her Ava. I’ve never once heard them refer to her as Tess within their circle.”

“So aliens use nicknames.” Harrison shrugged in boredom. “That doesn’t tell us anything. Is this discussion going somewhere?”

Serena sighed in exasperation. “Sir, I have reason to believe that Tess and Ava are two different people. I think there are two of them and I think they are both currently on this campus.”

Harrison swallowed down a surge of fear. “And what exactly would lead you to make such a bold suggestion Agent?”

“Because I saw them both within 100 yards of each other today. Ava was walking with the other female Subjects, obviously returning from their trip to Roswell. The one I believe to be the real Tess Harding was watching them from further down the corridor. The thing I don’t understand is…I think I’m the only one who could see Tess…”

Harrison pressed a speed dial button on his cell phone and barked at someone on the other end. “Get me a secure line to Director Adams…now!”

Back in Roswell, the Parkers were helping Courtney close up the restaurant for the night.

“I really appreciate you putting in the extra hours here this weekend, Courtney. Liz has been so busy at school that we don’t get to spend nearly as much time with her as we’d like. It was nice to have a weekend off to spend with her while she was home.” Jeff said.

“Oh it was no trouble at all Mr. Parker. I was really surprised that Liz and her friends would leave school in the middle of the semester like that. Nothing was wrong I hope…” Courtney said, searching Jeff’s face for an answer.

“Wrong? Oh, no…no. Everything’s fine. They just needed a little break, that’s all.” Jeff said, in what he hoped was a nonchalant voice.

“Well I’m glad to hear that. You know how crazy college campuses are these days. I’d hate to see any of them get hurt…” Courtney pointed out. She had her back turned so Jeff never saw the mischievous grin pass over her face.

At that very moment Kyle was leaving his dorm room to grab a late night snack from the vending machines in the student union. He made it almost half way to the union before a masked man jumped in his path. Suddenly Kyle’s world went black.

[pooklette]

Thanks for coming back to check out the new chapters! I appreciate you sticking with the story even after months of no updates. I hope you like this new chapter.

Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

Chapter 14: Utter Chaos

Isabel and Ava were unpacking and starting to settle in after their long drive home from Roswell. Theirs was a unique bond that had started solely because they were the only female hybrids in the group but over time it had developed into a real friendship.

“Maria got Amy talking about the wedding this weekend. She’s so excited that you can’t help but be excited with her.” Ava said with a smile.

“You know, when those two first started dating, I thought they were crazy. I mean…Amy is this eccentric little ex-hippie type and Jim is…well, he’s the Sheriff! I can’t believe how much things have changed.” Isabel said.

Ava sighed. “Do you think we’ll ever have that? A wedding, families of our own…you know, normal stuff like that? Things have been great this year but I can’t help but feel like it’s all too good to be true.”

Isabel looked off into the distance, deep in thought. “I want those things to happen. I want us all to get our happily ever after endings. After everything that’s happened, we deserve at least that much…” Isabel trailed off with a frustrated shake of her head.

“Well I for one…” Ava broke off and crumbled to the floor clutching her head.

Isabel rushed over and knelt down. “Ava, what’s wrong? What’s happening?!”

Ava panted in exertion and held her head even tighter. “Something’s happening to Kyle! Arrgh…call Michael!” She gasped in pain.

Suddenly Isabel wasn’t sure if it was safe to speak freely in her dorm room so using the phone was out of the question. She didn’t know if she could mentally reach Michael, but she was positive that she could reach Alex.

Alex was sitting in his dorm half asleep with his head buried in his Computer Science book when Isabel’s voice shrieked through his mind. He jumped about a foot and tumbled out of his bunk. He looked around his room and noticed that Kyle wasn’t there.

Alex didn’t even bother picking up the phone to check on Isabel. He just hopped up and immediately ran out the door, toward the girl’s dorms. On his way past Max and Michael’s room, he paused for a split second to pound frantically on the door and then kept running.

BANG…BANG…BANG!

Max was studying and Michael was lounging around doodling in his sketchpad when they heard Alex banging on the door.

“What the hell?!” Michael barked. He mentally called out for Kaden, his royal guard.

Kaden materialized in their room, just as Max was preparing to open the door. Max, armed only with Michael’s hockey stick, whipped open the door and found no one there. Michael quickly explained the situation to Kaden and asked him to do an immediate head count. Kaden swiftly teleported out of the room to check on the rest of the Royal Eight.

Max and Michael had no intention of waiting for Kaden to come back with a report. They rushed out of their room, headed straight for the girl’s dorms. Just as they rounded the corner outside, they saw Alex kneeling next to an unconscious Kyle.

Relief flooded Alex’s face when he saw Max and Michael. “Max! You take care of Kyle…Michael and I will head over and check on the girls.” Alex said in a rush.

Max’s first instinct was to tell Alex go to hell…Liz needed him more. As he looked down on Kyle’s unconscious form though, logic won out over instinct and he realized that he was probably needed more right where he was. Liz could blast now and she was with Maria, who could blast better than all of them, so he swallowed down the massive lump of fear in his throat and waved Alex and Michael on.

Just before he left, Michael mentally called out for Jonas, Max’s guard. He couldn’t just leave Max and Kyle alone out there. Almost immediately, Jonas stepped out from the shadows and nodded to Michael. Alex and Michael waved and ran off across campus.

Liz and Maria were sitting in their dorm room; blissfully unaware of the chaos going on around them when suddenly Liz started trembling. She was shaking hard enough to rattle the books on her desk and her eyes had taken on a glassy expression.

“Liz? What’s happening?” Maria asked nervously. When she got no response, she rushed over and cupped Liz’s face with both hands.

“Come on girlfriend…look at me. I need you to focus on me and tell me what’s going on,” Maria said far more calmly than she felt. Liz’s glassy, distant stare continued as though she hadn’t heard a word Maria said.

Maria mentally called out to her royal guard, Connor. He appeared in the room just in time to see Maria shaking Liz by the shoulders. There was an iridescent purple shield surrounding the two of them. He looked on in astonishment.

“Connor, thank God! I think Liz is having a vision or something but I can’t get her to snap out of it. I need you to check on the others and make sure they’re OK. Oh…and bring Max.” She ordered quickly, dropping the purple shield she had created by surprise.

Liz’s voice startled them. “No, don’t bring Max here. Bring Max to Kyle…he was just attacked.” She sat back in exhaustion from the force of the vision. Her hands crackled with green sparks.

Isabel was still cradling Ava’s head in her lap when Alex rushed in. He was panting from the exertion of running across campus. Just as Alex started to ask what happened, Ava sat up and let out a cry of relief.

“He’s OK!” She cried, as Alex looked on puzzled.

Michael had just thrown the door to Maria and Liz’s room open when Kaden appeared. He had alerted all the other guards and checked on the whereabouts of the rest of the royals so now he had to report back to Michael. Liz and Maria looked up in shock at both of the new arrivals.

“Are you guys OK?” Michael asked, pawing Maria from head to toe looking for injuries.

“Michael…hey!” Maria batted his hands away and threw her arms around him in a relieved hug. “Kyle’s been attacked! Liz saw the whole thing in a vision just now…you have to get Max…” She said in a rush.

Michael nodded. “We found Kyle. Max is with him right now.”

“You left them alone?! What if the attacker is still out there? How could you just leave them like that?!” Liz sputtered in shock.

Michael glared at her in irritation. “They are not alone. I called for Jonas before I came here. Do you honestly think I’d leave Max out there alone, in the dark, with an attacker on the loose?” He barked through gritted teeth.

“OK…how about we all calm down and figure out what happened?” Maria interrupted before Liz and Michael could really get into it. Just then, Connor materialized into the room.

“I have a status report for you Ma’am.” Connor addressed Maria. She gestured for him to continue.

Both Kaden and Connor proceeded to give their status reports. Apparently, it looked like Kyle had been mugged. He had been knocked out by a violent blow to the head and his wallet was found laying next to him, minus all the cash. Max was easily able to heal him and he was currently resting back up in his own room under the watchful eye of Dillan, his royal guard.

Soon the whole group had heard the story and Ava rushed off to see for herself that Kyle was alright. When they finally managed to get together and compare stories later, they were stunned to realize that in their very first official campus emergency, all of their plans had gone right out the window. No one had thought to retreat to their emergency meeting point at the Activity Center like they were supposed to. Instead, they all impulsively rushed off in different directions, looking for their loved ones.

They all vowed that next time, because there would be a next time, they would all stick to the original emergency plans. If no one stuck to the plan, people would get lost or left behind…or worse yet, captured, and no one would know until it was too late. They would have to stick to the plans and try to stay in some kind of mental contact at all times. At the very least, they now knew that Ava would know what was happening with Kyle and Isabel could contact Alex. They weren’t sure if Liz would get another timely vision but they weren’t willing to rule out the possibility. Most likely, they all would be able to use their connections to keep track of each other one way or another and they intended to start using that to their advantage.

The gang also decided that they would have to be more diligent about sticking with their guards. Up until now they had been somewhat lax about bringing a guard along for small errands like trips to the vending machines, but after what happened today it was obvious that even small trips would require security. It was just one more reminder that things would never be normal for any of them.


Coming in Chapter 15: The FBI is lurking around the Las Cruces campus but what do they want? We all know nothing is ever what it seems with the podsters...was Kyle really the victim of a mugging, or is there more to the story?

[pooklette]

Thanks for the kind words guys. You guys are so right about Kyle's mugging being just one more of the vast conspiracies surrounding the podsters.

Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

Chapter 15: Just the Facts

Eight of the FBI’s most brilliant minds sat in conference with Director Adams himself. The group buzzed with nervous tension. Few of these agents regularly operated in the field. Most of them were scientists so this was a whole new ballgame for them.

“So what do we know here? No speculation…I just want the facts first.” Adams said.

Agent Harrison was the senior agent in this unit so everyone waited for him to speak first. He passed a number of thick packets around to the others and then began his summary.

“We know that an advanced alien craft crashed just outside of Roswell, New Mexico in July of 1947. There were at least four beings on board…maybe more. Two of the beings were killed in the crash and two others were captured, along with eight gestational pods. The two live subjects escaped from Wright Patterson Air Force Base and presumably took the pods with them.” Harrison flipped to the next page of his packet and continued.

“All efforts to locate the pods and the two beings were unsuccessful. We have no record whatsoever of their existence until 1959. In January of 1959 we began receiving reports of unexplained deaths in New Mexico, Colorado and Texas…the infamous silver handprint slayings. In each case, the local authorities reported a disappearing silver handprint on the torso, the victim’s organs were liquefied and the bones were infused with an unknown element dubbed Cadmium-X.” Harrison grimaced at an image in his packet and quickly turned the page.

“Cadmium-X does not exist on Earth, nor can it be created in our labs. It is definitely extraterrestrial in origin. Materials collected from the debris field at the crash site also contained trace amounts of this element. Unfortunately, all attempts to reconstruct the beings’ aircraft were unsuccessful so we have very little further intelligence about their technology or that specific substance.”

“The silver handprint murders continued until 1999. For reasons unknown, they abruptly stopped in the fall of that year. From that point forward, our records are poor at best. Virtually all of our extraterrestrial intelligence files were destroyed after Agent Pierce took control of the Special Unit.”

Director Adams interrupted. “Our current predicament is a direct result of Agent Pierce’s incompetence. I am going to be very clear with you right now. We do not and will not operate in such a manner. When I took the position as Director, I reviewed the few files that Pierce left behind and after seeing the reports with my own eyes, I cannot stress enough that he was not acting in the best interests of the United States of America…or humankind for that matter.” Adams said with conviction.

“This is not a witch hunt. We know for a fact that extraterrestrials have been on this planet for over 50 years. They have made no attempt to ‘take over’ or any other such nonsense. We do not know that they are dangerous, however, we also do not want to risk provoking them in the event that they are. In 1962 Agent Lewis, the first head of the special unit, was found dead with a silver handprint on his chest. In 1967 his replacement was slain the same way. May second, 1999, Agent Daniel Summers met the same fate. These men were ruthless in their pursuit of these beings and we all know it. Perhaps they provoked the aliens into defending themselves, or perhaps they just got too close for comfort. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we need to find out. I want to hear your thoughts…just throw them out there and let’s see if we can find a fresh angle on this.” The Director said.

A tall blonde man cleared his throat. “Sir, I believe that there was more than one aircraft in the crash. The Air Force engineers were never able to reassemble the craft because they were trying to use two different sets of components to build a single vessel.” Agent Meyers was one of the top mechanical engineers in the United States and he would bet his life savings that there was more than one ship in the 1947 crash.

All eyes turned to him. Harrison narrowed his eyes in disbelief. “How is it possible that an entire team of engineers would miss something so obvious? All of the radar data indicated that there was one, single ship.”

Agent Meyers shook his head. “Radar technology was inefficient at best in 1947. If there had been more than one aircraft, entering our atmosphere simultaneously in close proximity to each other, the Air Force radar would not have been able to distinguish between them. I have studied all the physical and photographical evidence on file…I am positive there were two different ships.”

Harrison turned to Agent Serena Foster. “That certainly would put an interesting spin on your discovery at Las Cruces, now wouldn’t it?”

Serena was silent for a moment, deep in thought. “Two ships, eight gestational pods, two identical girls…we don’t have enough information to tie it all together yet.” She mused.

“We should have more intelligence on Tess and/or Ava soon. Now that we’ve got her boyfriend wired, we should have reams of data pouring in.” Agent Ford pointed out. He was one of the nation’s finest counterintelligence agents and he had personally planted the surveillance device in the sole of Kyle Valenti’s sneaker during a staged mugging.

Director Adams sat forward. “No one approaches her…is that understood? The information we managed to salvage from the Special Unit indicates that she could be dangerous. Out of all of those kids, she’s the one I’m most concerned about at this point.”

Serena added her two cents. “Based on my observations, the Tess Harding in those files is a classic sociopath. Security footage from Eagle Rock Military Base indicates that she may be capable of inducing mass hallucinations or some kind of temporary dementia. The girl at Las Cruces…the one who responds to the name Ava…she is nothing like the girl I read about in those files or the one I saw on the security footage. If anything, she is the antithesis of Tess. After we get some audio footage off the boyfriend, I think we’ll be able to prove conclusively that Ava and Tess are two distinctly separate people.”

“You reported that no one but you seemed to notice Subject 4A in the dormitories. Are you suggesting that she was using her powers on her own people?” The Director asked.

Serena Foster nodded. “Yes sir, I believe that she was. I think what we need to know now is…why?”

Harrison interrupted. “The duplicate Tess or Ava coincidentally showed up after a massive electromagnetic disturbance outside of Roswell in January. We originally believed that the Subjects were ‘phoning home’ for lack of a better term because shortly thereafter an unknown craft was spotted in the outer thermosphere. Perhaps we were looking at this all wrong though. What if that ship wasn’t purposely called here to join with the Subjects?”

Agent Meyers added his two cents. “The unknown craft was first sighted on January 2nd. It started entering our atmosphere on January 3rd and was tracked to a remote location between Las Cruces and Roswell. At that point we lost sight of the craft. We know that the Subjects were in Roswell at the beginning of January and they do attend Las Cruces University. Is it possible that the beings in the new craft detected the electromagnetic disturbance and headed straight for it? Perhaps it was a beacon advertising our Subject’s location.”

“Are we safe to assume that the Subjects’ guardians or protectors were on that ship?” Adams asked.

“Our intelligence confirms that the Subjects’ guardians were sighted in Roswell last fall. That means they were here before the new craft appeared. It couldn’t have been them. I believe that the beings in the new craft might be a threat to our Subjects. That would explain why they haven’t made contact yet.” Agent Ford interjected.

“What do we know about the others?” Adams asked with a sigh. They had too many questions and not enough answers.

“Subject 2A, Michael Guerin…His record has been easier to obtain than any of the others, mainly due to his tour of duty in the foster care system and his many run ins with the law. He was found wandering the desert, naked, and was dubbed an abandoned child. His records indicate that he spoke no English and had very few of the most basic social skills upon arrival at the foster home. His first placement lasted less than three weeks. The couple apparently brought him back to the foster home, claiming that he frightened them but they refused to explain further. His second placement didn’t even last a full week. That couple called the police to come pick him up…citing excessive destruction of property as their reason for the call.” Serena paused for a moment and looked away sadly before continuing.

“His third placement lasted six months, however, after his social worker found signs of abuse he was pulled from the home. His fourth and last placement lasted until 1999 when he was emancipated. There was apparently rampant abuse during that time. On more than one occasion his foster father, Hank Whitmore, was heard down at the local tavern complaining about Michael being a ‘freak’. He made a few references to ‘firestarter’ and ‘psychic hoodoo’.” Serena added.

Harrison stepped in to keep the conversation moving. “We have very little information on Subject 3A, Isabel Evans. She was adopted at the age of six and there is no record of her existence before that time. She has no criminal record and her school record was squeaky clean…in fact, she graduated near the top of her class and received an honorary scholarship for her ‘numerous civic contributions’ to the community. Her relation to Max Evans and her presence on the Eagle Rock video are the only indicators we have that she may be of extraterrestrial origin.”

Angela Garrett, one of the most gifted molecular biologists in the country, picked up the summary from there. She had studied Subject 1A at length, albeit from a great distance.

“Subject 1A, Maxwell Evans, is the only one that we actually have physical evidence for. One of the blood samples taken from him at Eagle Rock survived intact. He is, without a doubt, of extraterrestrial origin. I have spent a great deal of time studying his blood and the most notable result of my findings is that on a genetic level, he isn’t very different from you or me. His cellular structure is unique, but his genetic makeup isn’t nearly as remarkable as we had expected it would be. The can be only two possible reasons for these findings…either he is an alien, human hybrid, or humans and aliens share some kind of common ancestor.”

Adams looked over in anticipation. “What about the reports about his healing ability? Pierce destroyed almost all of the evidence he had on Max Evans but I know I remember hearing rumors of an investigation in Roswell involving him and a restaurant shooting. At that time, the theory was that Max healed a gunshot wound with his bare hands. Is that possible?”

Garrett shrugged in response. “If he has the mental capacity to somehow manipulate molecules…especially on a cellular level, then yes it would be possible. It’s highly unlikely, but I can’t rule it out.”

“Do we have any information on the other two? Here we are assuming that these kids were the beings in the gestational pods…if that is correct, then where are the adults that removed them from Wright Patterson?” Agent Meyers asked.

“I believe that the silver handprint murders were perpetrated by one or both of the adult survivors. We have no record of the existence of our current Subjects until the 80’s, leading me to believe that they were the beings inside the gestational pods. Aside from general speculation, we only have a few third-hand verbal reports that a man named James Atherton was in contact with the adult beings. We were unable to confirm the truth of those reports because Mr. Atherton disappeared in 1959.” Agent Ford answered.

Director Adams shook his head in frustration. “At this point we just don’t have enough information to put together the whole story. That is exactly why we need to continue surveillance on the Subjects. I want to be clear here…do not approach them directly. We don’t have any proof that those kids at Las Cruces are dangerous but I’m not willing to lose an agent if they are. Don’t give them a reason to make the first strike.”

[pooklette]

Thanks so much for the kind FB everyone! Here's another update...FINALLY!

Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

Chapter 16: Regrouping

On Monday the gang struggled to attend classes like everything was normal. They were all getting tired of fighting their way through a crisis and then being forced to pretend that everything was fine.

“Hey Maria, I need a favor.” Ava said when she saw Maria at breakfast.

Maria raised her eyebrows. “If it involves Kyle and a sponge bath I so don’t want to hear anything about it.” She quipped.

Ava rolled her eyes. “Oh honestly Maria! Seriously though…I need you to take notes for me in History class today. I was going to skip out to hang with Kyle for a little bit. Last night when…well, you know. I just feel like I need to be with him today.” She confessed.

“Gotcha. I’ll make you a deal, OK? I’ll cover the History notes if you’ll cover for me in Sociology this afternoon. I was hoping to catch some down time with Michael.” Maria offered.

Ava nodded in agreement. The two girls finished their breakfast and then rushed off to their first class, Criminal Justice 101.

After Criminal Justice ended, Maria gathered up her books and headed off toward History. Ava on the other hand, rushed off toward the boys’ dorms.

After knocking twice with no answer, Ava threw open the door to Kyle’s room in alarm. She was greeted by the sight of a boxer clad Kyle sleeping on his bunk. She smiled and sat down next to him. He jumped slightly and gave her a groggy look.

“Hello beautiful.” Kyle said with a dopey smile.

“Hello yourself, handsome.” Ava said. “How are you feeling?”

Kyle pulled her close. “Much better now. I don’t suppose you’re hiding some bacon and eggs in that backpack, are you?”

Ava laughed and swatted his arm. “Be serious Kyle! Do you have any idea how worried I was last night? I had no idea what happened to you. Max’s ordeal in the White Room kept running through my head and I was so sure that they got you.” She lectured.

“I can’t believe I got mugged. I mean, with all the other stuff we have to worry about…the FBI, Kivar, the dupes…” Kyle shook his head in irritation and fixed Ava with an intense stare.

“Promise me if there’s ever trouble again, you’ll follow the escape plan.” He said urgently.

“Kyle, we talked about all this yesterday…” She started. Kyle silenced her with a finger to the lips.

“I know that but I need to hear you say it. I need to know that I’m not going to slow you down…if the crap hits the fan then I want you to run. Go meet the others and don’t wait around for me. I’m serious about this.” Kyle pleaded.

“Kyle, I most certainly will not just leave you behind. No one gets left behind…that wasn’t part of the plan. If we run, we run together, remember?”

Kyle looked at her with pained eyes. “I remember, but we all know things don’t always go as planned for us. Promise me that you’ll think of yourself first, OK? Don’t worry about me…just get yourself to safety. If we get split up you know I’ll find you…”

“No, I don’t know that. If you get captured you’ll need us! Think about what the FBI did to Max in the White Room. And what are you going to do if Kivar attacks us? Do you honestly think you could get away from either of them by yourself? Those people are monsters Kyle…monsters of the worst kind and they won’t go easy on you just because you’re one of the Royal Eight!” Ava vented.

“Look, we all have to trust each other a little bit here. I need to be able to trust that you’re going to follow the plan so I’ll know where you are and you need to trust that I’ll have the common sense to call for the guards if I’m in trouble. That’s the only way this will work.” Kyle said.

Ava looked away in thought and then nodded in resignation. “I’ll promise to follow the plan if you’ll promise to call your guard at the first sign of trouble.”

Kyle smiled in relief. “Deal.”

Later that morning, Max met Liz at her dorm to catch some much needed alone time. They were skipping class, a first for both of them, but it was well worth it.

“Do you have any idea the kind of things that were racing through my mind last night? I had no idea what was going on, Kyle was hurt and you were all the way across campus. I didn’t know if we were being attacked…if you were hurt…” Max said, pulling Liz close.

“I know Max…I know. One second I’m sitting here doing my homework, the next I’m locked in this vision where I see Kyle getting clubbed over the head. I’d see him crumple to the ground and then the whole thing would just replay. I couldn’t tell who did it or how badly Kyle was hurt…it was awful!” Liz said with a shudder.

“Didn’t Future Max tell you that you started having premonitions in his timeline? It doesn’t really count as a premonition of you get it after the fact though. I wonder if this is some kind of new power...” Max mused.

“I honestly don’t know what it was but I know it was awful. It was like being trapped in some nightmare that wouldn’t end. Kyle is a good man…it hurt to see him that way. I hope I never get a vision like that about you.” Liz said sadly.

Liz tried to put on a smile and change the subject. This was the first time they’d been alone in weeks and she didn’t want to spend it moping.

“I don’t want to think about the vision anymore. Tell me something…something ridiculous or embarrassing. I need a little pick-me-up.” Liz challenged with a smirk.

Max suddenly blushed. “I almost picked a fight with Alex last night. He told me to stay behind and help Kyle while he and Michael checked on you guys. My first instinct was to tell him to go to hell because I wanted to find you…I’m pretty sure he wanted to punch me right about then.” Max confessed.

Liz smiled. “Yeah, well I almost picked a fight with Michael last night so I win.” She said.

Max did a double take. “What?! Why on Earth would you pick a fight with Michael of all people?” He asked. Michael was the last person you wanted to argue with because he was stubborn as a mule.

Liz blushed. “When Michael checked in on us, he told us that you had stayed behind to help Kyle. It never even occurred to me that he would’ve called Jonas out there to stand guard, so I yelled at him for leaving you two alone.”

Max laughed and then quickly turned sober again. “I can’t believe how badly we screwed up all our plans last night. I’m not happy that Kyle got mugged, but honestly I guess it’s a good thing it wasn’t an attack by Kivar or the FBI. The way we all just ran off blindly, we would’ve been in serious trouble.”

Liz sighed. “I guess we’ll just have to chalk this up to a lesson learned. Kyle is OK and now we know that we’ve got to think before we act. We have to stick to the plans. We have to stay focused and trust that the rest of the group is following the plans too.”

Liz and Max got to spend another hour together in relative peace. While they were cuddled up in Liz’s dorm room, Maria was meeting up with Alex for their last class of the day. After class was over, they too would both be heading off toward their significant others’ dorms for some down time.

Alex and Maria had both been told by their advisors to take an elective Physical Education course last semester. By coincidence, they both picked Self Defense for Beginners assuming it would come in handy. Surprisingly they had enjoyed the class and decided to take the Intermediate Self Defense course this semester.

“Hey there girlfriend!” Maria waved to Alex as she rushed out of the locker rooms in her workout gear.

Alex rolled his eyes. “Do you have any idea how badly you damage my macho reputation every time you call me girlfriend?”

Maria laughed. “Whatever girlfriend. Ready to get your butt beat?” She teased. Alex was her training partner and because he didn’t want to hurt her, he always let her win their sparring matches.

“Absolutely…after you Madame.” He said with a regal bow.

They joined the rest of the class at the training mats. Today, they would be practicing the basic martial arts moves the instructor had been teaching them. The class was broken up into pairs and the instructor would move about the groups, watching their progress.

The instructor watched Alex and Maria spar with a nod of approval. He blew his whistle to signal that class was over but asked that Alex and Maria stay after to have a word with him.

“You two are really very good. I’m not so sure that you belong in my Intermediate Self Defense course.” He started.

Maria’s jaw dropped. “But Sir! We’ve been practicing like you told us to…” She protested.

The instructor smiled. “Maria, I’m not saying that you don’t belong in this class at all…I’m saying that I would like to move you two up to my Advanced course. Would that be alright with you?” He asked.

“When does the Advanced class meet? I’m in the Computer Science program so I have a really tight schedule.” Alex pointed out.

“It meets right after this one. I would understand if you couldn’t make it today, since this is short notice but I’d really like to see you challenge yourselves a little more.” The instructor said.

Alex and Maria exchanged glances and then nodded in agreement. They both had free time after this class was over anyway so one minor schedule change wouldn’t hurt.

The instructor nodded. “I’ll see you at this time on Wednesday then.”

Maria and Alex ran off to the locker rooms with big smiles on their faces. Who would’ve guessed that either of them would be good enough at martial arts and self-defense to earn praise from an instructor? It made both of them feel just a little bit safer.

After a hasty shower, Maria ran across campus to meet Michael at his dorm room. She didn’t even bother knocking because she knew Max was in class. She waltzed in and greeted Michael with a sultry kiss.

“Could I get you to say hello to me like that all the time?” Michael asked between kisses.

Maria laughed. “Not on your life buster. There is a time and a place for everything, Spaceboy. This just happens to be the time…and the place…” She said with a mischievous smile.

Michael wrapped his arms around her waist. “You wanted to talk about something right? Because this…” He gestured between the two of them. “This does not make me want to talk.”

“How about we talk now and then do some more of this later?” Maria suggested with a wink.

Michael groaned. “You would think by now that I would’ve learned to just keep my mouth shut.” He muttered.

“Look, I just wanted to talk about last night for like two seconds and then we can do whatever you want. OK?” She asked innocently. Michael nodded happily.

“Good. So I think we’re safe to assume that we’ll all be totally distracted over finding each other the next time a crisis strikes. You saw it last night…everyone just ran off without even thinking about our emergency plans. I know everyone promised that they wouldn’t do that again, but honestly…it’s like instinct. You can’t just run off not knowing whether your loved ones need you or not. I know I wouldn’t be able to make a run for it without knowing you were right behind me…” Maria said.

Michael groaned. “I know…I know. I can’t force everyone else to follow the plan if I’m not so sure that I will either though. Last night I almost lost control…the thought of someone hurting you…”

“You will most certainly follow the plan Michael Guerin, as will the rest of us. If we knew for a fact that everyone was alright, it would be easier to get our butts in gear and stick to the plan, right?” Maria asked.

Off Michael’s hesitant nod, she made a suggestion. “Then I think we should practice using our connection to track each other. You know, we should open up and see if we can find a way to communicate with each other the way that Isabel and Alex do.”

“Maria, you know that mental powers are not my strong suit.” Michael protested.

“Yeah and up until a year ago you couldn’t focus your powers to save your life but now you can. Did you know that we could make shields?” She asked to make a point. Off his shocked look, she explained about the weak purple shield she had accidentally created around herself and Liz last night.

“See? We have all these powers just waiting to be discovered…so let’s give it a shot.” She prodded.

Michael sighed in resignation. They joined hands and focused on their connection. Suddenly Michael jumped back in surprise.

“I felt you! I can always feel you a little bit when you’re nearby but this was…more.” He struggled to explain.

“It felt it too.” Maria said excitedly. “It was like you were in here with me.” She said tapping her head.

Michael got up and walked over to the other side of the room. “Let’s try it without touching.” He said.

Again they concentrated on each other. A rosy blush suddenly appeared on Maria’s cheeks. “Oh my God, I heard that Michael!” She said, flustered.

Michael smirked. He crossed the room and took Maria in his arms. “It worked…I’ll have to remember that. This could be very useful…” He said huskily.

Across campus, Alex and Isabel were settling down for a little alone time of their own. After Self Defense class he had showered and rushed right over to Isabel’s dorm.

“I can’t believe you came for me last night. You could have run to the Activity Center like we planned but you came for me instead…” Isabel said in wonder.

Alex wrapped his arms around her. “Of course I did. I’ll always come for you Iz. I love you.” He said very seriously.

Isabel blushed. “I love you too Alex. I shouldn’t have called for you the way I did though. My God…you probably thought I was the one being attacked! I swear, if something like this happens again I’ll try to tell you what’s going on instead of just screaming for you. If this had been an FBI thing I would’ve led you straight to them!” She said, angry with herself.

“Iz, let’s just be thankful that we got to have sort of a trial run. Last night was scary and everything fell apart but we can learn a lot from it. We can’t beat ourselves up over it…now we all know what not to do.” He said calmly.

“Do you think we can communicate with the others the way we did with each other last night?” Isabel asked.

Alex shrugged. “I don’t know. Want to try?”

Isabel shook her head. “No…not right now. We should give the others some warning before we try. Maybe we can talk to everyone about it tomorrow and set up a sort of a trial run. We could all take turns trying to contact each other. Right now, I just want to be here with you and try to be a normal couple for a little while.” She said snuggling in closer.

“Well…what is it that normal couples do anyway?” Alex asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Isabel grinned. “Hmmm…maybe something like this…” She said as she gave him a sultry kiss.

“Normal isn’t nearly as overrated as I thought…” He murmured as she started removing his shirt.

While the gang was busy spending time with their loved ones, two separate groups were making detailed plans about what to do with them. One group had no intention of letting them live and the other had no intention of letting them die.

[pooklette]

Thanks for the kind words guys! I'm tickled pink to announce that I have officially finished the last chapter of this story and am going to start working on the next sequel today. Now that I'm sure I like the direction this story took (which is totally different than where I had planned) my updates will start coming a lot quicker than they have been for the last few months. Thanks for reading...Enjoy!


Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

Chapter 17: Is The Enemy Of My Enemy, My Enemy…Or My Friend?

On Tuesday the pod squad went about business as normal. Ditching class to spend with their respective loved ones had actually been a good idea. The down time was exactly what they needed after the mugging crisis.

In a small house bordering the Las Cruces campus, four figures were arguing about how to proceed.

“You’re getting sloppy Tess! You can’t keep wandering around that campus in clear sight. They’re getting stronger and soon they’ll catch on.” Nicholas barked.

“We know how to block them now and their guards are completely oblivious. I’ve been warping their ‘protectors’ for almost a week now and they’re too blind to figure it out. They’re so busy prancing around that campus like a bunch of lowly humans; they don’t see what’s right in front of their faces. What’s the point in just sitting back watching them anyway? We could take them all out right now and you know it.” Tess grumbled.

“No Tess, we don’t know that. They’re the Royal Eight. If they join their powers, you won’t stand a chance. I don’t care what Kivar did to your powers while you were gone…you guys are still no match for them.” Nicholas lectured condescendingly.

Lonnie interrupted. “You have no idea how much we learned while we were gone Nicholas. Kivar personally showed us how to unlock our powers. We trained with the best soldiers on Antar. Perhaps you should remember that you aren’t in charge anymore.” She said with a snarky grin.

“Yeah, so I’ve been told. I see that Kivar must have hired Antar’s best tutors for you while he was at it too…you almost sound smarter without that horrible New York accent.” Nicholas bit back.

Rath let out an audible growl. “You might want to be careful you don’t wear out your welcome Nicholas. As Kivar’s Second, I get to decide if you stay here or go home to Antar with us. You might be sporting a cozy new skin but I know for a fact that it won’t last forever. Do you really want to die alone on this shitty planet?”

Nicholas inwardly cringed when Rath mentioned his new status as Kivar’s Second-In-Command. No amount of training and tutoring would convince Nicholas that Rath was qualified for the position. He knew darned well that Kivar had only chosen Rath because the people loved him. The people saw him as the one of the royal heirs of the House of Rathemere but he was nothing more than a status symbol to Kivar. That is really why he had gone to all the trouble of trying to whip these idiots into shape…so the people would never be able to tell that they weren’t the true Royals.

Rath turned to Tess. “We’ve waited long enough. We’re preceding with the original plan…Divide and Conquer. Tomorrow we start Phase 1. I suppose you want the honors of taking out Liz?” He offered.

Tess grinned in satisfaction. “I’ve wanted to get rid of that mousy little bitch since the first day we set foot back on this pathetic planet. I memorized her class schedule already. I can trap her in one of the Biology labs. It’s on the fourth floor so she’ll have no where to run…”

Rath nodded in agreement. “Lonnie, you take out Isabel’s boyfriend…that Alex guy. He won’t realize you’re not Isabel until it’s too late. His last class on Wednesdays is that stupid Self Defense thing. Just meet him outside the gym and tell him you wanted to go for a walk or something. As soon as the two of you are out of sight, get rid of him.”

“That leaves Kyle and Maria. Who gets them? Maria might have Michael’s powers but we don’t know if she’s figured out how to use them yet and Kyle might be able to warp like Ava.” Tess pointed out.

Lonnie added her two cents. “Rath should take out Kyle because he can block mindwarps. It won’t matter if Opie has figured out how to use his powers because they won’t work on Rath anyway.”

Rath agreed. “That’ll work. In fact, I’ll take both Kyle and Maria myself. I’ll get Maria on Wednesday afternoon in her dorm. Liz will be in class and Maria will let me in thinking I’m Michael. She’s human…there’s no way her powers are as strong as mine are. Then I’ll go for Kyle Wednesday night after his baseball practice.”

“Are we bringing the skins to the campus with us or are they going after the parents?” Tess asked in anticipation.

“Send them to Roswell. We won’t need them on campus. We can take out the royals on our own.” Rath sneered. His already over inflated ego had reached new levels ever since Kivar had given him the position of Second-in-Command.

Lonnie laughed. “They’re never going to know what hit them.”

Nicholas shook his head in disgust. “You’re so sure of yourselves, aren’t you? Did it ever occur to you that taking out all the humans would still leave the original foursquare intact? They won’t have the combined powers of eight, but they would still have the foursquare…which would be stronger than you three put together.”

Rath sneered. “Don’t you get it yet Nicholas? They’re soft. Taking out their humans would be like cutting their legs off at the knees. It’ll destroy them. That’s the whole point of this little game. Once they’re wallowing in their own pathetic grief, we’ll get rid of Max, Michael and Ava. Then we jet back to Antar before morning.”

Lonnie grimaced when Rath failed to mention eliminating Isabel. Kivar apparently wanted Isabel brought back alive, for what, Lonnie had no idea. He didn’t need Isabel…Lonnie was his Queen. Lonnie was in the middle of conjuring up an ‘accident’ for Isabel when Nicholas’ voice cut into her thoughts.

“You realize that when you fail, Kivar will have you executed right?” Nicholas asked with an evil smirk.

Rath sighed and waved his hand lazily. Nicholas erupted into a whirlwind of glowing flakes. As the air began to clear, Rath shrugged at the others and said, “He wore out his welcome.”

In an unused storage room in the basement of the Las Cruces Physics Complex, eight FBI agents were again having a status meeting. They were studying reams of data from the surveillance device planted on Kyle.

“They’re terrified! How ironic is that? Here we were trying to figure out if we need to protect ourselves from them, and they’re convinced that they need to protect themselves from us.” Agent Garrett said in wonder.

“Subject 4A made a reference to ‘the White Room’ and I think I know exactly what she was talking about…Eagle Rock Military Base. At Eagle Rock, all of the interrogation rooms are white. Stark white. It was designed as a psychological tactic to distract hostile subjects and induce cooperation.” Serena commented in horror. The implications of Ava’s comments were not lost on any of the agents in the room.

“How do we know we can take Ava’s comments at face value though? Pierce destroyed almost all of his alien files…including all of the ones pertaining to Eagle Rock. If something serious went down there, wouldn’t we have some kind of intel on it?” John Harrison asked in frustration.

“Pierce missed some of the security footage though. We know for a fact that we can place Isabel and Tess there…or was it Ava? Whichever…two of the women were caught on camera there in the fall of 1999.” Agent Ford pointed out.

“We know that Pierce made Eagle Rock his base of operations during that period. Given the Subjects’ strict avoidance of the FBI, something major must have happened to make them purposely set foot in that place.” Agent Meyers mused.

“Why don’t we just call a spade a spade here folks? We have a blood sample from Maxwell Evans. Where do you think Pierce got it? We have security footage of at least two of the Subjects from Eagle Rock. Ava made reference to Max in the ‘white room’ and we all know where she is talking about there. Isn’t it obvious? Pierce got him. Pierce had Max Evans at Eagle Rock and whatever happened there was serious enough to prompt him to destroy all the evidence.” Adams summarized with a scowl.

“When did we become the monsters?” Serena asked quietly.

“Subject 4A, Ava, also mentioned someone or something named Kivar. From the tone of the conversation, I assume that this Kivar is a man. Do we have any record of him in any of our files?” Agent Ford asked.

Harrison shook his head. “Negative. Perhaps he was one of the live beings from the crash? At this point we have no way of knowing. What we do know is, they are afraid of this Kivar guy and those others…the ones they called ‘the dupes’.”

Serena’s eyes lit up with understanding. “The dupes…the word dupe is short for ‘duplicate’. As in, an identical image or copy.” She clapped her hands together in shock. “That’s why there is a Tess and an Ava! They’re identical…one of them is a duplicate of the other!”

“Ava said ‘the dupes’…as in plural, meaning more than one. I suspect that we should assume each one of the Roswell Subjects could have a double. That would explain exactly why there were eight pods but we only have four confirmed extraterrestrials.” Agent Garrett pointed out.

“Two ships, eight pods, identical Subjects…how does that help us figure out why they’re here or where they came from?” Adams asked in anticipation. He felt like they were on the verge of a major discovery here.

“The Royal Eight…Subject 4A, Ava, mentioned something about royalty.” Agent Ford quickly flipped through the transcripts from the surveillance device.

“Oh…here it is. She said ‘they won’t go easy on you just because you’re one of the Royal Eight’. She was speaking as though Mr. Valenti was part of this so-called ‘Royal Eight’ whatever that is.” Ford clarified.

“If the Roswell Subjects were alien royalty, it would explain everything! Often in sovereign societies, individuals who marry into the royal line become royalty themselves. The Royal Eight…Ava and Kyle, Max and Liz, Michael and Maria, Isabel and Alex. It all fits!” Serena blurted excitedly.

“So then what of their doubles? They haven’t made a move to reveal their presence here to the Roswell group and we have evidence that at least one of them has used their powers against the others.” Harrison probed.

“The dupes…they’re not the true royals. They pose a threat. Perhaps the Roswell group was sent here for protection. That would explain why they have guardians too. Here on Earth, royal families have legions of protectors so it would be reasonable to assume that aliens would have a similar arrangement. Maybe there was a threat to the thrown or a revolution on their planet. That’s why the Roswell Subjects have never made any overt hostile attempts here. They’re just trying to survive…to hide, as it were.” Serena declared with a flourish.

Harrison choked on his coffee. “Jesus…you know what that means, don’t you?” He asked looking around at the others.

Adams nodded. “If they are royalty and they are harmed here on Earth…we could have an interplanetary war on our hands. We’ve all seen their technology, what was left after the crash anyway. We wouldn’t stand a chance. We’d be annihilated.”

“Is the enemy of my enemy my friend…or my enemy?” Agent Garret murmured, thinking about the dupes. If the Roswell Subjects really were royalty of some kind, did that automatically make their doubles ‘bad’?

“For now it is in the best interests of the United States that we assume the Subjects’ enemies are our enemies too. Until we find out otherwise, we need to make sure that no one touches a hair on those kids heads.” Agent Ford concluded.

Director Adams quietly turned and grabbed the nearest phone. “I need a secure line to the President.” He said.


Coming in Chapter 18: The manure hits the fan big time. Will the gang's emergency plans actually work this time or will they all lose their heads again? After this day is over, will the ever see Las Cruces again?

[pooklette]

RhondaAnn, Timelord31 and tequathisy - Thanks for reading! Even though you all made different predictions for this chapter, you're all totally headed in the right direction. I love that! Hope you like the action here...things are never going to be the same for the gang.

Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

Chapter 18: Time to Fly

Wednesday morning started off as any other normal day. The gang all gathered at the cafeteria for breakfast and then one by one started wandering off for class. There was no warning that their lives were about to drastically change.

The morning flew by quickly without incident. By two o’clock that afternoon, Liz, Maria and Alex were just entering their last classes of the day. The others were already hitting the books back in their dorms.

Liz knew something was wrong the second she entered her Biology lab. Her royal guard, Talia, was posing as a student and they both had Biology lab together. Talia always arrived at the lab just before Liz to make sure the room was clear. When Liz walked into the lab and saw that Talia wasn’t there, she knew there was a problem.

Liz made a show of carefully unpacking her books, trying to look natural. She didn’t want to overreact but the soldiers never strayed from their routine unless something was drastically wrong. She subtly pulled out her cell phone and started keying in a text message. It read, “I think I flunked my basketweaving test. I’ll meet you there.” The message was ready to be forwarded to the rest of the group. All she had to do was hit ‘send’ and the others would know to make a run for the getaway cars.

Just as Liz’s fear started to get the best of her, Talia rushed into the room right behind the professor. She sat down next to Liz and acted like nothing was wrong as the professor began the day’s lesson.

“Talia, you’re late. What happened?” Liz whispered urgently.

Talia looked around confused. “I’m late?” Surprise dawned on her face. “Oh Liz, I apologize! I was talking to Ava in the hallway and I lost track of the time…” She said. She looked away in shame.

Liz cocked her head in confusion. “That’s alright Talia. I just thought something happened…you know…in your basket weaving class.” Liz prodded.

Talia shook her head. “No, nothing happened. I was on my way here when I saw Ava. She called me over to ask a few questions and then…and then I came straight here.”

Liz was surprised by Talia’s complete lack of composure. The soldiers were always in top form. They were never forgetful or distracted. Liz was even more concerned now.

Across campus, Maria and Alex were just heading toward the gym for their new Advanced Self Defense course. This would be their first session at the Advanced level so they were both chattering nervously about what to expect. As the two friends approached the Physical Education building, they saw Isabel standing outside, apparently waiting for Alex. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t really Isabel standing there.

“Hey Iz!” Alex said with a smile. “What are you doing here?” He asked.

“Well I thought you had class just now…I was going to see if you wanted to go for a walk.” Lonnie said, looking back and forth between Alex and Maria nervously. Maria wasn’t supposed to be here. Rath was going to be pissed.

“Oh, I’m sorry Iz! I thought I told you the instructor switched our class. Maria and I are taking the advanced class now…apparently he didn’t want to hold us back with that intermediate child’s play anymore.” Alex quipped with a thousand watt smile. Curiously, the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He looked over at Maria in confusion and saw a look of alarm on her face too.

“Oh! That’s too bad. I just saw Michael a few minutes ago…he’s headed over to your dorm, Maria.” Lonnie prodded. Her only hope was to get these two to agree to ditch class. If she could convince Maria to go back to her dorm to see ‘Michael’ then she could get Alex alone and complete her end of the mission.

Maria took a step back in concern. There was something different about Isabel but she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was. She looked over at Alex and caught a look of concern from him too. His face was a deathly shade of white.

“How was your basket weaving exam today Iz?” Alex asked with a shaky voice.

At that very moment, Rath was knocking on the door of Maria’s dorm room. He grinned and let himself in. His face fell when he found the room empty. She was supposed to be here, studying…alone. He let out a primitive growl and closed the door to wait for Maria’s return. Eventually she would return and he planned on being there to surprise her.

Back in the Biology lab, Liz was studying Talia closely. Something was off about her and Liz couldn’t shake a feeling of foreboding. Suddenly, she noticed that Talia was tapping rhythmically on the lab table. She watched for another second before realizing what was happening.

“Talia, what did Ava want to ask you earlier?” Liz whispered urgently.

Talia looked up startled. For a split second, she looked like a caged animal because the truth was…she couldn’t remember what Ava had said to her.

“I’m sorry…I…I don’t remember.” She stuttered, tapping frantically on the table.

Liz’s eyes went wide. “Oh. My. God.” She gasped in fear.

Talia hadn’t seen Ava earlier. She had seen Tess and the witch had mindwarped her just like she had done to Kyle. Liz was sure of it now. Her finger reflexively hit the ‘send’ button on her cell phone. As she desperately tried to figure out how to make a subtle exit from the room, her eyes fell to the glass slide on her table. She nonchalantly leaned forward and knocked it off the table with her elbow. It shattered loudly on the floor.

“Oh I’m so clumsy! How embarrassing…I’ll just go get another one…” She stammered. With that, she rushed off toward the supply closet in the back. ‘Please God let Maria be right about the vent in there,’ she thought.

Out by the Physical Education building, Lonnie was looking at Alex like he’d lost his mind. Basket weaving? Isabel was taking basket weaving?!

She plastered on a fake smile and said, “Oh that…I won’t know until we get the test results back next week.”

Just then, both Alex and Maria’s cell phones started buzzing. They looked at each other in surprise and checked their phones. Maria nearly dropped hers when she saw the message.

Maria lunged forward and slammed the heal of her palm into Lonnie’s chin. The Isabel clone was caught completely off guard and her head snapped back violently. Alex stood still as a statue, concentrating on blocking Isabel’s frantic voice out of his head. He couldn’t tell if it was the real Isabel or a trick from Lonnie so he shut the voice out completely.

At that very moment, Liz was perched at the top of a precarious stack of boxes in the storage closet of her biology classroom. She was feverishly trying to haul herself up into the ventilation shaft above. With one more good heave, she rocketed herself up inside the metal duct and started scurrying away. She managed to find the vent shaft Maria had told her about and dropped down into an empty classroom below. Liz cautiously looked out the door. Seeing no one suspicious in the hallway, she made a run for the stairs.

In less than two minutes, Liz had made her way down to the first floor and burst out the front doors of Foster Hall. She ran as fast as she could, not caring that people were starting to stare. As she entered the wooded area beside the building, she mentally searched for Max.

Max and Michael had been holed up in their dorm when Liz’s distress call had come through. Their cell phones buzzed in unison and without even looking, both men knew there was trouble. Michael mentally tried to alert his guard, Kaden, while hastily gathering up his pocketknife and wallet from the bed stand. Max snagged both cell phones and his wallet all in one swoop on his way out the door. They jogged down the stairs and out toward the Activity Center.

Isabel and Ava both had their heads buried in their textbooks when they got the call. As one they snatched up their cell phones and gasped when they saw the message. Thankfully, they had both packed their most personal items in their purses the day before, just in case. They were able to grab their purses and dash straight out the door.

Liz was running as fast as her legs would carry her. None of them had realized that the dupes had been so close. She had to keep moving. The trees were whipping around as she ran past, creating angry red welts on her arms and legs. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath. Her lungs felt like they were about to burst. Suddenly, a hand grabbed her from behind and she screamed…

Isabel and Ava were running across campus toward the Activity Center when they spotted Max and Michael. They met up and immediately started firing off questions at each other as they ran.

“Are the cars ready? Where is everyone else?” Michael shouted.

“Liz called in the warning so we know she’s OK. Alex should be with Maria at the Phys Ed building but I can’t seem to get through to him.” Isabel said, panting.

“I have no idea where Kyle is yet but he can’t be hurt or I’d feel it.” Ava said nervously.

Just then, Liz’s voice came blasting through Max’s mind. He stumbled and fell. Michael scooped him up and started dragging him forward.

“Keep going Maxwell. No time to stop.” Michael said breathlessly.

Max stopped and ripped his arm out of Michael’s grasp. “That was Liz! She called out to me…she’s in trouble.”

Michael dug in his heals and grabbed Max’s arm again. “We can’t stop! That wasn’t part of the plan…Liz thinks you’re sticking to the plan and I’m pretty sure she’ll blast my ass all the way back to Antar if I let you go running off on your own. Do that little remote viewing trick Liz does if you want, but you‘re not stopping.”

Max started jogging hesitantly while trying to focus on Liz. He had never tried the remote viewing thing but if Liz could do it, odds were he could do it too. Michael noticed that Max was lagging behind as he tried to contact Liz. He rushed over and threw Max over his shoulder like an old sack of potatoes and kept running.

“Hurry up and do your thing Maxwell because you are not light!” Michael grunted, stumbling awkwardly under Max’s added weight.

Just as the foursome rounded the corner, they spotted Maria and Alex outside the Phys Ed building. They stopped for a second, trying to figure out who else was there. As soon as they realized that it was Lonnie, they started running faster than ever.

Isabel charged forward in blind fury. That monster had the nerve to approach Alex…her Alex. The air started crackling with violent energy as Isabel’s anger reached its peak. Alex seemed to be frozen in place. ‘He can’t hurt her because she looks like me,’ Isabel realized.

Isabel watched in horror as Lonnie lunged at Alex. A shimmery purple shield bubbled to life around Maria and Alex just before Lonnie could reach them. Isabel watched in relief as Maria prepared to blast her vile double. Alex seemed to be using his powers to push Lonnie away. It was obvious that Maria’s fledgling shield wouldn’t stay up for long.

Flames erupted out of nowhere and Lonnie jumped back with a look of confusion. Ava materialized right in front of her, angry yellow flames dancing off her hands. “Don’t think for one second that Isabel’s face will keep you safe from me, bitch. Back off!”

Maria lowered her hand and smirked at the surprised look on Lonnie’s face. “God, you guys just don't get it, do you?! The whole ‘lets kill our doubles and steal the Granilith’ routine is getting a little old, don’t you think?” She asked condescendingly.

Lonnie smiled with an evil glint in her eyes. “You’re all so naïve…” With that, she vanished. She was just gone…poof.

“Oh my God…she…she teleported! How the hell is it that they can teleport and we can’t?!” Maria yelled in outrage.

“We can’t just stand here out in the open. Let’s go. Liz and Kyle are almost at the Activity Center now.” Max said, coming out of his connection with Liz. He had succeeded at using the remote viewing to find Liz and was actually relieved to see that she was with Kyle.

Liz and Kyle were running toward the Activity Center when she felt her connection with Max flare up. She realized that he was checking in on her and smiled in relief. If he was checking on her, that meant he was safe for now.

“You know, you scared the crap out of me Kyle. When you grabbed me I thought you were Tess…I almost blasted you.” Liz panted.

Kyle grinned. “Yeah, well you’re the one who sent out the distress call. I wasn’t exactly pleased as punch to see the bat signal flashing on my phone either you know. Any word on the others?”

“Max just checked in so I know he’s alright. I’m not sure about the others…sorry.” She said, nearly out of breath.

As they got closer to the activity center, they saw the rest of their group talking to the two guards assigned to getaway car duty. It looked like the guards were handing the keys over to Max and Michael. Liz and Kyle didn’t stop running until they reached the others. Kyle saw Ava standing safe and sound next to Michael. A feeling of relief washed over him and he ran over to submerge her in a massive hug.

“Which ones are ours?” Kyle panted, pointing to the cars in the parking lot.

Michael nodded hello and pointed over toward two huge trucks. One of them was an early model Chevy Blazer. It looked like it had been highly modified for off road travel. Isabel and Alex were already waiting inside, eager to head out.

The other truck was a big Dodge pick-up truck. It had an extended cab for extra seating and the bed looked like it was filled to the brim with emergency gear. The guards had apparently kept the gear hidden under a retractable vinyl bed cover.

Michael nodded at something one of the guards said and then he and Max parted ways and headed for the getaway cars. Michael hopped in the Dodge and took off before Maria even had her seatbelt fastened. Kyle and Ava were perched nervously in the back seat.

“Are we headed out…I mean, are we leaving for good?” Kyle stammered.

Michael nodded. “Yup. We know for a fact that Tess and Lonnie are back, and I’m sure Rath is around here somewhere too. The guards back there told us that they saw that physics professor…you know, that Harrison guy from the café…anyway, they saw him following Ava in the Biology Annex today. They’re positive that he’s FBI now.” Michael summarized quickly.

“But Michael…I wasn’t in the Biology Annex today. I don’t go anywhere near there.” Ava protested.

“Exactly.” Maria snorted. “You don’t go anywhere near there yet the guards saw you clear as day. All of Liz’s classes are in that building. You do the math. How many people do we know that look just like you and would give their right arm to kill Liz?”

Kyle’s expression darkened. Tess. She was the last person he wanted to see. He wasn’t too proud to admit that Tess had almost destroyed him and the worst part about it was…she probably didn’t even care. He shook his head, trying to clear it long enough to focus on the problem at hand.

“OK…so I get that Tess was oozing around the Biology Annex prowling for Liz but why are we assuming that Professor Harrison guy is FBI?” Kyle asked in confusion.

“Professor James Harrison is a physics professor from Arizona. He said he was here for a symposium on electromagnetism. When Alex checked his story out, everything looked legit. There really was a Professor Harrison and there really was a physics symposium at Las Cruces. The problem is…that symposium was over last week. There is no reason for him to be here anymore and there definitely isn’t a good reason for him to be following Ava.” Michael said.

“It’s happening, isn’t it? It’s just like Future Max said. They’re both after us now…the FBI and the dupes. I guess we’re safe to assume that they joined up with Kivar right? The dupes would’ve never made it out of his palace alive if they hadn’t.” Ava said sadly.

Kyle put his arm around her. “Who is going to call our parents?” He asked.

“It’s already taken care of. Half of the guards are tracking our position and half of them went to Roswell to alert the others. With any luck we’ll meet up with them at the Arizona Trails Resort.” Michael said.

The next few hours were spent in relative silence. In both vehicles, the gang was desperately praying that their parents made it out of Roswell safely. They couldn’t risk using the cell phones to contact their parents because Alex had warned them that cellular calls could be traced. They didn’t know if the evil trio was operating alone or if Kivar had sent an entire army. If Kivar had sent soldiers with them, had any of them gone to Roswell?

They couldn’t figure out what part the FBI had played in the whole situation. The FBI had been following them for over a week and hadn’t made a single aggressive move. What did that mean? There were just too many questions right now and the stress of it all was exhausting.


Coming in Chapter 19 and 20: We'll find out what the dupes and the FBI plan on doing about the podster's sudden escape. Rath sent the skins to Roswell to get the parents out of the way. In this timeline, the Roswellians know almost nothing about the skins. Will any of the parents make it out of Roswell alive?

[pooklette]

Arianneleigh - Thank you very much! I am thrilled that chapter came across the way I wanted it too.

Timelord31 - Thanks! As for when the FBI finally reveal themselves to the crew...it would be far too simple if they came clean right away, wouldn't it?

Now, he guards had been mindwarped, how could they be trusted to go and rescue the parents? Wouldn't Tess have "suggested" something to them to prevent them from performing their duty?

RhondaAnn - Tess never was much of a big picture kinda gal. She's more of a 'I want what I want and I want it now' type. Perhaps she was too distracted by the thought of hurting Liz to think that far ahead.

tequathisy - Max did have kind of a 'duh' moment there, didn't he? Can't fault the guy for worrying about the woman he loves though, right?

ultimatepickupline and belleoftheball - I love your user names! Thanks for the thumbs-up.

Asabetha - Hope these next two chapters didn't leave you hanging for too long. Thanks for the "gripping" comment. That's exactly what I was aiming for!


Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

Chapter 19: What Just Happened?

(Washington, DC)

FBI Director Peter Adams was sitting in his office sifting through his ‘alien files’. The whole situation had spiraled out of control the second Agent Foster mentioned ‘royalty’. The President had ordered the immediate protection of the Roswell crew, in light of this new information. They couldn’t dare let a royal family be harmed in the US when the government had the means to prevent it.

At this point, they didn’t have enough evidence to be positive that these kids were some kind of royalty but they also didn’t have enough evidence to prove they weren't. The President, as advised by the Department of Defense, was adamant that they would have to err on the side of caution and protect them until they had more conclusive information. Earth was clearly outclassed in the technology department. There was no way they’d be able to defend themselves against a retaliatory attack from the aliens’ home planet if they were harmed.

The secure line in Director Adams’ office started ringing loudly. “Adams here.” He mumbled.

Harrison was on the other end of the line practically yelling into the phone. “The Subjects are on the run! We need eyes in the sky now!”

Adams disconnected the call without another word. Things had just gotten so much worse. He contacted the White House and the Vice President arranged to have one of NASA’s satellites track the alien’s course. This could very well be the moment of truth. Whatever happened next might tell them if the kids from Roswell were their friends or enemies. Adams hoped to God that they were friends.

(Las Cruces, New Mexico)

In a shabby little house bordering Las Cruces University, a chaotic scene was unfolding. Rath was standing in the middle of the large dingy living room shouting at the top of his lungs.

“What the hell just happened?!” He roared.

Lonnie snorted. “Where do you want us to start?” She asked sarcastically. They hadn’t been a couple since Kivar had taken them in. Now that she was Kivar’s Queen, Rath was no more than a thorn in her side.

Tess jumped in before Lonnie and Rath could get into another one of their shouting matches. “Somebody must have tipped Liz off. She disappeared right in the middle of class.”

Rath’s eyes blazed with fury. He turned to Tess. “Exactly who do you think tipped her off Tess?” He asked coldly.

“Hey! Don’t blame me for all this! No one even knew I was there.” Tess sputtered.

“Yeah…no one but her guard. Didn’t it occur to you that you should stay away from her guard until this was over?!” Lonnie barked.

“How exactly was I supposed to get to Liz with her guard sniffing around all the time? I had to warp that stupid Sarian to keep her out of the way!” Tess protested.

Rath waved his hand and sent Tess flying across the room. “Save the whimpering for someone who cares Tess.” He dismissed her with a roll of the eyes and then turned to Lonnie.

“What the hell happened with you Lonnie? You had the weakest one and you couldn’t even take him out!” Rath barked.

Lonnie stepped closer to Rath. Her voice took on an icy chill. “In the future I suggest you remember your place Rath. You wouldn’t want to piss off your Queen, would you?” She taunted.

The pathetic black and white TV in the corner exploded as Rath’s temper flared. “Don’t get too used to the title Lonnie. There’s a reason Kivar wants Isabel brought back alive…” He trailed off, letting the implication of his statement sink in.

Lonnie stomped off in a huff, kicking Tess on her way past. Tess yelped and muttered a few choice curses under her breath. After they had the Roswell group taken care of, Lonnie was going to suffer a very gruesome ‘accidental’ death. Tess had been planning it ever since Lonnie was crowned Kivar’s Queen.

“They didn’t go far Rath.” Tess said, pulling herself up from the floor. “I can still sense their seals. That means they can’t be more than a 24 hours drive from here.”

Rath nodded in agreement. “I know. We leave tonight. We’ll head West…they can’t hide forever.”

[pooklette]

That last chapter was so short, I couldn't just leave it there...

Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.

Chapter 20: Invasion of the Skins

It took Michael and Max much longer than planned to meet up at the first meeting point. The royal guards had advised them that it would be best to cover their trail by taking a more obscure route into Arizona. They stuck to country roads as much as possible and doubled back often in an effort to throw off any unseen followers.

Finally, over twelve hours after they’d left Las Cruces, the gang arrived at the Arizona Trails Resort. As they looked around at their secluded surroundings, they were relieved to see that the campsites seemed to be spread quite far apart. The area was heavily wooded too so they would definitely have privacy from other campers.

Alex shook his head in exhaustion and took Isabel’s hand. “Come on. Let’s see if our parents are here yet.” He said.

Isabel and Alex told the others that they were going to look around for their parents. Max shook his head. “You two can’t just go wandering off…we have to stick together.” He said.

Isabel scowled. “We are together Max. We have been together for the last twelve hours. I need a little space!”

Isabel took Alex’s hand and stomped away. Liz touched Max’s arm gently and said, “Let her go, Max. We weren’t followed…just give her a minute to herself. I’m sure they won’t go far.”

Kyle and Ava walked up with a bunch of packets in their hands. “They had three campsites left so we reserved them all. Take these…they have information about the area.” Kyle muttered, handing a fistful of the packets to Max.

“I’m going to set up one of the tents right over there and try to contact Kaden.” Michael said, pointing to a bare patch of ground nearby. “We need to know where everyone else is because they sure as hell aren’t here.”

Max nodded nervously. “Let us know as soon as you find out."

Michael agreed and trudged off. He was exhausted from driving twelve hours straight with nothing but cold convenience store coffee to keep him awake.

Opening the door of his truck, Michael was surprised to see Maria sitting in there with her royal guard Connor. She looked over at Michael with tears in her eyes.

“They attacked my family Michael. Rath sent skins to Roswell…” She bawled.

Connor looked away out of respect when Michael reached out to comfort Maria. He bowed his head in silence and waited for an order or a dismissal.

“Tell me what happened. Tell me everything.” Michael bit out between clenched teeth.

Connor took a deep breath and started relaying everything he knew.

(Roswell, New Mexico…15 hours ago)

The parents were all going about their usual daily business. They had no idea that everything was going very wrong out at Las Cruces. Ironically enough, it was Courtney, the Crashdown shift manager, who saved the day.

Jeff was back in the kitchen flipping burgers on the grill when Courtney suddenly burst through the door. “You’d better get on that cell phone of yours and round up the troops. There’s trouble brewing and it’s kind of ‘out of this world’ if you catch my drift. Oh…and run.” She ordered.

Jeff dropped his spatula in shock. “Excuse me?!” He stuttered.

Courtney let out an obnoxious sigh and grabbed his cell phone off his belt clip. “I said…call your people and tell them it’s time to go. There are some very unfriendly visitors in town.”

Jeff grabbed his cell phone and started slowly backing away. Who is this girl, he wondered. Suddenly, a strange man crashed through the back door. He lunged at Jeff but missed by a fraction of an inch as Courtney shoved him out of the way.

“You broke into the wrong kitchen pal.” She quipped sarcastically.

Jeff watched, frozen in place as Courtney and the stranger started battling it out in his kitchen. Glass shattered all around as the two exchanged blasts. Courtney sucker punched the guy and flipped him over on his stomach. As she drove her foot down into the small of the man’s back, Jeff heard a ‘pop’. The stranger seemed to disintegrate right before his eyes.

“OK…did you not hear the part where I told you to run?!” Courtney barked at Jeff.

Across town, Jim Valenti was on patrol when he noticed that there seemed to be way too many strangers wandering about. It was as if a whole tour bus full of people had just pulled into town.

Jim’s cell started chirping. He noticed it was Amy and smiled. “Hello beautiful,” he answered.

There was nervous panting on the other end of the line. Then he heard Amy whispering, “someone outside…”

“Amy, I can’t hear you. What’s going on…are you alright?” He asked urgently.

“There’s someone outside my house!” Amy whispered louder.

“Hang on…I’m on my way. I can be there in less than two minutes.” Jim said in a rush. He did a u-turn right in the middle of the street and hit the gas. Suddenly Amy screamed and her phone cut out.

Jim’s phone rang again. This time it was Jeff Parker. Jim answered with, “Make it quick Jeff…Amy’s in trouble!”

“There are visitors in town and they aren’t friendly Jim. Nancy and I are leaving now.” Jeff said quickly.

Jim nearly rolled his SUV speeding through a turn. “How unfriendly are we talking about here Jeff?” He asked.

“Very…Oh, and if you run into any of them, nail em’ hard in the back. I think that’s their weak spot.”

Jim didn’t even bother to end his call with Jeff. As soon as he pulled up in front of Amy’s house, he tossed the phone aside and jumped out of the truck. He drew his gun and cautiously started approaching the door, keeping an eye out for intruders. Looking through the front window, he saw movement inside the house.

Amy whipped open the front door, her eyes streaming with tears. Jim could barely understand what she was saying between her hitching sobs.

“He broke into the house and then he…and my favorite lamp…and then…I’m a murderer!” She wailed. Jim stepped into the house to take a closer look. There were flakes of something floating in the air.

“Amy honey, you’ve got to calm down and tell me what happened.” Jim prodded.

“He blasted my favorite lamp Jim! He attacked me so I grabbed the first thing I could find…I whacked him with the broom handle. A broom handle for God’s sakes! There was this ‘pop’ sound and then it was like his skin exploded or something. His skin! Skin doesn’t explode Jim! It just doesn’t happen…” Amy rambled on incoherently.

Her words echoed through Jim’s mind. Something she’d said had sounded so familiar. “Skins!” He gasped.

Jim grabbed Amy’s hands and nearly dragged her to the door. “Skins Amy…Future Max said Kivar sent these things called ‘skins’ after his group. Jesus, you just got attacked by one of Kivar’s men!” Jim rambled distractedly.

They ran out to Jim’s SUV and dove straight in. He pulled out his cell phone as he peeled down the street. “I’ll call the Whitmans. You call Philip and Dianne.”

When Jim called Charles and Gloria Whitman, they told him they were already in the car headed out to the first meeting point in Arizona. Apparently Nancy had called them with a warning and they made it out of town safely before any of the skins had been able to find them.

Amy wasn’t able to reach either of the Evans on their cells. She left a cryptic message about “meeting them at the vacation spot soon,” hoping they would get it in time.

On the other side of town, Philip and Dianne were huddled together in the backseat of the Parker’s car. They had been working from home so the skins had found them easily. Two skins loudly broke into the house through the back door, scaring the daylights out of the Evans duo. At that very moment, both of their cell phones started ringing simultaneously. Neither of them bothered to answer their ringing phones because they already knew they were in trouble. Philip grabbed a revolver out of his desk drawer.

“Run!” He whispered to Dianne.

Dianne looked at him with wide eyes. “I can’t just leave you here! Come on! We’ll go out the window…” She pleaded.

“There’s not enough time for both of us to make it out…just go!” Philip prodded, loading his gun with shaky hands.

Dianne moved over toward the window, dragging Philip with her. They heard screeching tires out front. Philip peeled back the curtains and saw the Parkers’ car come careening into their front yard. “Philip…Nancy…are you in there?!” Jeff yelled, jumping out of the car with a tire iron in his hand.

Dianne quickly started opening the window. Just as she set the screen aside and started crawling out, two men burst into the study. Dianne screamed in terror.

“Hit them in the back!” Nancy yelled from the car. “It’s their weak spot…the small of their back!”

Shots rang out. Jeff could barely make out a scuffle going on in the den as Dianne tried to scurry out the window. He reached up and pulled her out just as another gunshot rang out. Dianne started running for the Parker’s car and Jeff looked hesitantly up at the window to see if Philip was coming. Philip literally dove out the open window. The two men ran like the wind and just barely managed to escape in the Parker’s car.

All of the parents were safely on their way to Arizona by the time the royal soldiers arrived in Roswell to check on them. The soldiers were devastated to find all of the homes in complete ruin. At the Evans’ house, Jonas arrived just in time to hear Amy’s cryptic answering machine message about meeting them at the ‘vacation spot’. He breathed a sigh of relief that the others had made it out alive.

(Arizona Trails Resort…Present)

“So they all made it out, right?” Michael prodded. Off Connor’s nod, Michael noticeably relaxed.

“What are we going to do about their cars? The FBI…the dupes…they’ll know what their cars look like.” Maria sniffled.

Connor sat up straighter. “We took the liberty of patrolling all of the routes out of Roswell. We located them just outside of Hondo and were able to modify the vehicles just enough to throw off suspicion.” He said.

Michael shut his eyes and sighed in relief. “Good thinking. Thank you…”

Connor blinked rapidly, trying to understand his Commander’s reaction. He and the other soldiers had been so sure that they would be dismissed for failing to protect the royals’ human parents. They were all so concerned about helping the Royal Eight escape that they had failed to foresee the probability that the parents were already being attacked as well. They were ashamed to realize that they had been completely unprepared for a simultaneous attack on both groups.

Maria stunned her guardian by giving him a huge teary-eyed hug. “You guys did good Connor. Thank you. Please tell the others that we appreciate everything you did for us today…”

“Yes, Ma’am. I’ll tell them immediately!” Connor said with a barely hidden sigh of relief.

When Connor and his men had volunteered for this mission, they had all felt a great sense of hope that the Royal Eight would be strong enough to bring peace to the war torn Alpha system. It was no secret that the Royals were young and half of them were humans, a species virtually unknown to the soldiers. None of the Royals had been schooled in the old ways, nor had they ever so much as set foot on Antarean soil.

Naturally, the soldiers had been nervous that this was a burden the Royals weren’t ready for. Desperation had brought them to Earth and the Royals were growing to be everything the soldiers had hoped for and more. It was as if the years spent in exile on Earth had instilled a great sense of empathy in the Royals.

Kivar had soldiers immediately executed for failure of any kind. Michael and Maria, the rightful Commanders of Antar, hadn’t even seen the latest fiasco as a failure though. They had been grateful that the soldiers tried to help at all. As Connor started climbing out of Michael’s truck, he looked up to see his King and Queen in front of him. He suddenly realized that Max and Liz had overheard the entire tale yet strangely, they didn’t appear to be angry either.

As Connor and Max eyed each other, an understanding passed between them. None of the Royals would see today’s events as a failure on the part of their guardians. The blame fell squarely on the shoulders of Kivar and his minions alone.

As Connor disappeared off to report in with the other soldiers, Michael peeked his head out of the truck to call for the rest of the gang. Max and Liz may have been close enough to overhear the whole story but none of the others had been. It was time to tell them what happened in Roswell.