Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, plots, or timelines of Roswell, I merely manipulate them for my amusement and yours.
Rewriting Destiny
Chapter 1: Antar
Ava looked up at the tall man next to her. She loved her husband, but she wasn't sure that he felt the same. Zan turned his head to look down at her and he smiled. "Are you ready, my dear?" he queried.
In response Ava put her small, delicate hand on his arm and together they walked outside. Their subjects were waiting to see them. She loved these grand appearances that they made because Zan was always at his most attentive. When they were alone, he wasn't exactly dismissive, but he always had this distant look in his eyes like he was thinking of something, or someone else. The worst part was that she knew there was no one else and how can you compete with a ghost, a dream.
At night he would kiss her, but there was no passion, no fire, no real emotion. It was as if she were his duty, his responsibility. He never even got angry with her. He fought with the headstrong Rath all the time and even occasionally with his sister, but never with her. Every time she did something to annoy him, he would just look at her with that infuriating detached smile, as if he were living in another world and nothing from this world bothered him at all.
She had tried to speak to him about it, but every time she brought the subject up, he only got confused. "Ava, we're married. I love you. I would protect you from any harm. How can you even think that?"
Maybe he was lying to her. Maybe he was lying to himself. But one thing was for sure and she was not blind. And if she was being completely honest with herself, she knew that she had only been chosen as Zan's bride, chosen by his family and his advisors. He had agreed to it, but only the same as he would have agreed to anything to benefit the people. Still, life as Antar's queen was pretty good. It more than made up for Zan's shortcomings as a husband. And in her really honest moments, she admitted to herself that she didn't really love Zan as much as she loved the royal title she had as his wife. And she would fight harder to keep that title than she would ever fight to keep her husband. Unfortunately, without her husband she would have no title. Therefore, since she loved being queen, she loved her husband.
Zan and Ava waved to the crowd and performed their royal duties. Suddenly shouts rang out across the courtyard as two men began to struggle with a long, evil-looking blade. The crowds scrambled to get away, but one young girl didn't get out of the way fast enough and the blade cut deeply into her abdomen, her blood spilling onto the stones beneath her as she fell to the ground.
Some of the royal guards had formed close and protective ranks around their king and queen and others tried to calm the anxious crowd and still others pursued the men, who had fled as soon as they realized what they had done. The girl lay on the stones, the life draining quickly from her body. Her friend clutched at her crying, "Kira, Kira, don't go. No!"
Zan was struck almost senseless by the sight of the dying girl. The life entered his stunned body with a jolt and he fought to reach her, arguing with the guard holding him back.
"Sire, it is for your own safety. We don't know what will happen to you if you go there."
"I must go," he cried out frantically. "She's dying. She needs help."
Ava was surprised by the tone of his voice and by the expression on his face. He had the look of someone who had seen one they love who has been hurt and is in pain. The fact that he responded this way to a complete stranger scared her. She looked quickly to the girl. This girl was insignificant looking, not beautiful or extraordinary. She was just a commoner. She was not important, she was nothing. Ava was his wife. Why had he never responded to her that way? She felt instinctively in that moment that her greatest fear had just become reality, that she had lost him. And instinctively, she reacted.
Throwing her arms up in the air, she fell into a swoon, catching Zan's attention. Someone in his care who was showing extreme distress like that, jerked Zan out of his passion. The guards still held their protective circle around him as he held Ava and carried her back into the palace. The girl in the court, now dead and forgotten, was being carried away in a different direction altogether. Ava smiled. She was saved. She was still queen.
