Title: Metamorphosis
Author: Winter Ashby (rosweldrmr)
Disclaimer: Roswell © Jason Katims (If... Roswell was mine. Then... Polar would be canon!)
Rating: T
Summary: Liz has to cope with the changes she's going through. She is lost in a world she can't escape and the only one who can help her now is Michael. What will he do? How will he save her? What will happen to Liz? POLAR (Michael & Liz)
Timeline: Post 'Max in the City'.
Authors Notes: Yes, I've finally worked up the courage to upload my very first multi-chapter Roswell fic. This is polar, this is slightly AU, and this is going to be about 12 chapters long. I hope you will enjoy!

Chapter One: Blackness

Liz was sitting on the couch in the back room of the Crashdown. It had been hours since she saved Max's life. Michael watched as the small, frail, brunet had confessed her fear, but once again, saved the man she loved. He had taken special care to notice what her unique flavour of power tasted like in the air. I want to remember the way her whole body vibrated with power, and the warm amber glow that was just fading from her eyes as they opened. She had a horrified look in her eyes, as if there was something completely disgusting about what she had become. Michael had always trusted her, ever since he read her journal last year. But he could also tell that something had changed in her since she was away. Her delicate energy radiated from her tiny form and soaked the Crashdown in waves of anticipation.

As soon as she had come out from her dream-walking state, Isabel was on her, questioning her. She said that she saw him from across the street, and told him to get out of the way. Lonnie and Rath were about to drop a scaffolding on his head. Michael just leaned against the back wall and watched as a girl he had always known suddenly become much more to him. She isn't just Liz anymore, not really. She's not human, she's one of us. She was like him. He just folded his hands and pretended to be thinking about getting revenge. Isabel took special care to look at him and tell him not to do anything stupid. It didn't take long before Max called Isabel and told her what had happened. She told him about Liz and Ava.

Part of Michael was upset that Max could have been so stupid, so careless with his powers. This means Kyle's gonna change like Liz. This meant that he was going to have to protect more people, but it also meant that his family was growing. He stood, now leaning on the wall of the back room, in the dark, watching her breath in and out. He followed her when she left the front, and just watched as she began to rock herself on the couch, and wrap her arms around herself. She hadn't told him to leave, she hadn't asked him to stay. She just looked up at him and he knew that there was nothing he could say that was going to make this alright.

He should have been questioning Ava, asking how she knew so much, but he didn't care. She isn't going anywhere. The only person in the world who had shown her any kind of compassion was Liz, she wouldn't abandon her now. And when Liz was ready to know everything, Ava would be there to help her. Isabel cracked the back door, and looked into the darkness.

"Michael?" she whispered. He grunted and she turned her attention to the left. "Can I talk to you?"

"Yeah." His voice was heavy, thick. He hadn't spoken since he blew up part of the Crashdown. "I'll be there in a second." She nodded her blond head as the light from the front room bathed her face. Then she retreated back to the light, back to a world that would never exist again for Liz. She will never be home, never be complete again; like me.

"Liz?" again, his voice was thick and raspy. She stopped shaking and turned her red, puffy eyes to look at the outline of his form. She didn't respond. He didn't expect her to.

"I'll be right back." He spoke softly, and emotionless. She was so small, so fragile. And he was afraid that he'd leave and come back to find a broken shell of a girl he used to know. She nodded and he turned his back to the darkness and crossed over back into the real world. He felt like the green door was a portal to another world.

"Talk." He said nonchalantly as he walked to the counter and sat on a stool.

"What are you doing back there?" she asked, a little shocked that he was spending so much time, in the dark, with Liz.

"Nothing, why what are you doing out here?" he shot back with some anger in his voice. It was none of her business what I'm doing. It had nothing to do with her if he chose to watch out for her. That was he decision, and he didn't like explaining himself to her.

"I'm trying to get Ava to tell me what the hell is going on around here." She waved her arms through the air and sighed like it was a big gesture. He turned his stoic gaze to cover the tiny Tess-look-a-like. She was sitting in one of the booths drawing shapes in the sugar that she poured onto the table.

"What've you found out?" He asked, still looking at the alien with pink streaks running through her hair.

"Nothing, she doesn't want to talk to me." Isabel sighed again and looked at her watch. Her eyes softened and pleaded without words. She's tired, she wants to go home.

"Go, I can handle it here." She looked at him with concern. "I said I can handle it. Go home, wait for Max." it wasn't a command; it was what she wanted to hear. She nodded and glanced one last time between the pink haired girl and the darkened back room. Then she turned and left him standing in the middle of the Crashdown with only his thoughts to keep him company.

"Hey…" he addressed the other alien and waited for her to look at him. "We're not the bad guys here. We're not them." that was all he needed to say. He knew she would still be there, but he had to get back to Liz. She was still in the back and for a moment he swore that he could taste power in the back of his throat. He turned quickly and opened the door of the portal to the eternal land of pain. That is Liz's domain now; she's the queen of her own misery now.

She looked up at him and for the first time since she made the transition between human and alien, he saw someone looking back at him. Only, it wasn't the girl he had left a few minutes ago.

"I don't want this." Her voice was so quiet and drenched with pain that it didn't even sound like the same girl. He tilted his head a little and scratched his eyebrow.

"What?" she looked down at her hands and saw that they were beginning to glow, slightly, but in the darkness, it was there. He stared at it, mesmerized. His feet were moving before his head knew why. He wanted to get closer to her, to feel her power grow.

"This..." she looked down at her hands. Her face was bathed in the warm yellow glow and she was humming like only one of their kind could hear. "I don't even know what I am anymore." He took another step closer to her, but as soon as he got close to her, the light disappeared and they were once again left in the darkness.

"Liz, this is not what you are. You're human; nothing can take that away from you. You have parents, you have a home; you have this." He heard her break. He could feel the shift in the room, the way her breath caught in her throat, the way her quiet sobs overtook her. He could taste the salty tears that he was sure were streaming down her face. I had years to come to terms with the fact that I would never be home, but everything she has ever known has just been taken away. There was no reason, there was no bad guy, there was no one to hate.

"I think I'd like to be alone now." He didn't argue; there was no reason to.

"Sure." He never let a streak of emotion into his voice. That wasn't who he was. He wasn't the comforting guy. He was the soldier, he was the warrior. He made the decisions that no one else could, that no one else wanted to. He was the one who had to make the sacrifices so that his family would be safe. He turned in the blackness and made his way back to the portal to the Crashdown, back to his alien life, back to Max and Ava, back to all the problems that he was going to have to fix. He sighed and pushed past the diamond window and blinked in the light.

"She gonna be okay?" Ava asked from the booth, still sitting. It was like she was waiting for something.

"I don't know." He shrugged as he walked over to her. "I know you're not the enemy." She opened her mouth; it looked like she was going to say something but changed her mind. She just let out an exhausted sigh. "Come on, you can crash at my place." He turned as soon as he had said it. He didn't wait to see if she was going to follow him, he knew she would. Maybe it was because his Dupe made it a habit of controlling her, or maybe it was because she understood that Liz needed some time alone; but he knew he wouldn't have to ask again.