A/N: First of, Tess was, in Kyle's words, my favorite Martian. Michael was a close second. Personally, I think the producers of Roswell just butchered her character in an attempt to get rid of her quickly and go back to the Max/Liz bandwagon. They could have gone another way with the whole arangment, but the way they did was not only littered with plot holes, but plain destroyed Tess in the process.

Hence, I came up with this story to tie together all those loose plot holes together. A few are mentioned directly in this chapter.

Starts of during Four Aliens and a Baby.

Also, this is not a Rebel fic. Or a Dreamer fic, for that matter. Yes, romance will be tossed in somewhere. But it is not the main plot line of the story. Shutting up now. Adios.


Chapter 1

Questions

As the video played out, all Max and Isabel could do was stare. Max felt sick in his stomach as he watched a whirlwind of objects swirl around his sister in endless arcs. The dark feeling in the pit of his stomach was nothing compared to Isabel, who felt a sharp shard of betrayal entering her heart.

They spied on her.

Her parents spied on her, and put a camera in her room.

It was all she could do to keep herself from causing a similar situation from repeating itself around her now.

Jesse shook his head and looked away, knowing it would end like this. The fact that Max and Isabel had managed to keep this secret from their parents for so long in and of itself was amazing.

Max turned to give Isabel a look to see how she was reacting to this. She was frozen, stock still and locked in shock.

"I... oh, God, I can't believe that you spied on me." Isabel gasped, before she stood and made her way towards her brother. He was her home. He was her comfort. And now he was where she would turn. Not her husband, but her brother. She stopped behind his chair, her back to everyone. She couldn't look at them, not yet.

She didn't want to see the look in the eyes of her parents that outright screamed FREAK! She just could not deal with that.

"I'm sorry, honey, but we didn't know what else to do!" Diane Evans defended her actions.

"Can you please just tell us... what this means?" Philip spoke, his voice slightly awed and curious. "Who are you?"

Max slowly stood, facing his parents. Like Jesse, he knew this secret couldn't have lasted forever. That would have been impossible, especially with his father digging and investigating like crazy. Still, he'd hoped the secret had lasted longer. Isabel turned as well, both of them standing next to one another, staring up at the humans that raised them.

"We're your kids." Max answered without hesitation.

"Are you?" Philip asked.

Isabel barely controlled the flinch that threatened to break through. "Yes!" she exclaimed. Fear filled her, pumping in her veins. What if they rejected them? What if they hated them?

Suddenly, there was the sound of pots clanking coming from the kitchen. Max and Isabel instantly looked up, battle instincts kicking in.

"What was that?" Diane turned.

Max and Isabel exchanged looks.

"...I'll check it out." Max spoke.

Isabel shot him a short glare. "Thanks a lot, Max..." she muttered under her breath and he moved off, leaving her standing there alone.

Mac walked cautiously towards the kitchen. Finding it empty, he turned to go back to the living room. Then, he heard it. A voice he thought he'd never hear again, a voice that occasionally intruded his dreams and at times his nightmares.

"Max..." it croaked. Weak. Tired.

Max turned around, his eyes opening wide as saucers as he took in the ragged appearance of Tess, staggering slowly towards him, carrying a small baby in her arms.

"Tess..." Max blinked up at her, not sure if what he was seeing was real or not. She'd left, months ago, taking his son with her. Yet here she was, standing before him holding the very child she had claimed could not survive in this environment.

Struggling for breath, she reached him, holding out the baby.

"Please... Hold him..." she rasped out. With a last breath, she managed to hand the baby over to Max, before collapsing to the ground with a final shudder. Max didn't even notice, his eyes instead locked on the child he was currently holding. The baby gurgled as the others entered the kitchen.

"Max... What is it?" Philip asked.

Max, eyes still locked on the baby, spoke in amazement. "It's my son..."


Max stood over Tess, watching her. He frowned slightly as he watched her twist on the bed, in his sheets, her frow covered in sweat and her face twisted in discomfort. He wasn't sure how to feel about this girl.

In another life, he had loved her.

In this life, she had betrayed them. Or, at the very least, claimed to have betray them. Max narrowed his eyes slightly. After Tess had left, shooting off into the stars Max had been left barely holding it together and trying to figure out where everything went wrong.

Nothing added up and, as time progressed, it became even more confusing.

First of all, it was physically impossible for Nasado to have made the deal Tess claimed he had made with Kivar. Second, if Nasedo had made said deal, why would the Skins have killed him, and why would he have bothered using his final breath to warn Max? Of course, one could argue that it might have been part of the plan all along but the fact still remained that Nasedo had warned him. Add the whole Congresswoman Whitaker kidnapping and torturing Tess to the arrangement, and the whole elaborate plot seemed just a bit too elaborate.

Tess began to shift on the bed slowly. Max narrowed his eyes into slits. Even if he had his doubts about what had really happened, there was one thing he was certain off: he did not trust her.

Tess' eyes snapped open suddenly as she began to look around her. "Zan! Where's Zan?!" she exclaimed before her eyes shot up towards Max, who blinked down at her, momentarily stunned. It seemed Tess would never cease to surprise him as long as she lived, Max silently thought to himself before speaking up.

"You named the baby Zan?"

"Well, he is your son, and that is your real name. Where is he?" Tess replied impatiently, her eyes searching around the room for any sign of her baby, even glancing once at Max as if he was hiding the baby behind his back. Paranoid mother indeed.

"In the other room, with his very confused grandparents." as soon as the words leave his lips, she jumps and makes a beeline for the door. Max flares and, with a wave of his hand slams the door shut seconds after she opens it.

"Sit. Down." he growls at her, and is satisfied when he sees the glint of fear in her eyes.

Tess motioned towards her injured leg, looking up at her captor. "I guess it would be too much to ask you to heal this?" she tries for the humor. It doesn't take.

"Making you feel better isn't one of my priorities." Max ignored the way his voice slightly cracked as the words left his lips. Standing before him was killer, someone he had trusted, someone he had cared for- someone that had betrayed him. The mother of his child. That and that alone kept him from disintegrating her on the spot.

"Okay..." Tess agrees amiably enough as she makes her way to the other side of the room, sitting down on the bed and staring up defiantly. As if she's innocent. As if she's done nothing wrong. As if she didn't kill Alex and attempt to lead Max, Isabel, and Michael all to their deaths. " I'm sure you've got a lot on your mind, so let's hear it."

The casual tone only serves to infuriate him even more. Although, Max supposes, compared to Kivar he doubts he's really that menacing. Kivar managed to get into Isabel's head, turn her against them on a whim- while being literally lightyears away.

"I thought our baby couldn't survive in Earth's atmosphere. I felt that when I connected with him." is the first thing that he questions. After all, the baby looks just fine to him.

"It was a mind warp. Something I needed you to believe." Tess answers, shrugging it off. Max gave a sarcastic disgusted snort at the response. "I had to do whatever it took to get you to activate the Granilith." she explained

Max stares at her for several seconds, titling his head to the side, examining her. He continues to penetrate her with his glare until the seconds bleed to minutes and Tess begins to squirm slightly.

Then, finally, he asks the one question that has been bothering him since the moment she left all those months ago.

"Did you really kill Alex?"

From her reaction, that was obviously not the question she was expecting him to ask. She blinked up at him in shock and, for a moment, he saw a flash of guilt pass those emotionless eyes.

"I didn't mean-" Tess began.

"Did you, or did you not, kill him. Simple question, Tess." Max interrupted. He was through playing games. At the moment, he wasn't Max Evans, the teenage boy Philip and Diane Evans had raised. At the moment, he was Zan, King of Antar, and he was royally pissed.

"You already know the answer to that, Max." Tess replied.

"Damn it Tess, yes or no! Just answer the question!" Max yelled.

"You want to hear how I killed him? Fine! I killed him! I killed Alex! I got in his head, broke his mind, and I killed him!"

Somewhere in the middle of their short lived screaming match, the two hybrids had ended up in each others faces, Max glaring down at her and Tess glaring up, both their chests heaving.

"Why don't I believe you?" Max whispered so low she almost didn't catch it, his eyes narrowed slightly as confusion marred his face. Tess blinked. Again, that had not been the response she had been expecting.

There was a loud clang that signaled someone had dropped something, causing them to glance at the door. Max gulped slightly. He'd forgotten their little audience. He half expected Isabel to tear down that door, but, as she had promised him, she stayed back.

Max was pretty sure that, had the situation been reversed, he wouldn't have had the strength to pull that one off. It was moments like this that he truly did admire his twin sister.

Tess sighed loudly, turning and making her way back to bed. Ignoring the pain in her leg, she sat down again, looking up towards Max.

"Happy now?" she questioned.

"No." was the quick response before Max made his way to his dresser. Tess watched in curiosity as Max fished out a notebook, flipping it open and turning to her.

"What's that?" Tess asked.

"A list."

"Of?"

"Of things that don't add up."

Max tossed her the notebook. Tess reached for it, but it slipped past her fingers. Annoyed, she reached and winced when it strained at her leg. Picking up the notebook, she glanced at Max's so called list.

Number One: Hair. How did the creators of the book of Destiny know what kind of hairstyles we'd have in the future?

Tess blinked. Huh. She hadn't noticed that, but now that she thought about it, it was pretty weird. She looked up to see Max staring at her expectantly.

"Well?" he asked.

"Antarian Seer?" Tess guessed. "Our species are known to have mind powers, Max. It isn't that far fetched to assume whoever wrote the book could see into the future."

Max frowned. he supposed that could be possible. That, or Tess and Nasado planted the book after the fact, which had personally been his guess. But, from the look on Tess' face, she was as baffled by it as he was. Then again, Tess wasn't known for her honesty. Quite the opposite, really.

"Read the next one." Mac commanded.

Tess sighed and looked down.

Number Two: Nasado. As a shapeshifter, he was bound not just to my will, but to Michael and Isabel's as well. How could he have possibly made a deal with Kivar if he is literally programmed to follow our every command?

Tess rolled her eyes at that one. Couldn't he ask these out loud? Glancing up at him, she answered. "Nasado may have been bound to your will, but, unless given a direct order, he could do whatever the hell he wanted to do. Including making a deal with Kivar. You imprisoned his entire species in your past life, Max. He wasn't too fond of you."

Slavery? Max reeled back at that one. Whoever Zan had been, Max didn't like it. He supposed that one should have been self-evident, though. Kal beat the crap out of Max before Max discovered his miraculous power to make Kal his bitch.

"Next one." Max motioned to the paper.

Tess sighed. This was ridiculous. But, at least Max wasn't trying to blow her up, she decided. Looking down, she continued reading.

Number Three: The Skins. If Nasado really made a deal with them, why did they kill him? If the Skins really made a deal with Tess and Nasado, why did Whitaker torture Tess? In Arizona, why didn't Tess simply turn on us, instead of helping me power my shield? When Courtney turned on the other Skins, why didn't she say anything about Tess being a traitor?

Tess looked at the stream of questions incredulously, before looking back up at her captor. "That's more than one, you know." she told him blandly.

"Then answer them one at a time." Max growled out.

Tess resisted the urge to groan in exasperation. "Nasado had no emotions. You did that to him. Adding his own death to the plot would have made me more believable." Tess said, before looking down again and continuing, ignoring the look of disgust Max was shooting her. "Same thing for the whole torture plot. Except, Whitaker wasn't suppose to die. I helped you in Arizona because I wasn't pregnant yet. Couldn't let you die before that. As for Courtney, she was a reject long before we came in the picture. She was never in the loop."

Max had to resist the urge to strangle her. That mind warping evil little... He frowned again. Something still felt off. Tess had an answer for absolutely everything. His eyes narrowed again, feeling the whole thing was a little too convenient for his comfort.

"Read the next one." he barked out instead.

Tess glanced down at the notebook, still acting as if she had done nothing wrong. What kind of soulless monster did he fall for in his past life?

Number Four: Mindwarping. Tess can put images in people's heads, but can she make them do things? She projects images, not thoughts...

Tess blinked. That wasn't a question. It was a statement. She looked up. "Of course I can put thoughts into your head, Max." she rolled her eyes at him. She'd of thought that one would have been obvious a long time ago.

"Can you?" Max countered, crossing his arms and giving her a defiant look. Tess narrowed her own eyes. What was he playing at? She was sure he was trying to lead her up to something, but what she couldn't say.

"Yes. We've already established that..." Tess spoke slowly, as if talking to a child. Max flared slightly, hating the tone. How dare she speak to him like that?

"Read the next one." he snapped.

Tess looked down.

Number Five: The Granolith. If Tess was really working against us from the beginning, why not just hand the Granolith over to the Skins the second we found it?

Tess actually laughed at that one before looking up. "Hand over the Granolith and loose my only bargaining chip? Before I made sure you knocked me up?"

"Next." was his only response. Without a word, she obeyed. Best not to test an angry furious former ruler of an entire planet, Tess thought.

Number Six. Pregnancy. If the entire point of last year was just some elaborate plot for Tess to get pregnant, why not simply capture me and steal a sperm sample? After all, our species are capable of great genetic feets. The fact that I'm breathing is proof enough.

"Such an heir would have never been accepted by the people.. Think, Max, before asking stupid-" Tess didn't get to finish, because, with a wave of his hand, Max had flung her clear across the room and pinned her to a wall. The rage coming off him was tangible. Unconsciously, he was raising the damn heat.

"I am your king, and you will talk to me with respect. Understood?"

Tess shuddered at the menacing tone. She couldn't help it. The Max she had left behind was good and sweet and kind. The Max she had come back to was rough and hard and scared by grief and betrayal. And, he was terrifying.

"Understand?" he repeated.

Tess could only nod. Max let her drop before picking up the notebook and tossing it to her. "Next question."

Number Seven: Alex. Two months in Las Cruces, decoding the Book. Tess doesn't have that kind of mind power. Hell, she can barely hold a good illusion for long. So, how exactly did she pull that one off?

Tess glanced up.

"I mindwarped him. You already know that, Max."

"For two whole months."

"Yes."

"For two entire months, you mindwarped him all on your own."

"Yes."

"While he was hundreds of miles away, nonstop, for two whole months..."

"What is this really about, Max?"

"This is about you lying to me, again! Just tell me the truth for once in your miserable life!"

Tess jumped up, flaring at him.

"I already told you! I mindwarped Alex into decoding the damn book, and the strain was too much for his mind, and it killed him!"

"You don't have the power to mindwarp someone for that long across that distance, so tell who did!"

"No one else on this planet can mindwarp Max! Honestly, what is this about? Because I know it isn't about Alex!"

"It has everything to do with him!"

Tess actually laughed at this. Neither noticed the whirlwind of objects flying around them, the hole in the wall, or the debris all around them.

"This has nothing to do with him! You're just pissed off because you were wrong about me! Well, guess what, Zan, I'm not your precious Elizabeth Parker! I'm not perfect! I made a mistake, I messed up, and I killed him!"

"You're lying!"

"For the last fucking time, I am not-"

"You don't know, do you?"

His accusation cut clean across the air, leaving her silent. There was a sudden crash as all the objects floating around them fell with a clash, breaking all over the room. In the background, Max could hear Isabel trying to calm his parents down who, for obvious reasons, were freaking out in the other room.

"I told you-" Tess growled, baring her teeth like some kind of crazed animal.

"You don't know. You don't know who messed with Alex's head. You don't know who set him to Las Cruces."

"Damn it, Max! You were wrong about me! Just accept the fact that I'm a mindwarping bitch that came in and ruined all your lives!"

"Then tell me who sent Alex to Las Cruxes!"

"I did! I already- I... I..." Tess began to shake, backing up slowly, gripping at her head as it exploded in pain. But Max's eyes weren't locked on her face, or her pain, or anything else along those lines.

They were locked onto her left hand as it tapped away against Tess' leg...

Then, quick as a cobra, Max struck as his lips meshed to hers in a passionate dance. There was lust, and just a touch of the love the two had shared in a past life, but that wasn't what it was about, even as they ate at each other's faces, as her arms wrapped around his neck and his around her waist.

Tess realized that quickly and pulled away as if burned, but it was too late.

Max had made the connection and, in her agitate state, with her defenses down, he'd seen into her mind, into her memories. Tess backed away and glanced up at him with a tinge of fear as realization, followed by anger, founded themselves on the former king's face as a cold fury overtook him.

Because, he now knew, without a doubt, that it hadn't been Tess that had dealt the final blow that ended the life of Alex Whitman.