Disclaimer: I do not own Roswell or the characters. They are the property of the creators of the series. I, the writer of this story, do not profit monetarily by writing or publishing this story on this website. This is written purely for my own entertainment.

A/N: Welcome readers to my story. This is the first Roswell story I've attempted and I hope you'll like it. It's not a shipper story about any particular ship, although all canon ships will be explored throughout the story. I plan quite the journey, so I hope you'll stick with me through it. Also, I'll be switching POV's a lot, so the story won't be told by one single character's POV, despite the fact that this prologue takes place almost entirely in Max's. But enough from me, I'll let you get to reading. :)

Prologue

2005

Max Evans stood in front of his hotel window, staring out at the night. It was a stupid thing to do, standing in plain sight, but he was feeling a little reckless at the moment. He could hear the others, packing up their things as they prepared to leave the hotel. No one was talking, except to ask for this or that to be handed to them. He could hear faint sniffing sounds, but he didn't know who they were coming from. It could be Liz, Maria, Isabel, or all three.

Michael walked up to stand next to him.

"We don't have to do this, you know."

Max flicked his eyes over to Michael for a moment and then back at the window. "Yes, we do." His tone brokered no argument, but Michael never was one to back down.

"No. We don't."

He sighed, which only seemed to irritate Michael. "Look. We've been doing fine for the past three years-"

Max snapped his head to look at Michael. "Fine? You think we've been doing fine?" He took a step towards Michael, who leaned back but refused to budge. He pointed at Kyle, whose face was covered in bruises. "You think Kyle is fine?" he said, his voice growing louder.

"Max-" Liz started, but Max held up his hand and said, "No." He looked directly at Michael. "We almost got caught this last time. All of us. Kyle was nearly beaten to a pulp for information, Liz-" he stopped as his voice cracked. He didn't want to think about what they had done to Liz. For days after they got her out she wouldn't talk, not even to him. There hadn't been any bruises, or any other marks for that matter, but she had been damaged somehow. When she finally had talked, it had been to tell him not to ask her what happened.

Max closed his eyes and swallowed, trying to regain his composure. To his credit, Michael kept his mouth shut.

When he opened his eyes, he looked around the room at everyone. "We can't keep traveling as a group. There are too many of us."

"But-" Michael started to speak but Max whipped his head back around.

"What if it had been Maria, Michael? Or Isabel? What if they had had god knows what done to them. Would you still want to stay together?"

"Max!" Isabel hissed, clearly horrified at his tactlessness.

Max looked at Isabel, feeling twinges of guilt. "What? It's true." He looked around again. Kyle was frozen, a folded t-shirt in his hand halfway to the suitcase. Maria's eyes were red-rimmed and she sniffed, arms hugging herself. Isabel looked panicked, her eyes wide and flooded with tears. And Liz…Liz's eyes merely looked hollow. She also had her arms wrapped around herself, but it didn't look like she was hugging herself. Instead it looked like she was trying to keep herself together, and it nearly ripped Max's heart out to see her like that.

He once again looked at Michael, but this time spoke quietly. "The only way to ensure our safety is to split up."

Max could tell Michael was getting ready to argue again when Maria softly called, "Michael." He looked over at her and Max could see her shake her head out of the corner of his eye. When he looked back at Max, he merely said, "Fine," and walked away.

Max turned back to the window to stare out and think. They had been running for three years. In the beginning he had thought the running would be easier, that they'd be able to just melt into some big city somewhere and live under aliases. But in the entire three years they'd never managed to get that far. It was as if they had a constant tail on them that they couldn't shake. They never seemed to be able to stay anywhere longer than a couple of months before something happened and they were forced to run again. It was exhausting.

And then after this last time, when they had been so close to getting caught, Max had finally decided it was time to split the group up. He had been toying with the idea in his mind for nearly the past year, but had been hesitant to act on it. He knew that his, Michael's, and Isabel's powers were strongest when they were together. He and Michael had even talked briefly of trying to find Ava, hoping that maybe if they were four again, they might be stronger. But in the end, all that had amounted to had been talk. Truth be told, they had no idea how to even begin finding her, especially when they were on the run themselves, and Max was hesitant to ruin yet another person's life. If Ava had truly been able to carve out a normal life for herself, then how could he ruin that for her? Besides…even if Ava wasn't Tess, Max knew that Liz would have had a hard time having her around, the constant reminder that he had been married to someone else in a past life; that he had ever loved anyone else. He knew that she didn't doubt his love for her, but he also knew that she didn't like to think about his past life.

Max looked away from the window, over to Liz, frowning slightly when he saw her sitting with her knees up to her chest, arms wrapped around and chin resting on top, staring at the wall. He walked over and sat down.

"Liz?"

She jumped, as if she hadn't noticed he was there, then looked over at him, the ghost of a smile on her face. "Hey…How are you doing?"

Max laughed once hollowly. "I was going to ask you the same thing."

Liz's ghost of a smile grew a little wider, but didn't reach her eyes. "Me? Oh I'm doing fine."

"Liz-" Max started, but Liz shook her head.

"I told you not to ask me about it," she said, a little sharply. "I'm fine." She grabbed his arm and wrapped it around her. "I'll always be fine as long as I'm with you." Maxed wrapped his other arm around, holding Liz in a side hug.

They were quiet for a few moments before Max said quietly, so no one else could hear, "Do you think I'm doing the right thing?"

Liz, whose head had been resting on Max's chest, sat up and looked at him. "Yes," she said, seriously. "I do. Six people is too many to hide. We can't keep running like this or one of us is going to end up dead."

Max nodded slightly, feeling reassured by her support. He looked down and smiled at her. "Are you sure you want to live in Canada? There's a whole world out there to choose from."

Liz smiled. "True, but I'd like something as similar to home as I can get."

Max raised his eyebrows playfully. "And snow, mountains, grass and trees are as similar to Roswell as you can get?"

Liz playfully swatted his arm, smiling. "You know what I mean. Somewhere close to America…so I can at least pretend I'm not living in exile."

Max's smile faded at the reminder that, if it weren't for him, Liz would be leading a normal life at home with her family; that she'd be a junior in college by now. "I'm sorry, Liz."

Liz sighed, and pushed away from him so that she could look into his eyes. "Stop it. I'm not going to have this same argument. I chose to be with you, and I don't regret it. I never have, and I never will. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." She watched him a moment as he swallowed past the lump in his throat and then settled back down into his arms. "Just…hold me for a while, please."

Max hesitated and then wrapped his arms back around her.

They sat there for who knows how long when Isabel walked over, holding a duffle bag in her hand.

"Max?"

He and Liz pulled apart and Max stood up, frowning when he realized that Isabel had her coat on. "What's going on?"

Isabel swallowed, looked back at Kyle, and then at Max again. "We, um…" She took a deep breath. "Kyle and I are leaving."

Max paused for a beat. "What?"

Isabel tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "Yeah, we, uh, decided that it would be best if we all left at separate times. And you know, we're ready...at least as ready as we're going to be," she said under her breath. "We found plane tickets to Paris for pretty cheap, so we bought them. The plane leaves in three hours, so we have to get going now if we want to catch it."

Max stared at Isabel, and then looked at Kyle. When they had discussed separating a few nights ago, everyone had agreed it would be best to travel in pairs, one alien with one human. Of course Isabel, by default, got stuck with Kyle. Max watched Kyle for a moment, at the way he was watching Isabel. When Isabel had found out that Jesse had been killed by a drunken driver the year before, the only person who had managed to consol her had been Kyle, so maybe "stuck" wasn't the right word to describe it. And even if they hadn't ever talked about it, he knew that Kyle harbored unrequited feelings for Isabel, so it was unlikely that Kyle would be complaining about his lot.

Max looked back at Isabel, who was looking at the floor. He wanted to protest, to tell her that now wasn't the time, but he couldn't. Now was the time. They had been preparing for this for several days, and she was going to have to leave sometime, so why not now?

Max swallowed the lump in his throat and coughed. "Yeah, ok."

Isabel looked up, clearly relieved. Then her eyes filled with tears and she reached over to hug Max. "Promise me you'll keep in touch. We have to email each other." She pulled away and looked around the room. "All of you."

Michael spoke up. "It's too dangerous. They can track our IP addresses."

"Then fly to Peru every two months to send an email," Isabel retorted. She turned back to Max, who had yet to reply to her. "Promise me, Max."

He nodded and Michael sighed in frustration. "I promise." He glanced at Michael and then back at Isabel. "But only a couple times a year. Michael's right. It's too dangerous." He looked over at Kyle. "Do you have the passports?" They had spent the past several days perfecting fake passports and visas.

Kyle nodded. "Yep."

"And the visas?"

"Yep."

"And what about money? Do you have the credit cards?"

"Max," Isabel said, putting a hand on his arm. "We've got everything."

Max nodded, vaguely realizing that he was stalling for time.

Kyle quietly said, "Isabel," and tapped his watch, glancing in Max's direction. Isabel nodded and turned back. "We really have to go. We don't want to miss the flight."

Max nodded again, not sure what to do. Liz stood up and hugged Isabel. Michael and Maria did the same as Liz walked over to Kyle. Max watched as the two of them hugged and then took up an easy banter that left both of them chuckling. He couldn't hear what they said, but was happy to see Liz laugh about anything. He watched Michael and Maria walk back over to Kyle, leaving him alone with Isabel.

He looked at her, a heaviness settling in his chest. They had never been apart, at least not for long - not since they had landed on this planet - and now they were going to be entire an continent away from each other, only communicating once every six months, if they were lucky.

Isabel was strangely stoic. Max could see tears in her eyes, but she was standing tall and steady, her face entirely smooth. Jesse's death had changed her. In the beginning she had been nearly inconsolable, but then one day she had dried her tears and began to act like everything was fine. Ever since then, the emotional sister he had had for as long as he could remember had become one of the least outwardly emotional among the six of them. She smiled a little now, making Max realize he was staring, and then reached over to give him another hug, hanging on for longer than usual. When she pulled away, she immediately turned around and walked to the door. Kyle held it open for her. She paused before going out, looking behind her one last time, and then walked quickly through it. Kyle simply nodded and followed her out, closing the door behind him.

Max exhaled and sank onto the hotel room bed, putting his head in his hands. Liz walked over and sat down next to him, putting an arm around his back and leaning her head against his shoulder. He stayed like that, indulging in a moment or two of self pity, until he heard someone clear their throat. When he looked up he saw Michael standing in front of him, looking uncomfortable.

Max watched as Michael took a military stance, legs apart and arms clasped in front of him.

"So, the thing is," Michael started, looking at the floor, "Maria and I are leaving too."

Liz stood up. "What?" She looked back at Max and then over at Maria, bringing a hand to her mouth.

Max slowly nodded and stood up, feeling older than his twenty-one years. "Where are you going?"

"Brazil."

Max's mouth twitched. "You don't know Portuguese."

"Maria knows Spanish."

"That's not Portuguese."

Michael sighed. "Then we'll learn," he replied, sounding irritated.

Max pressed his lips together to keep from smiling.

Michael held out his hand and looked away uncomfortably. "So, anyway. We'll be seeing you."

Max reached out and slowly shook Michael's hand, but when Michael tried to pull away, Max didn't let go, instead pulling Michael into a hug. Michael froze at first before wrapping his arms around Max as well and slapping him on the back. They pulled apart, a little awkwardly, and turned towards Maria and Liz, who were both crying and hugging one another, rocking back and forth. They broke apart as Max and Michael walked over. Maria immediately gave Max a hug as Liz hugged Michael.

"You take care of her, do you hear me, Max Evans?" Maria said into his shoulder.

"I will," Max replied.

Maria pulled away, wiping her tearstained face with her hand. "And don't think that just because we're in a different hemisphere that you can't make us godparents to all of your kids."

"All?" Max said, surprised. He had thought about kids with Liz, but he didn't know if there was an "all" in their future.

"Oh god," Maria said, lunging back at Liz. "I'm going to miss you so much."

"I'm going to miss you too," Liz said, also crying.

Max and Michael looked at each other, both knowing what had to be done, but neither one wanting to do it. Michael reached a hand towards Maria. "We have to go."

Maria reluctantly pulled away from Liz and nodded, grabbing her bag and immediately running out the door. Michael looked back at Max and Liz, but didn't say anything before he closed the door behind him.

Liz immediately turned into Max's arms, hands against his chest, sobbing. Max wrapped his arms around Liz, his own pain causing a tear to fall from his eye.

"It's alright. Like you said, we're doing the right thing," Max said, more to himself than to Liz. "We're all going to be safer this way.

2013

"Get out of the way! NOW!" shouted Michael. He ran into the cave with Max in his arms, passed out.

"Oh my god!" Liz shrieked. "Max!" She ran over as Michael gently set Max on a long, flat rock, blood all over both him and Michael. "Where is he hurt? What happened? Oh my god, Max!" Liz looked around frantically. "Someone help!" She looked at Michael. "Heal him!"

Michael shook his head. "I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?" Liz grabbed Michael by his shirt. "HEAL HIM!"

"Oh my god," Maria ran in through the mouth of the cave, "What happened?"

Michael shook his head. "We were ambushed. They knew we were coming."

"Did you get Isabel back?"

Michael nodded, pressing his hand down on Max's middle, trying to staunch the flow of blood.

"Well, where is she?" Maria asked, frantically looking around. Arrin came in, holding several instruments that looked like they could be medical.

"Where is the king?" he asked, glancing around frantically. Then, seeing Max lying on the rock, he rushed over, pushing Liz aside. Liz, however, refused to be pushed aside, immediately taking residence at Max's head while Arrin began to work.

"Where is Isabel?" Maria asked again.

Michael didn't look up, but answered, "Kyle has her. She passed out. Kivar did something to her before we could get her out."

"What happened?" she asked again, running over to Michael and gasping when she got a good look at Max.

"I don't know," Michael said. "Everything was fine. We were almost out of there, home free, and then there were just explosions and chaos everywhere."

"Well, how did you all get out?"

Michael swallowed. "I don't know."

A/N: Thank you for reading. I'm sure you've heard this before, but Reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks! :)