Summary: Liz did what she came to do; she went back into the past and saved Zan. But Zan is nothing if not dangerous, and every action he makes creates a ripple effect that will change the world Liz knew beyond all recognition. It's a new timeline, but does that really mean it will be a better one?

Disclaimer: I do not own Liz Parker, Zan, or any of the other characters or places of the TV show (and book series) Roswell.

AN: Enjoy, and please read the author's note at the bottom!


"Maria, what –" Michael cut himself off, staring off into space with an intensity on his face that drew everyone's immediate attention. They'd been having lunch together at their favorite little place outside of town (they were introducing Tess to it, actually, although the blonde girl didn't quite understand their attraction to the dusty old taco stand) when the call had come in. Instantly, the calm of the day was shattered. "What the hell do you mean, you followed Zan out of town?"

Max felt a line of ice run up his spine, and he tried to focus on the vague, tinny sound of Maria's voice from Michael's cell phone, but he was too far away and the reception out here was terrible anyway. Instead, he kept a very careful eye on Michael's face, hoping to read the conversation in the emotions the blonde boy kept on easy display.

The worry in Michael's eyes mixed with an even heavier confusion, and after a long moment of sounds Max couldn't hope to decipher, he said, "… Are you with Liz?"

Max went rigid, and the urge to reach over and pluck the phone out of his friend's hand was almost uncontrollable. He forced it back, that little voice he'd developed over weeks of having to pull away from Liz reminding him not to overreact.

But dear God, was it hard not to.

"Michael, what's happening?" Isabel urged, and Max had never been so grateful for an interjection in his life.

Michael glanced at her and pulled the bottom of the cellphone away from his face, cupping the receiver to try and block out their conversation. "Maria says she and Liz followed Zan out of town, he caught them, and now they're going somewhere in his van."

Tess gaped. "They did what?"

Max felt his stomach lurch. "Do they have any idea where he's taking them?"

Michael glanced at him, but otherwise ignored the interruptions. The sounds from the cellphone changed tone and Michael's face suddenly went from confused and concerned to startled and a little pissed off. "What the hell does he mean, you made him?"

More noises they couldn't hear.

"Michael!" Isabel hissed, gesturing with her hands for him to talk. Michael rolled his eyes and scowled, but covered the receiving end of the cellphone again.

"Liz stole his keys and wouldn't let him leave unless he took them with him."

"… What?" This time it was both Max and Isabel who responded, Max with an edge to his voice and Isabel's muffled and shrill. Out of the corner of his eye, Max watched Tess's eyes go wide and unsettled, but his attention was too focused on the call to try and comfort her.

"Why would Liz…" But the rest of the question cut off as Michael listened to whatever his girlfriend was saying on the other end of the phone. After a second he abruptly shoved his hand in his pocket, checking one and then the other until he finally found a short, overused pencil. He grabbed the edge of the red-and-white checkered paper lining Max's plate and ripped, quickly scribbling something on the paper scrap that Max couldn't immediately see. "Okay. Okay. I got it. Yeah… we will. Just… don't do anything stupid, okay? Just stall until we get there."

Without even having to ask, Max grabbed his keys and all four of them shoved themselves to their feet, sprinting for the jeep quickly enough to totally upend one paper plate of fries. The vendor said something sharp that none of them listened to, and in just seconds they took off so quickly their back tires kicked up a cloud of sand and dust.

Let them be okay...


It was hard not to look at her.

Zan stretched his neck and kept his eyes on the windshield, peeking yet again at the girl who sat in his passenger seat. Maria had set herself up in the back, and although she was wearing a seat-belt she had it adjusted to its loosest possible setting… every inch of which she used. The result was the upper half of her torso leaning in between the two front seats, her head only at about shoulder level with Beth.

Zan flinched. No, not Beth. Parker.

Right.

And that, right there, summed up all the problems he was having today. He'd taken Beth's advice and was following the ever dwindling distress call in his mind towards where he thought Ava had to be, but it figured that it would be during something as important as rescuing his family/betrayer/ex-wife that Parker would show up and turn his entire fucking world on its end. Again.

He could still feel her fingertips on his chest as she'd reached out and grabbed his dream catcher.

I made this…

"So, who all's joining the party?" Zan muttered, not really caring but desperately trying to get his mind on other subjects. "I know Mikey's on the list, obviously, but who else was there?"

Maria glared. "None of your business."

Zan rolled his eyes. "Like I'm not going to figure it out when they get there."

"And where exactly is there, anyway?" Maria sniped, sarcastically saccharine.

Zan glanced at her before turning back to the road. "You got some kinda problem with me, blondie?"

"Some kind of problem? Yeah, you know what – I do, actually." She chirped with a subtle edge of venom. Then the smile on her face dropped off and all that was left was a to-the-point glare. "What did you do with Alex?"

Zan rolled his eyes again and felt his jaw clench. Holy shit, how'd saving one skinny dweeb become this much friggin' trouble? "Jesus - are you people really still on this? Like I said before: I. Didn't. Do. Anything."

"I. Don't. Believe. You." Maria retorted immediately, mimicking his exaggerated enunciation.

"Not my problem." Zan snapped. "Believe it or don't. What reason do I even have to mess with him? What benefit am I supposed to get from this?"

"Oh, I don't know…" Maria drawled, not even a little convinced. "Maybe to get to us?"

Zan's cast her a flat look. "Why?"

For a moment, the question seemed to catch her off guard. She gave him a dumbfounded stare and then blinked, evidently shaking off her shock. "I - I don't know, the same reasons everyone else does?"

"The only reasons anybody cares about you guys is because they're either hunting aliens or they got issues with the former King of Antar." Zan immediately retorted. He knew it was probably a bad idea even as the urge to rant took over, but he was sick and tired of being treated like the enemy by a bunch of people he was trying to help. "Now, where have I heard about someone like that before? Oh – that's right. Me. I'm also the former King of Antar. On top of that, I'm better trained than Maxie and way better informed about where we come from, like the politics and the history and all that shit. Which means, not only am I not on the side of the suits that want to cut me open, I'm probably even higher on Kivar's shit list than Maxie. So, again... why?"

Maria gaped.

Zan turned back to the road. "I don't know how to make this any clearer to you. I owe a debt to the woman who saved my life. She wanted me to help you, so here I am. I ain't got any reason to hurt you – even if you don't believe me about Beth, you know we got the same enemy in Kivar, so it's in my best interest not to make any more friggin' enemies here. You don't gotta trust anything else about me, but you should trust that."

For a long, long moment, the van was silent. Zan stared at the road, watching the colors of the sunset light the clouds on fire. It was a pretty sight – one of the few things he liked about this place, actually. Usually the sky was this ridiculously boring, gigantic expanse of blue, but when there were scattered clouds and the sun was getting ready to disappear, the whole sky just lit up peach and purple. It was the only thing he liked better in New Mexico than in New York.

"And my dreams?"

Zan frowned. "What dreams?"

Parker's brow furrowed. "The dreams you've been sending me."

"Sorry, Parker, but I'm not sending you anything." Zan glanced across the van at her, his puzzled expression morphing into a wince. "I wouldn't even know how if I tried. That was always more Lonnie's thing."

"But –" Liz blinked, apparently missing his awkward misstep. "If you weren't talking about my dreams, why were you… What were you talking about at the gas-station, then?"

Zan stared at the road for a minute, then asked quietly. "Why'd you say you made my dream catcher?"

He saw her shrug after a second out of the corner of his eye. "I... think I had a dream about it."

"A dream?" Zan's hands started to ache and he loosened his grip on the steering wheel. His knuckles had gone all white, and the sudden release of restriction to the flow of blood made his fingertips tingle. "What kind of dream are we talking about here?"

She ducked her head, looking down at her hands as her blonde friend turned to stare. Evidently Zan wasn't the only one curious about her answer. "Just dreams. They started a couple months ago. They're pretty random, but they're really intense, like… I had one a few nights ago that – well, I was having this argument with Michael, only he – his arm… "

"He only had one?" Zan said rigidly, and both Parker and Maria's gaze snapped toward him.

"You –" she gaped, turning to face him with eager accusation in her expression. "You did send them!"

"No, I just…" Zan shook his head. The obvious conclusion was also the most unbelievable, and for a long moment Zan was caught between wanting desperately for it to be true and hoping Parker would tell him it was all some weird, fucked up joke. "I think I know where they came from."

"… Where?" Parker asked almost immediately, her voice sounding uncertain but clear.

Zan glanced at her and then to Maria before looking back out the windshield. He thought of half a dozen ways to ease into the subject and all of them sucked, so after a minute he let out a frustrated sigh and cursed. I guess I just gotta say it. "You got a visit from a guy from the future not long ago, right? Well… we sorta have that in common."

There was an instant silence.

Seconds passed where they just stared at him, and Zan felt himself getting uncharacteristically uncomfortable with it. When absolutely nothing happened for another few seconds and Zan felt his neck start getting hot, he broke.

"I told Maxie a chick named Beth saved my ass back in New York – and that's true, it's just… Y'know, Beth wasn't exactly…" Zan winced. He wasn't saying any of this very well. "It wasn't her full name, or whatev."

Parker just kept staring, but something seemed to click for Maria. The blonde leaned forward and said slowly, "What was her full name, Zan?"

He hesitated a second before biting the bullet. "Elizabeth."

"As in…" Maria started, horror leaking into her voice. "Elizabeth Parker?"

Zan glanced down at Maria, his eyes straying over to the passenger seat almost immediately. She was giving him a wide-eyed stare, and he couldn't interpret the emotion on her face even a little bit.

Zan snapped his gaze toward the review mirror, making a show of it to imply the only reason he'd turned away so quickly was to keep from getting in an accident or whatever. Instead, his eyes settled on another Parker, sitting silently in the backseat beside Maria, older and more wild and almost impossible to see in the shadows forming as the sun set.

She met his eyes in the mirror and smiled.

"Thank you."


None of this made any sense.

Tess sat in the back seat with Michael, who was chewing on his thumbnail and bouncing his foot so fast it was almost a hum. She wanted to scream at him, hit him in the shoulder or use her abilities to make him sleep – whatever it took to make him stop. But she knew it was just stress making her think that way, and not only would it blow her cover to start acting out but it wouldn't solve her real problem.

Liz was not reacting the way she should be.

Tess had been careful. She couldn't just make Liz believe she was suddenly, desperately in love with Zan, because nobody would buy it. And, yeah – they might blame it on Zan, but all that would accomplish was sending Max riding in on his white horse, yet again. It needed to be more subtle than that.

That's why she'd started sending Liz the daydreams. It wasn't anything big – just little moments to get the idea of Zan as a romantic option into her head. It hadn't been all that hard, either; Tess wasn't stupid – she knew Liz was still at least a little in love with Max, who – oh, hey – happened to be identical to Zan. It gave her more than enough material to work with, really.

Except that Liz was supposed to have little mental arguments with herself for a while, and then call him. Preferably with Max right there to hear her ask for Zan's number.

She wasn't supposed to go totally insane and kidnap him.

So now here they were, all hitching a ride on that stupid white horse. As if she wanted anything to do with rescuing her boyfriend's ex.

It doesn't matter. She told herself, forcing a deep, calming breath into her lungs. I can find out what went wrong when we get there. And who knows – maybe this… ridiculous little trip will help us figure out what the hell Zan is really doing in Roswell.

Not that she cared all that much; whatever he was up to, she doubted very much that his plans would get in the way of her own. But she knew better than to think Zan was without some – rather considerable – political value. Kivar would want to know that both clones survived, and in the worst case scenario… maybe offering Zan up would be enough to protect Max if Kivar decided to change the terms of their agreement.

First, though. First she'd have to handle Liz.


The explanation came quickly – aided mostly by endless questions from Maria, who was fighting as hard as she could not to believe Zan's time-travel story. She questioned everything; how Liz had come back, why she'd gone to Zan, when this had all gone down. It was dark and Zan was visibly annoyed before she ran out of things to clarify.

Through all of it, Liz stayed totally quiet, rubbing her fingers against the remembered feeling of string in a dream catcher. She'd learned to make those as a kid.

Not even Max knew that about her.

The darker it got, the more Zan tensed up. Liz thought at first that it was Maria's questions that were bothering him, but eventually she ran out of things to clarify, and the building discomfort continued. It was dark enough to start seeing stars when Zan pulled the van over.

"… Not that your little story didn't make perfect sense and everything, but driving us hours out of Roswell just to find an empty field in the middle of nowhere? Yeah. Sorta supports my whole evil alien serial killer theory."

Despite her tone, Liz thought Maria wouldn't have come out and said it like that if she'd really believed he was going to kill them. Although, with this being Maria… well, there was a fairly good chance Liz was wrong.

Zan rolled his eyes. "Just stay in the van, okay?"

"Where are you going?" Liz asked quickly, having not actually realized he was getting out until she heard the door click open. For a tense second, she didn't think he was going to answer her, but he turned a soft edged look her way.

"Ava's in there. She needs my help."

Liz glanced awkwardly at the darkened field. It almost seemed to go on forever in the gloom, and something about the place gave Liz the creeps. "In where?"

"Underneath all that grass is an underground base. This is where Lonnie took me when… Look, I know you can't see it, but it's there."

Maria cut in shrilly from the back seat. "And you're leaving us here?"

He sighed through clenched teeth. "You'll be fine." He said irritably. "Just stay in the van, okay? I'll be back before you know it."

"What happens if you're not? What happens if you, like, die in there or something, and Liz and me are left sitting in a car outside an actual secret alien bunker all by ourselves– " her voice had, by now, dropped into a grating whisper of mingled outrage and dread. "– totally defenseless and –"

"Chill." Zan growled, visibly offended by her take on his imminent 'demise.' He waited until Maria trailed off and leveled him with a glare of her own before pulling the keys out of the ignition and holding them out to Liz. He pulled back before she could take them and gave her a dead-serious stare. "Give me an hour, aight? I'm not kidding; if I come out of there with Ava in half an hour and you two preps have jacked my van…"

He trailed off ominously, and neither Liz nor Maria was tempted to challenge him. Liz smiled weakly and nodded, gingerly tugging the keys from his hand. "We promise."

He looked back and forth between them for a second before nodding. He hopped out of the van without either of them stopping him and turned one last time to look through the open door. "Stay here. Okay? I'm not kidding."

He gave them another hard stare before slamming the door and leaving them in total silence.

Liz managed to actually stay in the van a whole ten minutes before the déjà vu got to be too much for her. She slid open the door and hopped out.

"Liz!" Maria whisper-shouted, sounding strangled and beyond upset. "What are you doing? You heard what Zan said! We have to stay in the van!"

"Oh, so now you believe him." Liz grumbled. The attempt at levity fell flat as Maria's glare turned poisonous.

"I have followed every one of your insane instructions all day. And now, not only are we in the middle of nowhere in a potentially hostile alien's incredibly sketchy van, but you're getting out of the incredibly sketchy van to go chase down more potentially hostile aliens!" Maria hissed, a brittle edge to her expression that spoke to how drained the blonde was feeling. "So even though as your friend I usually love and appreciate your wonderfully sassy remarks… Now. Is not. The time."

Liz blushed and ducked her head, caught again by that surge of guilt. "I'm sorry."

Maria blinked and frowned harder. "And yet, you're still not getting back in the van." Maria closed her eyes and made a noise that was halfway between groan and sob, laden with so much self-pity and drama that Liz had to fight the urge to smile. "Why are you not getting back in the van? Liz, tell me you're not seriously considering going in there? I know you liked Ava, but –"

"It's not about that." Liz blurted, then winced a little at how cold it'd sounded to say out loud. But it was true; although Zan's story had made Liz immediately begin to worry for the little blonde she'd bonded with back when Max went to New York, the thing that had been buzzing in her mind ever since Zan'd left them by an empty field with strict orders to stay in the van wasn't concern.

"I… I know this place, Maria."

The chain link fence, the road, the field… even the way the dark sky blended over the horizon. Every part of it was familiar.

Liz shook her head. "I can't explain, I just… I have to go in there."

Liz managed to get almost two steps further before Maria grabbed her arm. "Liz –…"

"Maria." Liz firmly retorted, looking her friend in the eye and giving no ground. The moment Maria's grip seemed to ease, Liz's expression gentled. "I have to do this. I know there's nothing I can say that'll make you understand this, I just… I need to go."

Every one of her instincts were telling her that she'd been here before – that something… something pivotal, something incredibly important had happened here. And if she didn't go inside – if she didn't see this place for herself, she might miss the chance to figure out what it was…

… And whether or not Zan was telling the truth.

Maria stared at her for a moment, then sighed and said woodenly, "I'm going with you."

"Maria –" Liz began to protest, that now-familiar surge of guilt welling up again.

"I'm going with you." Maria said, steel in her tone. The furious glare she gave Liz then was totally devoid of all dramatics. "And if we get out of this alive, we're going to have a long, serious talk about what's been going on with you when we get back to Roswell."

Liz stared at her for a second before reluctantly nodding. Maria let go of her wrist and hopped out behind her. Liz hesitated a moment, then started walking in an apparently random direction, following instincts she didn't really understand.

Thankfully, Zan had left a hole in the fence. They ducked through it and hurried through the grass.

She chose a random direction almost stumbled over a little shed – although for all that it seemed to suddenly loom out of the dark, she wasn't all that surprised to find it there. She stepped inside to find it pitch black and tiny, but on a hunch she waved a hand out in a circle around her until her palm cupped a rod of metal. She tugged…

And a square of deeper darkness opened in the floor.

"Okay…" Maria whispered, unnerved. "How did you know about that?"

"I don't know." Liz said distractedly, stepping forward and using her foot to locate the ladder she knew she'd find. "But I'm going to find out."

Maria almost reached forward to stop her again, then let out a frustrated groan, stomped her foot, and followed her down – grumbling the whole way. Liz only caught bits and pieces, but what she heard wasn't exactly flattering.

She got quiet when they hit the floor and Liz could practically feel the fear coming off her friend. She looked for the door, almost missing it in the dark… and came up against an unexpected obstacle.

It was locked.

She twisted the knob until the door rattled, jerking it and trying to force the issue. The lock was strong though, and no amount of twisting it was doing any good – Liz was just starting to consider giving up and heading back up the ladder when it suddenly gave way.

Suddenly, Liz had the most ridiculous thought that somehow she'd turned the lock. As if she'd done what Max or Isabel could do, and actually unlocked the door with her mind. Her heart rate sped up as she started to slowly push it open.

It was stupid - irrational. But she felt like...

Like maybe it was -

She froze.

There were two men on the other side of the door.

"Looking for something?" The first one smiled. His teeth were crooked and the smell of his breath almost made her gag. The second guy - taller and chubbier - reached out a hand and slammed the door wide open.

Behind her, Maria screamed.

The first guy shrugged in mocking cheer and gestured shortly to his friend. "Well. I guess you've found it."

The bigger guy lurched forward, one palm racing toward her forehead and -


AN: Hey! Sorry to leave it both short and on a cliffhanger, but this is the pretty clear dividing line between pre-rescue and rescue, which is a chapter length all on it's own. Also, I would really like to hear your opinions about what you guys want to see most from here on out. I've got my own plans, so I can't guarantee I'll take the suggestions, but your input will help me decide whose POV's I should use and which of my secondary plot lines I should develop.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you guys enjoy the update!