As the blonde haired woman cradled her chin on her son's shoulder while hugging him, the last face Liz expected to ever see stared back at her. Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped. Tess. Thoughts of that final night with Tess started racing through her head. Did she miss something?
"Tess?" Max questioned to Liz, clearly equally thrown by this unexpected turn of events. "But I thought you saw her…"
Liz didn't even let him finish, "I did!"
Of all the terrible things Tess did and the heartbreaking havoc she wreaked on her and Max's relationship before Liz could prove her ill intentions and expose just how evil Tess really was, Liz never doubted the sincerity of that final sacrifice. There was something about that look in her eye. Tess seemed genuinely remorseful and resolved to her own death. Liz could certainly be accused of being gullible back then. She hadn't developed her expert and analytical intuition to decipher people's body language that she honed after 20 years of psychic visions and saving lives.
Her eyes fixated on Tess. Back in high school, Max was the only person Tess really ever had a sincere interest in. While she initially became friends with Isabel and later gravitated toward Michael because, of the other three in the Royal Four that grew up in Roswell, he expressed the most interest in embracing their alien heritage and mission. But once she developed a relationship with Max, her alliances with Isabel and Michael clearly took less of a priority. Therefore Liz would expect Tess to instinctively make every effort to connect with Max in an attempt to explain herself.
However Liz noticed that as she, and undoubtedly Max too, watched Tess, she made eye contact with Liz, not Max. Liz put her body language interpreting skills to work, pushing back the past memories and focusing on what she could read off of Tess now. Her forced innocence, veiled in buried insincerity was missing. Her sinister spite for Liz, the human love interest that prevented Max from immediately embracing his alien destiny, was also nowhere to be found. Liz often felt Tess would've happily killed Liz if not for Tess recognizing that Max would never forgive her for it. Tess gazed in at Liz as if she was the only person from her past that was a friend, someone who would understand her. With such little attention paid to Max, Liz sensed her presence signified relief to Tess. While they did share a nice moment at the supposed end of her life, this reaction still felt out of place. As she continued to observe Tess, she again made an effort to force herself into this moment. In addition to pushing back her memories of Tess, she worked to quickly push away her feeling towards Tess too. After succeeding, still locking eyes with her, Liz finally recognized the true identity of the woman staring back at her.
Eyes still wide, mouth still open, Liz announced her realization to the room. "Ava," she said slowly, almost in disbelief.
She looked back at Max to reassure him and saw that he whipped his attention back toward Liz as well.
"What?" Max asked. She knew that he did not doubt her, but was struggling to come to terms with everything being revealed.
Ava pulled away from Zan. "Zan, why don't you go to your room?"
Zan nodded and swiftly walked out of the kitchen, past Liz and Max and retreated to one of the hallways behind them leading to his bedroom. Liz didn't take notice of which one and wasn't very concerned about that.
Standing up straight and addressing both of them, Ava, with her New York accent present but not as thick as the last time Liz encountered her, smiled at Liz. "Long time, Liz. Good to see you."
Ava briefly pivoted to Max and gave him a slight and perhaps forced smile. "Hey Max," adding a little flare to his name.
The dupes, as the Roswell gang came to refer to the alternate set of the Royal Four hybrids who grew up in New York City, all went by their alien names and never adopted human identities. The version of Max that Ava knew and loved went by Zan. Ava's Zan was killed by Lonnie and Rath, the duplicate versions of Isabel and Michael.
Ava studied them for a moment. Liz was speechless. Max didn't say anything, as he evidently was too. Ava shyly pressed her lips together and raised her eye brows while shrugging slightly and stuffing her hands into small pockets on the side of her dress. It was an unconscious expression that Liz observed from Ava all those years ago that Tess never used. This removed any remaining doubts.
After several seconds of awkward silence, Ava spoke again. "So? You got some questions for me or what?"
Liz noted that Ava looked nervous, like they might attack her. Her memories of her time in Roswell with Ava when Max and Tess were away in New York shot to the surface, and it felt like she last shared those moments with Ava just a few weeks ago.
As Liz took that second or two to gather her bearings, Max took a predatory step closer to Ava.
"Why are you raising my son?" Max asked her with command and authority. Liz could sense a hint of anguish in her husband's voice, but also recognized anyone else would only perceive anger.
Ava took a step closer to Max. "Why aren't you?"
Had Max and Ava each taken one more step, they would've been rubbing noses. Liz spotted a warrior's look in Ava's eyes. She noted that Ava's fists clenched and she trembled slightly. While Liz never saw Ava unleash her powers, all of the dupes developed their abilities more than the Roswell hybrids when they first met. Present-day Max mastered his own powers, so Liz reasoned that Ava also fully unlocked her potential, making her very powerful.
Liz sprang into action, quickly gliding forward and positioning herself between the two of them. She shot Max a 'back off' look with nothing but her eyes. He followed her lead and took a step back. Liz smiled warmly at Ava.
"It's good to see you too, Ava," Liz said. She considered giving her a hug, but that seemed overkill. Instead, Liz placed her right hand on Ava's left shoulder.
Liz could feel tension draining from Ava. Her warrior facade receded.
"For Max and I," Liz continued, "none of this is what we expected. We're trying to take it all in and process all of this new information. You can understand that, right Ava?"
Ava nodded. "Here," she said, gesturing to the dining area behind her, "let's sit."
Liz and Max followed Ava as she walked past them to their small dining room table that could seat four. It was a square, oak colored table coated in a thick glaze to protect the wood. The matching chairs had slight grooves at the seat to mold to the body of whoever sat in them. The chair backs featured a rounded top rail with a series of flat vertical rails extending down to the back of the seat. Ava walked to the far side of the table, her back to the nearby wall running along the side of the house. Liz and Max hesitated slightly before taking the two seats across the table from her, a bit tentative about their backs facing the front door and open area of the house. After taking their seats, the trio looked at each other awkwardly for several seconds.
"Ok," Liz blurted out, breaking the silence. She didn't quite know where to take the conversation.
"Let's just staaaart," Liz dragged on the word start before realizing the clear natural place to begin, "…with Zan. You adopted him and by using his name Zan you must know he's Max and Tess's son."
Ava looked surprised and peered over at Max, "You and Tess. I always thought you two were the parents." She was referring to Max and Liz.
"How did you know?" Max asked.
Ava took a deep breath. "My life was directionless after I lost everyone. I used to go out on walks for hours just to keep moving so I could think and just, I don't know, relax. Being alone like that, there was a lot of looking over my shoulder. I saw this house when I turned a corner and I felt somethin'. I didn't understand but something compelled me to go inside. Didn't even know it was a foster home. When I realized, I wanted to leave, but the feelin' compelled me to stay. I asked to look around. Found Zan in the corner, playin' by himself away from the rest of the kids. He smiled at me like he knew me. I stepped in closer and I saw the freakin' Royal Seal start to light up on his forehead. I freaked a little cuz I didn't want anyone else to see it. So I bent down, took his hand and that's when I saw the memory Max gave him."
Liz glanced over at Max who nodded slightly with satisfaction over the newfound information. Whether the satisfaction was due to Ava's story having credibility or that his desire to seed a memory in baby Zan's mind worked, Liz couldn't be sure. Liz knew about the memory Max gave Zan before Max's dad Phillip took the baby off to be adopted, but they never discussed what memory Max gave to his son. For years, it was too painful for Max to discuss Zan so Liz never asked. She hadn't thought about Zan in years and at times it felt like Max didn't have a child. At this moment, Liz couldn't help but wonder what memory Ava saw and she felt a little jealous that only Max and Ava knew. She also recognized this wasn't the most important thing to focus on in this moment.
"Foster care," Liz noted, "we thought Zan was going to be adopted by a nice family."
Ava nodded, confirming her knowledge of those intentions. "That was the plan," she said. "And he was as a baby… But there were problems… like weird electrical surges, objects getting knocked over across the room from him. The family freaked. Zan bounced around in foster care ever since, not really fittin' in as he developed. He was four when I found him."
Max put his palms over his eyes and ran his hands up through his hair in distress. "That doesn't make sense," he said with some exasperation. After a deep breath, he continued, "Zan was supposed to be fully human. That's why I gave him up."
"He is," Ava said, "but with some advantages. It's kinda the same way with us, ya know?"
Liz glanced at Max, who didn't seem to be totally following. She jumped in, trying to help him connect the dots.
"Max, didn't Nasedo tell you that all of your powers are within the capability of the human brain?" Liz offered her explanation in the form of a question, even though she only knew this because Michael explained it to them back in high school. "But that you were programmed to be well ahead of our current evolution?"
Max nodded to acknowledge he remembered. "So Zan has powers and is a hybrid like us?" he asked with hints of concern.
"Not exactly," Ava explained. "It's like third generation alien for him."
Liz saw Max glance over at her, but she couldn't quite follow this time, either.
Ava continued, "See, our protectors were like full blown aliens, right?"
Nasedo was the protector Max, Isabel and Michael knew briefly. He raised Tess and their enemies wound up killing him less than year after finding the rest of the Roswell Royal Four.
"They could shapeshift to look human, but their bones weren't, their cells weren't," Ava explained. "We look human, our bones are human, but our cells aren't. Zan's even got human cells somehow, but his mind is still more advanced. It doesn't look like he can develop his powers to the extent we can, though."
A few moments of silence allowed Liz and Max to take some of this in. Liz felt a need to keep Ava talking.
"So where was this foster house where you found, Zan," Liz inquired, "was it here, in El Quarterlejo?"
"No," Ava replied, "Austin. I connected with Zan more than anyone else and submitted the papers to adopt him just three months after I found him. His original adopted parents named him Robert… Robert, can you freakin' believe that? I moved us out here looking for a place where I could raise Zan without a lot of strangers around. This place provided some privacy for if his powers glitched out. With the small town everyone knows each other and is as wary of strangers as we are. It gave us what we needed."
Liz caught the implication that her and Zan's time in El Quarterlejo would soon come to an end. She took a moment to take stock of the house for the first time since stepping inside. Seeing Tess's doppelganger surprised her so much that she didn't pay much attention to any of the details of the house. That's when she noticed the boxes. A couple stacked in the corner of the dining area behind where Ava sat. There were also four in the kitchen two stacked on the far edge of the kitchen counter and two stacked on the floor below it. Swiveling to turn back toward the living room, Liz spotted three more boxes stacked in the front corner. She noticed Max taking the same inventory.
"You're moving?" Max asked, clearly he noticed the boxes for the first time just now as well.
"Can't stay here now," Ava said plainly.
"Is that because of the crash?" Liz asked.
Ava cracked a brief smile. "The crash," Ava repeated back. "At first I thought that was a load of bull, silly small town gossip stuff. But when Zan told me about the graffiti that started poppin' up around the college…" She trailed off as her expression grew grim, "That's when I knew there was somethin' to it and we couldn't stay here."
"I saw pictures of the graffiti in the college newspaper," Max informed her. "It did look familiar to me. You're saying you recognize it?"
"Of course I recognize it," Ava said, "it's the freakin' mark of Kivar! You never got your memories from back home did you?"
Back in high school, Tess offered to show Max how to retrieve memories of his former life and the two of them worked on it during their brief relationship. After Tess left Roswell, Max shared with Liz that he only wanted to find his son and that he lost any interest in learning about his former life. She knew he meant it. When they left Roswell, the only remnant of anything alien was their abilities, including Liz's. But none of the three remaining Royal Four maintained an interest in their mission or reclaiming their former lives.
Max stiffened upon hearing the name of the man who killed him in a former life and seduced his sister into betraying their family.
"What does that mean?" he asked gravely.
"It means Kivar is here," Ava revealed.
"But Kivar is the one who declared Zan as totally human and that he had no use for him," Max said, becoming exasperated and talking quickly compared to his typical cadence. "And Tess said, if we can believe her, that Zan was of no use to Kivar. So why is Kivar still hunting him? Does he know about Zan's powers? How could he know that? Besides, Rath and Lonnie told me that our people don't just zip around the galaxy like on Star Trek, but you're saying Kivar is here in the flesh?"
"Yes," Ava confirmed, "that's what it means. But he isn't here for Zan."
"Then what is he doing here?" Max asked.
"It must be the Granolith," Ava replied.
All of this was difficult for Max to hear and Liz knew the last time he was this rattled was when Michael and Maria left. But this bit about the Granolith perplexed Liz and stirred up a disconcerting confusion.
"No, that can't be right," Liz told Ava, "Tess took the Granolith. That's how she got back to Antar. It's gone."
Ava shook her head slowly. "That can't be," she said. "Tess maybe took the ship that you all got, but that was there to take the Granolith home. Trust me, the only reason Kivar would spend years traveling here is to retrieve the Granolith."
"We thought the Granolith was the ship," Max told her.
"You don't remember," Ava said, mostly in disbelief but with a hint of amusement.
Max slammed his palms on the table. Ava jumped and any amusement in her expression vanished.
"Just tell us," Max said quietly and darkly.
Ava's face puckered some and she looked ready to fight once more. Liz saw a shy, quiet sweetness in Ava and seemed capable of bringing that side out of her. But Liz also could see that capability of fierceness in her, which Max, Michael and Isabel seemed to bring out of her.
"Max," Liz exclaimed, in a tone intended to remind Max that Ava wasn't their enemy.
Max took a deep breath, "Sorry," he apologized.
Ava's posture also softened. "It's ok," she said, after making eye contact with Liz briefly, almost for affirmation that Liz wouldn't let any conflict erupt between her and Max.
Clearly, all of them were in danger if Kivar and his allies from the crashed UFO discovered any of the four of them were in El Quarterlejo. Max offered new information to keep the conversation alive.
"Lonnie did tell me in New York that the Granolith had some kind of religious significance to our people. At The Summit they wanted the Granolith back and Lonnie wanted me to give it to them," Max offered.
"Lonnie," Ava said in appalled disbelief, "she would say that. But it's not quite right. The Granolith is a staff with a royal jewel at the top. It's like what a crown would represent for human royalty. It's been a symbol of the legitimate royalty for generations. If Kivar had the Granolith he could probably use that to sway enough of our supporters to his side and finally win the war. See, the hope for so many people on Antar and throughout our star system is the return of the Royal Four with the Granolith. Everyone knows about the hybrids, that we wouldn't look the same, but the Granolith was ours and returning with it would legitimize that we are who we say we are. Without the Granolith, Kivar can never quash the hope of our return."
Max exhaled, put his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his palms, his eyes looking into the table, but his mind clearly elsewhere.
"Wow," he mumbled.
Liz scooted her chair closer to Max's and put her arm around his shoulders in a show of support.
"Look," Ava said, "it's getting late." It was now past 10:30 PM. "Why don't you two stay with us tonight? It's not much, but the sofa back there has a pull out sleeper. It's probably best we all stick together at this point. I want to go check on Zan."
Max sat up as she headed off. "I'd like to talk with Zan," Max said, "maybe in the morning?"
Ava looked back at him as warmly as she had the entire visit. It's like she sensed his parental connection to Zan and could relate to him in that way much more than through the connection they shared from their former alien lives.
"Sure," Ava said.
Liz laid on her back wide awake on the sleeper sofa, looking up at the shadows on the ceiling of Ava's living room dance around. A streetlight outside shone through the thin curtains of the window on the far wall of the house from the dining area. Liz realized Ava was right to warn them the sleeper sofa wasn't much, as she struggled to find a comfortable position for probably a good 30 minutes or so before giving up, rolling onto her back and letting her mind race. Now lying still, she could sense Max's slow, heavy breathing and knew he managed to fall asleep. However, the uncomfortable mattress wasn't the reason Liz couldn't get to sleep. While physically tired from a wild day, Liz's restlessness came from still trying to process all that her and Max learned over the past 24 hours. She wondered where Ava intended to move to with Zan, if Max would want to move with his son, and how Ava might feel about that. Liz also couldn't help but worry about the bombshell Ava dropped before retiring for the evening that Kivar made his way to Earth in the flesh and not by taking over a human emissary's mind. She truly thought their days of alien quests and battles were long since behind her and Max. Liz figured she needed to prepare herself for an eventual confrontation with Kivar or others from his ship. After all, could they expect to be this close to Max's mortal enemy and hope to avoid one? Zan represented the wild card. For Liz, Max and Ava, keeping Zan safe would be the priority and charging off to confront Kivar and his forces most obviously ran counter to that.
Suddenly Liz sensed a presence with them in the living room. She moved her head ever so slightly toward the center of the house and back toward the dining room area. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the head and shoulders of a shadowy figure silhouetted against the dim lighting shining through from the dining room window.
Liz's heart began to pound. Attempting to mimic a natural movement of someone asleep, Liz rolled over toward Max and nestled up to him. Max slept on his side facing the living room wall with his back toward Liz. From under the covers, she reached over and rocked him very gently.
"Max," Liz whispered, speaking so softly she barely made any sound at all, "someone's here."
After 20 years of life on the move and several close calls from government agents in pursuit of them, both Liz and Max were conditioned to abruptly break out of a slumber and roll into action. Max's eyes shot open, as he burst into consciousness. With cat-like reflexes, he rolled over to his other side to face the dining area and pulled Liz close to him with one arm, pressing her up against him. Because of the rare circumstance of being caught so off guard, Liz felt uncharacteristically frazzled. Normally, she knew what action to expect because she saw it in a vision. Liz closed her eyes and buried her head into Max's chest, waiting for her husband to use his powers against the shadowy intruder. Max extended his other arm outward, his palm in the direction of the intruder and ready to strike.