~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Epiphanies

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tess stared out the car window, her eyes not really seeing the drenched desert as it flew past the truck. She was lost in her own thoughts, partially hating to admit that the camping trip had actually been fun until the unforeseen rains had cut it short. She wasn't exactly sure what she was most unsettled by: deciding to pack up because or the unrelenting rain, being mercilessly teased by Kyle throughout the whole trip, or being bone chillingly cold because she was thoroughly soaked by the icy rainwater. Deciding her reduced comfort level was probably the root of her discontent, she readjusted the vent so that she was fully in the path of its warm stream of air.

"Hey," Kyle called out from the back seat, irritation saturating his complaint, "it's a little cold back here."

Tess turned her attention back to the scenery, still unseeing but content.

Sheriff Valenti looked over at his front seat passenger and noted the Mona Lisa smile that graced her face; somehow he didn't think she had missed Kyle's complaint. "Almost home, son. We'll all be able to warm up and get into dry clothes soon." He chuckled softly, so this was what it was like to have more than one child. He wondered how the Evans dealt with Max and Isabel, if they even had to deal with such human traits as sibling rivalry. Since it was Tess who was involved in their own small scuffle, he supposed they did.

Folding her hands in her lap, Tess grinned. Maybe this family thing wasn't so bad after all. Not everyone could have what Max and Isabel had lucked into, that was obvious just by looking at Maria's insanely wacky home life, but there were worse families to belong to than the Valenti's. Snuggling back into the seat, she sighed happily and enjoyed the ride home.

~~~

"What do you mean he's gone?" Liz stared at Maria, her mind refusing to comprehend what her best friend had just told them. Hadn't they just decided to wait until the others had returned before doing anything?

Maria had walked back into the restaurant looking even more like a drowned rat that she had initially. What had unnerved Liz, however, was the flat aspect of her normally animated eyes. Maria looked worn down, something Liz hadn't witnessed since before she and Michael had supposedly come to terms with the whole destiny controversy.

"What do you think I mean? He's gone, split, vamoosed, departed for parts unknown, taken the high road…" She fell into the booth and rested her head on the tabletop, not caring how she looked or if they could all sense her rapidly declining mood. All the Cyprus oil in the world couldn't cure what ailed her. Michael Guerin would always be just that… Michael. She had accepted that, hadn't she? Given her attitude, she guessed she had been mistaken.

"But where did he-"

"To see Renata. Where else would Michael go?" Isabel scoffed. She had dealt with Michael's behavior for too long not to realize what his departure meant. Max was right, just knowing that he was doing it because that was the way he was wasn't enough any more. He was putting them all at risk now, all eight of them, nine if you included the elder Valenti, and that was inexcusable.

"I tried to reason with him, but I've decided that's just a pointless exercise. The boy's skull is denser than titanium. It's a wonder he's lived so long…" Maria rested her flushed cheek against the cool tabletop, glad that the rain had masked her tear stained face. The last thing she wanted was for any of her friends to know that Michael could make her cry so easily. Pity was something she really wasn't up to dealing with.

Max had heard enough. "He's not going to be satisfied until he's gotten himself and all the rest of us killed!"

Max's sudden outburst startled Maria into picking her head up. Max didn't loose his cool often, she'd only seen it happen a couple of times, and Michael was more often the root of it. So the fearless leader of the pod squad was fed up with her sometimes-boyfriend, he would just have to take a number and wait until she'd had her say once the scumbag got back.

"Should we go after him?" Alex asked, trying to find some viable solution to their problem.

Isabel leaned her head against his shoulder, relishing the warmth that radiated off him in welcoming waves. She was beginning to get tired of rushing off after Michael, but was startled to hear her brother voice her own opinion.

"No. Michael can just deal with it himself this time."

~~~

"Get out!" Renata was having trouble controlling her anger but regardless of who this boy was she didn't want to fully unleash her fury at him. It didn't matter that he knew the origins of the tattoo design, that wasn't proof enough of anything for her anymore.

"Not until you explain where you found that design." Michael refused to be bullied out of the hotel. He would have used his powers if he weren't so concerned that she'd probably end up getting killed in the process. He was too agitated to focus and killing her, inadvertently or not, would not produce the answers he wanted. Besides, he was still having trouble coming to terms with the fact that he could kill someone, in self-defense or otherwise.

The whole conversation was getting to be too much for her. She was already on edge and hungry and bone-weary and a thousand other things she couldn't name and this blasted kid just wouldn't listen to her or any of the threats she had thrown at him. What in the hell had gotten into him that her usual barrage of foulness and anger didn't faze him even slightly? She didn't really mean to do it but when he took a step closer to her she threw up her hand and a wall of energy stopped him in mid-stride.

Michael had only seen it done once before, by Max. Only one explanation could explain the phenomenon. "You're one of us."

She raised her eyes to meet his. A sudden image flashed across her thoughts much like the lightning striking angrily across the black expanse of cloud-filled skies outside her room, a scene from the recurring nightmare she had suffered through every night for more than five years. There was blinding fury in her gaze when she did at last meet his gaze and it caused Michael to take a step back away from the energy shield she had erected. Her reaction confused him. If she was the enemy and had wanted to kill him, she would have done it already. If she wasn't the enemy, then she should be glad to discover there were others like her. He remembered then his reaction to learning of Tess' origins.

"I am not one of you, nor would I ever wish to be." Her eyes narrowed. "Now. Get. Out." She enunciated each word carefully, deadly venom filling her tone, willing the field to slowly encroach upon the door and usher her unwanted guest back out into the rain and out of her life.

~~~

"I just don't understand why you insisted we go right back out into the rain when you've spent the last two days complaining about being cold and wet," Kyle insisted, pushing open the door of the Crashdown.

Tess refused to be antagonized; at least she wasn't stuck in a tent with him any longer. "I didn't insist that we do it, I insisted that I do it. It was your choice to tag along."

"Yeah, like I'm going to let you walk through a downpour. Just remember who offered to drive you here after dinner tonight when it comes time to load the dishwasher." He stripped off the jacket he'd worn to protect him from the rain and reached out to take the one he had lent Tess. Hanging them both up to drip dry, he followed the path Tess had taken.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Tess could feel the tension hanging in the air as she pulled up a chair and sat at the end of the booth.

"You're back already?" Isabel asked, her brow furrowed, "I thought you were going to be gone until Monday."

"Camping is one thing, drowning is wholly different. We came back when the rain wouldn't stop." Tess looked at each of the faces at the booth, something was definitely up and Michael was noticeably absent, he had been literally attached to Maria recently. "So are you going to tell me what's going on?"

Everyone turned to look at Isabel. Of all of them, Isabel was still closest to Tess and they felt that this new development would be best related by a friend. Isabel wasn't sure she agreed with them.

"There may be another one like us in Roswell," she whispered, her voice was loud enough for Tess to hear but soft enough to be lost in the din of the breakfast crowd who had braved the storm. She held Alex's hand just a little bit tighter in her own, still unsure what to think of everything that was happening but reassured by his presence next to her.

Tess' face paled. Nasedo had mentioned others before but the others had always been the bad kind. Courtney had proven to them that it was a false assumption. "What do you mean another? I don't understand." Maybe they should have stuck out the camping trip after all, not coming back until this was over and done with.

Isabel, with help from Alex and Liz, filled Tess and Kyle in on all that had happened since they had been gone. Liz described the argument that she and Maria had overheard, and Isabel told about the discovery of the woman's tattoo. Tess was silent throughout the telling, trying to put the pieces together in some order that would make sense. She looked at the despondent Maria, no wonder the girl looked terrible, her boyfriend could very likely have walked into a death trap.

"Shouldn't we go after Michael?"

Max's head snapped up, his anger at Michael's actions was rapidly dissipating; the concern that washed over him was warring against a need to protect them from outsiders. "I think it's too late now. Whatever is going to happen already has. If we all show up at the hotel they'll just know that there are more of us." It was true that he was becoming increasingly tired of cleaning up Michael's messes, but something inside him would die if harm came to his friend. "I'll go, the rest of you stay here and wait him to come back." He rose from the booth as Liz slipped out before him.

"Max…"

"I'll be alright, Liz."

"Just… be careful."

"I will." He leaned down and kissed her softly, ignoring his sister's scoff and rolling eyes. Giving Liz a small smile he placed a hand on Maria's shoulder. "He's fine, I know he is."

Maria looked up into his eyes. Max wouldn't lie to her, but it didn't stop her from worrying. "Bring him back?"

"I will."

~~~

Michael kept walking. He didn't notice how far he had walked or how wet he was or how cold the rain felt against his skin. He didn't notice anything. All he could think about was the expression on Renata's face. She had seen something in him that horrified her, something repulsive and foreign and horrific. But she hadn't been speaking just of him, she had meant the four of them. He didn't know how he knew it, but that was what she had been telling him. She was 'not-of-this-earth' but she wasn't like they were nor did she want to be and she wanted nothing to do with any of them. Renata had, with one look, unknowingly concurred with what Hank had said to him so many sleepless nights before: he was a freak.

He didn't see Max's jeep fly past him only to come to a screeching halt, sliding along the slick pavement before it turned and stopped next to him. He didn't hear Max call out his name, just before getting out of the vehicle and jogging along the sidewalk to catch up with him. He didn't feel Max's hand latch onto his elbow, propelling him to face his friend.

"Michael?"

Max's voice finally pushed its way through the static in Michael's mind, forcing him to blink rapidly and realize that he stood outside in the pouring rain, faced by one of the few people who might be able to understand what he was feeling. But how could he tell Max what he had seen in Renata's eyes? That she despised them without even knowing who they were. That maybe she did know who they had been and that it was enough to carry into her own rebirth. What he had witnessed, as he had watched the emotions flash across her dark eyes, had scared him more than facing the Skins had, disgust and horror were too mild to encompass all that he had seen in that bare second before she had forced him out of the room.

"Michael, Maria thought you had gone to see Renata."

Maria… He should have listened to her, she had been right, again. He had to let her know that he was okay; she would be worried sick, sniffing her oils like there was no tomorrow and ranting about what an insensitive jerk he was. Regardless of the Teflon façade she liked to throw up in front of her damaged feelings, he knew he could hurt her easily and that she couldn't help but worry about him.

"Michael, did you go to see Renata?" Max was becoming distraught over Michael's unresponsiveness. Michael was often moody and sulking, but he wasn't unresponsive. But even his friend's eyes were flat, reminding him of how Maria had looked when she'd come back in from the rain. Michael and Maria were more alike than anyone could imagine.

"I did."

Max breathed a sigh of relief. He had spoken to the unknown entity and lived to tell about it, that was a good sign. Wasn't it? "What did she say?"

"Everything. Nothing. I don't know." Michael pulled out of Max's grip and approached the jeep. Maybe Max and Isabel could help him figure out what he had seen in that split second. But he needed to see Maria first; he needed to know that she didn't see the same thing that Renata had when she looked at him.

Max watched him crawl into the passenger's seat. He was baffled as to how to deal with this strange version of Michael. Maybe it would make more sense once they had rejoined the others. Climbing behind the wheel, he put the jeep into motion, slowly navigating the water filled streets and edging ever closer to the Crashdown and the others who waited and worried.

***Note: Okay, I'm not exceptionally pleased with the second two chapters of this story but I thought I'd try to redeem myself with this chapter rather than rewrite the others. I hope it worked.