Story: A Rose Of Cinders

Author: Lizzie_is_a_Dreamer! a.k.a. Katie

Disclaimer: I don't own the story "Cinderella" or the show "Roswell"… Happy now?

Summary: Cinderella Roswell style – with a twist. Based upon the challenge by Dia.

Reviews: Yes, please! A lot! The more reviews I get, the sooner I update!!! *hint, hint* :D

A Rose Of Cinders

Prologue

Once upon a time, in a country far, far, very far away from here, there lived a very beautiful girl. Her name was Elizabeth Parker, but everyone close to her called her Liza. She didn't have many friends, for she was never allowed to leave the house. Her best friends were her brother, Alexander, and the girl from next-door, Maria DeLuca.

Alex and Liza's mother had died in childbirth six years ago, when Liza had been ten and Alex eleven years old. Their little brother, an afterthought, had been born dead. Liza, Alex and their dad had been devastated, and had grieved for over a year. Their father often went on business trips, unable to stay home, where everything reminded him of Christina, his former wife.

Alex and Liza were left to take care of their own, but their father only left them after making sure that they could go to Amelia DeLuca in cases of emergencies. Their neighbor was always willing to cook for two more, and she loved the interaction between Maria, Alex and Liza. They were incredibly close, inseparable actually, and even one who didn't know them could easily notice the tight bond between the three of them.

Four years ago, their father had brought a woman and a girl about Liza's age back from one of his weekly trips. He announced to no one in particular that he would marry Bertha, and that she and her daughter Tess would come and live with them.

Liza and Alex had looked at each other, absolute horror etched on their faces. Bertha was a rather fat woman, and it was even impossible for Maria, who always tried to see the good in the looks of people, to find anything concerning her attractive. Bertha had fierce eyebrows, lips that were drawn in a thin line and eyes that could freeze the sun with their coldness.

Tess hadn't been more gifted with her looks than her mother had been. She may not be as ugly as Bertha, but her eyes were just as cold, her breasts fake and too large for a twelve-year-old and her hair resembled straw that had been curled with a pair of defect tweezers.

There wasn't much that Liza and Alex could do to keep them from moving in, though. Their father had decided to marry Bertha within two weeks, and there was absolutely nothing that could change his mind: he didn't even bother to listen to Liza, who'd always been his eye apple, and Alex's very vivid speeches left him cold.

Bertha and Tess immediately took over the control in the Parker residence, bossing everyone around. Alex just huffed at them when they commanded him, not willing to be nice to the – according to him – invaders of their house and peace. He didn't bother to answer any of their questions (or rather, demands) and tried to ignore them as much as possible.

Liza also had much trouble trying to remain polite to both Tess and Bertha, and even though she - just like Maria - always tried to see the good aspects of people, she wasn't able to discover any nice features or traits of character in neither one of them.

Alex kept trying to reason with their dad about his sudden needs and wants, but it was useless. Their father seemed different, somehow changed. He was no longer the warm and loving man they used to know, but had turned into an emotionless person, numb, almost.

All the hope Maria and Liza had for a marriage between Amelia DeLuca and Jeffrey Parker, who'd always liked each other, had fled the moment her father decided that no one was allowed on his wedding with Bertha, except Tess and Bertha herself.

To say that the years that followed were horrible would be an understatement. They were often stuck with Bertha and Tess because of their father being away on business trips. Alex believed that Tess did everything in her power to make their lives a living hell.

Tess had nabbed both of their rooms and was currently using one for her countless dresses and make up, and one for her bed and other possessions. She had a bathroom of her own since her mother didn't find it fitting for her to share one with Liza and Alex.

All of Liza's dresses had been given to Tess, who put the ones she liked into her own closet, and burned the other ones, her face twisted in a grimace of distaste and disgust.

Bertha and Tess weren't too hard on Alex in the beginning, but when he spoke up for his little sister, their whole demeanor towards him changed. They confiscated his clothes, sold most of them, and burnt the ones that held no value.

Liza and Alex were ought to sleep on some straw in the kitchen, close to the fireplace, between the ashes and cinders. They only had a thin cotton blanket, and often cuddled up together to keep each other warm.

Bertha and Tess tended to use Liza and Alex as their own personal servants. Liza and Alex had to cook, set the table, work in the gardens, clean the house and do all the other nasty chores for which Bertha and Tess were too lazy. Liza also had to fill Tess's bath, wash her hair, dress her and put her make up: a very tough job.

Alex and Liza weren't allowed to leave the house without permission, which was only granted when they had to shop for groceries and other errands.

Every Wednesday and Saturday night, Maria would sneak into the kitchen to see them and keep them somewhat in touch with the outside world. They looked forward towards Maria's visits, eager to hear more of Amelia and Maria's little brother, Domenic.

Maria would gossip and speculate about the girls in town and tell them the latest news about the war against Ceria, that had been going on for six years. Often they would just chit-chat with each other about everything and nothing, or discuss their gifts.

Almost everyone in Antar, their country, had been gifted with a power, born with some sort of gift. Some of the gifts were barely noticeable, others were very prominent and powerful.

Alex was gifted with a logic mind, and he quickly saw answers to the most difficult problems. His logical way of thinking enabled him to think fast, and come up with funny jokes that could crack Liza and Maria up for hours.

Maria's gift was even less perceptible but all the more amusing. She could easily talk to people, connect with them, comfort them when they were hurt or sad and she was great with little children.

Liza's gift must have been the most special gift of all of them. She could 'talk' with animals. It wasn't really talking, but somehow she was able to connect with animals and send them some of her feelings, thoughts or some images and pictures.

All animals loved her, and she loved them. When she had been little, she had been a little afraid of spiders, but she quickly learned that there was nothing to fear. Spiders were fun to play with, and were smarter than many thought.

She had an incredible good relationship with the birds and mice in and around the house. When she had to scrub the floors, they'd often accompany her, the birds happily performing their latest symphonies for her and the mice listening and watching with friendliness in their beady eyes. They were befriended, all of them, and tried their best to keep each other happy.

Maria had been convinced that Bertha or Tess had mind-warped Jeff into marrying Bertha and saying all the things he had said. He showed all the symptoms, she asserted. Tiredness, insensibility, numbness, sudden changes in behavior… All of these were very prominent present in the case of Jeffrey Parker.

When Alex had tried to reason with her, telling her that their dad had already been dead-tired when he had left, she would use his arguments to support her own statement. She'd say that Jeff's tiredness had probably been what had made him more vulnerable and defenseless against a mind-warp in the first place.

Maria usually felt people due to her gift. She could feel their presence, their essence. Bertha and Tess were giving her bad 'vibes' as she used to call her feelings, and that was why she didn't trust them. She also knew how Jeff's presence used to feel, but after his trip his presence had somewhat changed, altered and weakened. What was left was just a vague impression of what his essence used to be.

Alex did see the logic in her speech, but he didn't want to trust his mind this time, he didn't want to believe that his dad had been stupid enough to let himself get mind-warped.

Maria's retort was simple: did he want to believe that this was his dad, then?

When their argument had been about to escalate, Liza had intervened, telling them that it didn't matter whether or not their dad had been mind-warped since there was nothing to be done about it.

The only way a mind-warp could be broken or stopped was by killing the person who was performing it or weakening the person so badly that he or she wouldn't have any power left to continue or carry on with the mind-warp. Of course, when the person self would decide to stop the mind-warp it would also cease to exist. Since Liza, Alex and Maria weren't murderers or torturers they could only wait for the mind-warp to stop; there was nothing else left to do for them.

They lived this way for four years, putting up with Bertha's rudeness and Tess's jealousy and hate. Something was about to change drastically, for all of them, and it wasn't to be stopped…