Thanks for all the feedback guys! Truly appreciated :)
Okay onto part 7!
*****
Tess Harding stared blankly down at the page that she was looking at. She had spent most of the day trying to figure out what it was that had happened to Kyle, Alex, Maria, Sean and Laurie, and she came to the conclusion that what Liz had said at the meeting this morning was the only possible answer. Abduction. Now she had spent most of the night trying to figure out who abducted them. Kivar was the obvious suspect, but she wasn't prepared to rule out anyone else. They did come from a world that had four neighbouring planets after all.
She sighed and tapped her pencil on the page. Making a list of everything that she knew about their world wasn't getting her anywhere. But it was the only thing she could think of to help. Why did someone want to kidnap Kyle? And the others too of course.
It's not like he was anyway involved in the fight back in Antar. He was only human. Why take him? To distract them? Was it because he was important to her? Just like Jim was, and Maria and Laurie were to Michael? Maybe Alex was important to Isabel after all? They did seem to be getting along fine nowadays. But why not take Liz? Why take Sean, who Tess was pretty sure wasn't important to Max? This really didn't make sense at all.
And why the hell give them powers? What was the purpose of that? Kyle didn't even want them! He had made that perfectly clear today.
She tightened her grip on the pencil as she absently began to jot down some more facts that she remembered from her past life. She knew Kyle had problems with the aliens before, but she never expected him to say what he did. He was disgusted at the thought of becoming like one of them.
Becoming like her.
She felt her emotions stir and was determined to keep them at bay. She always knew that he didn't want to become like her, so why did him saying it today make any difference? Maybe it was because she thought that things were changing between them? Well, it had been these past few months. She felt the air between them change and she knew that her feelings were beginning to deepen. She thought his might be too. But then again maybe not. He wouldn't want to be with a freak like her anyway…
Tess glanced up when she heard a soft knock at her bedroom door. "Who is it?"
"Kyle."
Damn. She really didn't feel like facing him at the moment. His words from earlier still stung even now.
"Can I come in?"
"No," she said firmly and turned back to writing on the page.
"C'mon, Tess, I need to talk to you."
"Kyle, we can talk later." Much, much later, she thought bitterly.
"Are you undressing?"
What was he turning into a pervert now? "No," she said with disgust.
The door opened and Kyle stepped into the room. The nerve of this guy! Coming into her bedroom after she specifically told him not to. "What're you doing?" she demanded.
"What?" he looked confused. "You weren't doing anything."
"That's not the point. I told you to stay out."
Kyle stood uneasy by the closed door. "I need to explain for what happened earlier…"
Tess rolled her eyes. Here comes the apology for what he said when she knew in his heart he meant every word. "You don't have to apologise, Kyle, for saying what you feel."
"Yes, I do."
"Why?" she looked up and met his eyes. "Why say sorry for something that you believe in?"
"Because it hurt you," he said sincerely.
He did look truly sorry. She could see it in his eyes. The way that he looked at her made her want to reach out to him for some reason she couldn't explain. He looked like a kid who wanted to be told that everything was okay. He looked so adorable at the moment that Tess had a hard time holding onto her anger, even though she tried to.
The big jerk.
"It's okay," she nodded finally relenting, though it still hurt.
Kyle looked at her curiously. "Really?"
"Yeah," Tess nodded forcing a small smile that she knew hadn't reached her eyes. "It's fine."
Kyle sighed and sat down beside her on the bed. "I really am sorry."
Tess nodded again, this time allowing herself to reach out to him and touch his leg. "I know."
Kyle looked down at her hand, and Tess was now unsure of herself. Did he want her to remove it? Had she crossed a line? Sure they were getting closer but maybe he didn't want… All thoughts left her mind as Kyle took her hand in his and began to caress it with his thumb.
She felt her hand tingle as he began to draw little circles on the back of it. The caress was gentle and as the tingle grew she thought it was the most wonderful feeling in the world. "Kyle?"
"Uh-huh," he kept his eyes down on her hand as he now began to caress her fingers. Boy, he sure knew how to make it hard for her to concentrate on asking him any questions. But this one had been nagging at her for months now.
"Why are you scared of having powers?"
The caress stopped, but he kept her hand in his. He looked up at her. "Cause they don't belong to me. It's unnatural…" she began to pull her hand away, but he closed his hand around hers. "…for me it's not right."
She lowered her eyes and felt her heart sink. He really did think she was a freak. She felt the tears sting at her eyes and willed them to disappear. She swallowed the lump in her throat as Kyle began to caress the hand he held once more.
"Tess…" he said gently.
Tess looked up at him as he looked sheepishly down at her hand.
"Of course what you are is natural for you, I know that. But you were always that way. I wasn't born like that. And when something starts to change in you, believe me it scares the hell out of you."
It was now her turn to squeeze his hand. "I'm sorry, Kyle."
Kyle nodded and seemed to be thinking something over. "You don't think I'll become like one of those annoying little aliens you see on TV do you?"
She giggled softly and patted his hand with her other hand. It was good he hadn't lost his sense of humour. "No, Kyle, 'cause you already have an annoyingness that you can call your own."
He laughed and glanced at her then jumped back on the bed so abruptly that he made her jump with a start. His eyes widened and he looked at her intently with a stunned expression.
She narrowed her eyes. "What?"
"You're glowing," he said in a whisper.
She felt that tingle that was in her hand go through her whole body. It was times like this that she was reminded why Kyle was her favourite human. She knew she had a silly grin on her face. "Thanks."
Kyle shook his head. "No, seriously, you're really glowing."
The grin faded. "What?"
"You're… blue."
Tess frowned at him as he still looked at her with a mixture of awe and confusion.
*****
Sean pulled his car over to the curb and sighed as he switched of the ignition. It sure had been a long day. In fact it seemed to be the longest day in his life. The reason for that was pretty simple. It wasn't everyday that you found out that four people living in the same town as you happen to be aliens, hybrid, or whatever they wanted to call themselves, and two of those people also happen to be your cousin's boyfriend, and the ex-boyfriend of the girl you have an interest in. Oh, and lets not forget the little detail that he himself had also became somewhat Morkish.
He got out of the car and began to walk up the path leading to the DeLuca house. He frowned at what he saw. There were quite a few fireflies at the light by the front porch, which was normal. What was strange, however, was that each firefly seemed to be glowing different colours. He blinked as the colours mixed with each other and he saw various shades of blue, green, purple, yellow, orange, and other colours too.
What got weirder was that as he got closer to could have sworn that they weren't fireflies at all. They were… moths. How the hell did moths glow? He wasn't that good at biology but he definitely knew that that wasn't supposed to happen!
Sean shook his head as he walked through the front door. The DeLuca living room was empty but he could hear music coming from Maria's bedroom. So she must be home then. Also different music was coming from the kitchen, which meant that Aunt Amy was home too.
"Sean?" he heard his Aunt's voice call out over the sound of the radio. "Is that you?"
"Yeah," he called back.
"Good you're just in time," Amy DeLuca walked into the room. "Dinner is almost ready."
Sean gaped at his Aunt. She had a green glow surround her and she was now frowning at him, and he noticed that blotches of grey were invading the green.
"What is it?" she asked him curiously.
He wished at the moment he could remember how to talk as he felt his throat dry up. He coughed and blinked hoping that he would see clearly again since this definitely one of those things that weren't normal. Nope she still had the green glow.
"Nothing," he lied. "You just look… um, radiant."
His Aunt gave him a beaming smile for that one, and the grey disappeared and became fully green again. "Why thank you, Sean."
"You're welcome," he forced a small smile.
"Dinner will be in ten minutes," she walked back into the kitchen.
Sean buried his face in his hands. God, he really was becoming alien. He wondered if he would have ears like Spook? Or maybe the annoyingness of Alf? Or worst of all… hair like Chewie?
His imagination soon got the better of him and he opened his eyes again… and regretted it instantly. He now had a blue glow that was shimmering around his arms. One moment it would be there and the next it would be gone. He rushed to the mirror that hangs on the living room wall and while he could only see himself from the waist up, the glow was all around him. It was still coming and going and he glanced down at his lower half to see that the glow covered his whole body. As he looked back into the mirror the glow stopped shimmering and now stayed completely.
The door down the hall opened and Sean turned to see Maria watching him. She was leaning against the wall, arms folded, looking as if she wasn't bothered at all that she had a brighter shade of blue glow around her.
"You're blue?" he said incredulously. "And I am too," he looked back at his reflection.
"No," Maria spook matter-of-factly. "You're sapphire and I'm a sparkling blue. It's our auras."
"What?"
She gasped, annoyed that he didn't realise what she was talking about. "Our auras! It's what surrounds us, and it expresses our feelings. Everyone has one. And now we can see them," she said with smile. "Isn't it great?" she added with a giggle.
"Yeah, great," Sean replied with less enthusiasm.
"I've been seeing it since I got home, well actually I saw it in the playground with a beetle but I didn't realise what it was then and I thought I was just seeing things…"
"Yeah, that can happen," Sean mumbled not paying attention to her ramblings and instead examining his aura which now had blotches of grey in it like his Aunt's had earlier.
"Anyway I first noticed it when Mom had this glow around her, by the way hers is emerald so don't be calling it green since it's not and yes there's a difference," she corrected him as he was about to ask that very question. "And it's been cool watching her. When she's worried she gets these grey spots in her aura kind of like you have now, and it was only two minutes before you came home that my own lovely aura kicked in, nice isn't it? The colour definitely fits my personality."
"Yeah, great," Sean replied again still not paying attention to his cousin.
"Sean!" Maria shouted at him causing him to jump.
"What?"
Maria sighed. "You really don't have to worry about this."
Sean shrugged. "I'm not worried."
"Then why is your aura getting more and more grey?"
Oh. So it looks like his emotions were going to be an open book from now on. Well, at least to four other people. He wondered if they had the glow yet?
"Really, this is a good thing," Maria smiled at him. "Just think? We can tell how everyone's feeling now. No one can hide anything from us."
Sean's eyes shot up at this. That was true. He wondered if he should pay Liz Parker a visit. Ever since he returned to Roswell four months ago he had been feeling like he was receiving mixed signals from Maria's best friend. The telephone rang and Maria picked it up. "Hello? Hey, Lizzie…"
He smiled as Maria started to ramble on again about auras. He looked at himself in the mirror and he noticed that most of the grey was already receding. The sapphire in his aura was almost whole again. He began to wonder what colour Liz's aura was when he heard a curse come from the kitchen. As soon as he walked into the small kitchen he could see what it was that had made his Aunt Amy swear. She stood at the sink with her forearm under the tap as cold water poured onto a nasty looking burn the size of a quarter.
Aunt Amy glanced at him. "Damn handle came off."
He frowned then looked down at the floor. A pot was lying and potatoes were scattered on the tiles as was hot water. "I'll get that."
As his aunt nodded Sean crouched down and began to put the potatoes back into the broken pot. He looked over his shoulder as Maria appeared at the door. She had grey blotches in her aura and had the same pale look that she wore in Guerin's apartment this morning.
"What is it?"
"We have to go."
"Dinner is almost, or was almost ready so whatever it is will have to wait," his aunt interrupted. "Maria, cut up some potatoes and we'll have fries instead."
"But, mom…"
Aunt Amy gave her a stern look. "Maria."
Sean watched the exchange with interest. He had lived with these two women long enough to know that both could be as stubborn as the other. He also knew that whatever Liz had told Maria on the telephone must have been important. Enough to make her worry as the grey continued to grow and overwhelm the sparkling blue that was there only minutes before.
Suddenly an image flashed into his mind. Maria stood before him, looking grave. He blinked and the image vanished as quickly as it had emerged. The two women were continuing to argue, but soon their voices drifted away and only Maria's returned.
"Sean! Help me!"
He felt nauseous as he closed his eyes on the piercing scream that followed. The images were soon coming thick and fast.
The blue room. Everything was blue from the floor, the walls, the ceiling, and the lighting. Flashes of faces came into his mind so quickly that at first he couldn't see who they were. Then other images of the people flashed again. Sean knew who they were. He was seeing Maria, Kyle, Alex and Laurie. They were all in the blue room.
But they weren't together. There was something separating them. He couldn't tell what it was but he felt caged.
He couldn't get out. He needed to get out.
Then they were there. He couldn't see who they were but they wanted him. They were going to hurt him.
"Noooooooooooo!"
"Sean?"
Sean felt himself break into a cold sweat. He realised that he must have screamed out loud. He was now finding it hard to breath as the fear that he felt from the memory gripped him. His Aunt was kneeling beside him and her aura was covered in the grey blotches. He glanced at Maria and the dark grey had completely taken over any blue that was in her aura. He glanced down at his hands and he could that his own aura matched his cousin's.
"Take deep breaths," his Aunt encouraged him in a gentle tone.
"Mom…"
"Not now, Maria," Aunt Amy snapped, obviously done with the earlier argument.
"We have to tell you…" Maria said in a small voice. Sean now noted that she was sweating too, and the fear was evident in her face. She must have had the same flashes too. "We have to tell you something."
This caught her attention and Aunt Amy looked to her daughter and Sean could see her aura cloud even more.
"We were taken… by… something," Maria's voice was beginning to crack. "And I think they're coming back."
At this Maria gripped the kitchen counter with one hand while she covered her mouth with the other, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed. Aunt Amy was instantly at her side and took her into her arms. Sean allowed himself to lie down fully onto the cold kitchen floor and as he looked up at the ceiling he felt tears sting at his own eyes as the screams continued to fill his mind.
He had been gripped with both fear and pain. They all had. And whatever had taken them before was coming back for them. And Sean had a sinking feeling that they would be hurt once more.