Disclaimer: You know the drill…the characters aren't mine. A lot of stuff in the beginning is taken from End of the World. God knows THAT'S not mine. Anything that makes sense and makes it all better, now that's mine. Seriously, Roswell and all characters belong to Jason Katims, 20th Century Fox etc. I'm just borrowing them.

Rating: PG-13 – possibly to R

Chapter Seventeen – The End of Innocence

A subdued group sat around the table at the closed CrashDown as Max related the Tess edited version of their adventures to the others. While Max spoke, Liz went behind the counter and began to fill glasses with tonic for everyone to drink. When she was sure Tess wasn't watching her, she slipped one of the glasses to Ava, who was hiding on the floor, behind the counter. Ava smiled her thanks and passed Liz a scrap of paper. Carefully Liz unfolded it and read Ava's message. "She's lying," it said. Liz nodded to so she understood and slipped the note in her pocket. Grabbing the tray of drinks, she went back over to the others.

"So after I found Tess, we got the hell out of there," said Max, concluding his tale.
"Why didn't you take the opportunity to go back home with them?" asked Isabelle.
"Because Max knew that his home was here, with you and Michael," said Tess, reaching out and squeezing Max's arm. Maria rolled her eyes, and made a gagging motion to Liz, behind Tess's back. Liz managed to hide her smile.

"Okay, well, good, you are all back, safe and sound, but we need to clear out of here, or my parents will freak out if you guys are here much longer."
"Liz is right," said Kyle, feigning a yawn. "Besides, I'm getting tired."
Alex jumped slightly as if someone had kicked him and he chimed it. "I hope your not to tired to teach me that meditation technique you told me about Kyle," he improvised. "Remember you said you were going to crash at my place and show it to me?"
"What? Oh yeah, right," said Kyle, recovering quickly. "Tess, I can't drive you home tonight. Do you want to take my car and I can have Alex drive me home in the morning?"

Tess scrunched her nose slightly and looked out the corner of her eye at Max.
"I'll drive Tess home," said Max, obeying the small voice he heard in his head. He nodded slightly to Michael to indicate that he would meet them all later at Michael's apartment. He stood and slipped his hand under Tess's arm and helped her from the booth. He looked down into her eyes and smiled slightly.
"Despite everything that happened on this trip, I wouldn't have missed it for the world." He took her hand and led her to the door, but before he left the café, he turned and looked at Liz.
"I love you," he mouthed to her.


Liz reached into the box and grabbed a slice of pepperoni pizza and lifted to cheesy gooey mess to her mouth and took a bite.
"Oh my God!" she gasped. "This is so good! Can someone please explain to me why Tess's mind warps make me want to eat?" Liz looked from Alex, to Ava waiting for an answer, but none was forthcoming.
"Fine," she said, her voice muffled as she took another bite of pizza. "Then can somebody tell me why Max hasn't gained an ounce since we figured out about her mind warps? I feel like I've gained fifteen pounds since we figured out what she's doing to us."

"Well, I'd say good genes," said Isabelle, taking a sip from her tonic, "But we're still not really sure about our genes."
"I think your jeans are great," said Alex with a mock leer. "Actually, Liz, I'm not really sure, but we didn't start the food fests until we started blocking her warps. I think the combination of her warp and our blocking it, does something to our brain chemistry and flips on the hungry switch." He started to say something else, but stopped as the door to Michael's apartment opened. Max stood in the doorway and surveyed his friends.
"She sold us out," he said. "The bitch sold us out to Rath and Lonnie."

"What!" the others cried in unison. Liz jumped up, crawled over Michael and Maria and flew into Max's arms.
"Oh Max," she said. "I was so worried. When Ava told us what they did to Zan, I was so afraid they would try and hurt you. We all were afraid."
"How did you get to New York so quickly, Liz?" asked Max. "And what happened to you? I looked away for a second after that scaffolding fell, and you had disappeared."
"I wasn't really there Max. Look, it's complicated, and you deserve an explanation, but right now, we all want to hear about what happened."

"Max led Liz back over to where the others were sitting. He sat down on the sofa and pulled Liz onto his lap and began his tale.
"She had a mind warp on me almost from the time we left," he said. "She was creating this rosy little paradise for her and I to exist in. She is so pathetic that it's almost sad. Oh, and she wanted to try some memory retrieval techniques on me to see if I could remember our life on Antar."
"You don't remember Antar?" asked Ava, curiously.
"No," said Isabelle. "None of us do. Do you?"
"I didn't," admitted Ava. "But our protector worked with all of us to help us remember what Antar was like. I wasn't very good at it. Lonnie was the best at it. After a while, she could remember almost everything."
"Tell me something," said Max. "Did Antar have green skies, a double sun, and oceans so thick it was like swimming in Jell-O?"

Ava laughed, and again, the group was amazed to here such a delightful, unfettered sound coming from a face that so resembled Tess.
"No," she said. "Antar looks just like Earth, as do the people. The shape shifters looked like what people on Earth think aliens look like, but our people look just like everyone else on Earth. Oh, and the ocean, it's wet, not edible."
"I can't believe her," said Max. "She took the one thing we all wanted to know, and she bastardized it!"
"What else happened, Maxwell?" asked Michael.
"What, before or after they tried to kill me?"
"After," said Liz. "Unless something of vital interest happened at the summit, we can cover that later."

"After I saw you, Liz, I turned around, and they were gone. I looked back to where you were standing and you were gone. I took off and ran back to that bat cave they call home. When I got there, Tess was sitting on the floor, trying to warp me. She wanted me to believe that she was there alone, and that Lonnie and Rath had attacked her. But they were right there telling her what to say. They want us to translate the destiny book for them."
"We couldn't ever figure out how to read it, and our protector couldn't read it either. That was why he pushed the memory retrieval stuff. He wanted us to remember our language, but we never could."
"So they never translated any of it?" asked Alex.
"No," said Max. "And they never will." He reached into his bag and removed the other copy of the destiny book. "I stole it from them. Now I want to know how Liz was able to appear to me in New York," said Max.

"Well, it's kind of complicated," hedged Liz, looking at the others, her eyes begging for help. "After Ava told us about Zan, we knew you were in danger. We tried to call your cell phone, but you left it here. We found it wedged in a booth at the CrashDown. Isabelle tried dream walking you too, but that wasn't working either, we didn't know what to do."
"That still doesn't explain how you were able to appear over 2000 miles away," said Max. Liz caught her lower lip between her teeth and thought for a second. She took a deep breath and blurted, "When you healed me Max, you changed me."
"What, what do you mean, I changed you?"
"According to Ava, your alien powers come from a portion of your brain that people on Earth don't use. When you healed me, you changed my physical makeup enough to wake up that portion of my brain."
"I turned you into one of us," Max said, flatly.
"Max, there is no us, or them," said Liz. "We are all humans. You just have a brain that is more developed than most people."
"And now, you do too," said Max. "God, Liz, I am so sorry, I never meant…" his voice trailed off.
"Max, you saved my life. You risked everything for me. From where I stand, there aren't any drawbacks."
"You are incredible, Liz Parker," said Max, hugging her to him. "And I will love you forever!"