Disclaimer: You know the drill…the characters aren't mine Roswell and all characters belong to Jason Katims, 20th Century Fox etc. I'm just borrowing them.

Rating: PG-13 – possibly to R

Chapter Thirty-Four Let's Do The Mind Warp Again

Liz and Ava spread a blanket out under a tree in the grassy park

"Should we really be doing this out in the open?" questioned Liz. "I mean there is a chance of Tess could walk by."

"Nah," said Ava, smoothing the blanket. "Kyle's dad was real cool once he found out about me. He offered to take Tess shoppin or somethin'. Said that way he could keep an eye on her, and keep her outta our hair for a while."

"So he wasn't too angry then?"

"Angry doesn't begin to cover what he was at first. He was really pissed that youse guys kept somethin' this big from him."

"We weren't exactly keeping it from him," said Liz. "We just forgot to tell him."

"Yeah, well, once he chilled out, he was really pretty cool. Kinda made me wish he were my dad," she said wistfully. Pretty cornball of me, huh?"

"Ava, no, it's not," said Liz. "It's not at all. And Jim may not be your father, but now that he knows about you, he'll watch over you, just like he does all of us. And you have Michael. He's always wanted a family too, and now he has you. You have each other. And you have the rest of us! One thing we've learned over the past year is that we need to stick together. We're stronger together than apart."

"Yeah, that's what the sheriff said. Anyhow, Kyle explained to his dad about what Tess has been doin, and he was pissed. He says he's gonna go get a platinum watchband or somethin'. I told him he oughta I could pierce his nose, or eyebrow, but he wasn't up with that."

"No, I can imagine he wasn't," laughed Liz.

"But he did slip me some cash, told me to go buy myself some stuff, try and blend in a little. He said it would be safer for me. What do you think?" she asked shyly.

Liz pulled back and looked closely at her friend. "Oh my God, Ava, look at you. You look fantastic!" she cried.

"Thanks," said Ava. "It was really cool of you and Maria to lend me some of your stuff, but it's really great, but havin stuff of my own is even better." She smoothed the yellow bandeau top she was wearing, and looked bashfully at the ground. "Do ya think Kyle will like it?"

"Ava, I think Kyle would like you wearing, just about anything," Liz said laughing. "What's the deal with you and him anyhow?"

"Well, I"

"Sh-sh, they're coming. We'll talk later," whispered Liz.

Liz and Ava sat back and watched as Michael, Kyle, Maria, Alex, Max and Isabelle approached them, carrying bags of food and drinks. They sat in the warm sunshine and enjoyed the food and talked about trivial things. Liz watched with amusement the way Kyle's eyes lingered over Ava.

"The way I see it," said Max, throwing a drumstick onto his plate. "Ava's plan is the best one we have right now."

"Well, it ain't really a plan," said Ava. "More like an idea."

"Yeah, but it's a good idea," said Kyle. "Give that bitch a taste of her own medicine. We just have to figure out the whys and wherefores."

"Wait," said Maria. "What about Alex, can he handle doing something like this. I'm mean, look what happened to him last time. Isabelle said he just about died. Oh my God! Look at those ants. They're all over my potato salad. Get them off, get them off!" Maria cried. "Why are you all laughing at me and the sorry state of my potato salad?" she asked.

"Because there are no ants on your potato salad, Maria," said Alex. "I just made you think there were. And I'm okay, see?" he said, spreading his arms out wide. "Whatever happened to Isabelle and I in the granolith seems to have taken care of the almost dying when I mind warp thing."

"Actually," said Michael. "There was something about that in my part of the book. It said something about our passing on our powers, and that the granolith will help their bodies adapt to their new powers. It also said that powers like mind warping and healing will take the biggest toll on their bodies until they adapt."

"That makes sense," said Kyle. "I mean, blowing stuff up, or defending yourself is instinctive. Kind of like fight or flight, you just do it. You're reacting to a situation. Healing and mind warping require a lot of thought and concentration. So it stands to reason that those two things would be more stressful to the human body."

"Great, so we know Alex's mind isn't going to go all mushy, and we know what to do if it does," said Maria. "Now we only have to figure out what we're going to do."

"I've actually been thinking about that," said Isabelle. "The first thing we need to do is warp her into thinking she has the book. From there, she's going to approach Alex about decoding it."

"It's a good start Isabelle, but then what?" asked Alex.

"Well that will depend on what she does," said Isabelle. "From there, its just a matter of playing along with her, and manipulating things so she thinks we're doing what she wants us to do."

"This is going to get so confusing," said Liz. "There are just so many things to keep track of."

"We'll do it, Liz, because we have to. We don't have a choice," said Max, slipping his arm around her shoulder. "Now that we have the basis of a plan, I have a couple of other things I want to talk about."

"Wait," said Michael. "Liz, how did you do that thing with the notebooks today? I'm thinking that could come in very handy during finals."

"I don't know, I just heard this voice inside of me, telling me what to do."

"Was it the baby?" asked Maria.

"No," she said slowly. "No, it wasn't the baby. This was, I don't know, more omnipotent or something, it was like a presence or something. I don't know what it was, but it wasn't a scary thing."

"We have to leave again," said Maria, suddenly. "Max, Liz, Michael, get out of here, now!"

Michael started to argue, but Liz silenced him with a quelling look. Max held out his hand to Liz, and the two followed by Michael, made their way across the park. As they walked towards the street, Isabelle's cell phone began to ring. She answered it and after a few minutes, hung up.

"Kyle, that was your dad. He and Tess got back early, she's out looking for us right now. She told him she wanted to hang out with us." She turned to Maria. "I think you got your power Maria. Apparently, your our Tess early detection system."