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

Love Changes Everything

Chapter Fifty-Six It's my Life

Tess was walking down the corridor of West Roswell High, when a hand reached out and pulled her into an empty classroom.

"Michael," she cried. "What the hell is your problem?"

"What the hell is YOUR problem, Queenie?" Rath demanded. "I thought you said you had the king under control?"

"Rath?" she asked. "What are you doing here? I thought I told you to go back to New York, and wait until you heard from me. You're going to ruin everything if anybody sees you."

"Too late, Queenie, I'd say everything is ruined already. You screwed up, now me and Lonnie gotta do, whaddya call it, damage control.

He filled Tess in on what he and Lonnie had heard and seen in Las Vegas. Tess listened, her eyes glittering with rage.

"So the King's already got a bride. Where's that leave you? Out in the cold is my guess."

"It's okay, Rath," she said. "Believe it or not, it's all part of my plan. I'm lulling them into a false sense of security. That way, when we do leave, and take Max with us, Liz will be totally destroyed," Tess improvised, wildly.

"Yeah," said Rath, his voice ripe with scorn. "What about the others? They're all hooked up too."

"Well, we can't leave Michael and Isabelle here to try and find a way to rescue Max after we go back to Antar. We'll kill them. Actually," she continued, "We'll kill them all; all except for Liz. I want to leave her alive to suffer. She'll be totally destroyed, knowing that her friends are dead, and Max is gone."

"Queenie, you are whacked. Completely and totally whacked. You have lost control of the situation," said Rath. "I'm takin over before this problem gets any worse."

"Rath, listen to me!" yelled Tess. "I can handle this. I am in control. You just have to trust me."

"Don't try your freakin Jedi mind tricks on me, bitch. I can feel you pushin at my mind. It ain't gonna work this time."

"Rath, I said I have it under control," Tess shouted. Rath fell to the floor, screaming, with his arms wrapped around his head.

"What the hell are you doin to me, you bitch?"

"I can handle this situation," she shouted.

"Yeah, you're right," Rath said suddenly, from the floor. "Yuse got it under control. Hey, what the frig am I doin on the floor?" he asked weakly.

"You tripped," said Tess, calmly. "Now, you better get out of here. You and Lonnie can stick around, but you better stay out of sight. "

"Yeah, me and Lonnie are gonna stick around the Tumbleweed Motel, until you need us," said Rath.

"That's right," said Tess, trying to make her voice soothing, and failing. "You go back to the motel with Lonnie, and stay out of sight.

Tess stormed out of the room, her face set with anger, followed a few minutes later by Rath, who walked down the hall, oblivious to the blood that was streaming down his face.


Ava waited a few minutes, shaken by what she had just heard. She was supposed to see Kyle for lunch, but when she saw Michael, walking through the halls, she couldn't resist the opportunity to sneak up and try and scare him.

She followed him into a deserted classroom, and was just about to grab at him, when she stopped suddenly, sensing that something wasn't right. She crouched down behind the teacher's desk, and used her powers to make a small black dog appear in the room.

"Get the hell outta here, ya freakin mutt," said the Michael look a like.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Ava was positive it was Rath, and not Michael that stood in the room. She made the image of the dog run out into the hallway, and Rath followed to make sure it was gone. Suddenly, he stiffened, and reached out, and dragged an angry Tess into the classroom. Ava slid herself deeper under the kneehole of the desk, and tried to stay as quiet as possible. She listened with growing horror and dread as she realized that Rath, and now Tess, knew about Max and Liz, and the others.

She waited until she heard Tess, and then Rath leave, before she slid herself out from underneath the desk. She sat there in a panic for a few minutes, while she tried to think about what to do. She reached up and touched her hair, and it grew down to the middle of her back and changed to an inky black color. She changed her eye color to a rich chocolate brown. When the bell rang to signal the end of classes, she slipped out into the hall to join the swirling maelstrom of students on their way to their next class.

She found Maria first, and quietly told her that Rath was back. Maria's face blanched, and she muttered, "I killed him once, and I'll do it again! Come on Ava, we have to find the others."

They managed to track down everybody, and they squeezed into the eraser room to talk. Max sat next to Liz, with his arms wrapped protectively around her.

"That's it," Max said. "We need to stop her. I hate that it's come to this, but she's dangerous now. She's threatening to kill all of you."

"No, she's threatening to kill all of them," Liz said bitterly. "She's going to force you to go back to Antar, and leave me here to suffer."

"Liz, don't," said Michael. "She's not worth the anger you are letting yourself feel."

Everyone stopped and looked at Michael in amazement.

"What?" he questioned. "I can't have a sensitive side?"

"Not as a rule, Space Boy," said Maria. "But hey, I'm not going to complain. My question is what are we going to do. I mean, none of us are out and out killers, and that's what it's coming to. Either we kill them, or they kill us."

"Not necessarily," said Alex. "The granolith can be used to send them back to Antar, but if we do that, it means that you guys can never leave. You'll be stuck here, forever."

"I wouldn't leave," said Max, hugging Liz closer to him. "Ever."

"Me either," said Michael. "All this time, I've been looking for home, and I finally found it. Maria is my home."

"I agree," said Isabelle. "Well, except for the part about Maria, of course. I can't imagine being anywhere else but with Alex. This is where I belong."

"Well, I'm sure not goin anywhere," said Ava, slipping back into her New York way of speaking. "But how we gonna get them to do what we want."

The others tossed around ideas, discarding this one and that, until Alex spoke up.

"I have a plan. I'm going to die."