Disclaimer: I don't own the series Roswell or the original characters. All I own is my imagination and the plot.

A/N: I'm getting the hang of this updating thing, aren't I? :-) Probably because I actually have the time to write as much as I want. :-) Please check out the A/N at the bottom and until then, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter which Alexia beta-ed for me. Thanks :-)

Broken Cocoon

Liz opened her eyes to a veil of green light, the same shade that would appear whenever she felt afraid and would act like some sort of shield as it was doing right now, though she didn't know from what it was protecting her. It surrounded her like four walls and made her feel caught in a way. That feeling added to the fear she was feeling, causing her heart to speed up just a little more and the shade of green to intensify as if another layer had wrapped itself around the already existing ones. She looked at the green wall in front of her and wondered what it would feel like. She hadn't had the opportunity to really observe the force field before.

Liz moved closer towards the sea of green, expecting to feel something, heat or maybe a sudden coldness that would wash over her, but instead she felt nothing as she approached it. Once she was standing only a few inches away from the wall, she carefully reached out her hand to touch it. When her fingers came in contact with it, her finger tips slipped right through the green shield. At first, she felt nothing, but liquid flowing through her fingers, reminding her the most of paint, but after a few seconds, a shiver ran through her. It was freezing. It was as if ice had remained in a state of defrosting together with the temperature that never seemed to change.

She pulled her hand back and brought it up to her face. She placed it against the side of her face, sprawling out her fingers against her cheek. Another shiver chilled her to the bone and it seemed as if she was frozen, unable to move, though it lasted only a second or two. Her eyes went back to the shield, her hand dropping back to her side. She narrowed her eyes and tried to peer through the force field which she couldn't, though it was somewhat transparent. To her, it looked the most like matted glass.

Liz found herself wondering if she could walk straight through it. A stupid thought because she remembered that she had created this small protective room and if she could put up these walls then she could also take them down. So she closed her eyes, but before she could will herself to do anything, a flash of pain struck her, slicing through her mind first before it moved on to the rest of her body, its colors red and black, though she could only see them in the distance through her mind's eye. Another flash of pain followed without a warning of some kind and it started to force her eyes to open, slowly at first, but when Liz couldn't take it anymore her eyes flew open before she could stop herself.

At first, her lashes blurred the image in front of her and she couldn't make out anything else but a figure, but after blinking a couple of times, her vision was cleared and she could see the figure in front of her perfectly. Nicholas. He was kneeled in front of her, looking directly into her eyes. She tried to say his name, but no sound came out. She realized that her lips weren't touching and that something was stopping her from closing her mouth; something was stuffed in it to keep her from screaming. Panicked, she tried to bring her hands up in front of her, but was stopped from doing so because they seemed to be tied together at the wrists. She could feel them pressing into her back and now that she had become aware of it, she realized the tingling feeling in her hands. She wondered how long she had been sitting like this. She tried to move away from Nicholas, but her back and hands were already against the wall and from what she could fee,l it was rough. Quickly, she brought her eyes up and looked around the place. It rang a familiar bell in the distance, but she couldn't distinguish the sound just yet.

Her eyes traveled back over to Nicholas who smiled at her. He leaned in, hovering over her, though she knew that she was in fact taller than him, and reached for her face with his hands. When she tried to turn her head away, he grabbed her by the chin so that she was forced to look at him while he pulled the piece of cloth he had stuffed in her mouth earlier out of it. He let go of her face once he had done this and looked at her as she started to cough because of the large amount of air she had just swallowed.

''Where are we?'' she managed to utter through her heavy gasping breaths.

Nicholas tilted his head and looked at her. ''I don't have to tell you where we are; you know where we are.''

Liz shook her head as her eyes quickly looked over her surroundings once more. She knew that she had been here before, but she couldn't seem to remember the name of it.

Nicholas sighed. ''I'll give you a hint.'' He nodded in the direction of the darker side of the cave where Liz had to get adjusted to the dim light first before she could make out the outlines of what looked like four cocoons... Once again, a familiar bell rang and this time she could identify it.

''The Pod Chamber,'' she whispered, realizing that that was indeed where he had taken her. ''You took me to the Pod Chamber, why?'' Her eyes found Nicholas once again. ''How did you...''

''How did I find you?'' Nicholas asked, mimicking the question that Liz had on her mind. He shrugged. ''It was easy, though I have to admit that I thought it would be much harder to find you. Of course, I knew where that little diner of yours was and your school, but you never seemed to be alone, vulnerable.'' He grinned. ''So I made a deal with someone to follow you and show himself to you when you were finally alone.''

''The Shapeshifter, that was you? But you...''

Nicholas frowned. ''I'm a Skin and he was a Shapeshifter, I know and normally I don't make deals with their species, but I needed the help and he was all I could find in such short time. He was ordered to bring you back to me, but of course, the imbecile failed, but then again, he was a Shapeshifter, so what could you expect, right?''

Nicholas got up and started to pace right in front of her, glancing at her every now and then. ''He ended up being useless and a waste of my time, but luckily for me, the fool was smarter than he looked. He had asked one of his friends to keep a look out while he approached you, just in case one of your alien friends might show up and, well, kill him and he did get killed, but not by any of your alien friends, did he?'' He shook his head. ''No, no. See, the friend of the Shapeshifter that you killed...'' he paused a few seconds for the effect, ''told me that you had killed him. Apparently the other Shapeshifter just vanished. But we both know that that's not true...''

Nicholas stopped pacing and turned to face her. ''You killed him, didn't you? And not with some human object, but with actual powers that you didn't have the last time I checked so I'm guessing that something must have happened between you and Max. He must have transferred a part of his powers over to you when he healed you, a small part, but just big enough apparently.''

Liz looked down at her hands.

''Yes, that's why I tied your hands. I didn't know that you could control your powers with your hands, but most powers are controlled like that so I guessed. See, Liz, I can smell power from miles and miles away, I seem to have a knack for that and as you can see, it comes in handy.''

Liz looked up at him, her eyes questioning. ''Why did you take me?''

''Well,'' Nicholas started as he ran his middle finger over his bottom lip, ''I took you because I knew that I would be able to get to Max like this and if I can get to Max, I can get to Isabel. It's as simple as that.''

''But...''

''Shhh,'' Nicholas said while leaning forward and placing his middle finger against her lips, ''I know you think that Max only has eyes for Tess, but that's all an act...''

''An act?''

Nicholas removed his finger from her lips and cheerfully smiled at her. ''Let's just say that I made a deal with the devil. Now...'' He walked over to a backpack that was lying near and removed a camera, from what Liz could tell it was a Polaroid camera. ''...smile pretty.''

He held up the camera and aimed at her, taking her picture almost immediately. He waited for the picture to develop and when it did and he was happy with the result, then grabbed the piece of cloth and put it back in her mouth. His movements were slow enough for Liz to notice that the cloth had the same color has her shirt. She dropped her eyes down to her shirt, immediately finding the place at the lower half of her stomach where it had been ripped off. She placed a hand on top of her bare stomach while bringing her eyes back up to Nicholas.

''Well, I hate to leave you like this, but I have to go and deliver this.'' He held up the picture. ''Just stay put and I'll be back soon.'' He blew her a kiss and left the chamber.

-x-x-x-

The next morning, Maria was swept out of her deep slumber because of the feather light touch of the breeze as it brushed against her skin. It trailed all over her face, tickling her until she finally opened her eyes, though they were threatening to close again at any given second. She shifted in her bed, trying not to lose the protective cocoon of warmth in which she was still wrapped as she turned on her side to glance over at her window. She might have had trouble in keeping her heavy eyelids from shutting, but she was awake enough to know where the breeze must have been coming from. She couldn't remember if she had closed her window or not, but when she found it open, she could have sworn that she had closed it; she always did. With a yawn, she let her eyes fall down to the windowsill, planning on going back to sleep, but stopped when she saw the white rose.

It took her only a few seconds to get out of bed and cross her room. As she approached the windowsill, she couldn't take her eyes off the rose and a part of her was hoping that it was from Michael, though she knew that she shouldn't get her hopes up because he wasn't the kind of guy to leave her flowers. She picked up the rose and brought it up to her nose, inhaling its sweet scent before picking up the thick piece of paper that had come with it. As she flipped it over, she knew that it was too thick to be just a simple note and once her eyes had found the image, she instantly knew that it was so much more.

''Liz,'' she softly said as she took in the image of her best friend before her, tied up with something stuffed in her mouth.

Maria brought a hand up to her mouth to keep from screaming and dropped the picture because of the state of panic she now found herself in. She watched it flutter to the floor as she stumbled towards her desk, the rose still in one hand. She blindly reached for her vial of cedar oil and started to unscrew the top as she backed up in the direction of her bed. She sat down on it and took a couple of sniffs of cedar oil to calm herself, preparing herself mentally before she pulled at the ribbon that attached a small note to the flower. With her vial of cedar oil still in hand she read the note.

Meet your friends at The Crashdown and wait for me, unless you would want this beautiful rose to die.

Both the note and vial slipped from Maria's hands in her haste to reach the phone. She dialed the first number that came to mind in rapid speed.

''Michael? Liz has been kidnapped,'' Maria blurted out as soon as she heard Michael's voice on the other end of the line telling her just how early it was, but he stop when he heard how serious she sounded, how strained her voice seemed.

''No, no it's not a joke, I swear. I...I got a note.'' The first tears fell. ''Everyone has to meet at The Crashdown... The note says so and I think we should.''

A short silence fell on her side of the line as she listened to Michael talk. ''No, Michael, can you please just call the others and tell them to meet me there? I'm...yeah...no, you don't have to pick me up, I can still drive... I am not having a breakdown! ...Right, thanks. I'll see you there.''

Maria hung up the phone and retrieved her vial of cedar oil so she could take another sniff.

-x-x-x-

Maria was the last one to reach The Crashdown, her hands shaking and her bottom lip trembling as she stumbled through the doors of the diner.

''I'm sorry, I know I'm late. I did leave early, but there were cars on the road and every traffic light seemed to turn red as soon as I looked at them and I couldn't just ignore them because I can't get any more tickets. I really tried to get here as fast as I could, I swear,'' she said with fresh tears in her eyes as she looked at the others.

''Maria,'' Max gently said, knowing that he should be more concerned for Maria, but he had been worrying about Liz the moment Michael had called him and told him the horrible news.

''Right, proof, of course,'' Maria mumbled as she pulled the note and the picture from the back pocket of her jeans, ''otherwise you wouldn't believe me, but I'm really not making up any stories. Here.'' She handed the evidence over to Isabel who was the closest and it took only moments for her to react and for the others to huddle around her, unable to take their eyes off the picture.

''Oh God,'' Isabel said while bringing her hand up to her mouth.

''Liz,'' Kyle said, taken back by the image.

Max snatched the picture from Isabel's hand and took a step towards Maria. ''Maria, how did you...''

''I found them on my windowsill this morning,'' Maria interrupted, ''attached to a rose. I didn't know what to do so I called Michael.''

''You did the right thing,'' Kyle assured her.

''Did you see anyone?'' Max asked.

Maria shook her head. ''No, I didn't see anyone.''

''Are you sure?'' Max asked as she moved even closer to Maria, almost pushing for her to remember something she hadn't noticed at first. ''Because it was early and...''

''I'm sure,'' Maria said, her tears now trickling down her cheeks at a frequent pace. ''Liz is my best friend and when I saw the picture, I thought that it was some kind of joke, but then I found the note and it was...,'' She broke down into sobs, ''we have to find her.''

Max reached out his hand, wanting to comfort her as best as he could, but Michael stepped up to Maria instead. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her up against him so she could hide her face in his chest and let her tears run freely.

''She doesn't look hurt,'' Tess remarked, finally saying something, though she didn't even get a good look at the picture.

''It doesn't matter, I'm going to beat the shit out of that son of a-''

But Kyle didn't get to finish his sentence because he was interrupted by the doors of the diner as they flew open...

REVIEW! Please? :-) At first I wasn't really sure about this story because I wasn't sure about the plot, my writing, the characters and all that, but now that I'm looking at this chapter, I realize that it hasn't turned out as bad as I thought it would. I'm even somewhat satisfied with my writing. All of that satisfaction I have to give you guys credit for, partially anyway. Thanks again for the reviews and I'll hope you'll do the same with this chapter.

Before you guys leave, I have one more thing to say. I just posted the prologue to my original story on fictionpress and I was wondering if you could check it out, if you have the time and interest, of course. The link is in my biography or whatever you call that. :-) Thanks! :-)