Title: Passage of Time
Author: Kelie
Rating: PG13/R (Violent scenes)
Summery: A device of great power tempts Michael and Max to play God with the lives of their loved ones.

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"Do you know what this means?"

His eyes were unwavering. They sank into his mind, like weights too heavy to lift. His stare did not shift, it did not falter. He knew exactly what this meant.

"Maxwell, do you know what this means?" Michael asked again, this time setting a long silver device on the table in front of them.

The object was alien, that much was clear. It had the marks of his people engraved upon it, it was about five inches in diameter and only a foot long, it was hollowed out, save for one end, which came to a smoothed out edge. His fist gripped the sleek metal, his hand crushing it easily. But as soon as his grip let go, the metal returned to its natural position, once more long and slender.

Michael was growing impatient. "We could do anything, go anywhere." He ventured. "Are you even hearing me?"

This time, the second in command took a more violent approach. He reached across the table, and grabbed his king by the collar, pulling his body harshly toward him. His rage building as his knuckles turned white with pressure.

"We could stop it all from happening. Everything that Liz said would happen – we could stop it all."

Max turned his head away, dropping the metal device carelessly to the ground. It clanked against the floor and rolled to a stop beneath Michael's chair. Startled by his friend's lack of empathy, he released his grip and bent down to grab the device.

"Well, if you won't go, I will. I'm not going to let Isabel die for your stupidity – not again."

Finally, as Michael moved to leave Max spoke soft words. "She was the cause. She betrayed us, Michael. Isabel gave us to Kivar, again. Maria, Kyle, Jim…" He paused. "Liz… they're all dead because of her." He rose to his feet. "Why would I go back for her?"

Desperate Michael leapt forward, trying to stop his king from leaving. "No, Max please wait. You don't know that for sure. How could you trust the word of your enemy over your own sister?"

Max snatched the long device from Michael's hand and waved it in his face. "Time travel? You want to go back in time? Let me explain something Michael. The past… its gone, done, dead – just like everyone we know. You can't go back in time and expect to be able to change a damn thing. It's a fleeting hope, nothing to risk our lives over."

"Fine." Michael sighed. "Then what about your son?" He waited for a response he knew he was going to get.

The king turned his face quickly. "What about him?"

"You could save him too."

He scoffed. "I'm not the martyr I used to be. I don't have it in me to care anymore."

"What happened to you, man? You used to be a hero. Now you're just… broken."

Rolling his eyes, Max tossed the device on the chair he had sat on and opened the door to leave. "You want to loose your life for a cause not worth fighting, be my guest. Don't expect me to heal you this time."

Michael watched in disbelief as the door closed behind his king. Max was gone. He would never again see him, either. It would be for twelve months, before he'd learn of his alien kin's demise.

Twelve months later:

A new report began blaring over the radio "A young man was gunned down last night at the…" Michael slammed his alarm clock and rolled out of bed. Wiping his eyes, he trudged through his garbage-filled apartment to find something to eat in his fridge.

"Never anything to eat…"

He didn't really care. He hadn't cared about much in a long, long time. Everything he loved, everyone he cared about was gone. He was the only survivor of a long-lived conspiracy to hide and protect the aliens on Earth from the governments that would have them killed.

The past went like this:

At first everything was fine. It was Max, their leader and king, Max's sister Isabel, a princess and ice-queen to boot and Michael, a juvenile delinquent with too much power for his own good. For a time, things were easy. They stayed to together, they stayed quiet and they stayed safe.

Then Liz Parker happened.

God; He hated her. He hated what she did to Max, what she had done to their group. Max had loved her, truly Max had been a fool. No love on this Earth was worth the misery Liz caused their group. Because of that love, Max saved her life; he healed her and forced them into a spiral of events that eventually consumed them.

You see, Liz had this friend Maria who had this friend Alex. Maria was a wise-ass and a bit of a spaz. Michael liked her okay, he really liked her. In fact, he sort of loved her. But he knew better then to make her his reason for being. That was foolish thinking. Because Michael knew that one day he'd leave her, and just end up with a whole lot of hurt; but not Max, nope. Max couldn't do that – he had to have Liz.

Alex was this nerdy kid, who knew enough about computers to get by, and had aspiring dreams of both being a rock star and wooing Alien Princess Isabel into his bed. Neither was ever going to happen.

Then Tess entered.

For similar reasons, Michael hated Liz, he also hated Tess. She gummed up the works, and made Max a drooling idiot. At least for Tess, it wasn't entirely her fault. For, she had been his wife, his bride and his queen on another planet, in another life – long ago. Those dwindling memories popped up once and while and made everyone's lives… a bit more… chaotic.

After the death of their Alien Protector, Nasado – Tess went to live with Jim Valenti and his son Kyle. Jim was the sheriff of Roswell and Kyle was Liz's ex-boyfriend from the summer before Max healed her.

Max loved Tess. He loved her like a husband loves his wife. She was his companion in a way that Liz could never be. She was his equal. She was his advisor and savior. But, Max was a fool – truly. He couldn't let go of Liz, and his dreams of being human; something that he could never be. Tess got mad, she grew confused and jealous. She had been raised by their alien protector with the idea that Max was in love with her, and her alone. She had been taught from day one, minute one, second one that Max was her one and only, her truest of all allies.

So when Tess could take no more heartache, no more pain – she sought out her own savior. She wanted to go back home, more than anything in the world. Antar, their home world, was Tess' dream. It was a dream that not too many other aliens shared. Knowing full well she wouldn't get help from them, she took matters into her own hands, using her abilities and gifts to control and manipulate Alex into decoding their ancient alien book. This book held answers to everything. It was their history, their present and their future. It even told them how to operate a ship to travel home.

However, unlucky for Tess during this period of time, Max had run into a spot of trouble with Liz. They had a falling out of sorts. You see, Alex had died. Liz became obsessed with it, convinced that an Alien much be responsible. Her accusations ripped their group apart, and drove Max to wife's arms.

Tess still loved Max, so she accepted back to her warmly. Max, being the idiot he was got his wife pregnant. Their unborn child was unable to sustain itself on Earth. The atmosphere was suffocating it. In an attempt to learn more about the problem, Max linked himself with the baby and learned that Tess was carrying a boy. So, in a panic max began to try and decode their Alien book. However his knowledge of their former lives and language was limited, and thus his efforts were futile. Tess, having already decoded the book knew that the time had come for them to leave. She set up a translated copy of the book in an abandoned warehouse. Then she left clues for Michael to follow – so they would not know it was her that left the book in the abandoned building.

The clues Tess left however were also clues that led Liz to believe even more so that an Alien had killed her friend Alex. Preoccupied with her situation at home, with their unborn child dying and Max's emotional break down Tess let her guard down, and the control she held over the memories of her friends began to slip.

As the aliens prepared to leave the Earth and head back home to Antar. Tess' control crashed. Kyle began to remember some things about Alex that he had been mind-warped into forgetting.

Alex had come into their home, as Tess was sitting in her room. He was frantic, he was scared. He began to spew out text-book quotes from the Alien Book. "You are the Royal Four…. You were created from the DNA of you Alien ancestors and your human subjects." He cried that Tess had robbed him of his mind that he had nothing left, and he minus well be dead.

Around this time, Kyle came upon the scene. Seeing Alex was upset and that Tess looked quiet worried, he ventured to tell Alex everything was ok. Tess attempted mind-warping him one last time, to prevent him from not only hurting himself, but from hurting anyone else. Her final mind-warp was all it took to crack his fragile mind. Alex collapsed to the floor.

So Alex was dead.

At first Tess just cried. He had been one of her friends, a member of the only family she'd ever known. Kyle was bewildered. He immediately went to call his father and to let Max and others know. Panicked, and stricken without any other choice – Tess knew the others would never let her live, not after knowing she had killed a human this way, even if it had been a mistake. Max would never take her back, and the other Aliens, if they didn't kill her would banish her and she would never get home.

Taking Kyle's hand, Tess calmed him down, and as he sat she mind-warped him into forgetting the entire thing. It was as if it had never happened. With Kyle in a daze, Tess attempted dragging the corpse to the car, to toss it someplace. It was too heavy. So, once more she tricked Kyle – this time into thinking that Alex's body was in fact a piece of luggage. With the body gone, Tess used her other gifts to remote-drive the vehicle down a street and crash it into oncoming traffic.

Unfortunately, all of this came to a head just as Max, Isabel and Tess were about to board their ship and head home. Michael, having done some soul-searching came to the conclusion that he wanted to stay on Earth with Maria. With Kyle's chilling recount of how Alex died, Liz raced to catch Max before they left. And she did. After hearing of Tess' betrayal Max banished her to Antar, sending her to their home, alone, carrying his child to a world where his enemies hated the royal four.

Tess was gone.

Things, for a time, returned to their quasi-normal state. Liz lured Max back, and Isabel began to date a young lawyer that worked for her adoptive father. Michael was still with Maria and everything in Roswell seemed to be as right as rain.

A letter Max stumbled upon brought to the surface more trouble. He had been sifting through Tess' belongings when Liz found him. She wasn't too pleased. But Max couldn't let it go. He thought of Tess and his son often. He had to get to Antar and save his son.

Luckily, Tess had left a letter stating just how to do that. But it involved a bit of law-breaking. Max convinced Liz to hold an empty gun, while he would rob a gas station and instead of taking money, they would cut a hole into the basement, where the Aliens' original ship from 1947 was held. Max now had his way home. The law enforcement caught up with the duo and arrested them. Their plans went bust.

However, after a lengthy court session and some settling out of court, both teens managed to get out of the situation relatively unmarked. But now Max couldn't go to Antar. He wouldn't have to either.

While all of this was happening on Earth, far away on Antar Tess was dealing with issues far greater; Alien pregnancies only last three months. So, she gave birth and lived on Antar for some time before Kivar – the ruling faction leader that killed Max and the others in their former lives took notice of Tess.

Kivar rejected Zan, Tess' son named for Max's original Alien name. He wished both Max and Zan dead, and anything else that threatened his stolen seat on the throne. So Tess was forced to once again flee from her home, and return back to Earth in hopes that Max would be able to help her. But the welcome she found on Earth was far from a pleasant one.

The Air Force shot her ship down, and attempted taking her son from their ship. In an act of rage and instinct she killed two dozen men with her mind and hands, then fled the scene and ran to find the only person capable of helping her – Max. In the attack at their air force base, her leg was shot, and her side was injured. She bled profusely and limped for fourteen miles, all the way to Max's home in Roswell.

Upon seeing Max, Tess handed their son to him and collapsed to the ground. The only thing that had kept her able and moving until then had been sheer will to survive for their son. With that gone now, her injuries took hold and she fell into unconsciousness. When she woke, it was to a world of humans who hunted her like a dog, and aliens who wished her dead for her murder of their friend. She had no allies.

Max was furious with her. He motioned to kill her, so she did what she had to, to survive. She told him that if he killed her, he would kill their son – knowing all too well that Max would never take the risk of killing their son; no matter how much he hated her.

Yet, with the military on their backs, and closing in – Tess knew she couldn't run forever. She had come to Earth to save her son, and that's exactly what she would do. Her own life meant nothing to her, if her son couldn't survive. Max struggled to come up with an escape plan, after their attempts at crossing a road-block failed. In order for her son to live, Tess would have to give herself up.

With everyone asleep, Tess turned to the last person she's ever expect help from – Liz. She asked Liz to drive her to the Air Force base. It was there that Tess bore her soul, explaining that Max did indeed love her, and that it crushed her every time she kissed him to see Liz's face in his mind. Tess also explained that she had to do this, so that her son would live, and that she would know she did something good with her life. With that said, she entered into the air force base where gun fire and shouting could be heard, only moments before an explosion incinerated the base.

Now Tess was dead.

Their son, being of both human and alien DNA was without his father and mother's alien powers, and thus a regular human, at least on the outside. At the genetic level he was of course, still a second generation hybrid. Max knew that he was marked by the government and that he would spend the rest of his days running from the military. So, for his son's well-being he gave Zan up for adoption.

Zan was gone.

At their high school graduation that very government that was hunting them, targeted them for termination. They escaped, and fled – now they were fugitives running from the law. As part of their new identities, Max married Liz. Isabel, who had married her young lawyer friend, Jesse – told him to go, she didn't want to see him killed because of her. Both Liz and Kyle were changing into Hybrids, a side effect of Max's healing abilities. Michael and Maria were together, but Maria was growing more and more restless. She missed her home; she missed her family and her school. God forbid, she missed Roswell.

For the better part of two years they continued to flee. They hid in just about every state, until one day – Max had a vision. It was of Tess, and his son. They were together somewhere, and waiting for Max to join them. Max knew it was a dream, and dismissed it as such. But he could shake the feeling like he was missing something. That something was his family, his wife and his son. However, now Max had a new wife, and a new life with Liz and he found it difficult to tell the others of his new found emotions.

An event that would shake them to the core, would force those scary emotions to the surface. One night, as they all slept in their motel rooms an Earthquake shook the ground, and stirred them awake. Max, Isabel and Michael ran outside to find a huge alien ship hovering above them. It was the skins, their mortal enemies and the ones who followed Kivar. Kivar had come back to take Isabel, and to kill the others. He wanted all chances of his stolen throne being taken back eradicated.

They fought. Michael blasted them first, ducking for cover as Alien Troops filed from the ship and began to open fire on them. Max opened his barrier, protecting his kin. They were holding their own, even against all of their foes. They may have even escaped, if Isabel had not been there.

Isabel betrayed them again. Upon seeing Kivar in his true form, with nothing more than an atmosphere suit to protect his giant black eyes, she walked from Max's protecting barrier and left the group for good. She would never again be called Isabel – instead she would be called Vilondra by all those who knew her.

Vilondra was evil. She was a sadistic, cruel and uncaring leader – she was Isabel's past, the former self she had been. Vilondra desired only two things, her brother's throne and leadership of her home world, Antar – and Kivar, her lover and conspirer against Max. In the moment it took Isabel to join forces with Kivar, Kyle's life was ended. Isabel's first act as Vilondra was to murder him right out. She grabbed her lover's energy gun and blasted a hole through Kyle's chest.

Kyle was dead.

Seeing the awesome power of their enemies, and now that they were down two allies, not just one – Max retreated with his remaining allies and fled to Canada, where the lust mountains and forests would provide them some cover, at least for a while.

Their cover would not last for long. Vilondra knew Max better then he knew himself. And in her reawakened state she held far more power then they could even imagine. She could walk through their dreams, and read their minds, even while they were awake. She found them, quickly, and they regretted all actions they took to stop her, for it did nothing, and only served to make her fury worse.

Her fury was all consuming.

Kivar trailed along, Vilondra took the lead. They marched into the woods and dragged their prey out by their hair. Maria was the next to die. Vilondra tossed her over a cliff and watched as her ragged doll-like body smeared itself along the rock's side. After that, her craving for their deaths only increased.

Maria was dead.

She stabbed Liz, but the wry little human-turned-alien escaped, dragging her dying body along the woods until Max found her. But Vilondra would not give them a moment's peace. She ripped Max from his new wife's arms and made him watch as she died slowly from blood loss.

Liz was dead.

The only ones left now where her brother Max and her would-be husband Michael. Against her wishes they fled, escaping into the woods, and out of sight. Vilondra was furious they ran from her, and so she took out her anger on the Earth. She set forest fires, and blew building up. Despite all of this, she still could not find her brother and Michael. So, she went after the last remaining heir to the throne she so badly craved. Zan. He had been adopted. He was living somewhere in New York. Vilondra and Kivar wreaked havoc there, until finally, on day they found him. Such a sweet little baby, living his with normal human parents. Oblivious to the end he would soon acquire. As they slept, she had Kivar's men incinerate their home. When they were done, not a thing remained.

Zan was dead.

Max woke with a fright. He knew what had happened. Such rage he felt. He used all the power in him to find his sister and kill her. And so, that is what he did. He hunted her, like a rabid dog. He found her one night, in an alien dwelling in the desert. She was sleeping alongside Kivar. He stuck a fork in her throat and watched as the life drained from her body. When she was dead, he placed his hand on Kivar's sleeping body and removed the seal of his world. Without that seal, he would be unable to rule. Max knew this. Then he fled, he ran into hiding, knowing that Kivar would do anything he could to get back the throne of Antar.

Isabel was dead.

The present when like this:

Now Max was gone. His spirit dwindled to nothing. He had nothing left to live for. No wife, no son, no family. The family he had was dead. Isabel his sister has betrayed them, again. Michael understood, but this device could change their lives, it could change everything. He could go back, before it all began and make things right. He could fix things. Was Max right? Was the past dead? Was there nothing even he could do to fix things? No, Michael didn't want to believe that – he refused.

Rising to his feet, he scooped the long device up from the seat and held it in his hands. He gripped it, and pressed his thumb against the symbols in a precise order. After a moment the device began to glow. In a flash of brilliant white light, Michael was gone. He'd vanished into thin air, gone in a puff of unmarked time.

To be continued…