"What?"
Tess gazed at the Alien part of the group, "I'm going back to Antar."
"Why?" Michael asked, surprising Tess slightly, she had been expecting Isabel or Max to ask that one.
"A lot of reasons," she said simply, "The people need me." The Aliens looked at her with confusion. Tess shook her head, she constantly had to remind herself that they didn't have all their memories as she did. "There is a war going on, on Antar, as you have heard." Her voice started to change, started to sound more regal, "And since the king has failed his duties to lead the people out of a dictatorship, the duty now falls to the Queen."
"You're not the queen anymore," Max said, startling Tess, "None of us are royalty anymore, that part of us died, we're different now, we're…"
"Human?" Tess finished. She shook her head, "You can keep telling yourself that as much as you want to Max, but you're forgetting, I remember." She looked him dead in the eyes, "I remember that there are hundreds of thousands of people on Antar dieing in our names, fighting a war that we should have ended. I don't care if I have human DNA, I'm still part alien, and that part of me refuses to see people die for me. You'd think you're human side would have gotten you three there." Her tone turned bitter. She was tired, cranky, and stressed, she needed to go soon or she'd miss her window.
"How?" Isabel asked quietly.
"There's a translation of the Book that Alex was working on, he gave me part of it before he…" she trailed for a moment, looking away, "It's not much but it was enough of how to get the Granolith working and how to get home. So, I'm going, and none of you are going to stop me." She turned away from them, heading for the door when a Green wall appeared before her. "Don't even try that one on me Max," she said, not turning yet.
"You're not going," Max said simply.
"Yes, I am," she said, turning defiantly to face him. "And this," she waved her hand at the wall, completely destroying it, "Is not going to stop me."
Max stared at where his wall had been, how did she do that?
"I remember Max," She said, answering his unasked question, "And with knowledge comes power, and with power comes responsibility. And I have one, to my people."
"I order you, as king of Antar, not to leave Roswell." Max said in his most regal sounding voice.
Tess just laughed, surprising the entire group, especially Michael and Isabel. All Tess had been was loyal and dedicated to Max's word, and now she was shunning it. "It doesn't work on me Max…oh, wait, you don't remember do you? Or maybe you choose not to." She took a deep breath, staring at the royal three. "On Antar, when you were Zan, you trusted me and loved me enough to share an entire planet with me. The lives of all that world were now my responsibility, my acceptance of your love. That power is divided equally, you and I." She saw realization dawn on him, "Yes, that's right Max, I have just the same amount of power if not more now that you have renounced your claim on the thrown and I have not. You do know what this means don't you? I could have ordered Michael and Isabel to be together, ordered them to leave with me, but I didn't. I never enjoyed ordering others around, I never would have kept Isabel here in Roswell instead of in NY."
She glanced at Michael and Isabel, noting how they looked at each other, then at Max as if just realizing what they could have been forced to do. "But I'm not going to order anyone to come with me. If they want to come they can…" No one made a move, "I see…" Tess turned to leave, once again being stopped by the green wall, this was getting old.
She sighed, turning to face Max, "Max," she said softly, too tired to go on arguing, "I don't see why you won't let me go…trust me it is better for everyone." The confused glances from the aliens made her continue. "If I go, you can be with Liz, Michael with Maria, and Isabel can go on with her life. If I go, Kivar will not come looking for you again." She rubbed her forehead, dreading where the conversation was going. "I'm sick, I guess I spent too much time in the pod when we hatched, and my lungs got too used to the Antarian air, I don't know, but I'm sick." She lied through her teeth. She knew she couldn't tell Max about their child, the last thing she wanted was for Max to feel obligated to be with her. And she was sick, the child couldn't survive and Tess refused to get rid of it, in time she would die because of Earth's air. "If I stay I'll die. If I go, I'll probably be found by Kivar and be killed. Yes, I know I'm being blunt, but I'm also being truthful. So you see, either way I will die…but this is good news for you three isn't it?"
The aliens looked positively disturbed, not even able to fathom how Tess' death would be good for them. "You see," Tess continued, "I am the only one alive now that the Antarians would accept a heir from, from Max. To them, he is king and I am the queen. Even if you were to marry Liz they would never accept her as Queen, and as such no offspring of hers would be heir to the thrown. But if you and I were to consummate a child," 'Which we already have,' she thought bitterly to herself, "then it would be heir…So, if I die, there's no heir…"
"And no one to take my place," Max said grasping what Tess had been trying to say.
"Yes," She said, breathing a sigh of relief that he was getting it, this made it easier to get her point across and her argument to win. "And if I'm gone, there is no Queen, and with out a Queen there's…"
"No king," Isabel said, glancing at Max.
"And Kivar wouldn't have to worry about Max taking over." Michael finished.
"Exactly," Tess said, "So, it really is a win-win situation. And if you don't mind."
She turned to go…but was once again stopped by a green wall. 'What is Max's problem today?' she thought. "Why do you want to leave?" She heard Max ask.
Tess held back a scoff, now she was getting angry. "Besides the obvious face of millions of deaths on my head? I remember. I know this doesn't mean much to you three, but it means the world to me, literally. I remember my family, my friends. I remember how they were killed in front of me. You don't remember, but my family was taken a prisoners in one of Kivar's raids, we were beaten, tortured, and starved, all for his sick pleasure." Tess could feel tears well up in her eyes, oh how she wished she didn't remember this part of her life. "I remember a slave riot acting up and my fleeing with my youngest sister. We were all taken in by the royal family, and you healed my sister Max. That was how we met."
Tess looked down, collecting her thoughts. "I remember our courtship, engagement, marriage…Gali was the flower girl," she said, mentioning her sister's name was the string that broke her inner defenses, tears came now. "I remember Kivar's attack on the palace, watching as he killed Rath and Vilondra, how he was torturing me when Gali ran in. He killed her Max, my sister, the only family I had left, and he killed her. He aimed for you next Max," she said, noting the dazed looks on the aliens' eyes as if they too were remembering. "He fired, and I ran. No, you weren't hit Max, I was. I died for you. And you died too. We all did, and I refuse" she said, anger mixing with her tears, "I Refuse! To let Antar rest in his hands any longer!"
With that Tess ran out the door before Max had a chance to put up the wall. She ran as fast as she could. Soon she found herself in the park, she needed to keep going to get to the Valenti's to the car. She was about to resume running when a hand brushed her shoulder. She wheeled around to see Max behind her slightly out of breath.
"Tess," he said, taking her hand.
Tess pulled her hand back, but too late. Her defenses were down, he saw. The flash that Tess had tried so hard to prevent had happened. Max knew, he knew she was pregnant.
"Don't TOUCH ME!" She screamed, running away from him. He was too stunned from the flash to go directly after her. By the time he did, she was gone. About an hour later would find Max sitting on his bench in the park, Michael and Isabel next to him, as a light streaked across the sky.