Liz drove Serena's van in the first leg of the drive from El Quartelejo to Roswell, which would take about four hours total. Max and Michael felt most comfortable minimizing their time in New Mexico and decided on a route that started heading southeast out of El Quartelejo on U.S. Route 385 instead of heading southwest out of town on U.S. Route 54. About halfway through the drive, they currently headed southwest on U.S. Route 60 heading toward the New Mexico border. Max also decided the hybrids needed to try to get some sleep on the drive because exhaustion weakened their abilities and even the adrenaline of a battle couldn't compensate for the effect.
Liz enjoyed that nice rest this morning while Max took time to decide to take a chance on trusting the Special Unit to honor their offer. She didn't exert a lot of physical energy spending most of the rest of the day in the command center of the Special Unit. That's why she offered to drive first.
They would arrive in Roswell after sundown, and Serena offered to take over at some point. Serena sat next to Liz on the far side of the passenger bench seat while the other five sprawled out on the floor in the back of the van. From what Liz could tell they either managed to fall asleep or did their best to try to rest. Liz and Serena made some passive conversation, but neither felt compelled to get into any serious discussion around what they may find in Roswell.
When rustling from the back of the van broke the mundane scene, Liz glanced over her right shoulder to notice Zan climbing over the back of the middle seat. He plopped in between Liz and Serena. The move mildly surprised Liz, but she didn't find it unwelcoming.
"Hey Zan," Liz greeted him with a smile, "were you able to get any sleep?"
"Yeah," Zan replied, "a little, which was nice. Everyone else is out cold back there, and I thought I'd see what's happening up here."
"Nothing too exciting," Serena croaked dryly.
"I guess that makes sense when we're…" Zan started and paused a moment before continuing, "Um, where exactly are we?"
"We're on Route 60 about 20 minutes from the New Mexico border," Liz reported with a wry smile, "so it's not unfair to say we're in the middle of nowhere."
"I see. Well, I'm glad there's someone up to talk to," Zan admitted, speaking specifically to Liz.
Serena gracefully took the hint and turned her attention to her window view to let them talk.
"Are you doing ok after everything?" Liz inquired.
"I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge that… it's a lot to take in," Zan said. The points at which he took a pause reminded Liz of how Max spoke. "I did wake up on the heels of… I guess you'd call it a nightmare. I was just really nervous the whole time I was on that ship."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Liz offered.
Zan began to open up to her, which Liz welcomed. Even though part of her realized Max would want to hear about this too, she didn't get a lot of time to simply get to know Zan. Liz always considered him family even when Tess first gave birth to him on Antar and they'd never met.
"At first, I felt a little weird about going with them," Zan began, "but also kind of excited. It seemed thrilling to get a chance to check out the ship. Nic- uh, Nicholas always treated me like a good friend. So it's not that I didn't believe everyone's warnings about him, but… I don't know. It's hard when my firsthand experience contrasted so heavily with the stories of an enemy that didn't sound at all like my friend. Mom never wanted to talk about my alien heritage or tell me anything. And Dad seems just as guarded about that stuff. I know it was a dumb and impulsive thing to go with them, but…"
"I understand what's it feels like to be kept in the dark," Liz interjected as Zan trailed off.
Liz didn't so much understand from firsthand experience since she never suspected anything remarkable about Max until he healed her gunshot wound. He also generally kept her in the loop on everything. But Liz still could relate to that initial torment Maria felt when Liz knew their secret and tried to honor their request to share it with no one, not even Maria. Liz also saw the strain the secret put on both Alex and Kyle before they found out, not to mention hers and Max's parents when they started to dig into their mysterious behavior.
"Yeah," Zan continued, "it's been difficult. Beyond all the secrets, Mom's always been really overprotective of me—even now that I'm a 21-year-old adult and not a kid anymore. I hoped Nicky would stay with me the whole time, but someone took me to that room as soon as we reached the ship. When, uh, Nicholas came for me, I thought I might get to explore the ship with him, but instead he took me to see Kivar. They wanted me to tell them where the Granolith is. Kivar did something to get inside my head. If you guys would've told me the Granolith's location, he would've stole that from me. When he realized I truly didn't know, he wanted to kill me, but Nicholas he… He did kind of stand up for me… I think…"
"I know Max and Isabel have had their mind invaded like that, and it's scary and violating," Liz shared.
"It was all of that," Zan affirmed, "but that actually wasn't the worst part. Nicholas suggested they use me as bait to trick you all to trade the Granolith for my life. I spent the rest of my time in this little room waiting for someone to either come and kill me, because I worried that Kivar might change his mind, or take me someplace where I'd witness them tricking all of you without the ability to warn you."
"That's awful," Liz empathized.
"I was so relieved to see Dad standing in that doorway and then for Mom to come over," Zan added.
"Well, you're safe with us now," Liz said, trying to sound comforting.
"Safer anyway," Zan reflected. "Of course, I say Mom, but…"
"What is it, Zan?" Liz asked.
"I've always known Ava as Mom, but really Tess was my Mom," Zan explained. "And while I carried that memory with me somewhere in my subconscious that Dad gave to me as a baby, I don't remember anything about Tess. What was she like?"
Zan posed a question that Liz didn't want to answer. How could she talk to him about Tess? Liz never liked Tess, and she might be the only person Liz ever truly hated. Zan knew the basics of the story of Tess's betrayal and end-of-life redeeming act, but surely he didn't want to hear what a terrible person his biological mother became on Earth. Liz took a moment to think about things she could share that were not as bad without lying.
"I think the most important thing was that Tess seemed to love you very much," Liz began. "When she returned with you to Earth, she was very protective of you. Her top priority was clearly keeping you safe."
Zan politely pressed for more info, "That's good to hear. But what was she like? Was she similar to Ava?"
"Oh no, not really," Liz replied. "Ava is really sweet and thoughtful. Tess, uh, well you know Tess she just—she never let her emotions get the best of her. She was very smart and resourceful when it came to helping with alien matters. I guess that's because she never wanted a life here on Earth. She was raised by Nasedo, the alien protector sent on your dad's ship, so she recovered a lot of her memories of Antar at a young age. It was different with Max, Michael and Isabel because they didn't know what they were when they got out of their pods. They were raised to be human and slowly discovered their abilities, alien heritage and connection to each other growing up. In fact, none of us even knew Antar was the name of their world until we were in high school. But with Tess, she was always more connected to her alien heritage. When she acted more like a regular kid, it turned out she was only pretending because that's not what she was."
"I'm sorry, uh, you two weren't close, were you? Is this weird for you to talk about?" Zan asked, his cheeks turning flushed with some embarrassment.
"It's ok," Liz told him, "but you're right, we were never very close. When Tess first came to Roswell she expected Max to remember being married to her on Antar like she did. When he didn't, and she realized Max was committed to me, she—well that was hard for her. But she wasn't all business all the time. She became friends with Isabel first, and I think she really did care for Kyle."
"Kyle…?" Zan didn't recognize the name.
"Oh, right," Liz realized why, "Kyle is one of our friends who knew about the alien secret. He passed through El Quartelejo and helped rescue me from the Special Unit, but you were on the ship that whole time."
"I feel like I missed a lot," Zan thought out loud.
"Zan…" Ava called from behind them.
It sounded to Liz like Ava just woke up. Her voice seemed groggy but also concerned that she didn't spot Zan with her and the other hybrids. Liz empathized and suspected Ava would prefer to keep eyes on Zan at all times for the indefinite future.
Zan turned and spoke to her, "Up here, Mom."
Then, Zan turned back to Liz, "I should probably get back there. Thanks… Not just for chatting with me but for being open and honest with me, too."
"Of course," Liz said.
Zan crawled back over the bench seat and into the back of the van. Zan struggled some to maneuver back there like that due to his height, though his slender frame probably made it a little easier. Liz and Serena started discussing how they were going to reach the New Mexico border in minutes and exactly where they wanted to stop and let Serena take the wheel.