Title: Truth

Author: Dark Roswellian Angel

Elizabeth McDowell

Disclaimer: I don't own any of it. If I did, "Roswell" would still be airing, and Tess would not have turned out the way she did.

Copying/Downloading/Posting: Please let me know first, and let me know where my work will be posted as I would love to come visit it. Make sure that it is put under my name, as I would love to hear how others feel about it. Thanks ;)

T due to some violence

This is part of at least a 2-fic series crossover. Possibly 3, depending on what kind of response I get.

A.U. that is still based on the series. It will eventually be mostly CC.

I actually wrote this quite a while ago- I'm just getting around to typing and posting it now, so if it seems a little disjointed it's probably because my writing style has changed a bit. I've gone over it and tried to change it to my current style, but I guess only time will tell. Or you could let me know through that little button down there (hint, hint) :)

Synopsis: The aliens tell their families the truth and think that everything will be okay. But they still have a prediction to prevent. And a bunch more secrets are about to get out.

The Big News- Finally

After dinner, no one wanted Michael or Maria to leave so they all sat around talking. Phillip and Diane were enjoying stories of the group's alien experiences when a thought occurred to Phillip. "I've just realized that you never answered my question."

Max had been waiting for this. He'd just been enjoying the easy atmosphere too much to bring it up himself. He knew how important enjoying each other was to the group. Memories of these times would be even more important in the future. He immediately turned to his dad, but Isabel beat him to the punch. "What question was that, Dad?"

"When your mother and I arrived home, you were having an argument. You were upset about something that you haven't told us yet. Now, what exactly were you talking about?"

Isabel looked at Max and then back to her parents. They could see from her face that it was very important, but she was nervous about saying what it was. She looked back to Max with an imploring look on her face. He seemed to take pity on his sister because he took a big steadying breath and plunged into the subject. "You remember when we first told you the truth about us. We told you about the F.B.I.'s discovery of Michael and their subsequent interest in us… that they've even gone so far as to send an agent into our school who is still posing as our guidance counselor."

"And sent you to the White Room," Diane supplied. She wasn't sure she'd ever get over that, even just to the dealing stage. Ever since she'd found out, she'd felt like locking him in the house so she could keep an eye on him 24-7 just to make sure no one was ever able to hurt her little boy again.

Max gave her a small smile and nodded slightly. Even though they both knew there was nothing she could do, he loved how protective she was of him. "Yeah, well, the point is that they have been watching us. The fact that they took me instead of Michael means that they know about me. And if they know that two members of our group are aliens (he still didn't feel comfortable with that word) they have to be wondering about the others. They know we're adopted, so you two are probably safe. And we've tried to keep contact with the Valentis to a minimum for the last couple of years. Plus there's the fact that, for a while, Sheriff Valenti was trying to help them by pursuing us, especially me. His turn-around to our side happened right after they told him off, shut him down, and said that he was wrong about us. They might think he's still on their side, so we're hoping he's safe. And hopefully, as long as his powers don't freak out in public, Kyle will be safe too. We don't know about Maria. We know they're pretty sure about Michael saving her, and it's obvious they're connected. We think they might believe she's one of us, especially if they've seen one of her power… mishaps. We don't know what that means for Amy. And as far as Michael's concerned, we're not too worried about Hank. He's made it quite clear that he's not interested in being part of the group."

"Even if they thought he was, we wouldn't be too worried about what might happen to him. Besides, he's disappeared. I haven't heard from him in months, and I don't think I'm going to." Michael had never really hidden his feelings for his ex-adopted father and after the events that led to Phillip helping him seek emancipation Diane and Phillip had completely empathized. They'd been stunned when the judge had denied his request. They'd been preparing to appeal his decision when Hank came over to the Evans' one night with the sheriff and told them that he was leaving. In what was perhaps the one decent thing he'd ever done in his life, he'd asked the Evans to sign as temporary guardians and informed them that he was leaving the trailer behind "because it's a piece of sht and the skirt I'm moving in with already has a house and don't like brats." Michael had been stunned breathless when Hank had actually signed the trailer over to him citing the tax benefits as being worth more to him than the house itself (both by Hank's uncharacteristic generosity and by the fact that the man had actually known anything about tax law). That left Michael basically emancipated but with a rent-free home and a child services check coming in. Combined with his job at the chemical plant where he worked with Maria, he was financially very comfortable.

"Okay… so if anything happens, we'll take care of it. You all have powers that will protect you while your mother and I will take anyone who tries to touch you to court so fast it'll make their heads spin. Plus the sheriff can give us any warning we might need." Phillip understood their worry. He'd only been living with it for a couple of months, but he knew how debilitating it could be. Reminding them that they had protection all around them was not only designed to put them more at ease but to remind Diane and himself, too.

But Diane, as usual, had picked up more on why Max was running down the list. "What's going on Max? Why are you telling us about this?"

Max looked deep into his mother's eyes. She may not have actually given birth to him, but there was no denying that she was his mother. She understood him more than anyone. For a split second Max allowed himself to wonder if he would ever find someone who would understand him completely who he would understand just as much. Like Michael and Maria did. "You're right, Dad. There are people who are willing to do what they can to protect us. And if the people who want to hurt us didn't know they are above the law, it would probably work out okay. But the Special Unit isn't going to stop just because some judge or a county sheriff say so. And it's not like they're going to ask for permission first either."

"So we get ready for them. We do what we have to if and when they make a move. But, I have to say Son, I think it's highly doubtful that they're going to do anything. Attacking five high school kids would be way too public. There's just no way that they could kidnap you all and hope that it wouldn't be noticed. I have to say, all things considered, I think you're pretty safe."

Max was silent. Looking at the other three teens, they all had a waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop silence hanging about them.

"Max? Son? What are you trying to tell us?"

Max remained silent for one more moment, then cleared his throat, looked to his friends for their immediately forthcoming consent and support, and met his father's eyes. "We're leaving. We're leaving Roswell, and we probably won't be coming back."

"Wha-"

"We're being hunted Dad. We have to go. We don't know where we're going, and it would probably be too dangerous to tell you even if we did."

"We don't want to go. We love you both so much. If we could stay, we would," Isabel hastened to reassure them.

"But, I don't understand. If you don't want to leave, why are you? I don't know who you think is hunting you, but your father already said we'll protect you. Nothing is going to happen to you. No one is going to touch you." Diane's eyes were tearing up.

"Yes, they are. We are being hunted by agents of the F.B.I.'s Special Unit. And they are going to kill us. We don't want to leave you. Roswell is the only home we've ever known, but if we don't leave within the month, we are all going to die."

"A month?!" Diane's eyes widened in shocked disbelief. It was too soon! This was all happening too fast.

"How do you know? How can you possibly know that you'll die if you don't leave within the month?" Phillip's rational mind denied the possibility that his family would fall apart within a matter of days, until a possibility opened to him. "Did your people tell you? Have you been contacted by someone like you?"

For a moment the 3 1/2 aliens thought back on all the discussions they'd had about their people. What they were like. Who they were. Why they hadn't sent someone with them to protect and guide them. The only things they knew about themselves or their people were the few dreams they'd had, the experience they'd shared when Michael had gotten sick with River Dog, and the message they'd received from Max and Isabel's mother when Michael had been drawn to their cave by the healing stones that they'd found six months after they'd found each other again. It could have been so much easier for them if someone who had all the answers had been there for them. And it would have made so much more sense- if they really were reborn royalty on their planet and their destinies really were to return home and save their world from Khivar, shouldn't they have been protected and trained while growing up? Shouldn't they have spent all these years practicing and strengthening their powers instead of still just learning about them?

Michael had once proposed that they had actually had protectors, but that they had been captured by the government in the crash. That their protectors were the famous Roswell Grays and were even now being experimented on inside an underground lab in Area 51. They had quickly agreed that this wasn't the case- it was too horrible to be true. Besides, they reasoned, if it were true wouldn't they be able to sense the others' distress? And wouldn't they have been too powerful to have been captured in the first place?

"No Dad. Our people haven't warned us. Isabel did."

"Isabel?" Diane turned to her daughter in surprise. "How could you have known sweetheart?"

"Because I can see the future. Sometimes. That's how I knew someone was going to be stabbed when and where Maria was. Max and Michael were there to stop it. But when it still happened and it turned out to be Maria, Michael had to decide whether or not to save her."

"You mean you didn't know it would be Maria?"

"No. I didn't actually see her face. I just saw a man in a mask step out from behind the dumpster, demand her purse, and when she was too scared to move quickly enough for him, he stabbed her. I never felt her actually die, but I could feel her dying. I saw it like I was watching from behind her."

"When it actually happened, the guy just jumped out at me, looked at me for a second, looked up and down the alley, stabbed me, took my purse, and ran for it."

Diane's brow creased in confusion as she turned to Isabel, "You mean, you were wrong?"

"No," Max responded quickly when he saw his father's reaction signaling that he was just about to jump in and point out that if she'd been wrong then, she could be wrong again.

"But-"

"I wasn't wrong Mom. I saw what would have happened if Max and Michael hadn't been there. Because they were there, the guy got spooked. So instead of taking the time to ask for her purse when Max and Michael could have helped her, he just stabbed her and took off."

"But, Honey, if you were able to change what happened by having Max and Michael there, maybe we can change whatever it was you saw." Phillip wasn't going to let go of his children easily.

"No Dad. I didn't really change it, or if I did I was only able to change it for the worse. Maria still got stabbed. We were able to change how it happened, but not the end result. And that is the way my visions work. I can affect the small details but not the outcomes."

"Well, so what have you actually seen then Sweetheart?"

"I've seen us die. At some sort of conference I've seen us all standing there together, smiling. Then I watch as this older, balding man- I don't know who- comes up to give a speech. Just as he finishes, loud bangs go through the room and I watch Max, then Michael, then Maria fall and I go outside and above myself to watch as I fall too. I look at each of us. Michael has been shot in the temple, Max in the back of his head, Maria's been shot in the stomach and chest, and I've been shot in the throat. We're all dead."

Diane felt like she was going to be ill and Phillip's face had become ashen. "You don't know when or where?"

"I just know it's sometime around graduation because Max has a tassel hanging from his rearview mirror. And that it's in Roswell because he has a local station playing as he parks the Jeep before going in."

"And you don't know who the speaker is?"

"No. He looks like some nerdy science-type guy, but I've never seen him before."

"But there has to be some way to stop it."

Max spoke up. "There is. We have to leave. We have to leave Roswell right after graduation."

Diane whispered, "But that's in two weeks. You can't leave so soon."

"Mom, we have to." It was the first time Michael had actually called her "Mom," even though she'd been telling him to for months now. It had the result of making the tears that had already been brimming in the blonde's eyes spill over.

"Michael's right. If we don't leave, we will die."

"Alright, but-" Phillip stopped to receive Diane's nonverbal agreement, "we're going with you. There's no way that we're going to let this family be separated."

"You can't Dad."

"Oh really? And why can't we?" he dared Max with his eyes.

"Because it isn't safe." This was the first time Maria has spoken during the discussion. But she had to leave her mother too, so she felt that she had the right to interject. "It's not safe for you. And Max and Isabel, all of us, couldn't stand it if our parents got hurt because of us."

"We're willing to take the risk if it means all of us being together," Diane responded quietly.

"But we're not… Look, it's not like it's safe for us either. The smaller the group we move in, the better our chances. We even considered splitting up and going alone, but we're hoping that we'll be safer as a unit. As a group we all have powers. We can all defend ourselves. Nobody will be a vulnerability for anybody else. Well, maybe I will be, but I can defend myself a little, even if I'm not as strong as the others. And with practice, I'll get better. And I'm afraid I'm going to get lots of practice," Maria said gently. She saw Diane try to swallow away the thought of what that practice might be. "If we can come back, we will. And every chance we get, we'll contact you to let you know we're okay. It's not like we want to disappear. Roswell is our home, and we love our families."

Everyone was quiet for a minute, but eventually Jeff spoke up, "What about Jesse?" It was a last ditch effort, and everyone could sense his desperation.

"What about Jesse?" Max responded.

"I thought you were getting pretty serious about him. What are you going to tell him?" he answered Max while addressing Isabel.

Isabel looked at the carpet for just a minute, then looked up meeting her father's eyes with a slightly guilty expression. "Jesse's a great guy. He's warm and loving and real. I get this feeling about him- like if I were hurting I could go to him and he'd be there for me. Like if something were to happen to someone I really loved and I couldn't be with the person I'm meant to be with, he would take care of me and we could be happy together. But I don't think he could handle our secret. It's not like I think he would turn us in. I just feel like he wouldn't be able to handle it, and it would mess everything up between us. I can't be with someone who can't love me for me, the whole me, for who I really am. And even if there wasn't that whole factor to consider, I don't think he's right for me. Even if my being an alien totally wasn't an issue, I just feel like there's someone else. Like I'm supposed to be with someone else, and I don't mean Michael either. I feel like there's someone else for me, who I can love completely, who will love me, and my being an alien won't be an issue. Sometimes in my dreams I think I can almost feel him. Sometimes, I swear I can see him from the back. Tall, skinny, dark brunette, a little geeky- if nothing else that helps to prove that he must be the right one for me because usually I'm not even attracted to that body type.

Phillip's hope was diminished, and he was intrigued by his daughter's prophetic dream. But he still cared about the soon-to-be-spurned young man, who was also the newest member of his firm. "So, what are you going to do about Jesse?"

"I'll tell him what I can. That I care about him, that he's a great guy, that I'm sorry but I'm leaving town for a while after graduation. And since I don't know when I'm coming back, it wouldn't be fair of me to leave while we're still together. He'll be fine. We really haven't been together for that long anyway."

The group fell to silence again until, "So the four of you are really going to go off, alone, unprotected, to who-knows-where, for who-knows-how-long?"

"Well, it might be the five of us, but basically yeah," Max answered as he looked at his mother. He was going to miss her so much. He was going to miss both of his parents horribly, but he was going to miss that reassuring look of love that she always had when she looked at him the most.

"Five?"

Max turned to his father. "Well, we have to talk to Kyle. If he wants to come with us, then we'll let him. After all he's changing too, and he might actually be safer with us than alone."

"Fine. As long as he doesn't start calling us 'his people'," Michael warned.

As the rest of the group smiled in response, Diane and Phillip's eyes met and they nodded their heads in resignation. There was nothing they could do. In two weeks' time, their children would be gone from their lives.

"I never thought I'd be jealous of someone for almost dying," Diane said softly. Phillip silently agreed.

A/N: Has anyone ever thought about how Max saved the sheriff in "Panacea" when he was shot? Doesn't that mean that eventually he'll change too? So shouldn't he have gone with them in the end? So that when he changed he'd "be with his own kind"? Or was that shot not fatal so that Max didn't actually have to change him to save him? Because with their reactions and the blood on the wall, it certainly looked fatal. And if it wasn't fatal, then why would he save him like that when he was exposing himself? Not to mention all the kids with cancer that he saved.