Chapter Thirteen: Hurricane in Roswell

August 13th, 1999

She was warm and safe, resting in perfect contentment with the knowledge that all was right in her world. But something disturbed that peace, a sudden sense of loss, and her sleep became less restful until finally she fought her way to consciousness.

A soft glow suffused her senses and she clawed against the barrier holding her in until she slid onto the floor, the sudden shock of cold stone disorienting after the cocooning warmth she had just left. The shock of being alone was much more profound.

They were supposed to be there. She did not know who they were, but she knew that they were not there, and that she was all alone. It was terrifying.

She waited for what seemed like forever, staring at the empty pods, until an unfamiliar sensation in her stomach drove her to explore her surroundings. She touched something that called out to her with an unseen pull, and a blast of hot air swirled around her body as a grinding noise revealed a path that led away from the cave and into the bright desert.

She stepped out and then stared down at her feet as pain lanced through them from the heat of the rock and sand. A glow like the one inside the cave surrounded them for a moment, and then they did not hurt anymore so she began to walk.

She walked until it got dark and her legs were shaking from exhaustion. Two bright lights appeared out of the night and headed straight towards her and she closed her eyes, too tired to try and move out of the way.

She just wanted to find the others.

Both girls woke up at the same time, hearts pounding to the same adrenaline fueled rhythm. Their heads turned in sync and their eyes met with the identical shocked realization that they had shared the dream.

"There are more like you," Liz breathed into the heavy silence, and Tess shivered as long buried memories surfaced, memories of an aching hole in her soul that bonding with Liz had filled so completely she had forgotten its existence.

She sat up and ran her fingers through her curls distractedly. "Is that why we felt energy when we came to Roswell? Are they here?"

Liz shook her head mutely as she stood and started pacing, unable to hold still with all of the nervous energy running through her. "If they are here, do they know? About your past, about you?"

Before Tess could answer, the brunette's eyes widened as she made another connection. "There were three other pods Tess; it must be Zan, Vilondra, and Rath! It's the only thing that makes sense. But why, how, did all of you get here?"

Tess felt just as disoriented as she had in that first memory as she reeled from one shock after another. She had known that the dreams were not over, that whatever had sent her here could not be ignored, but she had not expected to feel a sudden mix of burning fear and desire to find those other three, to find answers.

"What do we do?" she asked Liz, her hands gripping the covers so hard that her knuckles were white as her conflicted emotions resounded down the bond to her sister.

Liz walked forward and sat on the bed next to her, her large brown eyes serious and her face strained. "We watch. We look for anyone who could be them, with our eyes, and our other senses, and we be very careful because Tess, if you four could come back, what if your enemies are still looking for you?"

Tess felt faint as she realized the truth of her sister's words and reaching out, she grasped her hand with desperate need. "We be very careful. I can't lose you Liz, and Dad can't lose us, he wouldn't survive."

Liz nodded and pulled her in for a fierce hug as they both clung to the only thing that made sense in the nightmare their life had suddenly become, each other.

September 18th, 1999

Tess had been watching the way Max and Michael watched her sister, and trying to decide for herself if she wanted to encourage her to go after either of them, or find a way to make both of them leave her sister alone. The one thing holding her back was the fear that it was her own selfish desire for Liz's current boyfriend prompting her to think about telling Liz to consider Michael.

Sometimes she wished that she did not have a conscience.

Thoughts of her and her sister's love life had been the only things keeping her sane for the past month, the only thing keeping her from watching everyone in town like she was one of the paranoid conspiracy theorists who haunted Roswell. She had never really felt alone, because even though they were not exactly the same, Liz was her sister, and she had never felt like an outsider because of that. But suddenly knowing that there were others out there, others like her; it was both exhilarating and terrifying because above all it meant that pretending to be normal might not be an option much longer.

But the thoughts of her and her sister's love life, and their alien fears, were wiped away when the argument by the door got so loud that no one could ignore it anymore, and a new kind of dread tightened her gut.

All of a sudden there was a gun waving, the fluorescent lights glinting off the cold metal, and then there was a brief flash, so small that if she had been entirely human she probably would not have noticed it, and then Liz was falling, and there was red seeping through the front of her uniform, and oh-my-god her sister had been shot, and she had to get to her, she had to heal her like she had all those years ago.

But Maria was clutching her hysterically, and there were people watching, and she was trying to get to Liz, but Maria just would not stop screaming, and then Max, tall quiet Max, was bending over Liz and tearing her uniform open and there was blood, so much blood, and he put his hand over the bullet hole and he told Liz to look at him and she did.

Then his hand was glowing and she could feel the connection between them through her own connection with her sister, and what did it mean, was he one of the others? Had Max lived in one of those pods? Was he like her? How could they not have sensed it before?

Maria stopped screaming, and Liz was okay, and Max was breaking a bottle of ketchup, and suddenly she could move again. She shoved Maria out of the way and knelt next to her sister to hide her from view, waving a hand over her uniform so that the buttons were done up and the blood underneath the ketchup was gone. Max saw her do it with wide eyes, and then he ran out of the restaurant and she cursed under her breath. Way to look suspicious, idiot.

She helped Liz stand up and oh-so-casually moved back to the wall behind her as people rushed up to see if her sister was okay.

As soon as Liz started telling her ketchup bottle story with a perfect embarrassed blush and giggle, her sister was such a good liar, she waved her hand behind her back over the right side of the doorframe leading to the kitchens, and suddenly there was a bullet hole with bullet, readymade for the Sheriff to find.

Liz pulled away from the crowd and grabbed her hand and looked her in the eyes, and they both knew; everything had changed.