Part 4

Within a block of the Crashdown, Liz’s cool, calm exterior crumbled, as the reality of the situation came crashing down on her. Stumbling down the street, the tears started falling, and her breath started coming in painful gulps until she couldn’t take it anymore and she dropped to her knees in agony.

Tess had played her like a fool, turned her friends against her. She had no alibi, nothing to do to convince them that she was who she said she was. Her own best friends couldn’t tell the difference between Tess’s conniving personality and her own when put face to face with them. Now she had no one to turn to, no one who would trust her, no one to believe in her.

And to make matters worse it seemed that they were truly playing with the enemy. Tess had been mindwarping Alex. To what end, Liz didn’t know, but she did know one thing for certain. Now that Tess’s manipulation had been revealed, she was going to be forced to take the fall for it.

Liz wasn’t sure how long she was walking for that night as she desperately tried to clear her head, and figure out what she was going to do with herself…all she knew was that she was out of ideas, and needed some serious help. So she finally found herself returning to the only place she could turn to, and praying that the people inside still had a soft spot for Tess.

This time she didn’t even try fumbling for a key…just reached up and nervously knocked on the front door.

Kyle’s eyes were bitter and angry as the door swung open to reveal him, and he just stared at her for a long minute before laughing sarcastically.

"I can’t believe you had the nerve to come back here after all that you’ve done."

"I…I didn’t know where else to go." Liz stammered nervously. "Please Kyle…will you at least listen?"

"Listen to what, Tess? Your excuse for using Alex as your little toy? Have you been mindwarping me all along too?"

"Kyle…I’m not Tess. I swear to you, I’m not Tess. She’s playing me just as much as the rest of you and Alex right now. I know you don’t believe me, but if you’ll listen to me for a minute I’ll be able to prove it to you, I swear."

"Prove it how?" Kyle asked with an amused smirk.

"Freshman year." Liz stated firmly. "At the end of the school year, right after you and I started going out. The Freshman baseball team had just won the league championship, and you were the star of the game. Your friends threw you that huge party to congratulate you, and it was your first time getting so thoroughly drunk. I took you home and when I walked you to the porch you barfed all over me. You were so embarrassed, you made me swear never to tell anyone…and I never did. In fact, I went out with you the next night and told you to forget it ever happened, that it wasn’t that big of a deal. You just stared at me, your eyes wide. Later you said it was the first time you realized that I wasn’t like the other girls you dated…that I was special."

"You were so uncomfortable when I said that to you." Kyle replied, his voice awed. "You just giggled nervously and insisted that you were nothing special. You couldn’t figure out why a guy like me would want to date a girl like you." Kyle paused for a long moment, studying the ground awkwardly before looking up and meeting Liz’s eyes, his own shining with unspoken emotion. "I never told Tess about that night. There’s no way she could have known unless there’s some alien power that involved mind reading that she happens to be keeping secret from us all."

"They can’t read minds." Liz replied distantly. "Max told me that the day he told me the truth about him." Suddenly, tears filled Liz eyes and the blood rushed from her face. "Oh God…Max. I haven’t even thought about what’s going to happen when Max comes back. God…it was bad enough after we pretended to sleep together. He couldn’t even look at me. Now he’s going to hate me. I don’t know if I could stand having him look at me like that."

"Hey, you don’t need to worry about that right now." Kyle comforted gently. "Max isn’t here. You don’t need to deal with him until he’s back from wherever he and Michael are at. And until then you need to take care of yourself. You need to get yourself back on your own feet so that you can figure out a way to outsmart Tess."

Liz swallowed and nodded quickly. "You’re right. I know you’re right. It’s just…I can’t help worrying about him, Kyle. He’s my…I…" Liz stammered over her words before finally just peeking meekly up at Kyle. "I love him."

Kyle sighed and rubbed his forehead awkwardly. "Yeah, I know, Liz." He snorted before replying dryly. "We all love the great Max Evans. Now get your butt in here…you’re in luck. I hadn’t figured out what to tell Dad yet about what she had done. Sadly enough, he loves Tess. It’s going to kill him when he finds out the truth."

Liz followed Kyle in and waited until he shut the door before softly asking, "What about you, Kyle? How are you doing with it all?"

"How do you think I’m doing with it?" Kyle replied bitterly. "I feel like an idiot. She was playing us all like fools."

"You’re not an idiot Kyle!" Liz insisted. "How were you supposed to know? Tess is powerful…and she had all of us convinced that we could trust her."

"We can’t let her get away with it." Kyle growled.

"I know." Liz agreed hesitantly. "But I don’t know what to do about it. No one will trust me right now…not with what’s happened with Alex."

"You’re right, they won’t." Kyle agreed. "But that can work to our advantage until we figure out what her plan is. You can just lay low and keep your eye on her as an outsider…see if there’s anything unusual going on with her, outside the obvious. We won’t tell them anything until we have proof against her."

Liz nodded silently in agreement. Staying away from Max wouldn’t be a problem…she had been practicing for months, ever since she broke his heart. Maria and Alex would be another story though. She was so used to having them as a part of her life…facing life without them would be hard. She was going to have nobody except Kyle to lean on.

"I wonder how Alex is doing." Liz wondered in a sad, distant voice.

"Not good." Kyle sighed shortly.

"I wish I could see him." Liz mumbled. "But I know I can’t get near him looking like this. He is the last person who would trust me right now."

Kyle nodded slowly. "Yeah, you’re going to have to stay away, but I’ll keep an eye on him for you…I’ll make sure he knows that you’re thinking of him…even if he thinks you’re her."

"Thanks Kyle." Liz smiled awkwardly at him. "You’re a really good friend."

"That’s right." Kyle mocked her with a laugh. "And don’t you forget it!"

~~~~ ~~~~~

Tess sat in her new bedroom in front of the mirror, slowly stroking a brush through her long, straight, silky dark hair. Smiling at the mirror, the image that reflected back at her made Tess’s smile broaden further. She looked sweet, innocent, perfect…everything that Max Evans had ever desired.

Pausing in the smooth, even strokes of her brushing, Tess, reached up and ran a hand through her hair in amazement. She had always wanted hair like this…smooth, straight hair without a single kink or curl in it. Curly hair was so high maintenance…well, when you did it the human way like she normally did. Some days she straightened it with her powers, but it always seemed to end up curling up again by the end of the day.

Today though, it was still perfect at the end of the day…perfect, like Liz Parker’s life.

Tess couldn’t believe how perfect today had gone. It was a spur of the moment plan, and it had worked. It had worked even better than she had anticipated with the added element of Alex breaking out of the mindwarp…something she had never intended to happen, but in the end it just helped her destroy Liz Parker’s life even further. Now Liz was completely alone…when Max heard what she had done, he would never be able to forgive her. There would be nothing standing in the way of her future with Max…a future that was now secure.

Now not only was she the living embodiment of Max Evans’ destiny, but she was the living embodiment of Max Evans’ destiny in the body of the human girl he was obsessed with. He wouldn’t be able to stay away from her even if he tried.

Straight hair, Liz Parker’s downfall, and the opportunity to finally have Max Evans as hers…three of her lifelong dreams had already come true just over the course of one day.

"Liz? Sweetie?" Tess looked up from the mirror and smiled her sweet Liz Parker smile at Nancy Parker as she entered the room. "Are you heading to bed?"

"Yeah." Tess replied, beaming at the woman standing across the room from her. "I’m really tired. It’s been a weird day."

"Jose mentioned that you weren’t feeling well today…is everything all right, honey?"

"Oh, yeah." Tess replied quickly. "I just had a bit of a headache this afternoon. I’m feeling a lot better now…really. I just need a good night’s sleep."

"Okay…well I’ll leave you alone then. Get some rest sweetie. I’ll see you tomorrow."

"Good night Mom." Tess replied with a smile before turning back to the mirror and grinning happily at her reflections.

Straight hair, Liz Parker’s downfall, Max Evans, and real parents…make that four dreams come true.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

It was a fitful night of sleep for Liz. She was uncomfortably…awkward in a strange bed, in strange clothes, in a strange house with strange noises.

What little sleep she did have was disrupted by nightmares of Max glaring down at her with death shining in his eyes, screaming at her, telling her he never wanted to see her again, that she had to leave Roswell forever…all for things that Liz didn’t even do. She begged him to listen to reason, to believe in her like Kyle did, but his eyes were unforgiving, as told her to stop lying to them, before turning his back on her and walking away without a second glance back.

It was mid morning when her alarm clock went off, some nameless pop song buzzing through Liz’s cloud of exhaustion. She didn’t want to wake up, she didn’t even want to move. All she wanted to do was hide away in the room, sleep the day away, so that she would never have to face the real world.

Groaning Liz reached a heavy arm over and started slapping at the bedside table, trying to find the alarm to shut it off so that she could just pretend the day wasn’t happening, but the unfamiliar alarm clock wouldn’t shut off.

Growling in frustration, Liz cried out in agony as she smacked the clock radio hard. It was warm under her touch, and she breathed a sigh of relief when it suddenly shut off.

Relief until she smelled the musty smell of smoke filling the air.

Liz was out of the bed in an instant, shrieking at the site of the smoking radio. Electric energy surged through the clock’s form, and the plastic was beginning to melt.

"Oh my God…" Liz cried loudly.

"Liz?" Kyle came running into the bedroom suddenly, staring at her with wide eyes. "What happened?"

Liz slowly dragged her eyes away from the smoldering form of what had once been an alarm clock, meeting Kyle’s eyes in fear. "I have her powers."