Kevin Ryan: A New Beginning

TV Series Placement: Post-Season 3 / Immediately following TV series finale

June 2003

As Max, Michael, Isabel, Liz, Maria, and Kyle pile into their van and leave Roswell behind, they are each hoping for positive experiences – or at least something different from most of the events of the past three years. After all, their high school years were anything but typical – the whole alien experience has nearly cost them their lives, again and again. Still, they know that taking charge of their destinies and deciding to make a positive difference in the world has empowered them all.

But it isn't long before Liz sees a vision of future destruction, and the group realizes by leaving Roswell they have changed history, and not necessarily for the better. When they end up in a town where young girls are disappearing, it quickly becomes clear that their lives beyond Roswell will be anything but easy…

My name is Liz Parker, Liz wrote into her notebook. Then she paused and put down her pen. The notebook was new, which Liz thought was appropriate since she was starting a new phase of her life. From this point on, things will never be the same, she thought as the road swept past the van window.

Since she was eight, Liz had religiously kept a diary. However, in the last three years, the entries had gotten a lot more interesting.

Three years earlier she had been shot. Three years ear- lier she had died. Three years earlier Max had healed her and brought her back.

And yet those were just the first in a series of strange events that had happened since. They were not even the strangest things that had occurred.

Max. Aliens. The Skins. Losing her friend Alex. Then Max dying and coming back to her.

Strange things, yes. And many changes. Even now, she knew her body was changing. When Max had brought her back, he had changed something inside of her. Part of his alien self had touched Liz and made her like him… had made her part alien.

The word no longer meant what it used to for Liz. When she was a girl it meant monsters from space… monsters that weren't real.

Now it meant Max, Michael, and Isabel… people she knew and, in the case of Max, loved. Now alien meant Liz herself. When Max had healed her he had given her the gift of life. He had also given her powers that had lain dor- mant until a few months ago.

She now sometimes saw things before they happened. And she could occasionally move things with her mind. She had made a harmless schoolbook burst into flames.

The changes Max had started in her three years ago were not finished, Liz was sure. Would they be a gift? Or a curse? They were frightening. Of that much she was sure.

Turning her head, she looked at Max. He was concen- trating on driving. Like the others and like Liz herself, he was silent… lost in his own thoughts.

But he sensed Liz looking at him and shot her a glance, raising his eyebrows to ask a question that he did not have to speak out loud.

Anything wrong? his look said.

With a smile and a shake of her head, Liz responded just as silently and just as clearly.

Liz was no longer surprised at how often they didn't need to speak out loud to communicate or to know what the other was thinking. It wasn't an alien trick, though. She knew other couples who enjoyed the same kind of communication.

Turning her head, she saw her best friend, Maria, sitting in the van directly behind her. Maria gave Liz a thin smile. Next to her was Michael, who was looking intently out the window. In the seats behind them were Kyle and then Isabel, who was also staring out the window, looking lost… maybe more lost than any of them.

Liz understood. Isabel had given up a lot. Just a few hours ago, she had been a married woman looking for- ward to her life with Jesse.

Now, she was on the road… or was it on the run?… with Liz, Max, and the others.

Changes… for all of them.

Liz picked up her pen and started to write.

I thought things had changed three years ago, when I learned the truth about Max, Isabel, and Michael And while many things did change, my friends and I still went to school every day and went to sleep in our own beds most nights.

Even as our lives seemed to have changed completely, our world stayed almost unnaturally the same. I was still Liz Parker: good daughter, good student, and good girl.

I was going to do well in high school, win a science fair or two, and go to a good college: Northwestern. Then on to a good career. Now, on the night of my high school graduation, I am in a van… just going. Not even Max has a plan or a destination this time. Everything I thought might happen to me and every plan I ever made just disappeared.

Yes, this is the biggest change of our lives. This time, not only our perceptions will be different, but our whole world.

Liz. put down the pen. She took another glance at Max. He was alert. Liz herself, however, felt her eyes growing heavy. All the excitement she had felt earlier in the day had washed out of her.

As her eyes closed, she felt Max's eyes on her. No, everything hadn't changed. There is one thing I am still sure of, Liz thought as she fell asleep.

Max heard the change in Liz's breathing and knew she was asleep. The others were silent. He didn't have to turn around to see that his friends and sister were deep inside themselves.

He was particularly worried about Liz and Isabel. Of all of them, they had given up the most to follow him… No, Max stopped himself. To come with him on this… what was it? A road trip? An adventure? An escape? Maybe it was all of those. Maybe they wouldn't find out for a while yet. Max only hoped it lasted long enough for them to find out. He was still concerned that someone from the remains of the FBI's Special Unit was tracking them. It was unlikely, but unlikely was the story of their lives lately.

Or perhaps the Skins were onto them.

Again unlikely, but…

Max decided he would have to be content with the nearly empty road for now.

The only thing he was sure of was that he was not the leader of this expedition. He was not the King here.

Max had given up that role when he'd told the others what he was doing. He would not make the decision for the group, only for himself.

The others had all come on their own. Max was not leading them.

Yet, he knew that he was ultimately responsible for them. That he could not shake. He had sealed everyone's fate three years ago in the Crashdown Cafe when he had healed Liz. And again later that day when he'd refused to run, though Michael had insisted they do just that.

He had sensed that Liz could help them, and she did. So had Alex and he died for it. After that, Agent Pierce of the Special Unit had found them. Agent Pierce who had put Max into the White Room.

Agent Pierce, whom Michael had to kill in self-defense. Michael paid a high price for it. Though his friend refused to talk about it, Max knew that Michael was still paying that price.

Then there was Tess, her betrayal, and Max's own son whom Max had lost, then found again. Max had given him up finally, but at least now the boy had a chance at a nor- mal life.

All of that had happened because of Max's decision three years ago. Yet, even now he knew that not healing Liz had not been an option. Even then, even before they had become… close. Before they were together.

He could not have let her die. So he saved her and the whole group of them paid for his single act. Alex paid with his life.