REVERSAL OF FORTUNE
Ok, this one is even more implausible than usual. But, repeat after me, "Suspension of Disbelief". Also, don't own them, don't sue me. Again, this is my own Roswell universe that doesn't follow along with the WB version. But, if it did, this would be a pre-"Sweden" DOT.
Tess quietly slipped out of the Valenti household. She had an appointment to keep. Her plan at getting home was going well, thus far. She was beginning to see the strain between the humans and the aliens. The only thing that she needed now was the map home. She had always known that Al would come in handy some day. Alex gingerly closed his window after climbing out of it. His parents had been cracking down on him recently. They had gone ballistic when he had been gone overnight and he had to come up with some story that did not involve helping aliens. He didn't think that they would approve of him sneaking off into the night to meet with a beautiful blonde either. He smiled to himself, while looking over his shoulder just to make sure that the lights in his parents' bedroom remained off, as he remembered his conversation with Isabel earlier in the day. She had told him that she had wanted to meet him at midnight at the West Roswell football field. He had been a little leery at first, but then he had felt his resolve crumble. He had been puzzled by her one request, that, if he saw her later that day, not to mention their late night rendezvous to her. Just as Tess stepped onto the football field, the sky opened up. The massive thunderstorm made it difficult to see the other side of the field. However, the random lightening bolts helped to illuminate the otherwise dark night. With their help, she was able to see the tall, gangly figure on the other side of the field, waiting patiently in the end zone for her. As she approached him, she sent out her mindwarp. "Isabel," Alex yelled over the thunder, "we should really move this conversation to a dryer venue." "Alex," Tess purred, trying to imitate Isabel's flirty manner, "aren't I worth getting wet for?" She hugged the iron goalpost and batted her eyes at him while thrusting out her chest. Alex was a bit confused, Isabel was acting a bit odd, and that outfit, well, he thought it was better to Tess's taste, if it could be called that, in clothing. "Uh, sure," he said, blinking against the afterimage that was left in his eyes from another bolt of lightening flashed in the sky. He put his hand on the goalpost. Now, he and Isabel were on opposite sides of the bar that held it into the end zone. "But, I don't know what so important that you couldn't talk to me about it in the light of day." "Well, Al..lex, I had a favor to ask of you," Isabel/Tess said while flipping her long, blonde hair over her shoulder. "I had a dream the other night, I can't get into the details, but I feel that it's VERY important that we find our way home." She opened her eyes widely, "I think that the fate of our planet depends on it." "OK, but I don't understand where I fit in in all of this," he said. "I know how good you are at computers, and I thought that you could translate the book for us. You know, help me to find our way home. I would be VERY grateful." "Well, I suppose it's possible that I could try to extrapolate your alphabet from the book if, using the binary system it seems to be written in, I could crack one of the letters." Isabel/Tess looked at him blankly. "Extrapowaht?" Alex looked at her curiously. "Isabel, are you feeling ok?" Isabel/Tess opened her mouth to speak. There was a huge crack of thunder followed by lightening. Now, if a semi-intelligent creature had planned this covert meeting, they may not have picked a wide open space with what was basically a lightening rod right in the middle of it during a time in which lightening was supposed to be abundant. But Tess was no such creature. The lightening struck the pole that Tess and Alex were touching. At the instant of the strike, Alex saw what appeared to be Isabel turning into Tess and then his body went flying through the air. Tess felt her power weaken and was hurled unceremoniously to the ground as well. Tess picked herself up first. She peered down at Al. He appeared to be dead. "Oh my god," she said, without much feeling. She looked around to see if there were any witnesses and was about to run off into the night, when she heard Al groan at her feet. She sent out the mindwarp, but something felt a bit wrong. 'The lightening must have temporarily messed up my powers', she thought. 'Well, it won't do at all for Al to see me and not Isabel, I'll just have to get him to help me later,' and with that she went running back in the direction of the Valenti house. She wasn't quite quick enough. As Alex shakily got to his feet, looking about for Isabel, there was another burst of lightening and he saw a short, blonde figure running away into the night. He thought that he must be seeing things because Isabel was much taller than the figure that was slowly getting harder for him to make out. Why would Isabel run away? Maybe she realized that asking for help was a mistake, maybe she realized that they could both get hurt out here, maybe she realized her parents.....oh crap parents. Alex suddenly remembered that his mother would always awaken during thunderstorms. She was still, as an adult, scared of them. And it was her custom to wander around the house and make sure that everything was as it should be. This included checking up on him in his room. All thoughts of Isabel left his mind as he ran, full speed, back to his house. Mrs. Whitman was awoken by a loud crack of thunder followed by lightening. She looked over at her slumbering husband and was jealous that he could sleep this soundly through such a bad storm. She got up out of bed to go and check on Alex. Alex, after what seemed to be miles and miles of running, reached his street, he swiftly looked at his parents window and realized, with horror, that his mother's nightstand light was on. He booked towards his window. As he approached it, at full speed, he was just in time to see his mother open his door and peer at his empty bed. 'God, I wish that she would just see me sleeping peacefully,' he thought. Immediately after that, he felt something. Something that he could not really describe. It was kind of like that light and tingly feeling you get when your foot has fallen asleep and you are trying to wake it up. However, this feeling was in his head. He waited for his mother to scream and was racking his brain for a way to explain to his mother why he was outside his window in the middle of the storm. He peeked at her again and was surprised to see that she was smiling. She approached the empty bed and whispered, "Sleep well, Alex." She then turned and left the room. 'What the hell just happened?' Alex thought as he climbed back into his room. He sat on his bed, thinking. The answer to his question was right on the edge of his brain. He could feel it. He then had another feeling. But, one more familiar to him. It was the almost audible *click* he would feel/hear when he finally understood a difficult Calc concept. It was a conversation that he had had with Liz. She was telling him that she just didn't trust Tess. "I mean," Liz's voice replayed in his mind, "how can you trust someone who can make you see something that really isn't there." Another bolt of lightning danced across the sky. "Oh my god," he said, with much more feeling than Tess. Alex was late. He hadn't slept well. He had tossed and turned all night figuring out what was going on with him. He had a theory, a crazy one, but he was used to that after the past year or so. He had come to the conclusion that it hadn't been Isabel that he had met with the night before, it had been Tess. She was the one who wanted him to translate the book. She was just trying to use him. She had planned it well. But not perfectly. He was sure that she hadn't counted on getting hit by lightning and having her little plan interrupted. But, he had a way to strike back now. The first bell rang just as Alex closed his locker. Usually, he would have been sprinting to the door of his first class. Mr. Luisi was a stickler for punctuality and came down hard on anyone who dared enter his room after his class had begun. He grasped the doorknob and thought, 'I had better be right about this,' then threw out the mojo vibe from his head. He entered the class room. Only one pair of eyes followed him from the door as he entered the classroom, just had he had planned. Kyle Valenti watched in amazement as Alex practically strutted to the front of the classroom. He walked right in front of Mr. Luisi! His jaw dropped open as Alex actually stuck his tongue out at their French teacher. He began to laugh. "Mr. Valenti, would you care to share with the class what is so amusing?" Mr. Luisi questioned. The class turned to look at him. "Uh, it's just that Whitman is, um...," Kyle began, gesturing to where Alex was leaning against the teachers desk and going through his grade book. Mr. Luisi looked to where Kyle was pointing and looked at Kyle strangely. "Mr. Valenti, could you please point to where you see Mr. Whitman?" The class snickered. Kyle dutifully pointed to where Alex was now doing the cabbage patch in front of the blackboard. The class started laughing in earnest. The teacher turned towards Alex's empty desk and said, "Mr. Whitman, do you know what has gotten into Mr. Valenti?" With this, Alex slipped into his desk. "No, sir," he said with a trace of a smile on his face. Kyle looked around the classroom for conformation that he was not the only one who saw Alex's little show. His classmates were looking at him as if he had lost his mind. Mr. Luisi began the class. Kyle was totally confused. About ten minutes before the bell rang, a paper airplane landed on his desk. He opened it, it read: Have I got a story for you! Maria was fighting with the long, funky skirt that she was wearing. It was terribly fashionable but very difficult to walk in. It also didn't help that she was often distracted by the conversations she heard while passing by. She couldn't help but laugh when she heard one girl telling her friend that she just couldn't believe that George Lucas had made Darth Vader evil. She hadn't seen it coming and had, in fact, written a letter to him telling him that she would no longer watch the Star Wars movies. 'Some people are just SO stupid,' Maria thought while focusing all of her attention on not tripping. She was snapped out of her reverie once again when she saw Tess hitting on two, poor boys. She had finally caught them alone, they were usually surrounded by their gaggle of female friends. "Wouldn't one of you big, strong men please do my math homework for me," Tess asked in a baby voice. "I'd repay you handsomely." "Tess," Scott said, patiently, "I told you. I won't do your homework for you and I'm taken. Do you not speak English?" She quickly turned to his companion. Before she could open her mouth Rick said, "Even I will never be THAT drunk." Again, Maria laughed, taking her attention off of her skirt and promptly tripped. Right into Kyle. "DeLuca, really, you don't have to actually throw yourself at me. Just ask me nicely and I'll take you out someplace classy," he said as he steadied her. "Where? The monster truck rally," she came back at him quickly. "Ok, usually I enjoy our pare and thrusting, but I was actually looking for you. I have a little experiment for you." With that, he quickly changed direction and Maria found herself in the Eraser Room. Alex was standing there. She looked from Kyle to Alex and back again. Kyle quickly saw what she was thinking and before he could clarify the situation or defend himself, she was hitting his upper body with her arms. "Maria, Maria," Alex said, while avoiding her arms and pulling her away from Kyle. "It's not what you think," he said. "Then somebody better start talking quickly before I find a weapon," she replied tersely. "Ok, ok," Alex said as he stood next to Kyle. "Any ideas," he asked the junior Valenti. Kyle whispered something to Alex and then Alex actually giggled. Maria did not like this one bit. "Maria," she heard from the opposite side of the Eraser Room. It was Max's voice. She turned towards him. "I have something important to tell you." He had a dozen roses in each hand. "It's you, it's always been you." He got down on one knee, throwing the roses behind him, he took her hand, "Marry me." Then, Maria blinked, and he was gone. She whirled around to face the two idiots behind her. "Somebody better tell me what the hell is going on, and fast." "Well," Alex said, "as much as I can figure, Tess's mindwarping power has been transferred to me. I met with her last night, thinking it was Isabel and we were both struck by lightening..." Maria gave him a look. "Crazy, but true," he said. "She ran off, but when I got home, well, I made my mother see that I was safe in my bed when I wasn't, and this morning, I made our whole French class see me in my seat while I was leafing through Luisi's grade book and finding out that this one here," he said while gesturing to Kyle, "is not the waste of gray matter that we originally thought." "Thanks buddy," Kyle said. "Any time," Alex said. "Wait a minute, didn't Tess once say she couldn't do the mindwarp for too long on lots of people, and doesn't it take a lot out of her?" Maria questioned. The two young men exchanged a look. "What? What are you two not telling me?" "Let's just say that Tess hasn't been very honest with us. Not only did I get this power, I also have these pictures in my head. Pictures that I can only assume came from her. And, well, I think I know what she was planning, and it's not very nice. I don't know how long I'll have her power and I think we need to act quickly." "I'm in, tell me what to do," Maria said. Tess sat in class, bored out of her tiny mind. She was mighty upset that things with Al had not gone well last night. He should have already started decoding the book, dammit! If only the weather had been better. She really wanted to leave this stupid classroom. She did that sometimes, mindwarped her teachers and classmates into thinking she was there and just left. 'Well, I don't need to learn any of this crap, I may as well leave'. She sent out the picture for them to see, nothing happened. She tried again, still nothing. Ms. Harrison, a kindly teacher from Texas said to her, "Tess, if you need to use the bathroom, just go," and then returned to teaching the rest of the students. She felt herself turn crimson. Somehow, she got through the rest of the class. As she walked past Maria, Alex and Kyle, ignoring them and muttering 'losers' under her breathe. She then saw Ms. Atler. She swiftly turned around and pretended that the locker she was standing near was hers. She was afraid of Ms. Atler. She seemed to be the only teacher that was immune to her mindwarping skills. She didn't know how and she didn't know why, but because of that, she always gave the teacher a wide berth. Across the hall, Alex focused on Tess as Maria and Kyle waited to see what would happen. Tess turned around and saw that Ms. Atler was on fire. She started screaming and pointing at her. "Oh god, somebody help, the bitch is on fire!" She then took the fire extinguisher off of the wall and sprayed the teacher with it. When she was through, she saw the woman looking at her, unburnt and very pissed off. "With me now, Ms. Harding," the teacher said as she yanked on Tess's arm and took her off the principal's office. "We know it works on her," Maria said, "now we just have to get her where we need her." "Shouldn't be too hard," Kyle said, "she usually walks past it every day?" "Really," Alex asked. "Yup, it's right near the streetcorner she works on," Maria said. "So, four o'clock, right? Alex nodded. "We'll be ready," Kyle said. Tess hurried to The Crashdown by her usual route. She was late, she had overheard Maria tell Alex that she was meeting Max there at four to do some homework. She moved her stubby legs quickly as she maneuvered her way through the alleyway. A figure came out of nowhere. It was Alex. And he was bleeding. "Tess," he said as he struggled with air. "Give this to Isabel, they got me, your enemies are closer now." He had the book in his hands. Her eyes widened. "I figured it out for her." He began coughing, and as his death spasm hit him, the book went flying into the dumpster. He fell against her and she quickly dropped him and climbed into the dumpster. She waded through all of the garbage and was so focused that she didn't hear the garbage truck coming. She felt the strange feeling that you get when an elevator starts up, but ignored it. Alex, Maria and Kyle watched from the back door of The Crashdown as the garbage was crushed in the truck. Maria, smiled and kissed Alex on the check. She regarded Kyle, shrugged, and did the same. They walked back into The Crashdown. They ran into Liz in the break room. "Where have you guys been," she asked. Alex smirked, "Taking out the trash". The End.