Her head shot up as she heard the metallic thump of footsteps on the balcony ladder. She glanced at the clock inside her room, it was just past two in the morning. Who would visit her this late? Her question was quickly answered as she saw Tristan’s blond head appear. He looked almost as shocked to see her sitting there as she did to see him climbing onto the balcony.

“Tristan,” she whispered, trying not to wake her parents, “what are you doing here?” His hair was matted down, and his eyes had the look of a trapped animal. “I shouldn’t have come here. I shouldn’t have come back.” Liz wasn’t sure whether he meant to her house or Roswell.

“Come on, talk to me. What’s going on? Why aren’t you at Max’s?”

“This is wrong.” he said, again turning to go.

“No it’s not. Come here.” she said, as she sat down on one of the lawn chairs. She patted the chair beside her and motioned for him to come over. He hesitated for a moment, then slowly walked over and gently sat down. She waited as he stared at the sky for a few minutes. When he finally turned to look at her, she was shocked again by his eyes. In the dark they seemed to glow, like a cat’s eyes. For a moment they both soaked up the sight of each other. Each seemed lost in their own worlds, one of questions, and one of answers too painful to be revealed.

There was so much to ask. Although she didn’t want to push him, she vaguely wondered if someone could die from curiosity. Beyond that was an undercurrent of emotion and a feeling that she was betraying Max somehow by not telling him what had happened the night before.

“What do you think of Michael and Maria?” she asked, searching for a safe subject.

“They seem good together. That whole two sparks makes a fire principle.”

“Yeah.” she nodded, “they definitely have fire.” She was happy to see him smile. “Anyone who you have your eye on?” she asked, stifling a giggle.

“Yeah, but she’s taken.” he smiled shyly.

Liz could feel the blush creep up her neck and over her cheeks. But she quickly admonished herself, he’s probably talking about Isabel. She tried to change the subject a little.

“So, did you meet any hot chicks on the road, Mr. Tristan Kingsley?” Liz asked, raising her eyebrows playfully.

“What’s it to you, Miss Liz Parker?” he shot back, matching her own playful tone.

“Just curious.”

“Maybe.” Liz wondered if there wasn’t anything he didn’t have an evasive answer for.

“Ok, how many?”

He pretended to think hard for a moment, “Hmm, no, I don’t think so.” he said finally.

“Aww, come on. I bet you are a lady killer.”

“You wanna know what’s ironic?” his sudden subject change didn’t go unnoticed by Liz, but she let it pass, “When I was young, I used to stare up at this same sky and make about a million wishes on about a million stars, wishing that I could be an alien.”

She laughed, she couldn’t help it. He was right, it was so ironic Alanis Morriset would be jealous.

“Asking me something.”

She gave him a sideways, skeptical, look.

“Come on, anything. Don’t be shy.” he urged.

“I don’t know...”

“Come on. I am an open book.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him, as if to say, ‘yeah, right.’

“Okay, well maybe more like a book on tape. You just need to pop me into a cassette player, and press play.”

“Really?” she asked cautiously, “Anything?”

“Anything.” he said confidently.

Her mind filled with questions. How had he been able to connect with her without touch? Had he come out of a pod as well? Was he related to Max, Michael, Isabel and Tess? Did he have his own destiny to follow as they had? But instead, she picked another one that had been gnawing at her brain. “Tell me about you and Isabel.”

“What?” he was obviously caught off guard by the question.

“Tell me about you two. Were you involved?”

He laughed slightly, “We were too young to be involved.” he drew the last word out as she had.

“Hmmm, too young.” Too young. She still couldn’t completely wrap her mind around the fact that Tristan had left Roswell when he was only fourteen. She tried to think back to her fourteenth year. She was a freshman in high school. It seemed like an infinitely long time ago. Before Max, before aliens in general. She had been so innocent back then. She wondered if Tristan had been an innocent fourteen year old. Some how she doubted it. “What were you like as a kid?” she asked.

“How do you mean?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Were you shy, or mischievous, or quiet, what?”

“Well,” he said, biting his lip slightly in an unbearably cute way, “I guess I was sort of mischievous. I was pretty outgoing, and wasn’t really a bad kid. Although I think everyone doubted that.” he laughed at what seemed like a private joke.

“Why would they doubt that?” she asked, fascinated with his answer so far.

“Because I was practically never around. I was always off with Michael. And when I was there, I spent more time in my room being punished than anything else.” “Ah, so you were a troublemaker.”

“No,” he protested with a laugh, “Michael was a troublemaker, I was just along for the ride.”

“Sure.” she teased, “Then how is it that Max escaped those long days being punished?”

Both went silent at the mention of Max’s name. The smile fell from Tristan’s face, and Liz turned away, trying to look at anything but him.

“Why did you come here tonight?” this time her tone was serious.

“I needed to talk to a friend.”

“Max and Isabel are your friends. Michael is your friend. Why didn’t you go to any of them?” she asked. She knew it was an unfair question, but she didn’t care. Tristan didn’t say anything. His jaw was set, and his blond hair fell lightly in his eyes.

“It’s different with them.”

“Because they don’t know about you being an alien?” she asked, staring softly at him.

“Yeah, I guess.” he said. His voice was quiet, and he didn’t look at her.

“I think they would understand. I mean, come on, they are too. They could be your family.” He didn’t respond, so she went on. “They could tell you about your past, and maybe answer some of your questions. Don’t you want to know about your past? Don’t you want to know the truth, about where you came from, your family?”

“No!” he practically shouted at her, “maybe I don’t want to know any of it. I’m not some sort of X-files, alien freak.” The look of hurt on her face was evident, and he continued this time more gently, “I’m sorry. I know you and Max and the rest are really into that whole self-discovery thing, but I’m not. I don’t need to be.”

“What does that mean?”

“What?”

“You don’t need to be. What, you already know it all?” she said jokingly as she poked him gently in the side. He didn’t say anything. Liz, now trying to push away the worrying thoughts that had began to fill her mind asked, “Tristan, what aren’t you telling me here?”

“Nothing.”

“No, you aren’t telling me something. Like why last night you could connect with me without even touching me. Not even Max can do that. Or why you didn’t know about your powers. How could you have not known? Or why-”

He cut her off, “Are you my friend Liz?”

She was shocked by the question. After all that had happened did he really need to ask? “Of course.”

“No, are you really my friend?”

“Yes. I am really your friend.”

He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “You are right, I’m not telling you the whole story.” He paused, obviously having an inner struggle whether to tell her this or not.

“Go on.” she prompted. She was on the edge of her seat, metaphorically and physically.

“I’m not from this planet, you know that, but I’m not from their planet either.”

“What? How do you know?”

“Because I’ve been told so.”

“By who?” she wasn’t going to believe that he was just willing to take the word of some guy off the street.

“Javid. He's my guardian, my watcher. He’s the guy I went to see today.”

“Your guardian? Like Nasedo is for the others?”

“Sort of.” he said, grasping for the words that could explain it. “When I was fourteen, Javid came to me and told me of my past and my future. He told me what I was, where I was from, and why I was here.” He paused, waiting for Liz’s reaction.

“Why you’re here? What do you mean?”

“Just as Max, Michael and Isabel have a destiny, I have my own.”

“Theirs was to stop the evil aliens, the ones they would only know by the evilness in their heart, on Earth, and then go back and free their ‘home’ planet.” she said rolling her eyes slightly. They had tried to follow their destines, some harder than others. But as the saying goes, nothing works out as planned. One by one, the eventually gave up the search. Tess left a few weeks later, and since then, aside from the few normal mishaps they had come to almost expect, things had been quiet. Until now. “What are you here to do, stop them?” she laughed nervously. When he didn’t answer she asked again, “Tristan, what are you here to do?” She could hear the fear in her own voice, and tried to will away the bad thoughts that had popped into her mind.

“I was put on the Earth for the sole purpose of killing Max, Michael, Isabel and Tess.”

She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out. Shock, horror, anger, astonishment, fear, repulsion, and hatred all raced through her mind and body. The force of her emotions was almost overwhelming. How could this beautiful, charming, sensitive, funny, man have been put on this Earth to kill? And furthermore, to kill the people closest to her, and at one time closest to him. “No, no, you’re lying.” she said backing away from him.

“I wish I was.” he sounded so sad, so alone her heart almost fell.

“If that is why you are here, then why haven’t you done it? Why haven’t you,” she paused, almost unable to say it, “killed them?”

He looked as if she had slapped him. “Because they’re my friends, Liz. They’re the closest thing I’ve ever had to family.”

“What about your adoptive parents.”

He looked away from her, “They weren’t my family, they were just a ploy.”

“I thought you loved them.”

“I did, I do. But they weren’t real. It wasn’t something that was supposed to be.”

“What?”

“Javid set up the adoption so that he could kill them. He said I had to know that I was always alone on this planet, that I wasn’t supposed to be happy. I was just here to do my duty.”

“To kill Max, Michael, Isabel and Tess.” Her mind just couldn’t wrap around the fact that he was destined to be a killer. As her mind raced, it fell on one thought. He was here to kill Max. Max, the name echoed in her head. He would know what to do. “I think you should tell Max.”

“What?!” he exclaimed, bowled over by her suggestion.

“I think you should tell him. He deserves to know, they all do.”

“Are you out of your ever lovin mind? What do you think would happen if I told them? Do you think Max would just turn around and say, ‘hey, it’s alright that you’re here to kill us, we can still be friends.’?”

“But you aren’t.”

“Aren’t what?”

“Here to kill them.” He didn’t say anything. “Are you?” she asked, her voice just barely above a whisper. Her heart was beating like a jackhammer and her mouth felt suddenly dry.

He still said nothing. His normally crystal blue eyes were now a shade darker. They seemed unfeeling and angry.

“I think you should go. Now.” He didn’t say anything. His face showed no emotion. She wondered if he even felt any. He was no longer the young man carrying painful physical and emotional scars from a terrible car accident, nor was he even the alien who’s hand she had taken on the stairs. He was now the enemy. A man with the destiny to kill others, to kill Max.

He walked to the edge of the balcony. For a moment she wondered if he would just jump off and land like something out of a comic book or sci-fi movie. But he didn’t. He began to climb down the ladder. His head was almost out of view before he stopped. He stared at her for a moment, she could literally feel his eyes on her body. Then he said, “Don’t tell him. You promised.” and continued down the ladder. She felt the breath that she had been holding go out of her, and grabbed onto the lawn chair for support.

************************************************** Liz’s whole body tensed when she saw Tristan, Max and Isabel enter the Crashdown the next morning. Both Max and Isabel gave her a smile, but, to her relief, Tristan ignored her. She couldn’t shake the memory of Tristan’s face as he left the night before. It held pure, unadulterated hatred. She slowly approached their table, suddenly unsure of what to say, or how to act around any of them.

“Hi.” she said, trying not to look at Tristan.

“Hey.” Max said, giving her a smile that he reserved for her and her only.

“What will you guys have?” she asked, trying to busy herself by taking their orders. She didn’t even want to think about the fact that the man sent to kill Max was in fact sitting less than 2 feet away from him, or that she was about to serve both of them breakfast as if nothing had happened.

“Umm,” Max stopped staring at her for a moment to look over the menu, “a Spaceman Spiff and an OJ.”

“Make that two.” Isabel said, handing over her menu.

They all looked to Tristan, waiting for his order. He looked up, realizing that they were waiting for him. “Just some coffee.” he said finally, trying not to look at Liz.

“Tristan,” Isabel chided, “breakfast is the most important-” she stopped when he turned his eyes on her. Normally sparkling blue, they were hard and cold. For the first time in her life, she was actually scared of him. A shiver slowly ran down her spine.

When their meals arrived they ate in relative silence. A tension they had never felt before descended over the table, causing both Max and Isabel to wonder just what had happened in the past twenty-four hours. After their check was delieverd by Agnes, instead of Liz Max noted, Tristan suddenly spoke for the first time since ordering. “I have to use the bathroom.” he said gruffly. Without another word, he walked away from the table towards the back.

“What is going on with him?” Isabel asked her brother.

“I don’t know.” he said, shaking his head, giving her a worried look.

“Did he say anything last night?”

“No, everything was normal. He was kind of quiet, but then again he had been all day.”

“Do you know what he and Michael talked about?”

“No, he didn’t tell me. And I haven’t seen Michael.”

“Well something is obviously going on, and I think Michael knows about it.”

Tristan turned to see if either Max or Isabel had watched leave the table. When he saw that they were deep in conversation, he quickly stepped into the back room. He glanced around, and finally saw the open door to the cellar. He quietly followed the stairs down.

**************************************************** “Hello.” Startled, Liz jumped about a foot in the air. She turned around to see Tristan standing in the doorway. He was casually leaning on the doorframe. She saw look slowly down her body, then back up, where his eyes finally met hers.

“Are you afraid of me?” he asked.

“What?” Liz hadn’t expected the question, yet she had been thinking about it. Could the man that stood before her be dangerous? Would he actually hurt her or someone she loved?

“Are you afraid of me?” he repeated.

“Should I be?” she asked, inadvertently stepping closer to him.

They started into each others eyes for a long moment before he answered, “Yes.”

“Well I’m not.”

He didn’t seem shocked by her answer.

“Tristan,” Liz said slowly, not exactly knowing where to start, “why did you leave? I mean, I know why, but why then? Why not before?”

He turned away from her, “I didn’t know before.”

“What do you mean you didn’t know? How could you not have? Especially being around the other three, and knowing about their..history.”

“I didn’t get any powers until I was told about what I am. So, I had no reason to think I was any different than anyone else. Or should I say, any different than anyone else born on Earth.”

She let this sink in for a minute. “Was it Javid? Did he tell you?”

Tristan turned to face her again. “Yeah. He came to me and told me all about where I was from, why I was here, who I was supposed to kill.” his voice trailed off.

“So you’ve known about this since you were fourteen.” it was a statement more than a question.

“Yes.”

“And that’s why you left?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ve had your.. powers since then as well?”

“Uh-huh.”

Liz could tell that she had lost him to his own thoughts. “Tristan,” she said, gently touching his arm, “why did you come back?”

He ignored her question, and replied with one of his own, “Why do you stay with Max?”

“What?” she was thrown off balance by his question. She didn’t want to talk about her and Max, she wanted to know more about him. She wanted him to give her a reason not to immediately run to Max and tell him what she knew.

He turned to face her again, “After all that has happened, all of the times you have been put in danger by him, all of the times he has broken your heart, why do you stay with him?”

“Be, because I love him.” she stammered.

Liz swallowed a shallow breath as Tristan inched even closer to her. Her body was acutely aware of his and when he spoke, his voice made her entire body tingle, whether with fear or pleasure she wasn't honestly quite sure. "If you love him so much, then why did you spend most of last night, and all of the night before, with me?" his eyes slowly traveled up and down her body, letting her make no mistake of his meaning. His voice grew deeper, darker, as he asked, "If you love him so much, why haven't you told him I'm here to kill him?"

She began to back away. It was as if he were turning into someone else before her very eyes.

He continued, his voice growing colder, and more metallic with every word. “Why didn’t you leave him after what happened with Tess? After he kissed her, and fantasized about having sex with her?”

She continued to back away, her breath becoming faster as the fear over took her body. He slowly came after her, taking one step for everyone of her two.

“What did you really think of Tess? Come on, you must have hated her. You must have wanted her dead.”

“She,” Liz tried to chose her words carefully, “I, I didn’t like her, you’re right.”

“Liz, has anyone ever told you that you are too nice for your own good?” He was less than a foot away from her now. She could feel his warm breath on her face. “Didn’t Tess leave, leaving Max to chose you without any competition?”

A sudden touch of boldness hit Liz, “Tess was a bitch who nearly ruined my life by trying to take Max from me. She left because Max knew he belonged with me, I can’t exactly say I’m sad she is gone.”

“I know.”

“You know what?”

“What she did to you and Max. The whole destiny thing between them.”

“How do you know that?”

“She confessed it all to me in a sleazy hotel room. After I fucked her and before I killed her.” his voice was cold and hard, it had a frightening edge of pleasure to it. Like he’d enjoyed both the fucking, and the killing.