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Up To The Challenge, Chapter 4
Roswell/Higher Ground Crossover
By: rory (Jelena)
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"Daisy you said earlier you had something to talk to me about, something
having to do with Roswell. We're alone now, what was it?" Maria asks, as she
reenters the dorm after her conversation with Isabel.
"Maria, I'm adopted." Daisy answers.
"What does that have to do with Roswell?" Maria responds.
"My parents never told me this but somehow I always knew. I know they didn't
pick me, they found me by the side of the road. I was like six or so and
they thought that a kid would solve all their problems. So they picked me up
and took me home with them. They moved right after that so they didn't have
to explain things, of course they ended up moving alot after that. My pa
rents had a tendency to burn things down or run their cars through things.
It's no wonder I wound up here. Maria I didn't remember a single thing about
Roswell or that night I was found until you mentioned Roswell. That one word
sparked this whole repressed memory or something. Then I touched the picture
and I got a feeling or a flash you could call it. Maria I have to know is
your boyfriend an alien?" Daisy asks, as she hands Maria a piece of paper.
Maria, who had been standing in the same place, mouth open, and dumbfounded
is unable to speak. Maria unfolds it the paper and a gasp escapes her mouth,
its Michael, exactly as he looked in the book Tess had. "Daisy we have to
get back to Roswell, they are in trouble I can feel it in my bones, some
thing is going down." Maria says anxiously.
"How Maria? I have no idea how I can even get out of here let alone out of
the state." Daisy replies.
"This is gonna sound really strange, but do you have any powers? Like mind
control would be really good right about now." Maria asks.
"Mind control you gotta be kidding, can aliens do that?" Daisy asks incr
edulously.
"Well I know one who can, and I know one who can play around in peoples
heads in their dreams. Oh and we don't call the aliens aliens, we call them
Czechoslovakians, so as not to attract suspicion." Maria explains.
"Wait a minute, you said you know one who can do mind control and one who
plays around in dreams, does this mean that there are more then one other
alien and after all this time I am discovering I am not alone? And why did
you chose a code name having to do with a country that no longer exists?"
Daisy asks, suddenly overwhelmed.
"I know five aliens, six now. It all started last September. My best friend
and I were at work just doing our usual thing when all of the sudden these
two guys start fighting and next thing we know they have drawn a gun and the
gun goes off. My best friend was shot, her life was ebbing away as I went to
call the paramedics. Little did I know that while I was on the phone one of
the other customers was at her side saving her life. He placed his hand over
the bullet hole and almost instantaneously the wound was healed, even most
of the blood was gone.
The only blood that remain was the blood on her uniform. She tried to pass it off as some ketchup story that she heard the gun go off and she fell and a bottle of ketchup broke over her stomach,staining her uniform.
Most people believed her, but I didn't buy it one bit.
I made her tell me, or else I was going straight to the authorities to tell
them that she had been shot and I had the proof. She of course told me and I
flipped out, I think I ran screaming from her house actually.
Eventually I came around and adjusted to the situation, but I came close to telling the sheriff a few times, I don't know what stopped me, I guess I realized the aliens were as human as I was and that they had people who loved them and they loved.
I realized that I couldn't take that from them, or from their families.
Then life calmed down for awhile, but that part I said before
about being busy saving the world from FBI agents and aliens? That was true,
well the FBI part, we chased away not one but two FBI agents that were sent
to flush out the aliens in Roswell. As for the other aliens? I have a fe
eling that is yet to come. The aliens received a message from their moth
er/ruler of their home planet that had something to do about their enemies,
I wasn't invited to that screening, Michael had just told me he loved me and
walked out on me, I wasn't in the best frame of mind to hear the message, or
to be hearing that he belonged with the girl he considered his sister for
the last ten years.
That pretty much brings you up to date on what has happened in the last eight months or so, that and the fact that I know I am needed at home and I think you are too. As for the whole code name, that was
just a ruse, it never worked very well though, as you can imagine." Maria
finishes, very out of breath.
Now it was Daisy's turn to be in shock, in a matter of hours her life had
turned upside down and she was powerless to change anything. She always knew
she was different, but never had she thought that the key to her past was in
Roswell, New Mexico. "Well I guess we need to figure out a way to get out of
here, but we have to do it a legal way. If we don't, well if I don't, we
will be looking at police trailing us and even if they don't catch up with
us, they will have contacted the sheriff in Roswell to be on the lookout for
us I am sure." Daisy says, once she regains use of her voice.
"Actually the sheriff in Roswell could be the key, he isn't a threat any
more, he found out the whole story a few weeks ago. He's on our side now. He
helped us outsmart the second FBI agent. I wonder if there is anyway he can
help us, do you have a record if you don't mind my asking?" Maria asks,
speaking a mile a minute.
"No actually I am only here cause the parents such as they are put me here.
They seemed to think my whole 'goth thing' was detrimental to my mental
health and they put me here. I mean duh, if anything was a detriment it was
my parents keeping my past a secret from me that and the fact that they were
plastered most of the time. You know all the pieces are starting to fall
into place now I think the whole reason I acted out was because I couldn't
remember. That and on some level I think I always knew I was different. So
is it a good thing or a bad thing that I don't have a record?" Daisy rep
lies.
"I'm not sure yet, I was just curious. First things first though I need to
get in touch with Isabel and see if she can help, hopefully she will dre
amwalk tonight and let me know if she thought of anything, but I also need
to let her know that she needs to get you to Roswell as well, and I have a
feeling that is the tricky part." Maria answers.
"So they really have powers? Like what can they do?" Daisy asks, suddenly
very overwhelmed.
"Well aside from healing, Max can manipulate the molecular structure of
things. Isabel can too, she tends to use her powers for fun stuff like c
hanging her lipstick colors and warming food that has gotten cold. Isabel
can also dreamwalk. Tess is the most advanced, but she has been honing her
skills for ten years while under her protectors care. She can make people
see things that aren't there, I think all her powers are along the mind
control idea. Then there is my Michael, he is a loose cannon if I ever saw
one, he I think is the strongest of them all, or at least he has the pot
ential to be the strongest. I have seen him go from a guy who was always
blowing things up or breaking things when he even attempted to use his power
for anything and I do mean anything because he was so out of control. To,
well a guy who could stop time and space practically.
He has the power to create a burst of power so strong it can stop a grown man in his tracks.
He is also very volatile, and he can explode without a moments notice, that's
why he left me. He was afraid he was going to hurt me physically. I thought
he had no clue as to how badly he hurt me emotionally, until I saw the d
rawing." Maria replies, suddenly very sad.
"You said before that you knew five aliens, but you just told me about four,
who is the fifth?" Daisy asks after a few minutes has passed and she is able
to digest more of what Maria has said.
"The fifth is Nasedo, he is supposedly the protector that was sent along to
take care of the aliens, he took care of Tess ever since he found her, but
by the time he got there the others were gone. He scares me, he can shap
e-shift and practically become anyone who he wants to be, I don't trust him
to be honest. There are too many inconsistencies to what he has said and
done for me to believe him. Like I said he scares me big time." Maria says,
some fear evident in her voice.
"You know I think part of my problem has always been that in my heart I knew
I was different. It's like everything makes so much more sense now." Daisy
replies very introspectively.
Meanwhile somewhere on the east coast...
"Mom I still don't see why we have to move to some dinky place like Roswell.
Why couldn't we move some place exciting like Los Angeles." Ryan James asks
as he packs the last of his bedroom things.
"Ryan we have been over this many times, I need a fresh start so do you. The
fact that I have a good job waiting for me only sweetens the deal. Besides,
Roswell may surprise you and you may just like it more then you think." Sara
James yells to her son from another room.
"If Roswell is so great why'd you leave?" Ryan yells back.
"Honey we have been over this too, remember? I needed out, I felt smothered.
That and your father and I wanted to raise you someplace different. That
night we adopted you we knew we needed to move on, but something is drawing
us back. Its almost magnetic, and since I have a job, and there is nothing
keeping us here why not right? Besides once school starts I am sure you will
make friends in no time." Sara answers her son back.
"Mother I don't want to make new friends I want to stay here." Ryan replies.
"I know you do, you have made your feelings very clear, but the memories of
your dad are just too much here, everywhere I turn I see traces of him and I
know I need to move on, its been almost a year of us wallowing. Sometimes to
move of you have to go back where you started from and that's Roswell. So
are you all packed?" Sara says as she enters Ryan's room.
"Almost, I have a few more boxes to pack and I will be done. It seems so
strange to be moving, this house has been my home for almost as long as I
can remember. Leaving here makes me feel like I am losing a part of myself."
Ryan answers.
"Well I'm headed to bed, the moving truck will be here about eight, I'll be
up about five to finish up last minute things. You can finish up tonight or
get up at five with me." Sara tells her son.
"I am going to finish up tonight, wake me when the movers arrive." Ryan
answers.
"Good night sweetie, I'll see you in the morning." Sara says as she kisses
her son on the forehead. "I know this is hard, but we will get through it
together. That I will promise you." Sara leaves the room, leaving Ryan to
survey the now almost bedroom that had been his for close to ten years. As
soon as he is sure she is asleep, he closes his eyes and concentrates, as
the sweat begins to form on his forehead the remaining items in the room
begin to move themselves into the appropriate boxes, after the boxes are
packed, he lifts a black magic marker into the air and he labels the boxes
correctly.
He repeats the process with the rolls of clear strapping tape.
Soon the job is done and he quietly slips out of the house and heads down
the street. He is soon at a cemetery and he doesn't stop walking until he
reaches a headstone that reads, Ryan Evan James Sr., Beloved husband and
father. "Hey dad, it's me. I promised I'd be back before the big move. I've
tried to talk her out of it, but she has remained totally rigid I can't talk
her out of it. Tomorrow the moving truck comes and we will leave here fo
rever. Mom thinks its a good thing, she thinks that it's healthy to move on,
but what she doesn't understand is I don't want to move on, I want to stay
right here. Where everything is familiar, and comfortable, but there is no
use fighting it I can't change it. I guess I'll have to make the best of it,
and if things don't work out in Roswell, well I guess we'll just have to
come back here. I love you dad, I had better go in case mom goes looking for
me and discovers I sneaked out. I know no more sneaking out I promise, I
won't do it anymore. Good-bye." Ryan says as the unshed tears begin to fall
down his cheeks. He runs all the way home, and only because of sheer exh
austion does he sleep.
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