Room 406, evening

[izzyalienqueen]

Isabel sat on her bed typing away on her laptop, trying to finish up her bill for US Government. She was not humming I'm just a bill, yeah I'm only a bill under her breath.

The door's open.

Comments

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin looked at Isabel for a long time before saying,"There are techniques I've learned for memory retrieval if you really want to know. But sometimes there's a reason things like this have been blocked. Or maybe the survivor you're talking about has a plan for when they want you to know things."

He glanced at her. "Is the survivor a good teacher? Giving you some answers? It must be so frustrating not to know."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I might have to take you up on them. Max and Michael have both gotten flashes of memories, usually when they're in a state of heightened emotion." She snickered, "Like when they're making out with their girlfriends. Since I've yet to meet anyone I feel that strongly about, I haven't had any flashes of my own. So another technique might be useful. I don't think that the memories were hidden on purpose, I just think we can't remember because we never had anyone to teach us."

"Nacedo, the survivor I spoke about? He left when we got Max back from the FBI. He was a shapeshifter and was able to impersonate the head of the unit that was hunting us. That's why we were finally safe, at least we thought we were. But he's dead now," she said flatly. "The enemies we had on our planet have apparently followed us here. Shortly after I came to Fandom, they came to Roswell. Nacedo was killed by them. So we really are on our own now."

She closed her eyes and pushed back her hair. "The whole situation is frustrating. One part of me wants to know everything, but the other part of me would like to forget it all and just pretend I'm this normal girl with a normal future ahead of me. I don't want a whole planet of people depending on me to save them."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin went red. "Yeah, that's not exactly our technique," he said.

He reached out a hand, not sure how Isabel would feel about being touched. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said quietly. "The first person who was going to train and protect me was killed, too. It's a hard thing to get over."

His mouth twisted. "And I've learned that it's pretty hard to run away from destiny. What we want from our lives and what we get turn out to be two vastly different things."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel laughed when Anakin blushed. "I can't imagine why not."

"It's okay. I'd only met him a handful of times. We weren't close at all. To be honest I didn't like him all that much. He was too alien. He couldn't understand why we had human friends, or why we cared about them. And ultimately, he betrayed us." Her face grew shadowed as she continued speaking quietly. "There was another pod in the cave. It contained my brother's wife, Tess. Nacedo came back in time to find her. He raised her, while he looked for us. She turned out more like him, with no regard for human life. She tricked Max into getting her pregnant. But the only way for the baby to survive was for us to return to Antar. Something we found out just in the knick of time." Isabel took a deep breath. "This time two weeks, I thought I was going to be leaving earth in less then 24 hours and going home to a planet I didn't even remember. But with just minutes to spare we found out the truth. Nacedo had sold us out years ago. Tess was to get pregnant with Max's heir and we would return to Antar. The baby would be nothing but a puppet, Tess would live in luxury and the rest of us would be executed. Our human friends found all this out and saved us. They also found out she'd killed our other friend in the course of her plotting. Just used him up and threw him away. His funeral was the reason I'd returned to Roswell in the first place."

Seh was quiet for a few minutes, trying to process the still raw grief telling the story had exposed. Finally she laughed bitterly. "Destiny sucks."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin scooted a little closer to Isabel as she was telling her story, his eyes full of sympathy. He knew exactly how hard this had been for her to tell him about.

"Wow," he said finally. "That's awful." He nudged his shoulder against hers. "Anything you need?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

She nudged back, grateful for the concern. "Tess's head on a platter would be nice. But since she's returned to the home planet, I'll settle for the public humiliation of Prof. Skeeter. Xander's found out some information about her from a friend that's in her world. The potential for payback is growing rapidly."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin gave her a sharp smile. "I'm always up for the humiliation of Skeeter," he said. "She thinks I'm gay." He paused. "Which I'm not."

He looked at the wall. "She has this nasty habit of hurting my friends. This sort of thing shouldn't be encouraged."

He glanced back at Isabel. "So count me in for whatever help you might need. I'm in her not-advanced journalism class."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel nodded, Anakin's personal relationships were his business and no one else's.

"I just don't get what hurting people or spreading rumors about them gains her. Unless she's really that mean and petty and gets some kind of sick enjoyment out it," she grumbled.

"I'll keep that in mind. I haven't thought of anything myself. Mostly because I just can't fathom coming up with something that would be a suitable revenge for all the pain and suffering she's caused around here." She grinned, "I'm better at small and sneaky."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin laughed. "My old teacher would say that anything that didn't involve me and a lightsaber was a more advanced plan than he'd expect from me." He raised an eyebrow. "I don't do subtle, but if I think of anything, I'll let you know."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"I don't know, there are times when the straight-forward kick ass approach works best. It's when you start to get fancy that things go wrong," Isabel said. "And any input would be greatly appreciated. This has got to be big. I suppose it's wrong to say how much I'd like her to be the one talked about for a change?"

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

"That's what I said," Anakin replied, grinning. "Complicated plans tend to go badly."

He tapped his lips with a finger, thinking. "The way rumors get started around here, there's got to be a way to humiliate her."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Well," Isabel said slowly, "Xander found out that's she been writing ad copy. For ads about making your monster grow. And yes," Isabel smiled wickedly. "That is totally a euphemism."

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin choked, then laughed until tears came.

"Perfect," he said, trying to catch his breath.