Title: Illusions 2/? Story 1 in the "Who I Am, What I'll Become" series
Author: X_tremeroswellian
Email: faithboscorelli1@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Not mine. Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, and any Scooby Gang cameos belong to Joss Whedon. Liz, Max, Michael, Maria, Alex, Isabel, Tess, Nasedo, and any other Roswellians belong to Melinda Metz and Jason Katims. Please don't sue.
Distribution: Just let me know the link.
Rating: PG-13 for now (for language, violence, adult content)
Author's Note: This is an Angel-Roswell crossover with possible cameos by the Scooby Gang from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Spoilers: For Angel, everything up through and including Shanshu in L.A. (1st season's finale), and for Roswell, everything up through and including Destiny (1st season's finale)...
Category: Story
Subcategory(ies): Action-Adventure, sci-fi-horror, angsty romance.
Keywords: Crossover/Series
Summary: Fleeing Roswell's painful memories, Liz takes off to L.A. and finds trouble, leaving Angel, Cordelia and Wesley to save her; little do they know they're in just as much trouble as she is.
Feedback: Would be appreciated. :)
Illusions (Part 2)
Maria DeLuca had just finished clearing off one of the tables at Liz's parents' restaraunt, The Crashdown Cafe, when she heard the bells jingle on the door. She looked up as Max Evans, his sister Isabel, and their friend, her ex-boyfriend, Michael Guerin walked in.
"Great," she muttered, looking away quickly. "Agnes!"
The older waitress gave her a withering glance. "What?"
"Would you mind getting their orders?" Maria asked sweetly. She didn't like the older woman. She was lazy, and sarcastic, and...well, bitchy. But right now she didn't care about any of those things. Agnes was the only other waitress working the Tuesday morning shift.
"I'm on break," Agnes told her flatly, taking a long drag off her cigarette and puffing it out in rings of smoke.
Maria made a face and turned away in disgust. Wonderful.
And to top it off, she couldn't even call Liz and compare stories on why men were jerks. Well, not all men. Alex Whitman was one of her best friends and he wasn't a jerk. He must have gotten a recessive jerk gene.
It was just all the other men on the planet, and on all planets if Michael was any indication.
"Suck it up, DeLuca," she muttered to herself. She took a deep breath, drew back her shoulders, stood up straight and marched over to the booth they were sitting at. "Hi, Isabel," she said, smiling at her and deliberately ignoring the two guys.
"Hey," Isabel said back, shifting uncomfortably.
"What can I get for you?"
"Just a cherry coke."
Maria wrote it down and waited, her eyes never leaving her order book.
"I'll have an alien omlet," Michael said quietly.
She wrote that down, too, but didn't look at him.
"I need to see Liz," Max blurted out.
"What do you want to eat?"
"Maria, it's important. I need to talk to her, to tell her--"
"She's not here. What do you want to eat?"
"Where is she? I really need to see her."
Maria lowered the tablet from her face, slamming it down on the table with a thud and causing all three aliens to jump. Her eyes narrowed as she glared coldly at Max. "She's not here. She's not in Roswell. And in fact, she's not even in the state of New Mexico. Do you want to know why, Max? Because of Tess, and you and your *destiny.* Liz needed to put some space between the two of you and her, and if I could have afforded it, I would have gone with her, because God knows this is the last place *I* want to be right now."
She took a deep breath and straightened up. "Now, if you're not here to eat, then you're wasting my time. I have work to do."
And without another word, she grabbed her order book and stormed away from the table.
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Max, Michael and Isabel stared after the retreating waitress for a stunned moment. "Well, that went well," Michael said sarcastically.
Isabel rolled her eyes. "What did you expect? That she'd be thrilled to see us?"
"She didn't seem to mind you," he grumbled.
"No, she didn't," Max agreed slowly.
"That's because Alex and I are still on speaking terms," she replied matter-of-factly. "And, Michael, need I remind you that *you* walked out on her?"
Before Michael had a chance to respond, Max cut in. "Talk to him for me," he said, focusing his eyes on his sister.
She frowned, then realized what he meant. "No way, Max." She shook her head vehemently.
Michael looked back and forth between them. "Hello? Am I the only one here who thinks we need to focus on saving our people?"
"Michael, what exactly are we supposed to do?" she demanded.
"Contact Nasedo, for starters. Try and find out more about who we are. Get Tess and him to teach us how to use our powers."
"Michael, I really think after everything's that happened, we need to lay low for awhile," Max said quietly.
"And you moping over Liz isn't the kind of laying low I want to do," he said harshly, glancing over to where Maria was standing. "It's been two weeks, Max. We need to take some action."
"Just because you walked out on Maria--"
"Hey, I did what was best for her. For both of us. At least now she's not in danger because of me!"
"No, she's just heartbroken," Max replied bitterly.
"Guys, knock it off! Both of you. This is not the time nor the place to be having this particular discussion," Isabel snapped, looking around the cafe nervously.
Michael stood up abruptly. "I'm going home." He left without another word.
For a long moment, Isabel and Max remained silent.
"I have to talk to Liz, Isabel," he finally said. "Please talk to Alex for me and try to find out where she is." Isabel started to protest until Max looked up and she saw the tears shining in his eyes. "Please Isabel."
She sighed. "Okay, I'll try. But Max..."
"Yeah?"
"Michael's right. We are eventually going to have to figure out what to do about who we are. We can't pretend forever."
"I know," he said quietly.
"Do you, Max? Because I don't think any of us are prepared to deal with what we're going to have to deal with. Not by a long shot."
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Angel leaned against the kitchen sink in Cordelia's apartment and stared out the window. It was 8:15 in the morning and had been pouring down rain since at least 6, and it still didn't show any signs of stopping.
He wonderd about the girl he'd rescued last night. He wasn't sure what it was about her exactly, but she was different somehow. She was undoubtedly human, but there was something about her he couldn't quite place...
And for the guy-or the thing-that had been chasing her...it just didn't make any sense to him.
Angel didn't get very far in his thoughts because he heard someone behind him. "Morning, Cordelia. Coffee?" he offered without turning around.
"Sounds good."
He poured her a cup and handed it to her. "Sleep well?"
"Yeah." She smiled. "Thanks."
Angel nodded, smiling back at her. He knew what she meant. They had stayed up researching until nearly 2 this morning, sprawled around her living room. Since they hadn't really had much to go on, they didn't really get very far with the research. Angel had glanced over at the couch where Cordelia had been sitting and realized she had fallen asleep. He'd put a finger to his lips to signal Wesley to be quiet, and had carried her to her bedroom and tucked her into her bed.
Wesley had retired to her guest room shortly after, leaving Angel with the couch. But since he hadn't been tired, he had watched some t.v. with Cordy's ghostly roomate Dennis.
"It's really coming down out there," Cordelia commented, moving to stand next to him at the sink and staring out at the rain.
"Yeah, since early."
She moved away and went to the door, where she retrieved the newspaper as Angel continued to look outside.
His thoughts wandered back to the girl. He wondered where she was from, why she had seemed so...wary. Why her eyes had reflected a wisdom and a sadness most didn't aquire until they were much older.
This time his thoughts were interuppted by the shattering of glass.
Angel whirled around to see Cordelia's knees buckle as she cried out and clutched her head in both hands. He was at her side before he realized he had moved, and he caught her before she hit the ground.
He picked her up effortlessly and put her down on the kitchen table, steadying her with hands on her shoulders. "Cordy?"
She was near tears when the vision ended. "Oh, my God, Angel."
The tone of her voice and the fear in her eyes sent a chill down his spine.
"There's a bomb."