MIRRORS

Written By: Kal-El and LeeryAndPotter

Disclaimer: Max, Liz, Michael, Maria, and Kyle belong to Jason Katmis and UPN. Dawson, Joey, Pacey, Jen, and Drue belong to Kevin Williamson and the WB. I don't own either of them, so don't sue me.

Classification: M/L and D/J.

Rating: PG-13, if you can watch the show(s), you can read this.

Capeside…summer time.

The sun blazing hot, the water cool…almost picture perfect.

At least to one person.

"YAHHHHOOOOOOOO!"

Max Evans yelled, as he leaped into the creek, splashing into the water cannon-ball style.

A moment later, he popped his head over the surface of the water, laughing, and gasping for breath.

"God," he exclaimed. "I love it here."

Suddenly, he heard clapping behind him.

"Nice one, Max"

Max turned around to see Michael Gurin watching him from the dock.

"Thanks" Max said with a smile.

"So, any progress?" Michael asked him.

Max looked at his arm.

"I'm getting a pretty decent tan," he remarked.

"I meant on reversing this," Michael informed him. "On getting us back to normal…and getting our powers back."

Max sighed.

"To tell you the truth, I'm not so sure I want to." Max responded.

"Why the hell not?" Michael asked. "This isn't how we're supposed to be."

"Michael…" Max began. "My entire life has been about hiding. Hiding who I am, what I can do. Hiding from the government and other aliens. I hate it. But now…now for the first time, I'm normal. I'm a normal person, in a normal town. I can BE in a normal relationship. It's like a dream come true."

"And in the process, you give all our old problems to those other people?" Michael asked him. "Do they deserve that?"

"They obviously know where to find us," he responded. "For all we know, they might actually like having our powers."

Suddenly, they turned around and see a familiar face walking towards them.

"Hey, Kyle!" Max hollered. "You made it."

Kyle Valenti walked up to the two of them.

"Ok, I've got two weeks leave…barely…" Kyle informed them. "Just what is going on?"

Max smiled.

"Michael, get him up to date on the situation," Max said. "I promised Liz that I'd meet her at the Rialto."

With that, Max walked away.

"What's a Rialto?" Kyle yelled after him.

Roswell, new Mexico. Dawson stood in the middle of the desert, with his eyes closed. Feeling the wind brush against his face.

Then, his eyes snapped open.

He walked towards a rock formation, and knelt down where he saw something on the ground.

"Slag" he commented, noticing the melted metal on the ground.

He put his hand over the molten metal, and begins to concentrate.

With the speed of thought, the metal started to reform itself, as if by a sculpted unseen hands.

When it was in the form of a small cylinder, Dawson picked it up in his hand and looks at it.

"I wonder…" he asked himself…then started to concentrate again.

Once again, it reformed itself. This time, into the shape of a woman, with familiar facial features.

"Joey," Dawson remarked to the statuette of his lifelong friend. He then used his power to transform the statue into a yellowish metal.

"Nice work," Drue Valentine said, walking up beside him. "Any idea how you did that?"

"Nope," he responded. "I just did."

Dawson handed the statue to Drue…who's jaw suddenly started to drop.

"Leery…" he said in a shocked tone. "This thing is solid gold."

"I know," Dawson answered. "This is unbelievable. It's incredible…"

"You think that's incredible…" Drue corrected him. "Then check this out.

Drue motioned to a nearby rock…which preceded to explode into a million fragments.

Dawson's eyes went wide.

"Impressive" he remarked.

"I'm a freaking X-Man," Drue said with a grin.

At Jen's house, Joey, Jen, and Pacey were there, waiting. Joey was still reading the journal she found in her room before the fire.

Just then, Dawson and Drue walked in.

"Jen?" Dawson asked. "Is your grandmother…"

"Out" Jen responded. "We still need to keep this to ourselves, right?"

"Right," he answered.

Joey walked up to Dawson.

"Dawson" she said quietly. "I need to ask you something…in private."

"Sure" Dawson whispered.

"This 'Max' you mentioned, from LA…" she asked. "Did he ever mention someone he was close to? Like we are?"

He stopped to think for a moment.

"Now that you mention it…yeah he did" Dawson answered. "He said her name was Liz Parker."

Joey turned towards the other three and started to speak.

"I think I've figured it out," she announced.

Joey lifted up the journal for everyone to see.

"I found this journal outside my room, right before the fire," she continued. "It was written by a girl named Liz Parker. But the names in it are all people I know, the handwriting is mine, the sentencing is mine…but it's about things I don't remember. In a sense, it's as if I'm living someone else's life."

"So you're saying," Jen spoke. "That this whole 'alien abduction' thing was right on the money?"

Joey nodded her head.

"Only in part," she answered. "We weren't abducted by aliens…we are the aliens. Or rather, they were."

At that moment, everyone's eyes went wide.

"Wait…wait…you're saying…" Pacey rambled.

"Only Dawson, Drue, Lily, and Gretchen." Joey corrected herself. "The rest of us are human."

"I'm an alien?" Drue asked.

"I could've told you that," Jen joked to him.

"Not exactly, Drue," Joey informed him. "But whoever's life you're leading is one. My guess is that something happened when Dawson met this 'Max' in LA. And somehow, it distorted reality. So that we're living their lives. It's centered around Dawson, so it pulled the rest of us along for the ride."

"This is so surreal," Dawson commented. "It's like some sort of Star Trek episode. The older ones."

"Fine then" Pacey said. "We go to LA, track down ET, and convince him to restore us to normal."

"I don't think it's that easy, Pacey" Dawson interrupted. "That meteor…Max was doing something to it when I grabbed him. Maybe it wasn't intentional. Besides, I got transported to his home. Odds are he's in Capeside."

"What exactly can we do, Potter?" Drue asked.

"According to this…" Joey responded, motioning to the book. "You can transmute molecular structures".

"In laymen's terms, please?" Pacey asked.

"They can change things," she corrected. "Turn solids into liquids, freeze things, change their color, shape…stuff like that. Dawson can heal people, Lily can enter dreams, and Drue can blow stuff up."

Just then, a spider crept across the floor. Drue looked at it, and it exploded.

"Drue!" Joey yelled.

"Just giving a demonstration" he argued.

"Run that past me again," Kyle asked.

"Ok, here's how it goes," Michael told the assembled group of Kyle, Maria, and young Alex. "Max meets this film student in LA, while looking for this hunk of rock that he thinks is from our home planet. Max tries to connect with it, but this film student…Dawson…gets in the way. Something goes wrong, then pow, twilight zone. Reality goes kooky, we end up in Massachusetts as ordinary humans, while this guy has our powers back in Roswell. Problem is, Max doesn't want to go back to normal, because he likes being 'normal'"

"And if the rest of us disagree?" Kyle asked.

"Then tough cookies," he commented.

"Michael!" Maria yelled.

"I'm just saying it how it is, Maria" he continued. "And there's something else. You notice anything different in Max, Kyle? Like how he acted when you showed up?"

"Happy, you mean?" Kyle asked.

"It's more than a case of being 'happy'" Michael sighed. "The Max Evans I know wouldn't except everything was ok, no matter HOW good he felt about it. He'd be looking for the possibility of our enemies planning the whole thing. Side effects. The possibility of these kids using our powers selfishly, or exposing themselves. I'm not saying he's being selfish, he knows these things…just not concentrating on them. He's focusing on the good."

"And the problem with that is?" Alex asked.

"That's not Max," he continued. "I understand how something like that can change you, but not this fast. He's changing. Like you, Kyle. You're usually mellow most of the time, but since the switch happened you've been more 'in your face'. Whatever this switch was, it didn't stop there. Our personalities are changing too…to reflect the people who's lives we've taken over."

"Then lets just call Liz and have her fix this" Maria asked.

"That's not going to work" he told her. "The Liz Parker we're used to could probably figure it out…but not who she is now. The possibility of her 'counterpart' being as smart as her is very thin. In other words…we're screwed.

At the Parker's B&B, Max excitedly ran inside.

"Liz?" he yelled. "You here?"

He saw Alex lying on the couch as he ran past.

"Hi Alex," he greeted him as he ran. "Bye Alex."

He noticed a picture hung up on the wall, and stopped to look at it.

It was of him and Liz, and looked pretty recent. Taken maybe about a month or two ago. He was wearing a tux, and Liz was in a light purple dress.

Max smiles, and headed towards Liz's room.

"Miss Parker," he announced as he entered. "Prepare to be swept off your feet."

Liz was looking out the window when he came in. She saw him and forced a smile.

"You're looking happy today," she commented.

"I am," he agreed proudly. "And my new goal in life is to make sure you're just as happy. Tonight, anything you want. Romantic movie, French restaurant…I'll even consider joy riding all the way back to Roswell if you want to see what you're supposed to look like."

Liz bit her lip.

"Liz, is something wrong?" he asked, concerned.

He thought for a moment, then something occurred to him.

Where are your parents?" he asked, then Liz's face fell.

"They're…not here, Max," she answered.

"When are they coming back?" he asked again, still not understanding.

Liz just handed him a piece of paper, which looked like some sort of certificate.

"I found this today," she told him.

Seeing it, his face fell.

"Liz, according to this…" he began. "You mom's?"

Liz nodded.

"Yep," she answered. "Dead five years ago."

Max looked at her in shock.

"Liz, I'm…" he told her. "I'm so sorry."

"It's ok, Max," she responded. "Really…"

"No, it's not ok," he informed her. "All this time, I've just been thinking of how this whole thing effected me. Worried about my happiness, but not yours. Why didn't you tell me?"

Liz sighed.

"Like you said, you were happy" she reminded him. "Being normal, it made you happy. I couldn't make you give that up. Not for me."

"Liz, being with you made me happy," he told her. "But if you're hurting like this, if you have to give up your life, it's not worth it at all. Liz, you are my happiness"

He held her hand. Her eyes started to water.

"Just promise me one thing, Max?" she asked him.

"Name it," he answered.

"If things go back to normal…" she said. "Do not forget a word of anything you just said."

He smiled at her, and stroked her hair.

"I promise."

Then they hugged.

In Roswell, Dawson and Joey were walking by a dock.

"This is nice," she commented. "I mean, I know New Mexico is supposed to be all desert, so I wasn't really expecting any water around. It sort of reminds me of home a little".

Dawson gave her a thoughtful look.

"Are you feeling ok?" he asked her. "When you fell…"

"I'm fine," she answered. "Thanks to you."

He smiled at her.

"Look, Dawson" she continued. "Don't let that performance of mine convince you that I have any idea what's going on. I'm really scared right now. But you being here makes me feel a little better."

Dawson grabbed her hand and looked her in the eyes.

"We'll fix this, don't worry Jo" he reassured her.

"You're different, you know that?" she told him. "You're more…confidant…than I've ever seen you. You're just so…"

Without another word, she reached over and kissed him. Eager, he kissed her back, the spark and passion fueling the two of them.

Sparks that began to take physical form, indicated by the bright, blue glow that started to surround the two of them.

Above, the light on a nearby lap post burst into shards of glass.

Then, something astonishing happened.

"Ok, you win"

Suddenly, Joey's eyes snapped open and she started to tumble backwards. Worried she would fall off the dock, Dawson grabbed her arms.

"Joey?" he asked. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Joey was panting, but managed to catch her breath.

"When you met Max?" he asked. "Did you tell him about 'Creek Daze?"

Confused, Dawson answered.

"Yeah. Why?"

Joey looked horrified.

"I just saw it," she admitted. "Your conversation. When you kissed me…it was like I was there."

Dawson's eyes went wide.

"You can see inside my head?" he asked. "You…ok, you do have powers too, then."

"No, it wasn't me" she reassured him. "It didn't happen until…until you touched me."

"Wow!" Dawson exclaimed in amazement.

"Dawson?" she asked after a moment.

"Yeah?"

"I want to do it again," she admitted to him.

TO BE CONTINUED...

NEXT: Joey 'connects' with Dawson…but there are some things about him that she might wish she never knew. And back in Capeside, Liz finally explains to Max why she made up that story about Kyle a few months ago.