Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie · (Roswell Fanfiction) · √

ONE ZERO TWO

A/N: Above are two drawings I've made of how I picture the Antarians. From those drawings, it becomes fairly obvious how different the royals and the "original" Antarian are, not just in behavior but also in appearance.
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At first, his eyes were all that I saw.

They were large. Extremely large. But oddly beautiful.

With Maria's scream fading and dying in my ears, Dresden's sapphire-colored eyes filled my vision.

After having seen Sean and Sergeant at the moment when death had undressed their human forms, Dresden's alien appearance was not frightening. My heart slamming hard against the inside of my ribs revealed that looking at someone who looked so different but still so much like a human, was indeed making me nervous. Although, the overwhelming feeling was relief.

Relief that he hadn't looked like them.

Dresden's face was thin, his mouth small. But at least he had a mouth.

The room was silent. Deafeningly so. As if everyone was holding their breaths, while staring at Dresden. Even the hybrids - Isabel, Michael, Alex and Max - were silent.

In quiet peace, we were all observing this large man with his hairless head, the mere holes into the center of his face instead of an actual nose, and the oddly elongated flaps on both sides of his head, above those large ears. Similar openings were visible below his eyes. Gills, I realized. The flaps looked like gills.

He was slightly purple, his skin tinted in warm blue tones, rather than an earthy color base like a human being. The coloring was darker on his throat and down his exposed arms, while lighter on his face.

And he was tall. Standing up in this underground room, he had to hunch to be able to fit against the limit of the ceiling. Which would make him close to 8 feet.

His bald head was large and slightly transparent. I could see hints of his brain, the blood vessels running underneath the thin skin covering the skull.

But it was his eyes that captured me. Looking into them was like looking into a big pond of water. Gave me a sensation of falling. Of loosing my footing, but in a good way. Like it was a place I wanted to fall into. Where there was comfort and security.

Without the human disguise, I felt like I could finally read him. As if his 'human costume' had not correctly translated who he really was. What he felt.

Suddenly, he seemed instantly more empathetic. His face was humanoid enough for me to be able to easily see emotions shift over his face. Maybe his human shape had lessened his natural expression. Maybe that's what it did to all pure aliens. Maybe that's why I viewed the majority of the pure aliens I had met as cold and indifferent.

Like when you put a silicon mask on, and it, while made to fit your features, still appeared stiff and unable to translate the appropriate small movements of your expressions, muting your ability to display emotions.

I found myself instantly trusting this non-human in front of me.

Maybe that's why even Maria had grown silent. Maybe she was seeing what I was seeing. Maybe she was seeing the true goodness in Dresden's face.

Close to no time had passed, but it felt like forever. I had to physically tear my eyes away from Dresden to look at Diane. I wanted to see if she was frightened. Because she was actually married to a pure Antarian. If she had never seen what they looked like, this might freak her out.

But the breath got stuck in my throat as my eyes fell on her (on the person seated next to her). Next to her was Max's father. In his true alien form.