Well, guys turn around was quick for this part. I'm back with it from my beta and I'm ready to post it. Let me know what y'all think of it.
Beth
Part 30 – “Behind the Scenes”
“What the hell is wrong with you two?! I had everything under control and was starting to make some real progress when you decide to try to kill Max and take me with you!” Tess shouted incredulously. “I thought you two were smarter than that!” She was currently in a room in the warehouse-like building where the summit had been held. This was where Lonnie and Rath had decided to bring her.
“Hey, nobody calls us stupid,” Rath yelled in her face. “Besides, the way we heard it, you were already supposed to have gotten into the great king’s head, heart, and oh yeah, let’s not forget pants. From what I saw you’re no closer to him than he is to the President of the United States of America.”
“You have no idea the kind of obstacles I’ve had to overcome just to become his friend! I can’t just force my way inside his head and mess with his brain. You know how powerful he is and if I had messed with any of his memories or somehow triggered them, I would have been in huge trouble with Khivar. I have to take things slowly,” she told him loudly. Then she seemed to realize that she was explaining herself to Rath. “Not that you would understand or that I have to explain to you!”
“Yeah, I’ve seen the biggest obstacle in your way with Maxieboy and if I had to choose between that quiet, cute little brunette and your loud mouth, I think I’d make the same choice Max did,” Rath flung at her with a smirk.
Tess’s face turned an ugly shade of red and just as she was going to let Rath feel the full fury of her tongue, Lonnie intervened. “Enough!” she shouted, getting the other two’s attention. “Tess, we have our own problems with Khivar and you ain’t a part of them. Rath pulled you out of there to save your lily-white behind, much against my wishes.” She glared at Rath who seemed to shrink back a little.
“How is dragging me away from there saving my butt?” Tess demanded.
Lonnie sighed like she was tired and she was. All she wanted was to go home and live the life of a princess. Since Max didn’t die in that little planned accident, there might be a problem with that. “Well the fact that he covered your mouth was to keep you from calling out a warning to Max, in case you decided to do something so stupid. Then too, we took you with us because he didn’t get squashed like he was supposed to and that makes it look like you had no idea what was coming. Now if you want to go back to Roswell or Max finds you, you don’t have anything to explain. You can continue to find a way to get home,” she explained to Tess generously. Rath’s mouth dropped open in shock. Lonnie never explained anything without her voice dripping with sarcasm and beating something or someone up. What was up with her?
Before any of them could say anything else, there was a noise coming from somewhere in the building. “Shit! That’s gotta be his majesty himself. I thought he would check the crib first,” Lonnie exclaimed in a loud whisper.
“It might be a cat,” Rath offered lamely looking nervous. Max might not know it but he could kill all of them with very little effort.
“No, it’s him!” Tess affirmed. “You guys get out of here; I’ll handle this.”
She started to ruffle her hair and clothes a bit and starts thinking of what she will say to Max. Lonnie walks over to her and gets right in her face. “Listen, Tess, we all want to go home. You can have your power as queen; I don’t want that much responsibility. If you help us out, we’ll help you out. I’ll dreamwalk you tonight and we’ll make a plan. Deal?” the tall New Yorker asked the small, busty blond.
Tess didn’t blink as she answered. “Alright, I’m interested. I’m not saying I’m in but I’m definitely interested. Don’t walk me tonight though. It’ll take a while to get back to Roswell and I don’t want Max to get suspicious. Give me three days, and don’t walk me before midnight that night my time.” She had no intention of helping these guys with anything as she didn’t trust them one iota, but if it meant she might get the information she needed, she would agree to anything.
“Anything else, your majesty?” Rath asked sarcastically.
Tess ignored his tone but answered his question with a fake dreamy sigh. “God, that sounds good to my ears!” she sighs. Turning her attention back to the other two people in the room, she starts shooing them with her hands. “Now get outta here before he comes in here and sees us all this way.”
Lonnie snapped her fingers and jerked her head toward a door in the back of the room and Rath followed her to it. Just as she pushed it open, he asked quietly, “You gonna tell her about the former captive?”
She looked at him like he really was a complete moron. “Of course not, you idiot. I don’t trust that little blond twerp anymore than I trust the other one. We’ll find out what she knows and if she tries to use us or get in my…er our way of going home, we’ll eliminate her.” As the door swung closed behind them, Lonnie immediately made an about-face pressing her eye to the tiny slit in the door.
Rath looked confused for a moment. “What’re ya doin’?” he asked.
“What does it look like, Rath? God for having been genetically put togetha you sure are stupid,” Lonnie observed. “I’m keeping an eye on Tessie-poo. No telling what she’s likely to tell Max.”
They both quieted as they heard the sound of footsteps headed toward them, and in a hurry. Tess dropped to the floor and looked sufficiently confused and ruffled. The fact that she had been dragged to her current location helped her in her role. Max burst into the room only moments later. He rushed to Tess’s side and dropped to the floor beside her.
“Tess! Tess, are you alright?” he asked, truly concerned.
“I…I don’t know,” she answered, looking at him in confusion and helplessness.
“What happened?” he tried instead.
Tess wracked her brain looking for an explanation and hemming and hawing around as if she was confused by her surroundings and the events she would divulge. “They tried to get inside my head…find out where the granolith was. I didn’t want them to so I fought back,” she finally answered.
“How?”
“I don’t know,” she said automatically. Inwardly she cringed. She didn’t know? What kind of stupid answer was that? One that was obviously buyable to Max for he seemed to accept it.
“Where did they go?” he asked instead.
“I don’t know,” she echoed her earlier words.
Concerned, Max pulled her to her feet and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Tess, are you alright?” he asked sincerely.
“I’m ready to go home now, Max…home to Roswell,” she answered, knowing that that answer would both surprise and please Max.
After the couple had exited the doors on the opposite side of them, Lonnie and Rath passed back into the room. Lonnie squinted her eyes at the closed doors that Max and Tess had disappeared behind as if searching for some secret the door held. “Well, one thing that Tess does have going for her. That busty babe sure is a good actress. Can you believe she got off so easy with those answers?” Rath asked, truly impressed.
“Yeah, I heard those answers and I have no doubt that one of them was for us. She knows where the granolith is, or she knows that Max knows where it is and is confident she’ll find out,” she pointed out to her clueless companion. Rath was surprised at this tidbit and that he hadn’t figured that out for himself. He almost missed Lonnie’s muttering under her breath. “Damn! She’s holding the Ace of Spades!”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Rath asked confused.
“Nottin’,” she spat at him. She had her conversation with Nicholas in mind. Quickly coming to a decision to keep Rath around for a while longer, she tells him, “Common, we’re gonna follow the two yuppies back to Roswell and keep an eye on them.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
“Leslie’s brother?” Isabel asked, wide-eyed. She shuffled from one foot to the other and looked to Michael for his reaction.
He was just as shocked as she was. Did he know that Leslie even had a brother? He couldn’t remember, but the thought that a complete stranger might have overheard everything and even seen something terrified him. “What the hell are you doing sneaking around here and how much did you overhear?” he ground out.
Instead of answering Michael right away, Lucas studied the people standing in front of him. The brunette waitress was a completely new face to him with the exception of his one meal in the diner. The other two, however, were almost identical to his former captives. There were obvious cosmetic differences but they were the same height and had all the same features as Lonnie and Rath. The thought that they were anything like the New Yorkers terrified him but he refused to let it show.
Looking closer, though, he saw and sensed a major difference between these two people and Lonnie and Rath. It took him a moment to pinpoint exactly what that difference was, but when he did, he was taken completely aback. The difference was easily summed up in one word: fear. He had never seen Lonnie or Rath afraid of anything, but looking at Michael and Isabel he saw that they seemed to be afraid of him! The thought was nearly enough to make him laugh out loud.
“Michael asked you a question!” Isabel snapped. Her frosty front always showed the most frozen side when she was afraid. Lucas remembered someone else who once was like that and almost sighed at the thought.
Liz broke in as she realized something. “You were the one that helped me reach Max weren’t you?” she asked in amazement.
No one noticed that someone was listening and watching the exchange from the crack in the doorway. Ava had returned from the restroom and was listening now with baited breath. Damn it! She had tried to warn Lonnie that this might happen but Lonnie was just too arrogant to listen. Now that Luinwe that called himself Lucas was in Roswell with the other group and quickly becoming a dangerous threat to her chances for getting home.
Ava thought about finishing him off before he had a chance to tell the others anything but there were too many reasons against it. Khivar would personally skin her alive if she were to kill either of the Luinwe as he had made it abundantly clear that he wanted them alive, both of them if at all possible. She also wasn’t sure just how much of Lucas’s programming was already activated and she didn’t want to find out just how exaggerated the legends of the Luinwe power were. She might be a crispy critter before Khivar ever saw her again. Sighing and stifling a scream of frustration she realized that she would be better just waiting and listening for now.
Lucas looked to Liz and nodded as he hung his head. He knew that he should try to run but he didn’t dare move for fear that Michael would blast him again, or worse that either he or Isabel would tackle him. He was trapped worse than any rat in a laboratory cage. The one thing that he had in his favor was the fact that they seemed to be afraid of him, although for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why.
“Great! This is just great!” Michael muttered. “The one time I’m right and I really didn’t want to be.” Out loud he barked at Lucas. “That would mean that you aren’t from around here. Is Leslie a foreigner too?” he asked, stressing the word so Lucas couldn’t mistake his meaning.
Not wanting to answer, Lucas hesitated until Isabel jumped in again. “Answer him!” she snapped.
He could not disobey her and nodded again, avoiding their eyes. Liz searched the guy for any hostility but only found a defeated acceptance. “Who or what are you? Are you a skin?”
At that, Lucas looked insulted. “No way!” he answered clearly. “Nasty parasites,” he added under his breath.
“Are you one of us?” Isabel asked tentatively. “Are you from Antar?”
“I’m not exactly one of you. I guess you could say I was from Antar as I was…um born there. You don’t know anything about me?” he asked surprised.
“They know little to nothing about themselves, let alone anyone else,” Liz harrumphed.
“Liz!” Michael hissed. “Don’t give him more information than he might already have.” Turning back to Lucas, he advanced a few steps, trying to appear menacing. “Look, Lucas Terrell, if that’s your real name, I want to know who you are, what you are, who and what Leslie is and if she is a threat to Alex or if you are a threat to us! I want to know everything and I want to know it now!”
Lucas just stared at Michael in shock. They really didn’t know who he was. Lonnie and Rath knew the first time they had seen him. Maybe this group just didn’t recognize him. “This might be a long story. You should already know it. The fact that you don’t is a little disconcerting. You don’t have any of your memories? You don’t know the word Luinwe?” he asked.
The word rolled off of his tongue easily but the others were stopped in their tracks by the word. “What did you say? What was that word?” Isabel asked. She had heard him but the word was so different from anything she had ever heard. Well, maybe not different from anything she had ever heard but…
“Luinwe,” Lucas obligingly repeated. “That is what I am. Ava didn’t tell you about me…about us?”
“We wouldn’t be asking if she had, ok?” Michael snapped again. “She knows who you are?”
“Yeah, she does. She, Lonnie, Rath, and Zan knew who I was the first time they saw me. I don’t mind talking about things with you but can we please go somewhere else and leave Ava behind? I can’t begin to explain everything that the other group had done to me,” Lucas asked.
Michael looked ready to bark out that he wasn’t leaving until he had heard every detail that Lucas knew but Isabel put her hand on his shoulder. Whispering something in his ear, he tried to argue but she put her foot down and pleaded with him to trust her. She was the one who finally answered. “Max will want to hear it all too. We want to hear everything from the beginning but we can’t just disappear on Ava. Let us make up some kind of excuse to leave her behind so she doesn’t disappear on us later. Did you have a place in mind to talk?”
“Leslie will want to help explain and should know what’s going on. We could go to my house. I live next door to the Whitmans,” he suggested. He was thinking that this would be perfect; he could hurry back to the house and sneak Leslie and Megan out before the others could find them. When they asked again if Leslie was also an alien, he didn’t hesitate to nod. “Yes, she really is my sister and an alien too. I’ll just go ahead over to the house and tell her what’s happened while you ditch Ava.”
“How do we know you won’t just disappear?” Michael ground out. Liz and Isabel’s faces were asking the same question.
Sighing, Lucas hung his head again. “I swear that I will be there when you come…whenever you make it over there for an explanation.”
Ava realized that they were wrapping up their little introductory conversation and decided that she needed to get to that house first. If she could somehow contact Nicholas and let him know where to find the two Luinwe and Max, and hopefully the granolith, she would be set for life. She had hit the jackpot.
Rushing out the front door, she ran across the street to the phone booth and looked up the Whitman’s address. Finding it pretty quickly and remembering where she had seen the street, she stepped down an alley where she found a small car, changed the color and license plate, and hotwired it, tearing down the street toward the Terrell’s and her future as queen.
Against My Programming (CC,TEEN) pt 62 pg 10 2/26 [WIP]
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littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
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littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
Well, everyone, I'm back with a new part. It is long but still didn't include everything I hoped it would. In order to get the details in there, however, it's taking a little longer. I hope no one is a nail biter because I'm leaving a real cliffhanger on this one. (Don't shoot me, Dee. LOL!) Please remember that fb is a big part of my motivation to get the next part out quicker. Tanks!
Beth
Against My Programming
Part 31 – “Heightening the Suspense”
Leslie and Alex were sitting outside under “their” tree, talking and flirting and making out occasionally, when Lucas pulled up in a hurry. He leapt from the car and bolted for the front door calling her name frantically, not having noticed them outside. The two young people under the tree looked at each other, and Alex grinned. “Looks like something exciting happened,” he said.
Leslie nodded uneasily. “Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” she asked. Excitement was never good for her and Lucas. “I guess I should see what he’s all worked up about.” She rose from the grass and brushed herself off.
Alex followed her lead. “I’ll come with you,” he told her. As she started toward the house, he grabbed her hand and pulled her back into his arms, causing her to squeak in surprise. He kissed her soundly until both of their lungs were screaming for air.
When he pulled back a little, Leslie looked at him questioningly. “What was that for?” she asked, still trying to catch her breath.
“I’m so happy to be with you again. When I’m with you, it just feels so…so right…so…like everything is right with the world,” he told her. Alex couldn’t really explain what had moved him so much right at that moment, but it must have been his instincts that told him Leslie needed to hear it because he felt her melting against him and let out a tired sigh.
There were so many things that Leslie could have said…should have said to his words. ‘I don’t deserve you.’ ‘If you only knew.’ ‘I wish that were true.’ ‘ I feel the same way.’ Instead, though, she said nothing and held onto him tightly. Finally, she pulled back, gave him a smile, took his hand and led him to the house. “Come on. Lucas has probably waked Megan up by now. Let’s see what’s going on.”
As they entered the back door, they heard footsteps racing over their heads, doors slamming, and Lucas calling for Leslie. Megan’s young voice was begging him to tell her what was wrong. Leslie’s anxiety rose up into her throat as she called to her brother. “Lucas? I’m downstairs in the kitchen.”
“Thank god!” came his reply as he came pounding down the stairs. She vaguely heard the pattering of her daughter’s footsteps close behind. As soon as he had reached the kitchen, Lucas grabbed his sister’s upper arms and could not completely keep the panic out of his expression. He seemed not to even see Alex. “You’ve got to hurry, Leslie! You have to get Megan and get out of here before they get here!” he told her, pulling her towards the stairs.
Megan had entered the room and, not having ever seen her uncle in this kind of panic before, moved quickly to Alex’s side as he seemed to be as confused as she was. Leslie looked confused as well but she was more frightened by her brother’s words and expression than confused. She prayed what he was telling her was wrong. “Lucas, what happened? What’s going on?” she asked.
“I have to get you out of here!” he answered more to himself than to her.
Seeing the fear and confusion in her daughter’s young face, Leslie pulled herself together. She freed herself quickly but gently from her brother’s grip and snapped out his name to get his attention. “Lucas! Tell me what’s going on!” she told him.
Seeming to see Alex for the first time, he glanced at the object of his sister’s affection and then back at her. “You were right. They’re here. The ones you thought they were…it’s them,” he told her cryptically.
Her eyes widened in fear but she forced herself to breathe and keep her voice steady. “Michael?” she asked. At Lucas’s nod she swallowed. “Isabel?” Again a nod and he would not meet her eyes. Her eyes closed. “Max and Liz,” she stated more than asked. At his hesitation she asked him to explain.
“Well, I haven’t met Max yet but yes. As for Liz, I don’t think so. Ava was at the café with Michael and Isabel and Liz. Liz looks nothing like Ava so I don’t know who she is,” Lucas explained but only caused more confusion.
Leslie’s nose wrinkled in confusion. “What? I don’t understand. What is Ava doing here, and what does she have to with the four if the four were here?” she asked.
Lucas placed his hands on his sister’s shoulders to steady her, knowing that the next words he said would hit her like an anvil. “There are two sets of them,” he said.
Her face drained of color and she swayed a little on her feet. The look of horror on her face and their words had Alex worried. “Two of them? How is that possible?” she almost shouted.
“I don’t know! I’m gonna find out but first, I’m gonna get you and Megan out of here,” Lucas told her, running up the stairs to the room where they had stored the suitcases.
Everyone followed him and Alex found he couldn’t keep quiet anymore. They were talking about his friends and his insides started twisting in knots at what he was afraid their words might mean. “What are you two talking about? Leslie, what’s going on?” he asked.
When Leslie turned back to him, he saw so many things in her face. She seemed startled, as if suddenly remembering he was there, confused, weary, afraid, and somewhat sad. “Alex, you should go home,” she told him tiredly.
“What? No way, not when you’re talking about my friends and then talking about leaving. Now I want to know what’s going on right now,” he demanded, his fear coming out in orders.
Lucas looked at Leslie for a moment. “His friends?” he asked with eyebrows raised.
She nodded. “Michael, Isabel, Max, Liz, Maria, all of them,” she confirmed.
Lucas looked back to the tall, lanky young man who had stolen his sister’s heart and came to a decision. “You’re right. You deserve to know the truth,” he said. Leslie gasped but he held up his hand. “How’s your home life, Alex?”
“Huh? My home life? It’s good I guess, why?” Alex answered.
“Too bad. Do you love my sister? Do you want to be with her?” Lucas asked him.
“Lucas, you can’t ask him that! We can’t ask him to accept everything that we would have to tell him…not like this,” Leslie pleaded with her brother.
The two guys ignored her. Alex met Lucas’s eyes when he answered. “Yes, of course, but I still don’t understand…”
But Lucas didn’t let him finish. “Good, then you’re going with them…to protect them.”
There was a chorus of voices at that and no one noticed that Megan’s fear had driven her to flee from the room and she took her doll outside to play while the others worked out whatever they were upset about. Leslie shouted above the other two. “Lucas! You cannot ask him to leave his home! And what do you mean that he’s going with me and Megan? You’re not planning on staying here?”
Lucas sighed. “Leslie, I have to. I promised Vil…Isabel I’d be here whenever they showed up to talk about us,” he answered.
“I’m not going anywhere until you explain what’s going on,” Alex informed them, crossing his arms over his chest.
“And I’m not going anywhere without you,” Leslie said emphatically, copying Alex’s stance.
Sighing again, Lucas squeezed the inner sides of his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “Look, Alex, your friends, Michael, Isabel and Max, are aliens. We are aliens too. That’s really all I have time to tell you right now without any further explanation taking hours. Leslie, you have to get yourself and Megan out of here. There is no way you will be able to get away from them again once they have all of us in their custody and finish the awakenings. You know that! Why do you fight me on this?”
“Because I don’t want to lose you again!” she told him truthfully.
“Wait a minute!” Alex said, recovering from the shock of Lucas’s words. “You two are aliens too? What kind of aliens? Why are you afraid of Michael, Isabel and Max? You aren’t on the other side are you?” he asked, backing away from them slowly.
“The other side?” Leslie asked, his words not registering.
“Alex, you knew about them didn’t you?” Lucas asked. This time it was his turn to be shocked. “How much do you know about them?”
Alex nodded carefully. “Yeah, I knew. They don’t know much about themselves but what they know, they’ve told me, Liz, and Maria. Now what’s your story? Why are you running from them? You aren’t skins are you? You don’t work for that…what’s his name do you?”
“Khivar?” Lucas filled in for him. Alex nodded and Leslie stared at Alex like he was a total stranger. “No, we are not skins and no we are not working with Khivar.” He looked at his sister’s hurt and unbelieving expression and Alex followed his line of sight.
“Leslie…” Alex began.
But she backed away a step. “No, Alex, don’t. Don’t say anything just yet. I think we all have a lot to talk about. I was so afraid of telling you who I am…what I am but you have known about aliens all along! It’s like a bad movie,” she told him. She sighed and ran a trembling hand through her hair. Looking back up at her brother, she set her resolve. “Lucas, I don’t care what happens, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll take Megan next door and maybe Evelyn can watch her while they are here and we’ll go from there. I think we all need to just go downstairs and settle in for a while because it seems that none of us know each other like we thought we did.”
Her brother nodded. “I think that’s a good idea.” Then he looked around and looked at the other two. “Where is Megan?”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Megan might be a smart little girl but she was still a little girl. The tension in the house between the three people she trusted most in the universe had scared her enough to make her want to run but she also trusted them enough and was smart enough to know that it was only a temporary situation so she took her doll and went outside to see the tree that her mother and Alex had told her about. She knew that her mother and Uncle Lucas might be a bit angry when they discovered she had disappeared but she wouldn’t be far and she would listen for them to call her.
She didn’t notice the car that was parked across the street but the occupant noticed her and couldn’t believe her eyes. Ava watched the house that Lucas had disappeared into and waited to see what would happen. She had seen the lanky human that seemed to have a thing for Isabel and Lonnie making goo-goo eyes with a girl that Ava instantly recognized to be F-L. After contacting one of Nicholas’s goons with word to contact her as she had two important items that he and Khivar were looking for, she was taken completely off guard to see a little girl exit the house with a doll and began playing make-believe under the tree.
A close look at the child made Ava’s heart race in anticipation, excitement, and anger. The resemblance to F-L’s current look was uncanny and there was no mistaking the young girl’s resemblance to another person she knew…the father. After calling him several names under her breath, she realized what this meant…here was another giant piece, if not the piece to her ticket home. Exiting the car, she looked carefully at the window upstairs where she saw that the three people inside the house were still arguing and hadn’t noticed the little girl’s disappearance. She’d have to work quickly.
Ava crossed the street and walked up to where the little girl was playing, hoping to catch her off guard, but it was Megan that caught her off guard. “Hello, who are you?” Megan asked, her child innocence coming out again. She felt no danger with her mother and uncle so close by and she could take care of herself if she needed to.
A short laugh left Ava’s throat and she eyed the little girl with brown eyes flecked with gold. “I’m Ava. What’s your name?” she answered.
“Meganora but everybody calls me Megan,” the four-year-old answered. “Are you here to see my mom or Uncle Lucas?”
“Lucas is your uncle?” Ava asked, knowing that her luck was just becoming too good to be true.
“Yes, do you know him?” Megan asked.
Kneeling in front of Megan, Ava answered with a smile. “Yeah, we’re old friends from back home.”
Megan hopped up and down in excitement. “Friends from Antar? Does that mean you know my daddy? Do you know how to find him?” she said, throwing out question after question.
‘Oh this was going to be too easy,’ Ava thought. “Yeah, I know exactly how to find your dad. You wanna come with me to see him?” she asked.
The four-year-old stopped at that. She wanted so badly to know her father but she didn’t know this Ava and she wasn’t supposed to go anywhere without either her mother or Uncle Lucas. She looked up at the house and made a decision. “Let’s just tell my mom that you know where he is and we’ll all go look for him,” she said.
“No!” Ava shouted. Then she caught herself and smiled at the girl who looked suddenly suspicious of her. “I mean, I know that he isn’t far and wouldn’t you want to surprise your mom and him when we found him and you brought him back here to her? I know they would both love that; and that way, you could have some time to get to know him too,” Ava convinced her.
Megan’s small mind was battling with her heart. She wanted so badly to see her daddy. Finally, she looked at the hand that Ava offered her and when the blond saw that the younger girl was wavering, she closed the deal with her next words. “Come on. We won’t be gone long and we can call your mom and Uncle Lucas as soon as we hook up with your dad.”
Looking at Ava’s face and then at the hand she offered again, Megan switched her doll to her other hand and placed her free one in Ava’s. “Ok, let’s go find my daddy.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Leslie, Lucas, and Alex raced all over the house, looking for and calling for Megan. They all met back up in the kitchen, all empty handed. “Oh god, Lucas! She’s not here! Where can she be?” Leslie panicked.
“Maybe she went outside to play,” Alex offered. “You know she mentioned that she wanted to look at the tree.”
“Yeah, she did, didn’t she?” Leslie asked. They all raced outside to the tree and found no trace of the small child. “Megan! Meganora, where are you?” Leslie called helplessly. As the two guys kept calling for her daughter, she leaned against the tree to support herself as her fear engulfed her. That’s when she got the flashes.
“I’m Ava. What’s your name?”
“Lucas is your uncle?...We’re old friends from back home…I know exactly how to find your dad. You wanna come with me to see him?”
“Ok, let’s go find my daddy.”
“No!” Leslie screamed as she dropped to the ground. Her brother and Alex instantly rushed to her side.
“What is it, F-L? What did you see?” Lucas asked, taking her face in his hands to try to get her to focus.
“Ava…she was here. She took Megan,” Leslie answered, her voice seeming to come from far away. “She took Megan!” she yelled. Then she burst into tears.
Beth
Against My Programming
Part 31 – “Heightening the Suspense”
Leslie and Alex were sitting outside under “their” tree, talking and flirting and making out occasionally, when Lucas pulled up in a hurry. He leapt from the car and bolted for the front door calling her name frantically, not having noticed them outside. The two young people under the tree looked at each other, and Alex grinned. “Looks like something exciting happened,” he said.
Leslie nodded uneasily. “Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” she asked. Excitement was never good for her and Lucas. “I guess I should see what he’s all worked up about.” She rose from the grass and brushed herself off.
Alex followed her lead. “I’ll come with you,” he told her. As she started toward the house, he grabbed her hand and pulled her back into his arms, causing her to squeak in surprise. He kissed her soundly until both of their lungs were screaming for air.
When he pulled back a little, Leslie looked at him questioningly. “What was that for?” she asked, still trying to catch her breath.
“I’m so happy to be with you again. When I’m with you, it just feels so…so right…so…like everything is right with the world,” he told her. Alex couldn’t really explain what had moved him so much right at that moment, but it must have been his instincts that told him Leslie needed to hear it because he felt her melting against him and let out a tired sigh.
There were so many things that Leslie could have said…should have said to his words. ‘I don’t deserve you.’ ‘If you only knew.’ ‘I wish that were true.’ ‘ I feel the same way.’ Instead, though, she said nothing and held onto him tightly. Finally, she pulled back, gave him a smile, took his hand and led him to the house. “Come on. Lucas has probably waked Megan up by now. Let’s see what’s going on.”
As they entered the back door, they heard footsteps racing over their heads, doors slamming, and Lucas calling for Leslie. Megan’s young voice was begging him to tell her what was wrong. Leslie’s anxiety rose up into her throat as she called to her brother. “Lucas? I’m downstairs in the kitchen.”
“Thank god!” came his reply as he came pounding down the stairs. She vaguely heard the pattering of her daughter’s footsteps close behind. As soon as he had reached the kitchen, Lucas grabbed his sister’s upper arms and could not completely keep the panic out of his expression. He seemed not to even see Alex. “You’ve got to hurry, Leslie! You have to get Megan and get out of here before they get here!” he told her, pulling her towards the stairs.
Megan had entered the room and, not having ever seen her uncle in this kind of panic before, moved quickly to Alex’s side as he seemed to be as confused as she was. Leslie looked confused as well but she was more frightened by her brother’s words and expression than confused. She prayed what he was telling her was wrong. “Lucas, what happened? What’s going on?” she asked.
“I have to get you out of here!” he answered more to himself than to her.
Seeing the fear and confusion in her daughter’s young face, Leslie pulled herself together. She freed herself quickly but gently from her brother’s grip and snapped out his name to get his attention. “Lucas! Tell me what’s going on!” she told him.
Seeming to see Alex for the first time, he glanced at the object of his sister’s affection and then back at her. “You were right. They’re here. The ones you thought they were…it’s them,” he told her cryptically.
Her eyes widened in fear but she forced herself to breathe and keep her voice steady. “Michael?” she asked. At Lucas’s nod she swallowed. “Isabel?” Again a nod and he would not meet her eyes. Her eyes closed. “Max and Liz,” she stated more than asked. At his hesitation she asked him to explain.
“Well, I haven’t met Max yet but yes. As for Liz, I don’t think so. Ava was at the café with Michael and Isabel and Liz. Liz looks nothing like Ava so I don’t know who she is,” Lucas explained but only caused more confusion.
Leslie’s nose wrinkled in confusion. “What? I don’t understand. What is Ava doing here, and what does she have to with the four if the four were here?” she asked.
Lucas placed his hands on his sister’s shoulders to steady her, knowing that the next words he said would hit her like an anvil. “There are two sets of them,” he said.
Her face drained of color and she swayed a little on her feet. The look of horror on her face and their words had Alex worried. “Two of them? How is that possible?” she almost shouted.
“I don’t know! I’m gonna find out but first, I’m gonna get you and Megan out of here,” Lucas told her, running up the stairs to the room where they had stored the suitcases.
Everyone followed him and Alex found he couldn’t keep quiet anymore. They were talking about his friends and his insides started twisting in knots at what he was afraid their words might mean. “What are you two talking about? Leslie, what’s going on?” he asked.
When Leslie turned back to him, he saw so many things in her face. She seemed startled, as if suddenly remembering he was there, confused, weary, afraid, and somewhat sad. “Alex, you should go home,” she told him tiredly.
“What? No way, not when you’re talking about my friends and then talking about leaving. Now I want to know what’s going on right now,” he demanded, his fear coming out in orders.
Lucas looked at Leslie for a moment. “His friends?” he asked with eyebrows raised.
She nodded. “Michael, Isabel, Max, Liz, Maria, all of them,” she confirmed.
Lucas looked back to the tall, lanky young man who had stolen his sister’s heart and came to a decision. “You’re right. You deserve to know the truth,” he said. Leslie gasped but he held up his hand. “How’s your home life, Alex?”
“Huh? My home life? It’s good I guess, why?” Alex answered.
“Too bad. Do you love my sister? Do you want to be with her?” Lucas asked him.
“Lucas, you can’t ask him that! We can’t ask him to accept everything that we would have to tell him…not like this,” Leslie pleaded with her brother.
The two guys ignored her. Alex met Lucas’s eyes when he answered. “Yes, of course, but I still don’t understand…”
But Lucas didn’t let him finish. “Good, then you’re going with them…to protect them.”
There was a chorus of voices at that and no one noticed that Megan’s fear had driven her to flee from the room and she took her doll outside to play while the others worked out whatever they were upset about. Leslie shouted above the other two. “Lucas! You cannot ask him to leave his home! And what do you mean that he’s going with me and Megan? You’re not planning on staying here?”
Lucas sighed. “Leslie, I have to. I promised Vil…Isabel I’d be here whenever they showed up to talk about us,” he answered.
“I’m not going anywhere until you explain what’s going on,” Alex informed them, crossing his arms over his chest.
“And I’m not going anywhere without you,” Leslie said emphatically, copying Alex’s stance.
Sighing again, Lucas squeezed the inner sides of his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “Look, Alex, your friends, Michael, Isabel and Max, are aliens. We are aliens too. That’s really all I have time to tell you right now without any further explanation taking hours. Leslie, you have to get yourself and Megan out of here. There is no way you will be able to get away from them again once they have all of us in their custody and finish the awakenings. You know that! Why do you fight me on this?”
“Because I don’t want to lose you again!” she told him truthfully.
“Wait a minute!” Alex said, recovering from the shock of Lucas’s words. “You two are aliens too? What kind of aliens? Why are you afraid of Michael, Isabel and Max? You aren’t on the other side are you?” he asked, backing away from them slowly.
“The other side?” Leslie asked, his words not registering.
“Alex, you knew about them didn’t you?” Lucas asked. This time it was his turn to be shocked. “How much do you know about them?”
Alex nodded carefully. “Yeah, I knew. They don’t know much about themselves but what they know, they’ve told me, Liz, and Maria. Now what’s your story? Why are you running from them? You aren’t skins are you? You don’t work for that…what’s his name do you?”
“Khivar?” Lucas filled in for him. Alex nodded and Leslie stared at Alex like he was a total stranger. “No, we are not skins and no we are not working with Khivar.” He looked at his sister’s hurt and unbelieving expression and Alex followed his line of sight.
“Leslie…” Alex began.
But she backed away a step. “No, Alex, don’t. Don’t say anything just yet. I think we all have a lot to talk about. I was so afraid of telling you who I am…what I am but you have known about aliens all along! It’s like a bad movie,” she told him. She sighed and ran a trembling hand through her hair. Looking back up at her brother, she set her resolve. “Lucas, I don’t care what happens, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll take Megan next door and maybe Evelyn can watch her while they are here and we’ll go from there. I think we all need to just go downstairs and settle in for a while because it seems that none of us know each other like we thought we did.”
Her brother nodded. “I think that’s a good idea.” Then he looked around and looked at the other two. “Where is Megan?”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Megan might be a smart little girl but she was still a little girl. The tension in the house between the three people she trusted most in the universe had scared her enough to make her want to run but she also trusted them enough and was smart enough to know that it was only a temporary situation so she took her doll and went outside to see the tree that her mother and Alex had told her about. She knew that her mother and Uncle Lucas might be a bit angry when they discovered she had disappeared but she wouldn’t be far and she would listen for them to call her.
She didn’t notice the car that was parked across the street but the occupant noticed her and couldn’t believe her eyes. Ava watched the house that Lucas had disappeared into and waited to see what would happen. She had seen the lanky human that seemed to have a thing for Isabel and Lonnie making goo-goo eyes with a girl that Ava instantly recognized to be F-L. After contacting one of Nicholas’s goons with word to contact her as she had two important items that he and Khivar were looking for, she was taken completely off guard to see a little girl exit the house with a doll and began playing make-believe under the tree.
A close look at the child made Ava’s heart race in anticipation, excitement, and anger. The resemblance to F-L’s current look was uncanny and there was no mistaking the young girl’s resemblance to another person she knew…the father. After calling him several names under her breath, she realized what this meant…here was another giant piece, if not the piece to her ticket home. Exiting the car, she looked carefully at the window upstairs where she saw that the three people inside the house were still arguing and hadn’t noticed the little girl’s disappearance. She’d have to work quickly.
Ava crossed the street and walked up to where the little girl was playing, hoping to catch her off guard, but it was Megan that caught her off guard. “Hello, who are you?” Megan asked, her child innocence coming out again. She felt no danger with her mother and uncle so close by and she could take care of herself if she needed to.
A short laugh left Ava’s throat and she eyed the little girl with brown eyes flecked with gold. “I’m Ava. What’s your name?” she answered.
“Meganora but everybody calls me Megan,” the four-year-old answered. “Are you here to see my mom or Uncle Lucas?”
“Lucas is your uncle?” Ava asked, knowing that her luck was just becoming too good to be true.
“Yes, do you know him?” Megan asked.
Kneeling in front of Megan, Ava answered with a smile. “Yeah, we’re old friends from back home.”
Megan hopped up and down in excitement. “Friends from Antar? Does that mean you know my daddy? Do you know how to find him?” she said, throwing out question after question.
‘Oh this was going to be too easy,’ Ava thought. “Yeah, I know exactly how to find your dad. You wanna come with me to see him?” she asked.
The four-year-old stopped at that. She wanted so badly to know her father but she didn’t know this Ava and she wasn’t supposed to go anywhere without either her mother or Uncle Lucas. She looked up at the house and made a decision. “Let’s just tell my mom that you know where he is and we’ll all go look for him,” she said.
“No!” Ava shouted. Then she caught herself and smiled at the girl who looked suddenly suspicious of her. “I mean, I know that he isn’t far and wouldn’t you want to surprise your mom and him when we found him and you brought him back here to her? I know they would both love that; and that way, you could have some time to get to know him too,” Ava convinced her.
Megan’s small mind was battling with her heart. She wanted so badly to see her daddy. Finally, she looked at the hand that Ava offered her and when the blond saw that the younger girl was wavering, she closed the deal with her next words. “Come on. We won’t be gone long and we can call your mom and Uncle Lucas as soon as we hook up with your dad.”
Looking at Ava’s face and then at the hand she offered again, Megan switched her doll to her other hand and placed her free one in Ava’s. “Ok, let’s go find my daddy.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Leslie, Lucas, and Alex raced all over the house, looking for and calling for Megan. They all met back up in the kitchen, all empty handed. “Oh god, Lucas! She’s not here! Where can she be?” Leslie panicked.
“Maybe she went outside to play,” Alex offered. “You know she mentioned that she wanted to look at the tree.”
“Yeah, she did, didn’t she?” Leslie asked. They all raced outside to the tree and found no trace of the small child. “Megan! Meganora, where are you?” Leslie called helplessly. As the two guys kept calling for her daughter, she leaned against the tree to support herself as her fear engulfed her. That’s when she got the flashes.
“I’m Ava. What’s your name?”
“Lucas is your uncle?...We’re old friends from back home…I know exactly how to find your dad. You wanna come with me to see him?”
“Ok, let’s go find my daddy.”
“No!” Leslie screamed as she dropped to the ground. Her brother and Alex instantly rushed to her side.
“What is it, F-L? What did you see?” Lucas asked, taking her face in his hands to try to get her to focus.
“Ava…she was here. She took Megan,” Leslie answered, her voice seeming to come from far away. “She took Megan!” she yelled. Then she burst into tears.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
This will probably be posted in two parts due to length.
Against My Programming
A/N: This part begins the explanations of things you have all been waiting for. I suggest you read these next few parts carefully because they are jam-packed.
Part 32 – “The Beginning of Explanations”
Max and Tess agreed to take a flight home in order to get there faster. With a few simple keystrokes at a public library computer with internet access, they had seats that were “already paid for”. Max didn’t feel right about it but then Tess pointed out that the plane had dozens of empty seats anyway and that they wouldn’t have had any other way to get home since they had ridden to New York with Lonnie and Rath. “Besides,” she told him her last point, “The plane is going there anyway, whether we’re taking up a couple of the empty seats or not.” Max conceded that these were all valid points but still didn’t accept any of the refreshments the flight attendants offered.
When they arrived, they took the bus from the airport to Roswell and they went their separate ways home. When Max got there, he didn’t really feel like confronting his parents but when he noticed their car not in the driveway, he decided to take a chance on going in the front door. As he opened the door, he heard the TV on in the living room and went to see who was home. Isabel was asleep on the couch, the “estrogen network”, as he and Michael called it, playing some cheesy romance movie. He realized how much he had missed her and sat on the edge of the couch as he nudged her.
“Hey,” he said, trying to wake her.
Isabel groaned and started to stretch when she opened her eyes and realized who had awakened her. “Max!” she said throwing her arms around her brother’s neck. “Oh my god! When did you get home?” she asked.
He hugged her back. “Just now. Where are mom and dad?” he asked.
“Dad had an important case that he was called away to on the day after Thanksgiving. Mom went with him, and I told them you had already gotten home just after they left so they wouldn’t worry. They’ve had some time to cool off but dad still might ground you for hurting mom by running off like you did. What happened in New York? I have some things to tell you but I want to hear about this first,” she told him.
Max told her all about their time in New York and what had happened at the Summit. He finally felt that he and Isabel were growing close again. She listened to him without interrupting and then when he was done, she asked a legitimate question. “So in the end, what made you decide not to take the deal?”
He thought about it for a minute but his answer even surprised himself because his reason hadn’t consciously presented itself before but as he answered, he knew it was true. “I was going to. I was going to take that chance that…that Nicholas was telling the truth. But in the end, I realized that any deal which meant leaving you and Michael behind…was something I couldn’t do. You’re my sister Isabel…Isabel, Vilondra…whatever your name is, it doesn’t matter to me. You’re my sister and I love you and that comes first…always,” he answered her.
Isabel looked into her brother’s eyes and realized he meant what he said. Suddenly, all the tension and walls that had started to spring up between them fell away and she hugged him again. “Thank you,” she told him simply. When she pulled away from him, she wiped at her eyes for a moment and then looked at him. “A lot has happened while you guys were gone.” She began to tell him everything that had happened while he and Tess were in New York.
* * * * * * * * * * *
When Tess walked in the door, she found Kyle cheering at a football game on TV. He turned when he heard her come in. “Where have you been? Dad was pretty upset when he found out you had just taken off with Max to the Big Apple. What happened?” he asked.
Tess was a little bit tired but she was starving. “I tell you what, let me take a quick shower because I feel disgusting. Then you can take me out for dinner and I’ll tell you all about it…if you really want to know,” she told him. She had no intention of telling him everything but she had to tell him something and he was really the only person on this stupid rock of a planet that she sort of cared about. He would never be what he wanted to her but he could be a good partner if she played her cards right.
“Sounds good but it’ll have to be cheap. I’m broke,” he answered absently, already back into the game.
She rolled her eyes at that. “What else is new?” she muttered as she closed the bathroom door.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Lucas ran his hand through his dark blond hair and looked over at Alex who sat looking worriedly at Leslie. She was seated on a chair at the kitchen table simply rocking back and forth, staring off into space. She had been that way since the two of them had forced her to come inside and placed her in that chair an hour and a half ago. Lucas said she just needed some time to gather herself together and that she was trying to reach out to Megan, which Alex didn’t really understand, but whenever Alex had tried to touch her she pulled away from him and yelled for him not to touch her. He was worried, not knowing how to help. When he whispered as much to her brother, he saw the concern in Lucas’s eyes when he looked over at her as well and then they had turned hard back to him. “You can help by telling us everything you know about the royal four,” he had told Alex in a razor sharp voice.
With anyone else, Alex would have run or at least thought about it first but he trusted these two people for some reason, especially Leslie, and if it would help to find Megan, he would tell them what he knew. So he didn’t hesitate and quickly told them everything he knew, which he quickly realized wasn’t much and he wasn’t sure Leslie had heard any of it anyway. He told them about Max saving Liz’s life in September and how they didn’t know who they were until Tess and Nesedo had shown up but they still didn’t know much.
Lucas asked questions occasionally but mostly let Alex do the talking. When he seemed to be finished, Lucas was sorely disappointed and his head was spinning with questions. “What about the others…the ones from New York? What do you know about them?” he asked.
“Not much. If you were with them there, you probably know more about them than I do. They said that Max, Isabel, Tess, and Michael were the originals but they were defective…too human was the way they put it.” Lucas snorted at that but let Alex continue. “They seemed to remember who they were but they also said that their Max, I don’t remember his name, had been killed in an accident…hit by a truck. I don’t remember much other than that,” Alex told him. He looked at Leslie again and asked, “Is she going to be ok? Shouldn’t we be out looking for Megan and Ava? Why would Ava take her anyway?”
“Look, Alex. I know this is all confusing but the explanations that you are asking for will take a long time. It’s getting late; are you sure you want to hear all of this now?” Lucas asked. “Besides, it sounds like I might have to explain everything all over again to the others if what you’re telling me is true.”
Alex folded his arms over his chest and was ready to repeat that he wasn’t leaving without an explanation when Leslie spoke up for the first time. “We have to tell him to protect him now, Lucas. He needs to know and then he needs to leave. I don’t want anything to happen to him,” she said hoarsely.
Lucas looked at her sympathetically and was pained to the heart to see the resignation and pain in his sister’s face. He didn’t know what to say to her request. “Leslie, I’m not leaving you…” Alex began but she interrupted him, moving to stand in front of him.
“Alex, I have come to care about you so much and I wish things could be different but if you get involved in this, the chances that you will lose your life are very high,” Leslie told him quietly, tears running down her face.
“But I already know about the alien thing, so I don’t understand…” he started again but again she stopped him.
“I know you don’t understand. I’m going to do my damnedest to make you understand and then I’m going to make sure that you leave,” she said, running a hand down the side of his face. Then she closed her eyes and put her forehead to his. “Because if anything happened to you because of me, I’d never be able to forgive myself,” she whispered.
Alex swallowed and his heart broke for her as he heard her genuine fear for him. He wondered just what it was that she could be involved in or tell him that would be so dangerous for him. “Tell me,” he whispered.
She abruptly pulled away at that and sighed. He felt the loss of her nearness immediately but he tried to pull himself together and prepare himself for what she could possibly tell him. “I guess I should begin by saying that we are of a race called Luinwe,” she told him. “Megan is half Luinwe and half Antarian…with a little human DNA obviously mixed in.”
Leslie was trying to think of where to go from there to tell their story when there was a knock at the door. Lucas walked over to the door and she followed him with her eyes. When he nodded she hung her head. Their time was up already. Freedom was no longer a word they could claim.
Continued in next post.
Against My Programming
A/N: This part begins the explanations of things you have all been waiting for. I suggest you read these next few parts carefully because they are jam-packed.
Part 32 – “The Beginning of Explanations”
Max and Tess agreed to take a flight home in order to get there faster. With a few simple keystrokes at a public library computer with internet access, they had seats that were “already paid for”. Max didn’t feel right about it but then Tess pointed out that the plane had dozens of empty seats anyway and that they wouldn’t have had any other way to get home since they had ridden to New York with Lonnie and Rath. “Besides,” she told him her last point, “The plane is going there anyway, whether we’re taking up a couple of the empty seats or not.” Max conceded that these were all valid points but still didn’t accept any of the refreshments the flight attendants offered.
When they arrived, they took the bus from the airport to Roswell and they went their separate ways home. When Max got there, he didn’t really feel like confronting his parents but when he noticed their car not in the driveway, he decided to take a chance on going in the front door. As he opened the door, he heard the TV on in the living room and went to see who was home. Isabel was asleep on the couch, the “estrogen network”, as he and Michael called it, playing some cheesy romance movie. He realized how much he had missed her and sat on the edge of the couch as he nudged her.
“Hey,” he said, trying to wake her.
Isabel groaned and started to stretch when she opened her eyes and realized who had awakened her. “Max!” she said throwing her arms around her brother’s neck. “Oh my god! When did you get home?” she asked.
He hugged her back. “Just now. Where are mom and dad?” he asked.
“Dad had an important case that he was called away to on the day after Thanksgiving. Mom went with him, and I told them you had already gotten home just after they left so they wouldn’t worry. They’ve had some time to cool off but dad still might ground you for hurting mom by running off like you did. What happened in New York? I have some things to tell you but I want to hear about this first,” she told him.
Max told her all about their time in New York and what had happened at the Summit. He finally felt that he and Isabel were growing close again. She listened to him without interrupting and then when he was done, she asked a legitimate question. “So in the end, what made you decide not to take the deal?”
He thought about it for a minute but his answer even surprised himself because his reason hadn’t consciously presented itself before but as he answered, he knew it was true. “I was going to. I was going to take that chance that…that Nicholas was telling the truth. But in the end, I realized that any deal which meant leaving you and Michael behind…was something I couldn’t do. You’re my sister Isabel…Isabel, Vilondra…whatever your name is, it doesn’t matter to me. You’re my sister and I love you and that comes first…always,” he answered her.
Isabel looked into her brother’s eyes and realized he meant what he said. Suddenly, all the tension and walls that had started to spring up between them fell away and she hugged him again. “Thank you,” she told him simply. When she pulled away from him, she wiped at her eyes for a moment and then looked at him. “A lot has happened while you guys were gone.” She began to tell him everything that had happened while he and Tess were in New York.
* * * * * * * * * * *
When Tess walked in the door, she found Kyle cheering at a football game on TV. He turned when he heard her come in. “Where have you been? Dad was pretty upset when he found out you had just taken off with Max to the Big Apple. What happened?” he asked.
Tess was a little bit tired but she was starving. “I tell you what, let me take a quick shower because I feel disgusting. Then you can take me out for dinner and I’ll tell you all about it…if you really want to know,” she told him. She had no intention of telling him everything but she had to tell him something and he was really the only person on this stupid rock of a planet that she sort of cared about. He would never be what he wanted to her but he could be a good partner if she played her cards right.
“Sounds good but it’ll have to be cheap. I’m broke,” he answered absently, already back into the game.
She rolled her eyes at that. “What else is new?” she muttered as she closed the bathroom door.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Lucas ran his hand through his dark blond hair and looked over at Alex who sat looking worriedly at Leslie. She was seated on a chair at the kitchen table simply rocking back and forth, staring off into space. She had been that way since the two of them had forced her to come inside and placed her in that chair an hour and a half ago. Lucas said she just needed some time to gather herself together and that she was trying to reach out to Megan, which Alex didn’t really understand, but whenever Alex had tried to touch her she pulled away from him and yelled for him not to touch her. He was worried, not knowing how to help. When he whispered as much to her brother, he saw the concern in Lucas’s eyes when he looked over at her as well and then they had turned hard back to him. “You can help by telling us everything you know about the royal four,” he had told Alex in a razor sharp voice.
With anyone else, Alex would have run or at least thought about it first but he trusted these two people for some reason, especially Leslie, and if it would help to find Megan, he would tell them what he knew. So he didn’t hesitate and quickly told them everything he knew, which he quickly realized wasn’t much and he wasn’t sure Leslie had heard any of it anyway. He told them about Max saving Liz’s life in September and how they didn’t know who they were until Tess and Nesedo had shown up but they still didn’t know much.
Lucas asked questions occasionally but mostly let Alex do the talking. When he seemed to be finished, Lucas was sorely disappointed and his head was spinning with questions. “What about the others…the ones from New York? What do you know about them?” he asked.
“Not much. If you were with them there, you probably know more about them than I do. They said that Max, Isabel, Tess, and Michael were the originals but they were defective…too human was the way they put it.” Lucas snorted at that but let Alex continue. “They seemed to remember who they were but they also said that their Max, I don’t remember his name, had been killed in an accident…hit by a truck. I don’t remember much other than that,” Alex told him. He looked at Leslie again and asked, “Is she going to be ok? Shouldn’t we be out looking for Megan and Ava? Why would Ava take her anyway?”
“Look, Alex. I know this is all confusing but the explanations that you are asking for will take a long time. It’s getting late; are you sure you want to hear all of this now?” Lucas asked. “Besides, it sounds like I might have to explain everything all over again to the others if what you’re telling me is true.”
Alex folded his arms over his chest and was ready to repeat that he wasn’t leaving without an explanation when Leslie spoke up for the first time. “We have to tell him to protect him now, Lucas. He needs to know and then he needs to leave. I don’t want anything to happen to him,” she said hoarsely.
Lucas looked at her sympathetically and was pained to the heart to see the resignation and pain in his sister’s face. He didn’t know what to say to her request. “Leslie, I’m not leaving you…” Alex began but she interrupted him, moving to stand in front of him.
“Alex, I have come to care about you so much and I wish things could be different but if you get involved in this, the chances that you will lose your life are very high,” Leslie told him quietly, tears running down her face.
“But I already know about the alien thing, so I don’t understand…” he started again but again she stopped him.
“I know you don’t understand. I’m going to do my damnedest to make you understand and then I’m going to make sure that you leave,” she said, running a hand down the side of his face. Then she closed her eyes and put her forehead to his. “Because if anything happened to you because of me, I’d never be able to forgive myself,” she whispered.
Alex swallowed and his heart broke for her as he heard her genuine fear for him. He wondered just what it was that she could be involved in or tell him that would be so dangerous for him. “Tell me,” he whispered.
She abruptly pulled away at that and sighed. He felt the loss of her nearness immediately but he tried to pull himself together and prepare himself for what she could possibly tell him. “I guess I should begin by saying that we are of a race called Luinwe,” she told him. “Megan is half Luinwe and half Antarian…with a little human DNA obviously mixed in.”
Leslie was trying to think of where to go from there to tell their story when there was a knock at the door. Lucas walked over to the door and she followed him with her eyes. When he nodded she hung her head. Their time was up already. Freedom was no longer a word they could claim.
Continued in next post.
Last edited by littleroswell on Fri Oct 08, 2004 9:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
Max had listened to his sister and his eyes had grown wider and wider at her words. “Where is Ava now? I want to ask her a few questions,” he ground out.
“I don’t know. She said she was going to the bathroom and never came back. I don’t know whose side she’s on, Max, or Lucas. You know Michael so you know that he wanted to hold the interrogation right then and there and for once I almost let him have his way but I knew you would want to talk to him too and if you are our leader, you have the right and duty to be there for this. I just hope he kept his word and is still waiting for us. I’m glad you guys came back today,” she answered.
A few minutes later, Max had called Michael, Liz and Maria, and had tried to reach Tess but had gotten the answering machine at the Valenti’s. “I left a message for her and she should get it soon. I told her to meet us at the address Lucas gave you. Come on, we’re meeting the others there and we’re going to get some answers…now,” he told his sister.
Fifteen minutes later, they pulled into the driveway next to the Whitman residence to find that Michael was already there, and just as they were climbing out of the jeep, Maria and Liz pulled up in the Jetta. “I just don’t believe this! How in the world, excuse the expression, is it possible that all of the aliens on this big planet seem to find each other all here in Roswell, New Mexico?” Maria started babbling as soon as she got out of the car. “Is there some kind of special thing about this particular town out in the middle of a desert?”
“I don’t know but we’re gonna find out,” Max answered. They all stood behind him as he knocked on the door. He had thought about calling Alex but if he had to do something about Leslie, he didn’t want Alex to have to see it.
* * * * * * * * * * *
As Lucas opened the door, Leslie rushed to Alex’s side. “Whatever happens, Alex, know that I loved you. I know it was wrong but I did. And please don’t say anything about Megan,” she whispered quickly before fleeing to the other side of the room.
Before he could question her words, Lucas walked back into the room, followed by Max, Isabel, Michael, Liz, and Maria. The first thing Max took in was that Leslie was scared, really scared. He looked the blond guy over carefully and noticed that he too had fear in his eyes, although he hid it better. What could these people be afraid of? He nodded at Leslie and offered half a smile. She automatically smiled back but he noticed she was trembling. He also noticed that she was beautiful when she smiled. He hadn’t realized until seeing her again that he had missed her.
Max caught himself at that thought. He had missed her? Where had that come from? He barely knew Leslie and even what he had known had hidden that she was an alien but he had missed her? He started to sit down at the table but Lucas stopped him.
“There aren’t enough places for everyone to sit in here. How about we move this party into the living room?” he asked, gesturing toward the front of the house.
They all followed Lucas into the room and Leslie brought up the rear with Alex. Lucas sat down in an armchair and Max did the same. Isabel, Liz and Maria sat on the couch and Michael chose to stand. Alex sat on the floor and tried to pull Leslie to sit beside him but she refused and stood apart from the rest of the group. Michael took a head count automatically and realized a couple of people were missing. “Where’s Tess and Kyle?” he asked Max.
“I don’t know. I called the Valenti’s but got the machine. I left a message and they should be here soon. We can catch them up later,” he answered. Then he turned to Lucas. “You’re Lucas?” he stated more than asked.
Lucas nodded. “Yes, I’m Leslie’s brother Lucas although those are names we took here,” he answered.
“What do you mean ‘took here’?” Max asked. The others said nothing, letting Max take the lead.
“We’ve never had names. Leslie and Lucas were names we liked when we came to earth and they seemed to fit,” he answered. Lucas had decided that he would start by answering their questions. Telling them everything right now could be dangerous.
“What do you mean you’ve never had names? How could you not have names?” Maria asked, bewildered.
Lucas looked at her. “We were given designations, as all Luinwe are. We aren’t given names…as if we don’t deserve them,” he couldn’t help but add at the end of his thought.
Alex looked at Leslie. What in the world did that mean? He began to get an uneasy feeling in his gut about all of this. Just as Max was going to ask something else, Leslie looked at him and asked something that broke Alex’s heart.
“Do you know where Ava is? Do you know how to find her?” she asked him.
Max was confused by this question. “No, I don’t know where she is. Why?”
Leslie closed her eyes and hung her head but Alex decided to answer. “Because she ran off with Leslie’s daughter a couple of hours ago. We don’t know where she took her,” he told Max.
“Alex!” Lucas snapped at him. But it was too late. That was one cat that Lucas had vowed to keep in the bag. These people couldn’t find out about Megan.
“You have a daughter?” Max asked Leslie.
She nodded. “Yes, and she’s in danger if she’s with Ava. I can feel it. I can’t contact her and I should be able to. Please help me find her and I’ll answer all your questions,” she pleaded.
Max held the girl’s eyes for a few minutes, lost in their depths. Michael’s outburst brought him out of it. “Listen, whoever you are, you’re going to give us the answers we want no matter what. Do you understand?” he shouted.
Lucas stood up and started to get in Michael’s face but Max beat him to it. “Enough, Michael. She’s telling the truth about her daughter and we should help them. Ava might have seemed like the good person in the group from New York but she could have just been playing you guys. We help them find Leslie’s daughter and get answers at the same time. Ok?” he told his friend.
Michael glanced at Max and then his eyes returned to Leslie and Lucas. “Alright, fine,” he conceded. He went to stand by the window but was hanging on every word everyone said.
“How can we help?” Max asked the siblings.
“Alex said you went to New York. Who all did you meet? What did they say about Ava?” Lucas asked.
“I went to something they called a summit meeting and there were other aliens there, all representing the various planets of Antar. Lonnie and Rath were there and so was Nicholas. The only other name I remember was Larek’s,” Max answered. “They really didn’t mention Ava.”
“Nicholas was there? Did he try to negotiate with you? Did he have any interactions with Lonnie and Rath?” Lucas asked.
“He glanced at them and yes, he tried to negotiate something with me but I’m not telling you what until I have more reason to trust you,” Max answered honestly.
“Fair enough,” Lucas said, thinking.
“Listen, how do we find Ava? Why would she take a little girl?” Liz spoke up.
Leslie answered this one. “Because she’s an important person to whoever has her and that’s all we’re telling you without more reason to trust all of you.” Then she gasped and looked off into the distance.
Lucas turned to his sister. “What? What is it? What did you see?” he asked her.
“Megan, she broke through and sent me a picture of a road sign. It said, ‘I 40 E’ and then below that one, ‘Tucumcari 86 miles’,” Leslie told him. “That’s the way they’re headed. We have to go after them.”
“If they’re headed east on 40 then it’s a good guess to say that Ava is headed back to New York with her,” Isabel said.
“Then that’s where we have to go,” Lucas told them but he was looking at Max.
Everyone looked to Max for his decision. He was the leader, everyone acknowledged that even, though reluctantly, Max himself. He looked into the eyes of these two strangers and felt a pull inside. Quickly making a decision, he nodded. “Ok, we’ll go after them,” he said. Leslie and Lucas looked relieved and even grudgingly grateful. “But we’re going to get some answers on the way.”
“I don’t know. She said she was going to the bathroom and never came back. I don’t know whose side she’s on, Max, or Lucas. You know Michael so you know that he wanted to hold the interrogation right then and there and for once I almost let him have his way but I knew you would want to talk to him too and if you are our leader, you have the right and duty to be there for this. I just hope he kept his word and is still waiting for us. I’m glad you guys came back today,” she answered.
A few minutes later, Max had called Michael, Liz and Maria, and had tried to reach Tess but had gotten the answering machine at the Valenti’s. “I left a message for her and she should get it soon. I told her to meet us at the address Lucas gave you. Come on, we’re meeting the others there and we’re going to get some answers…now,” he told his sister.
Fifteen minutes later, they pulled into the driveway next to the Whitman residence to find that Michael was already there, and just as they were climbing out of the jeep, Maria and Liz pulled up in the Jetta. “I just don’t believe this! How in the world, excuse the expression, is it possible that all of the aliens on this big planet seem to find each other all here in Roswell, New Mexico?” Maria started babbling as soon as she got out of the car. “Is there some kind of special thing about this particular town out in the middle of a desert?”
“I don’t know but we’re gonna find out,” Max answered. They all stood behind him as he knocked on the door. He had thought about calling Alex but if he had to do something about Leslie, he didn’t want Alex to have to see it.
* * * * * * * * * * *
As Lucas opened the door, Leslie rushed to Alex’s side. “Whatever happens, Alex, know that I loved you. I know it was wrong but I did. And please don’t say anything about Megan,” she whispered quickly before fleeing to the other side of the room.
Before he could question her words, Lucas walked back into the room, followed by Max, Isabel, Michael, Liz, and Maria. The first thing Max took in was that Leslie was scared, really scared. He looked the blond guy over carefully and noticed that he too had fear in his eyes, although he hid it better. What could these people be afraid of? He nodded at Leslie and offered half a smile. She automatically smiled back but he noticed she was trembling. He also noticed that she was beautiful when she smiled. He hadn’t realized until seeing her again that he had missed her.
Max caught himself at that thought. He had missed her? Where had that come from? He barely knew Leslie and even what he had known had hidden that she was an alien but he had missed her? He started to sit down at the table but Lucas stopped him.
“There aren’t enough places for everyone to sit in here. How about we move this party into the living room?” he asked, gesturing toward the front of the house.
They all followed Lucas into the room and Leslie brought up the rear with Alex. Lucas sat down in an armchair and Max did the same. Isabel, Liz and Maria sat on the couch and Michael chose to stand. Alex sat on the floor and tried to pull Leslie to sit beside him but she refused and stood apart from the rest of the group. Michael took a head count automatically and realized a couple of people were missing. “Where’s Tess and Kyle?” he asked Max.
“I don’t know. I called the Valenti’s but got the machine. I left a message and they should be here soon. We can catch them up later,” he answered. Then he turned to Lucas. “You’re Lucas?” he stated more than asked.
Lucas nodded. “Yes, I’m Leslie’s brother Lucas although those are names we took here,” he answered.
“What do you mean ‘took here’?” Max asked. The others said nothing, letting Max take the lead.
“We’ve never had names. Leslie and Lucas were names we liked when we came to earth and they seemed to fit,” he answered. Lucas had decided that he would start by answering their questions. Telling them everything right now could be dangerous.
“What do you mean you’ve never had names? How could you not have names?” Maria asked, bewildered.
Lucas looked at her. “We were given designations, as all Luinwe are. We aren’t given names…as if we don’t deserve them,” he couldn’t help but add at the end of his thought.
Alex looked at Leslie. What in the world did that mean? He began to get an uneasy feeling in his gut about all of this. Just as Max was going to ask something else, Leslie looked at him and asked something that broke Alex’s heart.
“Do you know where Ava is? Do you know how to find her?” she asked him.
Max was confused by this question. “No, I don’t know where she is. Why?”
Leslie closed her eyes and hung her head but Alex decided to answer. “Because she ran off with Leslie’s daughter a couple of hours ago. We don’t know where she took her,” he told Max.
“Alex!” Lucas snapped at him. But it was too late. That was one cat that Lucas had vowed to keep in the bag. These people couldn’t find out about Megan.
“You have a daughter?” Max asked Leslie.
She nodded. “Yes, and she’s in danger if she’s with Ava. I can feel it. I can’t contact her and I should be able to. Please help me find her and I’ll answer all your questions,” she pleaded.
Max held the girl’s eyes for a few minutes, lost in their depths. Michael’s outburst brought him out of it. “Listen, whoever you are, you’re going to give us the answers we want no matter what. Do you understand?” he shouted.
Lucas stood up and started to get in Michael’s face but Max beat him to it. “Enough, Michael. She’s telling the truth about her daughter and we should help them. Ava might have seemed like the good person in the group from New York but she could have just been playing you guys. We help them find Leslie’s daughter and get answers at the same time. Ok?” he told his friend.
Michael glanced at Max and then his eyes returned to Leslie and Lucas. “Alright, fine,” he conceded. He went to stand by the window but was hanging on every word everyone said.
“How can we help?” Max asked the siblings.
“Alex said you went to New York. Who all did you meet? What did they say about Ava?” Lucas asked.
“I went to something they called a summit meeting and there were other aliens there, all representing the various planets of Antar. Lonnie and Rath were there and so was Nicholas. The only other name I remember was Larek’s,” Max answered. “They really didn’t mention Ava.”
“Nicholas was there? Did he try to negotiate with you? Did he have any interactions with Lonnie and Rath?” Lucas asked.
“He glanced at them and yes, he tried to negotiate something with me but I’m not telling you what until I have more reason to trust you,” Max answered honestly.
“Fair enough,” Lucas said, thinking.
“Listen, how do we find Ava? Why would she take a little girl?” Liz spoke up.
Leslie answered this one. “Because she’s an important person to whoever has her and that’s all we’re telling you without more reason to trust all of you.” Then she gasped and looked off into the distance.
Lucas turned to his sister. “What? What is it? What did you see?” he asked her.
“Megan, she broke through and sent me a picture of a road sign. It said, ‘I 40 E’ and then below that one, ‘Tucumcari 86 miles’,” Leslie told him. “That’s the way they’re headed. We have to go after them.”
“If they’re headed east on 40 then it’s a good guess to say that Ava is headed back to New York with her,” Isabel said.
“Then that’s where we have to go,” Lucas told them but he was looking at Max.
Everyone looked to Max for his decision. He was the leader, everyone acknowledged that even, though reluctantly, Max himself. He looked into the eyes of these two strangers and felt a pull inside. Quickly making a decision, he nodded. “Ok, we’ll go after them,” he said. Leslie and Lucas looked relieved and even grudgingly grateful. “But we’re going to get some answers on the way.”
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
Against My Programming
A/N: This part begins the explanations of things you have all been waiting for. I suggest you read these next few parts carefully because they are jam-packed.
Part 33 – “Chasing Ava”
“Ok, what are the riding arrangements because we can’t all get in one vehicle?” Maria asked as the group prepared to chase after Ava and Megan.
“Well, since I’m sure that Leslie and Lucas won’t want to tell their story and information twice, they should probably ride separately,” Liz suggested.
Michael jumped in before anyone else could say anything at that. “Keeping them separated is a good idea. It would help to keep them from trying anything funny,” he said.
Maria sighed and rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Like what, Michael? If they wanted to ‘try something’ they already would have. God, you are so annoying sometimes!” The others agreed with Maria.
“Ok, so Maria is driving the Jetta and I’ve got my jeep. Michael, you want to ride with Maria?” Max started organizing everyone.
“Perfect. I get lectures and arguments all the way to New York. Thanks a lot, Maxwell,” Michael muttered.
Maria glared at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Lucas spoke up after that. “I’ll ride with big mouthed Rath if you want to take Leslie with you,” he volunteered looking at Leslie and hoping she understood. When she nodded in agreement, he knew she understood.
“Well, I’d like to ride with Leslie so I guess I’m with Max,” Alex said.
Max turned to his sister and Liz next. “I guess that just leaves the two of you. Liz, I would like to talk to you about a couple of things so I’d like for you to ride with me if you don’t mind,” he told her.
Liz looked at Isabel, who shrugged, and then nodded at him. Leslie and Lucas started to follow the others out as they left the house, when Lucas pulled her into a hug. “We’ll find her, Les, I promise and she’ll be ok. Stay close to Alex and don’t do anything rash,” he told his sister.
“You either. Be careful being so close to Vilondra, even if she doesn’t remember who she is. Don’t let her touch you,” Leslie told him back.
They locked the door and walked to the cars where the others were opening doors and climbing in. “What are we going to tell our parents when we get back?” Maria asked. “I mean, we can’t keep disappearing like we do and not tell them something. When my mom finds out we went on a road trip to New York right after Thanksgiving break, she’s gonna ground me for life or worse, take my car keys for good.”
“And what about Tess and Kyle? We shouldn’t just leave them. Have you tried Kyle’s cell phone?” Isabel asked Max.
Max sighed. “I have no idea what we’re going to tell everyone’s parents, not even the Sheriff, although he’ll probably understand, but maybe we can figure it out while we’re gone. Just to be on the safe side, if anyone wants to bail out now and stay behind, I’ll understand and it might be better,” he answered Maria. Everyone looked at each other but no one made a move to leave or said a word. Then Max looked at his sister. “As for Kyle and Tess, I did try Kyle’s cell phone but it went straight to voice mail which means it is either off or he’s in a hole somewhere. We’ll try it on the road and maybe they can explain to the Sheriff or if they must they can try to catch up with us.”
They climbed into the two vehicles. Liz got in the front passenger seat so that Leslie and Alex could sit together in the back and that if Max wanted to talk to her without the others overhearing, he could. Michael told Maria he was driving and jumped in the seat with her complaining and yelling at him that it was her car as she climbed in the passenger seat. Lucas opened the door behind Michael and climbed in and that left Isabel to sit behind Maria.
As Max pulled onto the road and headed out of town, he told Liz to call Maria’s cell phone to make sure she had it on. After she had done so, Liz tried to call Kyle’s phone again but only got his voice mail again. No one noticed his mustang at the intersection of the road the Valenti’s lived on and the road out of town.
“Where are they going now?” Kyle asked Tess as he watched Max’s jeep and Maria’s Jetta speeding down the road.
Tess was just as confused as he was. They had gotten the message Max had left at the house and were heading for the address Max had directed them to. Jim had had to work late tonight so they hadn’t seen him at all. “I have no idea. I still don’t understand why they didn’t just call your cell phone in the first place.”
Kyle pulled his phone out to check it and blushed in embarrassment. “Well, they might have tried. I didn’t realize I didn’t have it on. I forgot I turned it off when the game came on because I thought if anyone wanted to reach me, I’d be home,” he told her sheepishly.
“Kyle!” Tess yelled. “You are such an idiot sometimes! Did they leave a message?”
He pushed a couple of buttons on the phone while he turned left to follow the others. He listened for a couple of minutes and flipped his phone off. “Yeah, they said they had to go out of town unexpectedly and we could stay here and they would call us to tell us what was going on but they didn’t want to leave it on a message. Should we still follow them? My dad is gonna be upset if we up and leave without any explanations.”
“We follow them. Give me the phone and I’ll try to call them,” Tess said, fear building up in her guts. Something wasn’t right. She dialed Max’s cell number and frowned when Liz picked up. “Liz, it’s Tess. I’m with Kyle and we saw you guys heading out of town. What’s up?” she asked, trying to sound normal.
Liz looked over at Max and mouthed one word “Tess” and when he shrugged, she decided to handle the situation. “Listen, Tess, I don’t know how much of your home world you remember and what all Nesedo told you but we found two people our age that claim to be some species called…oh it began with an ‘L’ but I can’t remember exactly what it was or how to say it. It’s something like Lou Ann Way or something. Does that ring any bells?”
Tess’s eyes went wide at Liz’s words. The Luinwe were here? What was going on? Oh why did she have to go out with Kyle to dinner instead of being available when they had called?! This very well could have been her ticket home and she might have missed it! “No, I don’t remember anything like that before. Most of my memories are more emotional…feeling based. Why? Who are they? Are they with you or are we going after them?” she asked, feigning ignorance.
Liz felt a flutter in the back of her mind as she listened to Tess but had no idea what it might mean. “They’re with us and they are going to tell us everything that they know about your past. We’re headed to New York. Are you guys behind us or are you staying in Roswell?” she told the blond. She purposely left out Megan and any reason why they were headed to New York but she had no idea why.
Liz’s words scared Tess more than anything had. They were going to tell them everything and they were headed to New York. If she didn’t do something quick, she would lose some valuable tickets home. Once Khivar had the Luinwe, and Max with them, there would be no reason to deal with anyone else. Her only chance was to make it seem like she was bringing them to him. This might work out even more to her advantage if she could figure out how to bring the granolith to New York with them but since she was the only one who knew where it was who was likely to give it to Khivar, she would be ok. There was only one thing that Khivar had wanted that she hadn’t been able to deliver on and she hoped that he would forgive her for that. “We’re behind you, Liz,” she answered her arch rival. “Kyle forgot he didn’t have his cell phone on but it’s on now. Keep us informed. By the way, why are we heading to New York?” she asked.
Not wanting to answer, Liz dodged the question by saying, “Oh, Tess, Maria is calling and I need to find out if something is wrong with her car. She was having trouble the other day. We’ll call you every once in a while to make sure you guys are still behind us and with us. Tell Kyle to catch up and be careful.”
Tess hung up with Liz, cursing under her breath when she started a mind warp on Kyle. She had to be careful that she only disguised what she was doing so he didn’t kill them both. When she had it under control, she dialed a number on her phone. Nicholas picked up on the other line. “Your majesty,” he answered sarcastically. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“I’ll cut to the chase, Nicholas. Tell Khivar that I am currently on my way to New York with the king, Vilondra and Rath and the two Luinwe. I want to make sure that I’m on my way home. I want a guarantee from you that I’ll be heading there soon,” Tess stated, deadly serious.
“Huh! Funny that you should bring them up, Tess,” Nicholas said, stressing her name. “You see, Ava just called saying that she was bringing the royal three to us with the Luinwe and a surprise. Now you know as well as I do that there can’t be two Ava’s that return to Antar so we have a problem.”
“What! That little tramp!” Tess yelled in surprise. She took several breaths to calm down, however, knowing that getting upset would only amuse Nicholas. “Listen, you little creep, I don’t know what her surprise is but it can’t be as good as what I have to offer.”
“I’m listening,” Nicholas told her.
“I’ve got the granolith and I know she can’t know where it is. Now I’m not bringing that with me but if I can get your word as well as Khivar’s that I’ve got passage home, I’ll tell you where to find it when we get there. Do we have a deal?” she negotiated.
There were a couple of moments of silence before Nicholas answered. “Khivar cannot promise anything until he knows what Ava has up her sleeves. However, unless she is carrying Xan’s child you have a deal.”
* * * * * * * * * *
“Ok, I guess you should start explaining everything. Michael’s no doubt interrogating Lucas as we speak and I’d rather not have him upset with me for not being a good leader,” Max told Leslie apologetically.
Leslie couldn’t believe his wonderful attitude toward her. It only reinforced that these people had no idea who they were. If they remembered would they treat her and Lucas the same as they used to on Antar? Like property? But if they didn’t get their memories back, could she and Lucas be set free legally? Her thoughts were broken by Alex covering her hand with his own.
“Hey, it’s going to be ok. Whatever you have to tell them, they’ll be ok with it, and it’ll all work out in the end,” he told her quietly. “These are good people.”
Leslie unbuckled her seat belt and, in complete defiance to everything she had ever been taught, allowed Alex to pull her into his arms in spite of Max’s presence. He placed a kiss on the top of her head and drank in her scent. Leslie had such a unique scent. It was like a house during the Christmas season when someone had been baking. The spices of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg came to mind. To Alex, though, it just brought the feeling of coming home and he realized just how much he had really missed her while she had been away.
“We don’t really know much about our own people, the Luinwe. We don’t know their history or their background or even where they came from or how they disappeared to so few,” Leslie began taking a deep breath. “Last I had heard, there were only three of us.”
“You, Lucas and Megan?” Max asked.
“Actually, I wasn’t including Megan. I was speaking of M-K, as his English designation would be, and before you ask, I have no idea where he is unless he’s still on Antar protecting the queen mother. I would have thought he had been sent here to help protect you but maybe they thought we would be able to handle it or maybe he was sent to New York with the others,” she answered.
Max and Liz looked at each other briefly, knowing that this description of this person’s role sounded familiar but wondering just who this “M-K” was. “Does the name ‘Luinwe’ mean something? I mean does it have an English translation?” Liz asked.
Leslie’s forehead and nose crinkled in thought. “I’m not sure it has an exact translation. I guess the closest I could come to a one word translation would be…changeling, um shapeshifter, or maybe metamorph would be better.”
The other three people in the car were shocked by her words and their eyes grew as big as saucers as they realized who “M-K” might be. “Shapeshifters? You mean like Nesedo? You can change forms?” Alex asked her. If this was true, what did she really look like? Was she 3 feet tall and green; he couldn’t help wondering.
“I don’t know what a ‘Nesedo’ is but sometimes, when we need to, we can change forms but our name means much more than just changing our appearance. What is ‘nesedo’?” Leslie inquired.
Alex and Max explained who Nesedo was. “I told you about him when I was telling you everything with Lucas in the house before the others got there,” Alex reminded her.
“I must have missed that part of the story while trying to contact Megan. He does sound like M-K, especially since he didn’t use a name but went by a title like ‘visitor’. Our name, thought, also includes changing who we are…how we act, our abilities, our personality, just about anything about us when we need to…or when our genetic superior wishes it,” Leslie continued.
“Ok, I have a million questions now but the ones that seem to stand out most are: What do the designations mean? Why do you have them instead of names? What happened to the rest of the Luinwe? And what and/or who is a genetic superior?” Liz questioned for all of them.
“The designations are, of course, the English translation but the first letter is always ‘F’, ‘M’, or ‘N’ for female, male, or neutral gender, which means they’ve been ‘fixed’. The second letter stands for the model or generation. Therefore, my designation is ‘F-L’ for the female version of the ‘L’ model or generation.”
“So Lucas would be ‘M-L’ right?” Alex verified.
“Right. The other Luinwe are kept in a secret lab somewhere on Antar as embryos. They aren’t allowed to grow until they are needed. I don’t know the history behind it, but the reason they are kept that way until ‘needed’ is so they won’t be able to revolt against their genetic superior.” Leslie took a breath before continuing. “The genetic superiors are always the royal children. When it was discovered that the queen mother was pregnant with twins, Lucas and I were chosen for the coming prince and princess. We were born, or hatched might be more appropriate, only a couple of months after they were. However, we were not presented to them until their 16th birthday, as is customary,” she explained as if reciting a passage she had been forced to remember.
“Wait a minute, back up. You’ve said that Luinwe are basically held in suspension until a royal child is expected and then one is grown and presented, with a designation not a name, to that child on its 16th birthday right?” Liz reiterated. Leslie nodded and Alex, Liz and Max got a sinking feeling in their stomachs. “What for exactly? I mean in what capacity? What is your purpose in this?”
“We are a race of slaves,” Leslie answered quietly. “We are genetically programmed to serve, obey and protect, by whatever means necessary, our genetic superiors…our masters.”
A/N: This part begins the explanations of things you have all been waiting for. I suggest you read these next few parts carefully because they are jam-packed.
Part 33 – “Chasing Ava”
“Ok, what are the riding arrangements because we can’t all get in one vehicle?” Maria asked as the group prepared to chase after Ava and Megan.
“Well, since I’m sure that Leslie and Lucas won’t want to tell their story and information twice, they should probably ride separately,” Liz suggested.
Michael jumped in before anyone else could say anything at that. “Keeping them separated is a good idea. It would help to keep them from trying anything funny,” he said.
Maria sighed and rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Like what, Michael? If they wanted to ‘try something’ they already would have. God, you are so annoying sometimes!” The others agreed with Maria.
“Ok, so Maria is driving the Jetta and I’ve got my jeep. Michael, you want to ride with Maria?” Max started organizing everyone.
“Perfect. I get lectures and arguments all the way to New York. Thanks a lot, Maxwell,” Michael muttered.
Maria glared at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Lucas spoke up after that. “I’ll ride with big mouthed Rath if you want to take Leslie with you,” he volunteered looking at Leslie and hoping she understood. When she nodded in agreement, he knew she understood.
“Well, I’d like to ride with Leslie so I guess I’m with Max,” Alex said.
Max turned to his sister and Liz next. “I guess that just leaves the two of you. Liz, I would like to talk to you about a couple of things so I’d like for you to ride with me if you don’t mind,” he told her.
Liz looked at Isabel, who shrugged, and then nodded at him. Leslie and Lucas started to follow the others out as they left the house, when Lucas pulled her into a hug. “We’ll find her, Les, I promise and she’ll be ok. Stay close to Alex and don’t do anything rash,” he told his sister.
“You either. Be careful being so close to Vilondra, even if she doesn’t remember who she is. Don’t let her touch you,” Leslie told him back.
They locked the door and walked to the cars where the others were opening doors and climbing in. “What are we going to tell our parents when we get back?” Maria asked. “I mean, we can’t keep disappearing like we do and not tell them something. When my mom finds out we went on a road trip to New York right after Thanksgiving break, she’s gonna ground me for life or worse, take my car keys for good.”
“And what about Tess and Kyle? We shouldn’t just leave them. Have you tried Kyle’s cell phone?” Isabel asked Max.
Max sighed. “I have no idea what we’re going to tell everyone’s parents, not even the Sheriff, although he’ll probably understand, but maybe we can figure it out while we’re gone. Just to be on the safe side, if anyone wants to bail out now and stay behind, I’ll understand and it might be better,” he answered Maria. Everyone looked at each other but no one made a move to leave or said a word. Then Max looked at his sister. “As for Kyle and Tess, I did try Kyle’s cell phone but it went straight to voice mail which means it is either off or he’s in a hole somewhere. We’ll try it on the road and maybe they can explain to the Sheriff or if they must they can try to catch up with us.”
They climbed into the two vehicles. Liz got in the front passenger seat so that Leslie and Alex could sit together in the back and that if Max wanted to talk to her without the others overhearing, he could. Michael told Maria he was driving and jumped in the seat with her complaining and yelling at him that it was her car as she climbed in the passenger seat. Lucas opened the door behind Michael and climbed in and that left Isabel to sit behind Maria.
As Max pulled onto the road and headed out of town, he told Liz to call Maria’s cell phone to make sure she had it on. After she had done so, Liz tried to call Kyle’s phone again but only got his voice mail again. No one noticed his mustang at the intersection of the road the Valenti’s lived on and the road out of town.
“Where are they going now?” Kyle asked Tess as he watched Max’s jeep and Maria’s Jetta speeding down the road.
Tess was just as confused as he was. They had gotten the message Max had left at the house and were heading for the address Max had directed them to. Jim had had to work late tonight so they hadn’t seen him at all. “I have no idea. I still don’t understand why they didn’t just call your cell phone in the first place.”
Kyle pulled his phone out to check it and blushed in embarrassment. “Well, they might have tried. I didn’t realize I didn’t have it on. I forgot I turned it off when the game came on because I thought if anyone wanted to reach me, I’d be home,” he told her sheepishly.
“Kyle!” Tess yelled. “You are such an idiot sometimes! Did they leave a message?”
He pushed a couple of buttons on the phone while he turned left to follow the others. He listened for a couple of minutes and flipped his phone off. “Yeah, they said they had to go out of town unexpectedly and we could stay here and they would call us to tell us what was going on but they didn’t want to leave it on a message. Should we still follow them? My dad is gonna be upset if we up and leave without any explanations.”
“We follow them. Give me the phone and I’ll try to call them,” Tess said, fear building up in her guts. Something wasn’t right. She dialed Max’s cell number and frowned when Liz picked up. “Liz, it’s Tess. I’m with Kyle and we saw you guys heading out of town. What’s up?” she asked, trying to sound normal.
Liz looked over at Max and mouthed one word “Tess” and when he shrugged, she decided to handle the situation. “Listen, Tess, I don’t know how much of your home world you remember and what all Nesedo told you but we found two people our age that claim to be some species called…oh it began with an ‘L’ but I can’t remember exactly what it was or how to say it. It’s something like Lou Ann Way or something. Does that ring any bells?”
Tess’s eyes went wide at Liz’s words. The Luinwe were here? What was going on? Oh why did she have to go out with Kyle to dinner instead of being available when they had called?! This very well could have been her ticket home and she might have missed it! “No, I don’t remember anything like that before. Most of my memories are more emotional…feeling based. Why? Who are they? Are they with you or are we going after them?” she asked, feigning ignorance.
Liz felt a flutter in the back of her mind as she listened to Tess but had no idea what it might mean. “They’re with us and they are going to tell us everything that they know about your past. We’re headed to New York. Are you guys behind us or are you staying in Roswell?” she told the blond. She purposely left out Megan and any reason why they were headed to New York but she had no idea why.
Liz’s words scared Tess more than anything had. They were going to tell them everything and they were headed to New York. If she didn’t do something quick, she would lose some valuable tickets home. Once Khivar had the Luinwe, and Max with them, there would be no reason to deal with anyone else. Her only chance was to make it seem like she was bringing them to him. This might work out even more to her advantage if she could figure out how to bring the granolith to New York with them but since she was the only one who knew where it was who was likely to give it to Khivar, she would be ok. There was only one thing that Khivar had wanted that she hadn’t been able to deliver on and she hoped that he would forgive her for that. “We’re behind you, Liz,” she answered her arch rival. “Kyle forgot he didn’t have his cell phone on but it’s on now. Keep us informed. By the way, why are we heading to New York?” she asked.
Not wanting to answer, Liz dodged the question by saying, “Oh, Tess, Maria is calling and I need to find out if something is wrong with her car. She was having trouble the other day. We’ll call you every once in a while to make sure you guys are still behind us and with us. Tell Kyle to catch up and be careful.”
Tess hung up with Liz, cursing under her breath when she started a mind warp on Kyle. She had to be careful that she only disguised what she was doing so he didn’t kill them both. When she had it under control, she dialed a number on her phone. Nicholas picked up on the other line. “Your majesty,” he answered sarcastically. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“I’ll cut to the chase, Nicholas. Tell Khivar that I am currently on my way to New York with the king, Vilondra and Rath and the two Luinwe. I want to make sure that I’m on my way home. I want a guarantee from you that I’ll be heading there soon,” Tess stated, deadly serious.
“Huh! Funny that you should bring them up, Tess,” Nicholas said, stressing her name. “You see, Ava just called saying that she was bringing the royal three to us with the Luinwe and a surprise. Now you know as well as I do that there can’t be two Ava’s that return to Antar so we have a problem.”
“What! That little tramp!” Tess yelled in surprise. She took several breaths to calm down, however, knowing that getting upset would only amuse Nicholas. “Listen, you little creep, I don’t know what her surprise is but it can’t be as good as what I have to offer.”
“I’m listening,” Nicholas told her.
“I’ve got the granolith and I know she can’t know where it is. Now I’m not bringing that with me but if I can get your word as well as Khivar’s that I’ve got passage home, I’ll tell you where to find it when we get there. Do we have a deal?” she negotiated.
There were a couple of moments of silence before Nicholas answered. “Khivar cannot promise anything until he knows what Ava has up her sleeves. However, unless she is carrying Xan’s child you have a deal.”
* * * * * * * * * *
“Ok, I guess you should start explaining everything. Michael’s no doubt interrogating Lucas as we speak and I’d rather not have him upset with me for not being a good leader,” Max told Leslie apologetically.
Leslie couldn’t believe his wonderful attitude toward her. It only reinforced that these people had no idea who they were. If they remembered would they treat her and Lucas the same as they used to on Antar? Like property? But if they didn’t get their memories back, could she and Lucas be set free legally? Her thoughts were broken by Alex covering her hand with his own.
“Hey, it’s going to be ok. Whatever you have to tell them, they’ll be ok with it, and it’ll all work out in the end,” he told her quietly. “These are good people.”
Leslie unbuckled her seat belt and, in complete defiance to everything she had ever been taught, allowed Alex to pull her into his arms in spite of Max’s presence. He placed a kiss on the top of her head and drank in her scent. Leslie had such a unique scent. It was like a house during the Christmas season when someone had been baking. The spices of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg came to mind. To Alex, though, it just brought the feeling of coming home and he realized just how much he had really missed her while she had been away.
“We don’t really know much about our own people, the Luinwe. We don’t know their history or their background or even where they came from or how they disappeared to so few,” Leslie began taking a deep breath. “Last I had heard, there were only three of us.”
“You, Lucas and Megan?” Max asked.
“Actually, I wasn’t including Megan. I was speaking of M-K, as his English designation would be, and before you ask, I have no idea where he is unless he’s still on Antar protecting the queen mother. I would have thought he had been sent here to help protect you but maybe they thought we would be able to handle it or maybe he was sent to New York with the others,” she answered.
Max and Liz looked at each other briefly, knowing that this description of this person’s role sounded familiar but wondering just who this “M-K” was. “Does the name ‘Luinwe’ mean something? I mean does it have an English translation?” Liz asked.
Leslie’s forehead and nose crinkled in thought. “I’m not sure it has an exact translation. I guess the closest I could come to a one word translation would be…changeling, um shapeshifter, or maybe metamorph would be better.”
The other three people in the car were shocked by her words and their eyes grew as big as saucers as they realized who “M-K” might be. “Shapeshifters? You mean like Nesedo? You can change forms?” Alex asked her. If this was true, what did she really look like? Was she 3 feet tall and green; he couldn’t help wondering.
“I don’t know what a ‘Nesedo’ is but sometimes, when we need to, we can change forms but our name means much more than just changing our appearance. What is ‘nesedo’?” Leslie inquired.
Alex and Max explained who Nesedo was. “I told you about him when I was telling you everything with Lucas in the house before the others got there,” Alex reminded her.
“I must have missed that part of the story while trying to contact Megan. He does sound like M-K, especially since he didn’t use a name but went by a title like ‘visitor’. Our name, thought, also includes changing who we are…how we act, our abilities, our personality, just about anything about us when we need to…or when our genetic superior wishes it,” Leslie continued.
“Ok, I have a million questions now but the ones that seem to stand out most are: What do the designations mean? Why do you have them instead of names? What happened to the rest of the Luinwe? And what and/or who is a genetic superior?” Liz questioned for all of them.
“The designations are, of course, the English translation but the first letter is always ‘F’, ‘M’, or ‘N’ for female, male, or neutral gender, which means they’ve been ‘fixed’. The second letter stands for the model or generation. Therefore, my designation is ‘F-L’ for the female version of the ‘L’ model or generation.”
“So Lucas would be ‘M-L’ right?” Alex verified.
“Right. The other Luinwe are kept in a secret lab somewhere on Antar as embryos. They aren’t allowed to grow until they are needed. I don’t know the history behind it, but the reason they are kept that way until ‘needed’ is so they won’t be able to revolt against their genetic superior.” Leslie took a breath before continuing. “The genetic superiors are always the royal children. When it was discovered that the queen mother was pregnant with twins, Lucas and I were chosen for the coming prince and princess. We were born, or hatched might be more appropriate, only a couple of months after they were. However, we were not presented to them until their 16th birthday, as is customary,” she explained as if reciting a passage she had been forced to remember.
“Wait a minute, back up. You’ve said that Luinwe are basically held in suspension until a royal child is expected and then one is grown and presented, with a designation not a name, to that child on its 16th birthday right?” Liz reiterated. Leslie nodded and Alex, Liz and Max got a sinking feeling in their stomachs. “What for exactly? I mean in what capacity? What is your purpose in this?”
“We are a race of slaves,” Leslie answered quietly. “We are genetically programmed to serve, obey and protect, by whatever means necessary, our genetic superiors…our masters.”
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
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littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
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Ok, everyone, here is the next part! Enjoy! Hope you like it enough to keep reading and leaving fb! LOL! Thanks goes to Bob for his getting this back when he's so busy! You're the best, bud.
Beth
Against My Programming
A/N: This part continues the explanations of things you have all been waiting for. I suggest you read these few parts carefully because they are jam-packed. Flashback in italics toward the end.
Part 34 – “Continuing Explanations”
“The Luinwe are a race of slaves?!” Alex and Liz asked at the same time.
“Yes, we are slaves to the royal family and especially and specifically our genetic superiors. Lucas and I are genetically programmed to obey, serve, and protect all members of the royal four and the queen mother but our priorities are to Xan and Vilondra. They come first. So when they are in trouble or give an order, their words take precedence over anyone else, and that includes the queen mother,” Leslie told them.
“So you kind of…um belong to Isabel and Lucas belongs to me?” Max asked uncomfortably. He didn’t like the way that sounded but he wanted to clear up just exactly what the situation was here.
“Actually, in order to be everything the royal personage might need, they are given a Luinwe of the opposite gender,” she answered in a barely audible voice.
“So you actually belong to Max and Lucas to Isabel,” Liz stated to clarify.
“If they are the real Xan and Vilondra,” Leslie confirmed. “We were told that if something happened in this war that we would be recreated and sent with them to continue our roles as their slaves and protectors but we didn’t know anything about more than one set. Are there just the two sets or are there more?” She addressed this last question to Max.
“I have no idea. We didn’t know anything about that group from New York until just recently and they turned out to be nothing like us,” Max said with a sigh. He had been wondering the same thing and hoped his declaration about their differences were true. He believed that Isabel would never betray him…or Michael either for that matter, but he also hoped they all weren’t as cold hearted as the others had seemed to be.
“You said that you become whatever is needed. What does that mean?” Liz asked.
Leslie looked out the window and seemed to pull away from Alex a little. “That means that if our superior needs a friend we become a friend, if they need a protector we become a bodyguard or protector…and that includes changing forms and killing others if we need to. It means that we become whatever we need to be, whatever we need to look like, to fulfill our jobs…our purpose. It is our sole purpose in living. In fact, if we fail to fulfill those responsibilities, we have no reason to continue living and therefore don’t.”
“What do you mean you don’t continue living if you fail?” Max inquired, his stomach in knots in anticipation of the answer.
Leslie met his eyes in the rearview mirror. “That means that if you die, I die. If Isabel dies, Lucas dies. That is if you are the real Xan and Vilondra. It does not work the other way around, however.” She looked back to the window as the others let her words sink in. “And I guess we have no way of knowing if you are the real Xan for sure except that the other you from New York is supposedly dead and I’m not.”
She added that last part as almost a thought to herself but Max heard her and spoke up. “Um, actually, I don’t know if it makes a difference but I had to pass a test before the summit meeting and I did. I carry some kind of seal inside my head. Rath said that it must be ‘stenciled to my brain,’” he told her.
“Wait a minute! Let’s back up here,” Alex broke in. “You can’t mean what you said about if Max dies you die. How would that possibly work? How can any race justify treating people that way?” he asked upset.
Leslie looked at him and matched his tone. “Don’t you get it yet, Alex? We aren’t people on Antar. We are property! We are lower than pets. We aren’t allowed to do anything without permission. We cannot be away from our superiors because we have to be able to protect them and answer their every whim, wish, order, and/or desire. We have no permanent personality or identity of our own because if Xan wanted me to be short, I shrunk a couple of inches. If he wanted me to be blond, I was blond. Remember when my eyes were blue and then suddenly they were brown? I had no control over that…there were no contacts. In fact, in the last few months I have gone back and forth from a curly haired blond to a wavy haired brunette. As a blond, my eyes were a sapphire blue. As the brunette, they were the brown. I have no way of controlling that! That’s why I went back to dying it black. My body…my genes hear what Xan wants and delivers. End of story!”
“Oh my god!” Liz said, suddenly feeling ill. “Tess…me,” she whispered. Noticing the confused and questioning look on Max’s face, she turned to him. “Max, you were attracted to Tess when she first came to Roswell. She has the curly blond hair and the blue eyes. You also were attracted to me, the brunette with brown eyes. Leslie’s changing is because she is linked to you.”
* * * * * * * * * *
“I don’t believe it. I just don’t believe it!” Maria was shaking her head in disgust in the Jetta. “How can a race that is so…advanced have so much control over a particular race? How is that legally allowed?”
Isabel couldn’t believe what she was hearing either. “Does that mean that you and I were…I mean were you also supposed to…” she tried to ask.
Lucas closed his eyes and nodded. “Yeah, we’re also concubines. If you’re looking for something new and exciting, try a Luinwe. They can be a different flavor every night,” he spoke like a TV announcer. “But we thought Xan and Vilondra were different. They said they were,” he said softly, as if to himself.
“What do you mean?” Isabel asked, hoping to hear something good out of all of this.
Lucas seemed to come out of his thoughts and looked into her face. How much should he reveal about her own past? Making a decision, he kept his answer short. “They gave us much more freedoms than most of their predecessors. They told us they considered us friends. At one time, Vilondra promised to look into getting us set free.”
Michael looked at him sharply. “There’s a way for you to be set free?” he asked.
“Yes, but it is a complicated process and I don’t know all of it. I know that our programming would have to be completely awakened first and that is something I dread right now,” he answered.
“What do you mean about the programming thingy?” Maria asked.
“When this war started on Antar, the scientists who prepared for the recreation of the royal four also prepared for us to go with them. I paid attention to the process and figured out how to reconstruct the process for Megan. In case something happened, they didn’t specify what, they put in a kind of safety switch to our programming. It would be dormant until the royal four touched us and awakened it. I can only think that they were thinking if we were separated it wouldn’t draw attention to everyone by Leslie and me running off to save the royal four at only a young age. I don’t know all their reasons behind this,” he told them with a shrug. “I’ll be honest and say that I was debating whether to tell you that part or not…the part about how to awaken our programming. As soon as it is fully awakened, Leslie and I no longer have any independence.”
Isabel’s face showed her sympathy and she had to stop herself from reaching to pat his back or take his hand. “I promise I won’t touch you unless I absolutely have to. I don’t remember being Vilondra but I promise I’ll try to find a way to get you both set free,” she told him.
Lucas looked deep into her eyes and saw the woman he used to serve inside of her and his heart hurt at the thought. No one had known about their feelings…about their plans, not even Leslie. He only hoped that Isabel was the real Vilondra and would be able to keep her word.
“What about Rath?” Maria asked. “I can’t imagine that he would be happy to have his ‘betrothed’ sleeping with someone else.”
Michael frowned at that thought. “Yeah, I can tell you that even though I don’t care about Isabel like that, if we were married for some reason I wouldn’t want her sleeping with you.”
“It was different on Antar. Your feelings for each other obviously haven’t changed as you were basically friends even then. Rath had married Vilondra for political reasons and it had been arranged, but he knew about the Luinwe arrangement and was fine with it. Besides, as the leader of Xan’s army and his second-hand man, he wasn’t home very much and Vilondra needed the company. It is my job…my entire existence is only to keep her alive and happy,” Lucas told them.
Isabel felt something stirring inside of her as if her memories were trying to surface but she couldn’t quite reach them…they stayed just out of her reach. “What about Khivar? I was told that I had been in love with him and that I betrayed Xan for him. Is that true?” she asked.
Lucas’s face wrinkled in mild disgust. “God, I would hope not. Khivar is your cousin…and Xan’s. He was quite a few years older than the both of you and his parents died when he was very young. His mother was the younger sibling of King Yvan, Xan and Vilondra’s father and they were close so when Khivar was left an orphan, Yvan took him into his home and had him raised as a prince…which in a way he was. Queen Larina had problems conceiving and so Yvan began to treat Khivar as his heir. However, after the twins came along, Khivar could tell the difference in his treatment and he didn’t like it.”
“I don’t understand why I don’t recognize any of those names. They are my family members’ names and I don’t remember them at all,” Isabel lamented.
“Yeah, but do they sound really foreign to you like they do to me?” Maria asked curious.
Isabel shook her head. “No, they don’t. Maybe that means something.” She shrugged when she couldn’t think of what or remember anything.
Michael spoke up again, backtracking a little. “Isabel, I was thinking about your comment about Khivar. You told me what Whitaker said a couple of days ago and maybe she wasn’t talking about Khivar or maybe she didn’t mean it in a romantic way.”
Lucas looked at Isabel. “Who and what is he talking about?” he asked.
“Congresswoman Whitaker was a skin. She told me about who I was. She said that my name had been Vilondra and that I had had a great love. She also said I had betrayed my brother and my race for him and for them…I guess she meant the skins. I thought she meant that I was in love with Khivar,” Isabel explained. When Lucas’s eyes closed at her words, almost as if in pain, she got worried. “What? What is it?”
“Khivar wasn’t the great love she was referring to, although you did love your cousin and were upset about his wanting to over throw Xan as king. I…I don’t know anything about your involvement with the skins or Khivar or any betrayal,” he said quietly.
“But you know who the great love was that she spoke of?” she asked him.
“Yeah, I know who it was. No one knew about it that I know of, not even Leslie, but you said you had fallen in love with me. I was that great love,” he told her softly so the other two wouldn’t hear.
* * * * * * * * * * *
“Ok, so if you are supposed to be everything to Max, or to Xan rather, that he might need does that include…um, I’m not sure how to ask this…” Liz faltered.
Alex and Max looked confused but Leslie knew exactly what Liz was asking and nodded. “Yes, that includes being his concubine, when he needed one,” she said quietly.
Her words stunned the guys and for a moment there was complete silence. Then something clicked with Alex and he was upset. “Are you telling me that Max is Megan’s father?!” he yelled, unconsciously pulling away from her.
His actions hurt but Leslie took a deep breath and looked to the rearview mirror where Max’s wide eyes were waiting for her to answer. “Yes, she is Xan’s daughter,” she whispered. Tears fell down her face and she looked down at her lap as she wiped them away. Her memories seemed to overwhelm her for a moment and the others were too shocked to say anything so it was she who broke the silence again. “He didn’t know about her. I never told him. I had broken one of the rules for the Luinwe and I could be in serious trouble for it.”
“You fell in love with your superior,” Liz said softly as Leslie had to take a breath to collect herself together.
She looked up at that, into Liz’s understanding face and shook her head. “No, we are encouraged to love them…it makes it easier to accept our life, our fate, and also makes us better at our jobs to please and protect them. No, the rule I broke was an unwritten rule, one that I had hoped Xan would let me get away with. I had his child. The Luinwe are property and therefore are not supposed to have their superior’s child, especially if it would be the heir to the throne’s child. Most of the time, I kept all thoughts of children from my mind; it’s a kind of Luinwe birth control, but after a while, I wanted Xan to love me too. I wanted to carry his child. I wanted a child period and so I let myself get pregnant. The thing is, if we get pregnant, we are supposed to get rid of it. Sometimes the genetic superiors in the past had the Luinwe created so that they were ‘fixed’ so they can’t have children anyway but it does something to the Luinwe to be that way…I can’t explain it.
“I thought Xan really cared about me, he said he did and he had promised me freedom,” she said as if from far away. “But then one day, a day not long before he was to be married to Ava, he came to me and we were…um together and I allowed myself to conceive then, hoping that he would keep his promise and maybe end up marrying me and our child would be the heir to the throne. I was so stupid! I had pulled away from my brother, argued with him that Xan was different, that he would keep his promise and eventually set us free. But Xan disappointed me. Right after being with me, I asked him about his promise…” As Leslie told the story, she had no idea she was projecting the images from that day to Alex, who was holding her hand, and to Liz, who was patting Alex’s hand in comfort.
Xan hugged F-L to his chest and rubbed his fingertips along her arm. “Xan?” she inquired softly.
“Hmm?” he answered, already half asleep.
“When you set M-L and me free, do you think you’ll still want to be with me? I mean, will you still have to marry Ava or can we be together? I know it would be a new precedent but then so is setting us free, and I know I could make you happy, Xan,” F-L told him, getting more excited by the thought of them together and their child growing inside of her.
Xan pulled away from her and wouldn’t meet her eyes. He sat up and started to get dressed. “Xan? What’s wrong?” she asked. She could always read his emotions and he was upset about something.
“F-L, I…I have something I have to tell you and I’m afraid that it’s going to be hard for you to hear, but I hope you’ll believe me when I say it will be just as hard for me to say it,” Xan said, swallowing and looking at her with what she realized later was pity. She just nodded so he went on. “I can’t set you and M-L free,” he said to the floor.
“What? What do you mean you can’t set us free? Xan, you…you promised!” she accused, tears forming in her eyes.
“I know…I know I promised but it just isn’t possible right now. I can’t go into the details but please believe me that I will continue to look into it and try to find a way. Right now, though, as far as I can see, there is no way I can give you your freedom,” he pleaded with her to understand, holding her hands.
“I trusted you…against all past examples, against my brother’s words, even in spite of this stupid programming. I trusted you!” she whispered harshly. Her tears flowed freely now and she couldn’t help but turn away from him.
She felt his weight leave the bed and heard him open the door. “I am sorry, F-L,” he said softly as he left the room, the door clicking softly behind him.
“He went back on his word?!” Liz asked in disbelief. “I don’t understand. How could he do that?”
Leslie shook her head to clear away the cobwebs that had gathered to be able to continue. “I don’t understand it either but it was only a few days later that he married Ava and everything changed. He became more demanding, not of me necessarily as he never even looked at me much again, but of everyone. He…he changed. He became more harsh and short tempered, even cruel. He never sent for me anymore, not to talk, not to run things by me to see how they sounded, not for anything. It was kind of a good thing he didn’t because it made it easier for me to stay in my area of the palace that he had set aside for me until Megan was born. Lucas was there for me as much as possible but he had his duties to Vilondra too. I kept expecting him to say ‘I told you so’ or scold me for being so stupid as to think I could get away with my foolishness but he never did. I’ll never understand how he could be so supportive but I’ll never forget or be able to repay him for it.”
Max was stunned by everything that he had heard. Liz noticed that he seemed to be in shock. He looked at the girl in the rearview mirror. “Leslie, I don’t remember any of this. As far as I, Max Evans, am concerned, I’m so terribly sorry about everything that happened to you but I can’t think of it as me doing it to you.”
Leslie shrugged. “I don’t know what to say either, Max, because I could forgive everything that he had done, even lying to me about my freedom, except for one thing and after that, I learned that it was possible to love and hate a person at the same time. I still love, hate, and fear Xan…especially now that I found Alex. I don’t want anything to happen to him if you get your memories of being Xan back.”
“What do you mean? What would happen to me?” Alex asked fearfully.
Leslie looked at him apologetically. “Alex, to be with a Luinwe that belongs to the king is like stealing his horse or some other valuable piece of property. It is considered treason and is punishable by death. Now do you understand why I didn’t want you to be with me? Why I kept pushing you away? I can legally be put to death for being with you too but I don’t care about me. I want you to live a long life, free from anything having to do with this horrible situation.”
“Alex could be put to death for treason even though he’s human?” Liz asked angrily. This culture Max came from sure sounded backwards and barbaric to her, despite their technology.
“Yes, and so could I and Megan and Lucas and anyone else who helped us to be together or supported it. I only pray that you, Max, never get your memories and decide to carry out your rights in that law,” Leslie stated, meeting his eyes in the mirror.
Beth
Against My Programming
A/N: This part continues the explanations of things you have all been waiting for. I suggest you read these few parts carefully because they are jam-packed. Flashback in italics toward the end.
Part 34 – “Continuing Explanations”
“The Luinwe are a race of slaves?!” Alex and Liz asked at the same time.
“Yes, we are slaves to the royal family and especially and specifically our genetic superiors. Lucas and I are genetically programmed to obey, serve, and protect all members of the royal four and the queen mother but our priorities are to Xan and Vilondra. They come first. So when they are in trouble or give an order, their words take precedence over anyone else, and that includes the queen mother,” Leslie told them.
“So you kind of…um belong to Isabel and Lucas belongs to me?” Max asked uncomfortably. He didn’t like the way that sounded but he wanted to clear up just exactly what the situation was here.
“Actually, in order to be everything the royal personage might need, they are given a Luinwe of the opposite gender,” she answered in a barely audible voice.
“So you actually belong to Max and Lucas to Isabel,” Liz stated to clarify.
“If they are the real Xan and Vilondra,” Leslie confirmed. “We were told that if something happened in this war that we would be recreated and sent with them to continue our roles as their slaves and protectors but we didn’t know anything about more than one set. Are there just the two sets or are there more?” She addressed this last question to Max.
“I have no idea. We didn’t know anything about that group from New York until just recently and they turned out to be nothing like us,” Max said with a sigh. He had been wondering the same thing and hoped his declaration about their differences were true. He believed that Isabel would never betray him…or Michael either for that matter, but he also hoped they all weren’t as cold hearted as the others had seemed to be.
“You said that you become whatever is needed. What does that mean?” Liz asked.
Leslie looked out the window and seemed to pull away from Alex a little. “That means that if our superior needs a friend we become a friend, if they need a protector we become a bodyguard or protector…and that includes changing forms and killing others if we need to. It means that we become whatever we need to be, whatever we need to look like, to fulfill our jobs…our purpose. It is our sole purpose in living. In fact, if we fail to fulfill those responsibilities, we have no reason to continue living and therefore don’t.”
“What do you mean you don’t continue living if you fail?” Max inquired, his stomach in knots in anticipation of the answer.
Leslie met his eyes in the rearview mirror. “That means that if you die, I die. If Isabel dies, Lucas dies. That is if you are the real Xan and Vilondra. It does not work the other way around, however.” She looked back to the window as the others let her words sink in. “And I guess we have no way of knowing if you are the real Xan for sure except that the other you from New York is supposedly dead and I’m not.”
She added that last part as almost a thought to herself but Max heard her and spoke up. “Um, actually, I don’t know if it makes a difference but I had to pass a test before the summit meeting and I did. I carry some kind of seal inside my head. Rath said that it must be ‘stenciled to my brain,’” he told her.
“Wait a minute! Let’s back up here,” Alex broke in. “You can’t mean what you said about if Max dies you die. How would that possibly work? How can any race justify treating people that way?” he asked upset.
Leslie looked at him and matched his tone. “Don’t you get it yet, Alex? We aren’t people on Antar. We are property! We are lower than pets. We aren’t allowed to do anything without permission. We cannot be away from our superiors because we have to be able to protect them and answer their every whim, wish, order, and/or desire. We have no permanent personality or identity of our own because if Xan wanted me to be short, I shrunk a couple of inches. If he wanted me to be blond, I was blond. Remember when my eyes were blue and then suddenly they were brown? I had no control over that…there were no contacts. In fact, in the last few months I have gone back and forth from a curly haired blond to a wavy haired brunette. As a blond, my eyes were a sapphire blue. As the brunette, they were the brown. I have no way of controlling that! That’s why I went back to dying it black. My body…my genes hear what Xan wants and delivers. End of story!”
“Oh my god!” Liz said, suddenly feeling ill. “Tess…me,” she whispered. Noticing the confused and questioning look on Max’s face, she turned to him. “Max, you were attracted to Tess when she first came to Roswell. She has the curly blond hair and the blue eyes. You also were attracted to me, the brunette with brown eyes. Leslie’s changing is because she is linked to you.”
* * * * * * * * * *
“I don’t believe it. I just don’t believe it!” Maria was shaking her head in disgust in the Jetta. “How can a race that is so…advanced have so much control over a particular race? How is that legally allowed?”
Isabel couldn’t believe what she was hearing either. “Does that mean that you and I were…I mean were you also supposed to…” she tried to ask.
Lucas closed his eyes and nodded. “Yeah, we’re also concubines. If you’re looking for something new and exciting, try a Luinwe. They can be a different flavor every night,” he spoke like a TV announcer. “But we thought Xan and Vilondra were different. They said they were,” he said softly, as if to himself.
“What do you mean?” Isabel asked, hoping to hear something good out of all of this.
Lucas seemed to come out of his thoughts and looked into her face. How much should he reveal about her own past? Making a decision, he kept his answer short. “They gave us much more freedoms than most of their predecessors. They told us they considered us friends. At one time, Vilondra promised to look into getting us set free.”
Michael looked at him sharply. “There’s a way for you to be set free?” he asked.
“Yes, but it is a complicated process and I don’t know all of it. I know that our programming would have to be completely awakened first and that is something I dread right now,” he answered.
“What do you mean about the programming thingy?” Maria asked.
“When this war started on Antar, the scientists who prepared for the recreation of the royal four also prepared for us to go with them. I paid attention to the process and figured out how to reconstruct the process for Megan. In case something happened, they didn’t specify what, they put in a kind of safety switch to our programming. It would be dormant until the royal four touched us and awakened it. I can only think that they were thinking if we were separated it wouldn’t draw attention to everyone by Leslie and me running off to save the royal four at only a young age. I don’t know all their reasons behind this,” he told them with a shrug. “I’ll be honest and say that I was debating whether to tell you that part or not…the part about how to awaken our programming. As soon as it is fully awakened, Leslie and I no longer have any independence.”
Isabel’s face showed her sympathy and she had to stop herself from reaching to pat his back or take his hand. “I promise I won’t touch you unless I absolutely have to. I don’t remember being Vilondra but I promise I’ll try to find a way to get you both set free,” she told him.
Lucas looked deep into her eyes and saw the woman he used to serve inside of her and his heart hurt at the thought. No one had known about their feelings…about their plans, not even Leslie. He only hoped that Isabel was the real Vilondra and would be able to keep her word.
“What about Rath?” Maria asked. “I can’t imagine that he would be happy to have his ‘betrothed’ sleeping with someone else.”
Michael frowned at that thought. “Yeah, I can tell you that even though I don’t care about Isabel like that, if we were married for some reason I wouldn’t want her sleeping with you.”
“It was different on Antar. Your feelings for each other obviously haven’t changed as you were basically friends even then. Rath had married Vilondra for political reasons and it had been arranged, but he knew about the Luinwe arrangement and was fine with it. Besides, as the leader of Xan’s army and his second-hand man, he wasn’t home very much and Vilondra needed the company. It is my job…my entire existence is only to keep her alive and happy,” Lucas told them.
Isabel felt something stirring inside of her as if her memories were trying to surface but she couldn’t quite reach them…they stayed just out of her reach. “What about Khivar? I was told that I had been in love with him and that I betrayed Xan for him. Is that true?” she asked.
Lucas’s face wrinkled in mild disgust. “God, I would hope not. Khivar is your cousin…and Xan’s. He was quite a few years older than the both of you and his parents died when he was very young. His mother was the younger sibling of King Yvan, Xan and Vilondra’s father and they were close so when Khivar was left an orphan, Yvan took him into his home and had him raised as a prince…which in a way he was. Queen Larina had problems conceiving and so Yvan began to treat Khivar as his heir. However, after the twins came along, Khivar could tell the difference in his treatment and he didn’t like it.”
“I don’t understand why I don’t recognize any of those names. They are my family members’ names and I don’t remember them at all,” Isabel lamented.
“Yeah, but do they sound really foreign to you like they do to me?” Maria asked curious.
Isabel shook her head. “No, they don’t. Maybe that means something.” She shrugged when she couldn’t think of what or remember anything.
Michael spoke up again, backtracking a little. “Isabel, I was thinking about your comment about Khivar. You told me what Whitaker said a couple of days ago and maybe she wasn’t talking about Khivar or maybe she didn’t mean it in a romantic way.”
Lucas looked at Isabel. “Who and what is he talking about?” he asked.
“Congresswoman Whitaker was a skin. She told me about who I was. She said that my name had been Vilondra and that I had had a great love. She also said I had betrayed my brother and my race for him and for them…I guess she meant the skins. I thought she meant that I was in love with Khivar,” Isabel explained. When Lucas’s eyes closed at her words, almost as if in pain, she got worried. “What? What is it?”
“Khivar wasn’t the great love she was referring to, although you did love your cousin and were upset about his wanting to over throw Xan as king. I…I don’t know anything about your involvement with the skins or Khivar or any betrayal,” he said quietly.
“But you know who the great love was that she spoke of?” she asked him.
“Yeah, I know who it was. No one knew about it that I know of, not even Leslie, but you said you had fallen in love with me. I was that great love,” he told her softly so the other two wouldn’t hear.
* * * * * * * * * * *
“Ok, so if you are supposed to be everything to Max, or to Xan rather, that he might need does that include…um, I’m not sure how to ask this…” Liz faltered.
Alex and Max looked confused but Leslie knew exactly what Liz was asking and nodded. “Yes, that includes being his concubine, when he needed one,” she said quietly.
Her words stunned the guys and for a moment there was complete silence. Then something clicked with Alex and he was upset. “Are you telling me that Max is Megan’s father?!” he yelled, unconsciously pulling away from her.
His actions hurt but Leslie took a deep breath and looked to the rearview mirror where Max’s wide eyes were waiting for her to answer. “Yes, she is Xan’s daughter,” she whispered. Tears fell down her face and she looked down at her lap as she wiped them away. Her memories seemed to overwhelm her for a moment and the others were too shocked to say anything so it was she who broke the silence again. “He didn’t know about her. I never told him. I had broken one of the rules for the Luinwe and I could be in serious trouble for it.”
“You fell in love with your superior,” Liz said softly as Leslie had to take a breath to collect herself together.
She looked up at that, into Liz’s understanding face and shook her head. “No, we are encouraged to love them…it makes it easier to accept our life, our fate, and also makes us better at our jobs to please and protect them. No, the rule I broke was an unwritten rule, one that I had hoped Xan would let me get away with. I had his child. The Luinwe are property and therefore are not supposed to have their superior’s child, especially if it would be the heir to the throne’s child. Most of the time, I kept all thoughts of children from my mind; it’s a kind of Luinwe birth control, but after a while, I wanted Xan to love me too. I wanted to carry his child. I wanted a child period and so I let myself get pregnant. The thing is, if we get pregnant, we are supposed to get rid of it. Sometimes the genetic superiors in the past had the Luinwe created so that they were ‘fixed’ so they can’t have children anyway but it does something to the Luinwe to be that way…I can’t explain it.
“I thought Xan really cared about me, he said he did and he had promised me freedom,” she said as if from far away. “But then one day, a day not long before he was to be married to Ava, he came to me and we were…um together and I allowed myself to conceive then, hoping that he would keep his promise and maybe end up marrying me and our child would be the heir to the throne. I was so stupid! I had pulled away from my brother, argued with him that Xan was different, that he would keep his promise and eventually set us free. But Xan disappointed me. Right after being with me, I asked him about his promise…” As Leslie told the story, she had no idea she was projecting the images from that day to Alex, who was holding her hand, and to Liz, who was patting Alex’s hand in comfort.
Xan hugged F-L to his chest and rubbed his fingertips along her arm. “Xan?” she inquired softly.
“Hmm?” he answered, already half asleep.
“When you set M-L and me free, do you think you’ll still want to be with me? I mean, will you still have to marry Ava or can we be together? I know it would be a new precedent but then so is setting us free, and I know I could make you happy, Xan,” F-L told him, getting more excited by the thought of them together and their child growing inside of her.
Xan pulled away from her and wouldn’t meet her eyes. He sat up and started to get dressed. “Xan? What’s wrong?” she asked. She could always read his emotions and he was upset about something.
“F-L, I…I have something I have to tell you and I’m afraid that it’s going to be hard for you to hear, but I hope you’ll believe me when I say it will be just as hard for me to say it,” Xan said, swallowing and looking at her with what she realized later was pity. She just nodded so he went on. “I can’t set you and M-L free,” he said to the floor.
“What? What do you mean you can’t set us free? Xan, you…you promised!” she accused, tears forming in her eyes.
“I know…I know I promised but it just isn’t possible right now. I can’t go into the details but please believe me that I will continue to look into it and try to find a way. Right now, though, as far as I can see, there is no way I can give you your freedom,” he pleaded with her to understand, holding her hands.
“I trusted you…against all past examples, against my brother’s words, even in spite of this stupid programming. I trusted you!” she whispered harshly. Her tears flowed freely now and she couldn’t help but turn away from him.
She felt his weight leave the bed and heard him open the door. “I am sorry, F-L,” he said softly as he left the room, the door clicking softly behind him.
“He went back on his word?!” Liz asked in disbelief. “I don’t understand. How could he do that?”
Leslie shook her head to clear away the cobwebs that had gathered to be able to continue. “I don’t understand it either but it was only a few days later that he married Ava and everything changed. He became more demanding, not of me necessarily as he never even looked at me much again, but of everyone. He…he changed. He became more harsh and short tempered, even cruel. He never sent for me anymore, not to talk, not to run things by me to see how they sounded, not for anything. It was kind of a good thing he didn’t because it made it easier for me to stay in my area of the palace that he had set aside for me until Megan was born. Lucas was there for me as much as possible but he had his duties to Vilondra too. I kept expecting him to say ‘I told you so’ or scold me for being so stupid as to think I could get away with my foolishness but he never did. I’ll never understand how he could be so supportive but I’ll never forget or be able to repay him for it.”
Max was stunned by everything that he had heard. Liz noticed that he seemed to be in shock. He looked at the girl in the rearview mirror. “Leslie, I don’t remember any of this. As far as I, Max Evans, am concerned, I’m so terribly sorry about everything that happened to you but I can’t think of it as me doing it to you.”
Leslie shrugged. “I don’t know what to say either, Max, because I could forgive everything that he had done, even lying to me about my freedom, except for one thing and after that, I learned that it was possible to love and hate a person at the same time. I still love, hate, and fear Xan…especially now that I found Alex. I don’t want anything to happen to him if you get your memories of being Xan back.”
“What do you mean? What would happen to me?” Alex asked fearfully.
Leslie looked at him apologetically. “Alex, to be with a Luinwe that belongs to the king is like stealing his horse or some other valuable piece of property. It is considered treason and is punishable by death. Now do you understand why I didn’t want you to be with me? Why I kept pushing you away? I can legally be put to death for being with you too but I don’t care about me. I want you to live a long life, free from anything having to do with this horrible situation.”
“Alex could be put to death for treason even though he’s human?” Liz asked angrily. This culture Max came from sure sounded backwards and barbaric to her, despite their technology.
“Yes, and so could I and Megan and Lucas and anyone else who helped us to be together or supported it. I only pray that you, Max, never get your memories and decide to carry out your rights in that law,” Leslie stated, meeting his eyes in the mirror.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
Hello, everyone! I'm back with the new part and it's a long one. I'm giving a bit of a break in the explanations because I felt the gang needed it and you guys need to see how everyone is handling this new information about the aliens' past. Let me know what you think.
Beth
Posted in 2 parts due to length.
Against My Programming
A/N: This part continues the explanations of things you have all been waiting for. I suggest you read these few parts carefully because they are jam-packed.
Part 35 – “Break Time”
Isabel sat in stunned silence as she tried to let what Lucas had told her sink in. Vilondra had loved M-L. She had loved someone, deeply. Wasn’t this what she had been missing? What she had been looking for? Unconditional love? She had been Lucas’s owner but still he had loved her completely and she had been willing to promise to set him free because she had loved him. Wasn’t this the real reason behind the façade she had built around her for so long? Wasn’t that the reason for her putting on the superficial “Ice Queen” routine for so long, even with Max and Michael to a point? Because deep down inside, hadn’t she known that somewhere out there was someone who would see past that and break through that faux exterior and reach her heart and cause it, and her, to come alive again? Yes, she had and that was subconsciously, but now that it had been brought out and was plain for her to see, Isabel was terrified.
She didn’t remember being Vilondra and she didn’t remember M-L. As far as she was concerned she had only just met Lucas a few hours ago at the Crashdown. What sins had she committed for him and for their love? Had she really betrayed her own brother and her husband for him? How did she know that he had been truly worthy of her love? And yet…and yet she was unmistakably drawn to him. She felt a pull inside of her to open herself to this striking young man and that she would not be disappointed.
As Isabel sat with her emotions and thoughts in turmoil, Michael sat in the driver’s seat upset at the thought of what Lucas had told him so far. He had stopped his interrogation for the time being so as to try to get a grasp on what he had already learned. Lucas seemed to sense that this was a time for pausing and reflection on what he had told them and so busied himself with checking in with Leslie in the other car to make sure she was ok.
Maria had allowed for the silence for about 20 minutes when she laid a hand on Michael’s sleeve. “Hey, you ok?” she asked him quietly so that the other two wouldn’t overhear them.
Michael’s eyes darted to hers and then back onto the road. “No, not really,” he answered shortly.
“Want to talk to me?” she encouraged with a half smile.
He shifted in his seat and ran a hand over his face. “It’s just that…I…I’m not sure how to explain what’s going through my head right now.” He sat there trying to figure out what he wanted to say and Maria let him find his own words. She knew that she sometimes came across as pushy but Maria knew when it was ok to push and when it definitely wasn’t. Now was a time for patience and understanding and she recognized that. “Do you remember that stupid history assignment we had to do where we asked each other questions last year? You know when we left town to go to Marathon?” Michael blurted out.
Confused at his change of subject, Maria nodded. “Yeah, I remember you kind of hijacked me and my car and took off for Texas.” She waited for him to continue.
He shook his head at that. “No, not the trip itself. I mean do you remember the talk we had in the motel room about why it was so important to me to find out where I came from?”
Maria thought back to that conversation and she repeated it trying to figure out why he had brought it up. “Yeah, you said that you thought that there had to be something better out there for you than Roswell, New Mexico. I told you that I had always felt the same way.” She realized what he meant by bringing it up as she finished the words. “And now you think that your home might not be better than here?”
“Maria, I supported a king and was married to a princess in a society where it was ok to have slaves! Where it was ok to have concubines and to keep people prisoners and treat them like property. The worse thing is that not only was I ok with it but I fought alongside the king who wouldn’t set them free! I mean Vilondra, my own wife, went over to the other side because she knew that having slaves was wrong. What kind of person does that make me? What kind of society…people did I come from?” he asked, getting more and more upset.
Sighing and closing her eyes briefly at the pain she heard in his voice, Maria put her hand on the side of his face. “Michael, listen to me. We are only getting bits and pieces of this story. We don’t know all of the details about your past but it doesn’t matter anyway because we can’t change what happened back then. We can only concentrate on the present and the future. I know you have a good heart, Michael. You care about people, as much as you wish you didn’t and hate to show it. I’ve seen the way you are so protective of the ones you love. You are a good person and if there is a way for these slaves to be set free, I know you will work hard to find it and make it happen,” she told him.
“How can you be so sure when I’m not, Maria?” Michael asked, really curious and looking for a reason to trust in himself.
“Because I love you, Michael. This world tries to say that love is blind but I know better. Love sees the other person’s faults and loves them anyway, accepts them because that is a part of the other person. Love believes the best about the other person…sees their potential and helps them to achieve it, in spite of themselves and their feelings. I see you, Michael, and I love you. I know that you are sometimes short tempered and rude and treat people like you don’t need them. I also see the reasons behind those faults and I understand them and I love you because of them. I see that you are fiercely loyal to those who you love and you do anything you can to protect them and I love you for it. I believe in you and in the man you are trying to be and in the man I know you can be. That’s how I’m so sure of all those things…it’s because I’m sure of you, Michael,” she told him softly.
Tears had formed in Michael’s eyes and a lump in his throat at her words. He turned to her and smiled. “I love you, Maria,” he whispered. “You make me want to be that better man.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Silence had fallen on the other car as well. Max had told Leslie that he needed some time to sort through everything she had revealed to them and she had readily accepted this as she too had needed a break. She had allowed Alex to pull her back into his arms and had quickly fallen into a restless sleep. It was getting late and Max wasn’t sure if they should pull over or try to overtake Ava. The truth was, they had no idea where she was going. So she had headed in the general direction of New York. She could have changed directions ten times by now or even had pulled off the highway somewhere.
His thoughts were broken by a soft voice to his right. “Max?” Liz asked softly. When he looked at her, she gave a small smile. “Did you say you wanted to talk to me about something?”
He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. “Um, yeah, I did…I do. I wanted to ask you about what happened in New York. I was walking along with Tess, Lonnie and Rath and then all of a sudden, you were there, standing in the middle of the street. The weird thing was…I could see you but I couldn’t hear you. I could see through you too. How did you do that? Isabel said that she’s never projected herself like that before.”
Liz thought about it but ended up shaking her head. “I don’t know. Ava said that when you healed me, it changed me somehow. She didn’t explain and she said that she didn’t have time to, but she said I was different because of it. Max, ever since you healed me…I’ve felt different. I can’t explain it but it’s like you awakened something inside of me. But I didn’t do that by myself. Lucas helped me. I don’t know if I would have been able to do it if he hadn’t helped me.”
Max glanced at her and he recognized the look on her face. It was the same look he saw on her face when he watched her in science class trying to work out an experiment, a puzzle. “Do you think we should trust anything that Ava told us? I mean she kidnapped a little girl and is currently taking her through several states and Lucas has expressed that he wouldn’t trust her.”
Looking out the window in search of answers, Liz shrugged. “I don’t know. I know that I was able to help you in New York so for whatever reason, she was telling the truth about me being changed. I know that Lucas helped me because I felt him but I also felt that he only helped me. I felt the energy inside of me when I saw you on that street.”
A moment of silence passed before Max spoke again. “Liz, I’m sorry. You’re different now…changing because of me. I’m sorry that what I am made you have to go through this.”
“Max,” Liz said in a tone that caused him to look at her. “Don’t apologize for saving my life that day. If you hadn’t been who you are and done what you did, I wouldn’t even be here to be different. I’m not afraid to be different.”
“But what if these changes hurt you? What if I only slowed down the process and now you’ll die a long, painful, terrible death because of me?” Max worried.
Liz smiled at that. The idea seemed just so ridiculous to her. “Max, nothing you are could ever hurt me. I feel that in my bones. If these changes hurt me, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Ava didn’t seem worried but then like you said, how do we know we can trust anything she said.”
Another couple of minutes went by without either of them saying anything. “Liz, before I left, you told me to be careful and that the granolith was powerful and could be dangerous in the wrong hands. How did you know that? I mean you haven’t even seen it, have you?” he asked, curious.
She squirmed in her seat and kept her face turned out the window. “No, I’ve never seen it,” she answered vaguely.
“Then how could you know it’s important? It was one of the first things that Nicholas wanted to negotiate about. How did you know about it? What do you know about it?” Max pressed.
“Max, I…I can’t tell you. I really don’t know anything about it. Please, don’t ask me about this. I really can’t tell you anything,” Liz begged, hoping he would drop it.
“Liz, why won’t you talk to me? I know you’re hiding something from me and I need to know what it is,” he argued.
Beth
Posted in 2 parts due to length.
Against My Programming
A/N: This part continues the explanations of things you have all been waiting for. I suggest you read these few parts carefully because they are jam-packed.
Part 35 – “Break Time”
Isabel sat in stunned silence as she tried to let what Lucas had told her sink in. Vilondra had loved M-L. She had loved someone, deeply. Wasn’t this what she had been missing? What she had been looking for? Unconditional love? She had been Lucas’s owner but still he had loved her completely and she had been willing to promise to set him free because she had loved him. Wasn’t this the real reason behind the façade she had built around her for so long? Wasn’t that the reason for her putting on the superficial “Ice Queen” routine for so long, even with Max and Michael to a point? Because deep down inside, hadn’t she known that somewhere out there was someone who would see past that and break through that faux exterior and reach her heart and cause it, and her, to come alive again? Yes, she had and that was subconsciously, but now that it had been brought out and was plain for her to see, Isabel was terrified.
She didn’t remember being Vilondra and she didn’t remember M-L. As far as she was concerned she had only just met Lucas a few hours ago at the Crashdown. What sins had she committed for him and for their love? Had she really betrayed her own brother and her husband for him? How did she know that he had been truly worthy of her love? And yet…and yet she was unmistakably drawn to him. She felt a pull inside of her to open herself to this striking young man and that she would not be disappointed.
As Isabel sat with her emotions and thoughts in turmoil, Michael sat in the driver’s seat upset at the thought of what Lucas had told him so far. He had stopped his interrogation for the time being so as to try to get a grasp on what he had already learned. Lucas seemed to sense that this was a time for pausing and reflection on what he had told them and so busied himself with checking in with Leslie in the other car to make sure she was ok.
Maria had allowed for the silence for about 20 minutes when she laid a hand on Michael’s sleeve. “Hey, you ok?” she asked him quietly so that the other two wouldn’t overhear them.
Michael’s eyes darted to hers and then back onto the road. “No, not really,” he answered shortly.
“Want to talk to me?” she encouraged with a half smile.
He shifted in his seat and ran a hand over his face. “It’s just that…I…I’m not sure how to explain what’s going through my head right now.” He sat there trying to figure out what he wanted to say and Maria let him find his own words. She knew that she sometimes came across as pushy but Maria knew when it was ok to push and when it definitely wasn’t. Now was a time for patience and understanding and she recognized that. “Do you remember that stupid history assignment we had to do where we asked each other questions last year? You know when we left town to go to Marathon?” Michael blurted out.
Confused at his change of subject, Maria nodded. “Yeah, I remember you kind of hijacked me and my car and took off for Texas.” She waited for him to continue.
He shook his head at that. “No, not the trip itself. I mean do you remember the talk we had in the motel room about why it was so important to me to find out where I came from?”
Maria thought back to that conversation and she repeated it trying to figure out why he had brought it up. “Yeah, you said that you thought that there had to be something better out there for you than Roswell, New Mexico. I told you that I had always felt the same way.” She realized what he meant by bringing it up as she finished the words. “And now you think that your home might not be better than here?”
“Maria, I supported a king and was married to a princess in a society where it was ok to have slaves! Where it was ok to have concubines and to keep people prisoners and treat them like property. The worse thing is that not only was I ok with it but I fought alongside the king who wouldn’t set them free! I mean Vilondra, my own wife, went over to the other side because she knew that having slaves was wrong. What kind of person does that make me? What kind of society…people did I come from?” he asked, getting more and more upset.
Sighing and closing her eyes briefly at the pain she heard in his voice, Maria put her hand on the side of his face. “Michael, listen to me. We are only getting bits and pieces of this story. We don’t know all of the details about your past but it doesn’t matter anyway because we can’t change what happened back then. We can only concentrate on the present and the future. I know you have a good heart, Michael. You care about people, as much as you wish you didn’t and hate to show it. I’ve seen the way you are so protective of the ones you love. You are a good person and if there is a way for these slaves to be set free, I know you will work hard to find it and make it happen,” she told him.
“How can you be so sure when I’m not, Maria?” Michael asked, really curious and looking for a reason to trust in himself.
“Because I love you, Michael. This world tries to say that love is blind but I know better. Love sees the other person’s faults and loves them anyway, accepts them because that is a part of the other person. Love believes the best about the other person…sees their potential and helps them to achieve it, in spite of themselves and their feelings. I see you, Michael, and I love you. I know that you are sometimes short tempered and rude and treat people like you don’t need them. I also see the reasons behind those faults and I understand them and I love you because of them. I see that you are fiercely loyal to those who you love and you do anything you can to protect them and I love you for it. I believe in you and in the man you are trying to be and in the man I know you can be. That’s how I’m so sure of all those things…it’s because I’m sure of you, Michael,” she told him softly.
Tears had formed in Michael’s eyes and a lump in his throat at her words. He turned to her and smiled. “I love you, Maria,” he whispered. “You make me want to be that better man.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Silence had fallen on the other car as well. Max had told Leslie that he needed some time to sort through everything she had revealed to them and she had readily accepted this as she too had needed a break. She had allowed Alex to pull her back into his arms and had quickly fallen into a restless sleep. It was getting late and Max wasn’t sure if they should pull over or try to overtake Ava. The truth was, they had no idea where she was going. So she had headed in the general direction of New York. She could have changed directions ten times by now or even had pulled off the highway somewhere.
His thoughts were broken by a soft voice to his right. “Max?” Liz asked softly. When he looked at her, she gave a small smile. “Did you say you wanted to talk to me about something?”
He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. “Um, yeah, I did…I do. I wanted to ask you about what happened in New York. I was walking along with Tess, Lonnie and Rath and then all of a sudden, you were there, standing in the middle of the street. The weird thing was…I could see you but I couldn’t hear you. I could see through you too. How did you do that? Isabel said that she’s never projected herself like that before.”
Liz thought about it but ended up shaking her head. “I don’t know. Ava said that when you healed me, it changed me somehow. She didn’t explain and she said that she didn’t have time to, but she said I was different because of it. Max, ever since you healed me…I’ve felt different. I can’t explain it but it’s like you awakened something inside of me. But I didn’t do that by myself. Lucas helped me. I don’t know if I would have been able to do it if he hadn’t helped me.”
Max glanced at her and he recognized the look on her face. It was the same look he saw on her face when he watched her in science class trying to work out an experiment, a puzzle. “Do you think we should trust anything that Ava told us? I mean she kidnapped a little girl and is currently taking her through several states and Lucas has expressed that he wouldn’t trust her.”
Looking out the window in search of answers, Liz shrugged. “I don’t know. I know that I was able to help you in New York so for whatever reason, she was telling the truth about me being changed. I know that Lucas helped me because I felt him but I also felt that he only helped me. I felt the energy inside of me when I saw you on that street.”
A moment of silence passed before Max spoke again. “Liz, I’m sorry. You’re different now…changing because of me. I’m sorry that what I am made you have to go through this.”
“Max,” Liz said in a tone that caused him to look at her. “Don’t apologize for saving my life that day. If you hadn’t been who you are and done what you did, I wouldn’t even be here to be different. I’m not afraid to be different.”
“But what if these changes hurt you? What if I only slowed down the process and now you’ll die a long, painful, terrible death because of me?” Max worried.
Liz smiled at that. The idea seemed just so ridiculous to her. “Max, nothing you are could ever hurt me. I feel that in my bones. If these changes hurt me, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Ava didn’t seem worried but then like you said, how do we know we can trust anything she said.”
Another couple of minutes went by without either of them saying anything. “Liz, before I left, you told me to be careful and that the granolith was powerful and could be dangerous in the wrong hands. How did you know that? I mean you haven’t even seen it, have you?” he asked, curious.
She squirmed in her seat and kept her face turned out the window. “No, I’ve never seen it,” she answered vaguely.
“Then how could you know it’s important? It was one of the first things that Nicholas wanted to negotiate about. How did you know about it? What do you know about it?” Max pressed.
“Max, I…I can’t tell you. I really don’t know anything about it. Please, don’t ask me about this. I really can’t tell you anything,” Liz begged, hoping he would drop it.
“Liz, why won’t you talk to me? I know you’re hiding something from me and I need to know what it is,” he argued.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
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littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
(Continued from last post)
Before Liz could say anything, Leslie bolted awake in the back seat. “Megan!” she yelled.
Alex shushed her and tried to calm her down, rubbing her back in circles. Max looked in the rearview mirror. “What did you see? Did Megan contact you?” he asked.
Leslie was panting and sweating as she tried to catch her breath to answer him. She nodded and played with the shooting star necklace around her neck nervously. “Yes, she tried to dreamwalk me and show me where they were. They’ve stopped at some motel but she had just told me that Ava had mentioned something about New York when Ava appeared. She smirked at me, said the conversation was over, picked up Megan and jumped through a hole of some kind. She ended the link I had with her.”
Max and Liz glanced at each other. “Sounds like she’s allowing Megan to contact you occasionally. The only reason I can think of for why she would do that is that she wants us to follow her,” Liz said allowed as Max nodded in agreement.
“But why? What is so important in New York?” Leslie asked, truly puzzled.
“I don’t know but at least now we know that that’s where they’re headed. If she wants us to follow her, it’s pretty sure that we won’t lose her if we stop to stretch and get gas for a few minutes,” Max answered, turning on the blinker and pulling into the right-hand lane.
He saw Michael follow his lead in the mirror and then he told Liz to call Maria’s cell phone and tell them that they were pulling off at the next exit for gas, bathrooms, and snacks. She did so and then asked Max if she should call Kyle and Tess to tell them they were stopping. Max nodded without hesitation. “Of course. If they’re behind us, we should tell them what’s going on.” When he noticed the doubt on Liz’s face he questioned her. “What? What’s wrong, Liz? Tess has been absolutely great and was really supportive in New York,” he told her, somewhat annoyed at her attitude.
“I’ll bet she was,” Liz muttered under her breath.
Wanting to stand up for the person Max thought Tess had become, he got offended for her. “Listen, Liz, I don’t know what you have against Tess but she has done nothing to warrant the treatment you give her sometimes. She has done nothing but supported me from the moment she arrived.”
“Max, I don’t know why I don’t trust her but…well, I don’t trust her. Call it instinct or whatever but my gut tells me that you can’t trust her,” Liz said emphatically.
Max clenched his jaw at her comment. “Oh yeah, Liz? Well, if you ask me, she’s done more to earn my trust lately than you have,” he told her before he could stop himself. He knew it was a mistake to say it out loud but he couldn’t help how he felt and he couldn’t stop himself in time from saying it aloud.
Liz was stung to the heart by his words but she couldn’t let him see it. She rolled down the window a little. “Do me a favor, Max. Let’s not talk anymore until we stop at the gas station ok?” she commanded. She picked up her cell phone, dialed Kyle’s number and abruptly told him what was going on as the exit approached.
The jeep and jetta pulled off at the exit and into a well lit service station that looked pretty clean. There were two other service stations around but they didn’t look as clean. Michael pulled the jetta up to the pump behind the jeep and everyone hopped out as he and Max hooked the pump up to the two vehicles. Maria made a beeline for the bathroom and Alex told Leslie that he would get them some snacks as he headed for the building. Liz hopped out and started to follow Maria’s trail inside when Isabel called to her.
“Liz, wait up a sec I’ll come with you,” Isabel said, catching up with the shorter brunette. “Listen, I need to ask a favor. I want to talk to Max about a couple of things that Lucas told us and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind switching cars with me.”
“Actually, that would work out great because I was hoping to ride with Maria for a while,” Liz answered briefly, grateful for an excuse to get away from Max and his questions. She went on inside but Isabel saw that Max and Michael were talking and decided to join them before going in to stand in line for the bathroom.
As she walked up, Michael was saying, “Pretty wild stuff, huh, Maxwell?” He leaned against the jeep and Max sighed.
“Yeah, I just can’t believe that they’re our slaves,” Max said in disbelief.
“Did Leslie tell you that Khivar was our cousin and that he had been treated as our father’s heir until you and I were born and you were declared the real heir?” Isabel asked Max.
His surprise showed. “No, she hasn’t talked about Khivar much yet. So he’s our cousin?”
She nodded. “Yeah, our father’s sister’s son. Seems our mother had a hard time conceiving and so our father…Yvan was the name Lucas used, basically brought Khivar up to be the heir he didn’t think he would have when his sister and her husband died.”
Max let that sink in for a moment before he asked about something else. “Did Lucas tell you that Megan is my daughter?”
“What?!” Michael and Isabel exclaimed simultaneously.
He nodded. “Yeah, it seems that she allowed herself to get pregnant with Xan’s child even though she wasn’t supposed to but she never told anyone about Megan. You know, I didn’t even think to ask if Megan was her real name,” Max said sorrowfully.
Isabel’s face and heart filled with sympathy for her brother. “Oh, Max, there’s so much we don’t know about ourselves, so much we don’t remember. I can’t believe you’re a father! That makes me an aunt!” she lamented.
“We need our memories, Maxwell. If it is at all possible to get them, we need to know who we were and that we weren’t…that we weren’t…,” Michael couldn’t finish his thought as his fear wrapped itself around his throat.
“We need to know that we weren’t the monsters that we think we were,” Max finished the thought for him. “I know. I’m beginning to agree completely with that.”
“But what if that changes who we are now? I mean, what if we get our memories back and Michael, you don’t love Maria anymore but you love me? I don’t want to get our memories back to know that we weren’t monsters and end up becoming those monsters again when we can change who we are now,” Isabel pointed out.
Running a frustrated hand through his hair, Max looked helplessly at his sister and brother. “I don’t know! I just don’t know! I mean, I’m supposed to be this great leader that has all the answers and I don’t know anything! I’m completely in the dark.”
“Completely in the dark about what?” Tess’s voice asked as she came up to the other three, startling them.
“Tess! You scared the crap out of me!” Isabel exclaimed.
“Oh, sorry. I thought you knew I was had walked up. Kyle’s filling his tank up a couple of pumps over and I thought I’d come over and ask what’s going on. Why are we headed to New York?” she asked, looking specifically at Max. He quickly filled her in on Ava’s kidnapping of the little girl but didn’t tell Tess that Megan was his daughter as he was still uncomfortable calling her that. “So are we switching up riders or what?” Tess asked as he finished, hoping she would get to hear more of what the Luinwe were telling the others.
“Um, actually, I wanted to ride with Max for a while and Liz wanted to ride with Maria so we were going to switch rides,” Isabel answered uncomfortably.
“I’m riding in the same car as Maria, period,” Michael said.
“I know Alex is going to want to ride with Leslie in whatever car they go in and since the mustang is only comfortable for two I guess you could trade with Lucas if you wanted to but then Kyle would want him to start over and be completely confused,” Max told her.
“So I guess I’m still riding with Kyle,” Tess sighed. “And in the dark about everything.”
Max placed a hand on her arm. “I’m sorry, Tess. I’ll fill you in on everything we learn as soon as I can. It might be better for you and Kyle to go back anyway until we can get all the answers and Megan back and come home.”
“No!” she protested quickly. Then smiling sheepishly, she continued. “I mean, you might need me, especially if Ava is taking that little girl to Nicholas or Lonnie and Rath for some unknown reason. I might be of some help. We’re coming with you.”
Before Liz could say anything, Leslie bolted awake in the back seat. “Megan!” she yelled.
Alex shushed her and tried to calm her down, rubbing her back in circles. Max looked in the rearview mirror. “What did you see? Did Megan contact you?” he asked.
Leslie was panting and sweating as she tried to catch her breath to answer him. She nodded and played with the shooting star necklace around her neck nervously. “Yes, she tried to dreamwalk me and show me where they were. They’ve stopped at some motel but she had just told me that Ava had mentioned something about New York when Ava appeared. She smirked at me, said the conversation was over, picked up Megan and jumped through a hole of some kind. She ended the link I had with her.”
Max and Liz glanced at each other. “Sounds like she’s allowing Megan to contact you occasionally. The only reason I can think of for why she would do that is that she wants us to follow her,” Liz said allowed as Max nodded in agreement.
“But why? What is so important in New York?” Leslie asked, truly puzzled.
“I don’t know but at least now we know that that’s where they’re headed. If she wants us to follow her, it’s pretty sure that we won’t lose her if we stop to stretch and get gas for a few minutes,” Max answered, turning on the blinker and pulling into the right-hand lane.
He saw Michael follow his lead in the mirror and then he told Liz to call Maria’s cell phone and tell them that they were pulling off at the next exit for gas, bathrooms, and snacks. She did so and then asked Max if she should call Kyle and Tess to tell them they were stopping. Max nodded without hesitation. “Of course. If they’re behind us, we should tell them what’s going on.” When he noticed the doubt on Liz’s face he questioned her. “What? What’s wrong, Liz? Tess has been absolutely great and was really supportive in New York,” he told her, somewhat annoyed at her attitude.
“I’ll bet she was,” Liz muttered under her breath.
Wanting to stand up for the person Max thought Tess had become, he got offended for her. “Listen, Liz, I don’t know what you have against Tess but she has done nothing to warrant the treatment you give her sometimes. She has done nothing but supported me from the moment she arrived.”
“Max, I don’t know why I don’t trust her but…well, I don’t trust her. Call it instinct or whatever but my gut tells me that you can’t trust her,” Liz said emphatically.
Max clenched his jaw at her comment. “Oh yeah, Liz? Well, if you ask me, she’s done more to earn my trust lately than you have,” he told her before he could stop himself. He knew it was a mistake to say it out loud but he couldn’t help how he felt and he couldn’t stop himself in time from saying it aloud.
Liz was stung to the heart by his words but she couldn’t let him see it. She rolled down the window a little. “Do me a favor, Max. Let’s not talk anymore until we stop at the gas station ok?” she commanded. She picked up her cell phone, dialed Kyle’s number and abruptly told him what was going on as the exit approached.
The jeep and jetta pulled off at the exit and into a well lit service station that looked pretty clean. There were two other service stations around but they didn’t look as clean. Michael pulled the jetta up to the pump behind the jeep and everyone hopped out as he and Max hooked the pump up to the two vehicles. Maria made a beeline for the bathroom and Alex told Leslie that he would get them some snacks as he headed for the building. Liz hopped out and started to follow Maria’s trail inside when Isabel called to her.
“Liz, wait up a sec I’ll come with you,” Isabel said, catching up with the shorter brunette. “Listen, I need to ask a favor. I want to talk to Max about a couple of things that Lucas told us and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind switching cars with me.”
“Actually, that would work out great because I was hoping to ride with Maria for a while,” Liz answered briefly, grateful for an excuse to get away from Max and his questions. She went on inside but Isabel saw that Max and Michael were talking and decided to join them before going in to stand in line for the bathroom.
As she walked up, Michael was saying, “Pretty wild stuff, huh, Maxwell?” He leaned against the jeep and Max sighed.
“Yeah, I just can’t believe that they’re our slaves,” Max said in disbelief.
“Did Leslie tell you that Khivar was our cousin and that he had been treated as our father’s heir until you and I were born and you were declared the real heir?” Isabel asked Max.
His surprise showed. “No, she hasn’t talked about Khivar much yet. So he’s our cousin?”
She nodded. “Yeah, our father’s sister’s son. Seems our mother had a hard time conceiving and so our father…Yvan was the name Lucas used, basically brought Khivar up to be the heir he didn’t think he would have when his sister and her husband died.”
Max let that sink in for a moment before he asked about something else. “Did Lucas tell you that Megan is my daughter?”
“What?!” Michael and Isabel exclaimed simultaneously.
He nodded. “Yeah, it seems that she allowed herself to get pregnant with Xan’s child even though she wasn’t supposed to but she never told anyone about Megan. You know, I didn’t even think to ask if Megan was her real name,” Max said sorrowfully.
Isabel’s face and heart filled with sympathy for her brother. “Oh, Max, there’s so much we don’t know about ourselves, so much we don’t remember. I can’t believe you’re a father! That makes me an aunt!” she lamented.
“We need our memories, Maxwell. If it is at all possible to get them, we need to know who we were and that we weren’t…that we weren’t…,” Michael couldn’t finish his thought as his fear wrapped itself around his throat.
“We need to know that we weren’t the monsters that we think we were,” Max finished the thought for him. “I know. I’m beginning to agree completely with that.”
“But what if that changes who we are now? I mean, what if we get our memories back and Michael, you don’t love Maria anymore but you love me? I don’t want to get our memories back to know that we weren’t monsters and end up becoming those monsters again when we can change who we are now,” Isabel pointed out.
Running a frustrated hand through his hair, Max looked helplessly at his sister and brother. “I don’t know! I just don’t know! I mean, I’m supposed to be this great leader that has all the answers and I don’t know anything! I’m completely in the dark.”
“Completely in the dark about what?” Tess’s voice asked as she came up to the other three, startling them.
“Tess! You scared the crap out of me!” Isabel exclaimed.
“Oh, sorry. I thought you knew I was had walked up. Kyle’s filling his tank up a couple of pumps over and I thought I’d come over and ask what’s going on. Why are we headed to New York?” she asked, looking specifically at Max. He quickly filled her in on Ava’s kidnapping of the little girl but didn’t tell Tess that Megan was his daughter as he was still uncomfortable calling her that. “So are we switching up riders or what?” Tess asked as he finished, hoping she would get to hear more of what the Luinwe were telling the others.
“Um, actually, I wanted to ride with Max for a while and Liz wanted to ride with Maria so we were going to switch rides,” Isabel answered uncomfortably.
“I’m riding in the same car as Maria, period,” Michael said.
“I know Alex is going to want to ride with Leslie in whatever car they go in and since the mustang is only comfortable for two I guess you could trade with Lucas if you wanted to but then Kyle would want him to start over and be completely confused,” Max told her.
“So I guess I’m still riding with Kyle,” Tess sighed. “And in the dark about everything.”
Max placed a hand on her arm. “I’m sorry, Tess. I’ll fill you in on everything we learn as soon as I can. It might be better for you and Kyle to go back anyway until we can get all the answers and Megan back and come home.”
“No!” she protested quickly. Then smiling sheepishly, she continued. “I mean, you might need me, especially if Ava is taking that little girl to Nicholas or Lonnie and Rath for some unknown reason. I might be of some help. We’re coming with you.”
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
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littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
Hello, everyone! I'm back with a new part. Bob, if you're reading this, I still love ya but I just realized that it was Thanksgiving the last time I posted to this fic and here it is almost Valentine's Day. I'll wait on you on the next one, I promise! (Hope you'll still look it over since I totally value your opinion.) Enjoy!
Beth
Against My Programming
Part 36 – “On the Road Again”
Leslie watched the group of royals from inside the service station. When the short blond walked up to the other three, she heard a voice behind her say, “Avaloane.” She turned around to see her brother looking in the same direction she had been. “Although, this one goes by Tess according to Alex.”
“I could have guessed. Do you remember how long Alex said she’s been in town?” Leslie asked.
Lucas thought for a minute and then shrugged. “He said she showed up just after you left so…almost a year. Why?”
Leslie turned and looked back out at the royal four and reached out with her mind and feelings, just for a general feel of the group. Suddenly, Tess looked up in their direction and gave a smile that Leslie couldn’t prove was fake but could swear just the same it was. In her head, Leslie heard the sound of many soft whispers that expressed no words she could make out. A wind sound came from out of the whispers and grew louder in her head until it sounded like a tornado was swirling inside her brain. A pounding began as if Leslie’s brain was trying to break free of her skull.
Clapping her hands to the sides of her head, Leslie squeezed her eyes shut and started to drop to the floor. Lucas saw it and caught her in his arms. “Leslie?” he asked worried about her.
As the pain came to a crescendo, Leslie gasped and squinted at her brother. “Please make it stop!” she begged softly. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the pounding pain and noise all stopped and Lucas had to support her entire weight as she collapsed in his arms. As she tried to stand back on her feet, Alex rushed to their side from the counter where he had been purchasing some snacks. He hadn’t seen everything but he had looked around for Leslie and saw her drop into her brother’s arms.
“What happened?” he and Lucas asked her at the same time. They frowned at each other and turned back to Leslie.
“I’m not sure. I was trying to feel out how Max, Isabel, and Michael were handling everything, but Tess…she must have felt me because she looked over in this direction and suddenly there was…the only way to describe it is a strong windy sound in my head and a pounding pain. Both grew stronger until it just felt like my brain was going to burst out of my head and then it just stopped,” she panted out.
Alex looked outside at the four aliens but the group had broken up, and Tess and Isabel were headed for the building. “Are you sure it was Tess?” he asked quietly. At the hurt look from Leslie and the anger on Lucas’s face, he quickly explained. “I just mean maybe the programming wouldn’t let you do what you were trying to do or maybe Ava was blocking Megan from contacting you again.”
“Timing would have been one hell of a coincidence wouldn’t it?” Lucas growled out sarcastically.
Leslie looked at her brother and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Lucas, enough,” she told him quietly. She gave Alex a smile. “He has a right to his opinion and to disagree with me. Besides, he could be right. It could be someone other than Tess or the programming or even the fact that it’s not completed.”
Tess walked up to the small group as she entered the store while Isabel headed for the ladies’ room. Liz had just come out of there and moved closer to the others, pretending to be looking at maps, to watch Tess’s interaction with Lucas and Leslie.
“Hi, Alex,” Tess greeted cheerily as she walked up. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to our new friends?”
Kyle popped up beside her right at that moment. “Yeah, me too,” he said, handing a couple of dollars and a cherry coke to Tess. “I didn’t know what you’d want to eat but I did remember the cherry coke.” She smiled at him and he smiled back before turning to the two people standing with Alex. Then he looked at the girl closer and his eyes widened. “Hey, you were in my history class! You’re the new…”
Before he could say it, Leslie quickly stopped him from saying the one word that would draw everyone’s attention...alien. “Yes, Kyle, I am. It’s good to see you again. This is my brother Lucas.”
Kyle held his hand out to Lucas. “Nice to meet you.” Lucas took it without hesitation and shook it.
“And this is Tess Harding. Tess, this is Leslie and Lucas Terrell,” Alex introduced.
Tess held her hand out to the two of them, but neither moved to take it. “Sorry, Tess. It’s nice to meet you but we can’t touch you,” Leslie told her. Although it was pretty obvious to her that Tess knew that already.
Tess looked confused and so did Kyle. “Why not?” he asked.
“Long story,” Lucas said shortly. “Looks like the others are getting ready to hit the road again. Les, you want anything to eat on?”
Alex spoke up. “I bought a dozen donuts and two big sodas and I know for a fact that there are several bottles of Tabasco in the jeep and in the Jetta. I got the sodas for me and Leslie.”
Liz had heard what she wanted to know and moved to purchase a couple of cross-country maps. She thought over the whole situation and decided that she was right about something being off with Tess. It might be nothing, but she was positive that the blond was holding something back from everyone. What could she say, though? Who could she talk to about it? Max already said he trusted Tess over her, and she really couldn’t blame him after everything he thought he saw.
* * * * * * * * * *
Tess locked the door to the ladies’ room and sealed it with her powers. Then she pulled out her cell phone, dialed a number and waited for someone to pick up on the other line. “Come on, come on, come on,” she kept muttering.
“To what do we owe da pleasha, Queenie?” said a female voice with a New York accent.
“I’m with the others and we’re on our way to your side of town; I just wanted to know if you still wanted to deal?” Tess answered, trying to keep her voice down.
“Why? Whachya got we would want to deal for?” Lonnie asked. She pushed Rath out of her face where he was trying to listen to the conversation.
“I’m on my way with the royals…” Tess began but Lonnie interrupted her.
“Yeah, you said dat already!” the New Yorker answered, impatient.
“You didn’t let me finish. They aren’t the only ones I have coming with me. I’ve got two more out-of-towners Khivar is going to be very interested in plus the location of the granolith,” Tess said, showing all the cards she supposedly held in her hands.
“Damn! You got the Luinwe,” Lonnie stated, pissed. Rath’s eyes grew round and then narrowed in anger.
“That’s right, Lonnie dear. So do you want to deal?”
There was silence for a minute as Lonnie shooed Rath off as he wanted to know what was going on. “If you got all the pieces you claim you do, what do you need us for?” she wondered aloud.
“Ava called Nicholas and said that she was on her way there with the others and a surprise that she’s pretty sure will guarantee her the ticket home. Thing is she doesn’t know where the granolith is so whatever she’s got, I want you guys to take care of it and then we, just the three of us, go home to Khivar. I want a guarantee that Ava won’t live to go home,” Tess told her bluntly.
Unable to ignore Rath’s dancing around her any longer, Lonnie put Tess on hold. “She has Max and the others, including the two Luinwe, coming here and with the knowledge of where the granolith is. She wants us to find out what Ava’s trying to bargain with and in exchange, she’ll get us on the ship home,” Lonnie explained. She knew what she was going to do, but she needed Rath to feel important to her for a while longer.
“Hell yeah, we deal!” he nodded enthusiastically.
“That’s what I thought too,” Lonnie told him. She put Tess back on the line. “Aight, you got a deal. You want me to call ya when we take care of Ava?” she asked.
“No! I can’t risk the others wondering who’s calling. Use the dreamwalking. No one will notice if we’re quick when we communicate.”
“Ok, we’ll get back to ya,” Lonnie answered and hung up. She glanced at her lover. “We got work to do. Call Ava and play it nice wit’ ha,” she ordered.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Megan sat on the bed watching Sesame Street on public television and munching on pizza. She knew that something was wrong but she wasn’t sure what had happened. They still hadn’t met her daddy and Ava kept stopping her from talking to her mother. She was starting to worry that she had done the wrong thing by coming with this woman.
Ava was looking out the window when Megan spoke again. Didn’t this kid ever get tired? “Why are we going to New York, Ava? I thought you said my daddy wasn’t far,” the four-year-old asked.
“What makes ya think New York is far?” Ava almost snapped. She was quickly growing tired of this girl.
“It’s one thousand, nine hundred and forty-six miles from Roswell to New York City. That’s far to me,” Megan answered.
“Well, it’s not far when you consider how many millions of miles from Roswell to Antar,” Ava answered curtly.
“Is my daddy in New York?”
“Yeah, now would you please turn off that damn TV and go to sleep!”
Megan’s eyes and mouth made perfect ‘o’s and she covered her mouth. “Oohh, you said a bad word!”
Ava ran a frustrated hand through her hair. “Listen, kid, it’s late and I’m tired, and we have a long way to go tomorrow. You want to meet your daddy with bags under your eyes? Huh?” she asked. Megan shook her head. “So you go to sleep and we’ll head out on the road early tomorrow and then when we get to New York, we’ll meet him.”
“When can I talk to mommy?”
“When we get to New York and find your daddy, ok? Now go to sleep!” Ava’s cell phone rang at that moment and she switched off the lamp by the bed as she answered it. “Yeah, who’s dis?”
“Ava, dearie, haven’t heard from you in a while. Where are ya?” Lonnie’s voice answered. She had decided to call the other young woman herself, not trusting Rath to not screw it up.
“What do you want?” Ava asked.
“Heard through the grapevine that yous holdin’ a coupla important cards the big guy’s interested in. You weren’t thinkin’ of leaving me and Rath on this stupid rock was ya?” Lonnie asked.
Ava’s eyes narrowed to slits at Lonnie’s words. “You would leave me behind in a heartbeat. Give me one good reason why I should give you even an ounce of trust!”
“Now that hurts, Ava, really it does. We’s family; had a lotta good times together in da sewas didn’t we?” Lonnie asked. “Besides, no one back home waitin’ for the royals to return is gonna accept it if only you show up, especially if you’re backing Khivar. Now if Rath and me were to show up too, they might just give you back that pretty crown you were just gettin’ used to wearin’,” Lonnie pointed out with false sweetness.
Thinking about Lonnie’s words, Ava looked over at the small girl who had finally gone to sleep. “Aight. I’ll bring yous guys in on da deal, but I ain’t telling you any details yet. I’ll call ya when I get closa to the city,” she finally answered. She knew that Lonnie had a point, but she wasn’t about to tell them everything she had.
“Fair enough,” Lonnie answered. “We’ll be waitin’ for your call.” She hung up and looked to Rath. “She bit but not completely. We gotta wait for her to get hea.”
“You gonna contact the other one?” he asked.
“Yeah, give me a minute.” Lonnie closed her eyes and pictured the other blond. Seconds later, her face swam in front of her eyes. “Tess, we talked to Ava. She’s on her way hea and we’ll meet up wit her when she does and get back to ya.”
Tess just nodded slightly. She was in Kyle’s car and they had just gotten back on the road heading to New York. She smiled at the thought that it wouldn’t be long before it was all over. This lousy planet and insignificant lifestyle would be just a bad dream. Soon, she would be back in her rightful element…on the throne beside Khivar.
Beth
Against My Programming
Part 36 – “On the Road Again”
Leslie watched the group of royals from inside the service station. When the short blond walked up to the other three, she heard a voice behind her say, “Avaloane.” She turned around to see her brother looking in the same direction she had been. “Although, this one goes by Tess according to Alex.”
“I could have guessed. Do you remember how long Alex said she’s been in town?” Leslie asked.
Lucas thought for a minute and then shrugged. “He said she showed up just after you left so…almost a year. Why?”
Leslie turned and looked back out at the royal four and reached out with her mind and feelings, just for a general feel of the group. Suddenly, Tess looked up in their direction and gave a smile that Leslie couldn’t prove was fake but could swear just the same it was. In her head, Leslie heard the sound of many soft whispers that expressed no words she could make out. A wind sound came from out of the whispers and grew louder in her head until it sounded like a tornado was swirling inside her brain. A pounding began as if Leslie’s brain was trying to break free of her skull.
Clapping her hands to the sides of her head, Leslie squeezed her eyes shut and started to drop to the floor. Lucas saw it and caught her in his arms. “Leslie?” he asked worried about her.
As the pain came to a crescendo, Leslie gasped and squinted at her brother. “Please make it stop!” she begged softly. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the pounding pain and noise all stopped and Lucas had to support her entire weight as she collapsed in his arms. As she tried to stand back on her feet, Alex rushed to their side from the counter where he had been purchasing some snacks. He hadn’t seen everything but he had looked around for Leslie and saw her drop into her brother’s arms.
“What happened?” he and Lucas asked her at the same time. They frowned at each other and turned back to Leslie.
“I’m not sure. I was trying to feel out how Max, Isabel, and Michael were handling everything, but Tess…she must have felt me because she looked over in this direction and suddenly there was…the only way to describe it is a strong windy sound in my head and a pounding pain. Both grew stronger until it just felt like my brain was going to burst out of my head and then it just stopped,” she panted out.
Alex looked outside at the four aliens but the group had broken up, and Tess and Isabel were headed for the building. “Are you sure it was Tess?” he asked quietly. At the hurt look from Leslie and the anger on Lucas’s face, he quickly explained. “I just mean maybe the programming wouldn’t let you do what you were trying to do or maybe Ava was blocking Megan from contacting you again.”
“Timing would have been one hell of a coincidence wouldn’t it?” Lucas growled out sarcastically.
Leslie looked at her brother and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Lucas, enough,” she told him quietly. She gave Alex a smile. “He has a right to his opinion and to disagree with me. Besides, he could be right. It could be someone other than Tess or the programming or even the fact that it’s not completed.”
Tess walked up to the small group as she entered the store while Isabel headed for the ladies’ room. Liz had just come out of there and moved closer to the others, pretending to be looking at maps, to watch Tess’s interaction with Lucas and Leslie.
“Hi, Alex,” Tess greeted cheerily as she walked up. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to our new friends?”
Kyle popped up beside her right at that moment. “Yeah, me too,” he said, handing a couple of dollars and a cherry coke to Tess. “I didn’t know what you’d want to eat but I did remember the cherry coke.” She smiled at him and he smiled back before turning to the two people standing with Alex. Then he looked at the girl closer and his eyes widened. “Hey, you were in my history class! You’re the new…”
Before he could say it, Leslie quickly stopped him from saying the one word that would draw everyone’s attention...alien. “Yes, Kyle, I am. It’s good to see you again. This is my brother Lucas.”
Kyle held his hand out to Lucas. “Nice to meet you.” Lucas took it without hesitation and shook it.
“And this is Tess Harding. Tess, this is Leslie and Lucas Terrell,” Alex introduced.
Tess held her hand out to the two of them, but neither moved to take it. “Sorry, Tess. It’s nice to meet you but we can’t touch you,” Leslie told her. Although it was pretty obvious to her that Tess knew that already.
Tess looked confused and so did Kyle. “Why not?” he asked.
“Long story,” Lucas said shortly. “Looks like the others are getting ready to hit the road again. Les, you want anything to eat on?”
Alex spoke up. “I bought a dozen donuts and two big sodas and I know for a fact that there are several bottles of Tabasco in the jeep and in the Jetta. I got the sodas for me and Leslie.”
Liz had heard what she wanted to know and moved to purchase a couple of cross-country maps. She thought over the whole situation and decided that she was right about something being off with Tess. It might be nothing, but she was positive that the blond was holding something back from everyone. What could she say, though? Who could she talk to about it? Max already said he trusted Tess over her, and she really couldn’t blame him after everything he thought he saw.
* * * * * * * * * *
Tess locked the door to the ladies’ room and sealed it with her powers. Then she pulled out her cell phone, dialed a number and waited for someone to pick up on the other line. “Come on, come on, come on,” she kept muttering.
“To what do we owe da pleasha, Queenie?” said a female voice with a New York accent.
“I’m with the others and we’re on our way to your side of town; I just wanted to know if you still wanted to deal?” Tess answered, trying to keep her voice down.
“Why? Whachya got we would want to deal for?” Lonnie asked. She pushed Rath out of her face where he was trying to listen to the conversation.
“I’m on my way with the royals…” Tess began but Lonnie interrupted her.
“Yeah, you said dat already!” the New Yorker answered, impatient.
“You didn’t let me finish. They aren’t the only ones I have coming with me. I’ve got two more out-of-towners Khivar is going to be very interested in plus the location of the granolith,” Tess said, showing all the cards she supposedly held in her hands.
“Damn! You got the Luinwe,” Lonnie stated, pissed. Rath’s eyes grew round and then narrowed in anger.
“That’s right, Lonnie dear. So do you want to deal?”
There was silence for a minute as Lonnie shooed Rath off as he wanted to know what was going on. “If you got all the pieces you claim you do, what do you need us for?” she wondered aloud.
“Ava called Nicholas and said that she was on her way there with the others and a surprise that she’s pretty sure will guarantee her the ticket home. Thing is she doesn’t know where the granolith is so whatever she’s got, I want you guys to take care of it and then we, just the three of us, go home to Khivar. I want a guarantee that Ava won’t live to go home,” Tess told her bluntly.
Unable to ignore Rath’s dancing around her any longer, Lonnie put Tess on hold. “She has Max and the others, including the two Luinwe, coming here and with the knowledge of where the granolith is. She wants us to find out what Ava’s trying to bargain with and in exchange, she’ll get us on the ship home,” Lonnie explained. She knew what she was going to do, but she needed Rath to feel important to her for a while longer.
“Hell yeah, we deal!” he nodded enthusiastically.
“That’s what I thought too,” Lonnie told him. She put Tess back on the line. “Aight, you got a deal. You want me to call ya when we take care of Ava?” she asked.
“No! I can’t risk the others wondering who’s calling. Use the dreamwalking. No one will notice if we’re quick when we communicate.”
“Ok, we’ll get back to ya,” Lonnie answered and hung up. She glanced at her lover. “We got work to do. Call Ava and play it nice wit’ ha,” she ordered.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Megan sat on the bed watching Sesame Street on public television and munching on pizza. She knew that something was wrong but she wasn’t sure what had happened. They still hadn’t met her daddy and Ava kept stopping her from talking to her mother. She was starting to worry that she had done the wrong thing by coming with this woman.
Ava was looking out the window when Megan spoke again. Didn’t this kid ever get tired? “Why are we going to New York, Ava? I thought you said my daddy wasn’t far,” the four-year-old asked.
“What makes ya think New York is far?” Ava almost snapped. She was quickly growing tired of this girl.
“It’s one thousand, nine hundred and forty-six miles from Roswell to New York City. That’s far to me,” Megan answered.
“Well, it’s not far when you consider how many millions of miles from Roswell to Antar,” Ava answered curtly.
“Is my daddy in New York?”
“Yeah, now would you please turn off that damn TV and go to sleep!”
Megan’s eyes and mouth made perfect ‘o’s and she covered her mouth. “Oohh, you said a bad word!”
Ava ran a frustrated hand through her hair. “Listen, kid, it’s late and I’m tired, and we have a long way to go tomorrow. You want to meet your daddy with bags under your eyes? Huh?” she asked. Megan shook her head. “So you go to sleep and we’ll head out on the road early tomorrow and then when we get to New York, we’ll meet him.”
“When can I talk to mommy?”
“When we get to New York and find your daddy, ok? Now go to sleep!” Ava’s cell phone rang at that moment and she switched off the lamp by the bed as she answered it. “Yeah, who’s dis?”
“Ava, dearie, haven’t heard from you in a while. Where are ya?” Lonnie’s voice answered. She had decided to call the other young woman herself, not trusting Rath to not screw it up.
“What do you want?” Ava asked.
“Heard through the grapevine that yous holdin’ a coupla important cards the big guy’s interested in. You weren’t thinkin’ of leaving me and Rath on this stupid rock was ya?” Lonnie asked.
Ava’s eyes narrowed to slits at Lonnie’s words. “You would leave me behind in a heartbeat. Give me one good reason why I should give you even an ounce of trust!”
“Now that hurts, Ava, really it does. We’s family; had a lotta good times together in da sewas didn’t we?” Lonnie asked. “Besides, no one back home waitin’ for the royals to return is gonna accept it if only you show up, especially if you’re backing Khivar. Now if Rath and me were to show up too, they might just give you back that pretty crown you were just gettin’ used to wearin’,” Lonnie pointed out with false sweetness.
Thinking about Lonnie’s words, Ava looked over at the small girl who had finally gone to sleep. “Aight. I’ll bring yous guys in on da deal, but I ain’t telling you any details yet. I’ll call ya when I get closa to the city,” she finally answered. She knew that Lonnie had a point, but she wasn’t about to tell them everything she had.
“Fair enough,” Lonnie answered. “We’ll be waitin’ for your call.” She hung up and looked to Rath. “She bit but not completely. We gotta wait for her to get hea.”
“You gonna contact the other one?” he asked.
“Yeah, give me a minute.” Lonnie closed her eyes and pictured the other blond. Seconds later, her face swam in front of her eyes. “Tess, we talked to Ava. She’s on her way hea and we’ll meet up wit her when she does and get back to ya.”
Tess just nodded slightly. She was in Kyle’s car and they had just gotten back on the road heading to New York. She smiled at the thought that it wouldn’t be long before it was all over. This lousy planet and insignificant lifestyle would be just a bad dream. Soon, she would be back in her rightful element…on the throne beside Khivar.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!
-
littleroswell
- Roswell Fanatic
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2002 7:45 am
- Location: Georgia, USA
Against My Programming
A/N: One of the big problems I had with the show after a while was that these teens had no involvement with their parents for many episodes, as if they had conveniently disappeared. I’m hoping to fix that in this fic, at least a little.
Part 37 – “Parents Closing Ranks”
The phone rang and rang. Then there was a click and the sound of a man’s voice. “Hi, you’ve reached the Evans. We’re sorry we can’t come to the phone right now, but…” Diane sighed and hung up the phone.
Phillip looked at his wife out of the corner of his eye as he hung his tie on the hook on the closet door. “Something wrong, dear?”
“I got the machine again. Phillip, something’s wrong. Max should be home by now, and Isabel isn’t picking up her cell phone. I’ve been trying to reach the kids for two days now, and no one answers any time I call,” she answered.
“Well, they should be in school during the day. Have you left a message on the machine? Maybe they’re screening the calls.”
“That’s why we have caller ID! I’ve left several messages, and they haven’t answered the phone or called us back. I’m worried about them. You don’t think they’ve disappeared again do you?”
“Not if they know what’s good for them, they haven’t!” he almost growled.
“Phillip, is there anyway we can go home tonight?” Diane asked. Seeing that her husband was about to tell her no, she rushed on. “Or even tomorrow morning? Call it a mother’s instinct, but I really feel my children need me.”
Looking into her worry-filled eyes, Philip Evans sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Um, well, we’re supposed to finish up tomorrow morning. I was hoping to spend the afternoon in town, just the two of us, but I suppose we could check out before going to the meeting and then leave straight for home…if that’s what you really want to do.”
Diane stood up and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, darling. I really do appreciate it. I love you.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Jim Valenti looked around his house for his son and Tess, growing more upset by the minute. Where could they be at this hour? Kyle had called his cell phone earlier and said Tess had gotten back in town, along with Max, and they were going out for dinner, and she would explain everything. Now it was almost dawn, and he had returned home from being out on duty all night to find neither Kyle nor Tess were home.
He picked up the cordless phone and dialed Kyle’s mobile number. Someone picked up on the second ring. “Yeah, Max, what’s up?”
“Guess again, son,” Jim said darkly, folding his arms automatically.
Kyle was so stunned, he dropped his phone. “Shit! It’s my dad,” he told Tess, trying to reach his phone and keep from killing them by running off the road at the same time.
“I’ll get it, Kyle. Just keep you eyes on the road,” Tess said, reaching to the floorboard between Kyle’s feet and retrieving the object in question. “Do you want me to talk to him?”
He just groaned. “It really doesn’t matter. He’s gonna kill both of us anyway.” He thought about it for a minute. “No, you’d better hand the phone to me. He’s always said you have to face things like a man…not to run away from things, especially punishment.” Tess shrugged and handed him the phone. “Yeah, dad?”
“Kyle, where the hell are you and Tess?” Jim asked moving to look out the window just for something to do.
“We’re in the car following Max and the others to New York,” he answered briefly. He figured the easiest thing to do in this situation was to answer his dad’s questions. Too bad he didn’t know more about why they were on the road.
“Uh huh. You wanna tell me what’s in New York?” The Sheriff was trying to keep his patience.
“I wish I could explain it better, but all I know is it’s an alien thing and involves Leslie and Lucas Terrell. I swear that’s all I know, dad.”
“The new kids? What do they have to do with any alien problems?”
“They’re aliens too…although, I think they’re a different kind from Max, Isabel, Michael and Tess,” Kyle said, thankful for the change in his father’s tone.
“Are they skins?”
“No, I don’t think so. Listen, dad, as soon as I know more I’ll call you, but I really think they need us to come with them.” Kyle looked over at Tess, but she was looking out the window, and he couldn’t see her face.
“You know what? I think I’ll call Max and see if he can tell me more about what’s going on. I believe he owes me an explanation, especially after he and Tess just got back from disappearing without telling anyone. I’ll call you back after I speak with him,” Jim said and hung up. He quickly dialed Max’s mobile number.
Isabel was behind the wheel of the jeep, giving Max a break. They hadn’t been back on the road long, maybe a couple of hours or so, and everyone was pretty quiet in both cars. When Max’s phone rang, he looked down at the ID. Seeing her brother was hesitating in answering it, Isabel glanced over at his face. “Who is it, Max? Is it mom?”
“No, it’s the Sheriff,” he answered quietly, trying not to disturb Alex and Leslie in the back. “He’s going to be pretty upset we’ve taken off like this without telling him first, especially with Kyle and Tess following us.”
“Just tell him the truth, Max. He’s understood everything that’s happened to us so far, and he might be able to cover with everyone’s parents if we’re open with him. He’s done nothing but help us up ‘til now.” Isabel shrugged.
Max took a deep breath and answered the phone. “Hello, Sheriff.”
“Mr. Evans, you want to tell me why you and Tess took off for New York with a couple of people that looked like your sister and Michael without telling anyone, and then came back and are currently taking all of your little entourage back there…again without telling anyone?” Jim asked while pacing, his anger returning.
“I’m sorry, Sheriff, really. When Tess and I left the first time, I thought Isabel and Michael knew; there was no time to tell anyone else. I went to New York for a summit meeting with a group of rulers from our home who said they wanted to negotiate for peace. It turns out Rath and Lonnie were working against me for some reason…I don’t know if they were working with Khivar or not…” Max started explaining.
Jim Valenti stopped pacing, blinked a couple of times and sat on the edge of his couch. “Max, I think you’d better stop and start over…this time from the beginning. You lost me within the first couple of sentences of that explanation.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Jeff pulled the pickup truck behind the café just as the sky started to lighten in the east and yawned before gently shaking his wife. “Nance, wake up. We’re home.”
Nancy stirred, opened her eyes, yawned and stretched as she unfolded herself from the balled up position she had curled into. “Home?” She looked over at her husband and then back at the boxes piled in the bed of the truck. “You know, the next time you decide you want to save some money by picking up the paper goods yourself, you can go by yourself. This was a bit ridiculous, Jeff. We’ve spent the past two days in this truck.”
He chuckled as they climbed out. “Well, usually we stay a couple of nights away to spend some time alone. You’re the one who wanted to come straight home, Nancy,” he pointed out.
“I didn’t feel right about leaving Liz alone right after the holidays. She worked so hard during the rush, and you know how it can get when people realize they’re tired of turkey…they always come to the Crashdown for burgers, and we’re busier than on Thanksgiving,” she returned, grabbing a couple of the lighter boxes and following her husband to the door.
“Liz is a big girl, Nancy, she can take care of herself for a couple of days.” Jeff put the key in the door, trying to balance the box he had in one hand. “If she’s half as smart as I think she is, she’ll have scheduled everyone so that no one realizes she has a couple of days off, or at least the easier shifts.” He laughed and pushed the door open.
The couple walked through the door, and Jeff switched on the light to the back room. He and Nancy sat their boxes down on whatever was closest, and Jeff called up the stairs. “Lizzie?”
“Jeff, she’s probably still sleeping!” Nancy scolded.
Looking at the clock on the wall and seeing it was just before 6 am, Jeff shook his head. “If she is still in bed, she won’t be for long. It’s almost time for her to get up for school.”
“Well, I’ll check in on her before I go to bed for some real sleep. You coming up?”
“In a minute. I just want to grab those last few boxes and put them in the basement before I come up. You go ahead…I won’t be but a couple of minutes,” he told her.
Yawning again, Nancy made her way upstairs and knocked softly on Liz’s door. When she got no response, she cracked the door open and was surprised to find the bed made and no sign of her daughter. Shrugging, she figured Liz had spent the night at Maria’s and, closing the door, made her way to her own room and climbed in bed.
* * * * * * * * * * *
“Maria, honey, you’d better get up or you’ll be late for school,” Amy’s voice called as she opened her daughter’s bedroom door. She stopped short when she realized the room was empty and that Maria had probably been out all night. Huffing out a burst of air, Amy DeLuca shook her head. “You had better have been at Liz’s last night, or by god I’ll…” She stopped and noticed that Maria’s school bag was sitting on the floor by her desk. Walking over and picking it up, Amy almost yelled in frustration. “That girl is going to be the death of me!”
* * * * * * * * * *
Jim Valenti sat on his couch, shaking his head back and forth. “I don’t believe this. You’re telling me that you are going after a set of evil twins that work for your enemies and have kidnapped a daughter you had in your last life with your friends and former slaves you don’t know how to set free. Wow! You really did have a wild life didn’t you?”
Max would have chuckled at his words if it weren’t all true. “I hope you understand a little better. I don’t expect you to completely be able to because there’s still so much we don’t know or understand. I can call Kyle and insist he go home and take Tess back with him if you want.”
Sighing, Jim shook his head. “No, I trust Kyle’s judgment in this. If he thinks he and Tess might be able to help you, then they should go too, especially Tess. I want you to call me, and let me know when you get to the city, though, and I’ll take a couple of days off and fly up there to help you.”
“Sheriff, I appreciate your offer, but we could really use your help more by staying there and covering for us. I’ll call you every once in a while to let you know we’re ok. Please, we need you to do this for us,” Max pleaded.
Rubbing his hand tiredly over his face, Jim sighed again. “I’d rather be up there, but if you promise me that you’ll send Kyle back home to me alive, I’ll do my part down here.”
“Thank you, and I promise Kyle will come back home just fine,” Max promised.
“Be careful, Max, all of you,” Jim said before hanging up.
“So what did he say? Is he going to help us?” Isabel asked.
Max nodded. “Yeah, he said he wanted to fly up to New York to help us but I told him we really needed him to help cover there for us.”
Isabel nodded and shifted a little in her seat. “Good. I’m so tired of lying to everyone. I just wish this could all be over, Max.”
“I know, Is,” he agreed. “Me too. I have a bad feeling it won’t ever really be over, though. This is part of who we are.” Isabel didn’t answer, but inside, she was pretty sure her brother was right.
A/N: One of the big problems I had with the show after a while was that these teens had no involvement with their parents for many episodes, as if they had conveniently disappeared. I’m hoping to fix that in this fic, at least a little.
Part 37 – “Parents Closing Ranks”
The phone rang and rang. Then there was a click and the sound of a man’s voice. “Hi, you’ve reached the Evans. We’re sorry we can’t come to the phone right now, but…” Diane sighed and hung up the phone.
Phillip looked at his wife out of the corner of his eye as he hung his tie on the hook on the closet door. “Something wrong, dear?”
“I got the machine again. Phillip, something’s wrong. Max should be home by now, and Isabel isn’t picking up her cell phone. I’ve been trying to reach the kids for two days now, and no one answers any time I call,” she answered.
“Well, they should be in school during the day. Have you left a message on the machine? Maybe they’re screening the calls.”
“That’s why we have caller ID! I’ve left several messages, and they haven’t answered the phone or called us back. I’m worried about them. You don’t think they’ve disappeared again do you?”
“Not if they know what’s good for them, they haven’t!” he almost growled.
“Phillip, is there anyway we can go home tonight?” Diane asked. Seeing that her husband was about to tell her no, she rushed on. “Or even tomorrow morning? Call it a mother’s instinct, but I really feel my children need me.”
Looking into her worry-filled eyes, Philip Evans sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Um, well, we’re supposed to finish up tomorrow morning. I was hoping to spend the afternoon in town, just the two of us, but I suppose we could check out before going to the meeting and then leave straight for home…if that’s what you really want to do.”
Diane stood up and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, darling. I really do appreciate it. I love you.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Jim Valenti looked around his house for his son and Tess, growing more upset by the minute. Where could they be at this hour? Kyle had called his cell phone earlier and said Tess had gotten back in town, along with Max, and they were going out for dinner, and she would explain everything. Now it was almost dawn, and he had returned home from being out on duty all night to find neither Kyle nor Tess were home.
He picked up the cordless phone and dialed Kyle’s mobile number. Someone picked up on the second ring. “Yeah, Max, what’s up?”
“Guess again, son,” Jim said darkly, folding his arms automatically.
Kyle was so stunned, he dropped his phone. “Shit! It’s my dad,” he told Tess, trying to reach his phone and keep from killing them by running off the road at the same time.
“I’ll get it, Kyle. Just keep you eyes on the road,” Tess said, reaching to the floorboard between Kyle’s feet and retrieving the object in question. “Do you want me to talk to him?”
He just groaned. “It really doesn’t matter. He’s gonna kill both of us anyway.” He thought about it for a minute. “No, you’d better hand the phone to me. He’s always said you have to face things like a man…not to run away from things, especially punishment.” Tess shrugged and handed him the phone. “Yeah, dad?”
“Kyle, where the hell are you and Tess?” Jim asked moving to look out the window just for something to do.
“We’re in the car following Max and the others to New York,” he answered briefly. He figured the easiest thing to do in this situation was to answer his dad’s questions. Too bad he didn’t know more about why they were on the road.
“Uh huh. You wanna tell me what’s in New York?” The Sheriff was trying to keep his patience.
“I wish I could explain it better, but all I know is it’s an alien thing and involves Leslie and Lucas Terrell. I swear that’s all I know, dad.”
“The new kids? What do they have to do with any alien problems?”
“They’re aliens too…although, I think they’re a different kind from Max, Isabel, Michael and Tess,” Kyle said, thankful for the change in his father’s tone.
“Are they skins?”
“No, I don’t think so. Listen, dad, as soon as I know more I’ll call you, but I really think they need us to come with them.” Kyle looked over at Tess, but she was looking out the window, and he couldn’t see her face.
“You know what? I think I’ll call Max and see if he can tell me more about what’s going on. I believe he owes me an explanation, especially after he and Tess just got back from disappearing without telling anyone. I’ll call you back after I speak with him,” Jim said and hung up. He quickly dialed Max’s mobile number.
Isabel was behind the wheel of the jeep, giving Max a break. They hadn’t been back on the road long, maybe a couple of hours or so, and everyone was pretty quiet in both cars. When Max’s phone rang, he looked down at the ID. Seeing her brother was hesitating in answering it, Isabel glanced over at his face. “Who is it, Max? Is it mom?”
“No, it’s the Sheriff,” he answered quietly, trying not to disturb Alex and Leslie in the back. “He’s going to be pretty upset we’ve taken off like this without telling him first, especially with Kyle and Tess following us.”
“Just tell him the truth, Max. He’s understood everything that’s happened to us so far, and he might be able to cover with everyone’s parents if we’re open with him. He’s done nothing but help us up ‘til now.” Isabel shrugged.
Max took a deep breath and answered the phone. “Hello, Sheriff.”
“Mr. Evans, you want to tell me why you and Tess took off for New York with a couple of people that looked like your sister and Michael without telling anyone, and then came back and are currently taking all of your little entourage back there…again without telling anyone?” Jim asked while pacing, his anger returning.
“I’m sorry, Sheriff, really. When Tess and I left the first time, I thought Isabel and Michael knew; there was no time to tell anyone else. I went to New York for a summit meeting with a group of rulers from our home who said they wanted to negotiate for peace. It turns out Rath and Lonnie were working against me for some reason…I don’t know if they were working with Khivar or not…” Max started explaining.
Jim Valenti stopped pacing, blinked a couple of times and sat on the edge of his couch. “Max, I think you’d better stop and start over…this time from the beginning. You lost me within the first couple of sentences of that explanation.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Jeff pulled the pickup truck behind the café just as the sky started to lighten in the east and yawned before gently shaking his wife. “Nance, wake up. We’re home.”
Nancy stirred, opened her eyes, yawned and stretched as she unfolded herself from the balled up position she had curled into. “Home?” She looked over at her husband and then back at the boxes piled in the bed of the truck. “You know, the next time you decide you want to save some money by picking up the paper goods yourself, you can go by yourself. This was a bit ridiculous, Jeff. We’ve spent the past two days in this truck.”
He chuckled as they climbed out. “Well, usually we stay a couple of nights away to spend some time alone. You’re the one who wanted to come straight home, Nancy,” he pointed out.
“I didn’t feel right about leaving Liz alone right after the holidays. She worked so hard during the rush, and you know how it can get when people realize they’re tired of turkey…they always come to the Crashdown for burgers, and we’re busier than on Thanksgiving,” she returned, grabbing a couple of the lighter boxes and following her husband to the door.
“Liz is a big girl, Nancy, she can take care of herself for a couple of days.” Jeff put the key in the door, trying to balance the box he had in one hand. “If she’s half as smart as I think she is, she’ll have scheduled everyone so that no one realizes she has a couple of days off, or at least the easier shifts.” He laughed and pushed the door open.
The couple walked through the door, and Jeff switched on the light to the back room. He and Nancy sat their boxes down on whatever was closest, and Jeff called up the stairs. “Lizzie?”
“Jeff, she’s probably still sleeping!” Nancy scolded.
Looking at the clock on the wall and seeing it was just before 6 am, Jeff shook his head. “If she is still in bed, she won’t be for long. It’s almost time for her to get up for school.”
“Well, I’ll check in on her before I go to bed for some real sleep. You coming up?”
“In a minute. I just want to grab those last few boxes and put them in the basement before I come up. You go ahead…I won’t be but a couple of minutes,” he told her.
Yawning again, Nancy made her way upstairs and knocked softly on Liz’s door. When she got no response, she cracked the door open and was surprised to find the bed made and no sign of her daughter. Shrugging, she figured Liz had spent the night at Maria’s and, closing the door, made her way to her own room and climbed in bed.
* * * * * * * * * * *
“Maria, honey, you’d better get up or you’ll be late for school,” Amy’s voice called as she opened her daughter’s bedroom door. She stopped short when she realized the room was empty and that Maria had probably been out all night. Huffing out a burst of air, Amy DeLuca shook her head. “You had better have been at Liz’s last night, or by god I’ll…” She stopped and noticed that Maria’s school bag was sitting on the floor by her desk. Walking over and picking it up, Amy almost yelled in frustration. “That girl is going to be the death of me!”
* * * * * * * * * *
Jim Valenti sat on his couch, shaking his head back and forth. “I don’t believe this. You’re telling me that you are going after a set of evil twins that work for your enemies and have kidnapped a daughter you had in your last life with your friends and former slaves you don’t know how to set free. Wow! You really did have a wild life didn’t you?”
Max would have chuckled at his words if it weren’t all true. “I hope you understand a little better. I don’t expect you to completely be able to because there’s still so much we don’t know or understand. I can call Kyle and insist he go home and take Tess back with him if you want.”
Sighing, Jim shook his head. “No, I trust Kyle’s judgment in this. If he thinks he and Tess might be able to help you, then they should go too, especially Tess. I want you to call me, and let me know when you get to the city, though, and I’ll take a couple of days off and fly up there to help you.”
“Sheriff, I appreciate your offer, but we could really use your help more by staying there and covering for us. I’ll call you every once in a while to let you know we’re ok. Please, we need you to do this for us,” Max pleaded.
Rubbing his hand tiredly over his face, Jim sighed again. “I’d rather be up there, but if you promise me that you’ll send Kyle back home to me alive, I’ll do my part down here.”
“Thank you, and I promise Kyle will come back home just fine,” Max promised.
“Be careful, Max, all of you,” Jim said before hanging up.
“So what did he say? Is he going to help us?” Isabel asked.
Max nodded. “Yeah, he said he wanted to fly up to New York to help us but I told him we really needed him to help cover there for us.”
Isabel nodded and shifted a little in her seat. “Good. I’m so tired of lying to everyone. I just wish this could all be over, Max.”
“I know, Is,” he agreed. “Me too. I have a bad feeling it won’t ever really be over, though. This is part of who we are.” Isabel didn’t answer, but inside, she was pretty sure her brother was right.
Just call me Phoenix...cause I'm back from the dead!