Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch. 15 05/28/20 p. 14

This is the place to post stories that significantly alter the show's canon or mythology such as prequels, backgrounds for the characters that differ from on the show, fics where different characters are alien, and alternative family relationships. These fics must contain aliens or alien storylines as part of their plot.

Moderators: Anniepoo98, Rowedog, ISLANDGIRL5, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, FSU/MSW-94, Hunter, Island Breeze, Forum Moderators

User avatar
SmileeUk
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2001 4:58 pm
Location: SmileeLand

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 4 6/2/17 p. 2

Post by SmileeUk »

Hmmm.... more questions... :roll:
When they go back to school, would all of them be back to where they were in terms of e.g. not talking to each other & stick to their own group type of thing?
Based on Liz's last thoughts and considering Max is so into free will, he might not want to tie down Liz & 'let her go'?!!? Please don't tell me Liz would do that :roll: I can see the funny side if Liz is to chase Max & gets jealous when any female gets close to Max. :lol:
Where are they going to live? Mayor may be around & they need to stick together to get the max security / protection.
~~~~~~ ###### Smiling is a Gift ###### ~~~~~~
User avatar
max and liz believer
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 821
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2002 10:45 am
Location: Sweden
Contact:

FIVE

Post by max and liz believer »

Natalie36
oh poor liz is just messed up right now and so is Max.
Spot on. That's exactly the problem :?

Thank you! :D


SmileeUk
I knew it! :twisted: Max was upset because he knew Liz's thought. It put doubts in his head & Max felt guilty to put Liz through all these horrible days/weeks/months.
Yup. Max is carrying a lot on his shoulders, his own guilt for feeling that he has put Liz in this situation, and that's gonna take a toll on him. That kind of stress and frustration eventually makes people misinterpret situations and the like.
But Liz is human after all. She is allowed to at least think of these 'options'.
Yes, I would think so :roll: :D
Poor Max :( My heart breaks for him. I feel his pain as if my most beloved even think in this way :cry:
<3
Hmmm.... more questions... :roll:
You're funny :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Okay, shoot!
When they go back to school, would all of them be back to where they were in terms of e.g. not talking to each other & stick to their own group type of thing?
Only time will tell, I guess :wink:
Based on Liz's last thoughts and considering Max is so into free will, he might not want to tie down Liz & 'let her go'?!!?
Hmm… You never know, do you? But they have fought a lot to be together, so the likelihood of Max just "giving up" is slim. With that said, Max has a tendency towards drama at times and he might just (again) think he knows what's best for Liz and decide to push her away. One never knows :wink:
I can see the funny side if Liz is to chase Max & gets jealous when any female gets close to Max. :lol:
:lol: That might be amusing. But considering their history, and them just having lost a baby together, such a setting might turn tragically disastrous very quickly.
Where are they going to live?
I've got that figured out. In my head :roll:

Thank you so so much for your speculations, your questions and your feedback! Mucho appreciated! <3


Carolyn (keepsmiling7)
Will we find out more about George Evans.....?
Yes. A lot more. Not in this next chapter, but the chapter after that. I'm just finishing that chapter up now.
My heart breaks for Liz......carrying a dead baby would make you depressed and almost crazy with thoughts of what if?
:cry:
But thank goodness Sean didn't get his way with her !
That is a good thing, right? And Max will hopefully understand that Liz thinks so to.

Thank you so much for the feedback!



From FOUR:

He let me eat three slow spoons of the broth before saying, “You’ll need your strength when going back to school.”

The spoon clanked against the bowl when I dropped it, droplets of broth escaping the bowl and landing on the back of my hand. “What?”

I didn’t know if I should be happy, nervous, anxious or upset. I didn’t know any more.

“I talked to my father-“

’Talked’? I questioned, quite clearly remembering the yelling between Max and his father.

Max sidestepped my mental jab, “-and we’ll be going back to school next week.”

I looked at him closely, finding no words.

Max was trying to read my reaction but coming up short, just like I was. “Is that okay? That’s what you wanted, right?”

Was it? Of course it was. But…

In the absence of my answer, he changed tracks. Very clearly so.

Darkness slowly bled into his eyes, chilling me as I saw it happened, and then he asked the question that made my blood turn completely cold. “Would you rather have been with Sean than me?”


____________________________________
Image
FIVE

Would you rather have been with Sean than me?

The question, pulled from his darkest parts, echoed in the space between us.

It made me angry more than anything. Slowly, I put the bowl of chicken broth back on the tray.

I looked up to meet his black eyes head on. Slowly, pronouncing every word distinctly, I said, “Of course not.”

“That’s not what I heard.” He still sounded so cold. Nothing like Max. But I recognized his behavior for my own. He was defensively retreating behind a wall to not get hurt. To protect himself against any possibly unpleasant answers I might provide.

Unhindered by my own understanding, the chill was working itself into my very bones.

“I heard your conversation with yourself before.”

“You misunderstood,” I tried, because he must have. I never intended for it to sound as if I would willingly choose Sean before Max.

Tightly, he said, “You were comparing your current life to a life with Sean.” I noticed his fist clench against his thigh. “Making a life with Sean seem almost cozy in comparison.”

“You can’t be serious.” Anger escalated, its heat pushing at the chill. “In that case, you didn’t hear me at all.”

He was dangerously calm, almost frozen in his seat. “I hate that you have been forced into this life. I hate that I have been part of hurting you. But for you to consider that a life with Sean would have been better-“

His facade of detachment made my own pool of emotions explode.

“I didn’t say that!!” I yelled, making the tray and all its components shake in its unstable foundation on the bed.

“You might as well have,” he replied, not raising his voice a single decibel.

“You know as well as I do that this is an impossible situation,” I cried and sighed inwardly. That’s not what I wanted to say. That sentence might have just made things worse.

“You would rather live with weekly memory erasures, rape, and being depleted of your energy - effectively risking your life - than to be with me.”

“NO!” I cried, pushing my hands through my hair in frustration. “Nothing could replace you. This has nothing to do with you.”

Fuck, I cursed myself silently, frustration at not being able to explain it properly blending with fear of him misunderstanding me. I’m making it worse.

He wasn’t listening. His jaw tightened and he bit out, “Did you ever consider how it would feel for me to have to heal you as a result of his methods, over and over again, knowing that I could do nothing to save you? That you had already bonded with him? We might as well have been dead, both of us. Death would be less painful.”

“Listen to me,” I pleaded, the desperation breaking my voice. “Please-“

“I never forced you to be with me. If there was any other way to save you, I would-“

Listen to me!” I cried.

He couldn’t get any stiller than he already was, but at least his mouth closed and he pressed his lips together.

When giving the chance to speak, I found myself without words.

Go ahead, he told me telepathically, his mouth still tight, his eyes black.

“I was thinking about free will,” I started, my voice softening. “And you know, as well as I do, that neither of us have much in that department right now.”

“You weren’t only thinking about that,” Max objected bitterly.

I pulled back, shut down, my voice lowering to a mumble under my breath, “I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know what you want me to say. It wasn’t about you.” I looked him straight in the eye, raising my voice to normal speaking volume. “It wasn’t about you. You are the good in all of this. You are the only reason I can keep going. You are my only reason. Okay?”

I reached into his lap and grabbed his tight fist, wrapping my hand around his whitened knuckles. He didn’t soften the tightness, but he didn’t withdraw his hand at my touch either.

“I need to be able to sort things out in my head without you reading into it. My thoughts are all over the place and sometimes I have to organize it in columns and categories to get a handle on it. And to do so, I have to weight everything back and forth. It doesn’t mean that it’s the truth. It doesn’t mean that it’s what I mean. They’re thoughts. I can’t control them and I cannot not think them.”

“One’s thoughts are more real than one’s words,” Max interrupted. “Once you make it into words, everything gets filtered.”

It was like talking to a wall. Where was my understanding Max?

“Not for me. I don’t know how it’s like for other people, but my thoughts are not the end result. They’re too transient, too disorganized.” I felt his hand soften slightly beneath mine, igniting a hope that he was starting to listen. “Did you not hear what my conclusion was from that discussion I had with myself?”

A visible ripple moved through the muscles of his jaw as he clenched them even tighter, informing me that I had brushed against the truth.

“My flighty thoughts made me realize what you have spent your whole life trying to do. Why you have avoided me, scared me, pushed me away and even yelled at me. Those scattered thoughts made me realize - again - what an amazing person you are. How self-sacrificing you are. How you were prepared to do the things you said earlier - heal me when Sean would have hurt me, over and over again, even when it would cause you pain - just to protect me.”

The blackness in his gaze was retreating, the golden brown of his irises slowly returning. The progress spurred me on, relaxed me. “I never fully understood how you were willing to sacrifice me to Sean even if it meant that I would be leading a life in mental imprisonment. I never truly got why you fought our connection, when it would obviously keep me safe from Sean, something you wanted. But now I do. You did it for exactly those reasons I was thinking about earlier. You wanted me to have a normal life.”

He averted his eyes, his hand turning soft in mine.

My voice turned even gentler. “And the only way for me to even have a shot at a normal life, considering my situation, considering my few options, was to have a life with Sean. Because at least then I could live under the pretense that everything was normal. You were willing to sacrifice your own happiness, the feelings you had for me, to give me something akin to normalcy in a very abnormal situation.”

I swallowed heavily, the guilt of what my thoughts must have sounded like to him, infecting my conscience. “And then, after everything we have gone through. After us choosing each other, I say what I said earlier - in my thoughts though - and attack the very reason why you wanted to push me away.”

My ‘innocent’ reasoning earlier had effectively - and very unintentionally - walked all over everything Max had gone through to be with me. It made me sick. I hadn’t meant anything by it and it hadn’t been intended, but the thought made me sick.

“I wouldn’t trade you for anything,” I said, fresh tears thickening my voice.

He met my eyes, his irises having fully retrieved their amber hue. His aura was transforming from the previously dangerous stormy emotions to the warm nuances of blue that usually surrounded him.

“I know it’s no excuse, but I’m just so fed up with this situation.” He flinched at my statement, so I hurried to clarify, “Not with you. And you know that. If you look inside my mind and soul - which you can - you’d see that I love you with every cell of my being.”

Shame flashed across his features, because it was true. If he just let go of this most recent emotional development, he would have seen - and felt - how I really felt.

“We have this incredible one-of-a-kind connection. We see into each other’s souls when we make love. You have brought me back from the brink of death. I have brought you back from the brink of death. We have trained, cried and laughed together. We fought Command - the most dangerous alien to walk this earth. We died together. We returned from the dead together. We killed Command.” A short laugh flew over my lips. “I mean, our love is even strong enough to expel evil from aliens.”

Tears were developing in his eyes during my monologue, matching my own, and silently he put his other hand above my own, hugging my hand between both of his.

“I would have preferred to not experience the pain and the war, but I would never regret knowing you or having you in my life,” I continued. “I haven’t had a chance to process much of what has happened these past couple of weeks, but during that time I have never questioned you or our life together.”

He lifted our pile of hands to his lips, angling it so that he could kiss my thumb.

“We are meant to be, Max,” I emphasized with a tentative smile. “Even the cosmos tells us so.”

He nodded, let go of my hand and brought his free hands to cradle my face. I grew silent as the sounds of the bowls and plates moving on the unstable tray between us reached my ears. The danger of the tray falling to the floor along with its china did not, however, stop Max from leaning over it and merging our lips together in the softest of kisses.

I melted into his lips, his freshly shaven skin making his lips seem even softer than usual, and put my arms around his shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled against my lips between kisses.

But there really wasn’t anything to forgive. Max had been shouldering a lot lately; he had the right to break down too. Plus, it was not difficult to understand how he could have been offended by my thoughts, even though those thoughts hadn’t been intended to be final or even spoken out loud.

It just showed how complicated one’s relationship could be when there was a mental connection. Had Max and I been a regular couple, he had never had to listen to that line of reasoning and this argument had never occurred.

“We are both fairly emotional people,” Max mused in response to my most recent line of thinking, putting the distance of a breath between our lips. His eyes twinkled with sheepish amusement. “We both have to try and not react to what the other one is thinking.”

I nodded and leaned in to steal another kiss. A satisfied sigh escaped me before I whispered, “This is really difficult stuff, Max. Maybe we will never get used to it and maybe we just have to accept that. To be able to sort through all the information our minds are getting all the time - both from our own thinking and from the other’s thinking - is not just close to impossible but tiring.”

He agreed with a nod and I placed my much paler hands against his cheeks, resting the tip of my fingers against the sharpened edge of his jaw.

“And I could actually try and ask you about your thoughts before I reach my own conclusions,” Max admitted, his chagrin making him look years younger.

I smiled at him encouragingly and murmured, “Yes. Can’t object to that.”

This made him chuckle and, with one sharp motion, he moved the tray between us to the side, removing any physical obstacles between us. In a fraction of a second, his lips were on mine, his body pressing me down into the mattress with a pleasant pressure.

Our quarrel had cleared the air, almost resetting and removing all the negativity that had built between us lately. It was almost too easy to fall into the comfort of each other.

Our romance never had the chance to be that of teenagers. We never had the puppy love, the innocent first love, the young love we were meant to have had at sixteen. Even at our own partial choosing, sex had been forced upon us by necessity to bind me more closely to Max in order to protect me against Sean. Our feelings for each other, albeit intense and true, were constantly denied and exposed to attempts of tainting. We did not only hide our feelings from the rest of the world, but also from ourselves.

Our relationship never had the chance to blossom slowly, develop from something tentative into something stable. We never had the chance to settle in and become comfortable. Never had the time to just enjoy each other.

Instead our love was painfully entwined with pain and obligations. From the start, there had been an urgency to become one, spurred on not only by our need to protect ourselves but also by the connection. The connection had provided us with security and shelter, but had also seemed to have had an agenda of its own, and the more used to it we got, the more we realized that it might actually be a separate force. A living thing.

But right now, with Max’s lips slowly moving down the side of my neck, with his hands whispering across my body with a calmness almost foreign to us, the connection – whatever it might be and whatever plan it might have - seemed to have taken a step back. And with its undramatic retreat, we were able to relax into the process of making out. Of simply kissing and touching. No demands to take it further, to reach completion, to become one. Instead we had finally landed in puppy love, rediscovering each other through different eyes.

With the pressing insistence of the connection simmering down, we were free to follow our own feelings and discover just how much we loved each other. Discover how much we loved each other even when the world wasn’t breathing down our necks. How our love was not contingent upon our survival, but that it held its own truth and worth.

It was the most serene experience of my life. Even when we were only making out and touching, I found myself melting into him. Becoming one in a very non-physical manner.

Slowly, I floated my hands across every inch of his body and felt the energy his body emitted through the thin clothing he was wearing. My lips were burning from his affections, my hands trembled restlessly. I couldn’t deny that my desire for him was still there, even in the throes of this more innocent interaction with him, even without the connection interfering.

But the difference was that we were content – content – with doing nothing more. The kissing only paused to allow for hugs. Warm comforting hugs. When I could put my nose into the side of his neck and let my sense of smell saturate with his addictive scent. His fingers, creeping underneath my sweater at the small of my back, were warm.

We were both present, in a way we hadn’t really been before. Because now it was only us. Our thoughts and feelings were even and calm, flowing beautifully between our minds and bodies. The bright white light of our bond enveloped us effortlessly and we were bathing in tranquil peace.

I got lost in his eyes over and over again, and explosive warmth filled my chest every time he smiled at me. I found myself crushing on him, like the teenager I really was. I found myself wondrous to have him so close, to have him love me, to have him as my boyfriend.

With everything we had gone through, shyness still besieged me, making me blush when he lightly caressed my warm cheek with his knuckles and told me how much he loved me – every part of me.

Being so close together, we had managed to lose one another. Even with the ability to hear each others’ thoughts and feel each others feelings, we hadn’t had the chance to fully get to know one another.

After what felt like hours of kissing and caressing, of loving and quietly chit chatting, we settled on our sides, facing each other and sharing occasionally soft kisses, our fingers continuously interlaced.

“Mom’s funeral is in two days,” he said then, completely out of the blue.

I stiffened momentarily, the announcement obviously making me think of the beautiful Diane; of Max’s warm and loving mother. And of her tragic death.

“Okay,” I said quietly, unsure of how to treat that piece of information.

His eyes, irises golden amber and pupils black as charcoal, looked down at a point somewhere below my collarbone, his fingers giving mine a squeeze as he mumbled, “Would you come with me? To the service?”

I was both puzzled and moved by him asking. To me, it was only natural that I would come along. I would never have thought of not being there with him. For him. But simply by asking, he was displaying his need for me to be there with him, to hold him up, to console him, and I was touched that he didn’t take it for granted that I would come. That he wanted to ask me.

“Of course,” I said softly, cradling his cheek in my hand. His eyes came up to meet mine, a sheen of wetness across them as I continued, “Of course I’ll come.” I tightened my grip on his hand. “I would never leave you alone at a time like that.”

My voice thickening, I dropped my eyes in the search for composure, “She meant a lot to me too. I want to say goodbye.” My voice broke at that last word, my eyes rapidly filling with tears. The first tear quietly rolled down my cheek as I looked up to meet his sad and grateful gaze.

“Thank you,” he whispered. His words were mushy, thickened by his restrained tears, and without a second thought I wrapped my arm around him and pulled him close.

He clung to me tightly, accepting my hug and support with all of his might. We still had a lot of grieving to do. A lot of things to work through. But to just be there for each other, without the pressures of the outside world, was a very good – and vital – start.


TBC...
Last edited by max and liz believer on Sat Jul 01, 2017 6:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Unbreakable (M/L, AU)
Facebook Page
My Imagination

Instagram: author_josephin_ripa
User avatar
DestinyDreamer
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 245
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2004 7:04 pm
Location: borington fla ( also known as bradenton)

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 5 6/9/17 p. 3

Post by DestinyDreamer »

Hi!

I read the prelude and this story sounds very good! Cant wait to read more later tonight! Very good start! And very well written! Keep going!
please also check me out at fanfiction.net I go by the name twilighteyes85 there!
https://www.fanfiction.net/~twilighteyes85
User avatar
SmileeUk
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2001 4:58 pm
Location: SmileeLand

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 5 6/9/17 p. 3

Post by SmileeUk »

max and liz believer wrote: SmileeUk
Hmmm.... more questions... :roll:
You're funny :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Okay, shoot!
Jo, I am glad you find me funny :lol:
It is your fault :twisted: You gave me too much time to go wild with my imagination in between chapters :mrgreen: or sometimes not wild enough :mrgreen:
(Hint hint hint..... ) :lol:
Last edited by SmileeUk on Fri Jun 09, 2017 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
~~~~~~ ###### Smiling is a Gift ###### ~~~~~~
User avatar
SmileeUk
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2001 4:58 pm
Location: SmileeLand

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 5 6/9/17 p. 3

Post by SmileeUk »

What a lovely moment they shared :) Just feeling content with being together, touching, hugging and kissing. Lovely to see their feeling grew from basic.

The funeral announcement was a surprise but it was good to see it being considered and written in. I suppose more tear :cry: to come. I'd better get a new box of Kleenex tissue ready :roll:

As always, this chapter was beautifully written. Thank You! :D
~~~~~~ ###### Smiling is a Gift ###### ~~~~~~
User avatar
Natalie36
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 599
Joined: Sun Jul 30, 2006 12:06 pm

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 5 6/9/17 p. 3

Post by Natalie36 »

what a moment those 2 shared and they needed that mini break down together. I forgot for second regarding diane. I was hoping it was a bad dream and she was still alive.
keepsmiling7
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2649
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:34 pm

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 5 6/9/17 p. 3

Post by keepsmiling7 »

such a wonderful part,
Thanks,
carolyn
User avatar
begonia9508
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 1125
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2001 2:37 am
Location: Somewhere lost in chocolat Land

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 5 6/9/17 p. 3

Post by begonia9508 »

Wow! The last 3 parts were fantastic! A lot to take in.. for Liz about her Baby' death, things which are not so easy for a woman who always felt guilty for something she wasn't responsible!

Loved how Max was with her, so gentle and loving... EVE
- Les jouissances de l'esprit sont faites pour calmer les orages du coeur!
- On reconnaît le bonheur au bruit qu'il fait quand il s'en va!
- L'amour vous rend aveugle et le mariage vous redonne la vue!
User avatar
max and liz believer
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 821
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2002 10:45 am
Location: Sweden
Contact:

SIX

Post by max and liz believer »

DestinyDreamer
Hi!

I read the prelude and this story sounds very good! Cant wait to read more later tonight! Very good start! And very well written! Keep going!
Hi! :D Great to have you on board and thank you for leaving a comment. I hope you noticed that this is a sequel. The first one is called Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie and should be read first, otherwise this one won't make much sense.

Thank you!


SmileeUk
Jo, I am glad you find me funny :lol:
It is your fault :twisted: You gave me too much time to go wild with my imagination in between chapters :mrgreen: or sometimes not wild enough :mrgreen:
(Hint hint hint..... ) :lol:
Hehe, noted :mrgreen:
What a lovely moment they shared :) Just feeling content with being together, touching, hugging and kissing. Lovely to see their feeling grew from basic.
Thank you :D
The funeral announcement was a surprise but it was good to see it being considered and written in.
Yeah, haven't really dealt with Liz's mother and what happened there, so should at least deal with Diane :roll: Glad to hear that you agree with my decision to add it :)

Thank you so so much for the feedback!


Natalie36
I forgot for second regarding diane. I was hoping it was a bad dream and she was still alive.
Yeah… :? Sorry about that. Diane is unfortunately not alive…

Thank you so much for the feedback!


Carolyn (keepsmiling7) - Thank you so much! :D


Eve (begonia9508)
Wow! The last 3 parts were fantastic!
Thank you! :oops:
A lot to take in.. for Liz about her Baby' death, things which are not so easy for a woman who always felt guilty for something she wasn't responsible!
No, it really isn't easy :?

So happy to see you back here, Eve :D And thank you for the feedback!



From FIVE:

“Mom’s funeral is in two days,” he said then, completely out of the blue.

I stiffened momentarily, the announcement obviously making me think of the beautiful Diane; of Max’s warm and loving mother. And of her tragic death.

“Okay,” I said quietly, unsure of how to treat that piece of information.

His eyes, irises golden amber and pupils black as charcoal, looked down at a point somewhere below my collarbone, his fingers giving mine a squeeze as he mumbled, “Would you come with me? To the service?”

I was both puzzled and moved by him asking. To me, it was only natural that I would come along. I would never have thought of not being there with him.
For him. But simply by asking, he was displaying his need for me to be there with him, to hold him up, to console him, and I was touched that he didn’t take it for granted that I would come. That he wanted to ask me.

“Of course,” I said softly, cradling his cheek in my hand. His eyes came up to meet mine, a sheen of wetness across them as I continued, “Of course I’ll come.” I tightened my grip on his hand. “I would never leave you alone at a time like that.”

My voice thickening, I dropped my eyes in the search for composure, “She meant a lot to me too. I want to say goodbye.” My voice broke at that last word, my eyes rapidly filling with tears. The first tear quietly rolled down my cheek as I looked up to meet his sad and grateful gaze.

“Thank you,” he whispered. His words were mushy, thickened by his restrained tears, and without a second thought I wrapped my arm around him and pulled him close.

He clung to me tightly, accepting my hug and support with all of his might. We still had a lot of grieving to do. A lot of things to work through. But to just be there for each other, without the pressures of the outside world, was a very good – and vital – start.



____________________________________
Many many answers are coming up in this chapter. The picture depicts stone apartments, built into the cliffs in New Mexico. This will be mentioned in this chapter.
Image
SIX

Due to the pregnancy – and everything that came along with it – I had avoided any more interactions with Max’s grandfather. I knew that he was still in the house, I could hear him on occasion, his voice sporadically traveling up the stairs from the first floor to the second.

I had gotten accustomed to that voice and I loved the sound of it. It spoke to something inside of me the same way that Max’s did. It was a voice of fundamental trust, without even knowing him.

Hence, when Max’s grandfather – George Evans – requested a meeting, I was not the one to object. I was looking forward to hearing his story, to take part of the possible knowledge he possessed. It was instead Max that objected. Not straight out. Not loudly. But he was hesitant.

From his mind, I could discern that Max’s hesitance partly stemmed from his fear of my overall mental health possibly deteriorating if I were dragged back into the deepest parts of the alien world, but also Max’s disappointment with his grandfather. Working with small pieces of information, I could figure out that Max had been very close to his grandfather, and thus George leaving – faking his own death – was a monumental betrayal to Max.

Max also felt betrayed by his father, who had recently admitted to knowing that his father George had not in fact been dead, but had been in hiding.

Last night, after Max had asked me to come with him to his mother’s funeral, we had talked for a long time about his mother. He had told me tales of his childhood, of what she was like as a mother from a son’s perspective, and we had gradually, albeit cautiously, brushed the grief he had yet to deal with. The tragedy of losing his mother, mixed with the horrific events of me losing my own mother, had broken our composure on more than one occasion, but we had never lost it completely. Both of us being serious control freaks, letting go was just not our thing. Nevertheless, being in the comfort and safety of each other’s company that evening had brought us the closest to processing what had happened as of yet.

Our conversation, before we had gotten ready for bed and fallen asleep wrapped up in each other, had led us to Max’s grandfather. But compared to the subject of Diane, it was a lot more difficult for Max to speak of George. Max did, however, paint me a fairly good picture of what kind of grandfather George had been.

He had been the attentive grandfather, the one who always listens to what you have to say, even when it’s sometimes only childish gibberish and nonsensical theories. He had been the strong grandfather, the one that you could always trust to protect you no matter what. He had been the healing grandfather, in every meaning of the word, fixing scrapes and bruises, but also wiping away your tears. He had been the consoling grandfather, the one who you would cry your heart out to, who would hug you tight while doing so. He had been the grandfather with all the stories, who narrated long fairytales at bedtime. He had been the encouraging grandfather, the one that gave praise and topped up one’s self esteem.

He had been the grandfather Max and Isabel never thought would leave. The stable rock in their lives. A replacement for their much colder and more aloof father.

Which only made the betrayal of George Evans’ (voluntary) absence that much more cutting.

I carried that sting with me, resonating inside of me – a ghost of Max’s feelings - when we positioned ourselves on the large dark brown leather couch in the living room. Max’s thigh was burning with heat as he pressed it against the side of my own, sitting so close that he was almost in my lap. His grip on my hand was slightly damp. He felt tight and apprehensive.

The walls of the room were glimmering, as if they had been sprinkled with fairy dust. Rather instinctively, Max answered my unspoken question about the odd appearance of the walls by telling me that it was soundproofing. Whatever George Evans wanted to tell us, the physical barrier of regular walls was not enough.

The man in question was standing, naturally signaling a role of authority with his expectant audience seated around him. Contrary to his authoritative stance, there was nothing intimidating about Max’s grandfather. His body was straight, looking very strong for his age, and there was not a single tremor or sign of age-related weakness. His gaze steady, he was looking straight at Max and me, succeeding in making his gaze neither staring nor uncomfortable. Despite this, it was still unusual to have someone (other than Max) look at me that closely, so I soon dropped my gaze, busying myself with the other occupants in the room.

Michael and Philip were there. Isabel and Alex. They were to be expected. But I was a bit surprised to see Maria there, along with her mother and my father. Somewhere along the way they had not only been included in this weird alien mixed group, but also entrusted with information secret enough to require magical soundproofing.

There was a smaller sofa to my left, occupied by Maria and Michael. They were seated close (although not as close as Max was to me) and for a second I was mystified by the colors of their auras, meshing together. Amongst their almost constant bickering, something beautiful was growing between them. They were getting closer every day and even though I could see visible (positive) changes in my best friend, the changes their relationship did to Michael was even more fascinating. Suddenly Michael was smiling more. He seemed more relaxed and friendlier. Almost like he had been lost before and now (finally) found a place in the world.

My father and Maria’s mother were seated in separate armchairs, positioned next to each other. Amy was leaning over the cushioned armrest, speaking with dad in hushed tones. They looked very comfortable with each other, like long-time confidants. As two out of three parents in this room, being the only human parents, I was relieved that they were close. They had always had a great relationship, considering that Maria and I had been friends for so long, but knowing what they knew, and having experienced what they had experienced, had brought their friendship to a whole new level. I was happy that they had each other.

Isabel looked closed off. She was on a pin chair, probably borrowed from the kitchen, her arms crossed tightly and defensively across her chest. That expression of distance was equally visible in the strained line of her mouth and in how she was staring, unblinkingly and provocatively, at her grandfather. Her body language was demanding answers according to a very clear non-bullshit policy.

Not even Alex’s hand on her shoulder seemed to be able to loosen her up. I could see, from the colors of Alex’s aura, that he was feeding energy into Isabel attempting to calm her down with his emphatic ability. But Isabel was too closed off. Her aura was filled with stormy darkened colors; the darkest marine blue, the darkest navy green, the darkest blood red. I was impressed with Alex for having the courage to stand so close to Isabel while she was in such an emotional state.

Philip was barely noticeable. He had taken a position in the background, behind his father, leaning with his back against the wall. His facial expression was blank, his arms folded across his chest similar to his daughter, while lacking in defensive tightness. For all intents and purposes, he looked bored, like this was a regular meeting at his job, a meeting he just wanted to get out of.

“If I could have your attention, please,” George said politely, causing the low buzz from the conversation between Amy and my dad to quiet down.

Instead of our attention, he got our rapt focus. Like kids at school, when a particularly exciting guest would come to visit to tell a story, I think I spoke for everyone there (even Isabel and Philip) when I say that we were all on the edges of our seats waiting for whatever George was about to tell us.

“Thank you,” he said, smiling softly. “I’m glad to finally be here with you; it’s been too long.”

I couldn’t help but glance at Isabel, to see her reaction in response to George’s words, and was not surprised to see the red in her aura became more dominant. Her grandfather was already pissing her off.

As Alex’s fingers subtly tightened around Isabel’s shoulder, George continued, “I know that both Dresden and my son have informed you of the history of the planet Antar and the Antarians, but the information they possess does not go very far back. It’s time that you hear the whole story, information that very few individuals are in the possession of.”

Max was tense next to me. In instinctive response, I tensed as well.

“Antar is a very old civilization. Older than the human race. You have heard of the legend of parims, how the essence of one parim was divided up and incorporated into human beings to keep the pure energy alive. You have heard how the energy was only successfully assimilated into female human beings and how the successful incorporation of parim energy into the human genome resulted in gaeas.” He paused, looking at each person in the room, one at the time, tracing the circle of listeners.

The room was silent. I could hear the rhythmic ticking of the grandfather clock and Max’s thin breathing next to me. My own hot blood was throbbing past my ears.

“This is the story I told James Dresden in 2003,” he continued. “But I was forced to leave some details out. Out of precaution.”

“What details?” Isabel asked impatiently. Looking at her, it was impossible to ignore the angry sparks exploding throughout her aura. Glancing at George, wanting to read his expression, I knew that he could see it too. “What did you leave out?”

But George chose to not feed into his granddaughter’s hostility, his expression softening in sympathy. “The Antarian who sacrifice himself for his essence to become a part of homo sapiens was one out of a group of parims.”

“A group?!” The question flew out of me in surprise before I could stop it. When George met my eyes with an open expression on his face, I haltingly added, “There were more than one? We have been told that parims were extremely rare.”

I looked at Max, met his confused eyes, and wondered silently if we might not be as special as had been insinuated.

“This is what everyone has been lead to believe,” George explained, attracting my attention again. “The knowledge of parims was conveniently forgotten in order for the mission to be successful.”

“What mission?” Michael asked.

“Several millennia ago, Antarians consisted of only parims. They were life forms of energy without a physical form.”

I licked my lips slowly, becoming entranced by the elderly man’s tale.

“They were immortal; their energies similar to the hypothetical concept of the Earthen souls. Occasionally, new energy fields were created, but energies rarely died. Their only threat of death was due to darkness.”

“In English, please..?” Maria asked, her voice drenched with confusion.

Even with the questions being fired around me, I kept my eyes on George the entire time, not only fascinated by his words but also by the beauty of his aura. How it was kept completely regulated, not changing the least while remaining even in color distribution.

“If they let darkness in - the malevolence - they were defiled. Tainted. It became like a sickness, slowly making them sicker, gradually killing them. The light that was them and their consciousness could fight off any darkness in the universe, but if they let it inside, let it become part of them, it would consume them. Destroy them from the inside.”

I thought of Command and how our energy had seemed to destroy him from the inside.

“But the darkness still managed to nestle itself into some of the parims. It is unknown if those first parims made a conscious and willing decision to let the darkness in or if it forced itself past their barriers. Despite the reason, in small amounts, the darkness started changing the parims rather than killing them. The darkness gave them a physical form, something that some of the parims considered a favorable development. See, some of the parims had become weary of each other. Not many new parims were created, since the creation was spontaneous and infrequent. Meanwhile, parims had observed how other organisms in the universe created offspring and communities. Something they were unable to do without a physical form. Having lived for millennia as energy, they were ready to experience something else.”

“Hang on,” I interrupted. “So if parims needed darkness to acquire a physical form, that would mean that all parims with a body actually have darkness inside of them. That would mean that there are no pure parims left.”

Which would be the complete opposite of what we had been told.

“You have a very valid point, Liz,” George said, looking almost pleased by me asking. “But this happened thousands of years ago. A lot happened in the years to follow. The darkness did change the playing field though. Only a small number of parims regained their purity, with their physical forms intact, while the majority of the parim population became what we would call the modern Antarian. Unfortunately, some parims acquired too much darkness and their need to not only grow in numbers but also to become powerful had them create the first political system of Antar.”

“The monarchy,” Max said quietly.

The silence of the room was heavy enough for Max’s soft voice to be heard very clearly.

“Yes,” George conceded. “The monarchic rule is what Antarians know to be the start of their people. Everything that happened before then was forgotten.”

“This means that every Antarian originated from parims,” Alex mused, surprised.

“Exactly,” George concurred, looking rather pleased with his audience.

“Let me get this straight,” Amy interrupted. “Most of your people are,” she lifted her hands to make air quotes, “‘normal Antarians’, but some are from the monarchy. But there are also some parims left still. Or did they all vanish in the end?”

“Almost,” George answered. “The pure parims - the ones that had managed to vanquish the effects of the small pieces of darkness they had invited into their life forms in order to gain physical form - retreated. They hid away from the Antarians, overwhelmed by the civilization and the signs of evil that was fostering within the new population. Their existence became a myth. A legend, at best. A distant memory. But just like most organisms, they had a will to survive. They quickly realized that their physical form had made them mortal, and being few in numbers they knew that they would very soon die out.”

“Couldn’t they make new ones?” Maria asked, blushing when everyone turned to look at her. “I mean, they had bodies now. They could just…” She tripped over her words. “Or were they asexual? Sterile?”

Michael looked ready to break out in laughter next to his girlfriend, and Maria gave him an acidic glare before George stopped any laughter from erupting by saying, “You are not too far off, Maria. The parims suffered severe difficulties in reproducing.”

My heart dropped. It dropped like an ice cold stone, falling quickly into my uterus, shredding it to pieces and pulling my dead fetus along with it. I barely noticed as Max squeezed my hand - his eyes worriedly fixed on the side of my face - because my free hand was already pressing against my lower abdomen, my thoughts nowhere close to the present meeting.

The parims suffered severe difficulties in reproducing.

“Their gene pool was small,” George continued. With my attention diverted, his voice sounded far away. “And they didn’t want to mix with regular Antarians, with the risk of them losing the purity and inviting more darkness into their genes. The few number of progenies born were, in nine cases out of ten, males. The few females that were born rarely survived. This further complicated reproduction; there being almost no females around.”

Distractedly, sorrow burrowing deeply into my soul, I saw Amy lean forward in her seat and I vaguely heard her ask, “What did they do? Did they die out?”

I felt Maria’s eyes on me at her mother’s question. Michael and Isabel were also looking at Max and I. We had been called parims. We were alive. How was that possible if they had all died out? But Amy had asked something similar just a minute ago, and George had answered ‘Almost’ to that question then.

“It’s okay, Liz,” George said, pulling me harshly back to the conversation at hand, and everyone that was not already looking at me did then. His assurance brought me back to reality with something akin to a slap in the face. “We’ll discuss that privately later. Don’t worry about it.”

My heart missed a beat, cold sweat broke out all over my body and my fingers tightened painfully around Max’s.

What does he know? I asked Max desperately.

I have no idea, Max answered. Stunned.

I turned to look at my boyfriend, trying to figure out if he was telling me the truth. My trust in his words had been shaken by him keeping my own pregnancy secret from me. But there was nothing in his eyes to make me second-guess his words this time.

Looking back at the circle of listeners, I caught sight of Maria’s pale face. Her eyes were flickering to the hand on my abdomen and I could only assume that her thoughts had mimicked my own.

“They did not die out,” George said, reverting to answering the previous question as though his comment to me had never happened. “Their theory was that the environment - the continued destruction of Antar and the tainting of Antarians - was negatively influencing their ability to procreate. A long way back, they had discovered Earth and homo sapiens; a species quite similar to their own, and thus they decided that they would go into hiding on the planet Earth. This was a long time before the Blood War which would later terrorize Antar, but conditions on Antar were already disturbed. The conditions were getting worse and the Antarians were suffering. Some pure parims remained on Antar and it’s from one of those remaining parims that we got the essence to create gaeas, a result of the backup plan you already heard of.”

“Was their theory correct?” Isabel asked. “About the environment being the cause of their infertility?”

“Probably not. But it was not until recently that they realized that the change of environment was not the main problem.” George smiled good-naturedly. “I’ll get to that.”

My mind was still distracted by my dead daughter inside my womb, making me listen to Max’s grandfather with only one ear.

“The parims that escaped Antar - let’s call them Elders - in an attempt to hide away and improve their fertility, arrived on Earth in the early 1500 B.C.”

“Whoa, whoa,” Maria interrupted. “They lived here?”

George nodded, slightly amused. “Yes. They have lived side by side with humans to this very day.”

Max’s shock was instantaneous, pulling me out of my grief-ridden daze. “Until this day? You mean, there are more parims here? Right now?”

George continued to nod. “Why, yes. There are not that many of them, but yes, they are here. Let me explain.”

Max was trembling next to me. I guess his grandfather had already told him some things, but he had left out that piece of information to be announced at this meeting.

“Navajo Indians called them Anasazi, the term meaning something along the lines of ancient enemies.”

Anasazi.

I felt the blood drain from my face. Anasazi. I knew about that. My mother had talked about them. She had, for as long as I had known her, shown an almost annoying interest in Indians - in the Anasazis particularly. Was there a reason? Was it only an odd coincidence? Did she know about this? Had George told her? Or had she figured it out?

“At first, the Elders were able to use their abilities and their ancient knowledge rather freely. They built apartment complexes out of stone, were experts at farming and had a keen understanding of astronomy.”

Chaco Canyon. My mom had shown me pictures of that place a long time ago. Pictures of apartments carved into the stone wall. I remember mom telling me that the people living there had one day mysteriously vanished and up until this day no one knew what had happened to them.

Unaware of my thought process, George continued his tale, “The Elders had chosen New Mexico as their place of residency, only because the environment was similar to that of Antar. Which obviously gave them the knowledge of how to survive in a dry and waterless place like that. But their abilities would not go undetected forever. Mainly, it was their ability to live without access to a lot of water made human beings suspicious and the Anasazi realized that they had to disappear.”

“Wait,” Isabel interrupted. “What happened until they had to disappear? Were they able to breed? Or were they just surviving?”

“Unfortunately, their misfortunes at procreation continued to plague them even on Earth. They were diminishing in numbers.” He cleared his throat. “I should add that the workings of the original parims on Earth not only attracted the attention of the Earthlings, but also that of Antarians. This lead to a second fleet from Antar arriving on Earth at the end of the 13th century. The ship was loaded with military Antarians and their goal was to find out everything they could about the parims and, if needed, annihilate them.” He took a deep breath. “The newcomers from Antar lived with the Anasazi - the parims - for awhile, pretending to be their allies and friends, until they one day began to prey upon the Anasazi, before attacking them.”

A deep sadness befell him and for the first time since meeting him, the colors of his aura changed. Grew duller and melancholic.

“It was a massacre, lasting for a month. The Anasazi had some luck at first, using their gifts and goodness to convert and - sometimes - destroy the newcomers. But they were too few and the Antarians were winning. The parims were forced up into the cliffs, trying to hide.” He shook his head slowly, gaze unseeing, thoughts miles away. “There was so much blood. Almost all the young ones were killed, and of course they were not many to start with. The young ones had yet to learn how to use their abilities. They were completely defenseless. The survivors spread into all corners of the world, disappearing in the human population. The Antarian military returned to Antar, unaware that some parims had escaped their extermination. The surviving parims quietly resigned to not being able to produce new parims and decided to become the watchmen of Earth, giving them a purpose until they would all die. They focused on doing good for human beings, traveling in the shadows of every day life of the humans, offering light and goodness. Parims’ lifespans are longer than that of a human being, hence why they call themselves Elders, but they cannot live forever. They accepted that the knowledge of parims and the knowledge of the true origins of the Antarian civilization would die with them.”

George paused, everyone hanging on his every word, until Michael cleared his throat. “But something changed, right? Something must have changed?”

Without preamble, George continued, “In 1947, Antarians arrived yet again on Earth. It was the first delivery of Antarians on Earth since the Antarian military at the end of the 13th century. Naturally, the Elders were hesitant to make themselves known, seeing what had happened last time and how they had been betrayed by their own people. But by merely observing from the shadows, they realized that the ships were filled with children. Not an adult in sight. Plus, one of the ships crashed and immediate action was needed. The Elders helped bury the fatalities, and assisted in hiding the truth of the crew of the crashed ship from humans, until they retreated back into the shadows. They kept on observing, needing to make sure that the human beings were safe from this latest shipment of Antarians. That’s how they discovered me.” He noticeable straightened, looking both modest and proud. “And without me knowing, they observed and watched over me, finding my energy interesting.”

“Are you a parim?” Amy asked straight out.

George shook his head. “No. But according to the Elders, I’m different. Which is probably why they eventually decided to entrust me with their knowledge and their secrets. At that point,” he scrunched his eyes in thought, “that would be around the mid 50’s - the Elders who were still residing in New Mexico were living amongst Indians, on a reservation. For all intents and purposes, they were Indians, seamlessly blending with the human population.”

George took a deep breath and added, “Being a dying race, they saw their chance for someone else to learn their secrets and carrying them on forward. My task was to find individuals to entrust the knowledge with. The knowledge of the true purpose of parims and their hope to someday eradicate darkness once again.”

“They have their job set out for them with homo sapiens,” Michael huffed. “Not the most peaceful race.”

“True,” George agreed. “But the Elders - and the parims before them - saw something in human beings that they trusted. Made them want to move to Earth and restart their lives here.”

“So…” I said softly, my quiet voice effectively attracting everyone’s attention. “Max was born a parim.” I cleared my throat. “That’s what we have been told at least.”

I left the words hanging in the air around me for a second, and George’s encouraging nod spurred me to continue. “How is that possible?” I glanced at Philip, unsure if I was going to step on any toes by saying, “Is Max adopted? Does he come from the Elders? Am I adopted?”

Am I not human? I filled in silently.

Philip did not bat an eye at my insinuation.

“You two,” George said, “are the revelation.”

When George didn’t clarify, Max and I looked at each other in one fluid movement and said in unison, “Huh?”

George smiled sympathetically. “Let me explain.” He took a deep breath. “Since the Elders approached me when I was but a youngster, I’ve spent a lot of time with them. They have not merely told me the history of the Antarians - which I have told you just now - but also the intricate function of abilities, about their legends, about their way of living, their way to communicate without words.” He winked. “To mention but a few of their…um….skills.”

“Continue,” Max pressed.

“Considering our close relationship, it was only natural for me to tell them about the birth of my grandson.” George looked straight at Max. I could feel the love George was emitting through that look all the way through the connection. In wonderment, I looked between my boyfriend and his grandfather, and I could feel Max softening. Forgiving. Opening up to finding out more.

“It was especially instinctive for me to consult them about Max’s aura. About my suspicions of you being a parim - an original Antarian.”

I felt the frustration acutely. “But how is that possible? If Max’s mother is human - not even a gaea - and Max’s father is a ‘modern Antarian’, as you call it. How can Max be a parim?”

“That,” George mused, “is still a bit unclear. For now, the Elders are referring to it as ‘nature will find a way’.”

The collective silence of the group was enough to spur George on to explain further, “During all of these thousands of thousands of years, the Elders have believed it to be the environment that had further hindered their means of producing viable offspring, but they have obviously also been aware of the problem of the gradually diminishing gene pool. Even with parims, inbreeding is not good. But with such a small population, and fearing the tainting of their purity by inviting modern Antarians into their gene pool, they had run out of options. They were - as you humans say - caught between a rock and a hard place.”

George moved his gaze around the small group. “Imagine their surprise when parims were created without their involvement. Seemingly out of the blue. Obviously, it gave them hope that parims will survive, that their race had evolved and would survive no matter what.”

But how? I wanted to scream. George Evans was giving us so many answers, to the point that I needed many more. I needed the full explanation this time. His knowledge made me greedy for more.

A multitude of thoughts and questions were running through my head, and they all came down to: How was it that Max and I had been born as parims?

George continued, “They put me in charge of watching over Max, and later also over Liz when she was born. They didn’t know if Max and Liz were the only parims born under these circumstances, but the fact that there suddenly were two new parims, even during the same year, gave them hope that there were more on Earth. As a result, the Elders set out to scour Earth for unusual humans, starting with every gaea and then moving on to the rest of the population.”

I had stopped breathing. Max found the single-worded question I couldn’t voice, “And…?”

“They can see auras, just like you and Liz. Just like your father and I. That made their work a bit easier, but it’s still a monumental task and it keeps them occupied to this day.”

“Have they found any more?” Isabel pushed.

George paused, before announcing that, “Yes, yes they did.”

All air left me and I slowly sat back in the couch, my back landing against the soft back of the sofa.

This was big. This was huge. We were not alone.

“Can they do what Liz and I can do?” Max asked. His voice sounded flat and strained.

“So far, they are singular individuals. And it seems as if they, without a connection, don’t display the same abilities, no. The theory is that two parims have to find each other and form a connection for them to be anywhere close to as powerful as you two.”

“Are they all humans?” Max continued asking.

“Yes,” George answered.

“Which means that they don’t have any abilities,” Alex pondered out loud.

“Not that they know of, no,” George agreed.

“And without abilities, they can’t form a connection even if they were to meet another parim,” Isabel concluded.

George hesitated. “That is our suspicion as well. But we have yet to try it. These individuals have not been approached or informed in any way. The Elders do not, at this point, wish to force anyone into a life of controlling and diminishing evil against their will. Keeping evil in check is essentially the role of the parim.”

“Right,” Max mumbled, sinking back in his seat, his shoulder coming to rest pressed up against mine.

I had been deflated earlier due to bafflement and surprise. The same had happened to Max, but instead due to disappointment. I had no troubles understanding him. For a second, we had both been given the hope that not all responsibility of the world was resting on us, that we could share it with others like us, but it was taken away from us faster than a speeding bullet.

We were back to being rare.

Which I was starting to hate.

“The reason I left you all - and I’ve told Isabel and Max this already,” George said seriously, “was to protect the secret and thus protect what Max and Liz could become. My son has always been better than me at hiding his emotions,” George winked at Philip, whose responding stone face was almost laughable considering what George had pointed out, “and I knew that I could trust him to work on the inside, under Command, without revealing who Max and Liz were. This was the only way to keep them safe. Keeping them out in the open. We always knew that it would be dangerous, but we did not have any other options. We had to wait for Max and Liz to mature and become stronger before we could let them be together. The Elders had, namely, a feeling that the energy between Max and Liz would become visible were they to connect. Something they had already heard of when Max and Liz connected as children.”

George turned to Max again. “I hope you can understand, son, that all this time we were looking out for you. Your father, especially. I know that you have had your struggles with your father, but he loves you deeply and has always fought to protect you. There are things that have been done which you might not understand, but hopefully we’ll have a good answer for you once the questions arise.”

Max’s breathing was shallow and strained. From being inside his mind, I knew that he was struggling to not break down, even if nothing was visible on the outside. Not even in his aura.

“The Elders saw a chance to remove Command and his malice from Earth, the planet they had grown to love, and they took it. Through me, they guided my son, Dresden and other good people, to keep Max and Liz safe.”

“Because we are your weapon,” Max whispered. The pain in his voice burrowed into my heart and I shuddered.

“No,” George said, bordering on vehemently. “Of course not. You are our saving grace. Our hope. Our future. This has been a horrible task to ask of you and there are still more hardships to come, but we need to do this in order for you to live out the rest of your lives peacefully.”

“No pain, no gain,” Michael inserted. He wasn’t being sarcastic, rather stating the familiar figure of speech with saddened hopelessness.

I looked at Michael, feeling comforted that he seemed to understand our situation and our unfortunate role in this whole thing. When earlier he had seemed more resentful towards us, at least towards Max, maybe he was finally realizing that he was better off than us after all.

No pain, no gain, my thoughts whispered and felt Max’s fingers squeeze my hand. No pain, no gain.


TBC...
Last edited by max and liz believer on Sat Jul 01, 2017 5:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Unbreakable (M/L, AU)
Facebook Page
My Imagination

Instagram: author_josephin_ripa
User avatar
Natalie36
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 599
Joined: Sun Jul 30, 2006 12:06 pm

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 6 6/17/17 p. 3

Post by Natalie36 »

:shock: :shock: :shock:
Post Reply