Smoke and Mirrors M/L CC ADULT {COMPLETE}

Finished Canon/Conventional Couple Fics. These stories pick up from events in the show. All complete stories from the main Canon/CC board will eventually be moved here.

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Diehard
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Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 7:25 pm

Smoke and Mirrors M/L CC ADULT {COMPLETE}

Post by Diehard »

Image


Title: " Smoke and Mirrors"
Author: Diehard (rosgmom)
Category:
This story takes place after the window scene at the end of Chchanges. But Liz didn't go to Vermont and Max didn't die to become Clay... who didn't die to become Max. . . .
It is written from several POVs, but starting out from the Protectors POVs
Rating: ADULT
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with anyone or anything Roswell. Nor do I have any desire for any said affiliation.
My philosophy is that by the middle of season two, anyone could have written it better. Many have given it a shot over the last three years. Some have been wonderful, but somehow left me needing more. So many questions where never answered to my satisfaction. Of course there will always be a few that remain unanswered and some answers weren't worth finding anyway.
The lyrics in the first part are Daniel Bedingfield's.


PROLOGUE


For the last forty years I've put all my effort into recreating myself and becoming who I am today. I've worked my tail off for everything that I own. It's all mine. Everything I need. People respect me. I didn't fight my way to the top by being stupid. When I speak now, they listen. Tinsel town's been very good to me, and I've taken this twobit town for everything I could. I live in a thirty room mansion in BeverlyHills. I have a chauffeur that drives me anywhere I want to go whenever I want to go there. I have it made in the shade. I've wheeled and I've dealed my way to the top. ... I need nothing and no one. So why was I now suddenly agonizing about the past, especially at this late date. Can't eat, can't sleep. You know why Kal, my man? Of course you do.... it's all his fault. Trackin me down the way he did after all this time. His royal highness. What a joke, what a selfcentered egostical twerp he turned out to be. I shoulda put the boyking out of his misery when I had the chance.

Of course, there's a few things that were stopping me at the time. Like this foolish possiblity that I could still somehow, a few years from now, step in and make things right when it was my turn to take control, oh yeah, also the pure fact that I had so long ago sworn an oath to protect him..to protect them all.

Memories I hadn't let myself think about for over a quarter of a century were pounding in my head. We took a calculated risk when the stabilizing controls were fried. I guess you could say we zigged when we shoulda zagged. The ship was out of control . I can still see the side of the mountain rushing up to meet us. Of course we had known the risks, we all did. There was always the chance that this journey would have ended up being a oneway trip. Even the fear of being trapped on a unhospitable planet seemed far better than returning to a home world which had spiraled so much out of our control.

Our assignment was to perform the procedure, using the genes of suitable human donors for each essence. Then mix in the crystals that had traveled through time and space with us. Simmer and stir so to speak, wait two months to see if the technology would take, and Voila. This is how life was to begin again for the deserving royal remnants that were so far from their home. This was to be their second chance. Once the steps were all completed we were then to place the pods in a safe secluded area, after of course, we were absolutely sure that the conception was successful.....sounds so simple, doesn't it? Yaa well things don't always go as planned.

First, right before we enter the earth's atmosphere, our enemies catch up to us, and they stayed hot on our tail until one lucky shot hits our guidance gyro. Then we loose control of the ship... crashing into the side of that freak'n mountain, losing three of the team on impact. Then the Air Force lakeys are on us like flies on the peverbial shitpile, and then, and then... the unthinkable happens...after a successful conception one of the sacks goes and gets itself damaged during the long and hairy trip up to the safety of the mountains.

Life was fading pretty fast in the sack before us. What was left of the essence had to survive of that there could be no question. We did what we had to do, afterall our soul purpose was to protect the four entities before us. Yep, that's who we were, the protectors. Fine job we were doing so far, huh?


~~~~~~~~~~

CHAPTER ONE

The monarchy had reigned unthreatened and unchallenged for a millenium. But people get restless, they think they need change. They become territorial and greedy. Mix in a powerful troublemaker and what have you got? Chaos. Along came a swarthy yet somehow charming resistance leader. He charmed the pants right off the heads of state and slowly began poisoning Zan's mind against his own people. Of course, he had alot of help from the prince's own sister, Vilondra, but that's a whole nother story.

The small pockets of resistance from four different worlds united. All hell broke loose. The monarchy tumbled, nothing short of a massacre. Timing was hell too. The Prince and his love were about to be married when Kivar's troops literally crashed the ceremony. Ava was the first to die. Zan didn't fight, he stayed with her til the last moments. I'm not sure to this day that he had the slightest desire to even try to survive without her. The hopes and dreams of every free Antarian died that day. The following morning, with the red dust clearing, found the fortress all but destroyed. Despite the heroic efforts of all, the monarchy fell. The last time I saw Vilondra she was wiping the blood from Rath's face as he lay dying. It was my understanding, even though I didn't personally witness her death, that Vilondra later died at the hands of her lover who had betrayed her in much the same way as she had betrayed her family and an entire kingdom. Somehow a fitting reward for her highness, yeah, you guessed it, she was someone I was never very found of. Enough about all that right now.

About me, I became Kal Langley, presently producer extraordinaire. One of Hollywood's finest. Kolt, my partner in survival, well he took on the indiginous farmer personna and called himself John Brown. Not too original on the name, but he became a natural at raising cattle and farming. Pretty much stayed up in the highlands of central New Mexico not far from where the crash occured. There was alot that happened to both of us in those early days here, after the Quad was safely planted up in a nice little chamber in the mountains of northern Roswell.

I guess you could say, that John had lost the coin toss... he was to take the first watch. The first twenty years of the Quad's life. I was greatful for the toss, it gave me time to make my mark in this new world and my first million plus. The overall plan was that I would quit the business and retire somewhere staying close to Roswell in order to follow the comings and goings of the Quad for the next twenty years or until it was time to tell them the truth.

Well that was the plan. There isn't time now for reminicing about all those things that had transpired in those first ten years after our arrival here, not just yet. There would need to be a telling of those things soon enough. It all began so long ago and so far away. Another lifetime, without a doubt, another life.

Well the Quad was quickly approaching their eighteenth year. And by rights I still had a good two years before my half of the deal was to start. At least that's the way I thought yesterday. Things had been progressing pretty close to the way John and I had expected, give or take a crisis or two along the way. Except now here she was, leaving messages with my secretary. Two voice mails last night and two more already today and it wasn't even 10 AM yet. She didn't say the word, but the urgency was clear in her voice.

I had told Max that I never wanted to hear his name again. Whether he knew it or not, he had nearly destroyed me..my world. None of this was supposed to happen yet. But with these latest developments, it seemed they just weren't going to go away. She was here, in LA and she called herself Liz Parker. But I already knew her name. I knew alot more about her then she could ever have dreamed. What to do, what to do. I held this darkhaired beauty's life right in the palm of my hand, and she hadn't even officially met me yet. I had learned from John Brown that she was a strong one. But ya see my question held so much more weight ... Elizabeth Parker, really, just how strong are you?

I pressed on the intercom, "Janine, will you return Ms. Parker's call for me. Tell her that I can spare her a few minutes around one this afternoon at the Casa de Sun."

"Sure thing, KL," the typical gumsnapping voice replied. Kal kicked back in his chair contemplating just what this meeting would hold for him and the future of the Quad. He wasn't sure why she was here, but he did know that whatever the reason, the ball was in his court. Tapping the intercom again, "Sweetie, put a call in to John Brown too will ya?"

~~~~~~~~~~

~~If you’re not the one then why does my soul feel glad today?
If you’re not the one then why does my hand fit yours this way?
If you're not mine then why does your heart return my call
If you're not mine would I have the strength to stand at all
I don’t want to run away but I can’t take it, I don’t understand
If I’m not made for you then why does my heart tell me that I am?~~



It was a beautiful afternoon, the sun was high in the sky. Kal sat writing notes in his palmpilot, as Liz stared at him from behind a flowering crepemyrtle that provided plenty of cover. The terrace was buzzing almost as loud as the buzzing in Liz's head.

The pressure pains were coming and going alittle less frequently since she had left Roswell two days ago. So this was Max's great protector? Short balding stocky, and let's not forget mouthy, little man. First on the palmpilot, then on the cell. Even from this distance she could hear every loud demeaning word he was firing at the poor person on the receiving end of their oneway conversation. She gathered all her strength about her, took a few deep reassurring breaths and headed on in.

Hiding behind his FosterGrants, he saw her coming before she realized. As he nonchalantly kicked the chair out opposite him and ended his conversation on the cell, Liz lowered herself into the chair. Before she could open her mouth the waiter was beside her. Kal didn't hesitate, ordering them both a latte. "I'd rather have something cold with ice. A coke will be fine," she broke in, speaking directly to the waiter. Kal waved him on.

"Ms Parker, it is my deepest pleasure to meet you. I'm really glad that you could visit. What can I do for ya. Hope it's not much... cause I'm a busy man." He had taken off the shades and his gaze never quite met her eyes.

Liz straightened herself up on the edge of the chair and slowly pushed up the sleeves on her pullover as the green glow sputtered and crackled from her fingertips up over her lower arms.

The color slightly drained from Kal's face as his palmpilot crashed to the terrace.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER TWO



Liz instinctively reached down to rescue the broken electronic wonder scattered near her chair. "Leave it..." Kal's voice was almost inaudible. As she sat back up taking another deep breath and trying not to be noticed, she slid her sleeves down as far as possible covering most of her hands. The static under her skin and deep in her head quieted, as the waiter delivered their order.

"Can you do something about this?" her voice shook slightly, but her poise remained stronger than ever.

"Max still has a big mouth I see."

"Mr. Langley, I have no where else to turn. Believe me, the last place I want to be is in your company, or so far from my home while I'm feeling this way."

"Ms....may I call you Liz," he asked not waiting for a reply. "What makes you think that I know how or for that matter would want to help you with...with this problem of yours?"

"How about... because this is extremely painful, and I was hoping your compassionate side would take over and tell me what I could do to get this to stop. Or, because my parents, teachers and friends are going to start asking alot of questions since I seem to have no control over it. I know you're the flamboyant type, Mr. Langley, but I doubt that even you have a need for those kinds of questions, or any other answers that may come up." She settled back taking her soda in hand. "I tend to see this problem right now as ours, not just mine."

Kal sat staring for the longest time at the small portion of Liz's now normal looking fingers exposed from the end of her sleeves. "I have no idea what's happening to you. Can't promise you a thing but there are a few things I may be able to try."

"Forget the healing stones, Max already used them. They seemed to make things worse."

"So ya know about the healing stones." John Brown had failed to mention in any of his reports that the healing stones had been discovered or that the Quad had them.
"Tell ya what I'll do. Come to my home," scribbling on a napkin, "around 5 today. You said you came here alone? That wasn't a safe thing for ya to do, Liz" he said in answer to the nod of her head.

"What do I have to lose at this point? There is one thing, though, I don't want Max involved in this at all." She stood sliding the napkin into her back pocket, and turned to leave. "I'll see you in a few hours."

I watched her walk away. She was strong, JB was right about that. Alittle unnerved, but who could blame her under the circumstances. And why was it so important that Max not know she was here? Apparently there was trouble in paradise, that was not a good thing. One problem at a time was all I wanted to deal with right now, at least til I sorted some things out in my head. After finally meeting Liz, I could see how the boyking had fallen so hard. From somewhere deep inside came an almost uncontrolled sigh of relief. I guess they had done a pretty good job afterall. A slightly sly yet proud smile passed over his face. Whatever was going on with Liz, she was right about one thing, he was probably the only one who could help her.

~~~~~~~~~


Max woke in a cold sweat. He had been laying in bed thinking of Liz and those moments of confrontation in the desert. It was long overdue. So many times he wanted to do nothing more than sit down and completely clear the air. But he had no idea where to start. There were no answers that could ever justify what he had put her through, what he had put them through. He had no answers but he knew they needed to talk it out. He wanted to believe that Tess had had some kind of control over him, but even now he would never know for sure. He couldn't make Liz understand what he himself couldn't grasp.

No one could believe that he had sunk low enough to sleep with Tess. But there it was, he had. End of story. He had forever destroyed any trust that had existed between them. Somehow he'd find a way, he had to. She was all he ever wanted. So much a part of him from the beginning. He was mesmerized by her from that very first day in the third grade, and he was going to do whatever he had to to convince her that he was still the Max who would have given his life for hers that day in the Crashdown.

The problem was he had no idea where she was. Maria either didn't know or was playing out the good friend scenario by refusing to tell him. He had lost count of the messages he had left in the last twenty four hours on her cell. Of course he knew that if he had any balls at all, he'd drag himself out of this pity bed and go confront Mr. Parker about his daughter's whereabouts. No, he wasn't ready to confront him yet, because he knew that everything Jeff Parker believed about him had been true. All he had done recently was hurt his daughter. No, somehow he'd have to seriously correct things before talking again to him. And he wasn't at this point sure that that would ever again be possible. Maybe he'd try calling Kyle at the garage. Kyle he could handle.

The phone on the nightstand rang just as he reached for it. He closed his eyes for a second hoping it was her. "Liz?" he said in almost a whisper.

"No, it's me, Kal. Look boy, I don't have alot of time to chat. I have alittle bit a news for ya, thought you'd wanna know." Kal had decided he didn't want to bare the brunt of whatever was coming next without the boywonder being informed.

"... about the ship?.. or ...about my son?" Max's head was spinning again.

"No it's not the damn ship. For the love of God, leave it alone." It had only been fifteen seconds and Kal's patience was already fading fast. "Listen Max, ya wanna hear me out or what?"

Max ran his hands through his hair and tried to think rationally. This was Kal, the Kal that never wanted to see him or hear his name again. "Yes of course I do.. yes. What is it? Look I'm sorry I'm just alittle jumpy and well. . .I'm worried. Things aren't going very well here. My friend is. . . well she's. . .."

"...that would be, maybe. . missing?.." Kal finished for him. Kal ran his index finger over the blue willow priceless vase on the table in front of him to sooth his nerves.

"How do you know that? Where is she?"

"Cause, she's here and light'n up like a freaking Christmas tree. I'm gonna see what I can do, well . .because I like her. She seems like a sweet kid. I wanted you to know that I'll do what I can for her."

"Kal, I wanted to bring her to you. She wouldn't talk to me. I don't know what's happening to her. I tried to heal her, but it wasn't working. I don't know what to do! You have to help her!" Max's words were frantic and spilling out all over the place.

"Max. MAX!" he yelled into the phone. Patience Kal Patience.

"Don't let anything happen to her, promise me, Kal. She's been through too much already because of me." His eyes locked onto Liz's eyes in the picture frame facing him on the dresser. "She doesn't believe it anymore, but she means more than life to me."

"I know that Max. I don't intend to let anything happen to her if I can help it, Max. I'm calling to tell you this because I'm good, but contrary to what you might want to believe, I'm not the know-all be-all. All I can promise you is I'll do my best." There. That was their first civilized honest conversation in over fifty-five years. Kal despite himself, felt good about that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER THREE


It was hot in the car. Liz sipped on the coke from the restaurant, wondering just what the rest of the day would bring. She wouldn't let herself think of Max, it wasn't happening. Things could never be the way she had dreamed. Since she could remember she had dreamed that a love greater than herself would come along and they would live happily ever after. There never was a doubt, even in her young mind, that there was someone coming for her, only for her. She had found all that in Max, but he had betrayed her.

He had betrayed everything she had ever dreamed of, everything she believed in. The dreams of that little girl so long ago. Innocent. Full of hope and spirit. That was just about gone now, and she was having a difficult time facing up to all the facts. She had always given him the benefit of the doubt and yet she never quite understood why. She glanced at her watch as the crackle slowly again began. Taking deep breaths she rode out the hot searing pain running through her veins. It hadn't gotten worse, but it wasn't getting any better either. It went on for exactly four minutes this time. She was always exhausted after the bigger episodes.

She closed her eyes for a few minutes knowing that it was close to one oclock and she would be going to Kal. "Please God, please help him to help me. I don't know how much longer I can go on like this."

~~~~~~~~~~~


She seemed really tiny standing there on the porch. Kal stood back looking out through the sheer curtain, waiting for her to ring the bell. He waited for the second ring. "Liz, welcome. Come in." he lightly touched her arm as the energy rose up her left side. "Woah," it surprised him. The heat was intense.

"Sorry, I can't control it," her voice sounded hoarse. "What's happening to me? I know you don't know me, Mr. Langley, but I had to come. Max healed me three years ago. I was shot and he healed me. It's got to be that, right?" her voice no longer sounded strong. Her knees began to buckle under her and her eyes closed. Kal was there with perfect timing. A wave of his hand and her decent to the floor slowed down long enough for him to grab her in his arms before she hit the floor.

His cell phone rang just as he was lowering her onto the crushed velvet couch in the library. "Yoah," he answered when he recognized the voice on the other end of the line. He turned away from Liz, wiping his forehead. "Nice of ya to get back to me in such a timely fashion, JB. Where the hell have you been? Nevermind, just listen. The girl, Liz, she's here and she's got something going on with her, she's snapping and glowing. How soon can you be here?" The voice on the other end had no time to respond before Kal continued. "Just get here. What? Of course I'm not gonna hurt her, John. What do you think I am? I don't have a clue what's wrong. I'm gonna do a couple things. I just don't know if I can get her back to normal....and then what happens if I do? Do you have any more news with that other problem you were check'n out?" He paused, listened, then continued. "Alright fill me in when you get here. Yea, I called him. I know, I know. I just want to get some things straight before we consider circling the wagons. No more talk, just get here.."


~~~~~~~~~~~~


Five hundred miles away on the outskirts of Roswell a goodlooking man with a dark complexion and big brown eyes sat at an oversized wooden desk. As JB put the phone down, he scribbled a few words on paper and left it on the desk. He didn't know how long he'd be gone and he couldn't just leave without letting anyone know. He reached down unlocking the bottom desk drawer. He took out a brown weathered binder, picked up a pack of TicTacs and went to grab a cold one before he left the ranch for LA.

~~~~~~~~~~~~


Kal sat acrossed from the couch watching as Liz's labored breathing came back to normal. She stirred, and he was standing beside her as she opened her eyes. She started so quickly that she almost fell off the couch. He quickly reached down touching her shoulder and she felt a slight charge radiate out through her shoulder to her chest. A somehow calming charge. It was difficult to explain the mixture of tingling, yet relief. She couldn't help thinking of the energy she had felt from Max when he healed her. So the protector could heal too.

She glanced down and noticed a few odd rocks on the floor by the leg of the couch. Not the amber color of the healing stones. No, these were different. First off, they were blue not amber. Violet, wait....they were changing from blue to violet. Swirling color. Quite beautiful. She was groggy, and her head felt like it was full of cotton. She tried to sit up and noticed that her upper body weighed a ton.

"Relax. Don't try to get up yet. The cure it seems can be as dibilitating as the problem. But you'll feel more like yourself in a few minutes." he smiled down at her as he helped her get comfortable.

Slowly Liz responded, " Wow. I feel..I feel ....drugged."

"It can have that kind of effect. It's how you feel after it wears off that really counts." He looked at her relieved. "I think you're gonna be okay. I'm not saying that it will keep this ..whatever away indefinitely, it may even come back from time to time. But that's all I know to do right now."

"Do you know what was happening? Was it because of the healing or the reverse connection?" she asked nervously. She wanted this to be anything BUT alien related even though to think it was caused by anything human just wasn't being realistic. There was something about the look in his eyes when he looked back at her. She felt safe.

"Reverse connection? It's possible," he tried to keep his voice in an even tone. No matter what happened in the next few hours, he had decided that he wasn't telling Liz Parker anything that she didn't need to know. We just weren't going there, if it wasn't absolutely necessary. No, we were laying this at Max's feet for now. Yep, for now this was something that Max had given her. "Maybe it has something to do with intimacy, sex or," okay now, let's get this girl talking, "..... pregnancy." There, he bluffed and took a flying leap.

" Pregnancy? Max and I haven't even had sex yet. I'm not the mother of Max's long lost son, Kal," she exclaimed. "I can't believe this. You just assumed it was me? Why would you assume it was me. You don't even know me." She went from hurt to outrage to sullen silence. "No Kal," she said slowly, "that was Tess." He pulled over a side chair and settled in now to hear what the young lady had to say. Liz was about to find out that Kal was an excellent listener.

~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER FOUR


Close to three hours later he was helping her to the door. She felt much better. Being able to get the hurt of the last months out of her head. To talk, to say the words outloud. She was amazed at how relaxed and comfortable she felt around him. It was liberating. Kal never even tried to stand up for Max during those three hours. As a matter of fact, he was genuinely upset. Who wouldn't feel upset hearing how low Max had sunk, how irresponsible he had been, but most of all his deliberate destruction of everything they had ever felt for each other. She could never trust him again and that they could never go back. She knew in her heart that this was the part that hurt her the most. It was somewhat freeing to say the words outloud and have someone listen. Her head had cleared. She feet like she could run the block a few times.

Kal laughed, "Easy, kiddo. Try walking first for a while. Not too much too soon." She looked at him and laughed slightly. That was funny, she hadn't realized she had said anything outloud. He walked her down the front steps. After listening to Liz, Kal couldn't believe how much Max had fucked things up. He couldn't possibly be that stupid. Max was at least half Zan, and Zan had been intelligent, too intelligent to fall for such an obvious job of smoke and mirrors. Even Max's human donor had appeared to have all his wits about him too, never would have chosen him otherwise. And what made matters worse was that JB had been recaptured by the special unit during most of this stage show. Lousy timing.

"I don't know how to thank you," she said. " I apologize if I offended you earlier at the cafe. I was pushed to my limit." Her eyes winced at the memory of the pain she had been in, not to mention the empty threats she had made to this alien standing before her now. She wondered if he could have just zapped her into oblivion at the cafe, had he chosen to.

She smiled and Kal took a deep breath, what a beautiful smile she had. "No thanks are necessary, Liz. You needed help, and I did what I could. I will say that I'm not so sure this is just about you being around Max. Especially since it's happening here too and we're three states away. There's been no symptoms for over three hours now. I think it's under control."

She had no idea why, but found a need for a tight but quick hug with this man, who hopefully had just saved her life or at least saved her from alot of pain. Well the physical pain anyway. She walked down the walk all the while feeling Kal's eyes watching her til she drove away in the Jetta.

Kal turned back to the house. He flipped a silver coin into the air and caught it. Nothing to do now but wait for JB and put in a call to Max. JB said he wanted Max here when he got here. So here Max would be.

Kal hadn't actually been in the same room with JB for almost seven years. He was dependable about calling and relaying information about whatever the Quad was up to, but they were sure that it wasn't wise or safe to be in the same place at the same time. We couldn't afford for both of us to be caught again by the Special Unit. JB had spent a total of four months in captivity, two different times. He's gotten to be somewhat of a pro at it. In fact Kal didn't even know that it had happened again this last time. There had been no way to get a message back to him. The rest of the time he's been there diligently protecting and watching the Quad. Trying not to interfere in their 'normal' lives.

JB had been there for Rath, the one called Michael, when he was being abused by his alcoholic foster father. He had tried to save Kathleen Topolsky, which is how he was captured the second time. He was there the morning after Liz's memory had found the orb. But he had never mentioned that they had found the healing stones.

Apparently somehow the fab four had found RiverDog, a Mesalika Indian, at the reservation outside of Roswell. John had left the stones with the then young Indian, while running from the shapeshifter who called himself Ed Harding. Harding had worked for Kivar. He had once been one of Kivar's protectors on Antar, and had spent years and years coming and going between there and here. His mission for Kivar was to locate either the Quad itself or the protectors. He must have gotten his sorry ass killed.. JB had lost track of him after crisis number two, around the time Nicholas arrived center stage.

At any rate, Max was about to have alot of listening to do. We were going to put alot on his plate. It was a few years early, but it was time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liz looked up from her books long enough to see her father's face beaming from behind the counter at the Crashdown. "You look like the cat that swallowed the canary, Dad. What's up?" she laughed.

"Well. Sweetie, I pulled a few strings and your ole Dad managed to get you a second interview with a representative from Harvard." Mr. Parker beamed as he handed Liz the interview letter.

"W-What?" she shrieked. It wasn't often that she found herself totally speechless. Jumping up from the booth, she threw her arms around him. "I don't know what to say!"

"Weeell, tell me that you'll get enough sleep tonight so things go easier on you than they did at the last interview. It's scheduled for tomorrow, Liz. He's making a special trip out here for you." He was genuinely concerned about his daughter's health as well as her future.

"I promise, Dad." Another big hug and she grabbed her books and went upstairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The morning came beaming across Liz's bed as she woke. After showering and dressing, she stood at the mirror doing her makeup. She was hoping that the dark circles under her eyes would be hidden well enough with alittle coverup. As she leaned into the mirror, her vision began to cloud. "What the..., not again! Oh please, no." She quickly raised her arms in front of her. No green glow anywhere, but she could almost swear she heard a voice somewhere out there in front of her. She pushed her two fingers to her right ear and what she had thought she heard was suddenly gone.

"It's just nerves, Liz Parker, you're doing this to yourself. You are not going to unconsciously sabatoge or sacrifice anything else for Max Evans or anything to do with him! You're going to ace this interview. You will have this man begging you to attend his fine institution." She straightened up and checked herself out. Satisfied with her reflection she headed to school.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last edited by Diehard on Tue Feb 24, 2004 8:29 pm, edited 14 times in total.
Diehard
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 7:25 pm

Post by Diehard »

Hi mareli!


CHAPTER FIVE

The immaculately dressed man behind the desk was busy shuffling papers around in front of him, but eagerly looked up when she entered the room. He was not the same young man who she had met with previously, and she couldn't help wondering if he had begged off from coming here again because of the wacky girl he had ended up with last time. This one was taller it seemed, sat higher in the chair. He was a cleancut darkhaired blue-eyed man who was holding her future in his hands. "Elizabeth Parker, how nice to meet you." He stood up to take her hand.

"Hello, I can't tell you how happy I am that I've been granted another meeting. I had somekindof flu bug and..well I wasn't myself," she tried to explain as she sat herself across from him. "But I'm better today."

"Don't be nervous. I'm just going to ask you some questions and hopefully get some insight into the kind of person you are and what your plans are for the future." He looked behind her out into the hallway and Liz thought he looked nervous. The interview began pretty much as it had the first time. All was proceeding well. Routine questions. After about fifteen minutes, the interviewer's tone changed suddenly. He put his papers aside. "Ms. Parker, will being so far from home interfere with your life here in Roswell, your family and friends? A pretty girl such as yourself must have many friends."

Liz hesitated and then simply stated, "Well yes I do have alot of friends, Mr. Samson, and I will miss them. But I'll have my holidays to catch up with them when I come home to visit my family. Being able to attend Harvard is very important to me."

The room suddenly darkened slightly, as if a cloud had past in front of the sun. At just about the same time Liz's ears began to hum, and her eyes began to focus on something that appeared to be happening right in front of her. She had no idea what it was. A haze cleared and she saw two people talking, saw them but couldn't hear above the buzzing in her head. There was no doubt they where arguing. The man was tall, mature and demanding something of the person beside him. She was having trouble comprehending what she was seeing. This was amazing for a second or two, Liz totally forgot where she was. Time seemed to have stopped.

She was able to see the vision clearer now. A young brunette girl was in a shouting match with a very angry older man. They were dressed strangely too. It looked slightly Egyptian, but not quite, just different. He had the girl by the wrist and was demanding her to do something she obviously had no interest in doing. Liz's head snapped back, as muffled sound quickly broke through loud and very clear in her ears.

"You WILL obey me," he was forcing her wrist back driving her to the floor. "I will see you dead first!" the girl cried out. Suddenly the vision vanished into thin air, and Liz found herself once again looking into the face across the table from her. She also realized that she had screamed the young girl's last cry outloud.

Her face grew hot, and she could only imagine the shade of crimson it had to be. The man across from her seemed not only shocked but a bit scared. As she stared at his reaction closer, crackling and greenglow began to resonate up her arms. She could feel it under her sweater. She tried to quickly pull her hands from their resting place on the table, but not quite quick enough.

"I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to yell like... well yell out like I did. I had this pain. . this pain in my ear. Inner ear infection, thought it was gone. But, hmm ..wow, that was a piercing ear pain I just had. Oh shit." She tried to cover but realized she was begining to ramble and she couldn't stop herself. Dammit! The interviewer reached quickly for her one hand that had unconsciously reached up toward her fabled earpain. "What's this?" he asked nodding to her hand. His expression and what Liz had seen as fear a few seconds before, now was not just fear and surprise, but something she couldn't quite define.

"..umm, it's nothing really. Skin rash. I really should get right over to my doctor," she stood knocking her chair over. "I think I've probably answered all the formal questions that you needed me to. If not maybe you could ya know..drop me a line, give me a call." As she watched the man's face and her embarrassment began to change. Deep inside her, she realized that what was happening here was scaring the hell out of not just her, but him. Not just her fear of the green surges through her body, no, it was something far more than that. What she didn't stick around long enough to hear was Kivar's comments as the door closed behind her.

He could do nothing to hide his amazement. "Well, Liz Parker, I have looked forward to meeting you this time around, because of your involvement with Max. You were going to make such an excellent pawn." His expression changed and he raised his eyebrows. "Instead it would seem that I have hit the jackpot." It wasn't the neon charges that interested him. No not at all. He leaned back recalling the look on Liz's unsuspecting face as she had screamed out. I will see you dead first. That was what she had said.

He couldn't help himself but to laugh out loud. Well I'll be damned. He remembered quite well the sound of that familiar voice. It had been one of the last things that the bitch had ever said to him. Kivar at this point was certain, he had no doubt. He had come looking for Liz and had found Ava.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER SIX


Back in LA, Max pulled the Chevelle into Kal's driveway.

Before he could ring the bell, someone from far inside shouted out for him to come in. As he closed the door behind him, he noticed that there were two people standing to the left in the library. One he knew was Kal, but the other guy, while he looked vaguely familiar to him, he couldn't quite place his face. He entered into the room, hesitating slightly.

"It's okay, Max. The is JB. John Brown. He's a very good friend of ours." JB stepped forward to shake his hand and immediately Max had a flashback. Two years before. One beautiful morning he remembered waking with Liz out in the desert. This guy had been standing by them. Told them to get on home. That was right after they had found the orb. He was about to find out that it wasn't necessary for him to say everything outloud.

John jumped right in. "That's right, Max, that was me. Kal and I were together on the ship in '46. We were two who survived. Your protectors." He couldn't help but feel alittle excitement about personally meeting Max. Up front and personal was something he had been looking forward to all these years, unlike Kal.

Max, with a look of confusion, stated, "I thought that the other protector was Nascedo."

A glance barely noticed passed between the protectors. Kal spoke before John had a chance. "He's the one Riverdog called Nascedo, Max," motioning over in John's direction.

Max shook his head, they must be kidding. All his memories of Nascedo were flooding back to him. In all the time he had been around him, he had never actually heard him mention RiverDog or James Atherton. Why did we never think that was strange? "So who the hell was Harding, if he wasn't our protector?" he exclaimed loudly.

"Because he didn't want you to think it was strange," said John in answer to Max's thought. "He was able to play some mind games too."


Kal quickly broke in, already losing his patience. "Max, here's how it's gonna go. We're about to tell you the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help us God". John hid a smile. "We will answer all your questions after we've finished. There's alot you need to know, and believe me when I say that you will understand everything when we are done. This is gonna take a while, so grab a beer and pull up a chair. You remember where the kitchen is, right?"

"That's okay, I don't drink." Max found a seat and tried to get comfortable.


~~~~~~~~~~~~


Kal and John were into their third beer and it was already approaching late afternoon, by the time they had explained the basics. They had started at the beginning. About the crash, the death of the other companions in the ship, the military, the procedure of mixing the genetic material, the crystals and the essence, the trip up into the mountains with the pods, and about the leaking damaged pod.

Max was listening intently. "Are you saying there were only three of us that survived?"

"I think at this point I'd like to fill in alittle history, Kal," John was ready after all these years.

"You've got the floor, my man," Kal replied. "I'm gonna take a walk out on the patio for some sun and fresh air. Give you two a chance to catch up." He winked.

"It sounds like I owe you alot. I don't even know how to begin." Max was trying to compute the information he had learned so far. The real information. All this time, they had always had so many questions about who they were, how they got here, why they were here and where they had come from. There seemed there was always a crisis to deal with and no time or thought about asking the questions to anyone who might have had the answers for them back then.

"Well, we've briefly covered how you got here and as far as who you are, you are who you are, Max. There were times that you weren't seeing the forest for the trees. You are an eighteen year old high school senior from Roswell, New Mexico. Anything else you may think you are, happened a very long time ago, and while you may share Zan's soul and some of his memories, you are no longer Zan. You are Max Evans." John stood and slowly paced before going on. "There are some who believe you to still be Zan, and who would try to destroy you because of things that happened in the past, and that's why Kal and I have been around since the beginning. I'm about to tell you the answers to those last two questions of yours, the why and where?"

John began. "Back on Antar war had been raging. There are, as I'm sure you have discovered, four planets in our system. Antar being the strongest, the largest and most populated. Wars had reigned between the four stars for thousand of years. Zan's father, before he died, had managed to slow things down and a long awaited truce was finally signed. We enjoyed peace for five glorious years. But, six months after Zan's father died, all bets were off. Your mother became head of state. She ruled the very best she could under the circumstances. But she was easily lead astray, refused to listen to her advisors. Undercurrents of a resistance somewhere in the system could be heard on every street corner. I believe, in her defense, she really had hoped that things would just go away. Her health began to fail rapidly. Then things just seemed to go from bad to worse. Good people dying in the streets. Looting. Mass murders and suicide bombings against the masses, as well as targeting the royal family. Things were out of control."

"The head of the resistance party, Kivar, presented a plan for what he called a peaceful solution. It basically called for the dismantling of the Antarian government as we all knew it. He was evil. There were many stories of his torturing women and children who's fathers and husbands refused to serve with him. He began poisoning Zans mother's mind against Zan and his sister, Vilondra, all the while bedding her behind the royal families back. Zan, being the only son and the successor to the throne, became his sole target. Topple the prince and the strength of the family is destroyed. It was believed that he conspired with your sister... Zan's sister I mean, who by this time had so obviously fallen pretty hard for the smooth, yet ruthless bastard."

"What complicated things was a great love between the children of two of the worlds. Antar and Adia. Zan and Ava were so deeply in love. No matter what was happening between their worlds, there was no keeping them apart. They were amazing together. Such a great strength they were. After many great conflicts, the two families finally decided to combine forces for the sake of their children and for their people. They planned a wedding to end all weddings. It was set up to be the event of the century. The people dearly loved these two. They were a storybook couple come true. Citizens of both worlds had watched them through the years and wanted, almost as much as Zan and Ava, for this union to take place. They had this incredible connection with each other from the time they were children, they were destined to be together and they refused to let anything stand in their way.

Max looked up, "Yea, I knew all about the destiny part of it. Tess had told me all about it. I'm sorry John, I just never knew the love you're speaking of."

John slowly shook his head. "No Max, no you didn't know the destiny part of it, you only thought you knew. Just as Ed Harding was not Nascedo, the girl you knew as Tess was never Ava."

Max looked up at him. "Tess wasn't Ava?" he was having a difficult time with this. "Then who the hell was she? Who were they? Why were they doing this to us? Damn it, John, you don't understand! This girl came into my world, reeked havoc in every area of my life! And here I was thinking she was just an evil person who I once loved in another time on another planet. Now you're telling me that she wasn't even who I thought she was. She was just evil. I fucking slept with her, John. I slept with her," he repeated, as he began to pace the floor angrily, then just as quickly he sat down across from John, looking him right in the eye.

Max continued, emphasising every word, "I got her pregnant and she left the planet with my unborn child! Jesus! John, I let this happen." Max was beside himself with anger and emotion.

"I lost the only girl I have ever loved all because I was a weak, needy piece of shit who had lost all prospective on everything that was happening around me. And I will never, ever be able to change anything that I have allowed to happen." Max's head was in his hands.

John sat quietly for a few minutes, giving Max a chance to soak in everything he had just said. " We can get back to Harding and Tess, in particular, a little later." He passed Max his unopened bottle of beer. He could see that if he continued down this Tess road right now that Max could possibly just storm out the door.

"Oh no, you don't even want to see me drink! I told you, I've had one experience with drinking and well, let's just say.. I can't."

John reached over touching Max on the shoulder. A pressure point responded. "Now ya can. That should help you some."

Max took the beer but cautiously sipped at it to see if there was a reaction. Nothing.

"See, trust me. It's not that we need you to turn into a lush or anything," he laughed, "but you do need to calm yourself down. I know everything you have learned and will learn about here today would put a strong man down. So just try to relax and listen, okay Max?"

"Yeah. Thanks." He did indeed feel calmer, and surprisingly still clearheaded.

"Okay, you ready to go on?" JB continued only after Max's nod.

"It was during the wedding ceremony that Kivar chose to hit the palace. People were so happy, so unsuspecting. Completely caught off guard," JB stared at the floor.

Max suddenly, at the sound of his words, found himself seeing the pictures before him... feeling the memories. John continued, but found that he couldn't look at Max while he spoke. "Everything happened so fast. There was no defense possible. Rath and his men put up a heroic fight, but it could not possibly have been enough. They were falling..falling all around us, both Antarians and Adians, alike. It was minutes before I realized that I had been hit, and Kal, well his wounds were much more severe than mine. It was a long time before the confusion cleared, and a few of us could get back inside to check on the dead and wounded." John stared at the bottle in his hands.

In the seconds that evolved between John's sentences, Max tried to stifle a gasp rising in his throat, as he saw it all and felt it all. He felt the burning of the wounds piercing his back. He heard the screams and the crying around him that lingered and lingered. He saw Ava crumble to the floor, as a sea of scarlet spread over the white lace of her gown. He felt the warmth of the blood that trickled down between their fingers that lay laced together for that one last time. He tasted the salt of Ava's tears, or were they his own?

"I found Ava and Zan together, behind the alter," John's voice was low and shook as he spoke. "I don't know how long either of them clung to life, but they never left each other's side. Zan's mother survived in the santuary, where some had taken refuge."

Both men, one knowing and one feeling every memory, tried their best to hold in their emotions. For Max, the intensity of his memories where too much to bear. For the first time, he truly felt Zan inside him, in his head, but mostly in his heart. Echoing in his soul, he heard himself as he spoke his last words to his heart, Ava.

I will find you, I will always find you. He ached, and then he cried..

~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER SEVEN


The sun was setting outside the patio doors. Kal had returned back inside. Looking at the two men sitting on the couch, he remarked slowly, "I see things are going well." And sat in the side chair.

Max couldn't get Ava out of his mind. He had felt the love that John had spoke of a few minutes before. He was so full of these feelings. He had been there, he remembered being there. Parts of Zan's memories were pushing their way through. "The fourth pod... the essence. It wasn't saved, was it?" Max asked in a hush.

The room was so silent you could have cut it with a knife. John turned to Kal. "This part is all you, Kal."

Guessing that his timing on returning into the room had been pretty good, he deeply inhaled then blew the air back out in the form of silent whistle. It would be so good to finally get this off his chest. "We need to get back to the Hardings, Max." He lit a cigarette that Max had occasionally seen dangling, unlit, from the side of his mouth the last time he had been in LA.

"Harding, as we have already covered, was never Nascedo. He was one of Kivar's lackey's. He'd been bounc'n back and forth between here and Antar for...well let's just say that the guy was trying really hard to kiss Kivar's ass and score the big time points. Harding had tracked down a guy named Atherton who had written this expose about his friend, an alien." Kal waved in JB's direction. Max shook his head, "yea, Among Us. We found his house and the pendant."

"We know that much Max," and motioned to him as to whether he would allow him to continue talking. Max understood and shook his head in favor of not interrupting anymore.

"Atherton and JB had become close. Atherton, of course, not knowing that he was under alien surveillance by Harding, unfortunately leads him to the reservation. John is there and realizes who Harding is and a scuffle and battle of the minds insues. Old John gets temporarily knocked aside. Harding takes this opportunity, in front of the gathering Mesalika tribe, and after shapeshifting into John, he kills Atherton and then leaves. The Indians believe that John has murdered his friend, Atherton, on sacred Indian ground, which apparently can never be good. So Riverdog helps John to escape." Max is engrossed at this point, having already heard part of this story. So Riverdog had been right.

"The Quad comes of age," Kal continued. "It's now time to deal with the hybrids up close and personal." Max was beginning to understand that Kal had prepared well for this long awaited opportunity to present the accounting of events that would bring everyone up to date. A ringing cell phone, however, interrupted him and Kal paused looking annoyed to answer it.

Kal walked into the hall. Max thought his side of the conversation sounded like studio business, still he hoped it wouldn't be a long conversation. John temporarily picked up the ball. "Kivar still thinks of you as Zan, Max. He has a vendetta to fill. He wants you back on Antar or at the least, dead. This is serious business, Max."

Kal returned and apologized, commenting that he had turned off his cell so they wouldn't be interrupted again. He then picked up where he had left off. "So Harding and him, well, they concoct a plan, a plan in which Tess, who was Harding's creation, is sent in to befriend the Quad. The plan was for alittle alien hocus pocus to take place, which would lend a hand eventually to your seduction. Apparently it worked wonderfully," he took a last long drag off the cigarette and crushed it out in the ashtray, all the while peering up over his glasses at Max. "I digress..."

Max tried not to react. Kal was right. There just was no making it all go away.

"...then, things got a little fucked up with Liz's friend, what was his name...." he continued searching his memory.

"Alex."

"Yeah right, Alex. Damn shame, he truly was a good friend to you Max, what with savin' your bacon at the hospital that day and all..." Kal shook his head from side to side. "She was a real bitch."

"Anyway, I'm here to tell you that JB has dug around just recently and found out a few things. See, we have are sources too." Dimples showed as Kal grinned. "Listen up, Max. Good news. There . never. was. a baby. Smoke and mirrors, Max. It was all part of the overall plan, to seduce you, bed you and take you on home with her.:

"Once here, they realized your connection to Liz. She knew she would need help pulling things off. Harding was pretty handy with his powers. Between the two of them, they worked on not just your head, but on creating circumstances all around you. You made it pretty easy for them, actually. They were counting on you reacting, Max. Reacting to scenarios they were playing out. The plan then became... set it up, then wait for the damaged, rejected immature lad to react. Stick you with a fork, Max, you were done. The whole baby thing was the final icing on the cake. They couldn't understand your connection with Liz. She was human, she had a family and a history in Roswell. So they pulled out all the stops." Kal took a short break, seeing Max's reaction to everything he had just told him.

"But that's impossible! I saw the baby's hand...he was sick...I felt his pain."

"You felt your son because they wanted you to." It now was John speaking directly to him. "The pregnancy wasn't real, Max. It was the most important step, the last step in their plan. All they cared about was getting you back to Antar, oh, and the book."

"The book?", Max interrupted.

Again Kal continued. "Yea, you see, they assumed because you were with Liz, and Liz was human, well from that, they assumed that something had happened to the fourth pod. Kivar knew of the book from Ava's world, a book that forsaw the future. I wasn't ever sure that I believed in any of the so called prophecy, but being the romantic sort, JB here was always willing to stake his life on it. It was an age old prophecy about a boy king and a great love...yada yada yada. The book also told of a great machine that contained the properties for time travel. The legend was the life blood of all the empires, and so the granolith became somewhat of a religious icon. Wars had been fought for all of our recorded time over this machine that no one had ever seen. Kivar's ego needed Zan dead, Max, but the quest was always for the book and the granolith. Kivar was the first to actively search for it. He was obsessed with the power he would hold if it was in his possession."

"What no one but the Adians knew, was that the granolith had always been hidden on Adia. This knowledge had been passed down from royal generation to royal generation on Ava's home world, ending with Ava. And of course, she relayed all this knowledge to Zan when they both were still but children."

"Zan kept the mystery of the granolith secret until right after his father died. At that time he wrongfully confided in his sister about this fabled machine that might just enable them to go back in time to bring their father back into their lives."

"Vilondra was against the idea, stating the dangers involved. But the real truth was that there was never any love lost between her and her father. Zan had been his favorite, there was no secret of that, always his favorite. From there it's easy to figure out what transpired next. She gives Kivar the information, hoping to gain his love and trust. And well the rest is history, recent history."

"The granolith? The one in the podchamber?" Max asked, concerned.

Kal answered with a nod. "Where it's been for the last sixty years. Same place you were born. We had moved the book along with the granolith up into the pod chamber after the crash. And then, somehow, at some point in his journeys, Harding got lucky and stumbled onto the pod chamber. He found the book, thankfully missing the granolith that we had hid farther back in the cave. He then got creative with a copy of his own. He completely added the page which so conveniently showed all of your likenesses. He had to do something to prove his case. That was the book that Tess 'found' in the library. He later gave the original to Tess, who in turn forced Alex to decode it for her. Time began running out, they had to throw things into overdrive. Poof, pregnancy and Papa Max."

"But, wait, what did Tess...well, what did she leave in? I thought she returned back to Antar in the Granolith?" Max was trying desperately to keep up and put the pieces of the puzzle of his life together, finally, once and for all. He wished Michael and Isabel were here.

"Well here's where we are right now on the granolith studies," it was John who spoke up. "The granolith itself creates a type of wormhole. The traveler alone would travel along this wormhole path, through time and space. The granolith itself is stationary."

"You see," Kal broke in, "JB has been fortunate enough that he not only found a young girl many years ago that he fell in love with, but as luck would have it, she's now a quantum physics professor at Stanford University."

"Kal, there was a whole lot more to the relationship than that," John replied, frowning.

Max smiled at him. He was sure he was right about that. He knew all too well about all that was involved. Feeling isolated, feeling alone. Falling in love with a human. Feeling that love in every fiber of your being. Yep he understood that.

"I hate to interrupt this lovefest...." Kal said, sensing everything both men were feeling.

"Alright," Max snapped back to the subject at hand. "So....Tess..?" Max raised his hands up, shrugging his shoulders.

""Probably...either fried or froze to death. I doubt that she made the trip to anywhere. Destination is not the problem as much as actual time dimension. We've been pretty deep in the study of all this for some time now." John shook his head, realizing all the time they had sacrificed in the name of the granolith. He hardly got to see her anymore. Maybe a few days, every two weeks. Sometimes he couldn't take it anymore and would hop in the car and travel up to surprise her. She was his life. The only thing that was keeping him both sane and alive. Pretending to be human was a difficult job. But her understanding of the truth, gave him the strength to go on. The Quad was important. He could never forget where he came from, his roots. But he was here now. This was his home. Their home. On this point, he had a special bond with Max.

"The Adians were never completely able to decode the book, even with all their powers. So you see, the chances that Kivar was successfully able to decode it completely, or correctly for that matter, was pretty slim. Your friend Alex was able, with the help of a pretty powerful computer, to decode a good portion of the book for him; but not, by any means, all of it. Of course, Kivar didn't really care, because the worst that could happen was that you would be dead or wandering around out there," he stated simply, waving his hands above him, "never to be heard from again. And Tess, well he didn't give a damn about Tess to begin with. She was just one of the things that were a means to an end."

Max couldn't help but think again of John and the woman who had found herself in his life. They were working side by side to uncover the truth, to find more answers to yet more questions, much in the same way that Liz had done for him back before he had betrayed her. Even with all the things he had just learned, he knew he had all but destroyed her and the love they had shared. He still loved her more than he could ever explain to himself or anyone else. And he sensed that John felt the same way about the woman he loved. He could see it in his eyes, especially when Kal mentioned her name.

Kal spoke, sensing John's shyness. "Yep, she's a sweetie. Her name's Serena."

Pretty name, Max thought.

Again the room was still. So many thoughts, so much silence.

"..about the fourth Pod." Kal lit up again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

CHAPTER EIGHT


Back at the Crashdown, Liz was trying desperately to make herself appear busy. She hadn't told her father about blowing yet another interview. How could she? This certainly was new, not only had the static returned, but it had brought someone's home movies along with it. Those last minutes were replaying over and over again in her mind. What the hell happened? What was it that she saw and why at that particular moment did it have to happen? And that interviewer from Harvard. Liz had had enough experience with the human race, and a few others, to know when something was wrong, very wrong. She thought for a moment and checked to see that her Dad was still in the middle of a friendly disagreement with a customer, who always gave him a run for his money. She ducked into the back and up to her room.

Phone to her ear, she listened while the operator transfered her call to the proper department at Harvard University. A woman's voice answered the phone, "Hello, may I direct your call?"

"Yes, I'm trying to leave a message with Mr. Samson, he interviewed me this morning and there was some information he asked me to leave for him. Could you connect me to his voicemail, please."

"How are you spelling the last name? s-a-n or, or is it , s-o-n?" she asked politely. Liz wasn't sure.

"I'm checking under both those spellings, and I don't believe any such name is on our staff list. Could you be mistaken about his affiliation?"

Liz paused long enough that the operator asked if she was still on the line. "Yes, yes I 'm thinking that.. um maybe, maybe the affiliation is way off. Thank you for your help." She started to place the phone back in it's cradle, instead turning and sending it crashing against the opposite wall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Michael, I'm telling you, something wasn't right about him. I sensed it almost from the beginning. But then when the vision began and the static was so obvious... I'm sure he saw it, Michael, I'm sure. But he didn't react the way any human would react to seeing and hearing green electrical current crackling through my arms! He knows something. We have to do something." She was close to tears.

Michael calmly asked, "What'd he look like? Did it look like Kivar?" Michael was trying to tally up everything Liz was saying.

He didn't seem too concerned, but at least he was interested. "Normal..he looked normal," Liz replied, "..except for near the end, his eyes. Spooky, no scary. Look Michael we already know that shapeshifters can be whoever they want to be. It could have been Kivar...can he shapeshift? So how would I know if it were him?"

"You've got a point there. Where's Max when you need him?"

"I haven't talked to him in days and he wasn't at school today," she answered. She didn't have a clue where he was and right now she didn't care. Right now she was glad she didn't have to deal with him at all.

Kal had said that it might come back, Liz thought. Of course, I wasn't show'n movies back then either. This wasn't good, no matter the cause. It just wasn't good. "I can't shake this feeling, Michael. A very bad feeling."

"What, about Max?" he responded, sucking down a Snapple.

"No-o, about this guy this morning. He scared me, he really scared me."

Michael gently shoved her over on the couch as he sat down. "Now what about this flash again. Tell me again, slower this time. Everything you remember, even the little things you may not have noticed the first time. Think." Liz noticed a sincerity suddenly in his voice that she hadn't heard often, and it was welcomed.

She concentrated as hard as she could and repeated everything she could remember about the vision, including what it was that she had screamed out. Michael closed his eyes and squinted, trying to get a grip on it all.

He heard a few soft whimpers and looked over toward Liz who to his surprise was now kneeling in the small place between the coffee table and the couch . "Liz?" Her only response was soft uncontrollable sobbing. Michael waited, giving her a few minutes, but she was still sobbing.

"Liz..." Michael touched her lightly on the shoulder not knowing what to do next. She continued to sob, only this time she looked up at Michael as the tears rolled down her face and whispered, "I can't stop." He grabbed her up and held her close to him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

For half the night she slept curled up like a small sad kitten in his lap. Michael had carefully pulled the afghan down over her. He didn't want to move for fear he would wake her, and she seemed to be finally getting some peace. The sobbing eventually had stopped, and the only explanation she could give was that she didn't have one. Just another alienrelated glitch, Michael presumed. He looked down at her, smiling. They had really messed with their lives. Liz and Maria. Not to mention Alex. God, he still couldn't let himself think about Alex. He carefully stretched for the remote. 2 am and nothing on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He woke to the smell of coffee and a very sore neck. Sitting up all night had left it's toll. Liz looked around the corner. "Hey." She smiled, "Thank you."

"Hey, no problem. What are friends for? I'll, ah.. take a cup of that, if there's any left there."

A few minutes later, she handed him a cup and sat down on the edge of the coffee table. "It had been almost twentyfour hours with nothing at all, no green glow. And then this, I don't understand it. Kal had said it wasn't necessarily a surefire cure." She realized what she had said, and waited.

It took a few minutes, but it finally sunk in. "Kal? You saw Kal? Where? How?" Michael was angry as Liz nodded her head. "Are you crazy? Why would you do that? You could have been killed!"

"Which question do you want me to answer first? Look Michael, I did what I had to. Max couldn't help, I didn't want him to help. I had to deal with this on my own. I did. It was temporary, but......" she trailed off feeling exhausted. "Think I'll head on home and shower. Maybe I'll feel better then."

"Liz." She looked back as she reached the door, "Promise me that you won't take off without telling me... or Max. It's important."

"I know. I promise."

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Diehard
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 7:25 pm

Post by Diehard »

CHAPTER NINE


As Liz turned the corner outside Michael's apartment, she found herself suddenly face to face with Maria, almost knocking them both to the ground. They grabbed at each other and started laughing. Maria shook her head quickly, as she realized what time it was. "Liz! It's a little after 7, what the hell are you doin here? Is everything okay? Is Michael up already? I was gonna surprise him with coffee in bed. Is Max here?"

"He just had a cup," Liz said nodding her head up and down, "...not in bed, I mean, of course not in bed... but he did have a cup. BUT...maybe he might want another. No Max is...somewhere, not here. Who knows..." Liz was stammering again, mainly because of the look on Maria's face. "Maria, I was...sick last night."

"You spent the night?," Maria couldn't believe it.

"... . look, nothing's goin on. Just ...," she gave up. "Maria,....I gotta go right now. Ask Michael, he'll fill in the gaps." With that she scurried away, throwing her head back in total disbelief of the ridiculous one way conversation she had just had with her very best friend.

"OOhh, he'll be fill'n in the gaps alright. MICHAEL!!" and the screendoor slammed behind her.


~~~~~~~~~~~~


~~Every now and then, I hear you in the wind and you are near again.
Every now and then, I feel you on my skin, and I believe again.~~



The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, which had been a very welcome change for Liz. The window was wide open, and a great breeze was filtering through her room.

It was Saturday, and she had the entire weekend to do some studying for her finals. Finals, as in finite, end, completion. She was finding it so hard to believe that her high school years had slid by her. How had that happened? It hardly seemed possible. Of course, she hadn't given up the hope that there was a school out there for her. She had had her heart set on Harvard, but that didn't seem possible at this point. She thought to herself, let's say,, just for sanitys sake, that the young man at the interview yesterday had been for real . She could see the scene now in the dorms every Saturday night....Hurry, come see the new girl, she glows in the dark. Something inside her made her smile.

"Okay Lizzie, maybe you need to plan a vacation right after graduation. Maybe a roadtrip," she said convincingly to her reflection in the mirror. Maybe she could twist Maria's arm into going along with her. They hadn't done anything together just for fun for a very long time. That is, if she could tear herself away from Michael long enough. Funny how much Michael's entire personality had changed after deciding that he was staying behind, staying because of Maria. She was beginning to think that lately they may have been attached at the hip.

Besides her studies, and helping out downstairs, she didn't have much else going on, since her self imposed distancing from Max. She had hoped that things could always stay the same between her and Max, the way they had been in the beginning.

Deep inside, she hadn't wanted things to ever change, but she knew now that they had to. If there was one thing that she had been forced to face with these painful green glowing static episodes, it was that, it isn't very healthy to keep shoving things under that rug. You can put a whole lot under there, she never ever would have guessed just how much. But the end result is always the same, you end up tripping over it. If you're lucky you can pick yourself up and brush yourself off, but sometimes something breaks, and you end up laying there for the rest of your life. She was tired of laying there. She had given so much of her emotional self to Max. She had been drowning in all the alien confusion. And she had listened to her heart for too long. There was no way around what had happened. And she simply could not let herself feel that need for him in her life anymore.

As she stretched across the bed, she felt her body relax. It was such a great feeling. She heard the quiet in her head and wondered at what it was that was in there, that was causing these things that were now happening to her. She felt herself relax even more. Feeling she was falling, she caught herself, and her tired face smiled.

She could feel almost every part of her body, as she laid there, from her shoulders down to her toes. It was peaceful. She needed to relax. She'd been tied in knots for way too long now. She could vaguely hear the noises down in the street, as they were fading farther away from her. The sounds drifting up from the restaurant began to fade too, and Liz closed her eyes. As she called on the silence, she listened to her heart beating softly. Her breathing became deep and steady, as the flash began.

. . . She was laughing, laughing so hard she was holding her stomach. The cause of her laughter came into view. A handsome young man with the most loving eyes was laughing right along with her.

He grabbed hold of her hands and placed them up around his neck, as he snuggled his face into that place in her hair that he loved so much.. "Please tell me," his laughing had changed to a warmer tone, "why do I love you so? Oh..wait, I think it's the way the smell of your hair makes me feel," he laughed softly. She flipped her hair around playfully teasing him.

He lifted her with ease, setting her on the ledge of a groto. Their joking mood was changing. Taking her face in his hands, he looked into her eyes and whispered softly, "Or maybe it's the taste of your lips on mine that has addicted me to every inch of you, body and soul." He leaned in and softly placed his lips over hers, and she felt that familiar rush of the passion of hundreds of years run through her. She lost herself in his every move and returned his kiss with every ounce of her being.

A voice boomed suddenly, echoing across the distance, calling to her. "I must go now. Father is getting impatient." She hated being apart from him, but they would be apart for only one more night. Tomorrow was to be the day she had dreamed of since her childhood.

Softly she spoke, "Tomorrow, my love, tomorrow we will finally be one. Can it be, can it really be?" She was interrupted by his lips brushing over hers again and again. "Tomorrow," he repeated to her, against the softness of her cheek. He took both her hands into his, and held them to his chest. He pressed his lips to hers, he wanted to remember the taste of her lips and the feel of her skin on his. With that memory he would sleep well, until he again could touch her. She felt herself slipping, slipping inside of his very soul, the same way she had so many times before.

"You are the biggest part of me, and I am nothing but for you. We have waited a lifetime, and I will promise you again tonight what you already know. . . that I will love you forever, Ava. You are my life and my heart. When tomorrow comes, we will have forever." She wrapped her arms down around his waist, as he placed his forehead to hers. "Know this, for it is the only thing that will ever be true."


Liz stirred gently in her sleep, she called out softly for him, but he was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Michael had begged off early from their Saturday night date night. Maria was insisting that he needed her along with him, but alien persistence prevailed. Besides, he had promised her that if he could, he would let himself in through her bedroom window in the wee hours. All she had said as he quickly kissed her goodbye was, "Don't expect me to cook for you any time after twelve." She was such a kidder, he thought. So here he was, sitting on the damp ground, covertly hiding to keep an eye on Liz.

Why did he feel she needed watching? Well let's just call it good alien intuition. If he had to be honest with himself, he knew that after everything that had happened to them and everything they had been through, one truth had prevailed. Liz had never been wrong. She was a thinker. She didn't jump to conclusions without thinking every point out. She had been right about trusting Valenti and Topolsky, she had been right about the orb, she had been right about not trusting Tess, she had been right about Alex, she had been right about the crystals in the water supply.... Okay, if Liz thought it might be true it usually was. At least Michael was now ready to admit that he would bet on it.

There's not a whole lot to do out here, he thought, as he bundled his jacket up around his neck. And it looks like rain. The breeze from earlier in the day was turning a little nastier now that darkness had set in. Michael checked his watch. 10:30. Her room was dark, as was the balcony; but, he knew she was in her room. He had checked in the front windows of the Crashdown after closing time and didn't see anyone moving around.

The first drop of rain hit his cheek. "This is good," he muttered sarcastically. He looked around for somewhere with slightly more shelter, as well as a good view of the window to her room. Not much else available. He shook the rain from his hair and pulled his jacket up over the back of his head. Max should see him now, he thought. Peeping at Liz's window. He chuckled as he shifted to get more comfortable. Where the hell was Max anyway, he hadn't seen him in days. His logic told him that it had something to do with Kal, especially after learning about Liz's visit with him. He wasn't worried. Afterall, it was Max, and his majesty could take care of himself.

Boy, they sure do pull in the sidewalk's early around here, he thought. Roswell, such a one horse town. He smiled to himself, remembering how unhappy he had been growing up here, wanting only to get away. Anywhere but Roswell. He had really surprised himself, making that decision not to leave with Tess, Max and Isabel. Even now, it was difficult for him to put his finger on the exact moment that it had happened. Maybe it really was the very minute that he knew he could, that he realized he couldn't. Funny, how a place can grow on ya.

He watched as the last three customers wandered out of the PizzaPan down the street. The only noise were the raindrops hitting the leaves above his head. He sat still for the longest time, over the hours, the light sprinkles had turned to light showers off and on. He last checked his watch at 11:20 am.

Michael jumped. Damn, he must have dozed off. He checked up in the direction of Liz's window. Still dark and no movement on the balcony. Well, he doubted that she'd be out anywhere on a night like this. He squinted down at the hands of his watch. Holy shit, it was 12:30, he had dozed off for over an hour. Nice goin Michael, he said to himself. He supposed that his lack of sleep, while sitting up on the couch the night before, may have had something to do with it.

He looked up and down the silent wet streets at the intersection. Empty. Okay Michael, enough for tonight. He was stiff, wet and still pretty sleepy. It was time to roll on over to Maria's.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Diehard
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 7:25 pm

Post by Diehard »

CHAPTER TEN


"Three of the pods seemed to be thriving fine," Kal was continuing on. "But there was just too much damage to the fourth."

He had insisted that the threesome break to share some food and rest for a bit. Max disagreed, wanting to hear everything they had to say. He only relented after realizing the hours which they had already spent in discussion. They had been literally talking all afternoon and into the early evening. They had finished picking at the spread of food that Kal's housekeeper had put out for the three men. Each had settled back down, it was now close to 11:30. It was a warm night and a full moon, as they sat outside on the starlit patio. Max was eager for Kal to continue, which he did after stirring the martini in his hand.

"Everything we could, we did. It was all but destroyed in the crash itself, and we realized that it would be no good to us at all. The question at that point was, what could we do to save what we had been able to salvage? JB here, well, he was hellbent on finding a solution. But this was a huge problem. You have to understand that our sole purpose was to protect what had once been. It was a trust that had been given to us. It was far more than a job, it was our honor."

"All five of us on board that ship had volunteered to protect, with our own lives, the precious cargo we had carried so far from home. Zan and Rath, Ava and Vilondra, they were part of all of us, so much a part of our past. Losing even one was not acceptable. We decided that the only chance there was would be to place the essence inside the granolith. We knew that the extraordinary powers of the machine would protect and preserve it, but for how long we weren't sure. We had time, we weren't ready to give up yet. It was to take years for the pods to mature to the stage that was needed before performing the procedure of adding the genetic material. We had some time to come up with hopefully another plan."

"As time passed, we needed to settle into this very different life here on your planet. Being able to shapeshift, gave us a head start. We kept in constant touch with each other, and a date was set up between us to continue with the last vital step."

Max couldn't help but interrupt, "Our donors? ..how was the genetic material gathered?"

John answered. "It's a fairly simple extraction that's done while the donor sleeps. Very rarely is the person physically hurt. A few could have had flashbacks of the event, I guess, but what they think they remember is far easier to except as only a dream. They really have few, if any, cognitive memories of any of it afterwards."

"Anyway," Kal tried to get them back on track, "time passes. Meanwhile, JB settles in locally, and I find a menial job with a small second rate production company. We do what we have to do, until we are to meet again. Finally I get a call from JB. It's time. By the time I make it to the podchamber, JB has learned that Harding is close, too close. Two found dead. He's been leaving his mark all over town. Here we are, ready to perform the last vital steps, and we knew we couldn't take the chance of him interfering. So I go out to find him, to turn the tables, and now the hunted is the hunter. Basically I catch up to him at a small cafe, the Pepper Cafe, I think it was, over near Bitter Lake. A few people get caught in the 'crossfire'. It wasn't pretty."

"Bitter Lake?" Max remembered his strange encounter with Hubble, Edward Hubble, two years back at the UFO Convention in Roswell. He had accused Max of not just being an alien, but of being the alien who killed his wife. Jesus, what a nightmare that night had been.

"Yea, she died there that night," Kal answered Max's thought again. Max found that he was almost not noticing their obvious gift anymore. "It all happened pretty quickly. Harding was after me, and suddenly there's this pretty young girl, well, she got caught in the middle. And, she was pregnant. A little girl, as fate would have it. The bottom line, Max, is that this was a tragedy, no doubt about that; but, we had been presented with a chance to somehow make things right. She was only a three month fetus, but JB believed that he could bring the baby to full term with the help of the granolith. And so we did. Nothing of this sort had ever been attempted before. Up to now, the human genetic material had been added to the pods, which had been prepared with the essence. Instead, the only viable chance we had was for us to attempt to add the essence to the fetus. JB .." he motioned to him. Max could see that this was getting difficult for Kal. Emotions of what they had attempted to do that night were flooding back to Kal. He nodded toward John, who picked up the ball.

JB nodded and turned to Max. "I was never absolutely sure that this would work, but it was the last and only chance we had. We had to try. We knew the essence needed some form of the human genetic code to continue. We mixed the gandarium with the essence and injected it into her. Kal healed the fetus of the problems that she had suffered from her mother's injuries, before placing her into the granolith. Then we waited. Over the next weeks, we became like foster parents; me, full time and Kal, part time. We knew we couldn't keep her in the chamber indefinitely. Things would have turned out a little differently if we could have." John stood up and took a very deep breath. "We dropped her on the doorway of the nearest hospital, as soon as she was 28 weeks."

"That was a very sad goodbye for both of us," JB looked over toward Kal, who never looked up, "but, it was necessary. There was no pod to protect and mature her. We thought we would have no way of knowing for a few years, as to just whether she had thrived. Although Kal here has never admitted it, I think he spent a few of her first nights there with her, as a pediatric intern." Max smiled, he had always somehow sensed that the hard exterior crust of Kal's wasn't as deep as he needed everyone to think it was.

Max stood to stretched his legs as he considered what was being told to him. He could never ever have thought, even for a second, that so much had been involved in their coming into this world. He couldn't not believe that the child had survived. Living with the knowledge of his secret had been so difficult for him all of his life. Hiding in plain sight. Not only did he feel that this small child had been given another chance, he could only pray that she had lived a normal life; and most important, by carrying none of the baggage, she was more apt to always be secure in who she was. The protectors had pulled out all the stops in hopes of saving her, of finishing what they had come here to do.

"That was the very last time I shapeshifted, Max," Kal admitted slowly, as if remembering for the first time. "I made a promise that night that, if she made it, I'd give it up and never shapeshift again. I kept that promise too, well I did until your first little visit out to see me." Max looked at Kal, remembering that night, suddenly realizing that when he forced Kal to attempt to fly the ship, he had in fact, forced him to break his promise.

"Jesus, Kal. I didn't know," Max ran his hands through his hair, nervously. "I ..ah, I never did tell you how sorry I was that I put you through that, Kal. I never should have done any of it. And now...knowing all this... I was selfish and stupid . .one of a few times."

He got no defense from Kal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER ELEVEN


Kal watched Max intently, as he called on the cell trying to leave a message for Michael. He looked okay, but Kal was worried about the inside longer lasting stuff. Harding and his protege, Tess, had not only invaded the life of Max Evans, but they had systematically and ruthlessly destroyed it. Not only didn't he not have Liz in his life, but now the poor kid had realized that he didn't even have a bastard son to call his own. Actually Kal thought this child, had it been for real, would have been a really terrifying thing. No doubt he would have been a looker, like his Dad, but what he might lack in temperment from his Dad, he would have more than made up for with psychotic tendencies from his mother. After all she had been created only to destroy. Now what kind of a child would stand a chance with that hanging over his head. And then mix in Hardings teachings and Kivar's treachery. Throw in the power of Zan's memory even now back on Antar, and you would have had a recipe for sure disaster. ..Kal let go with a heavy sigh. Yeah, that turning out to be a lie should be the best news of all to Max, even though he may not completely realize it at this minute. The pregnancy plan had been Kivar's means to an end, to destroy someone that he thought of as Zan. Except Max Evans got in the way.

Kal thought that he seemed to be holding up pretty well during the last twelve hours. He had been given lots of data to compute. Max was going to have to get strong, really strong. He had faced alot, but it wasn't over yet.

Max walked over in Kal's direction, folding the cell back in his pocket. "Did you get him?" Kal asked.

"No," Max replied with a shrug. "Michael's phone's been disconnected again. I left a message for Isabel, just saying I was okay, and that I'd be home soon."

Kal wondered what the news that Max had learned today would mean in his life, to his future. He was pretty sure that he intended on going right to Liz, and Kal didn't think that was such a smart move, not just yet. Of course, JB disagreed. The old 'love will conquer all' thing. If the kid was smart, he'd give Liz the news and then leave her plenty of room. Besides, Liz knew how to reach Kal, if she needed to talk to someone who could elaborate on the answers that she was going to need. Kal was just afraid that Max would get his hopes up, and he and JB knew that they had a long road yet to come.

"JB, we should really be finishing up here. You ready?" John sensed the rush but apprehension in Kal's voice.

"Sure, " he motioned for Max to again have a seat. "Max, there's some things..little things, that you probably want to know about, and we'll get to those, but first we need to talk about the little girl. It's the last large piece of the puzzle."

There was no doubt after Max's vision of Zan and Ava's wedding, that he needed to know more about what had happened to this person who had been such a big part of Zan's life. The two who had lost each other so tragically.

"As it turned out, the baby did thrive, very well as a matter of fact. She remained in the hospital for awhile, of course, but she became a beautiful and most importantly, healthy baby. When it came time to leave the hospital, she was taken by a wonderful woman who had been doing volunteer work in the hospital nursery." Max noticed that JB was speaking directly to him now, not just talking amongst the three of them, as before.

He continued, "She was placed with a wonderful couple right here in the area. They were a loving couple, but they had just suffered a most horrible and devastating loss. After months of joy awaiting the newborn's arrival, their baby had been still born. The woman had complications during delivery and needed to stay hospitalized for a few weeks afterward. She was the daughter-in-law of the woman from the hospital. A local, descreet lawyer was called in and the proper paperwork was put together, making it possible for the child to be raised as their own. The baby's adopted father had decided almost from the beginning, that it would be in his wife's best interests to not know the truth, at least not until the child was a little older, and the mother far enough out from her own tragedy to understand. He loved his wife very much, and he was afraid that if she had known the fate of her own child, she may not have ever recovered from the loss. He believed with all his heart that this was the answer to a prayer. It was fate."

"Fate," Max smiled and thought about that word, shaking his head in agreement, he then added, "Right here, locally? She survived, that's such great news! But wait JB, how was it possible that the hospital didn't discover anything out of the ordinary about the physiology of the baby? Wouldn't the blood cells have been different? Ours are different...one of the only differences."

"No, the child's blood was normal. Most likely because the baby had already begun developing within her mother, rather than only in the pod. And then there was also the fact that the percentage of essence that was now part of this baby, was less than what had been placed in the other three pods," he looked over at Kal, questioningly. Kal shook his head, as he chewed on his bottom lip. It was now or never.

Kal hesitated, then realizing there wasn't an easier way, he jumped in headfirst. "Max, it was one of the first adoptions that your Dad had handled after moving here and marrying your mother, just six years before finding you and Isabel in the desert. She beat ya here, I guess you could say. . she had a little head start."

"My father handled this case?" amazed he turned to JB, repeating the words just to be sure he had heard them right. "Baby Ava?" he still couldn't quite believe it. "That's frigg'n amazing! Talk about irony. What are the odds?"

"Oh, the irony gets even better, Max," Kal spoke from behind him. They were both standing so close to Max now that he was beginning to feel claustrophobic. "That beautiful baby girl, the little girl that we saved that night, the one who saved Ava's essence, well she was.. Max, she was lovingly brought up in the Parker home, and they named her Elizabeth."


~~~~~~~~~~~~


Liz realized that there just was no sleeping after having one of the strangest dreams she had ever had. It seemed so real. Just like her vision at school. She had even felt that she had woken with the taste of Max's mouth on her lips. How could that have been? There had been times that she felt that Max was in her dream, yet this man wasn't him. And he had called her Ava in her dream. Liz suddenly felt the room spinning and for a few seconds felt that she might be sick. Instead she called Maria.

"It was Max that I was dreaming of. It was," she knew it. "And for the love of God, Maria, he was calling me Ava! Not only did Tess destroy my life, but now she's coming back to completely drive me over the edge...in my dreams."

Why would she be having dreams about Zan, she kept asking herself. The dream was so very clear, yet so confusing. She so didn't want to deal with this, she didn't want to deal with any of this.

Maria sat crosslegged on Liz's bed, listening to her friend lose her mind. Michael had been asleep when she got the call at 4:15. She had tripped over Michael's wet clothes that he'd left on the floor, as she tiptoed out of her bedroom. "Liz, sweetie, you've been under so much pressure. Did you ever think that, well maybe because you've been so headstrong about swearing off Max and all, did you ever think that your heart could be making you have these dreams and is substituting another man just for the sake of your sanity? Hey, let me tell ya something, I'd welcome a strange man into my dreams about now." Maria rolled her eyes kidding, trying to calm down her best friend was not always a simple task. It had been a while since they had called each other late at night needing to talk, and Maria hadn't realized how much she had missed these times.

"I know what you're saying, Maria. But I've been thinking, ya know, putting it all together with my green glow, and the so true to life flashes of things that I don't even recognize; I'm beginning to wonder if maybe Tess could have mindwarped me too before she left...She did it to Alex and to Kyle, why not me? And how would I know if she had?"

"Well, you're not playing out a song on the tabletop with your fingertips, are ya?" Maria reminded her. "Liz, it's just all the stress we've been going through. Think about it, we've had a horrible heartbreaking year. . . and then some. Now the green glow..well I'd get myself back out to Kal and demand that he do something! There's got to be some other way he can help, Liz."

"Yeah, you're right about going back. But, I can't miss any more school this week, with finals and all. Without a doubt, next weekend. You up for a roadtrip?" Liz was pleading with her last request.

"Sure thing Lizzie. I'm here for ya. Meanwhile don't go packing your long sleeve shirts away."

" . .yeah, long sleeves to cover my hands, just in case," she tried to muster up a smile, but it wasn't easy.


~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER TWELVE


The morning rush at the Crashdown was surprising. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and it seemed everyone was looking for breakfast. Liz was tired, but knew that the rush was good for her. Not having time to think much could only help her, at least for a while. While standing waiting at the window for an order, Michael asked, "Hey. Any more flashes?"

"Umm.. no more like a strange dream this time. Really strange dream. Didn't Maria tell you this morning?"

"No. She was snorin' and had that bedhair thing goin' on when I left," he flipped the hot cakes on the grill.

"Michael, there I was making out with Max, except that it wasn't Max, and it wasn't me. I mean, I felt everything the girl was feeling and the man, well he called me Ava. I really believed, while I was dreaming, that this was Max that I was giving into, except for one small thing. It felt like Max, but it didn't look like Max."

"I have dreams like that all the time. Me and Jay-lo, except it's not me and it's not Jay-lo," he slid two plates across to her.

"No Michael, I'm serious. You know I'm serious," she told him, then turned on her heel to deliver the orders.

"I know," he said quietly to himself, as he watched her walk away. When the hell was Max coming home?

"Liz! Hey, honey, when you catch a break, will ya come on in the back for a minute?" It was Jeff Parker, calling into the restaurant from the backroom.

It wasn't til the crowd started getting unruly a short time later, that Michael realized they were short a waitress. Five plates of cooling food had gathered on the shelf waiting for Liz. "Hey, Liz!" he hit the bell loudly twice, as he called toward the back. No answer. He looked through the small window in the door that separated the living quarters from the restaurant, but saw no one there.

He looked up in time to see Jeff walk in the front doors. "Mr. Parker, have ya seen Liz?"

"No, I just got back from taking a platter over to the sheriff's office. 'fraid I got to chattin, sorry didn't mean to be so long." He answered, as several customers pleaded with him for service.

Michael stood staring at him. "But, you just called her into...." He stopped midsentence, and taking off his apron, decided to check in the backroom. There was no one there, and no one upstairs but Ms. Parker. She said she hadn't seen Liz since earlier in the morning. As he came back down the stairs, he noticed that the back door to the alleyway was standing open. "This can be nothing but bad."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Kivar pulled the tape from Liz's mouth and yanked the cloth down from her eyes. As he twisted the cloth that was now around her neck tighter, he spoke to his prized find. "It's really very simple, you scream and I'll kill you. I'm gonna kill you anyway, but if you make a sound, you'll force me to take all the fun out of it." The room was not only dark, but from what she could see when her eyes had adjusted to the light, it was huge. It looked an awful lot like the old soap factory. The windows had been covered with cardboard. She suddenly darted to the right, trying to get to anywhere but there. She was quick, but he was quicker. He grabbed her and pushed her, and she found herself falling backward, onto a couch or bed of some kind. It was old, dusty and musty smelling.

"Who the hell are you? Why are you doing this," she screamed at him, "you won't get away with it." She had been caught completely off guard. One minute she was with her Dad, and the next he was slapping tape on her mouth and tieing her hands behind her back. "I know who you are, you're Kivar. So what, now I guess I'm supposed to be scared?" With that he raised his hand, palm out and Liz was struck with a jolt of pain that made her green static look like a day at Disneyland. The sounds of her own screams echoed through her ears.

"Yes, that would be me," he nodded his head, and his cocky smile made Liz's stomach turn. "Scared? You should be." He lifted his foot placing it firmly on Liz's thigh. "Well, we certainly know who you are, don't we? I have to admit, you really had me fooled. I wanted Liz, but this, well, this is phenomenal!" The sound of his laughter sent chills up Liz's spine. "Ava, my dear, I was so sad when I believed that you were out of the picture." He talked slowly and very deliberately, which Liz found to be unnerving. She tried to speak, but he cut her off. "I thought I had missed the chance, the chance to make you suffer slowly. I have waited so long for a chance to see your beautiful eyes once again." He reached down to touch the side of her face. ". .to touch your soft skin. I have waited for this day, to hold your precious little neck in my two hands, and...squeeze tightly. You and your love are going to die, Ava. And there will be no one to save you this time. This time will be your last farewell." Liz's head was buzzing, she was losing control. As if on cue, the now familiar voice inside her, came forward again. "I will see you dead first!" she screamed up at him, as she spit into his face.


~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lyrics by Evanescence



~~I still remember the world from the eyes of a child, slowly those feelings were clouded by what I know now.
Where has my heart gone, an uneven trade for the real world
I want to go back to believing in everything and knowing nothing at all~~




CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The color had all but drained from Max's face, as he slowly lowered himself into the nearest available chair on the patio. He rubbed his hands over his face in disbelief. Ever so slowly he began, "You're telling me that Liz is. . it can't be true." His quiet disbelief changed quickly to amazement. "Liz is Ava? For the love of God, JB, are you sure? Don't joke about this."

"I might, Max," Kal snipped. "But, him? He would never joke where Ava is concerned." Kal snipped the end of a cigar, getting ready to fire it up. "Cigars all around. This my dear friends, is the moment we have all been waiting for, for a very long time. JB do you realize that our job here is finally now complete? I don't know about you, but I'm relieved." He grinned.

JB was watching Max closely. "It's all true, Max. I swear to you. If you hadn't saved her life that day at the Crashdown, we may never have found out who she really was. And that's the irony that Kal spoke of earlier." He took the cigar from Kal. Max refused his.

Max was thinking so loud and so quickly that it was deafening to the two men standing by him, but neither said a word. Seconds turned to minutes, before Max spoke outloud. "I don't believe this. All this time, well obviously she doesn't know...she has no idea...why would she?.."

Kal blew the smoke from his Cuban cigar into the air. "You've loved Liz, as Zan loved Ava."

Max answered almost without hesitation, "No, Kal. I've loved Liz Parker since the day I first laid eyes on her. It never entered my head that she could have been the fourth pod. My God, I believed she was human. There's no way I wouldn't have believed that. I know Mr. and Ms. Parker and not once has Liz ever mentioned the word adoption. Liz would have told me, had she even suspected. I know she would have."

"Kismet," JB whispered, as his smoke circle formed a large heart, inside the initials formed, L.P.+ M.E. He couldn't hide the grin from spreading across his face. "Sorry it's late, and I'm tired," he apologized.

"Oh, he's lovin this," Kal said to Max motioning to JB. He laid the cigar into the ashtray.

"Cute, JB," Max smiled at the memory of the night that he had drawn that exact heart on Liz's balcony wall. God, how he loved her, how he had always loved her. His heart was aching now for Liz, even more than it normally did.

"Just thought we needed alittle levity," JB was still speaking softly. "It is true though that I've waited a long time. This was about as close to a reunion of Zan and Ava as I would ever have," stubbing his Cuban, he continued. "Look, it's 5am, and it's been a long day, a very long day, gentlemen. It's time to call it a night. Give Max some thinking room til morning." JB stretched, raising his arms up over his head, before heading for the huge double doors to the library.

"You're right," Kal agreed getting up to follow him inside. He suddenly hesitated, thought a minute and turned to add, "Max, your room is at the top of the stairs. Oh and Max, stay off the phone, okay? She's not going anywhere." He winked at him. "I promise we'll discuss where you go from here, after some serious shuteye."

~~~~~~~~~~~~


"You're crazy! I'm telling you my name is Liz Parker. I am not and have never been anyone named Ava. You have me nauseously confused with Tess!" Liz's ear was bleeding from the backhanded slap that Kivar had just delivered.

"DO YOU THINK I'M STUPID???" He was losing patience at her obstinence. "I know all too well who Tess was, I created the bitch! She was never you...I knew it, she knew it and YOU KNEW IT TOO!"

"You..created..?" Liz tried to speak, but as she began, her arms and fingers began to crackle and glow, and the pain rushed into her head. It was stronger this time, and Liz found herself slipping, as if into some safe place far away. It was peaceful there, and someone in her head was saying that no one would hurt her there. Her body seemed not to be her own. Without even knowing it, both of her arms flew up quickly as the crackling peaked, and an enormous burst of power raged out in front of her. Kivar was to the ground, knees buckling under him. Clearly the wind had been knocked out of him, as he tried not to let his advisary see. He struggled to rise to his feet, wiping the blood that was dripping from his nose with the back of his hand.

"Do you think I'm going to just stand by and let you hurt us again?" It was a voice similar yet different from Liz's own voice that spoke out; but, one very familiar to the man standing in front of her. "You have no rights here, Kivar!" She had been seriously drained from the last force she had thrown. Ava had gathered all her will to harness the power for a show of strength against him.

Her powerful reaction infuriated him, and he responded in kind. But this time his blow was much fiercer and sent Liz crashing into the cinderblock wall behind her. As she slid down to the floor, he saw that he was once again in control. "Don't even try your hocus pocus on me, little one. Let's try to remember, shall we? You were never any competition for me, and things haven't changed that I can see."

He turned from her, as she lay huddled on the floor. It was time for step two on his itinerary. Breathing alittle heavier than he would have cared to admit, he flipped open a cell phone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Kal thought he was dreaming when the phone in his pocket began to vibrate. Erotic dream? Nope, not a dream... "Yeah," he answered annoyed and far from being fully awake. The huge heavy curtains were closed over against the bright sun outside, making the room very dark. He squinted to see the alarm clock. 10:30am.

"Mr. L, it's me," his secretary was speaking. "I know you left strict ordas not to be disturbed, but, someone has left a life or death kinda message for ya. Thought I should call ya."

"What is it? Why couldn't you just write it down and lose it like you usually do, huh?" Kal tried to sit up, but it wasn't happening.

"I remember most of it, it went somethin like this.......someone's babysitting someone named Ava. He spelled his name out, K-I-V-A-R." Kal's eyes were wide open by the time she hit the V. "Needs you to lend a hand....Wants you to meet him at the old soap factory, ..or was it soup factory..sorry, I can't read my writing. I don't remember, Mr. L."

"Jesus," he all but whispered, as he laid the phone down on the bed next to him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The soap factory? Why the soap factory? He had nothing at all to gain from being there. Something just didn't seem right. Kivar never did anything unless he had something substantial to gain. Kal was quickly walking down the hallway to the room that JB had retreated to a few hours before. He pounded and the door which had been partly open swung in all the way. No one was in the room. At that moment he heard JB bounding up the stairs. "Kal, he's gone! Max took off."

"Fuck!" exclaimed Kal, just barely being able to stop himself from putting his fist through the door frame.

"I knew there had to be something going on, I could feel it, but ..what? What?" he demanded. Kal began filling him in, as they grabbed their things and headed out for transportation. "I never should have left her out there alone." JB was frantic.

"It wasn't your fault anymore than it was mine. I really believed things had, at least for the moment, calmed down where Kivar was concerned. But, I can't shake this feeling that we're being played here, JB." Kal descended the stairs two at a time.

It just wasn't sitting right with him. Kivar was out of his element at the soap factory. It just didn't feel right. He pushed the pedal to the floor as he and John headed out of LA. Damn, he hated to fly, he thought. The studio had it's own little private plane, a not too shabby one either. He'd have a few shots before getting on board. Damn! did he mention how much he hated to fly? He called ahead to let them know that he needed it fueled up and waiting on the runway with a pilot in the cockpit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~


Michael was standing in the alleyway behind the Crashdown, with the invitation in his hand. All that was written on the envelope was the scrolled name 'Max'.

He could think of nothing else to do, no one else to call, after calling Max. Gathered around him now were his dearest friends. Kyle was first to arrive, followed quickly by Maria, then Isabel. Maria was frantic, while Kyle did his best to calm her down. Liz was missing, and now this wierd invitation to Max. There could be no doubt that these two things were related, alien related. Michael handed what looked to be a beautifully engraved invitation to Isabel, who read it aloud.

"You are cordially invited to attend the wedding vows of Zan and Ava, on the night of the first day of June, in the current year of their lives and their lord, two thousand and two. This Ceremony will be held at the place of their second coming. The Bride will be given away by her King.
May they reap what they have sown." Kivar


Isabel dropped the white card to the table. "June first? That's today, Michael. What the hell is going on?" she demanded.

"Max is on his way," Michael explained. "I told him that we haven't seen Liz since early this morning, and that one of the waitresses found this laying on the table by the front door. He said he understood exactly what was happening, and that we should stay put til we heard from him again. He's going to get here as quickly as he can, they were squeezing him onto the next flight out at LAX."

Kyle and Isabel listened closely, while Maria and Michael tried to quickly fill in the gaps; explaining about the new visions, the dreams, Kal's temporary cure, and then the return again of the green glowing static and most importantly of Liz's recent paranoia about the interviewer from Harvard. Michael told them of sitting outside of the Crashdown in the rain the night before, because he couldn't shake the feeling that something very wrong was about to happen. "It's my fault, I should have paid closer attention this morning, maybe I could have stopped this from happening."

"Michael, there was no way that you could have known for sure about any of this." Isabel added.

"Yes, yes there was. All the signs were there. If I had followed my feelings and listened closer to her. . . like we all should have listened to her so many times before, well maybe things wouldn't have gotten this far. Dammit! How could I have been so stupid?" Maria hugged him.

"Placing the blame doesn't help a fuck'n thing," Kyle replied. "No one is to blame here but obviously Kivar. Let's all just calm down. Maybe we should let my Dad know what's going on, and then we'll all just wait for Max. One thing's for sure, if we all just go running out to the pod chamber without him, well, that could end up being the biggest mistake of all. And Liz doesn't need any mistakes right now."


~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Liz felt the slow but steady sway of a moving vehicle, and tried with difficulty to open at least one eye. She tried her right eye, but it was so badly swollen, she winced in pain. Vision in her left eye was much better. Her ribs were aching with every breath.

Dust was flying by the windows, and she thought at first that it was smoke. She remembered then with clarity where she had just been and with who. She felt again the intense pain in her head. She remembered flying through the air, then hitting an immovable object. He had called her Ava, and she had responded. She remembered bits and pieces of the sound of a voice deep inside of her. She didn't know why this was happening. Why did she feel that Ava was somehow helping her.? She began to tremble. The last thing she saw before returning to that quiet safe place that the inner voice had led her to once again, was Kivar at the wheel. She wondered where the hell he was taking her. And where ...where had Max been all this time....why hadn't he heard her cries? Before the thought was completed in her mind, she no longer cared. Peace settled over Liz Parker, and she couldn't help but smile slightly through the blood that had dried on her lip, at the cool relaxing breeze that she now felt over her entire body.

She closed her eyes, please Ava, don't let him kill me.

It was a huge beautiful cavern, Liz looked around her and her breath was literally taken from her by the beauty of the light and the colors that surrounded her, and she suddenly was aware that this wasn't a vision at all, it was a memory... He was there with her, he was holding her tight and she was safe, safer than she had ever been or would ever be again. She was surrounded by love, a love that had no equal. It filled her to the very core of her being, and she gave the same in return. She knew he felt it too, just as strongly as she. She felt his lips pressing on hers, and then he pleaded with her.

"We'll go somewhere, far away from here, just you and me, far away from everything. Somewhere where no one knows us. As long as we're together, nothing else matters." She drank him in to quench the thirst of her insides. But he pulled back, looking into those deep dark eyes. "When I'm with you, it's all magic; and when you're away from me, my world is dark and I'm not whole."

She found herself answering, "and what if we do run, Zan, what about tomorrow, when we have to face who we really are, when all our fantasies go away?"

He ran his fingers into her hair, forcing her to look up into his eyes. "...then we'll live happily ever after. We will still have each other, we'll always have each other." Liz felt the tears sting her eyes, as she again listened to the haunting words, close to the very same words that Max had spoken to her not so very long ago. He kissed her hands and then her shoulders as he spoke, then lost all restraint as his lips reached that warm, vunerable spot on her neck. They blended into each others embrace, and it seemed to Liz that the light in the cavern literally danced on the walls around them, in a beautiful rhythm that promised to never end.



~~~~~~~~~~~~


Max was having a hard time sitting still in the seat, as the pilot announced their arrival at the Albuquerque airport. She had to be okay, if Kivar were to hurt her at all, he didn't know what he'd do. Killing him would not be enough, not after what he had done to Zan and Ava back on Antar years ago, ripping their hopes and dreams out of them as he had. Hell, an entire empire had been destroyed by Kivar's insane desire for power. He had set everything up that had led to Alex's death. And now he had the one thing that mattered most to him. He had Liz. He had needed her in his life from their very first day, long before he had healed her. He didn't care anymore if any of it had been Zan's memories. She had always been the biggest part of him.

Max was terrified. Kivar knew Ava's identity. He was crazy, he had murdered them once, and now he apparently intended to finish the job. It didn't matter that Max and Liz were both different now, living different lives. To Kivar, they were the same old advisaries they had always been. The sweat was beading up on his forehead, and his hands began to shake. If he lost Liz now, after everything they had both been through, he .. he couldn't, he just couldn't. He wouldn't ever allow that to happen, not again.

Max was off the plane and hailing a cab, as Kal and JB hit the blacktop on a small deserted stretch of highway just outside of Roswell. At that same moment, Kivar was bringing the car to an abrupt halt, sliding in the sand down below the pod chamber.

~~~~~~~~~~~~


"We'll have to hike it over to the soap factory from here. Less than a mile, right?" Kal said, as brushed the sand off of his hat. God he hated the desert. He knew it was going to be the most difficult part of leaving LA and coming back here for his watch. They watched the small plane taxi away from them and take off.

"More like a mile and a half." JB swung his backpack up over his shoulder, leading the way. He looked over at Kal, who was definitely not dressed for hiking anywhere; unlike himself, who rarely did without jeans and a good pair of boots. "I called Serena from the plane. Filled her in on what we know so far. She agrees with you, Kal. She doesn't understand why Kivar would want a confrontation with us, if he could help it. Why did he call you, and not just Max?"

"There's tens of thousand of dead who would agree that he hasn't been running on all cylinders for a very long time now," Kal replied matter of factly. "Maybe it's the foothold he's been losing back on Antar, what with the Federalists taking back alot of ground. Maybe he intends to simply close this chapter completely. Maybe he's lost more control back home than we know of. His intentions could be just simply to take care of all of us and then take off for other corners of the universe."

"Wish I knew more about this wormhole he traveled in on. At least we know it has nothing to do with the granolith. If he stumbles onto that, we're in trouble." Kal stopped walking long enough to reach down and dump the sand out of his left docksider.

"Never did get those hiking boots, huh?" JB joked as he always had so many times in the past with his dear old friend. He couldn't let himself think about the trouble Liz could be facing at this very second. He had to believe that all of this hadn't been for nothing. They were their protectors, and JB was certain of only one thing, he would die before he'd let the madman harm any of them ever again. It wouldn't be long before their questions were answered. He looked up to see that the old soap factory was just a little ways over the next hill.


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Diehard
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 7:25 pm

Post by Diehard »

Thanks for your kind words milla, begonia9508, polar vixen, mareli and everyone else who is reading. :) Your responses are so welcome and important to me.
Here's Chapters 16 thru 22.


CHAPTER SIXTEEN


"Any news?" Max was frantic as he burst in through the backdoor of the Crashdown. Their faces gave him his answer.

"Thank God you're here.." Maria's face was blood red. She didn't handle pressure well at all. Michael pulled her closer. "Maxwell, I'm sorry. I shoulda never let her out of my sight."

"This is Kivar we're talking about, there's nothing any of us could have done to stop this. He wants Zan, and using Liz as a pawn would be the easiest way of drawing me out to him...to her. And now he has so much more in Liz than he had thought. He's trying to kill Zan and. .and Ava again." He hesitated, knowing that they couldn't afford to lose any more time by explaining right now. "You all have no idea yet, just how complicated this all has become in the last twenty-four hours."

"Let's go, Michael, I'll catch you up on some of it on the way," Max turned to Kyle who was itching to do something. "Kyle, I need you to stay here with Maria and Isabel." He turned to Isabel, who was already opening her mouth in protest.

"...No, don't interrupt me. You're to wait exactly two hours, if you don't hear from either of us by then, I want you to go to your Dad, Kyle. Tell him to come to the podchamber. But, I don't want him involved, unless it's absolutely necessary. Give us two hours."

Isabel still was resisting, "I don't like this Max, you're going to need all the help you can get." Her face was filled with worry, to which Max replied, "The decision has already been made, and I don't have time to argue with you, Is. Just please do this."

Kyle spoke up, "Max, whatever plan you think you've got goin', it sounds like we're going to need a little more fire power than what's available at the sheriff's office. Wish I could speed my metamorphosis up a bit and help, but nothing yet," he frowned looking at the backs of both of his hands. Kyle had been waiting for a sign, anything at all, but so far he hadn't shown any signs of any symptoms like Liz's. He asked himself, is it possible to dread something and pray for it, all at the same time?

"Kyle, I'm pretty sure now that these powers and effects of Liz's have little to do with my actually healing her." Max answered, understanding what Kyle was referring to perfectly. "I just can't explain right now."

Maria grabbed and gently squeezed Michael's arm, and he gathered her in. "Be careful, Michael. Please..," she begged him. He interrupted her before she could go on. "We'll be back here with Liz in no time at all." He hugged Maria one more time and touched Isabel's arm as he rushed past her catching up with Max who had already left.

A cold chill went up Isabel's back, as she realized just how frightened she was about this long awaited showdown. There were horrible memories inside of her, but the worst was remembering the tremendous power that this man was capable of.


~~~~~~~~~~~~


There was a cold dark stillness inside the factory. It had sat deserted for a while. There was evidence here and there of fire damage. Kal had entered the front, and JB had gone in through a side door. Small streams of sunlight ran in slanted rays, through the slices of cardboard that covered just about every window at the one end of the building. Old furniture, beer bottles, a few mattresses scattered on the floor. Kal lit his lighter, holding it up to check out the darker end. An old couch with a few broken legs leaned lazily toward the back wall. JB grabbed Kal's wrist pulling the lighter a little closer. At closer inspection, JB saw what appeared to be several small areas of fresh blood on one torn cushion.

"Nobody's here, Kal," JB surmised. "I figured as much." Just then JB caught sight of a small object on the dusty floor, to the side of the couch. "Wait, over here, Kal." Kneeling down he picked up a delicate silver ring, a braided design with a small turquoise stone in the center. JB closed his hand around it for a few seconds. Kal stood in silence, waiting for his response. He shook his head positively. "It's Liz's. It belongs to her, they've been here." He handed the ring to Kal.

"Good to see ya haven't lost your touch, JB," he replied, as he placed the little silver ring into his shirt pocket. "Why would he call me?, that was what we had asked. There's only one reason why he would needlessly alert either of us, and that's because he wasn't taking any chances, he needed to distract us. Send us on a wild goose chase. Keep us busy. It was so obvious, and I was so stupid not to see it. He never wanted a confrontation with all of us," Kal was thinking outloud. "Of course they're not here. It's obvious that they were here at some point, but then he moved her. And we've wasted very precious time."

"Now if you were Kivar, where would you go from here? Do you think he's discovered the location of the granolith?" JB asked.

"He's got a one track mind at this point, JB. He wants Zan, together with Ava. Maybe he thinks that one will tell him where it is, if he holds the other's life in his hands. Either way..." Both men shook their heads in agreement, speaking at the same moment, "the pod chamber."


~~~~~~~~~~~~

Again, lyrics thanks to Evanescense


CHAPTER SEVENTEEN


~~Without a soul, my spirit's sleeping somewhere cold, until you find it there and lead it back home.
All of this sight I can't believe I couldn't see, kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
I've been sleeping a 1000 years it seems, and it's now time to open my eyes to everything.~~




"Sweet sweet Ava. It's been way too long. I have spent years upon years, with the disappointment that you didn't choose to stay and sit by my side on Antar." He shook his head still in disbelief. "Such a shame. Together, we could have brought everlasting peace and harmony between our two worlds. Even your father was agreeable to the arrangement. But, no, you chose to shun me and challenge my authority by marrying him. You could have loved a king, instead you chose a prince, and you forced my hand. You disappointed me so."

"And I would die again to make the same choice," she answered emphatically. He was staring at her now, pacing back and forth by the entrance of the chamber, and his anger was building. Liz was just starting to feel that her mind was clearing, until she listened to the words that she had just spoken. Somehow she knew there was a place inside that had felt those words, but she couldn't remember voicing them. She watched him, but kept her head down. The blood continued to stream from her right ear, and her hearing was muffled. She was sure he had shattered her eardrum, and a rib or two were either broken or badly bruised. "Why am I here?"

"Because the love of your life, and her life, will be coming to get you. That's why you're here. Besides you both belong here. This is where you were all born, excuse me, that would be. . .reborn. We both know he'll be here very soon. But I am afraid that he's still not ready to accept the fact that he couldn't save you the first time, and he won't save you this time either. It will end the same way it already has. But this time, I will get to watch you both die, up front and personal. I have waited a very long time for this day, little one. I have nothing now to lose."

Liz tried to pull herself to her feet, but the blood rushed to her head and she crumbled down again, using all the strength she had to speak, "I am not Ava. How many times do I have to tell you! Why would you think I was? I told you Tess was Ava."

"Tess was nobody! When we felt you were safely dead, she was sent here to step in and replace you! I needed Zan back on Antar. She was brought here only to do just that. We had almost succeeded too, by finally reaching his vulnerable side, by manipulating those all too human emotions and then by fabricating an ellusive little son. We finally had him eating out of the palm of our hands. It was working like a charm, until YOU stepped back into the picture! You little bitch you! Don't try my temper anymore! You really don't want to piss me off! " He became louder as he spoke and by the time he had finished, his voice was resonating throughout the tiny cavern where they stood. As he screamed at her, the veins were popping out on his neck; and for a second as Liz peered out at him, she thought he might end her life right then and there.

Then, just as suddenly, he took a breath and spoke calmly again. "I know who you think you are, who you want to believe you are. But did you really think that I wouldn't have known you by your little display the other day at the school? That's one of the wonderful characteristics that I'll never forget about you, Ava. That's when I first realized that Liz didn't know! She so obviously just hasn't gotten control of your powers yet in this new, very fine body. I remember when your dearly departed father made you hide your forces from me, hoping that it might protect you against your enemies one day. Poor, silly little man."

He continued to pace. "You do have extraordinary gifts, and I have always accepted you to be a somewhat worthy advisary, but don't be deceived into thinking that you could ever be strong enough to totally defeat me. Dear Ava, you could never be that strong."


The water was warm to the touch of her fingertips, as ripples spread out across the pond. Liz looked down at the reflection in the water, but it was not her own. She was not dreaming, this was real; and suddenly now she found that she was not frightened of why she was here anymore. Of this much she was now sure, she was recalling a memory. . .a memory of this place where she now sat. The sky was the palest most soft shade of lavender that her eyes had ever seen, and yet it seemed to throw an irridescent look that brightened everything all around her. Tall peaks towered in the distance, and there was the faint sound of cascading water falling into the pond before her. She remembered in an instant that she had always loved this place, this place that felt so much like home. Liz was again at peace. Everything seemed to be moving very slowly around her, keeping her in this safe place.


It was Ava who was now struggling to stand. "You won't get away with this again, Kivar. You must have been insane to think that I ever would have sacrificed my people. . .my family, to rule next to you. I would never have betrayed them or him for. . .for YOU! I couldn't stand being in the same room with you, let alone to share your bed! I despise you and everything you stand for! And we both know that it's just a matter of time before the people of Adia and Antar rise up again, in Zan's name, to defeat you. . if they haven't already!"

Ava was not giving up without a fight. There were no words, human or otherwise to describe what she felt for this monster that she again found herself face to face with. She was fully on her feet now, she moved as quickly as she could; but, with Liz's injuries her movements were not quick enough.

Kivar waved his hand in a circular motion in her direction, sending a clear watery force around her, trapping her in the small corner where she stood. He raised his voice, through clenched teeth, "Sit, little one, don't make me kill you before Zan is here to watch."

He stopped pacing long enough to check his watch. "I have to take my leave for a very short while. Need to check on something. Try to fix yourself up some, will ya? Company's coming," he added sarcastically, and ducked out through the opening of the cave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~


When Michael caught up with Max out in the street, he held up a set of keys, "Jetta," he said, waving them back and forth before him.

"Let do this, Michael." Max kept reminding himself that he needed to stay calm and clearheaded. He had to pull strength from somewhere. "I have no idea what we're headed into. But if we don't get to Liz soon, he will kill her. Liz has Ava's essence." He looked to Michael for a reaction.

"Liz has Ava's essence..." Michael repeated ever so slowly, completely confused.

"She's one of us, Michael. She always has been. She just doesn't know it yet, not unless," he hesitated for a brief moment, "..unless he's told her by now." Again he looked to Michael. But for the first time in his life, his second in command seemed to be speechless. "Step on it, and I'll tell you the rest of it."

As the two were pulling away, a familiar face was watching them from a very old panel van that was parked across the street. The driver sat low behind the wheel, but wasted no time pulling the tires into a U-turn to follow them. Kivar would be pleased. Nicholas had made it, right on time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~



CHAPTER EIGHTEEN


"I'm not comfortable just sitting here and waiting, not for two whole hours!" Isabel exclaimed, after sitting down at the counter. "There's got to be something else we can do."

"Well, ya can come back here and help me with this kitchen crap!" Kyle shouted out to her, as he flipped a line of burgers on the grill. "Never signed up to be cook. Damn!" he yelled, as he beat out a grease flair up with the spatula.

Liz's Dad had begun asking questions about his daughter's whereabouts. Maria had taken care of things, at least temporarily, by explaining how she had run over to help with an emergency that Mrs. Evans encountered while baking for the church bazaar, which was to be held later that night. Maria was already playing catch up, taking orders from the handful of patrons sitting in the Crashdown. "You can help those people at that table over there," she motioned to Isabel, matter of factly. "Like. . . take their order."

With a heavy sigh, Isabel looked in their direction. "Sure," she relented without much of a fight. "Why not. How hard can it be?" Kyle and Maria exchanged irritated glances, both seeming to read each others thoughts.

The little princess was going to have wake up to reality, and soon. She had spent most of her days lately moping over the pros and cons of socking her new husband with the truth about herself. It had been decided by Max and Michael, that it was time to let him into the infamous 'I know an alien club '. It had become increasingly difficult to hide the fact from him, since Isabel was always dragging him around with her. Michael had even commented to Maria, how he was beginning to really feel bad for Jessie. But still, even with her brothers' permission, Isabel couldn't quite make a clear cut decision. Everyone had finally reached a point where they had just about lost all patience with her. Max had even threatened to tell Jessie himself. To which, of course, Isabel pulled one of those tantrums that only she can. Maria was finding it more and more difficult to be around her with every day that passed.

The temporary three musketeers worked quickly to get things in the restaurant back under control. Each one on their own, stopping occasionally to stare off into space, lost in wondering, in worrying, and in anticipation. The clock on the wall ticked away slowly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Jetta sped down the county road, heading out to the old dirt trail that lead up to the mountains. "This is pretty incredible, Maxwell. No wonder she always knew what was going on! It was Ava... she was seeping through into Liz's thoughts, leading her in all the right directions. With Ava's knowledge and Liz's capacity for learning...", a look of amazement came over his face, as he tapped the side of his temple with his forefinger, motioning to Max with his version of Liz's brainpower. "This can be nothing but good, right?" Michael had been thinking outloud pretty much none stop, since Max had outlined everything that he himself had learned in the last few days that involved Liz. Max had been lost in his own thoughts.

"I really don't even want to think about those possibilities. I have to get to Liz. I don't care about the rest right now. We've got to get rid of Kivar, Michael. End this once and for all."

The car took a skid while turning onto the old mountain trail. Michael checked his rearview, watching the dust and dirt shower he had just created. Then, he looked again. "Ahh. . . we've got company." Max turned around quickly. The white van behind them had followed their right turn. "I doubt that they're tourists comin' out here to soak in some sun, Maxwell."

"Damn," Max winced. Before he could say another word, the van had sped up, and was squeezing in on the passenger side of the Jetta. Max had a clear view, as the two vehicles skidded and swerved together. Nicholas threw Max a huge grin and touched his two fingers to his forehead in salute.

"Fuck'n Nicholas! Great, the skins are tag teaming with Kivar! Can we catch a break here, or what!" Michael yelled. It was all he could do to keep the small car on the trail. As he looked down on his left side, he knew that not too far up the road there would be nothing but a serious dropoff. At least six or seven hundred feet over the side.

"Shit Max, hold on!" He swerved to the right, smashing into the side of the van. Nicholas continued with that boyish grin on his face, as he brought the van back with force to the left, crushing the Jetta's front fender on the passenger side. The Jetta slid on the dirt, but Michael held his ground. Nicholas was forced to slow down, as he swerved to avoid a decent size boulder which blocked the road, coming into view as the road took a sharp turn to the right.

As the van again crept up the side, Max leaned out the window, and threw a blast in it's direction. It was a small explosion, blowing out a front tire and sending smoke out from under the hood of the van. It swerved to the right hitting the sharp embankment which sent it rolling over, back in their direction. Michael hit the brakes with both feet, literally standing on the pedal with all his weight. They slid, but managed to miss the white rolling blurr that crossed quickly in front of them by merely seconds.

The piercingly loud screeching of metal on rocks was the only sound they heard, as the van tumbled across the road and down off the side of the mountain drop. There was a huge explosion as the van hit the bottom of the ravine, then all was quiet. Michael laid his head on the steering wheel, as he swore he could hear Max's heart pounding.

"You okay?" Max could hardly breathe. "You're right, apparently Kivar has brought a few old friends with him, how many I'm just not sure."

~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER NINETEEN


Liz had found some much needed sleep. But upon waking, found herself curled up and laying on her side on the dirt of the floor. Her clothes were grimy, sweaty and smeared with blood. Her throat was parched and as she tried to run her tongue over her lips for moisture, her thirst grew strong once again. She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. She laid still, letting her thoughts wander. She didn't hear anything, either in the cave or inside of her head. Complete quiet, except for a short occasional spark at her fingertips. She had no idea how long had passed since she arrived here. She was aware of being in and out of consciousness several times. And she remembered Ava.

She knew Kivar had left, but wasn't sure how much time there had been between his leaving and this very moment. She rose up on one elbow, wincing with the pain in her ribs. She picked up a large rock and threw it into the direction of the forcefield that Kivar had left behind. As the rock came in contact with the field, there was a loud popping noise and the solid mass disintegrated into nothing in front of her eyes, leaving only a faint trace of dust hanging momentarily in the air. She gave a slight cry at the reality that nothing could get through to her without being completely pulverized.

She pulled herself to an upright position, and tried practicing a few tricks of her own. Under the circumstances, she couldn't just let everyone else attempt to defeat Kivar while she laid here helpless. If she had to deal with this power that Ava was so apparently somehow lending her, she could at least try her best to get in some kind of control of it. She waited for the sparks to tingle at her right hand, then throwing her hand up in front of her, she blasted part of the wall near the forcefield. As the smoke cleared she realized that she had missed the spot she had been aiming at by a good three feet, but had managed to blast a small hole about the size of a basketball into the solid rock. Not bad for a first try, she thought. She pulled herself up to an almost standing position now. Again she aimed her right arm, and threw out a slightly stronger burst. Again she missed the wall entirely, this time hitting the edge of the forcefield. The energy ricochet around inside the field in a rapid pattern. She could feel the intense heat coming off of the blues, yellows and oranges that now surrounded her. They had just missed her with each pass, forcing her down. She dove for cover, and spit several times trying to clear the dirt off her lips from her face coming in contact with the floor. With just these small attempts, Liz could feel that she had been weakened. How in the hell was she ever going to be any help at all when Max arrived?

She thought about that safe place in the back of her mind, where she had spent a good deal of the last few hours. She remembered that beautiful place. She had been there before, she was sure of it. But how was that possible? Somehow, as crazy as it sounded even to Liz Parker, she had to believe that she was being contacted by Ava, in some form. Fought for and protected by someone who she had always despised, all because of her knowledge of Tess. But if what Kivar had said was true, then Tess was never truly born of Ava. She had lied to them, to all of them. Not least of all, to Max.

What Kivar had wanted was for Max to totally trust and believe in Tess. And for all the wrong reasons, he had ended up doing exactly that. From his belief in Liz sleeping with Kyle, to what he believed was a betrayal by Isabel and maybe even Michael to some extent, he had in his weakest moments turned to the one person who's sole purpose had been to destroy him. What Kivar had planned, up to that point, had worked perfectly. Then she, herself had figured out Kyle's mindwarp which had lead to the discovery that Tess had murdered Alex. She had totally destroyed his brain with her powers. Who's to say what the else she had succeeded at.

Her mind understood everything that had happened in a clinical, logical way, but her heart. . .now that was a different thing altogether. Max had actually slept with Tess, willingly. Would anything, having been different, have changed things? Had future Max stayed in his own time zone, would things have gone differently? How much differently? And what did these new revelations about Tess mean to the scenario that Future Max had spoken of? She could ask herself these questions forever and never have the true answer. She would never have a way of absolutely knowing. She had no choice but to go with what her heart felt, and for almost a year, it had felt crushed and totally and completely betrayed.

She had so strongly believed that it had been she and Max, who had been destined to be together. . . and not the message that Max's mother's had conveyed. She had felt it in every fiber of her body. She had known it. She would have bet her life on it. She had in fact, bet her very life on it. Were things different now, now that she knew that Tess had been a manipulating fraud, when somehow she had known that all along?

Her fingers crackled. Powers...hmph, she thought, why can't I have the power to wipe out everything that has happened. .to erase the day that Harding and Tess, or whoever the hell she was, had ever come to Roswell. Now that..that would be a power. And why. . why, for the love of God, am I even still thinking about this, when we're probably all about to die?

Ava came forward and Liz slept.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Kal and JB were having problems finding transportation. They had walked in the afternoon desert heat for twenty minutes, and Kal was noticeably breathing heavily.

They finally arrived at an old farmhouse just outside the Mesilika Reservation where an old friend of JB's lived. She was an older Indian woman who had lived here with her son, until just recently. Now she lived alone. Her son's name was Bearcub, but everyone around these parts knew him as Eddie. He had recently moved back into the reservation to help RiverDog, whose health had been failing. She had a vintage pickup sitting in the barn, and JB had tinkered with it from time to time, when he needed some space and time away from things. He had remained on very good terms for many years with several of the tribespeople in the area. When they arrived, they found that the old woman was not at home, and the truck would not start.

"We need a little alien initiative here," Kal exclaimed. "I'm not much of a mechanic myself."

"It just needs some tender loving care." JB waited a minute, then placed his hand over the ignition, but hesitated. Suddenly, the engine turned over on it's own and billows of smoke filled the barn. "Give it a second or two." He refused to give up.

Kal leaned back on the headrest, tilting his hat down over his eyes. "Time is not something we have, JB." At the sound of his words, the smoke cleared and the truck began to purr like a kitten. "It's something I've learned, called faith," JB winked in Kal's direction, put the truck in gear, and they were back on their way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michael pulled the car up at the base of the mountain. Except for a few circling hawks, there didn't appear to be anyone around. Max slowly got out and Michael leaned across to the passenger window, "Maybe they're not here, Max."

"I can feel it, she's here. We'll go up together and check things out." Max looked up toward the opening where the pod chamber stood. It was a good 1000 feet up from where they stood. They had been there several times since Tess had first shown them it's location, but no time had ever been as important as this time.

"Michael, I want you to wait right outside the entrance. If anything goes wrong, I need you to promise me that you'll do everything in your power to get Liz to safety. It's really me that Kivar wants, it's me he's always wanted. This is my war with him."

"Maxwell, it's Zan that he wants, so that makes me your second in command. And that makes it my war, just as much as yours." They looked at each other understanding what needed to be done. Michael saw the look in Max's eyes, and continued. "And as your second in command, you have my word that I will protect both you and Ava with my life." Max started to interrupt him. "Max...listen to me, I promise you, that no matter what happens to you in there, I will do everything I have to, to keep Liz safe."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Image


*lyrics by Coldplay


CHAPTER TWENTY

~~You only live twice or so it seems,
one life for yourself and one for your dreams.
You drift through the years and life seems tame,
till one dream appears, and love is its name.~~



Ava heard him before he entered the chamber. A silhouette standing in the doorway with the sun at his back. It was Zan, she was sure of it. She could do nothing but stare in his direction, as her heart pounded a thousand beats below the pain of Liz's ribs.

Max spotted her immediately, as his eyes adjusted to the lack of light inside the cave. She was kneeling looking up at him with those deep brown eyes. She tried to smile at him, but instead her lower lip quivered, and a tear ran down her cheek. He hurried toward her. "Liz, are you alright? It's okay now, it's gonna be alright."

She screamed out to him just as he came within inches of the forcefield. "Zan! Stay back! You can't get through!" Ava blinked frantically through her tears to longingly gaze closer at his face. But it was the familiar place in his eyes that held her stare. Instantly Liz clearly understood, more than ever, that the eyes were truly the windows to the soul.

Ava couldn't help but to drink in every inch of him. "Dear God, how I have missed you."

There was a slight ringing in Max's ears, and then he spoke. "It is you, it really is you! I've wanted this day to come. I have waited so long. To be able to see you even one more time was all I have ever wanted. I would have sold my soul for one more day." The words were coming from a place very deep inside of Max, a place he had never quite been able to reach. He couldn't help the tears that he felt welling up in his eyes, and he felt the pain of Zan's heart.

Max felt a power rise in him again. He had felt it for the first time only recently, but this time he had no choice but to give in to it totally, every bit of it. The memory of the deep breathless kisses, of getting lost in everything that was her whenever she touched him, a beautiful lace wedding dress against the cream softness of her skin, of vows cut horribly short, and then of an unspeakable.... But most importantly, he fully felt the unfathomable love that he shared with this woman who now knelt in front of him. He needed to touch her, to hold her tightly in his arms and never again let her go.

Max felt for a moment that he was losing his mind. He was feeling so much more than he ever felt was possible. So much of Zan's emotions seeing Ava again and so much of his own in finding Liz alive. Liz looked the same as she always had to him, but he knew that she was different. He felt a slight vertigo and shook his head to get his bearings.

"Zan," her voice was just above a whisper. Ava smiled up at him, and the confusion in his head cleared, she always had that effect on him. "I don't know how this has happened, nor do I care how, anymore. I only want to make time stand still. I want to forever have this moment with you," her eyes searched his. Her smile slowly faded and fear returned in her voice. "But, Kivar will soon be back. We don't have much time. What are we going to do?"

"We wait," was his answer. Ava wasn't sure whether it had been Zan or Max who had answered her. And she realized that it really didn't matter, for unlike herself and Liz, they were more one person. Their unity was stronger, more integrated, and she wasn't exactly sure why.

"Liz?" He quietly questioned. He began slowly, not knowing if he would be able to get in. "Can you hear me? Are you alright?" Max wasn't able to contain himself any longer. He placed his hands up as close as he could to the forcefield, the only thing that was now standing between himself and the most important thing in the world to him.

Something in her eyes changed, and Liz tried to force a smile. "It hurts pretty bad, I think my ribs may be broken and my ear . .it keeps bleeding.. But, I'm okay..I'll be okay," she tried very hard not to cry. "Max, what the hell is going on? It's Kivar, he's here! Tess wasn't Ava, Max. She was never Ava. And..and, I'm having flashes again like when we found the orb; and visions, Max, the wierdest visions and this static is back, it keeps coming and going, and coming and going." She hardly took a breath as she spoke, and when she did Max could see she was in alot of pain. "Kivar claims that this is a power that she had, Max. How is that possible? He believes that I'm Ava!" Her words were fitfully running together in one mass of confusion.

"It is Ava, Liz.....she's protecting you. I can't explain just why right at this minute, but trust what you are feeling. Trust it, Liz. You've got to trust it," he repeated, pleading with her. "I love you. No matter what else happens here today. Promise me that you will remember that." He put his hands up again...trying, wanting desperately to reach her, to hold her. "Damn it! I have to get you out of there! Can you move back closer to the wall?" he asked, as he watched Liz's eyes slowly closing.

"Yes, I can slide back," he was surprised to hear the tone in Liz's voice change ever so slightly. It became clear to him that he was talking now to Ava. She slid to the wall. "She's seriously injured, Max, and until she gets stronger and she remembers more, it's better this way. Soon there'll be alot to deal with here, she needs her rest. She needs to come to a full understanding of everything that's happened to her...to us, before she can bring us together. I've been coming forward more often now, a little at a time. She's getting stronger on the inside, she's remembering. But I can't do this alone for too much longer, it weakens me too much, and then we'll be no good to you when Kivar returns."

Max looked at the bloodstained girl leaning back toward the wall. Liz was his life. . his heart. What would happen when she fully understood the truth? To learn that your parents are not your true parents. To learn that the two people you've trusted most, have been less than honest with you, to learn that your real mother was murdered, and to learn that you have the thoughts, memories and dreams of an entity... an alien, who is such an intimate part of you ...

He knew how strong Liz had been all her life. He had no idea what would lie ahead. He only knew one truth. He would be here for her, just as he knew he would always be, from that very first day. He had found the love of his life, again. And she had found him. They had found each other, just as they had promised on that fateful day so long ago. This was their home now, this world; and he wasn't about to let Kivar take everything away from them again. He believed with all his heart that with the help and strength of Ava and Zan, they could make it.

She looked so small and defenseless sitting there. But if there was anything Max knew, it was that this was Liz Parker, and while she may be small, she was anything but defenseless. She'd be back, she'd be back in full mode, plus some.


~~~~~~~~~~~~



CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Liz found herself fading away from Max. She tried to hold on, but she couldn't control this force that seemed to be making her retreat. Retreating somewhere. That peaceful serene and safe place again? No, this time she knew that she was retreating within herself.

The vision began quickly, with no warning at all, and it startled her. She had remembered everything about that day. The sun was shining brightly outside. She and Maria had been talking, joking. The world was a very different place back then. It all was appearing in slow motion, but ever so clearly. Two men in a booth at the front of the restaurant were arguing. One yelled that he wanted the money now! Both men rose to their feet, as the man in the plaid shirt plainly stated, "..we got to get rid of her!" A gun suddenly appeared, as the two men struggled. As it went off, Liz could see the flash at the muzzle, and the smell of sulphur filled her nose.. As the vision wavered in front of her, it continued in the very slowest of motion. She was watching the bullet in midflight, it was coming directly at her. She saw the look on the man's face who had held the gun, as he watched her. She was petrified. It had been her.... It was her that they were arguing about. They had found her. She was slowly turning her head to the left in the direction of the young boy sitting in the booth across the room, and her mind screamed out for Zan! She felt the bullet pierce her ribcage, felt the burning sensation spreading throughout her chest, and the dizzying, ever so slowly, backward fall to the floor. In an instant he was leaning over her. "Liz, look at me.. you've got to look at me!" Before drifting deeper off to rest, she remembered clearly the last part of the memory, it was the peace and safety she had seen there, there deep in Zan's eyes.

She was remembering that day at the Crashdown, the day Max had saved her life. She had gone over and over everything there was to remember about that day so many times, or at least she had thought she had.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michael had moved the Jetta under cover. Didn't need to be screamin' hey we're here! He now stood back in the shadow of the rocks next to the chamber opening. By the sound of Max's voice inside, he knew that he had indeed found Liz. Apparently, she was alone. He was just about to join them and rush things along a bit, when his eyes glimpsed a large cloud of dust that was approaching back down on the trail.

A large black hummer came to a stop down below, Michael watched two people climb out. The first was someone that he didn't recognize at all, he was the one who had been driving. Tall stature, but not any bigger than himself, he thought. As the second figure turned around, he saw that it was Nicholas. . this kid apparently has nine lives, he thought to himself. His size was not the problem, being even smaller than Maria, Michael smiled thinking that he could step on him and put him out. No, it wasn't his size at all. It was that thing that he did to your mind with simply a touch of his hand that Michael feared the most. He had killed Courtney with it, and lord only knows how many others.

He basically was an ass wiper, always trying to score those important points with the big guy. Michael began to climb down, deciding that he'd meet them on lower ground, in order to buy more time for Max. Hopefully he could pull his powers together to take care of these two, before they were joined by any other cronies of Kivar. He wondered where the big guy himself was at that moment. "Wherever he is, let's hope he stays there for just a little bit longer," he muttered to himself, hopping down on solid ground.

Nicholas spotted Michael almost the second he began to move up in the rocks. He remained still, leaning up against the passenger door. It didn't take long before Michael was within several yards of them. "What part of die, don't you understand, Nickie baby?"

"Rath, my man, how excited I am to see you again. Hey I was never one to pass up alittle hocus pocus, especially where mountain cliffs are concerned." He smiled a boyish grin in Michael's direction. "I'd like to introduce you to my friend here. Rath, this is Jarad, he's been lookin for you almost as stealthfully as Kivar." Nicholas, looked around quickly and leaning in toward Michael, whispered, "Soon, he will be my king. . . our new and improved king. You see while it's true that we've come to help Kivar find all of you, we have no intention of letting him take any of the credit. When he fails this time, which we are certain that he will, then the shift of power will begin."

Michael looked from one to the other. This Jarad character was much more menacing and barbaric close up, than he had seemed from up above. His skin was dark and leathery; and a not too attractive scar cut from under his right eye down around his cheek ending at his jawbone. Close up, he was a good half a foot taller than Michael had first thought. Michael surmised at quick glance, that he had that Marley thing going on with his hair.

"Nick, you never could pass up an opportunity for advancement now, could ya?" Michael smirked.

"When it knocks, I'm there." Nicholas replied sarcastically as he turned, leaving the floor to Jarad who was busy walking around Michael, checking him out. "Doesn't look much like Rath, but then Rath wasn't much to look at, was he?"

Michael winced, placing a hurt look on his face, "Woah.. woah... Now is that any way to win friends and influence people? Don't be hurt'n my feelings, not so soon in the relationship, okay?" Michael was surprised himself at the ease in which he was dealing here. Hey, if he's in here...this is exactly the day for Rath to make himself known, he thought to himself. He continued, "Maybe you could tell me a little somethin somethin about this plan of yours, the doublecrossin' Kivar one. We could, ya know, help." Alright, he thought as he listened to himself speak outloud, alittle more evil and alittle less New York, he reminded himself.

"Second," Nicholas said, referring to him with a shortened version of second in command, placing a hand up on his shoulder. "...listen up. Your part in the plan hasn't changed at all, just the man who will be king."

"You really think that Kivar's not goin' to know what's goin on?" He brushed Nicholas's hand away. "He's not just gonna step aside, while FooMan Chu here moves in on his territory. Although, ya know, I have to admit that I wouldn't be the slightest bit unhappy to see Kivar get a good screwin over."

"Yea, I guess you wouldn't," Nicholas smiled. "You had your own little following there for a while," he turned, explaining to Jarad. "A whole mess of our people idiolized this one here. Wanted him to betray Zan, and gain control of Antar, to help the renegades take back their little ole planet." He chuckled then turned back to Michael. "Yeah, well then ya died, and the martyrdom that followed you was short lived, I'm afraid. Unlike Zan's, which by the way, has been growing in leaps and bounds back on Antar and Adia. ..which is yet another reason that Kivar has been slippin in power there for a while now." He nonchalantly tossed a stone a few hundred yards. "And that brings us to Jarad, here. Alot's been accomplished since he's come on board. He's from Eos, the third world of our four planet system. But then you know about Eos...or Rath does. Our little triad has grown in strength and technology. We have ventured into new territory and have been tinkering with a pretty amazing form of travel. Centuries of searching for the granolith, have proven to be fruitless. Although it does still seem to be the illusive pot at the end of the still missing rainbow."

"I can speak for myself....if are you finished now?" Jarad's voice was deep and direct, and Michael couldn't help but feel that this guy could wield one hell of a hand of power. A charmer he wasn't. At least Kivar was easier on the eyes with his fetish for GQ shapeshifting.

"Rath, it's my pleasure to meet you. And my extreme sorrow that I will not have the opportunity to get to know you better. Unfortunately, you're first down.." with those words, Jarad merely tilted his chin slightly and threw a glance at Michael. A white hot fireball rolled swiftly at it's target, just missing him as he dropped and rolled to the left. Running and jumping over a large group of rocks, Michael took off for cover, only to have the next ball of flames explode in front of him, transforming the hard shale to a hot molten lava consistency. Desert brush all around them was ablaze. To Michael's surprise he retaliated using his powers in a controlled way that he had never experienced before. Jarad dove for cover with surprise, and Nicholas was on all fours quickly searching for the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Max looked back over his shoulder toward the chamber door, toward the sound of explosions coming in from outside. He had no time to lose now. "Cover your head, Ava, and stay back as far as you can." Carefully placing his one hand out in front of him, he aimed and concentrated on an area of the forcefield just above ground level. As his green haze spread out, it shimmered in the semi-darkness of the cave. He concentrated harder and the shimmering grew more intense, but it wasn't having an effect on the field.

"Max, maybe if we both try, from either side, maybe we can knock the field out long enough for me to get by." Max had witnessed Liz's electric charges more times than he cared to remember; it hadn't been a happy memory for him. But he had never actually ever thought of it as a power before. Ava continued, "Liz has tried getting control of it, and well, I think it's worth trying."

"Okay, let's see what you've got." He smiled at her. Ava braced herself against the back wall, raising her hands up to the shield standing between her and the man she so desperately needed to feel in her arms. Max was amazed at the power that came forth from her, from such a small thing. As their powers combined, Max was taken with the beauty that transformed before their very eyes. The colors, the most amazing colors, swirled and twisted around each other as if performing the most sensual of dances. The intensity of their combined power was so clearly visible within the colors. The forcefield turned first a solid silver and then fell and vanished as if into the floor between them.

Two short steps and they were in each other's arms, and the world around them stood still. His lips searched hungrily for the sweet taste of hers. His arms drew her into him, closer, tighter around her small waist, lifting her up from the floor. "Ava, oh..Ava." he whispered breathlessly into her hair. She touched his face with her fingertips, as her lips softly kissed his eyes, his cheeks, then found their way back to their starting place. She had dreamed of the taste of his lips, but had forgotten how warm and eager she had always found them. His lips pressed hard on her's, as his tongue found that sweet warm place that he had missed more than life itself.

"...I love you, Zan. There is nothing that I love, as I have loved you. Know this for it is the only thing that will ever be true." Zan softly cradled her head in his hands and brought it to rest on his heart.

Ava raised her face to his, and he wiped the tears from her eyes. As their eyes locked, she whispered, "I do love you, Max Evans."


~~~~~~~~~~~~


The battle had continued, and Michael had held his own against the powerful powers of Jarad. The air was filled with smoke and flying debris. It was difficult to see, but Michael was realizing that his senses were heightened. There was no need to see what was happening. He sensed that he could have closed his eyes and held his ground, although he wasn't about to try it at that particular moment.

Max had insisted that Liz stay inside the chamber door out of sight, while he stepped out on the precipice to give Michael some much needed support. There was a huge blast which threw jagged pieces of rock through the air with great force, one fiercely clipping Michael's forehead. He felt the blood dripping down into his eyebrows. The dust and smell of smoke hung in the desert air, and no one, it seemed, moved.

I guess you could call this an Antarian standoff, Michael laughed to himself. Good going Rath, I always knew you had it in you. Wow, he was good at this. Seriously man, thank you, he thought. I won't forget this. He was breathing heavy, and his throat felt scorched by the fire that had rained around him. A few minor burns, probably third degree, no problem. His adrenaline was at an all time high. Through it all, he couldn't help but smile at the incredible power he was now in control of. He was simply amazed. Rath, you were one toughass dude, he laughed to himself.

Jarad concentrated his effort up on the mountain where Max stood in clear view. They were keeping each other pretty busy, as they both took turns ducking for cover. Liz slipped out onto the ledge several times throwing a few shots of her own, proving that practice was making perfect with her aim. Max hustled her back into the shadows, but could hardly contain the look of surprise at her bravery. "Max, leave me be. I can do this!" she responded to his attempt to shield her. The entire area, so quiet minutes before, now resembled a war zone. Of course he had recognized Nicholas with some disgust, but who the hell was this other guy? And where the fuck was Kivar hiding, and why?

Max ducked back inside, as Ava yelled out for him. Liz had begun to hyperventilate, and breathing so quickly was making the pain in her ribs unbearable. "Breathing..hurts.....alot," Ava gasped in small jolts. "..I think..a rib..is piercing..a lung."

Max rushed down and helped her to lie flat on her back. Laying his hands carefully on her ribs, as he had done once before not so long ago, he concentrated his energy into healing her. It was a slow draining process, for both of them. Using their powers as they had just minutes earlier, had taken alot out of them both. They were both dripping with sweat when he had finished.

"Slowly, Liz. Breath in. .in, and out. Slowly in. .and. .out." He was taking every breath with her. He gathered her up into his lap, as he sat stretched out on the floor. "It's okay, we're going to get you to help. Soon, I promise. Breath slowly, baby, easy," he spoke in a hush. He pushed her wet hair back from her face, and tried not to let her see how scared he was becoming. He could fight a thousand battles and not feel a drop of fear, but the thought of anything happening to the girl in his arms, scared the hell out of him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~


A few silent minutes passed, and then without warning suddenly Nicholas appeared out of nowhere over Michael's right shoulder. Before he could react, he felt the strong powerful grip on the back of his neck, and fought to get himself free. He flung Nicholas around like a ragdoll, but he refused to let go. Michael swung and threw a solid punch at the small, cocky face to the side of him, cracking Nicholas's nose to the side. Blood sprayed everywhere. Suddenly Nicholas's other hand came down with determined force on the top of his head. Bright colors flashed behind Michael's eyelids, as the heat seered into his head, driving him to his knees. He couldn't open his eyes, but knew that Jarad was standing over him.

"Liz? Liz is Ava...?" Nicholas was reading Michael's mind. "Well, what do ya know.. This is very interesting," he remarked. "Her people would pay a pretty ransom for their sweet Ava, wouldn't they?" He looked questioningly at Jarad.

"It's about time you started earning your keep, Nicholas." Jarad was losing patience. "Just finish this," he motioned toward Michael. "Then go back to the soap warehouse and wait there for me, we'll be going home very shortly. Maybe travel provisions for three isn't such a bad idea. Occasionally you do have a good thought." Jarad turned, leaving them behind and started the long climb back up to the chamber door.

He heard the screaming, the loud agonizing screams. Someone was dying, he could hear it in the sounds around him. As he fell the rest of the way to the ground shuddering and convulsing, Michael recognized the sound of the voice as his own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Diehard
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 7:25 pm

Post by Diehard »

As you can see, I'm bringing this over here in leaps and bounds. :lol:
Hope you're all enjoying it. :)

And as always, I love to hear from anyone reading. :)


CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

"Time's up." Isabel jumped up off the stool, where she had spent a good portion of the last hour and a half. "I'm not waiting anymore. I can feel it, something's wrong."

"What do you feel?," Maria was by her side in seconds. "..as in feel something, or ya know, just feel something?"

Isabel was sensing something deep inside that was moving waves of nausea throughout her stomach, and her head felt like it was being squeezed in a vise. She was worried and couldn't keep her anxiety from showing all over her face. "Something's not right. It feels all wrong. We've got to go. Now."

"I'm there." Maria was on her way toward the door. "Kyle," she yelled toward the back of the Crashdown. "Close up shop here," she barked the orders of a woman in control, as she flipped the sign in the window over to read Closed. "Go get your Dad. Isabel and I will meet you up at the podchamber." She looked at Isabel. "Let's go."

The girls were out the door, as Kyle hesitated for a second in the kitchen. Maybe he'd just go ahead and stick his head in the oven while he was here, save some time. His insides were twisting. He was very frightened, more frightened then Kyle ever remembered being. Liz was the reason he would go face the fires of hell, the only reason. He turned out the overhead lights and locked the door behind him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jarad was outside the chamber door. He had no one to cover him. But with everything that he'd learned about Zan, or Max Evans as he now called himself, he didn't have any doubt that this wasn't going to take very long. He listened, back against the mountain. He knew they hadn't left. Cat and mouse was fine with him.

Inside, Max had gotten Liz farther back into the cave, back behind the now empty pods, but not close to the granolith chamber. No matter how things were about to go, Max knew how important the machine had come to be. He knew that it could hold all the answers for Antarians and Adians. It was a key, a powerful key. John and Serena just needed to finish dissecting it and work on decoding the rest of the book that had been left by Alex. He felt strong about this, he would not give up. He sensed that the new guy was hovering close.

He looked down at Liz's face, she was breathing alittle easier now, but he knew that infection at this point could be another big problem. They had to get through this and get her to a hospital. "Liz, you okay?" he leaned over kissing her forehead. "I want you to stay back here until you're feeling stronger, do you understand me? Please do this, do it for me. Ava can help you to get your strength back."

She looked up at him, questioningly. "How? Max how is that happening?" He could do nothing but nod at her. She didn't have the strength to push for an answer, if in fact he even had one; instead she got back to the pending problem, "I can breathe a little better now. Listen to me, Max, you need me. You can't stand up to him alone. I've been practicing with this ...power. I can help you!"

"It's not Kivar. I don't know who this is but, trust me, this isn't Kivar. I am going to need you, but only when you're strong enough. Michael is outside, and I'm sure that by now Kal and John are on their way too." He knew that the protectors would not sit still after Max had left Los Angeles so abruptly. They didn't know about Kivar's threat. Of course, he now regretted not calling to bring them up to date when he had the chance. All he had thought about was getting to Liz. But he was sure that one of them would take it upon themselves to make sure he didn't go and do something stupid about Liz and the new information, the new lifealtering information, they had given him.

"Who's John?" Liz asked. He shook his head, even now he had no idea when the right time would be to tell Liz anything. She seemed to be at least accepting now to the idea that Ava was involved in the here and now.

"John is Nascedo, Liz. Harding was never Nascedo. There's alot of explaining to do, but we can't do this right now. We just can't." A look of confusion and astonishment came over Liz's face. Tess and Harding were both liars.

"I've got to go find Michael. I'll be right back."

As Max ducked around from behind the pods, he looked up to find Jarad standing just inside the door. "Zan," the silhouttee spoke strongly, and his stare made it difficult for Max to look away even if he had wanted to. He worried about where Michael was. He had seemed to be holding his own outside just minutes earlier. But Max had witnessed the power that this stranger held in his grasp, and it was all too quiet out there now.

"Max Evans," he answered him. "The question here is, who the hell are you? And where's Kivar?" he took a few steps toward him.

"..hmm, I was also wondering about Kivar." In turn he also took two deliberate steps forward toward Max. "I'm known as Jarad. My home is Eos, you do remember Eos now don't you, Zan?"

Eos, Eos? He thought a second or two, and Zan's memories cleared once again in his head. "Yeah, second planet in our galaxy. It's known as the Whirlwind galaxy here on earth. As I have said, I still have no idea just who you are."

"Let me catch you up on things. Forces on Antar have been successfully gaining strength to take back their government. Kivar has lost his grip...and some say, his mind. I suppose I should thank you for that. His quest for you and the time machine has. . . well shall we say, it's clouded his ability to rule. Even should he succeed this time around by bringing you back with him, either with or without the time machine, he will be overthrown upon his return. I will be stepping in to set things right."

It was Zan who took a few steps and a few seconds of thought, with a slight smirk at his lips. "It's my understanding that the people still await my return. My people will fight against any kind of oppression. Antarians and Adians as well, have always been ready to fight til the death to take back what is rightfully theirs. If Kivar falls, what makes you think that they would accept your tyranny for his?"

"Free will is something they have now all but forgotten. They'll be forced to finally see the absurdity of their resistance. You see Zan, your homeland, has been literally destroyed. Our weapons of mass destruction had needed some final testing anyway. The time was right. They had been warned. The Antarian's endless revolts just gave us a chance to show the extent of our power. Adia is now hugely overcrowded with thousands of Antarian refugees. Our seat of power has been shifted there. Your people have no free will left to them. The way I see it, you are the only one with free will now, Zan. You may choose to return to Adia with me and help your people to understand what is best for them. Or, you can die right here, right now."


~~~~~~~~~~~~


*lyrics are Chaka Khan's

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR


The pickup came to a slow stop a few hundred yards from the base of the mountain. The smoke and ash still hung over the whole area. There was so much electricity in the air that Kal covered his nose with a hanky. The two looked long and hard at each other, fearing that they hadn't made it in time.

"Things look bad," Kal stuck the piece of cloth back into his pants pocket. John didn't return an answer, as he was well on his way up to the chamber. Just as suddenly he stopped, turning his ear toward a low whimpering sound, riding on the stirring breeze. Small sand funnels rose on the wind from the desert floor. "Over there.." Kal had heard it too. Kal didn't at first recognize the identity of the person laying on the ground. There was blood and alot of burns. "John!"

He knew immediately that this was serious. Kal almost never called him by his full name. "Over here, it's Michael. He's pretty bad." He laid his ear to the front of his charred shirt. "He's barely breathing." Kal set to work immediately. "Check around see where that bastard is. See if the kids are up in the chamber. Jesus, Michael, hang on kiddo, hang on." Kal placed his hand over Michael's chest and proceeded with all his powers to heal him. He wasn't responding. "Fuck kid, come on! Don't you die on me, damn it! We're not done with you yet."

The desert was baking at somewhere near 100 degrees in the shade, if you could find any. Kal was using all of his energy to hold on to his charge, to this young man who he had known since his childhood first time around. He hadn't realized just how much he had been looking forward to knowing him again. "Rath, for the love of God, man. Rath!"

Suddenly Michael began coughing and spitting up blood. Kal rolled him over on his side, and gave him a few carefully placed pats on the back. Kal exhaled as he wiped the sweat from his head. "Don't ever do that again," he smiled, trying to catch his breath. "By the way . . .Kal Langley, we haven't offically met yet." Kal stuck out his hand, pulling him to his feet, as Michael demanded, "Where's Liz?"

Michael was bent over with his hands braced on his knees, trying to catch his breath, as John gave out with a low but distinictive melodic indian whistle from high up on the mountain ledge. He motioned down to Kal that there was activitiy inside the pod chamber. "Is Max up there?" Kal turned to Michael.

"Yeah, Liz too, at least they were up there right before Nicholas did me in." The pain in his head was still intense, he rubbed his eyes. Michael looked at the short bald guy in front of him, "Thanks, man." Kal murmured something about it just being part of the job. Then remembering, Michael quickly added, "Listen, it's not Kivar. It's some guy named Jarad from a place called Eos. He's planning on doublecrossing Kivar, overthrowing the regime back on Ava's planet, Adia." Michael had recalled the name of Ava's world that both Max and this Jarad had mentioned. "He said something about a triad. Nicholas was here with him, too, but I think I remember the big ugly one telling him to go, and he'd meet him later on."

"Add Eos to Adia and Antar, and you have quite alittle triad federation. Just Jarad, huh? By himself?" Kal was thinking out loud.

Michael shook his head as Kal started walking away. "I can't help you with those burns, only the inside stuff," Kal was motioning to a few of Michael's wounds, especially one that took up most of the right side of his neck. "You gonna make it? Hang here with us?"

Michael, reached up to touch the origin of the stinging pain at the side of his neck and added, "I ain't goin nowhere, but up there. I've got promises to keep," he nodded his head in the direction of the doorway to God knows what that was waiting up there for them. He looked down at his hands, remembering the power he had felt there, liking it and shaking his head in gratitude to the person he used to be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~I believe we've only just begun, when it's this good there's no saying no.
I want you so, I'm ready to go through the fire, to the limit, to the wall,
Just to be with you I'd gladly risk it all.

I know that you're afraid of what you feel,
you still need time to heal, I can help if you let me try.
You touch me and something in me knows what I have to do;
I'm not ready to kiss this dream goodbye.

When it's this deep, there's no saying no,
I need you so much, I'm ready to go
Through the fire, to the limit, to the wall,
for a chance to be with you, I'd gladly risk it all.
Through the fire, through whatever, come what may
For a chance of loving you, I'd take it all the way.
Right down to the wire, even through the fire.~~




Liz laid in the anteroom, listening to the conversation between Max and this one who called himself Jarad. She attempted to rise to her feet, and made it as far as her knees. Her chest was burning, and she now felt warm to the touch. She was developing a fever, and she knew that that wasn't good. She needed medical attention. Max had been so weakened by the battle earlier, that with everything he had left he had tried to heal her; but, it seemed that the infection was starting anyway. She knelt there and tried to regain her balance, thinking... no wishing, that Ava would tell her what to do next. Liz knew that she was a strong person, but her injuries were making it next to impossible. Liz knew that she had to preserve all of her strength. Kivar would return, it was just a matter of time now. And from what she had heard and knew personally about Kivar, Max was going to need, both her and Michael to put him down. She thought, Michael. He had been fighting this new enemy just moments ago, and yet now all was quiet. She didn't hear his voice inside the chamber with Max. Was he alright? Her vision blurred and again it began...

She looked around her and realized that she was in the eraser room at the high school. She wasn't alone. Max was there. He was holding her, kissing her. She was lost in his touch, as his arms drew her closer til she thought she couldn't breath. Her hands found their way up into the thickness of his hair as he ever so softly and moistly, kissed around her ear. Then again they started, the bright white flashing lights that lit up her mind in a way she never had thought possible. She saw stars and space wisking past her almost at the speed of light itself. A bright red explosion and then yellow hues blasting into brightly twinkling incadescent sparks. She knew without question that she had not only felt, but knew that she had in fact witnessed the crash of their spacecraft. Something inside of her yelled out, "Rath! Oh my dearest of Gods! Kolt! Lan!"

Liz all too well remembered that day in the eraser room at school. Although what she had remembered, was somewhat less as intense and certainly had lacked the understanding that now was being laid out before her.

She knew this was Ava's memory at work again. Something inside of her was giving her this information, and she, Liz Parker, was remembering it all as if it had indeed happened to her. When at last she opened her eyes again, the tears were flowing steadily. Being a logical person, she couldn't keep down the same old question...how did Ava become part of her memory? Liz couldn't even take the time to care right now. She only knew of the importance of the memories and she understood in a nonverbal way, that they would help her to do what she knew she needed to do. Max had asked her not to be afraid of what she was feeling. To just accept it. She wondered if she indeed still had a choice? The inner voice spoke, you are stronger than you believe, Liz Parker. Do not be afraid. I am here for you.

Before she realized, Liz found herself on her feet. She felt the power rising within her, she was walking out to stand by Max's side, back to Zan's side, the place where she belonged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

John and Michael were half way up the mountain ledge, shielding themselves from any one inside. Kal was just behind them. He was about to pass around to the front to lead the way inside, when the three heard a car coming in quickly from the county road. "It's Isabel, and hopefully Valenti won't be far behind," Michael explained to John.

John gave a sigh, as he turned to see the girl sitting behind the wheel of the Ford Expedition. Kal and John exchanged a quick look of possible concern. "Michael, you have to understand something. Don't take this the wrong way, but, I'm not absolutely sure if Isabel will be of much help where Kivar is concerned. I know it was a very long time ago, but Vilondra was not to be trusted then and well, you and Max, and now Liz, you've all begun recalling...and drawing from your previous selves. And I'm worried about what Vilondra's presence might mean to Isabel." There he had said it out loud. Decades of wondering and worrying about this possibility...whenever he had thought about it, he had always hoped it would be a minor problem. What John had known of Isabel in Roswell, was that while she had worked very hard at keeping herself centerstage in all aspects of her eighteen years, she had also kept herself aloof from her peers. And John was worried that she was becoming more of her former self. The fact remained that Vilondra, while she may have appeared to Isabel a scattered number of times, she hadn't yet, to John's knowledge, shown herself completely.

"It's Maria, damn it. I shoulda known that she wouldn't have stayed behind," Michael sighed with worry. "You can't really think that Isabel would side with Kivar again, could you?" Michael looked to Kal for a response.

Kal pushed his glasses up, "Michael, have you felt more of Rath coming through in the last few hours?"

"Well, yeah. I felt his powers. I think I would have liked Rath," he nodded his head with a smile.

"Well, that's good Michael, because you will always share his mind and his soul." Kal took the lead now, moving ahead of JB. "We just worry that the Isabel that you've known and loved, is not going to like the Vilondra that is about to become a bigger part of her."

"Michael, what you felt was Rath helping you to remember those powers that were already inside of you," JB needed Michael to completely understand. "Some from the you that is Michael, but most from the part of you that was Rath. Eventually there will be no division between the two. You will be one person, exactly the way you are now, you will just be. . .more."

John turned to descend down to the floor of the cavern to meet with the two below. But before leaving, he placed a hand on Michael's shoulder. "None of this was supposed to happen for a few more years. But circumstances over the last two years were not quite what they were expected to be, at least not so soon. The access that you have to Rath's memories, his feelings," John tried to quickly explain, "...they've been prematurely activated....speeded up."

"I'll wait here, while you and Michael go down for Isabel. Tell Michael's girlfriend that she's to wait there in the car," Kal decided without much hesitation.

"Oh yeah that'll work," Michael remarked. He knew Maria's obstinence all too well. He only prayed that this time he could convince her to stay where it was safe. He certainly didn't need the distraction of worrying about her being in the middle of everything.

"Things are quiet in there," Kal motioned toward the chamber which was now less than sixty yards ahead of him. "but we need to hurry things along here."

Before they could make progress on the way down, Isabel and Maria were running up to meet them. JB waved his hands over his head and then motioned his finger to his lips. Isabel grabbed JB by the arm, as she caught the first look at Michael's injuries. "Oh my god, Michael!" Isabel cried.

Maria could only freeze and stare in shock at the young man who was walking toward her. Her eyes filled with tears, tears of sorrow but mainly terror. He said nothing to her, but slowly placed his arms around her shoulders. Maria's arms were outstretched, she didn't know what to do with them, afraid that her touch would be painful for him. "It's okay, I'll be okay." His arms tightened, and Maria carefully held him. "Listen to me, you have to go back down and wait in the car for me. This is something that you need to do to help me, Maria. I really need you to do this, without question. Kivar and Nicholas are here and so is a pretty powerful guy named Jarad. You know that I love you Maria, but, if you are in there, I won't be able to think straight and that will put me in more danger." He pulled back and in his eyes Maria felt not just the pain he was in, but the seriousness of the words he had just spoken to her.

Isabel was walking up to where Kal was standing, John was by her side. She looked Kal in the eye. "Max told me about meeting you. You're Kal Langley."

"Isabel. Yeah, I'm Kal and this is John. More on that later, right now we need to get in there and figure out what our next move will be."

"Max? Is he in there? What about Liz?" she asked, thinking of the wounds and burns that Michael had suffered.

"Yes they're both inside, along with a new player. His name is Jarad, and he is a very dangerous man." Michael added after having just returned from walking Maria part way down to the car.

"Where's Kivar?" Isabel was concerned at the new developments. Another force to be reckoned with was not something that any of them had planned on.

"Don't have a clue on that one." Kal was first to enter the chamber.

~~~~~~~~~~~~


Liz walked out and stood by Max's side. Without looking down at her, he felt her presence, her strength. Their thoughts mingled, their strength combined. The couple was at last together again.

"And who do we have here?" If Jarad was surprised, he didn't show it. "This of course, is the infamous Ava." He walked yet closer to where the pair stood. "I do wonder, do you have any idea of the stature that the two of you hold back on Adia? They worship you. And now. . well, now that your people and Zan's people have been forced to literally share a world because of the destruction of Antar, well let's just say that you two are quite the little martyrs back at home." He was looking directly at Liz while he spoke. "You and I could be very beneficial to each other. You see I believe that Zan here has gone ahead and chosen his free will. He mistakenly believes that he can defeat both myself and Kivar. To hell with the good of the people, right Zan?"

"Whoever you are, you have no powers greater than that for the better good. You will be defeated because you are evil, and evil can not survive in a world that is free. And Adia will again be free, make no mistake about that," Ava spoke to this intruder who had the audacity to come here and demand anything of them. Contentment appeared on Max's face. His chin rose with a source of pride, as he felt the familiar power of the girl who was now again standing beside him. Zan smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The three moved slowly around in a circle while Jarad spoke. "You have, I suspect, made your choice as well, Ava." Jarad stepped closer once again.

"I'm so glad that we understand each other, Jarad. Now run along home, while you still have one," she replied in her most intimidating voice.

Without warning, he tilted his chin up slightly, and the first blast hit directly where Ava and Zan had been standing only that split second before. As they dove separately for cover, Zan returned the blast, jolting Jarad's steady stance. He wasted no time retaliating with a fire blast that knocked Ava through the air as she ran to the opposite side of the chamber in an attempt to get behind the enemy. Max looked over in her direction and after seeing she was okay, looked to the left and saw that Jarad was still standing in plain view. Max understood that he had to break cover and face him power for power. He caught Ava's eye and nodded, and she understood.

Everything happened so quickly. Zan stood and repeatedly fired short bursts again and again at the feet of his opponent, driving him step by step backward. As Jarad raised his arms to defend himself, Ava jumped up and threw a good sized blast in his direction. Her aim not yet being refined, she caught him just above the knee. He was stunned and his leg was badly injured. His cold eyes met with hers, and a threatening chill ran up her spine. She knew that what was coming next wasn't going to be good.

Suddenly, a loud noise startled them all. From behind Jarad a fierce blast came, squarely knocking him off his feet! They looked up to see Kal with one hand still raised, and sparks still at his fingertips. Kal's power had caught Jarad in a one-two punch with Ava's. He winked over at her. Michael jumped down from Kal's side and stood over Jarad, placing his foot over his throat. He was still conscious but definitely stunned, as he lay there.

"Kal! Where the hell've you been?" Max was out of breath, but oh so relieved to see him. He wrapped an arm around Ava, as Michael continued to stand guard over Jarad. John and Isabel lingered just inside the door. Max smiled up at them.

Isabel' relief that her brother was in one piece shown in her eyes. "Where's Kivar?" She demanded as she moved down toward Jarad. His only answer was a laugh.

"I don't think he knows anymore than any of us do about that." Michael's voice seemed stronger.

Max ran over to Ava's side. "Ava, are you okay?" He looked down at the sweet soot covered face by his side. She smiled, "Liz, Max. I've been here the whole time. It's Liz."

"Liz... thank god." His grip on her shoulders became tighter, as his arms encircled her. Her forehead felt afire, as his lips pressed to her skin.


~~~~~~~~~~~~

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Liz was breathing heavily again, trying not to show it. The fear and activity of the battle had left her very exhausted, and the pain in her chest had suddenly now returned. She didn't want to alarm Max, so she said nothing about it. Michael and Kal had pulled Jarad up to his feet.

"What are we going to do with him?" Isabel asked, as she wrapped a bleeding wound on Liz's arm with a torn slice from Max's shirt.

Max walked over to Jarad. "Catch twenty-two I'm afraid. My free will has entered into the picture once again, it seems," he mocked him, glaring at him face to face. "You claim you don't know where Kivar is. How about your little cocky friend Nicholas?"

Kal stood close behind Jarad, keeping a slow force of his own going to keep Jarad's powers temporarily at a minimum. He looked to John, who understood exactly what Kal was feeling and moved over to stand closer to the two of them, to lend a hand if it became necessary.

"If you think that I'm going to tell you anything, then you are not the intuitive man that they have led me to believe you are. The only thing I will say is that if I knew where Kivar was, he'd be dead by now." Jarad wiped his face with his sleeve. "That offer is still open, Zan."

"Offer?" Isabel questioned. "What offer?"

"It doesn't matter, we're not playing let's make a deal here," Kal quipped at her. "How did you get here, Jarad? We know you've created a wormhole here, somewhere near Roswell. Tell us where it is and we may just let you go off to threaten another race somewhere...in some other galaxy."

Jarad laughed out loud. An evil smile passed over his face, as he slowly looked up over his shoulder toward the chamber door. There were a few distinctive seconds of silence, and then an unexpected voice boomed through.

"Save it, Kal! That is what you call yourself now, right?" Kivar stood tall in the doorway, with Nicholas right behind him. The need to react spread quickly throughout the cave. Kal spun on his heels, both hands up, trying to get a jump on the situation. Max and Michael were both at the ready. But it was Liz who screamed out first, as she saw what the others hadn't yet. Nicholas's left arm was wrapped around Kyle's neck. His shirt was torn and his eyes were full of fear. Everyone froze.

"I am sorry, it seems that I've kept everyone waiting," Kivar continued, almost without interruption. "You've been forced to start without me," he glanced in Jarad's direction. "I was out searching for my two most important and illusive people. My trusted second in command here, Nicholas; and the love of my life, Vilondra." He motioned farther into the chamber to Isabel, who was standing next to Max. Liz slowly made her way over to Max and slid her hand into his.

Isabel stood motionless, looking from her brother to Kivar. "I'm not Vilondra. And I'm certainly no longer the love of your life, if in fact, I ever was." There was increasing emotion in her voice. All eyes where on her now, as Kivar continued.

"Jarad! How wonderful that you've been able to join our little party. But you needn't worry I have everything under control. This is my game, and I'm the one who will be taking their bodies back with me. This little charade is over. My people have believed for too long that Zan would magically reappear on the horizon to save their sorry little asses. With all these years of absence, it seems that you have still given them false hope, Zan. They have proven to be a difficult challenge for me, but it is I who is their King. They will obey me. It is their fate."

"Funny, Kivar," Max stood tall, "I've learned a lot about fate in just the last few days. I too once believed a lie to be fate, and just as I have learned, my people too will learn that your so-called fate is but a lie as well." Max held Liz's hand tightly in his own as he spoke the words, and her heart hurt.

Jarad got to his feet, shoving Michael's foot aside. Kivar, Nicholas and Kyle were well into the chamber now. "His life," he grabbed Kyle by the hair, "is completely expendable to us, but how about to all of you? Give me a reason. After all, he's only a human." No one answered.

Kivar became weary of his own little game, and motioned to Nicholas to let Kyle go. He threw him in the direction of his friends. Liz rushed to his side and knelt beside him making sure he was okay. Aside from being terrified, and now just a little pissed off at himself, he seemed fine.

"Where's your Dad?" Liz whispered.

"Somebody hit him in the head with a rock or something, as we got out of the car. Knocked him out," Kyle kept his head down.

"So, Jarad, what's your plan now?" Kal asked. "Seems you've got a few cards of your own to play, right."

"Together, Kivar and I will take care of everything that needs to be taken care of," Jarad replied, looking over in Kivar's direction.

"Ahh, a true battle of the wills, I see,” John scratched his chin.

Kivar was making his way over to where Isabel was standing, when Michael first felt it again. That distinct feeling of the presence of Rath in his thoughts. He was watching Isabel very carefully, as was John who stood beside him.

"Vilondra, I have missed you so much. I've missed your soft skin and those bewitching eyes of yours. And that tongue that beautiful little tongue of yours." He was holding her face in his hands, as he finished speaking so low that was difficult for anyone else but her to hear. "Come back with me, and we will rule the triad together, you and I. I have always loved you, and I know how deep your love for me runs. I'm in your blood."

Isabel felt herself cringe at his touch, but found that she couldn't look into his eyes without feeling something inside of her ripping to the surface. She thought of Michael, and of Max. She thought of her father and her sweet mother who had given everything in their lives to her since she was a small child. But they never knew you, a voice from inside plainly stated. You've never been loved as this man has loved you.

"No!" she yelled into his face. "I betrayed everyone for you, and you betrayed me with. . .WITH HER!" she pointed towards Liz. "At the end it was Ava that you wanted on your thrown, not me! Did you think I wouldn't remember? How could you, after everything I had done for you. It was me who put you in power, Kivar!"

Zan looked down at Ava. So Kivar had tried to take her from him. He realized that she hadn't told him everything, and he didn't know how to feel about that. He couldn't help but love her even more. He had always known of the pain and anguish that they both had endured, throughout their lives because of their love for each other. She had sacrificed so much for their love.

Kivar was obviously caught off guard by her outburst. "Vilondra, I had to say those things to her. With her support and presence, things would have been so much easier for us both. I knew you had overheard everything I had said to Ava. I went looking for you but you were gone. And then, right after our little disruption at the wedding, Nicholas came to me and told me what you had done. I knew it was my fault, and I have been forever sorry that I forced you into that extreme."

Liz's eyes grew as wide as everyone else's in the large room. "You took your own life?" she stared over at Isabel with a look of shock. Max couldn't believe what he was hearing. All this time they had believed that it had been Kivar who had ended it. Not that it really mattered. She had betrayed her family, her people. The extent of her love for Kivar was now clearer than ever. Max knew they were in trouble.

"It's you that I have loved. That I have waited for." Kivar grabbed her arm and kissed her. Kal began to move in closer toward Isabel, but Jarad blocked his way.

The change in Isabel became apparent to all. She returned Kivar's kiss, while wrapping her leg up around his. When she finally pulled away, she slowly turned to Liz, and smiled. "Ava, I'm really sorry. It would seem that now, I have won. . after all." Her obvious gloating could not be hidden from anyone in the room.

"There was and is nothing to win, Vilondra. He's lying to you, as he always has. Should I have stayed and shared my bed with him, would that have been acceptable to you? He claims now to love you, but then he wanted to marry and bed me as his wife. By the gods, woman, was there no morality left in you? And is there none even now?" Ava could hide her disbelief no longer. "When he first brought me here this day, he told me that he wished for me to return with him. He never even uttered your name."

Vilondra had always kept her at a distance, even when at such an early age, Zan and Ava had been so obviously destined to be together. Zan had once confided to her that Vilondra had been jealous of Ava from their first days shared in childhood. Vilondra had kept everyone at a distance, except for the one man who had destroyed her world, and now everyone else's.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN


John made his way over to where Ava was standing, as Vilondra grabbed Kivar's hand, leading him to the small room where Max and Liz had first hidden. They were partially out of sight from the others. Kivar looked around to Jarad, "Watch over things for me." To which Jarad replied, "It's my pleasure."

Kal looked over the top of his glasses at Zan, and Zan then began to slowly approach Jarad. "Seems your little plan here, Jarad, could have a slight hitch to it. If Kivar succeeds in taking Vilondra back with him, well where does that leave you? She'll have the people eating out of his hand again."

"Zan, Zan," Nicholas shook his head from side to side. "Jarad is already our King. Just the formalities remain."

It was becoming plain to see that Jarad wasn't fond of others talking for him. He looked impatiently at Nicholas, then to Zan. "Nothings changed, Zan. Shame for me to kill your sister though, since I really have nothing against her. As she said, nothing would be as it is today if not for all of her help long ago. I owe her, but I'm afraid it's a debt that will have to go unpaid. Although I may just hang her likeness on a tapestry in the front hall of the Castle Leoch when I return, to remind us of the person who made it all possible." He was taking much pleasure in getting his point across. "Kivar? He's so crazed with power, lust and revenge, he will never believe that it's coming, until it's too late. Besides, I have time." He smiled assuredly.

Ava's heart skipped a beat as a nostalgic wave of nausea moved throughout her body. Castle Leoch. She had been born there, had lived out her life there, her shortened life. As a child she remembered running through the castle, and all the secret hiding places she had both found there and made there. She had first kissed Zan there, in what had become their special place. Such sweet memories. And now they were all gone. The thought of Kivar or Jarad, or any of their barbaric underlings living there was. . .was.. She felt Zan's eyes on her. As she looked up, he smiled that smile that only he could, and she knew that Zan had felt the emotion too at the mention of her home. Liz knew that Max had felt it too.

Michael was watching the darkened corner cautiously, as he deliberately moved closer to Max. Ava motioned to Kyle to move alittle farther in back of where her and John were standing. They were getting ready for whatever was coming next.

Liz sat down on a dusty wooden crate, she could feel her fever was beginning to climb again. She was then surprised to see John stoop down by her side. "Liz, I'm John Brown. I'm the one the Mesilika's called Nascedo."

"John, yes. Max told me that you are the real Nascedo, that Harding ...wasn't," she said quietly, her voice faded slightly on her last word.

She seemed quiet and almost shy to John, this once little fragile baby that he had, quite literally, held in the palm of his hand. She looked now exactly as he had pictured her. He had quite often watched her from afar through the last few years, since the day Zan had healed her. But never had he allowed himself any kind of close contact. Seeing her like this was extraordinary. She was tiny, but extraordinary, indeed. She had the most beautiful, deepest brown eyes that he had ever seen, save for once before. Yes, Ava was definitely there. He began to say something but she spoke before he could.

"Kolt? ..right," Ava's memory of him was beginning to come clearer now to Liz. "Kolt.." she whispered and reached out for his hand and squeezed it hard. Liz's eyes began to fill as Ava brought him to her. She was overwhelmed. Liz was remembering Ava's memories of this man, when the only conscious memory that Liz had of him was of not so long ago. "I saw you .. that morning..out in the desert. Zan and I had fallen asleep with the orb..." Liz stopped, puzzled by her own words. "Zan and I? I meant Max and I." Still confused, Liz shook her head.

John held her hand tighter and then gathered the other hand as well in his own. "It's okay, Liz. Just let yourself remember and don't be afraid. You're going to be just fine." Liz saw a large dimple appear as he smiled at her. She looked deep into his bright blue eyes. "Just like your grandmother once told you, Liz. Your heart. . trust in it. You're going to do just fine."

"How do you know my grandma? ..and..and what she said to me?" Liz looked deep into John's eyes, and then Ava smiled.


~~~~~~~~~~~


Isabel and Kivar had returned back into the room. The others were looking for a break, any break that could turn the tables and put the ball back into their court. Max again had found Kal staring at him. He tried to understand, and then Max remembered. If John and Kal could read his mind as they had done back in LA, they could communicate with each other without Kivar or Jarad knowing. Of course, Max thought, things would be a hell of alot easier if Max could access this same state of mind. Max thought that if Zan had had this power, he was sure that he would have felt it by now. But, it was worth a try. He looked up from the floor and set his eyes directly on Kal. Max concentrated in much the same way he was able to call up his own power to heal. He never really understood how he was able to do it, he just knew that it happened when he needed it too.

Several times he tried, then suddenly Kal's voice broke through his thoughts. Third time's the charm, Max. Kal couldn't hide the grin, from across the room.

I think we've got to proceed here with alot of caution, Max thought. We have to remember that this is Isabel.

I know, Max, but she's gonna go with him, her decision has already been made,Kal replied. John was sitting next to Liz with his head resting down on his arms, but Max knew that he too had been privy to their conversation.

Jarad looked over at Kal, then Max and back down to the ground.

Kyle slid up closer to Liz. "This freak'n waiting is serious psychological warfare. We're just sitting here waiting to die, aren't we?"

"We're not going to die, Kyle. It won't be much longer," she tried to comfort him. At least he hoped that she had meant it in a positive way.

"Sooo, do you know what the hell we do now? I'm count'n on one of you guys knowing what's going to happen next. Can ya throw me a bone here, Liz?"

She spoke with her head down, "Kyle, it'll be okay. Just promise me that whatever happens, you will stay right here, okay?" He nodded.

John stood and offered a hand down to Liz, helping her to her feet. She began to walk across the chamber to Max. He had already started towards her, meeting her halfway.

There was movement at the opposite end of the chamber. Both Vilondra and Kivar were joined by Jarad and Nicholas. Kivar while flushed, was obviously pleased with himself about something. Isabel looked different as well. Her eyes held that dark blank stare that Vilondra had worn so often. She looked at Max and Liz, and a shadow passed over her face. But it was Michael that seemed to have an effect on her the most. She tried to pass her steel gaze to him as well, but quickly found herself looking away. Both Kal and John were in a position to pick up on her reaction to Rath. It had almost looked to them that she felt a great deal of fear towards Michael...towards Rath.

Looks like Michael has the ball here, John thought. Let's hope Rath picks up on things, if Michael doesn't, Max answered. Or visa versa.. Kal replied in thought.

Jarad again looked at Michael, but said nothing.

"The party's over." Kivar spoke loudly to the scattered group. He leaned in and kissed Vilondra on the cheek. "Once again, my love has proven her deepest loyalties to me. You see," he looked directly at Jarad and Nicholas. "I've just been given the most precious gift of all. The key to not just our worlds, but to the very galaxies themselves. I now know where the Granolith has been hidden for the last fifty years."

Time seemed to stop for several seconds, before reality again hit the group. Kal rubbed his face with his hands, and there was a softly whispered Jesus, from Kyle.

Ava's face changed from unbelievable shock to enraged anger. "You stupid bitch, you!" Ava screamed, as she blasted them with all the power she was capable of. Michael responded at almost the exact same time. The combined blasts sent both Kivar and Vilondra's bodies flying backwards, crashing them with great force into the back wall. Michael then ran and jumped Nicholas who was racing toward the door, as Zan threw a blast in Jarad's direction. The blast missed him, as he quickly exited the chamber.

"Max!," Isabel screamed out for her brother. As Max turned to look, Kivar was diving onto him. Two sharp blows to the side of his face and the room began to spin. Max could feel himself slipping. They rolled on the floor of the chamber and Max placed his hand on the side of Kivar's face. He had never done this except for healing, but Max knew that this would be a fight to the death, and he wasn't left with much choice. Everyone's life hung in the balance. The smell of burning flesh permeated the chamber. Kivar screamed out in pain, and Max was suddenly airborn. Kivar was on him again, this time placing his hand on Max's chest. Max felt the bubbling heat under Kivar's hand, and then he felt the pain and his screams echoed throughout the cavern.

Kal was at Isabel's side in an instant. Liz turned from Isabel, running toward Max. John attempted to grab her, but she yanked herself free. The fever was burning her up inside, but she had to do this. Kivar was killing him, he needed her, he needed her now. Through her tears, she summoned everything she could feel inside of her, and when she could feel no more, she began over again. "I need you Ava." she pleaded. She felt the power rise from every cell in her body as she and Ava became one.

"Nooo!" she screamed out at the top of her lungs, as she threw every ounce of power from within herself directly at Kivar. It was a direct hit. He hung there for a moment, then fought to stay on his feet, a glazed look came over his eyes, his mouth hung open in surprise, and his face went horribly pale. Kivar's eyes never left Liz's, as he took the long slow fall to the ground.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Kivar lie dead at her feet. In a matter of seconds, there was a hissing noise and then all that was left behind was the ash and dust tracings of where his body had laid.

All eyes were now on Liz. She dropped to her knees and sobbed, cradling Max's head to her. John ran quickly to her side. "Liz, you can do this..you have the power."

Liz looked up at John through her tears, not knowing how to respond to what he had just said. Her mind raced with everything else that had happened to her here today, and she didn't know how she was supposed to respond, she didn't know how she was supposed to feel. She looked down at Max, who was laying so very still in her arms. She frantically looked around. "Kal!" she cried out.

"You need to do this Liz, and you can do this." John repeated, as he reached out and stopped Michael from interferring.

She could barely see as the tears filled her eyes; partly for Max, and partly for the life that she knew she was now leaving behind. She became very calm, as she placed her hands side by side on his chest as if she had done it a thousand times before.

Ten feet away, Kal smiled at her, as he tightened his grip on Nicholas. Liz closed her eyes and concentrated. As she slowly raised her hands, an irridescent light appeared from her palms, glowing brighter than turning a pale blue. She leaned over and touched her lips to his. She lifted her head slightly, and he opened his eyes. "Liz..."

She smiled as a teardrop fell to his cheek. "Well, that was alittle different," she whispered in awe. He pushed her hair aside as he touched the side of her neck, gently urging her face down closer to his. "Thank you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~


CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

They were slowly making their way out of the podchamber. Kivar was at last dead. Kal had Nicholas under his control and Jarad, well Jarad was long gone, and they had no idea to where. Only one thing was clear, Antar and Adia had a new king.

Kyle had been the first to reach the outside. It was blindingly light after the darkness inside the cave. As he squinted into the now setting sun, he saw Maria helping his Dad by their truck.

As the others slowly exited out into the light, they could have easily been mistaken for a defeated army. They moved slowly. They each were exhausted, injured and still dazed at the events they had just experienced. First John, followed by Kal who was strongarming Nicholas, and then Max. Liz was leaning a good deal of her weight against him, as they slowly and carefully climbed down to the flatter ground below.

Isabel was last to leave the chamber, being supported by Michael. Her leg was bleeding and Kal thought she was probably suffering some head trauma from the force in which she had slammed into the rock wall.

The small group gathered together at the base of the mountain, not really sure what to do next. "You have to talk to her Max," Liz relented. "We can't just pretend that it didn't happen. She told Kivar exactly where to find the Granolith. I know that it was Vilondra, but where do you separate the two? I can't even begin to sort out everything that happened in there, Max. Everything that happened to me and..and everyone else. Thank God Kivar is dead, and that what he found out, died with him." Ava's dislike and mistrust of Vilondra were evident in Liz's voice. She felt not just exhausted, but that she had just woken from a strange horrible dream.

Nothing made sense to her, and her head hurt from the fever, but mostly from the knowledge that had passed through her in the last hours. He reached down and touched her face, thinking of all the reasons, both old and new, that he loved her and began to answer, but felt instead the heat of fever that was rising from her.

"You're burning up. I've got to get you to a hospital right now Liz, " he opened the door on the passenger side of the Expedition, as Maria came running to Michael. The two couples stood close together saying nothing, but feeling and almost overwelming silent relief that they were all alive.

"Max, I don't want to go to the hospital. How the hell would I explain the burns and bruises, not to mention a few ribs that I know are broken. I'm not sure where the fever is originating from, but let's wait alittle while longer. I'll be okay for alittle while. We'll go home and get cleaned up, then maybe you'll be strong enough to try to heal me again. That way there will be no questions. If the fever doesn't go down, I promise you, I'll see a doctor."

"Kal said that he can't do much about anything external, just injuries on the inside. I think we're all going to need some attention from the two of you." Michael stated. Maria carefully touched the large burn on Michael's neck, and he flinched.

"Listen," Maria said, "Amy's got a drug store in the medicine cabinet back at my place. I know there's a few antibiotic scripts in there. I'll pick out the stuff that looks good, and Michael and I will meet you over at Liz's. Okay?" Liz nodded her head in agreement.

Max wasn't totally convinced that Liz shouldn't go to the emergency room, but he did understand her reluctance to answer the questions that would come up. The last thing he wanted to do was to upset her anymore than she already was.

"Kyle, how's your Dad," Liz turned looking for Kyle, and found Sheriff Valenti and his son right behind her. "Are you alright?"

"Quite an arm that guy's got." Sheriff Valenti exclaimed rubbing the back of his head. "Pretty nasty lump knocked me out for a while. I'll be okay."

"He needs to have an x-ray. At the least, he must have a concusion," Kyle was worried, but obviously very relieved to find his Dad was all in one piece when he found him.

Suddenly Isabel was standing by their side. At first she said nothing, just stood there, no one said a word, but waited to hear what she had to say. Liz tried to remind herself that this was now Isabel, even though she was all too aware that Vilondra still lived inside.

"I ..um, I couldn't control..," she was biting her lip, to stop the tears from falling. "I didn't mean to... I didn't know that she would be so strong. I swear, I'm so sorry." She wiped the tear that hit her cheek. "And...oh Liz, I am so so sorry. I don't understand why I reacted that way to you. I don't know why any of that happened. What were those powers? Because Max healed you? Now you have these great powers? It's insane, everything that happened in there was...just insane."

"Yeah, well how do you think I feel?" Liz tried to force a laugh. "I'm just glad that it's all over. Hopefully this will all go away now," she held her arms up slightly, looking down at them. All was calm there. "I don't ever want to deal with this ever again." She wiggled her fingers out in front of her trying to make a joke.

Kal put his head down deliberately looking away from her, and looked back over to the pickup where John sat with Nicholas. Max looked at his sister, but could find nothing to say. Zan's sister had commited suicide in that other life. That was bad enough, but that she had actually, in the right here and right now told Kivar where the granolith was. . yes, she was right..that was insane. They needed to talk, they all needed to sit down, even after all that they had been through in the last eight hours. It was important and it needed to be done. It should be soon, while this was still so fresh in everyone's mind. Michael, Isabel and himself needed to talk privately as well. And then, of course, there was one thing he was sure of, he wanted to be there with John and Kal when Liz learned the truth.

It'll be later tonight. We could argue this point, Max, and never come to an agreement. I feel that it's gonna be difficult enough for Liz to hear what she needs to hear, better for her if you weren't there. But I doubt that you'd allow JB or I to stop you from doing what you've already got your mind set on. Kal thought.

It'll be okay, Kal. This is the right way, I'm sure. Max had never felt so excited about anything in his entire life.

But right now, they needed to do something with Jarad's second in command. "Kal," Max changed to a verbal conversation, "what about Nicholas?"

"Me? I think we should torture the shit out of him, until he tells us where this wormhole is. But John's disagreeing." Kal took off his glasses and was trying to find a clean spot on his ragged shirt to wipe them.

"Then what? I mean, lets say that we get him to tell us where it is, then what? Don't you think that Jarad's already back on Adia?" Max questioned. Not waiting for an answer, he continued. "Just do it, Kal. You and John do what you have to. We have to find that wormhole and somehow destroy it, before Jarad makes a return trip with a few hundred of his troops with him. Whatever you decide, it has to be done fast. Liz and I will be at the Crashdown tonight, when you want to meet up with us."

"Nicholas is a skin, and it won't be long before he'll need to return to Adia, or he's gonna die. Pretty simple. Trust me it won't be long." Michael was confident that the little creep would be yakking his head off in no time at all. Nicholas was an opportunist. A presently peeling opportunist.

"Oh My God!" Maria suddenly snapped, "tomorrow... tomorrow's Monday," she stammered, "..finals start tomorrow! And in four days we graduate." School had been the last thing on anyone's mind, they had been pretty preoccupied fighting for their lives. Leave it to Maria to add insult to injury.

"Oh right, no problem," Kyle quipped, as he turned to help his Dad back to his truck, ". .we have all the time in the world."

~~~~~~~~~~~~


Michael, Maria and Isabel pulled away in the Jetta. Liz sat in the front seat of the Ford, watching Max discuss last minute details at the pickup. Well there had been no power surges, not even a flicker since leaving the chamber. This was good, she thought. She rolled up the window, turned the key and clicked up the air. As the cooling air brushed past her face, she couldn't get Ava out of her mind. She was aware of some of the most intimate and personal thoughts of a young girl who had died over a half a century ago. . .on another world. She had told herself so many times, after the revelations of her sixteenth year, that nothing would or could ever surprise her again. Having your life saved by an alien, a very special alien at that, had proven to be just the jumping off point on this sometimes amazing, but mostly heartbreaking journey.

She had always prided herself on being rational, she had lived her life by it. And then something so completely incredible happens and blows all those preconceived notions of reality right out the window. That someone had been Max Evans. Just an ordinary boy trying to live an ordinary life, until he makes one fateful, lifealtering decision. It was you, that's what he had told her that day, when she had asked him why he had sacrificed everything to save her life.
Why was her memory of that day now suddenly distorted? She had really recognized Max to be Zan. She had seen the real Zan. How impossible was that? She was feeling Ava, she was thinking like Ava. Why was she sending these messages to her? How was she sending them? No one ever gets shot in Roswell, New Mexico, she thought. Is there anyway that it might have been intentional? As that vision had told her? Intentionally after her? Was she going crazy?

She shook her head, thinking to herself, you really do need those antibiotics, girl, you're hallucinating. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Hallucinating? Her life had turned into one freaking huge hallucination.

It took a little while, but she managed to get control of herself in time to see Max walking back toward the SUV. There was one thing she had learned today, one thing without question. She had felt the love that Ava had for Zan. And his for her. Such a deep, unabiding, totally consuming love. To love with all of your heart and soul. She knew that she would never feel for anyone, the way that she had once loved Max. The way her heart still loved Max. She wasn't sure it was healthy to love someone that much. That pedestal was far too high. Too far for them to fall. And then when they do fall, you never completely recover.

Max opened the door and climbed in. Reaching over he squeezed her hand lifting it to his lips, he kissed it quickly and sweetly. "What do ya say we get the hell outta here, Princess Warrior?" He smiled at her, jokingly and put the car into drive.


~~~~~~~~~~~~

*lyrics belong to David Gray


CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

"Isabel, it wasn't you...I mean ..not this you," Michael was trying to calm her down. "Vilondra was a very lost person. But you are no longer only her. Yes, you have some of her feelings and her memories, but you also have your own memories. You have your own mind. You are a stronger person now than she ever was. Her weakness was Kivar, Isabel. He's dead. Gone. Never coming back again gone." Michael had stopped the Jetta outside the Evan's house, dropping Isabel at home.

"She killed herself, Michael." she said just above a whisper.

"That might not have had anything to do with Kivar, or Ava. Maybe she finally realized how much she had let her family down. She sacrificed alot, Isabel. Look, I've gotten to know something about Rath, and I know that I felt today what he had once felt for Vilondra. He cared very deeply for her. But that certainly doesn't mean that I, Michael, love you in that same way that he did. Do ya get it? It doesn't have to stay the same, this new life of ours." Michael really had no idea how to approach this entire subject and wished that Kal or John were here to do the talking.

Maria looked over at Michael, clueless about the entire conversation. "Look I wasn't in there, I have no idea what happened, and I'm not sure I want to know. But..everyone just needs to calm down and think clearly here. You've all obviously gone through something that's been emotionally draining," she looked at Michael's wounds and Isabel's appearance, "not to mention physically damaging. You need to slow it down and get some rest. Unfortunately, this is not going to magically all go away. It seems to me that Kal and JB have the present problem pretty much under control. It's not something that has to get taken care of tonight."

"She's right," Michael acknowledged, looking back at Isabel.

Maria smiled. "I'm always right, Michael."

~~~~~~~~~~~~


Liz quietly climbed up the back stairs to her room. There was no sign of her parents and the restaurant was closed up tighter than a drum. She could hear the television in the livingroom and the smell of spaghetti sauce filled the upstairs, making Liz realize how hungry she was. She couldn't explain how she could possibly be thinking about something as simplified as spaghetti, after just fighting off a warrior lord and an alien king. The entire day had been surreal. It was the most surreal thing that had ever happened to her. Well, next-to-the-most surreal thing, anyway.

As she carefully pulled her shirt up over her head, she felt the ache of every muscle in her body. Her ribcage, while still painful, seemed much better than it had felt earlier. Breathing was still unsteady, like someone was sitting on her chest. She turned to check the mirror. Lord, she sighed, her reflection had caught her completely off guard. Her face was bruised and dirty. It was difficult to tell which might wash off and which wouldn't. Her pants had been torn and there were burned holes and singe marks covering one entire pantleg. Her neck was scratched and a trail of dried blood ran from her ear down, near to her shoulder and her lower lip was badly swollen.

She kicked off her shoes and unbuttoned what was left of her khakis, rolling them up and stuffed them into her trashcan under the desk. She then turned for the bathroom to run a hot bath. Soothing bath first, then food, she thought. By then Maria should be here, and knowing Maria she'd bring along a drugstore. Max would heal her again and she'd pop a few antibiotics and she'd be as good as new. Well.... not as good as new, but better than she was feeling right now, she lowered herself into the hot bubbled water and sighed. She just wanted to relax tonight. She couldn't deal with one more thing alien in nature.

She wanted and needed right now to just be Liz Parker, valedictorian of her senior class. Tomorrow she'd be back to normal. Classes would be half a day, because of the two finals she had scheduled for the morning. Two more tests on Tuesday, then graduation practice on Thursday. By her actual graduation on Friday, she'd be refreshed, back to normal, and most of all with a little luck, today's horror would be just a very distant memory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Diehard
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 7:25 pm

Post by Diehard »

Sorry for the glitch. This is the end of 29

~~The very same thing that is scrawled across the stars is written under our skin~~


Max was stretched out on the bed, hair still wet from the best shower of his life. He folded his arms behind his head, thinking about how unbelievable this day had been. Kivar was really dead, thanks to Ava. He smiled to himself, and to Liz.

As happy as he was about the fact that all this time, Liz had really been his Ava; he couldn't quite believe that it was really happening at all. Not just was she one of them, but as destiny would have it, she was the other half that had always made him whole. And though he had felt that from the first day he had met her, that feeling had exploded inside of him by a hundredfold and was now to the point of overwhelming him. He wanted to pinch himself. In all his wildest dreams, he had believed he was meant to be with Liz, and now those dreams had proven to be true. He had so much love for her, he always had. And now it had all come to pass, they were meant to be together.


Kivar and Harding had dealt them a destructive hand. And for a heartbreaking while, it had worked. He had lost all control and all belief in himself. He had become nothing, nothing but a hollow shell. How was it possible that he had forgotten everything he had believed in so strongly? His heart had been broken that night that he saw Kyle in Liz's bed. But he had not done enough to stop it from happening, either then or anytime after it. Instead he had turned to Tess, completely giving in to it. . .to what he had been convinced was his alien fate.

He couldn't get the picture of Liz laying naked with Kyle out of his head. It had haunted him, it was there in his head day and night. . . and, so was Tess. She was always there. And then that night. A night that would forever change everything he had ever believed in. He couldn't even remember how he had gotten out to the observatory that night. Even now he could only remember parts of it, and even those memories were too blurred and confusing for him to make much sense of. When he woke hours later, it was Tess who was there laying beside him. The night was a jumbled mass of distorted bad memories. It had been a night when he felt nothing, nothing but a nightmare that they had finally now been given the chance to awaken from.

He sat up on the end of the bed. Through time and space they had found each other again. They had all been given another chance, a truer understanding. Zan, whose one truth had always been his love for her, and Max Evans who had fallen unsuspectingly hard for a little girl with shiny long brown hair, in the third grade. From that first glance, he had been hypnotized forever by her deep brown eyes. Ava's familiar kind, yet haunting eyes. The Zan inside had remembered them, even when he had not. He had been drawn to a sadness there in her eyes, he had felt the same sadness and yet neither had had any way of understanding what it meant. She had spoke to him even then, without saying a word.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


After an hour, Liz was feeling better. She had managed to sneak upstairs with food and had wiped out an entire plate of spaghetti. She was clean, and the hot water had done wonders to sooth the muscles that had been aching her so. But she could feel the fever was still at work. She rubbed spots of burn ointment on her legs. She found a thermometer in the medicine cabinet, along with a few extra strength tablets. She could never remember her mother ever keeping any kind of strong pain medicine, or scripts of any kind in the house. She would always explain the same story to her, of a close friend of hers who had overdosed when she was a teenager. The poor girl had died, and Liz was sure that there were other circumstances at work when it happened but just the same Liz was sure that her mother, still to this day, weeped at times over her lost friend. The thermometer read 102.6 degrees, she absentmindedly shook it down.

Liz thought of Alex, and how very difficult it had been for her to accept his death. Of course, Alex hadn't had a choice with his life. It had been abruptly snuffed out from under him. She just couldn't understand how anyone could be so far out of touch with themselves, that they would willingly throw it all away. She thought of Vilondra. So lost and out of touch with her family that she would end her life over the love of a man, and such a cruel, selfish and uncaring man, at that.

She filled a small glass with water, and her mind continued, well, there ya go, Vilondra was the same, wasn't she? They had apparently found each other because they deserved each other. I guess beauty and love is in the eye of the beholder. I remember that time when Lonnie wasn't able to wear her favorite colored gown to my sixteenth birthday party. She bitched and moaned the entire day.... Liz stopped abruptly, sitting down slowly on the edge of the tub. She popped the two pills into her mouth and throwing her head back, chased it down with the glass of water.. These thoughts, these memories, were still coming through, just as strongly as they had back at the podchamber. Maybe it was the fever, or something that Kivar had done to her earlier to have her believe she was going over the edge. She looked down at her arms and saw nothing, only the tan of her skin. The phone rang suddenly making Liz jump, forcing a low stifling scream from her.

Liz recovered and ran for the phone. "Liz, it's me."

"Hi Max," she answered as she had a hundred times before, but this time Ava's memory of Zan was strong in her mind as well. They had been apart only a little over an hour, but she was missing him terribly already. Who did she miss? Was it Max? Or Zan? She was having increasing difficulty separating the two, separating her own thoughts and feelings, from what she could only imagine to be Ava's. "How's Isabel?" she asked out of common courtesy.

"She's as good as Isabel gets, I suppose. At least there doesn't seem to be any remnants of Vilondra left hanging around." Although it was his sister that they were speaking about, his concern now was more for Liz. "I'm on my way over. Is there anything that you need?"

"Just those healing hands of yours," she joked. "The fever's still playing with me. It's 102. I've taken a few aspirins, but Maria still isn't here yet."

"I just spoke to Michael. I'm going to run by Maria's and pick up the medicine. Her and Michael are going to hang out over there tonight," he hesitated, "..she's got some serious studying ..she said something about trashing one of her tests tomorrow if she doesn't study." He had already explained to Michael the need for them to be alone tonight with John and Kal.

Liz knew that Maria had been skitzing out about finals for weeks now. She always blew things out of proportion, worrying herself for what would turn out to be no reason at all.

"Liz, ..are you. . alright?" He wondered if she had been remembering anything else.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Still getting memories from Ava, though. I had hoped that once Kivar was dead, I wouldn't hear her anymore." Liz towel dried her hair with her free hand. "Funny, I just remembered her sixteenth birthday bash.. .yep, that's right, the one back on Adia."

She smiled as she remembered the beautiful empire waisted, flowing navy blue gown, made with the special gauze fabric from Eos. She had made it especially for the occasion to surprise Zan, and it had turned out absolutely perfect. Again the smile continued, as she remembered how his eyes had lit up when he first saw her across the terrace that day. Liz pulled her thoughts around and her mind again cleared. "This is really weird, Max."

"I'll be there as soon as I can. John and Kal are coming with me. They're going to try to help you. Don't worry, just trust what you're feeling. Everything's going to be okay, I promise. Liz, I love you." Max hung up, leaving Liz staring into the receiver in her hand.

Trust it?. .don't worry? "There better be a damn good explanation for all this, Max Evans. A damn good one."


~~~~~~~~~~~~
Diehard
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 7:25 pm

Post by Diehard »

*lyrics belong to S. Maclaughlin


CHAPTER THIRTY


Even though the night sky held thousands of stars, the smell of rain was in the air. Liz sat on the chaise on her balcony, looking up at the wonderland over her head. What would wormholes look like, if one could see them from down here, she asked herself. A biology book sat opened in her lap. Small twinkling lights strung on the outside wall gave off a warm, comforting glow. She was back in her own element. Liz leaned over and lit a candle jar on the small table that now was surrounded by three other chairs.

She read a few more pages of biology, and realized that it was fruitless, she already knew everything she needed to know about biology for this test. Human biology, that is. She heard a noise down below in the alley. Getting up she walked to the edge and peeked over. Kal and John were standing quietly below the ladder. "Hi. You can come on up, if you want. Max will be here any minute."

In a matter of seconds, both men were standing beside her. "Now I see where Max gets it from," Liz laughed, pointing to their quick ascent. "Sit down, it's pretty comfortable out here. I spend alot of time up here." She seemed nervous, and tried to force herself to relax.

"How are your ribs? Was Max able to heal them up at all?" John asked, as he sat across from Liz. Kal remained standing.

"He helped them alot, thank you. I'm still pretty tired, and the fever is really hanging in here. I've told Max. I've taken some meds, and he's bringing antibiotics from Maria. He might need to try to heal me again, though." She smiled up at Kal, motioning for him to have a seat.

"I can give it a try too," Kal said, "unless you'd rather wait for Max. I specialize in all the internal areas," he said winking at her. He shouldn't be, but he found himself surprised at what this little one had endured in the last hours. He knew that all the bruises would be quick to disappear, especially if Max had anything to do with it. This was inside stuff, and very different from the inside stuff that he prided himself on healing. What they were about to do, was never going to go away, it would be permanent. She was a strong one, that much was sure; and he knew that given time, she would again recover back to the strength and person of Liz Parker. It was that transitionary time that John had worried about. It was exactly because Liz was such a strong person, that John worried most about how she would take to the news.

"Thanks, Kal. I think I might as well wait for Max. What are we doing anyway?" she asked.

"We've got some things to go over with you. I know you've been dealing with alot of strange memories and well...the powers and all," John began. "We're going to attempt to give some answers to those questions that seem to keep popping up in your head." He gave her half a smile, as he raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, good! So you two know why and how this is all happening?" she was relieved to know that the confusion was about to be over.

"Not really, Liz, not over." Kal said, answering her thought. "I mean, yes. . we do know why it's happening. And no, we can't stop it from happening, and then again, you might not even want us to stop it at all."

Liz looked worried, "...not want you to?"

"Hey." Max interrupted from the top of the ladder. "Sorry I'm late," he said, looking to Kal and hoping that they hadn't started without him.

"We just got here, Max." John had heard his concern.

"Max, hi." He kissed her cheek, as she took the bottle of pills from him. She checked the label and took one. "I've got to get this fever down. These should help fight off the infection so my system doesn't have to work so hard. Thanks for stopping for them." He nodded.

"You're welcome," he said as his hand reached out to touch her arm. "Listen, I know that we're all pretty exhausted, but we," he said, motioning to the other two sitting there, "really need to talk to you. To explain some things, some really incredible things, Liz." He couldn't hold back the excitement and anxiety in his voice. "Are your parents here, will we be alright out here?"

"They're already asleep I think. My dad left me a note on the kitchen table, thanking me for helping out your mom at the church bazaar. This is about Ava's memories and these powers that have been flaring up. It's got to be because you healed me, right?" Max took her gently by the arm and led her over to the table. Both of them sat down, as thunder rolled in the distance.

Kal cleared his throat slightly, and Max completely understood that he was to let John and Kal tell the story. "Liz, what's been happening to you is not a byproduct of Max's healing you. It's coming from inside of you. Let me start at the beginning.

We crashed in 1947, with the essences of four very special people from our worlds. Zan, Ava, Rath and Vilondra. Three of the pods were intact upon our sudden unexpected landing. One pod was badly damaged. But the essence from that pod was saved and given to a premature fetus. That child survived with the help of the granolith and West Roswell County hospital.

"Wait. I'm confused about the whole essence in a fetus part," Liz leaned in, looking directly at John. "Is that what was done with the other three, too?" She jumped momentarily, as a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky above their heads.

John sat up closer to the table. "No just the one pod. You see, the essence needed a vessel, like a fetus needs a womb. The fourth pod couldn't sustain the life support that was needed for the essence to survive. Looking towards Kal, he continued, "I'll start over, but slower this time."

Liz listened intently, absolutely amazed at the story that was unfolding in front of her. John told of Edward Hubble's expectant wife, Sheila being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and how they had performed nothing short of a miracle with her fetus. It was also easy for Liz to feel the love and devotion that both of these men had attained, all for the safety of this little baby. "And..she lived?" She looked to Max, her eyes lingering on his. "Yes Liz, she did," he said, just above a whisper.

Easy Max, Kal thought outloud. "Liz, John and I stayed right here, just outside of Roswell, the whole time. We were both pulling some hocus pocus at the hospital, you know just to make sure that the little one was safe. We spent alot of time there. We had grown to love this little girl, not to mention the love we both already felt for Ava. That's when John here met a wonderful woman who was working there at the hospital on the night shift. She had adored the child. For months she had fussed and primped with this little bundle. And months later, when it came time for the baby to leave the hospital, as fate would have it, her son and his wife had just suffered losing their own baby in childbirth. And an arrangement was made with a lawyer in town for the child to live with her new parents, right here in Roswell."

Liz looked over at Max, and felt her insides begin to shake. Max reached over for her hand. "She's been here in Roswell all this time?" she stammered. "Zan's Ava lives here, in this city?"

Kal nodded his head toward Max. Max took a few deep breaths and turned to Liz. "Liz, my mom and dad had just moved here and he was just setting up his law practice. The woman from the hospital approached him, explaining the horrible circumstances just suffered by her daughter-in-law and son. And my dad arranged for the quick legal adoption of baby Ava."

"What? Oh my god. Max, that's incredible. Your dad?" Liz was nearly speechless. Max's true bride from Antar had actually lived, and maybe was even still living, right here in this town. Liz felt that she might be sick. Without her knowledge, Kal was paying close attention. He'd be alright trying to keep her calm, as long as he didn't alert any part of Ava. She'd hand him his ass on a platter, if she thought that he might be doing anything to keep her stronger. Even back on Adia, she had never warmed to the idea that she needed protection from anything. He could see from where Liz got her spunk.

"The three of us stayed in the pods until it was time. Six years later, they adopted Isabel and I from the orphanage. Yeah, I know, it is pretty incredible, Liz. I couldn't believe it either, when I first learned the truth yesterday." Suddenly Max realized that he didn't want to be the one who would continue with the actual words to Liz. He hesitated, pleading with one of them to continue. For the very first time since learning the truth, he was scared, really scared of what it would all mean in the end. He wasn't excited anymore. He was face to face with it now, and he was afraid of what was about to happen to her, to her life.

Kal who was playing with an unlit cigarette, looked to John, and sighed. And so it was John who began, "Sixteen years went by, and we didn't know exactly what had happened after baby Ava left the county hospital. It wasn't til two years ago, right after Max saved your life in the restaurant downstairs, that we were given all the pieces to put together for ourselves. That beautiful woman from the hospital, the one who never left little Ava's side, she was your grandmother, Claudia Parker."

~~~~~~~~~~~~


~~Morning smiles, like a newborn child, innocent and knowing.
Winters end, promises of a long lost friend, speaks to me of comfort.
But I fear, I have nothing to give
I have so much to lose here in this lonely place, tangled up in your embrace,
there's nothing I'd like better than to fall.
But I fear, I have nothing to give.~~



The rain was coming down in walls of water, but Liz didn't feel a drop of it. She was soaked through to the skin, and she was walking. She knew she had been walking for a while, actually she had remembered running. But she just couldn't run fast enough. Her breaths were coming short and her lungs were wheezing within her ribcage. She squinted through her wet eyes, trying to get some bearing on where the hell she was. She remembered wishing that she had actually cared where she was. It was very dark, and very wet. She placed her hands on her head, feeling her hair soaking through, dripping all around her shoulders. Lies. She really just wanted to lay down somewhere, anywhere. The rain was running from her eyes. . or was that tears? She stuck her tongue out over her top lip, yep they were tears alright...salty. But she hadn't remembered any tears. There would be no crying. There would be NO tears, her mind screamed out in total frustration. Lies. Her foot stung, and she looked down to see that she had lost one of her flips. . somewhere. Damn, she thought. They had been her favorites, too. With the rose colored flowers that glittered in the light. She had loved those little flowers. And her clothes, she pulled the drenched cloth out from her skin and the weight of the water snapped it back like magnets to a board. NO tears, her mind screamed again. There would be no crying. Her mind continued to shift in half thoughts. Where was home? Go home, Ava, she said to no one there. She turned looking around her in confusion. Where the hell was home? Where was she going? Had she already gotten there? Was this all there was? She stopped and stood perfectly still for several moments and felt the rain beating down on her, then fell to her knees into the wet cool mud that surrounded her. And then she wept.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Diehard
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 7:25 pm

Post by Diehard »

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Michael had been joined by both Kyle and the senior Valenti, out at John Brown's ranch two miles outside of town, somewhere around 9:45 pm. Nicholas was still snug as a bug down in the root cellar, where John and Kal had set him up earlier. He'd be okay there until their meeting with Liz was through. Nicholas had been rendered unconscious earlier by Kal. He had explained to Michael that he had fiddled with a few things inside of him to slow him down, at least until they returned.

Michael had headed over there, after Max had left Maria's, in order to give John and Kal the opportunity to meet with Liz and not have to worry, should Nicholas become alert again. Michael had spent the majority of the evening here with Maria, who had now fallen asleep on the sofa in John's study. Maria had, of course, insisted earlier on knowing everything that was going on. "It's Liz isn't it," she had said to Michael, shortly after Kal and John had left. "...it's about the powers, right?" Michael had proceeded on filling her in about everything that Max had told him earlier.

"Jesus." she said, digging deep and frantically in her purse for her cedar oil. "Liz is part alien? My best friend...my best friend since kindergarten has alien soul juice inside her? This is incredible, Michael. So that's why her and Max were so drawn together. They're soulmates, I mean as in really soulmates. Isn't this the most romantic thing you've ever heard of, Michael? Michael?"

"It's alot more than just romantic, Maria. A lot more." He had been so very glad earlier, when she had finally drifted off to sleep.

The three men now sat out on the covered porch talking and waiting, as the showers moved in. "So I guess this means that I won't be turning into Kyle the Super Jock, any time soon." Kyle was joking about it, but he had never been so relieved about anything in his whole life, when Michael informed him earlier that he more than likely wouldn't be seeing any amazing powers in his future.

"You too, Dad. And to think you could have went down in the annals of American Justice, as the most power-ful Sheriff in the history of the world." He laughed, "Well easy come easy go, I guess." He smiled, as Michael came back out onto the porch with drinks for them.

Valenti only smiled. "That's okay, I'm just greatful to Max, for giving our lives back to us. I'm gonna be paying that one back for a long time to come." He looked at his son. "I'd be lieing though, if I said that I wasn't worried about how Liz is going to take to this news."

"Yeah me too," Michael said, as he tossed Kyle a soda can. "I don't know what's happened yet. I haven't talked to Max in the last couple hours. He's not answering his cell. I think he probably has alot on his mind about now."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~


It had taken the combined strength of both Kal and John to hold onto Max. They had seriously struggled, but in the end he was no match for them both. Kal had to admit that he had been praying for Ava to step in at some point in their conversation, to both help and protect Liz. To help guide her through it. But then again that was supposed to be their job, wasn't it?

At first she had reacted as if it was a crazy joke. Afterall, what were the odds of something like this actually happening? She found herself instinctively looking to John for support. "John, help me out here. This isn't funny any more," she forced a smile.

"I know, it isn't funny at all. I'm really sorry. I know how much this is going to hurt you. I know how hard it is to understand, and how difficult it is to believe," Kal said quietly. They were turning her entire world upside down. Kal had tried to say the right words, when he knew all too well that he had no idea what the right words were.

"YOU don't know anything about me!" she had cried out at him. "I'm Liz Parker, I was born Liz Parker. Human. 100% human. You have all made a terrible mistake if you think differently," she started out strong, but her voice was beginning to crack. And then there was that other voice, that voice inside of her. "Shutup!" she screamed at it. She looked quickly at Max. She just knew that any minute he was going to start laughing, they'd all be laughing at this ridiculous, funny little joke of theirs. Yeah they sure had gotten her good with this one! She turned to him, "Max..." But he wasn't smiling, and he could no longer hide the tears that were welling up in his eyes. John thought he had seen a flash of Ava then, in her eyes. . for just an instance.

Max had put his arms around her, and she had spoken softly, "The flashes. .the ones that I had with you, the ones of the crash. . and the orb being buried." She pulled away from him, folding her arms around herself, holding tightly. She turned her back to them, before continuing, ". . .and all of those memories, the ones I knew were Ava's memories.... "

She stopped and spun around. "No. This can't be possible," she shook her head, still refusing to believe what was falling together in her mind. "I wasn't adopted. I have a birth certificate with my mother and father's name...I was born at County...." Max took her by the arm, pulling her close. Touching her chin, he raised it slightly to meet his gaze. "It's okay. I know that it's . .unbelievable, and it seems crazy, I know. . but it's all true Liz. ." She broke away from him, saying something quickly about needing to be alone. Her heart was pounding loudly in her ears, and she thought she might be physically sick, she needed to get out of there. "Please," she said, "I'm sorry. .but, this is just.. not.. true." She had walked to the window and quickly climbed back into her room. Max had watched her through the window, as she grabbed her sweater and ran out the bedroom door.

After a few difficult moments, they had suceeded in finally getting Max to stop resisting them. "You've got to give her time, Max. She's just been told that everything she's believed in up to this very night, has been a lie." Kal still held Max's shoulders, as he sat him down on the chaise.

"I love her, that is not a lie. She needs me Kal," his voice was filled with all the emotion in his heart. "She has always been there for me Kal, always," he exclaimed. "Even when I made it impossible for her, she was there, worrying and watching out for me. I have to go to her."

"Max, listen to me. I know what you're feeling, and I know how much it hurts you. Liz is hurting now too, for a whole different set of reasons. What are ya gonna say to her, Max? What? That you love her? and that you'll always be here for her? She already knows that, Max. Right now, that's the only thing she knows for sure. I know that you want to make it all right, Max. And when she is ready, you will have that chance to make it all right. This is why I didn't want you to be here tonight. This is too important Max. Right now, this is about more than your love for her, and her love for you. Do you understand?"

Max was quiet, as raindrops began to fall steadily onto the balcony. There had been one thing and one thing only that had made him forget that he was different; that had made him believe in who he was, both the alien and human in him; and that was being around Liz Parker. Loving Liz Parker. Even when he was too shy to talk to her, back before that fateful day in '99 that had finally brought them closer together, it had been her presence that had made him strong. He knew that he was the man he was supposed to be, when she was in his arms. He had in turn believed, because he loved her so much, that he could make all the pain and confusion of this day disappear. He knew how much she had once loved him, he knew deep in his heart that she still felt the same love that she always had. He also knew of the undying love that Zan and Ava had shared, that devotion that now seemed to be the very foundation that they had been standing on. Suddenly now, he could see that John was right. It was about so much more than their love. It would be again, once she was ready to accept her identity. He prayed that that would be soon. Then and then only, would this deep love that they shared be able to help her to steer her life; but first it was up to Liz to put her hands up on the wheel. "What do you want me to do?"

Max closed his eyes for a second, as John answered him. "I want you to wait for her. Just like you've been doing for a very long time now. I want you to sit right here, and wait until she returns. Remember, Max, she's a big girl. And Ava is with her, trust me, she will do her best to help her through. When she's thought about things and she's ready, she'll have questions, then she'll come home. And you'll be here, in case she needs to talk." John patted him on the back. "It's gonna be alright. Let's just slow down, okay?"

Max could do nothing but nod his head.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The rain had let up. Thunder still rumbled through the city, as the storm moved on farther away. A damp chill still hung in the air. Liz felt the shivers that ran throughout every bone in her body. She had no idea how long she had been laying here. She hadn't been asleep, she hadn't known what had been happening to her. For the love of god, Liz Parker, get up. She pulled herself to a sitting position. Her ears were ringing, as bits and pieces of her thoughts came back to her. Ava, she thought. She closed her eyes. Dear God. She took a long deep breath and realized that the stinging in her lungs was now completely gone. She felt her forehead, her head felt cool to the touch. She looked down checking the burns on the calf of her right leg. There was nothing there except for a few splotches of mud. O..kay, she said slowly. She tried to stretch herself up straight in a sitting position, and her head began to spin. Okay, not too fast. Small steps, Lizzie. Lizzie..., she repeated her familiar nickname to herself. Lizzie, Liz, Ava, Parker, Hubble? Who the hell was she anyway?

She was thinking about her mother. As the truth would have it, and afterall we were talking truths here, she reminded herself, she had never really been very close to her mother at all, she always favored her dad. Well, that didn't prove a thing though, did it? It wasn't until she thought of her grandmother and how close their relationship had been throughout the years, that she realized how much she wished that she were here right now. Grandmom Claudia had always made her feel so special. She had even been given the chance to tell her that, on the day that she died. Liz wiped away the tears that she refused to acknowledge. She didn't want to believe that this was possible. Was it really possible that for all of her seventeen years, she had never truly known herself at all?

She needed to speak to her dad, he would tell her the truth. She was sure that he wouldn't lie to her, if she asked him straight out about the adoption. She wasn't ready for this. But she knew that this wasn't something that a person would ever be ready for. To find out that you were adopted can be a hard enough pill to swallow for some. But this.... How could she ever prepare herself for anything like this? She didn't want to be anyone else, she wanted to be Liz Parker. Wasn't she still Liz Parker? Well of course she was. They couldn't take that away from her, she wouldn't let anyone ever take that away from her.

She was feeling it in every fiber of her being now, and deep inside, she knew it was true. It was Ava, the part of her that was Ava was getting through and tearing down all the walls and fences between their memories. She smiled to herself. She remembered back to those earlier days with Max, right after he had healed her. The smiles, those moments waiting to see him again, the rush she would feel like electricity through her body when he'd accidently brush past her, the teenage crush she had felt so strongly that had grown rapidly into...something else, something so powerful. It had been wonderful back then. If this were a time for truths, then she also knew that she needed to admit openly to herself, that she had always secretly wished this. Wished that she had been the girl who had shared Max's past life. She had even felt jealous from time to time of this person that she knew only as Ava,. . that is, the Ava that she had pictured with Zan, in her mind. Which never , she reminded herself, never had anything at all to do with the one who had called herself Tess. No, there was always someone different that Liz had fantasized about in Max's first mystical life. And for the longest while, she had wished that it could have been her. So there ya go, she thought, as she got to her feet, you really do have to be careful what you wish for.

She looked around her, and then down at her clothes that were soaked through. How did she get out here? Her mind continued to jump back and forth from the present to the past, and back again. Oh right, she thought. Guess I left pretty quickly. I left everyone out there on the balcony. What a rude hostess, she actually managed a laugh, then she sighed.

Her mind wandered backward again, as she began to walk. She had been completely devastated that day, the day they had witnessed the hologram of Zan's mother. They had just rescued Max from the horrors of the government's special unit. Just thinking of Pierce now made her knees buckle, and she felt her insides twist into a knot. She automatically now felt a different perspective on the special alien witch hunting unit. Her mind again retreated back. In that message, this mother had told her son that she had sent his young bride with him. Of course, everything had fit right in so well with Harding's plan, by activating the orbs. They had all just assumed that it had been Tess that the vision was referring to. When in fact, it wasn't at all. "That was the most heartbreaking day of my life," she confessed quietly to herself and to the scattered stars that began to shine through the clouds above her. " . .walking away from Max like that... the way I felt I had to. For destiny's sake." Liz winced, and her heart felt like it was breaking in two all over again. There had been so much that had happened between there and here. So much time, so many lies. My god, how was it that any of this had been allowed to happened?

As she turned the corner, the Crashdown stood darkened and shining wet in the stormy night. The Crashdown Cafe, she thought. More ironic now than ever before. The fates certainly were having a field day with her life, weren't they? She needed to talk to her Dad, she thought, she needed that proof. Seeing she was now so close to home, she was feeling the need to first lay in her own warm safe, and dry bed. What she needed to do after that, was confront her father, showup for her finals tomorrow, pay a visit to John, and. . talk to Max. Not necessarily in that order.


~~~~~~~~~~~~
Diehard
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 7:25 pm

Post by Diehard »

Thanks everyone. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. :)
Image realistic dreamer and antar 60559.


*lyrics belong to C. DeBurgh


CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO


~~I can not sleep tonight I have you on my mind
Even the wind is calling your name.
Though you are far away I feel that you are here
Whispering words meant only for me.
And if you wake in your night, remember that I will be here.
And like the same sun that's rising on the valley with the dawn
I will walk with your shadow and keep you warm
And like the same moon that's shining through your window there tonight.
I will watch in your darkness and bring you safely to the morning light.~~




She stood at the window for what seemed like the longest time, watching him laying out there, but not saying a word. Tears filled her eyes, for all they had had, for all they had been to each other for so long. Fate had stepped in, it seemed, yet again. Not just once, but three times in their short lives. First on what should have been the most memorable, most beautiful day of their two young lives, and the second on the day that Future Max had stepped through this very window. She wished that she understood, even now, whether her sacrifice had proven anything, anything at all.

Their two chances at happiness had been snuffed out both of those times, by different forces. Kivar and Tess, but both known by the same name, evil. Was this the way that that other Max had expected things would be now? She had hated it. It had been the hardest thing she had ever had to do. But she had never felt that she had had any other choice. She had forced herself to believe that it had been a crossroads in her life. But somewhere in the back of her mind, she had prayed that it might end up being only a detour. He had told her that the future was not set. Liz knew that when she had turned Max away, she had changed things that had been destined to happen in that other Max's timeline. And what if she had known then, what she now suspected to be true? Would she have still stepped aside for Tess? Did that other Max know that the Liz in his time, had Ava's essence within her? He couldn't have, or she was sure now, that he never would have asked her to sacrifice what they had. Someday, somehow, she would find the answers to that puzzle. She would find the missing pieces. It was just a matter of time.

But what about now? Was destiny now giving them a third try. She was sure that Ava and Zan would think so. And in her heart, she knew that Max most definitely thought so, she had felt it in the last days. It wasn't that she didn't want it, too. It was again that fear of losing something that meant too much to you, it was something that you never got over. The price was more than she was able to pay again. She knew this, because she still had the scars. Is it possible to love a person too much? Liz Parker had the answer to that one, but to nothing else. Ava and Zan had known nothing but turmoil and obstacles all their lives. And so far, she and Max hadn't proven anything different this time around.

She picked up the comforter from the bottom of her bed and swinging her legs up over the sill, she tiptoed out onto the balcony. Being sure not to make a sound, she carefully covered him, taking special time to tuck the warmth up around his neck. Carefully she brushed away the rain that hung in droplets in the hair above his eyes. Her fingers paused for long seconds there, as she felt the soft texture of his hair. Slowly she leaned in, being careful not to wake him and placed her cheek to the hair at her fingertips. The smell of his hair, brought a rush of memories of peaceful, better times. Of places far away long ago and of other times not so distant.

"I've always loved you." she whispered. "I'm trying, Max. I really am trying to find my way back to you. Between now and then, I need you to know that I could never stop loving you. Know this for it is the only thing that will ever be true." She smiled remembering Zan's words to Ava. She kissed his head ever so softly, as he stirred beneath the comforter. She slowly pulled back and returned through the window to her room, looking back once before climbing into her bed.

Max had finally allowed himself to open his eyes once he had heard her soft footsteps walking away. It had taken all of his will, not to respond to his heart, when all he had wanted to do was to pick her up in his arms and carry her into her room. His insides ached to touch her, and he needed to feel the weight of her body on his. He would wait for as long as it took. It was a good feeling that passed over him. For the first time in such a long time, he felt their deep connection again, and he was once again filled with her love for him.

He waited until he knew she was asleep, then climbed back down the ladder to the street. He didn't know what was going to happen, he had no idea what may lie in store for any of them. But he did notice, as he walked for home, that the empty quiet streets of Roswell hadn't looked this good to him in a long time.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Look Nicholas, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. What's it gonna be, huh, Second?" Michael mimicked his prisoner, wanting nothing more than to squash this little bug, like the insect that he was. He instead tightened the grip around his neck.

"He doesn't like you much, Nikki." Kal said, "Actually....there's no one here who likes you much at all. So I'll tell ya what I'm gonna do for you, hot shot. I will allow your measly little body to return home through that wormhole of yours. All safe and sound. It will be the last and final trip via the blackhole express for anyone."

They had been at Nicholas for the better part of an hour now, and getting no where fast, it seemed. John was sitting back watching while the interrogation continued. "Ya know, Second, if I were you, I'd take this deal. Let me tell ya why. You see, the sun will be coming up real soon now. Weather channel's saying high 90's and not a cloud in the sky. That pretty little face of yours is not going to fair well at all out there today. And not a drop of sunscreen on me, I'm afraid, right JB?"

"Fresh out." John rose out of the folding chair, opening his pocketknife. He raised the knife to begin cutting through the ropes that held Nicholas's hands to the ceiling beam. "Time to go watch the sunrise, Nikki."

"No...wait..hold up. I'm supposed to just believe you when you say that you'll let me go through before you close it up for good? What kind of an ass do you think I am?"

Michael and Kal exchanged a look and hesitated. "No. . . I can't touch that one, man. That's just too easy," Michael smirked and shook his head at Kal.

"Cut the ass down, JB" Kal ordered. "I don't care if you believe me or not. This is how it is. You can stay here and die in the sun, or, you can take us to the wormhole and get along on home. The choice seems pretty freaking clear to me."

Nicholas looked panicked. "Alright. Let's do this before the sun rises. John, I want your word on Ava's life, that you will let me go...safely to the otherside." Nicholas certainly knew who to play.

"Oh, man, Kal," Michael pretended to be upset. "He doesn't trust my word, or your word. What is today's youth coming to these days?" Michael kicked the stool out from under him a several seconds before John's knife sliced easily through the rope. "That's for giving me such a fucking headache yesterday! By the way, if you ever even try to do that again, I will kill you." He looked to Kal, knowing that they'd have to still keep Nicholas's powers under their control, otherwise there could still be problems.

Kal read his thought. "It's already being taken care of." Michael backed off.

"Where to Nicholas?" John asked.

"The old soap factory." He said, as he rubbed the rope burnes at his wrists.

"Ah yes. Been there, done that. How is it that we didn't see anything there yesterday?" Kal straightened his hat. "Let's go," he said, not waiting for an answer. "JB, get the C4 and meet me at the car. Michael, go home. Get a few hours of sleep, you look like shit. At the first chance, after daybreak, get ahold of Max to make sure that he shows up at school this morning. Tell him I'm not going to let him blow this whole thing in his senior year. I plan on taking in a graduation, before I head back to LA to wrap things up."

"What about the wormhole and the soap factory? ..and Nicholas?" Michael was clearly agitated at being left hanging.

"JB and I are on it. We will handle things at the soap factory. You will handle things here in town. Check on Liz. She'll be checking with her dad about things sometime today. She never makes decisions without facts to back her up, and I sure don't expect her to start doing things any differently now. If Max is still in final exams, which he better be, then she might need you to hang around, ya know, when her conversation with Pa Parker is finished. Just be a friend, Michael. We're in the homestretch here."

" I'd be alot more help by being with you, than I will be in doing the friend thing, Kal. I've always sucked at the friend thing." Michael so wanted to see this through to the end.

"What part of all that, didn't you understand? Home. Now." Kal pushed Nicholas up the rickety stairs toward the fast approaching dawn, leaving Michael standing below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Liz slept just like a baby. She was having one wonderful dream after another. Smiling in her sleep, she pulled the sheet up over her head.

This time, she was inside a huge black and silver cylinder with a cone shaped roof made of a clear glass substance. The curved walls were shiny and smooth, the smoothest material she had ever known. The air was clean to the smell and she almost felt that she could taste it's crisp sharpness when she breathed in. She was alone here, except for a very slight but constant humming. Not obtrusive in any way, just present. It was simply soothing. Everything about this place was soothing to the senses. The ceiling periodically changed colors with shades of pinks, greens and purples in an effect of clouds upon clouds. They left the impression somehow of movement, of great speed.

The colors looked familiar to her conscious mind. And then she remembered the stones, that Kal had used to heal her, that day at his house in Los Angeles. They threw off the colors in the exact same way. It almost appeared to her that everything was slowed down inside this place. Moving at an incredibly slow pace. She was suspended in air that somehow felt heavy enough to hold her off the ground. The kalideoscope of colors within the cone were mesmerizing and she found that she couldn't look away. So this was what the inside of the granolith chamber looked like. She then drifted off deeper in sleep.


When she awoke in her bed, she was completely refreshed, feeling that the less than four hours of sleep, had indeed been eight. She peeked around and out the window, to see that the balcony was empty. She was glad, she had things to accomplish today, no matter who she was, she thought.

She showered and dressed, grabbing two of her school books, as she closed the door behind her. Standing on the stairs, she froze for a minute, hearing her mother and father talking below. They were the only real parents she had ever known. They would always be that, they would always be her parents. She took a deep breath. She could do this, she knew she could, and quickly hopped down the last six steps. As Liz turned the corner, her mother passed her, on her way upstairs with a basket of laundry from the kitchen.

"Morning, sweetheart." Her mother's light eyes danced and twinkled, as she smiled at her. One thing had been sure to Liz, her and her mother had been opposites in the looks department. Liz was as much dark as her mother was light, especially with her mother's natural red hair. Funny, how there are things that you tend not to notice day after day. Of course, her dad had dark hair and a darker complexion, so she guessed that she had favored her dad's side. Truthfully, Liz never had been given a reason to even consider questioning anything of the sort.

"Lizzie, how bout some of your dad's famous blueberry pancakes?" He looked up, as a mentioned pancake twirled over in the air.

"Not hungry, Dad. Besides I have a final in thirty-five minutes. But thanks, anyway. I'll take a raincheck, okay?" Her heart went out to this man. He had lost a child, and a miracle had allowed him to save his wife from the agony of knowing the fate of the child she had carried for nine months.

She always knew that the bond between mother and father had been a close one. She even sensed at times that her mother might have felt left out, because of her closeness to her Dad over the years. But she had never said a word to either of them. "Dad, can I talk to you for just a quick second." she looked up at the clock realizing that he was about to open the restaurant for the breakfast crowd.

"Sure thing, hon. Don't have alot of time though. I've got the grill this morning. Your mom says that Michael called in a little while ago, said he would be a few hours late. Something about being up all night with a pain in his. . . head, I think your mom said it was." He took a seat and pushed out a chair towards his daughter. "What's up, nervous about your valedictorian speech? Need some help?"

"No, Dad." Liz had already been told the truth, she was all but sure of that now. But her rational side needed to do this. She hesitated only because she also knew that what she was about to hear would make turning back an impossibility.

"There's a question that I've been wanting to ask you, and well, I have this test in biology, a final, it's this morning. Well um, near the end of the year we studied our blood and tissue typing, and a few students had gotten their parents blood types, to ya know, compare. .things. Dad, I guess I really need to just come out and say this."

Jeff Parker at first seemed confused, but then Liz thought she read a knowing look that was passing over his face. "Is there any chance that. . . was I adopted?" There, why don't you just blurt it out, Liz, she thought to herself sarcastically. "Mom needn't know that I've asked you this. It will forever stay between just you and I, Dad. It's just that, well I need to know. . .is it true?" She didn't think that there had ever been a time when she had felt so horribly uncomfortable talking to her dad.

Jeff, shook his head, thinking about everything that she had just said. He thought long and hard without looking at her. Then finally he asked, "Honey, why would you think such a thing? Why would you ask this? Who would have told you something like that? Max? Was it Max?"

Well, there it was. She had her answer. She forced a smile at him. But just couldn't let it lie that Max had been the catapult for this question. "Max, Dad?" She slowly tilted her head, "Dad, why would you think it was Max? Because of his dad?"

The color had drained from his face, as he reached out to hold his daughter's hand. Liz continued for him, ". .would that be because it was Mr. Evans who handled everything for you? Dad, listen to me, this is so important. I won't breath a word of this to Mom, I swear. I love you, nothing will ever change that. But I need right now for you to say the words, say the words to me." Jeff continued to caress her hand in his, but couldn't meet her eye.

"Phillip," he started slowly. "Phillip Evans gave us a miracle. And right now, I can't for the life of me understand why now, in God's name, he would break our confidence."

"Dad," she said softly, "Mr Evans didn't tell me anything. It was something that I've wondered about for a long time now," she had to lie, to protect his heart. "I've just put two and two together over the years, and I know how close you and Mr. Evans have always been to each other. And when you just brought up Max, and well his dad being a lawyer and all, well it all fell into place." She continued looking in his eyes, until he gave her what she had asked for.

"Yes, Liz. It's true."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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