Tandem Felix (All CC, Teen) Epilogue 12/19

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.

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

User avatar
tequathisy
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 292
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: I'm behind you.
Contact:

Post by tequathisy »

Hi all, once again thanks for all the great feedback. I hope you like this part, but I've a sneaking suspicion that you won't.

Sexysassysarz A new reader! Welcome and thanks.
begonia9508
BehrObsession
Chione
In Max’s defence, he believed Liz and they confronted Maria and Liz was proved to be wrong. Without any real evidence and in the face of what happened with Maria it looks Liz is just clutching at straws.
Extingman Maria’s remark about him always believing Liz over Isabel or anybody else does have something to do with it.
Itzstacie
Ellie
The assumption is that after Maria made her revelation about Max getting Tess pregnant she then proceeded to fill Nancy in on some of the details. And they weren’t pretty. I didn’t write that part because I felt the revelation was enough. You have to remember that the Parkers don’t know Max at all. All they know about him is through Liz and like they pointed out in part A, none of it is good. As far as they’re concerned Max is a bad influence on Liz and this pregnancy is just another example of it. They are trying to protect their daughter. Liz is only 17 after all, she’s quite young.
Grace52373 As a Maria supporter you’ll be happy to know that things are going to get better from now on. You’ll understand why she’s acting like she is at least.
Pooklette Max didn’t believe Isabel in the desert and she turned out to be right. That’s why he believed her when she tested Maria.
Timelord31 It’s never for the best when children separate from loving parents.
AngelicFairy Isabel is still a little pissed at Max so she couldn’t resist the urge to get a little dig in, even if she was trying to defend him. She also sees an opportunity to force Max to tell their parents everything by making lying so difficult.
Emz80m Emma, if it turns out that Maria is being possessed and somebody else is making her say and do all these nasty things then is she still a cow? I think the Evans hope to punish Max by grounding him. He got a girl pregnant after all, they’re not just going to give him a rap on the knuckles and say no more about it.


Chapter 29 (B)


Max pulled his car into the driveway in front of his home and switched of the engine with a sigh of relief. It had not been a good day.

After wrongly accusing one of his best friends of being an evil alien, he had fought with Liz. When he returned to Michael’s apartment, the reception he got from his friend had been icy. Michael was furious that he had allowed Liz to convince him that Maria was possessed and in her absence had taken his anger out on Max.

He was never so glad to be home.

All he wanted to do now was stretch out on his bed, listen to some music and forget about everything else for a few hours. And then hopefully in the evening, he could call Liz and they could make up.

The front door of the house opened and Isabel hurried out to him.

“Max, Mom and Dad know about Tess and the baby.” Isabel blurted out.

“What? How?” Max gasped.

“I don’t know.” Isabel put her hand on his arm. “Max, I think we have to tell them the truth, the whole truth. It’s the only way they’ll understand.”

“No Isabel.”

“Max, they’re so hurt that we didn’t tell them about this.” Isabel pleaded. “They deserve to know. Max, if we tell them, they can help us.”

“If we tell them, they’ll be involved and they’ll get hurt.” Max hissed. “I’m not getting them involved.”

“Max.” Philip Evan’s voice interrupted the whispered conversation. “Come inside. We have to talk.”

Max nodded and followed his father inside. Isabel attempted to join them but Philip shook his head.

“We would like to talk to him privately Iz.”

Diane Evans was sitting at the kitchen table, wringing her hands. There were several used tissues scattered across the tabletop, clearly she had been crying for some time. Max felt so ashamed that he was unable to look her in the eye.

“I’m sorry Mom.” He said while looking down at his feet.

“Sit down Max.” Philip commanded.

“So I’m sure that Isabel has already informed you that we know about Tess and the baby.” Philip said.

“I’m sorry.” Max repeated.

“Are you going to explain yourself?” Philip asked.

“I’m not going to make excuses. I made a mistake, I know that.” Max said.

His parents were silent for a moment.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Diane asked. Her voice was still shaky from all the tears but she was relatively composed.

“I couldn’t.” Max told them lamely.

“Why not?” Philip asked. “Did you think that we’d react badly, that we’d throw you out? That we wouldn’t support you? We’re here for you, no matter what.”

“I know.” Max mumbled.

“So why didn’t you tell us?” Diane asked again.

“I didn’t want to get you involved.” Max admitted.

Philip sighed. “So what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I want to be there for him but I can’t. I don’t know where Tess is and she’s not going to let me have anything to do with him.”

“Him.” Diane said softly. She paused. “Max you have rights. You’re his father. If you want to have contact with your child then say so and we’ll help you.”

Max smiled bitterly. “It’s more complicated than that.”

“Please talk to us Max.” Diane pleaded.

“There’s nothing to tell you. I got her pregnant and then we split up. It ended really badly and neither of us wants to see each other again. I want to do the right thing but I don’t know what that is.”

“You have a child to consider now.” Philip said in a disappointed voice. “You need to put aside your differences for his sake. The right thing means being there for him, no matter what.”

That’s a little difficult when he’s light years away on another planet, Max thought ruefully. He looked up to face his parent’s eyes and jumped.

Isabel was standing behind his mother.

“What?” Diane asked, glancing over her shoulder to see what Max was looking at. She looked right through Isabel.

“Nothing.” He shook his head, impressed with Isabel’s trick. “You’re right about putting aside our differences. I promise that I’ll get in contact with Tess somehow and work out what we’ll do. I’m not going to let him down.”

“That’s good.” Philip said. “If there’s anything we can do to help. Please let us know.”

“I will.” Max lied.

“Max?” Diane began tentatively. “Is she going to keep the baby?”

Max shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Because if she’s not, and you want to, your father and I would like to raise him. Either as his grandparents or his adopted parents.”

Tears welled in Max’s eyes. “Thanks. I’ll talk to Tess.”

“Max why didn’t you come to us sooner?” Philip asked.

“I don’t know.” Max lied again.

“Do you have any idea what it was like to have Jeff Parker screaming at me and to have no idea what he was yelling at?” Philip asked rhetorically. “I know that you keep a lot from us but I thought you were able to trust us enough to come to us with something like this. I thought you knew we’d help.”

Max looked up, startled. “Jeff Parker knows?”

How had he found out? There was no way Liz would have said anything about it to him, would she? Or could she have been so mad at him for not believing her about Maria that she had spilled the truth?

“Yes.” Philip confirmed. “And not surprisingly, he doesn’t want you to see his daughter anymore.”

Max closed his eyes briefly and then nodded. It really wasn’t surprising.

“We happen to agree with him.” Diane added. “For a number of reasons. We believe that you spend too much time with Liz or obsessing about her and that maybe that had something to do with why things ended so badly with Tess. We feel that you won’t give your son all the attention he deserves if Liz is in your life. She distracts you from the important things.”

“That’s not true. Liz is the best thing in my life.” Max retorted at once.

“She’s not the most important thing though.” Philip reminded him. “And she never will be, from now until the day you die, your son has to be the most important thing in your life.”

“So we’re forbidding you from seeing Liz.” Diane informed Max. She held up her hand to stall Max’s protests. “You are grounded for the rest of the summer. You may only go to work. No more hanging out with Michael, no more sneaking out first thing in the morning and no more spending every waking moment in the Crashdown.”

“You’re banned from there, by the way.” Philip added.

Max glanced up at Isabel. She was mouthing the words tell them. He shook his surreptitiously.

“Your wages from the museum will go into a new account, one that we’ll set up for the baby. You’ll be allowed to keep a small portion of them.” Philip continued. “On your days off, I’ll find you work either around here or at my office. The wages for those jobs will also be paid into the baby’s account.”

Max nodded.

“And one more thing.” Diane said. “You have to sell your car. The proceeds will also go into the account.”

Max made no attempt to protest. He was too numb. “Ok.”

“You can go to your room now until lunch.” Philip told Max in a weary voice.

Max rose to his feet and left the room, but not before he caught the devastating look of disappointment etched on his parent’s faces.

“I’m sorry.” He said again.


*


Michael was dozing on his couch when he heard his name being called. He opened his eyes to find Maria standing over him.

“Maria.” He exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

She was speaking but he couldn’t hear the words, she wasn’t making a sound.

“What?” He frowned and automatically reached out his hand to touch her.

To his surprise however he couldn’t. There was some sort of barrier between them, like glass. He brought his two hands to it and pushed, but it didn’t budge.

Maria watched him in silence, perplexed. She brought her own hands up to the invisible glass and felt it. For a moment neither of them moved, the Maria began hammering the barrier with her fists. Michael could see her mouth opening and closing in silent screams but she made no sound.

She looked terrified.

Maria.” Michael yelled. He pressed his hand against the glass and forced all his energy out.

The force of his own energy sent him flying and he landed with a hard thump on the floor, as he fell he could hear the crashing sound of glass breaking.

Michael forced himself to his knees and looked around expectantly for Maria. There was no sign of her.

With dismay he realised that the sound of breaking glass he had heard was from the TV, which now lay on its side, shattered into thousands of small pieces.

Michael swore to himself and stood up. It had been a dream.

His legs were trembling and his heart was racing in his chest.

Ignoring the broken TV, Michael grabbed his jacket and keys.

Deep down he knew it was more than a dream.


*


“I’m going to make lunch.” Diane Evans announced wearily. “Is there anything special you fancy?”

Philip shook his head. “I’m not really hungry.”

“Me either.” Diane sighed. “But we have to eat.”

Philip rose to his feet and kissed her gently on the cheek. “I’m going to check in with the office, give me a shout when it’s ready.”

As he made his way to his small home office Philip was struck by the sound of silence in the house. Usually when the whole family was at home, there was plenty of noise and movement. The TV would be on, music playing, the kids would be back and forth to the refrigerator, Diane would be singing. Generally he found it too distracting and rarely got much work done.

He paused at his office door, down the corridor he could hear Isabel’s voice in Max’s room. At first it was just a low murmur but it began to rise.

Her tone was half anger, half pleading. “If you’d just tell them the truth.”

Max made some sort of response, but it was too low for Philip to make out. He considered moving closer to the door to hear, justifying the eavesdropping by telling himself that it was for Max’s own good.

Evidently whatever Max had replied hadn’t pleased Isabel as she suddenly stormed out of Max’s room slamming the door loudly behind her and marched up the stairs. Moments later her own bedroom door slammed, loud enough to shake the photographs hanging on the wall.

Philip sighed and entered and sat at his desk.

He quickly dialled the number for his office.

Philip Evans’ office.” His secretary Jan answered.

“Jan, it’s Philip.”

Philip, is everything alright at home?” Jan asked, the concern evident in her voice.

Philip rubbed his eyes, feeling the beginning of a bad headache coming on. “We just have a family situation. I’ll be back in tomorrow as usual. Are there any messages?”

Nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow.”

“Good.” Philip said in relief. “Jan, do you have the number of the private detective we used last year on the Jameson case?”

He waited for a moment as Jan found the number and called it out to him. “Thanks Jan, see you tomorrow.”

He put down the receiver and debated calling the detective for a moment before grabbing the phone and punching in the number.

It rang for a moment before a gravely voice answered. “Bert Gerritsen.”

“Bert, this is Philip Evans, the lawyer in Roswell. You did some work for me last year.”

Ah yes, I remember. So how can I help you Philip?”

“I need to find somebody, A Tess Harding and her father Ed, formerly of Roswell New Mexico, current address unknown. Tess has just completed her junior year of highschool. That’s all the information I have on them at present.” Philip outlined.

I’ll be in touch in a few days with what I’ve found out. Usual fees apply.” Bert answered.

“I’ll make arrangements for the payment first thing tomorrow.” Philip promised. “And Bert, this is personal.”

Say no more.” Bert replied.


*


Michael pressed heavily on the Deluca’s doorbell and listened as it chimed persistently inside the house.

Moments later Sean Deluca opened the door with a half-eaten sandwich in his hand.

“Is Maria here?” Michael demanded before Sean had a chance to even open his mouth.

Sean swallowed his mouthful of food. “She’s in her room.”

“Where’s your aunt?”

“At work.”

Michael stepped inside the door and loomed menacingly over Sean. “If you have someplace else to be, now would be the time to go.”

“Hey, I live here.” Sean protested feebly. There was a dangerous glint in Michael’s eyes that told him instinctively not to argue with him. “But it just so happens that I was on my way out.” He grabbed his car keys and left, mumbling under his breath as he went.

Michael watched through the glass panel beside the door to make sure he had gone before quietly climbing the stairs two at a time.

He paused outside Maria’s room and listened. There was no sound coming from inside.

Without knocking, he flung the door open and walked in.

Maria, who was sitting at her desk perusing some papers leaped in surprise and squealed. “Michael, you frightened me.”

She frowned at him. “What are you doing here?”

Michael advanced slowly towards her. “I want to apologise for this morning.”

Maria crossed her arms. “This better be good. I can’t believe that you would think so a thing about me.”

“I know.” Michael said with a nod of his head. “I’m a jerk. I should never have listened to Liz.”

“That bitch.” Maria spat out. “I should have known it was all her doing. Honestly, she really does think the whole universe revolves around her. As if an alien would go to all the trouble of possessing me just to pick a fight with her.”

“Yeah.” Michael agreed. “Anyway, I’m really sorry. Do you forgive me?”

Maria rolled her eyes. “Is that the best you can do?”

Michael smirked enigmatically. “No, I can do better.”

Then before Maria she what was happening Michael brought his lips crashing down against hers. He was immediately assaulted with a flood of images and sensations.

He knew then for certain that this wasn’t his girlfriend.

After a brief moment he pulled back, pushing her away from him so forcefully that she crashed against the wall behind her.

Michael stared at her silently. She watched him with bated breath.

Then he pounced, grabbing her arms tightly and pinning her against the wall.

“I’m going to kill you Tess.” He swore through gritted teeth.

To his surprise, she wasn’t the least bit frightened or intimidated by him. Instead she laughed cheerfully.

“Michael, you idiot.” She said brightly. “I’m millions of light years away. You can’t hurt me. The only person you’re hurting right now is Maria.”

Michael reluctantly released his hold on her. She slithered away from him and took a seat on the bed, looking entirely unconcerned that her ruse was up.

“Whatever it is, whatever you’re planning, you can forget it.” Michael told her. “It’s not going to work now.”

Tess nodded. “You’re right. But fortunately I have a rather brilliant plan B. And you’re going to help me with it.”

Michael shook his head. “I’m not going to help you with anything.”

“Do I really have to remind you what happened to Alex? Or the janitor guy? They were possessed like Maria is now. And it killed them.” Tess said in the voice of a grade school teacher speaking to a child who was failing to grasp a simple lesson. “I have a job to do and you either help me and we get it done today, or I do it myself and it takes considerably longer – which will kill Maria.”

Michael glared at her. “What do you want?”

Tess clapped her hands excitedly. “I want you to kill Liz Parker.”


*
Image
Banner by Evelyn
User avatar
tequathisy
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 292
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: I'm behind you.
Contact:

Post by tequathisy »

begonia9508 I hope you still don’t hate me after reading this part.
Ellie
Timelord31
AngelicFairy
BehrObsession
extingman
Chione
Sexysassysarz
Grace52373
nibbles2
Galliard


A/n This chapter will be told in three parts, which run concurrently and are from three different perspectives. Tess is possessing Maria, it’s her words and actions that you’ll be reading so now that her true identity has been revealed I’m going to call her Tess and not Maria.

Chapter 30 (A)


I want you to kill Liz Parker.”

Michael took an involuntary step back, brushing against the desk chair and toppling it to the ground. He shook his head. “No.”

Tess gave a bored sigh as though Michael’s response was exactly what she had been expecting. “Why not?”

“Because I’m not like you, I’m not a murderer.” Michael protested in a hoarse voice.

“The late Agent Pierce would disagree.”

“That was different. He was going to kill us, he had tortured Max. It was self-defence.” Michael protested and for the first time since that terrible day he believed what he had just said. “I’m not going to kill my friend in cold blood.”

Tess rolled her eyes. “Your friend.” She mocked. “You don’t even like her Michael.”

“Whether I like her or not isn’t the issue.” Michael argued. “Ever since she found out about us, she’s been there for us, put her own life in danger –”

“For Max.” Tess countered. “What’s she ever done for you? Nothing, that’s what. She’s whiny, bossy and annoying. You’ve hated her ever since the day Max saved her. This is your chance to get rid of her.”

Michael smiled wryly. “Before Max saved Liz, there was nobody in the world that I trusted. I really believed that as soon as anybody found out about us they would turn us in. But she didn’t turn us in. She did everything she could to help us. And maybe it was all for Max but that doesn’t matter. Because it was the first time in my life that I was able to trust somebody and you’ll never be able to understand what that was like for me.”

“That’s so sweet.” Tess sneered. “Saint Liz has touched your life. You know I bet if she knew about this she’d be happy to die. She’s so noble that she’d be glad to give up her life to Max and Maria. After all, you can’t be a saint and martyr until your dead.”

“I’m not doing it.” Michael said firmly.

Tess sighed exasperatedly and shook her head. “Don’t think of it as killing Liz. Think of it as doing your job. You’ll be saving Max and the heir to the throne of Antar.”

Michael said nothing, his mind was racing trying desperately to come up with some way to save Maria and spare Liz.

“Because that’s why I’m doing this.” Tess continued. “I have to save my son’s life. Max doesn’t care about him, he’d be happy if his son was dead, it would save all his problems. So it’s up to me, and you’re the only one who can help me. You might not want to help me Michael, but you have to save my son. That’s what you were created to do.”

“Don’t do that. Don’t pretend that you’re doing this for the right reasons.” Michael said in a deadly calm voice. “You’re pure evil. You want to kill Liz out of hate and spite because Max loved her and not you. This is revenge, plain and simple.”

Tess’s eyes flashed dangerously. “He loved me. He was mine. And she took him away from me. I wasn’t going to go along with Nacedo’s plan. There was no way I would have betrayed you if it hadn’t been for her.”

“So it’s Liz’s fault that you killed Alex, got pregnant and were about to hand us over to our enemy to be executed?” Michael asked. He shook his head. “It had nothing to do with Liz. You wanted power and to be the centre of attention and you didn’t care where it came from. And because you didn’t get it from us you went along with Nacedo’s deal because you knew you could get it from Kivar.”

“That’s not true.” Tess shouted angrily. “I’m not evil. All I wanted is what’s rightfully mine.”

“So you killed Alex?” Michael asked. “How could you do that Tess? He never did anything to you. He helped us – ”

US?” Tess screamed. “Stop saying us like I was one of you. From the moment I arrived in town you guys did your best to ignore me. You all had your perfect little lives in Roswell New Mexico and you didn’t want me showing up and reminding you that it wasn’t real. You never wanted me around.”

“Could you blame us?” Michael snorted. “From the moment you arrived in town you lied to us and tricked us and never let us know what we needed to know. So stop blaming all your problems on Liz and realise that you brought them on yourself.”

“Liz is my problem. If she hadn’t wormed her way into Max’s feelings he would have loved me and I would have loved him and everything would have been ok. I would never have gone along with Nacedo’s plan. Everything would have been just fine.” Tess said in a calm voice. “So maybe this is about revenge, but I’m entitled to it. I want her dead.”

“Then you’re going to have to find some other way of doing it because I’m not going to do it for you.” Michael told her.

You know Michael, this is all you own fault.” Tess smiled at him. “If you had just done what you were supposed to and got on the stupid granilith. But you just had to be a rebel. That’s what led to all this. That’s why I’m back. I was expecting Max or Isabel to change their minds. I was ready for that. That’s why I pretended that the baby was sick so that Max would have to come. And Isabel goes along with whatever Max says. Oh she thinks that she’s independent and her own boss but she’s not. But I wasn’t expecting you to be the one to change your mind.”

“I’m so sorry that I ruined your plans.” Michael said sarcastically.

Tess shrugged. “I should have just mindwarped you into coming but I was being nice. You did try to get to know me last summer and you did bring me to Los Vegas which is a lot more than the Evans siblings ever did so I let you go.”

“That was so kind of you.”

“It was stupid of me.” Tess scowled. “If I hadn’t, then you’d be dead already and I wouldn’t have had to spend the last week on this goddamn planet trying to find the other crystal.”

“The other crystal?” Michael frowned.

“Yes, that was plan A. Find the crystal and then force Max to use it to return home to save his son.” Tess said impatiently. “I was going to pretend that Maria got a message from Larek saying that Kivar and Tess had died in the invasion but that his son was dying and Max was supposed to rush home to save him.”

“Right into Kivar’s hands.” Michael finished. “So why didn’t you?”

“Because that stupid Steve guy went and died.” Tess explained. “He was supposed to be holding onto all that stuff and deliver it to Max, of course Nosy Parker got there first and saved him the trouble but there’s still a crystal somewhere. The king’s crystal. But that doesn’t matter now because we’re going with plan B instead. I much prefer this plan anyway.”


“I’m not doing it Tess.” Michael told her. “I’m not killing Liz.”

Tess gave a mock yawn. “Either you kill Liz or I’ll kill Maria.”

Silently Michael spun on his heel and left the room. Tess hurried after him.

She watched him pick up the phone in the kitchen and begin to dial a number.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” She told him as she picked up one of Amy’s sharp kitchen knives and pressed it against her throat. “Maria will be dead before you’ve finished dialling that number and we both know you can’t heal for shit. Hang up the phone Michael.”

Michael hung up without hesitation.

“Good boy.” Tess gloated. “The only way to save Maria is to do what I say. Max and Isabel can’t help you now. Nobody can help you.” She lowered the knife and examined her reflection in the shiny blade. “I don’t have to wait for Maria’s brain to wither away to nothing. I can do it painfully and quickly and it won’t hurt me. I’m millions of light years away after all.”

She took a seat at the breakfast bar and began running her index finger gently across the sharp edge. It had an hypnotic affect on Michael, he couldn’t take his eyes away from the knife as it flashed in the afternoon sunlight. An image of the knife piercing Maria’s soft skin flashed into his mind and he winced.

“Tess, you don’t have do this.” He pleaded. “If you really want to save your son there is another way. You don’t have to hand him over to Kivar. He can still be king but he doesn’t have to be Kivar’s puppet. Larek told us that his forces would be in control of Antar soon. They’ll be able to rescue both of you.”

“That’s what he thinks.” Tess snickered. “Larek also told you that Kivar didn’t have the technology to possess humans.” She waved her hands. “Wrong. He’s been doing it for months. Did you ever wonder how I managed to mindwarp three people in Los Cruses for so long without even leaving Roswell? I didn’t mindwarp them, they were all possessed by Kivar’s scientists because he wanted to know what was in that stupid book. I only mindwarped them afterwards to give them give them new memories.”

“So what killed Alex? The mindwarp or the possession?” Michael asked fearfully.

Tess shrugged. “Both I guess. It was harder to mindwarp him because he kept breaking out of it, I guess it had something do with having been back in Roswell. I had to overdose him with the mindwarp then. But he was going to die anyway, that’s what happens when you’ve been possessed for so long…It’s what’ll happen to Maria.”

“You’re not evil Tess.” Michael said, changing tack and deliberately ignoring her ominous warning. If he thought about that now he would explode, or cause something to explode.

“I know what it’s like to live with somebody who’s heartless. I know what it’s like to want something so badly it’s all you can think about, to want what everybody else has and to know that you’ll never have it. It makes you so angry and jealous that you lash out and do things you wish you could take back. I know you didn’t mean to kill Alex. That was an accident. I was wrong to call you evil. You’re not evil, you’re a good person and you made a mistake. But if you do this, if you make me kill Liz or you kill Maria then there’s no going back. Don’t cross that line Tess. Don’t become a murderer.”

Tess smirked. “That ship has sailed Michael.” She replied. “I’m not doing this for kicks you know. Believe it or not, this is the best way. Larek won’t beat Kivar. If you do this then Kivar will be able to put an end to the war and thousands of lives will be saved. The only person who has to die is Liz.”

Michael sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. “Why? How will killing Liz help Kivar to win?”

“There are two ways to make a new king. If the first king, in this case Max, dies and then the seal is passed to his heir. That’s why Kivar wanted Max dead so the seal would pass onto my son. But I don’t have any powers so I can’t kill him and I can’t find the other crystal so I can’t get him to Antar where Kivar would kill him.” Tess explained. “Which means it’s time for plan B. The four-square is broken and the seal is passed on.”

“How is the four-square broken?” Michael asked.

“If everyone who makes up the four-square betrays it, then it’s broken.” Tess answered. “Vilandra betrayed it on Antar when she allowed Kivar into the city to kill me, you and her brother. I did it when I planned to hand you all over to Kivar. You’re the only one who hasn’t betrayed us.”

“What about that time I told Courtney where the granilith was? Or I took the orbs to meet Topolsky?” Michael protested. “I’m always going against Max’s orders.”

Tess rolled her eyes. “They don’t count. You were being stupid but you weren’t betraying us. You went to meet Topolsky so that you could get answers for us. And you told Courtney because you trusted her not to tell Nikolas.”

“What about Max? He never betrayed us.”

“He was the worst.” Tess scoffed. “You made a pact not to tell anybody the secret. He wouldn’t even allow Isabel to tell her parents. He gave you hell if you ever used your powers in public. Then he saved Liz and told her the truth even though he had vowed never to do anything like that. He knew that he was breaking your trust but he did it anyway. He put her life before the four-square. He betrayed us all.”

Michael shook his head in confusion. “We were angry at first but we’re over that now. We know he did the right thing.”

“You might be ok with it but I’m not.” Tess hissed. “He betrayed us and now he’ll pay for it.”

“So if Liz is the reason that he betrayed us and you still hate her, how will my killing her be a betrayal?” Michael asked.

“If you’re willing to go against the four-square for selfish reasons then that’s a betrayal.” Tess told him impatiently. “So, are you going to do it?”

“No.” Michael told her calmly. “ I can’t do it. Maria and Max would never get over it. They’d never forgive me. Maria has just lost one of her best friends, I’m not going to take Liz away from her as well.”

“You can make it look like an accident if you want. It’s no skin off my nose just so long as you kill her.”

“No.” Michael repeated. Though Tess noted gleefully, he was sounding less and less determined each time he said it.

“What it comes down to Michael is a choice. Maria or Liz? Because if you don’t kill Liz, I will kill Maria.”

Michael sank onto one of the kitchen chairs, he was ashen faced and visibly trembling with fear.

Tess smiled smugly, she knew that Michael was close to agreeing to kill Liz. In a couple of hours she’d have everything she wanted.

“Think about it Michael, if Liz died then Maria would have nobody to turn to except you. You’d be there to comfort her and support her and she’d be so grateful that she’d never leave you.” Tess said soothingly. “And sure, Max would be devastated at first but he’d get over it. He was able to fall in love with me after she ‘slept’ with Kyle. He’ll fall in love with somebody else.”

She let him consider her words in silence for a while before sliding off the stool and making her way over to him. She took a seat beside him and placed her hand on his arm.

Her touch was so gentle and familiar that for a brief second Michael forgot that it wasn’t Maria, until he looked up into her eyes. Maria’s beautiful green eyes were hard and cold, full of hate. Michael recoiled from her touch.

“Liz or Maria – it’s your choice.” Tess said softly.

He couldn’t live without Maria.

After Alex had died he had made a promise that he would do whatever it took to keep Maria safe, that he would do everything in his power to protect her. And if that meant doing the unthinkable, he would. He had never thought that it would mean killing Liz. He owed so much to her and despite what Tess said he didn’t hate Liz, she was ok. In small doses.

But if it came down to a choice between Maria and Liz, there was no choice.

“Ok.”

“You’ll do it?” Tess asked in delighted disbelief.

Michael swallowed nervously, then nodded once. “Yes.”


*


Michael brought his bike to a stop outside the Crashdown and pulled it into a spot beside Liz's jeep.

Tess climbed of the bike and removed her helmet. “That was fun.” She exclaimed as she bent down to peer into the wing mirror and tidied her hair.

She straightened up and smiled at Michael. “So, any ideas how you’re going to do this?”

Michael looked at her hatefully for a moment then his glance drifted towards Liz’s jeep. “I can make it look like an accident, right?”

Tess followed his gaze. “A car crash? It’s a little clichéd but effective I guess. Good for covering your tracks.”

“You’d know about that.” Michael snarled. He bit his lip and then nodded. “That’s what we’ll do then, stage a car crash.”

“Where?” Tess asked excitedly.

Michael swallowed nervously. “The same place that I blew up the jeep. You ask her to meet you out in the desert to talk and we’ll head off before her and be waiting at the spot just before the tunnel. Then when she comes down the road I’ll use my powers to make her jeep go over the edge. It’ll look like she was driving too fast and couldn’t make the bend.”

Tess considered it for a moment before clapping her hands. “I like it. That’s what I should have done, made it look like an accident instead of suicide. Then Nosy Parker would never have figured things out and there would be no need for any of this. Oh well, you live and learn.”

Michael said nothing. He ran his fingers through his hair and Tess noted he was shaking.

“Let’s go.” She suggested and made her way towards the diner.

Michael trudged after her.

Tess turned to look at him. “Liz is already suspicious of me, she’s not going to agree to meet me anywhere unless you act natural.” She chided.

Through the window of the Crashdown Michael could see Liz in conversation with somebody. He grabbed Tess’s arm. “Tess, please don’t make me do this.”

“For heaven’s sake. We’ve already been through this.” Tess exclaimed.

“Isn’t there another way?” Michael pleaded. “If I’m willing to betray the four-square then it doesn’t really matter what I do.”

“It has to be something big.” Tess informed him. “You’re doing exactly what Max did, you’re putting Maria’s life before the four-square.”

She turned to enter the diner but Michael caught her and spun her around to face him again. “Wait.”

“Quit stalling Michael. The sooner you do this, the sooner you’ll have Maria back and I can get back to things on Antar.” Tess said angrily.

Michael took a deep breath, glanced once more in the direction of the Crashdown and nodded. “Ok.”

Tess smiled, took his hand and led him inside. It took all of Michael’s strength not to pull his hand away.

Liz looked up when they entered and watched them approach them warily. She was sitting alone at a booth picking half-heartedly at a plate of fries in front of her.

“Can we join you?” Tess asked sweetly.

Liz looked from her to Michael before nodding curtly. “Are you alright Michael?” She asked in concern. He was pale and shaking and beads of sweat were running down his face.

“I’m ok.” Michael answered hoarsely. “I just need to use the restroom.”

Tess glanced at him to silently warn him not to do anything stupid. He gave her a brief, almost imperceptible nod to show that he understood.

Tess waited until he had gone before turning back to Liz. She took a calming breath, exactly as Maria would have. “We have to talk Liz. I hate what’s going on between us. I hate that we’re not friends.”

“Me too.” Liz agreed in a whispered voice.

“I did something and when you find out you’re going to hate me.” Tess continued.

“You told my Mom about Max getting Tess pregnant.” Liz supplied. “I heard.”

“I’m so sorry Liz. I know it was wrong but I was so mad at you for accusing me of being an evil alien that I just wanted to get back at you.” Tess said, tears filled her eyes.

“You didn’t just get back at me, you put Max and Isabel in a really difficult position with their parents.” Liz snapped.

Tess glanced around the restaurant, Liz's loud outburst had attracted the attention of many of the other patrons.

Perfect, Tess thought.

“Liz, this isn’t the place to have this discussion.” Tess said in a voice of reproof. “We need to go someplace we can yell and scream at each other until we’ve worked this out.”

Liz nodded. “You’re right.”

Tess pretended to consider it for a moment. “Let’s go out into the desert. It’s perfect, nobody will overhear us there.”

“Ok.”

“Great.” Tess beamed. She glanced up at Michael who had rejoined them. “Can you drive me out to the pod-chamber. Liz and I are going to go out there and talk.”

Michael nodded, he glanced quickly at Liz and then averted his gaze.

“I just have to clear it with my parents.” Liz told them. “They’re a bit suspicious of where I’m going since they’ve forbidden me to see Max.”

Tess did a great impression of looking ashamed. “We’ll meet you out there.” She said as she grabbed Michael’s hand and dragged him to the door.

She paused to turn back to Liz. “Goodbye Liz.”


*


Michael Guerin thought he knew what it was like to wait in fear and dread.

Many times in his life he had cowered under beds or tables waiting for Hank’s drunken rage to subside. He had once spent an entire night trembling in the small crawl space beneath their trailer as Hank prowled outside, baseball bat in hand, waiting for him to come out so he could whoop Michael’s ass for some wisecrack he had made.

For months after Max had used his powers to save Liz's life he had lain in bed at night listening to every sound imagining that they were the FBI coming to drag him away.

When the FBI had come and taken Max away, he had felt blind panic, waiting for the worst. He had been certain that Max would die, and waiting for confirmation of his nightmare had been the worst moment of his life.

Until now.

He felt his pager vibrate silently in his pocket and pulled it out. ‘Maria is not Maria, call me, ASAP. Max.’ He swore silently to himself. How the hell had Max figured it out? He just prayed he could get this over with before Max found out what he was doing. He looked down into the bottom of the ravine far below, but couldn’t see the remains of Max’s old jeep. The dense foliage below had covered it completely.

He glanced up at Tess who was sitting on the side of the road sunning herself.

Michael scowled angrily, looking at her brought out such conflicting emotions in him. Part of him was full of love for Maria and a determination to do whatever he had to do in order to protect her. And part of his was full of rage and hate because somebody he had once trusted was using his love for Maria to make him do something so despicable.

Tess looked up and met his eyes. “Almost over.” She said cheerfully and glanced at her watch. “Liz must be having a hard time getting away from her parents.”

Michael turned away from her. He couldn’t look at Maria while Tess occupied her body. The guilt that she had been possessed and he hadn’t seen it was too much to handle right now.

Tess stood up and wandered over to where he was standing. “Do you remember the morning we said goodbye to Valenti here? When Isabel handed him the tape to give to her parents I almost died trying not to laugh.”

“Why?” Michael yelled angrily. “Were you really so happy to be taking her away from her family?”

“No silly, I was imagining Liz’s face when she got the tape I had sent her.” Tess laughed.

“You really are a class act Tess.” Michael said sarcastically.

Tess shrugged. “She deserved it after everything she did to me.”

“Nobody deserved that.” Michael couldn’t help argue.

“She did.” Tess said hatefully. “It almost makes me feel bad about killing her. It would be fun to know she has to spend the rest of her life with that image in her head.” She tilted her head to the side and smiled. “But this way she dies without ever getting to make love to Max the way I did.”

Michael shook his head in disgust.

“And the best part is she burnt down Maria’s house.” Tess continued. “So she had that mountain of guilt to deal with on top of the other stuff. Talk about the icing on the cake. You should have seen her face when I started telling her about how great alien sex is, she was devastated.” Tess giggled. “So really you’re doing her a favor by putting her out of her misery.”

“That makes me feel so much better.” Michael said dryly. “What did you do to Max anyway?”

“I didn’t do anything to him.” Tess huffed. “He wanted to make love to me and we did.”

“Right.” Michael muttered, his tone indicating that he didn’t believe her.

Tess stomped her foot. “It’s true. Max isn’t a saint you know, he’s a horny teenage boy, I’m a hot girl – it’s simple. Besides, he loved me. I might have ‘given’ him a few ideas about what to do but I didn’t force him to do anything he didn’t want to do.”

“And the hour-long climax?” Michael asked, curious in spite of himself. He was watching the road intently, waiting for Liz's jeep to appear around the corner.

“That was a total mind-warp.” Tess admitted, she squealed in delight. “It was so great to be able to tell Liz about that.”

Michael’s pager vibrated again. He took it out, read the message and returned it to his pocket. “How did you fool Isabel this morning?”

“Easy.” Tess snorted as her giggles died down. “I knew that Maria had managed to fight off the possession long enough to send a message to Liz, so I figured it was only a matter of time until Smarty-pants figured it and Isabel came calling. So I was ready for it.”

She sighed and shook her head. “Isabel could be so strong if she just embraced her alien side. You all could, but you’re so afraid of it – even you. I knew what she was doing so I was able to pull a mask over my thoughts. It’s an element that Kivar added to the possession, for times like that.”

Michael was about to say something when he froze.

“What?” Tess asked in excitement.

“I think I hear a car.” Michael told her, his voice was so shaky it was barely audible.

Tess clapped her hands. “It’s ShowTime.”

Michael took a deep and shaky breath and made his way to the edge of the road. He raised his hand, palm outwards and closed his eyes briefly.

When he opened them again a shiny black SUV had appeared on the bend. It was driving slowly in their direction.

Michael clenched his fist and then released his energy. The jeep swerved violently across the road and then righted itself again, it had sped up considerably and he could just make out the silhouette of Liz inside, her long brown hair blowing in the wind through the open window.

He ignored the voice screaming in his head not to do it and let loose the strongest blast he could.

It hit the jeep forcefully and sent it tumbling rapidly towards the edge of the ravine.

Michael watched as though in slow motion the jeep came to the top of the cliff and disappeared over the side.

He could hear the sickening crunch of metal as it hit against the steep, rocky slope. Then there was a split-second of silence before the explosion.

Tess ran to the barrier at the side of the cliff and peered over. She looked back at Michael with a huge smile on her face.

“Ding dong, the bitch is dead.”


*
Image
Banner by Evelyn
User avatar
tequathisy
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 292
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: I'm behind you.
Contact:

Post by tequathisy »

Hi all, thanks for the feedback. Here's the second part of chapter 30.

sexysassysarz
begonia9508
Ellie
AngelicFairy
BehrObsession
Extingman
Liz isn't grounded, that’s why she was able to drive out to the desert to meet Michael and ‘Maria.’ She could go where she liked as long as she didn't see Max.
Timelord31 The car wasn’t driving itself, so if it wasn’t Liz in the car who could it have been?
Pooklette Michael went to the men’s restroom, Liz didn’t know there was anything going on, why would she check there for a message from Michael?
Venus_star2.com
Lazza
Nibbles2

Galliard
Gretita Thanks for the support, glad you like the story



Chapter 30 (B)


Isabel was waiting for Max in his room.

“Nice trick.” He commented. He sat down on his bed with a weary sigh and held his head in his hands.

“I just really wanted to be there.” Isabel explained with a shrug. “And then I was.”

Max gave her a small smile. “Thanks.”

“I’m really sorry Max.” Isabel said guiltily as she came to sit beside him. “I sort of blamed Liz as the reason you weren’t doing more to find Tess and the baby.”

“She is partly the reason.” Max admitted. “I don’t want to lose her again and I know that I can’t have both of them.”

“What about your son?” Isabel asked kindly. “Don’t you want him?”

Max was silent for a long time. “No.” He eventually whispered.

Isabel wrapped her arm around his shoulder to comfort him, knowing how difficult it must have been for Max to admit that, even to himself.

“I wish he didn’t exist.” Max blurted out. “I hate him.” He sank into silence again for a while before continuing. “But I love him too. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him. I want him to be safe and happy. But I don’t want to see him.”

Isabel rubbed his arm gently. “I understand Max. I wish he didn’t exist either and I certainly don’t want to have anything to do with him but I don’t wish anything bad on him.”

“Poor kid.” Max said wryly.

Isabel gave him a small smile. “Yeah.”

“How do you think Jeff Parker found out?” Max told her. “Liz was really pissed at me earlier for believing her about Maria, but I don’t think she would have told him.”

“No, not Liz.” Isabel agreed. “Maria was pretty pissed too. Do you think she might have said something?”

Max shook his head. “No, she wouldn’t do that either. She wouldn’t endanger us like that just because she’s mad at us.”

“Not before.” Isabel began hesitantly. “But she’s really not acting like herself lately. Who knows what she’d do.”

“Isabel are you absolutely certain that it was Maria this morning and that she wasn’t being possessed?” Max asked suddenly.

“I’m sure of it.” Isabel answered. She eyed him curiously. “Do you think Liz is right?”

“I don’t know.” Max said with a sigh. “I wish I could talk to her but something tells me that her if I called her parents wouldn’t let me speak to her.”

“Probably not.”

“And there’s no ladder anymore so I can’t climb up the fire escape.” Max muttered.

Isabel stood up suddenly and rounded on him.

“You’re doing it again.” She shrieked. “God, there’s so much more important things to figure out right now and all you can think about is Liz Parker. What about your son? You might hate him Max, but he’s done nothing wrong, we have to help him. What about our parents? Do you really want them to be disappointed in you?”

“There’s nothing I can do about Mom and Dad.” Max said sadly.

“If you’d just tell them the truth.” Isabel yelled half angrily, half pleading.

“No Isabel.” Max said quietly. “They’d still be disappointed only then they would be in danger as well.”

Isabel glared at Max for a moment before storming out of the room, slamming the door loudly as she left. Moments later her own bedroom door slammed shut as well.

Max stretched out on his bed and stared at the ceiling above him. His mind was racing with the day’s events. From Liz’s almost hysterical phone call that morning at the break of dawn to his argument with Isabel just now. It was hard to believe it was still only lunchtime.

Liz's face swam into his mind. She had been so hurt when he told her that he didn’t believe that Maria was being possessed. She had been so certain that she was right.

Max massaged his temples, he could feel a headache coming on.

There was no way that Liz could have been right, there was simply too much evidence to the contrary. Maria had known too many details, she had talked freely about her childhood in front of her mother. A Maria impostor could have easily fooled him, but not Amy Deluca. Right?

Isabel was certain that Maria was free from any possessors. Could Isabel have been fooled? Could Maria have been possessed and not know about it?

With a groan, Max rolled over onto his side. His family photograph was staring right back at him, his parents smiling happily. He remembered how they had looked at him earlier when he had admitted to getting Tess pregnant. They had been so disappointed. The last thing he had ever wanted to do was disappoint them. He returned to lying on his back.

Isabel’s words rung in his ear.

What about your son? You might hate him Max, but he’s done nothing wrong, we have to help him.”

She was right. Ever since the granilith had sent Tess home, Max had buried his head in the sand and given his son very little though unless he had to. No matter what he felt about Tess, their baby was innocent. Probably the only innocent one in this whole sorry affair.

Max had to save him from Tess and Kivar’s clutches. He owed the child that much at least.


*


Isabel waited until he had knocked three times before slowly getting to her feet and opening the door.

“What?” She asked coldly.

“You’re right.”

Apparently that was the secret password to Isabel’s room because she stood back and allowed him in.

“I need your help.” Max began. “I have to talk to Larek and find out exactly what’s going on up there. He said that Brody would be able to handle it any time we wanted to use him to contact Larek. And then we have to figure out a way to help my son.”

“Ok.” Isabel nodded. “Do you want to go now?”

“Lets.” Max agreed.

Isabel grabbed her jacket and purse. “Wait, aren’t you grounded?”

“Oh yeah.” Max sighed.

Isabel patted him on the shoulder. “Leave it to me.”

Max followed her downstairs and ducked into his room to collect his jacket and keys, before making his way into the kitchen.

“I’m not sure.” Diane was saying to Isabel. “You’ll have to ask your dad.”

“Ask me what?” Philip said as he appeared behind Max.

Isabel flashed him a smile. “Tess had a friend at school that she was close to, I think that if we go over there and talk to her she might be able to tell us something about where Tess is now.”

Philip eyed the keys in Max’s hands. “You’re going over there right away?” He asked suspiciously.

“We have to she’s going to Disneyland with her family tomorrow.” Isabel lied without batting an eyelid.”

“I’ll come with you.” Philip suggested.

“No.” Max and Isabel said at once.

“If you come, she’ll think you’re our lawyer and warn Tess.” Max explained. “It’s better if it’s just us.”

Philip looked from Max to Isabel and back to Max again before nodding. “Alright, but you go straight there and straight back. No detours.”

“I promise.” Max said.

Isabel kissed her mother on the cheek. “See you later.” She followed Max out to his car.

“I’m going to miss this car.” Max said, giving the wheel an affectionate rub.

“Do you want me to call Michael and have him meet us there?” Isabel suggested as Max pulled out of the driveway.

Max shook his head. “He’s mad at me as well, probably best to let him cool down for a while.”

“Hey where are you going?” Isabel asked when Max indicated a right turn. “Brody’s house is the other way.”

“Brody’s house?” Max repeated. “It’s the middle of the day, won’t he be at the UFO museum?”

“The museum is closed today because of Steve’s death.” Isabel reminded him.

A couple of minutes later they arrived at Brody’s house.

“Hard to believe that a millionaire lives here.” Isabel said conversationally before she rang the doorbell.

Max shrugged. “I guess.”

“Max, Isabel, what brings you two over here?” Brody said warmly when he opened the door.

“We wanted to talk to you about Steve and his abductions.” Isabel said, whispering the last word.

Brody ushered them inside. “Would you like Tea, or something cold to drink?” He asked once they were seated in his comfortable lounge.

“No thanks.” Max replied.

“So what do you want to know about Steve?” Brody asked.

“Actually, there’s something I’d like to try first, if you don’t mind.” Isabel told him. “Do you remember the last time I tried to connect with you and you passed out?”

Brody nodded.

“I’d like to try it again.” Isabel revealed.

“I don’t know.” Brody said uncertainly.

“Please Brody.” Max pleaded.

“Alright.” Brody agreed reluctantly.

Isabel took a deep breath to steady her nerves and took Brody’s hands. She noticed that they were clammy. “It’s ok, just relax.” She told him.

Brody closed his eyes and when he opened them again it was Larek who was looking out at them.

“You’ve got a lot better at that.” He complimented Isabel. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Thanks Larek.” Max smiled. “I wanted to find out what’s happening on Antar.”

Larek nodded as though he had been expecting the question. “A lot has changed while you were away, I assume that Maria has been keeping you up to date. Since I was last talking to he, the federation’s troops –”

“Sorry.” Max interrupted. “Away?”

“You’ve been talking to Maria?” Isabel said at the same time.

Larek looked between them, confused. “I’ve spoken to Maria on a couple of occasions in the last week. She told about your trip to Los Cruses to investigate the possessions there.”

Max and Isabel exchanged worried glances.

“Maria told you that we were out of town?” Max said.

“Yes.” Larek confirmed. “Is that not the case?”

Max shook his head. “We haven’t been anywhere. How many times have you spoken to her in the last seven days?”

“On three occasions.” Larek recalled. “The first was to tell you that Kivar had developed technology to possess humans, and twice since then to give her updates and to find out what you had learned.”

“Learned about what?” Isabel asked.

“After I told her that we believed Kivar had possessed humans to translate the destiny book and to locate the granilith crystals that Nikolas had been guarding, she told me that you two and Michael had gone to Los Cruses to investigate the matter.” Larek explained.

“So Kivar has the technology to possess humans?” Max summarised. “Maria knew about it a week ago and told you that we were out of town?”

“Yes.” Larek confirmed, looking worried.

“Oh God.” Max moaned. “Liz is right.”

“What is happening?” Larek asked.

“Maria never told us any of what you’ve just told us.” Isabel said to Larek. “She told us that you hadn’t been in contact at all. This morning our friend realised that Maria was being possessed and we confronted her, but she denied it.”

“If she was being possessed by Kivar or one of his people of course she’d deny it.” Larek smiled, but it quickly faded. “I never suspected that Maria could have been possessed, she always seemed so…”

“She fooled us too.” Isabel said bitterly. “But I don’t understand how. I tried to get into her head this morning and it seemed normal.”

“It’s possible to project a shield to prevent somebody with your powers from knowing that somebody was possessed.” Larek informed her. “We have only used it on very rare occasions and never when on diplomatic purposes. Somebody experienced in the art would have seen through it, but as your unfamiliar with it would have fooled you.”

“It would have helped if you had told us this before.” Max couldn’t help saying angrily.

“I told Maria.” Larek reiterated coldly clearly annoyed at Max’s tone.

“She knew things.” Max said. “Things only Maria would have known.”

“How do you think I can speak english?” Larek asked. “Or got myself to New York from Roswell? Or use poker references when I talk to you? When we possess somebody we have access to all their memories and knowledge. Generally we respect the person’s privacy.”

“But if you were pretending to be that person, you would have access to all their memories and know how to fool everyone with it.” Isabel realised. “How long can a person be possessed for?”

“The safest length of time is no more than three days.” Larek answered. “After that it starts damaging the brain. “Nothing very serious at first, but over time it deteriorates considerably until it is no longer able to function and the host dies.”

Isabel looked wide-eyed at Max. “Like Steve.”

Max sank into one of Brody’s plush armchairs and shook his head in disbelief. This day was just getting worse and worse by the hour. “Why would they possess Maria?”

“To spy on you?” Larek guessed. “It’s possible that there are several people under Kivar’s possession and that Maria is simply one of them, reporting back to the group and awaiting further instructions.”

Max stood up suddenly. “First things first, we have to help Maria. I’m going to call Michael. Isabel can you call Liz. Pretend to be somebody else if either of her parents answer the phone.”

Isabel nodded and got her phone out of her purse. She dialled Liz's cell but it went straight to voice mail. “Liz call me as soon as you get this message. You’re right about Maria.” Isabel said after the beep.

She hung up and tried the number for the Crashdown, one of the waitresses answered. “Hi, is Liz there please.”

Sorry, she’s not here.”

“What about Michael Guerin?”

No, he’s not on today.”

“Have you see him today? Or Maria Deluca, has she been in?”

They were here earlier but the left about thirty minutes ago.”

“Do you have any idea where they went? It’s really important.” Isabel pleaded, injecting a note of urgency into her voice.

The waitress sighed. “Hold on and I’ll ask the others.”

Isabel drummed her fingernails impatiently as she waited for the waitress to come back to the phone. She glanced up at Max.

“He’s not answering his cell or his home phone.” Max told her. “I’ll try paging him.”

Hello.” The waitress called to get Isabel’s attention. “They didn’t say where they were going but Shania overheard them saying something about going to the desert.”

“Thanks.” Isabel hung up. “Liz is gone to the desert with Maria and Michael.

Max bit his lip. “I don’t like this Isabel. I’ve a really about feeling about this.”

Isabel quickly dialled Maria’s cell. It was answered after two rings. “Hello.”

“Hello, Maria?”

No sorry, this is her Mom. She must have left this behind her.” Amy said. “I’m not sure where she is.”

Isabel hung up without saying goodbye. “Max something’s going on.”

Max was pacing the room anxiously. There was a large knot in his stomach that told him Isabel was right. “We have to find them. Michael and Liz are in danger.” He stopped pacing and looked at Isabel. “Try dreamwalking Michael.”

“Max, I can’t dreamwalk Michael.” Isabel protested. “You were there the last day, I couldn’t get into his head.”

“He was trying to block you then.” Max countered. “If he doesn’t know you’re doing it, he won’t be able to stop you. You can do this Isabel, I know you can.”

Isabel shook her head vigorously. “I was so wrong about Maria.”

“You were right about the shapeshifter.” Max reminded her. “Please Isabel, you have to do this. They’re in danger, I know they are.”

Isabel nodded and took a seat on the couch. She took a deep breath and ran her hands over her thighs, trying to calm herself down. She searched in her purse and found a photograph of the group taken at the prom. She had burned the image of Tess from it.

“Come on Michael, please let me in.”

Nothing happened. “It’s not working. I can’t do it Max.”

Max knelt on the floor in front of her and took her hand. “I’ll help. Try again.”

Isabel closed her eyes and focused her mind on Michael. She could feel Max’s energy coursing through her veins, giving her strength. She could feel his faith in her ability, and that was enough.

The photograph rippled and Isabel felt herself being jerked into Michael’s mind. The images flew at her so quick she barely had time to grasp them. Suddenly she felt herself thrown from his brain.

She gasped. “Oh my God, oh my God.”

Max knelt before her. “What is it Isabel, what did you see?”

“I don’t know, I’m not sure.”

“Isabel please.” Max begged.

“He’s standing at the side of the road, just before that tunnel. Maria’s with him and she’s laughing. He hates her.” Isabel sobbed, she was rocking back and forth suddenly overcome with the trauma of the afternoon. “He knows Max, he knows.”

“What are they doing there?” Max demanded panicky. “Isabel, what are they doing?”

Isabel looked up into his eyes. “They’re waiting for Liz. Max we have to stop him. I thinks he’s going to do something to Liz.”

In less than a heartbeat Max was racing out the front door, Isabel and Larek hot on his heals. They jumped into the car. “Dreamwalk Liz, stop her from going to them.” Max shouted as her reversed the car onto the street in front of an oncoming truck. The truck driver blew his horn and leaned out the window to yell at Max, but the chevelle was already out of sight.

Isabel struggled to put on her seatbelt.

“Dreamwalk Liz.” Max shouted.

Larek reached over the seat and helped Isabel with the belt. “She can’t dreamwalk anybody if she’s thrown through the front window of your car.” He chided Max.

Isabel clenched the photo in her fist and tried to focus her thoughts on Liz. Just as she felt herself getting through, the car swung sharply around a corner and she was thrown against the door despite her belt. “Max slow down. You’re going to get us killed.” She screamed.

Max didn’t hear her, he was so intent on getting to Michael before he did something to Liz. He wouldn’t allow anybody to hurt Liz.

Suddenly the memory of Liz walking away from him in the park struck him like a bolt of lightening. The last time he had seen Liz, they had argued. He had told her he didn’t believe what she was saying. He had let her down badly and now she could pay for that with her life. He wasn’t going to allow that to happen.

They left the city limits and turned onto the highway. No longer constricted by the obstacles of the town and other traffic, Max pressed the pedal right down to the floor and pushed the car to the limits of it’s speed.

“Max you’re going too fast.” Isabel screamed again. “I can’t dreamwalk her like this.”

“Isabel you have to, I can’t slow down. We might be too late.” He screamed over the roaring of the wind.

Isabel focused on the picture again, trying with every fibre of her being to get into Liz's head. For the briefest second it worked. And then the car hit a bump in the road and she was jolted out of the connection.

She turned to Max. “Hurry, she’s almost there.”

She didn’t have to tell Max. He was driving at a dangerous speed now and Isabel had to brace herself against the dashboard to stop herself being thrown around the car.

“Are we far?” Larek asked.

“No.” Isabel screamed. “It’s just ahead.”

“There she is.” Max shouted in relief.

Sure enough Isabel could just make out the black SUV before it disappeared around the dangerous curve before the tunnel. Isabel breathed a sigh of relief.

Max finally pressed his foot on the brakes as they rounded the dangerous bend. The SUV came into sight again. He felt the tension slide off his body. Up ahead he spotted two figures standing at the side of the road.

Suddenly Isabel screamed in terror.

Max watched as Liz's jeep lifted of the road as though it had been hit with tremendous force at the side. It toppled rolled over several times rapidly advancing towards the edge of the cliff and disappeared from view.

They were too late.

“Liiiiiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzz.”


*
Image
Banner by Evelyn
User avatar
tequathisy
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 292
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: I'm behind you.
Contact:

Post by tequathisy »

Hi everyone, once again, thanks for all the feedback. Hope you like this part.

Venus_star2.com
Tabata
begonia9508
Liz86000
Timelord31
Ellie
Galliard
BehrObsession
Grace52373
Buffsteraddict
sylvia37



Chapter 30 (C)


Liz threw herself face down on her bed, pressed her pillow to her head and screamed.

“Aaaaaaggggghhhh.”

When she felt she had it all out of her system she rolled onto her back. For a moment she tried to fight back the tears but it was no use, within minutes she was sobbing loudly.

Nancy stood outside Liz's door, listening to her daughter cry. She felt her heart break at the sound. Every cell in her body was telling her to go in and comfort Liz, but Nancy was hesitant. She and Liz had never been very close, and over the last year that gap had widened considerably. Any attempt Nancy had made at bridging it had been politely but firmly rebuffed. Liz didn’t want to share her thoughts and feelings with her mother. And that hurt.

Unable to listen to it anymore, Nancy entered the room and quickly took Liz into her arms. She rocked her gently and whispered soothingly in her ear.

At first Liz stiffened when she felt her mother’s embrace but gradually as Nancy’s loving ministrations continued she relaxed and allowed her mother to comfort her.

When Liz's sobs had subsided, Nancy pulled a tissue from the box on Liz's nightstand and handed it to her.

“I’m sorry Liz.” Nancy said.

Liz blew her nose and balled the tissue in her hand. “It’s not fair.”

“I know it’s not sweetie.” Nancy agreed. “But your Dad and I are only doing what we think is best for you. You have so much potential and we don’t want to see you waste that because of somebody like Max Evans.”

“I wish you knew what he was really like.” Liz hiccuped. “He’s so sweet and caring and considerate. He’s the best person I know Mom. And I’m not just saying that because I’m some love-struck teenager. He really is a wonderful person.”

Nancy smoothed down Liz's hair. “Unfortunately we never get to see the good stuff Liz. We only see what affect he has on you. This past year, you’ve been so unhappy and it’s all because of him.”

Liz shook her head. “It wasn’t all his fault Mom. It’s been a really hard year.” She winced guiltily at the next words out of her mouth. “Since Grandma Claudia died and then Alex, it’s been really hard. I haven’t been able to handle it as well as I should have.”

“Nobody expects you to handle losing your Grandmother and your bestfriend well.” Nancy said aghast to learn that Liz believed that. “It’s ok to cry and be upset and have a hard time coping. You worshipped Claudia, it was a huge loss. It’s ok to be upset Liz. You put too much pressure on yourself to act grown up and to be mature.”

“I guess.”

“Liz, would you consider going to grief counselling?” Nancy asked.

Liz bit her lip, she really didn’t want to go to counselling but if it was the only way to explain why she has spent so much time being upset then she really had no option. “Ok.”

“Good, I’ll call some people and set up an appointment for you.” Nancy smiled.

“Last summer, I was the one who broke up with Max. He didn’t dump me.” Liz confessed.

“Why?” Nancy asked in amazement. “I don’t understand, you were so upset about it. Why would you break up with him?”

Liz looked down at her hands. “I thought that we didn’t belong together, that he belonged with somebody else – with Tess.”

“I loved your grandmother, you know that?” Nancy began. “But for an intelligent woman she believed in a lot of nonsense and she filled your head with it. In my opinion, if you love somebody and it feels right, then that’s who you belong with.”

“You’re right.” Liz sighed.

“From the moment I met Jeff, I knew he was the one for me, we got together in highschool and we’ve been together ever since. No drama’s, no heartbreaks. It makes a very boring story to tell but I wouldn’t change it for the world. And I think it disappointed Claudia.”

“No, Grandma loved you.”

“I know that, that’s not what I mean.” Nancy sighed, searching for the right words. “She always believed that you should only settle for your soulmate and that you only knew if somebody was your soulmate if you had some kind of doomed ‘Romeo and Juliet’ or ‘Days of our lives’ kind of passionate romance. I loved your father with all my heart. I don’t know if I believe in soulmates but if they exist, then your father is mine. We met, fell in love, got married, made a home, and had a beautiful baby. We’ve been happily married for twenty years. I wouldn’t trade what I have with your father for all the romance in the world and yet it never seemed to satisfy Claudia. She was always looking for the fireworks and the passion.”

Liz nodded in understanding. “She once told me that if it wasn’t complicated then he wasn’t my soulmate.”

“See, that’s exactly the type of nonsense I’m talking about.” Nancy exclaimed. “If it’s too complicated then maybe it’s just not meant to be. It’s simple, if you love somebody that should be enough. Do you love Max?”

Liz nodded.

“Does he love you?”

Again Liz nodded.

“Do you think he’s the one?”

“Yes.”

“Then why are you creating all this trouble for yourself? If you want to be with somebody, fight for him. Don’t just walk away from it.” Nancy told her. “Your grandmother was a wonderful person and very intelligent but that doesn't mean she was right about everything.”

“I want to be with Max but I can’t be, remember.” Liz reminded her mother.

Nancy laughed. “I walked myself into that one, didn’t I? If Max really loves you and wants to be with you, why did he sleep with somebody else?”

Liz hung her head in shame. “Because I broke up with him, and then this rumour started going around school that I had slept with somebody else – and it’s so not true - but he heard it and asked me about it and I told him it was true. I really hurt him and he slept with Tess.”

“I see.” Nancy rubbed her eyes. “That still doesn’t change the fact that he was irresponsible and got another girl pregnant. In a couple of months time he’ll be a father.”

“I know all that Mom.” Liz insisted. “He made a mistake, and he’ll do the right thing for his child but I don’t think Tess is planning on keeping it, when it’s born.”

“She’ll give it up for adoption?”

“Yes.” That was sort of true.

Liz looked up at her mother beseechingly. “People make mistakes, Max has had a lot to deal with in his life and he’s a really good guy. I promise you.”

Nancy bit her lip. “I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. I trust your judgement but I don’t think I’ll be able to get over this just yet.”

“But in time, do you think you’d give him another chance?” Liz asked hopefully.

Nancy sighed. “I’ll try, I’ll even talk to your Dad and ask him to do the same.”

Liz knew it was the best she would get for the moment. She hugged her mother tightly and kissed her soundly on the cheek. “Thanks Mom. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Nancy replied, unable to suppress her huge grin. It faded after a moment. “So, do you want to tell me what’s going on between you and Maria?”

Liz shook her head. “It’s just personal stuff, between the two of us.”

Nancy accepted that, after all Amy Deluca had no idea what was going on between the girls either. And although Maria had claimed it was because of Max Evans, Amy had later expressed her doubts that Max was the cause of the problems. She had told Nancy that Max had called over the night before and there was no tension between him and Maria. Whatever the problem was, Amy believed that Max was the fall guy rather than the reason for the argument.

“Do you think you’ll be able to work it out?”

“I’m trying my best.” Liz assured her. “Believe me, I’m going to do everything in my power to get my friend back.”

“Good.” Nancy hugged her again and stood up. “You remind me so much of Claudia, I just hope you have a bit more sense than her.” She said affectionately.

Liz smiled. “I’ll try.”


*


Kyle gulped down the last bite of his Will Smith burger and washed it down with a large swig of alienade.

One of the waitresses came up to take away his dirty plates. He recognised her from english class, Sarah or Shannon.

“Can I get you anything else Kyle?” She asked with a flirtatious smile.

He glanced quickly at her name badge, then up to her face. He didn’t want her to think he was staring at something else. “Actually, can I get a plate of fries please, Shania?”

She laughed. “You must be hungry.”

Kyle flexed the muscles in his arm. “I’m a growing boy.” He said with a wink.

Shania laughed again. “I’ll be back with your fries.”

He watched admiringly as she walked through the swinging doors and disappeared. As the door swung back, Liz came through it.

“Hi Kyle.” She said as she slid into the booth opposite him.

“Hey Liz, I was beginning to wonder if you’d all been sucked into an alternate dimension. I’ve been here for an hour and you’re the first one of us I’ve seen.” Kyle commented. “I thought it was compulsory for at least one member of the ‘I know an Alien gang’ to be here at all times.”

“You were here.” Liz pointed out.

Kyle’s cheeky grin slipped of his face. “Oh yeah. Where’s everyone else?”

Liz sighed. “Well, Max is banned from ever darkening the door of this place again, Isabel is probably with him. Maria is more than likely avoiding me and Michael is off today.”

“What did Max do to get banned?”

“My dad found out about him getting Tess pregnant.” Liz confided.

“How?”

“I think Maria told my parents.” Liz said grumpily. “Only it’s not Maria.”

Kyle frowned at her. “It’s not Maria?”

Liz sat silently as Shania returned with a plate of fries for Kyle.

“Can I get you anything Liz?” Shania asked politely.

Liz shook her head. Shania quickly realised that they wanted to talk privately so she put down the plate and left.

When she was out of hearing rang, Liz pulled the invoice docket from her pocket and slid it across the table. “Maria sent this to me.”

“What does it mean?” Kyle asked.

“She’s being controlled or possessed or something.” Liz revealed. “That’s why she’s been acting so strangely lately.”

“Did you tell Max or Michael?”

Liz nodded. “They didn’t believe me, Isabel did her dreamwalking thing and she couldn’t see anything wrong so Max just took her word for it, he won’t believe me. But I’m right.” She leaned forward and grasped Kyle’s hand tightly. “I’m right, you have to believe me.”

“Liz…”

“No listen to me. I know it sounds irrational and I know I have no proof but I’m right.” Liz interrupted before he had a chance to argue with her. “We need to help Maria, because nobody else will. I know I’m right, I can feel it. Please Kyle, say you believe me.”

Kyle hesitated. “I don’t not believe you, but no offence Liz, I need something more than a feeling.”

“Thank you Kyle.” Liz sighed, gratified that somebody was willing to listen to her.

“No problem.” Kyle smiled. He picked up a couple of fries and began to eat. Suddenly he made a choking sound and swallowed down his mouthful “How did you do that?”

“Do what?” Liz asked, puzzled.

Kyle handed her the menu.

The Liz’s amazement all the writing had disappeared and it was blank except for one phrase which appeared to be glowing in otherworldly shade of green.

Maria is not Maria.

“It’s not me.” Liz gasped. She glanced around the restaurant quickly and spotted Michael outside talking to Maria. “It’s Michael. He’s outside.”

Kyle swivelled around in his seat to look at Michael. He was talking to Maria who had her back to them.

Liz glanced down at the menu again. The writing had changed.

It’s Tess.”

Liz gasped. “Oh my God.”

Maria made a movement to enter the restaurant but Michael caught her by the arm and stopped her.

“Go and wait for Michael in the restroom. I’ll get him to go back to you.” Liz ordered.

Kyle nodded once and sprinted away.

Liz took a deep breath and watch in trepidation as Michael and ‘Maria’ entered hand in hand. She picked up a fry and pretended to be eating.

Michael met her gaze and raised an eyebrow in question. Liz gave him a very small, imperceptible nod in the direction of the restrooms.

“Can we join you?” Tess asked sweetly, her voice dripping with fake sincerity.

Liz looked from her to Michael before nodding curtly at Tess. “Are you alright Michael?” She asked in concern. He was pale and shaking and beads of sweat were running down his face. Her stomach lurched - Michael looked terrified. Liz clenched her fists tightly under the table and forced herself to act natural.

“I’m ok.” Michael answered hoarsely. “I just need to use the restroom.”

Liz watched as Tess gave him a warning look. Liz swallowed nervously.

Tess waited until he had gone before turning back to Liz. She took a calming breath, exactly as Maria would have. “We have to talk Liz. I hate what’s going on between us. I hate that we’re not friends.”

“Me too.” Liz agreed in a whispered voice, if she had spoken louder Tess would have heard her voice shaking.

“I did something and when you find out you’re going to hate me.” Tess continued.

“You told my Mom about Max getting Tess pregnant.” Liz supplied, watching Tess intently for any unusual signs. “I heard.”

“I’m so sorry Liz. I know it was wrong but I was so mad at you for accusing me of being an evil alien that I just wanted to get back at you.” Tess said, crocodile tears filled her eyes.

“You didn’t just get back at me, you put Max and Isabel in a really difficult position with their parents.” Liz snapped loudly, hoping that Tess would buy her indignation.

“Liz, this isn’t the place to have this discussion.” Tess said in a voice of reproof as she glanced around the diner. “We need to go someplace we can yell and scream at each other until we’ve worked this out.”

Liz gripped the table. Why did Tess want her to go out to the desert with her? Why did Michael look so afraid? She forced herself to nod. “You’re right.”

“Let’s go out into the desert. It’s perfect, nobody will overhear us there.”

Overhear what? Liz wondered. “Ok.”

“Great.” Tess beamed. She glanced up at Michael who had rejoined them. “Can you drive me out to the pod-chamber. Liz and I are going to go out there and talk.”

Michael nodded, he glanced quickly at Liz. Liz saw fear in his eyes, but also determination. She felt some of her fear subside. Something in Michael’s eyes assured her that he wouldn’t let anything happen to Maria.

“I just have to clear it with my parents.” Liz told them, hoping that it sounded like a believable reason for delaying so that she could talk to Kyle and find out what the heck was going on. “They’re a bit suspicious of where I’m going since they’ve forbidden me to see Max.”

Tess did a great impression of looking ashamed. “We’ll meet you out there.” She said as she grabbed Michael’s hand and dragged him to the door.

She paused to turn back to Liz. The look in her eyes was ice-cold. “Goodbye Liz.”

A chill ran down Liz's spine. She waited until the door had closed behind them before she stood up and raced on trembling legs to watch them climb on Michael’s bike and take off. She turned and dashed into the back to where Kyle was waiting for her in the employee lounge.

“What’s going on? Why does she want me to meet her in the desert?” Liz demanded.

“We have to go for a drive.” Kyle said in a low voice as one of the waitresses passed through to the locker room. “Can you get out of here?”

Liz nodded. “Give me a minute.”

She knocked briskly on her father’s office door. Jeff and Nancy were going through some orders when she entered. “Hi honey.”

“Hi.” Liz said with forced cheerfulness. “I’m just going with Kyle to help him pick out a gift for his father’s birthday.”

Jeff frowned and was about to protest but Nancy put a hand on his arm to silence him.

“That’s fine, be home in time for dinner.” She said.


*


“What’s going on?” She demanded as soon as she and Kyle were in her jeep.

“Drive to my place.” Kyle instructed. “You were right, Maria is being possessed – by Tess. Michael figured it out somehow and now she’s forcing him to…he has to do something and if he doesn’t do it, she’s going to kill Maria.”

Liz's heart thundered in her chest. “My cell phone is in my purse, call Max.”

Kyle shook his head. “We can’t. Michael didn’t have a lot of time to explain things to me but he said that we can’t risk letting Max know in case…it’s confusing, but if Max finds out it might be bad.”

“I don’t like this. Max should know, we need him to help Maria.” Liz insisted.

“Liz we can’t risk it, if Tess finds out that Max knows, she’ll kill Maria.” Kyle argued. “Michael was adamant that we don’t tell Max.”

“So what’s he going to do? Does he have a plan? What does she want him to do?” Liz shrieked, aware that she was sounding hysterical. “Michael’s plans are never good.”

“Maria’s life has never been on the line before. He’s not going to let anything happen to her.” Kyle paused and then added. “Or you.”

“Me?” Liz repeated, her throat had suddenly gone dry. She parked the jeep in front of the Valenti’s house and turned to look at Kyle. “Tell me.”

“Tess told Michael to kill you, if he doesn’t do it she’s going to kill Maria.” Kyle blurted out.

“Oh my God.” Liz moaned.

“Obviously he doesn’t want to kill you but he has to make Tess think that he did. So he has to do something that’ll convince her without having to produce a dead body.” Kyle added in a hurry.

“What’s he going to do?” Liz asked nervously.

“He’s going to blow up your jeep.” Kyle revealed.

“Nuh uh.” Liz said, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly. “My parents would kill me if anything happened to this jeep.”

Kyle smiled and climbed out of the jeep. “It’s our turn to make Tess see things that aren’t really true.” He said

Liz followed him to the backyard. Tess’s silver jeep was parked there, gleaming brightly in the sunshine.

“We’re going to blow up Tess’s jeep.” Kyle revealed. “It’s the exact same make and model as yours.”

“But the wrong color.” Liz added.

“I’m going to try something.” Kyle explained.

He took a deep breath and placed his hand on the jeep. He was shooting in the dark but he had to give it a shot. Everytime he looked out the window and saw the jeep he was reminded of Tess, it made him feel sick just to see it there, shining brightly in the sun. He couldn’t ask Liz to drive around in the jeep and pretend it was hers for the next four or five years. Beside it would be therapeutic to see it blown up.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. Then he opened them again expectantly. Nothing had changed. “Damn.”

“Kyle, look.” Liz gasped. Kyle looked at the jeep, although the jeep had remained silver there was a shiny black handprint where he had placed his hand.

“It was supposed to change the entire jeep.” Kyle said in disappointment. “We don’t have time to do it all by hand.” He considered their options quickly. He pressed his hand to a different spot but again only the small area covered by his hand was changed.

Liz bit here lip. She really didn’t want to have to drive around in Tess’s jeep pretending it was her own. But on the other hand, if it was the only way to save both her life and Maria’s there was no choice. “Try it once more and if it doesn’t work then we’ll take mine instead.”

Kyle nodded and turned back to the jeep. This time he remembered what it had felt like when he had recovered the memory of placing Alex’s dead body in the trunk of his car. He channelled his anger and concentrated. Moments later he heard Liz squeal in delight.

“It worked.”

Kyle opened his eyes, sure enough the entire jeep was now black, and completely identical to Liz's. He allowed himself a moment of smug satisfaction before turning his mind to the next task. “We need a crash test dummy.”

“A what?” Liz asked, but Kyle didn’t answer instead he rushed past her into the garage. Liz followed and watched as Kyle began a frenzied search through the cardboard boxes stacked at one end.

“Aha.” Kyle exclaimed. From a box marked ‘Halloween costumes’ he pulled a life-size plastic skeleton and a witches mask, complete with long flowing green hair. He quickly pulled the mask over the skeleton’s head and held it up for Liz's inspection. “What do you think?”

“Kyle, maybe you should tell me what’s going on now?” Liz said patiently.

Kyle took a deep breath. “Michael and Tess are going to be lying in wait for you at that really bad bend just before the tunnel. Michael’s going to use his powers to blast your jeep off the road and down the cliff.

Liz licked her lips. “Why do we need a crash test dummy?”

“We’re going to get out of the jeep before the bend and then you’re going to use your powers to send the jeep around the corner. The dummy will be sitting in the driver’s seat to make it look like there’s somebody in the jeep. Once its in Michael’s sight, he’ll take over.”

“There’s no way I’ll be able to move an SUV with my powers. “ Liz protested. “You saw me the other day, I could barely move a rock. I’m calling Max.”

She reached into her purse and pulled out her phone.

Kyle quickly grabbed it from her, turned it off and set it down on one of the shelves above her head and out of her reach.

“Listen to me Liz, until ten minutes ago, I wasn’t able to do anything, but I changed the color of that jeep. Isabel said that when the time came, when we needed them, we’d be able to use our powers. And she’s right, I’m not going to let Tess hurt another one of my friends. I’m not going to let her hurt you again.”

“Kyle…” Liz said uncertainly.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this.” Kyle continued. “But we have to trust Michael. I think he knows what he’s doing. He’s not going to let Tess hurt Maria. Are you?”

Liz shook her head. “No.” She said firmly.

“Good, I know you can do this, for Maria.” Kyle told her. He hugged her briefly. “Lets go.”


*


Kyle lay on his stomach and peered through a pair of binoculars. Michael was looking in his direction, his gaze unwavering. Beside him Maria was sitting on the crash barrier, talking and laughing animatedly. From a distance they looked like any normal couple.

He zoomed in on Maria and watched her for a moment, looking for something – a hand gesture, a facial expression – anything that showed she was really Tess, his Tess. But there was nothing. And at that moment any lingering feelings he had for Tess vanished and he was filled with a determination to see her fail.

She would never hurt any of his friends again.

He clambered off the rock and returned to Liz who was standing by the jeep in deep concentration. She opened his eyes as he approached and gave him a small, reassuring smile.

“Are you ready?” Kyle asked.

Liz exhaled slowly and nodded.

“I have to page Michael so he’ll be ready.” He quickly tapped in the agreed codeword ‘Good game’ and sent it.

“We’ll wait a couple of minutes to get the message and get ready. Let’s get in position.” He suggested.

He helped Liz climb onto the rock that gave her a good view of the road.

“We have to stay out of sight until Michael lets us know it’s safe to come out.” Kyle said. He checked his watch and glanced at Liz. “Ready?”

Liz nodded. Her face was resolute and Kyle knew without a doubt that she would be able to do this.

He leaned into the jeep to let off the emergency brake and straightened up the dummy. At the last moment he stroked the long green hair and it changed to brown. He smirked and whispered. “Have a good trip.”

Liz waited until he had climbed up beside her before raising her hand. Kyle noted satisfactorily that is was steady, there was no sign of any shakiness. He held his breath.

She closed her eyes and summoned all her energy, all hate and anger for Tess, her love for Maria, her guilt over Alex and her desire to protect Max and the others. She felt them gather in the pit of her stomach, felt the energy flowing in her veins, it was almost painful. Then she focused it into her hand and let it all loose.

The jeep lurched once, then began to roll smoothly down the road. It picked up speed quickly. Then it swerved dramatically before disappearing around the bend, out of sight.

“It’s in Michael’s hands now.” Liz said as she slumped onto the rock.

“Oh no.” Kyle moaned, as another car appeared on the horizon, the last thing they needed was a witness. The approaching car was travelling so fast that by the time he recognised it, the blue chevelle had already rounded the bend.

“That was Max.” Liz gasped.

And then they heard the explosion.


*
Image
Banner by Evelyn
User avatar
tequathisy
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 292
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: I'm behind you.
Contact:

Post by tequathisy »

As usual thanks for all the feedback. This chapter starts off from where the three parts of chapter 30 ended.

harroc83
begonia9508
nibbles2
sylvia37
Ellie
glad you liked the conversation between Liz and her Mom. It needed to be said.
BehrObsession
Grace52373
Buffsteraddict
Venus_star2.com
lazza
Timelord31
you were close

Chapter 31


The black SUV ploughed through the ineffective crash-barrier and tumbled down the steep ravine. It came to a rest amongst the scrubby bushes at the bottom. For a moment all was still and then it exploded, an immense fireball quickly engulfed the jeep. If anybody had survived the impact of the crash then would have been killed instantly in the flames.

Tess ran to the barrier at the side of the cliff and peered over. She looked back at Michael with a huge smile on her face.

“Ding dong, the bitch is dead.”

And then all hell broke loose.

A blue car came careening towards them at such speed Michael was sure it wouldn’t stop. Long after he should have, the driver applied the brakes and the car skidded to a halt, doing a 180 turn as it did and bashing the crash-barrier with its taillight. Only when he spotted Isabel inside, scrambling to get out did Michael recognise it as Max’s car.

Max jumped from the driver side and darted for the barrier so fast that Michael thought he was going to hurl himself over it and down into the ravine.

Liiiizzzzzzz.” He screamed in anguish.

Isabel managed to grab him just in time. Max whipped around and pushed her with such force she stumbled backwards into the car. Michael lunged for him and dragged him away from the edge. Max struggled fiercely, thrashing about wildly. Occasionally he would omit a guttural sound that reminded Michael of wild animals. To his surprise Brody Davis appeared at Max’s side to assist Michael. They dragged him several feet away from the edge.

“Listen to me Max.” Michael urged in a whisper. “This isn’t –”

“Hello husband.”

Max froze at these words.

“Tess?” He said in disbelief.

Michael let go of Max and grabbed Tess by the arms. He shook her hard. “It’s done. She’s dead.” He yelled. “There’s no reason to stay here, go. Leave Maria alone.”

“And miss the party?” Tess asked with an exaggerated pout.

“We had a deal, I’ve done my part. It’s time for you to do yours, go away.” Michael shouted.

“Tess.” Max said again. This time his voice was full of hate and fury. He shook off Larek’s hold and launched himself at Tess, knocking her from Michael’s grasp.

They landed in a heap on the floor, at once Max wrapped his hands around Maria’s slender neck and began squeezing tightly. “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you, you bitch.” He snarled.

“No Max.” Michael yelled desperately as he tried to get Max off Maria. “It was me, I killed her. I killed Liz.” He punched Max hard in the face and it succeeded in loosening Max’s grasp on Maria’s neck. Michael hauled him off her and flung him on the ground.

“Isabel you have to help Maria.” Michael shouted as Max rose to his feet and began raining down blows on Michael.

Max was so overcome with grief and fury that he could hardly see straight and most of his punches missed their target, but they came so hard and fast that he succeeded in knocking Michael to the ground.

Isabel watched fearfully as her brother and Michael rolled in the dust, trading punches, unsure if she should intervene or not. She had heard Michael admit that he had killed Liz and it left her trembling. She couldn’t believe that Michael would ever do such a thing.

Larek grasped her by the arm and shook her out of her daze. “Isabel we have to help Maria. Quickly before Tess does something harmful to her.”

Tess was sprawled on the ground, gasping and coughing, but she had a smile on her face and was watching the two boys in amusement. Maria’s body was automatically fighting for breath but Tess was too focused on Max’s reaction to have noticed.

“You can free her from the hold Tess has on her Isabel.” Larek urged. “Just do the opposite of what you did when you called me today.”

Isabel shook her head. “I don’t know what I did then, it just worked. I don’t know what to do.”

“I’ll help you.” Larek said kindly. He pulled her gently towards Maria.

Tess looked up at Isabel as she approached and laughed. “Ah, my loving sister-in-law.” She mocked.

“Don’t call me that.” Isabel said through gritted teeth.

Tess sneered. “You were never much of a sister to me. All I wanted was a friend, you could have prevented all this if you had just been nice to me.”

“You weren’t interested in being my friend or my sister.” Isabel yelled. “You used me as a way to get to Max. You’re an evil bitch and I promise you that one day you’ll roast in hell.”

“I’m just following your illustrious example. They say there’s a special place in hell for traitors Isabel, so I’ll see you there.” Tess laughed.

“I’m not like you.” Isabel hissed furiously.

“You betrayed us on Antar and it caused all our deaths.” Tess told her, she waved her hands in the air. “None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for you. You bring death wherever you go.”

“That’s not true.” Isabel protested weakly.

“Really? We all died because you wanted to be Kivar’s queen. What about Alex and Grant Sorenson? Liz?” Tess continued.

“Don’t listen to her Isabel.” Larek said in her ear. “She’s trying to distract you from what you have to do.”

Suddenly Tess jumped to her feet and brushed past Isabel. “Kyle.”

Isabel swung around in surprise and watched as Kyle raced towards them. She briefly wondered where he had come from.

Tess reached for Kyle but he recoiled from her touch. “I’m sorry Kyle. I’m so sorry for everything.” She said, sounding genuinely upset.

Kyle looked at her and said in a calm and even voice. “If we’re ever on the same planet again, I’ll kill you myself Tess.”

“I never meant to –”

“I don’t want to hear it.” Kyle roared. He turned to Isabel. “Can you get rid of her? Please.”

“Kyle -” Tess pleaded, grasping his arm.

Kyle pushed her roughly to the ground and hurried to Isabel. He whispered in her ear. “Liz isn’t dead, we need to get rid of Tess before Max kills Michael.”

Isabel looked at him in wide-eyed surprise, then followed his gaze to Max and Michael. Max’s fury had helped him gain the upper hand over Michael, who had exerted so much energy controlling the jeep he was barely able to ward of Max’s blows. Max was pummelling him furiously, as though he too was possessed by some malevolent being.

“Isabel?” Kyle asked.

She nodded and looked to Larek. “Let’s do it.”

Larek grabbed Tess from behind, holding her arms behind her back. She struggled against him, kicking at his legs.

Isabel placed her hands on Maria’s head, somehow, instinctively knowing what to do.

It worked almost instantaneously. Isabel was thrown several feet and when she looked up, Maria and Larek were lying in a tangled heap on the ground. Her head was thumping in pain.

Kyle rushed to Isabel’s side and helped her to her feet. “Did it work?” He asked urgently.

Isabel closed her eyes briefly and tried to access Maria’s mind. It felt so different from that morning that Isabel wondered how she had ever believed that Maria wasn’t possessed. She opened her eyes and nodded at Kyle groggily. “She’s gone.”

Kyle breathed a sigh of relief. Immediately he went to help Michael. Utilising his many years of playing football and wrestling he tackled Max and held him on the ground. Max struggled against him, but Kyle held firm. It seemed to sap the last of Max’s energy and he stopped fighting. He slumped onto the ground and began to weep.

Michael struggled to sit up. He looked a sorry sight and Kyle could tell at a glance that he was severely beaten. He seemed to be bleeding from everywhere and his clothed were ripped.

“Maria…?” he asked weakly.

“She’s ok. It’s over, Tess is gone.” Kyle assured him.

Michael let his head slump back down onto the ground. “Max…I didn’t do it.” He called out weakly.

Max didn’t seem to hear him. He was too consumed in his grief.

Kyle sighed and stood up. “Back in a minute. Mind if I borrow your car Max?”

Isabel watched in bewilderment as Kyle climbed into Max’s car without waiting for a reply and drove off. She hurried over to her brother’s side and hovered over him. Max was the picture of despair, inconsolable with grief. A few feet away lay Michael, covered in blood and moaning in pain. Unsure what was happening or what to do, she turned to Larek helplessly.

Larek looked down at Michael. “Can you heal?”

“No, I’ve never been able to do it.”

“You keep saying that you can’t and yet all afternoon, I’ve seen you do one incredible thing after another.” Larek smiled. “You may not have Max’s powers but you may be able to bring Michael some relief from his pain.”

Nervously Isabel knelt beside Michael and placed her hand gently on his face. He had a deep cut above his eye and it was bleeding profusely.

“It’s a simple matter of molecular manipulation.” Larek counselled. “All you need to do is repair the damage.”

Isabel took a deep breath and covered the wound with her hand. To her surprise and delight, the skin fused together and the cut disappeared. Happy to have something constructive to do, Isabel ran her hands over Michael’s battered body, seeking out other small wounds to heal.

It gave Michael enough energy to suddenly sit up. “Max, I didn’t do it. She’s not dead.”

Max looked up as though he was speaking some incomprehensible foreign language. “What?”

Michael coughed and shifted closer to Max. “She wasn’t in the jeep. Look.”

He raised his hand at pointed feebly in the direction of the road. Max’s car was returning and there was somebody in the passenger seat beside Kyle.

Max jumped to his feet and raced towards the car. Before the car had stopped, Max yanked the passenger door opened and Liz jumped out into his arms.

“Liz.” He breathed. For the longest moment, Max simply held Liz tightly, feeling her chest move beneath his arms, her heart beating in her chest close to his, her warm breath against his neck. She wrapped her arms around him and they clung to each other.

Then he drew back, the smallest bit so that he could see her face. She smiled up at him, beautiful and alive.

“Liz.” He said again, reverently holding her face in his hands. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. I’m sorry about Tess and the baby. I’m so sorry about everything.”

Liz placed her finger gently on his lips. “Later Max.” She said quietly, then she leaned into him and pressed her lips against his. They both moaned as their lips came together. It was so long since they had kissed, too long.

Far too soon for Max’s liking Liz pulled away from him completely and rushed to Maria’s side. Max followed.

Her friend was lying on the ground, whimpering in pain and clutching her head. Liz knelt beside her and quickly pulled off her jacket to use as a pillow under Maria’s head.

“Maria, sweetie are you ok?” Liz asked gently.

“Liz?” Maria moaned in surprise, she opened her eyes and squinted. “Liz. I thought…”

“It’s ok, I’m right here.” Liz assured her. She turned to Max. “Can you help her?”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” Larek’s voice interrupted. “I’m not sure that Max can do anything to help. How long has she been possessed?”

“Since the morning she found out about the fire, 8 days.” Liz replied at once.

Larek nodded. “That’s longer than is usually advisable but not long enough to do any real damage. She will suffer adversely for a few days – bad headaches and lack of energy, but she’ll be fine.”

“No, Max has to heal her.” Liz insisted. “She might die.”

“She won’t die, I promise you.” Larek said gently. “I’m not sure that healing her will help, it takes a lot of energy to do it and draws from the brain, I’m not sure if her brain could handle dealing with a healing right now. She’ll heal naturally in a few days.”

“Are you sure?” Liz asked.

“Yes, what she needs is plenty of bed rest.” Larek smiled. He glanced at Michael who was slowly making his way to them with Isabel and Kyle’s help. “If anybody needs help, it’s him.”

Max winced guiltily and quickly went to help Michael. “Michael, I’m sorry.” He said at once.

“I’m just glad that I got the killer power and not you.” Michael joked weakly, he immediately put his hand against his ribs and winced. “That feels broken.”

“Let me.” Max offered and set to working healing Michael’s injuries. He had sustained three broken ribs, a fracture in his left hand and several bruises. As each one healed, Max felt guiltier and guiltier.

“Thanks man.” Michael said when he was completely healed. He rose to his feet and made his way to Maria’s side. He took her hand gently in his. “Hey.”

Maria’s eyes fluttered open. “Hi.”

“So I’ve a question.” Isabel said as she returned from Max’s car with a bottle of water, which she handed to Liz. “How come you’re not dead?”

Liz unscrewed the cap from the bottle and helped Maria sit up to take a sip. “I wasn’t in the jeep.”

“Then who was?” Isabel asked in alarm.

“Nobody.” Kyle said triumphantly. “Michael was able to warn us about what was happening so we put a dummy in the drivers seat and Liz used her powers to drive it around the corner.”

“Why didn’t you warn us?” Isabel asked Michael. “We could have helped.”

Max shook his head. “He couldn’t risk it. Maria’s life was at stake and he did what he had to do to save her. If we’d got involved then things mightn’t have worked out the way he wanted them too.” He looked at Michael gratefully, while he had been healing Michael’s injuries he had seen what Michael had gone through that afternoon. He knew that Michael hadn’t considered killing Liz for a moment and had been prepared to do whatever was necessary to save both girls. “Thanks.”

Michael shrugged stiffly. “Let’s get out of here before somebody comes.”

“Slight problem, we’re a car short now.” Kyle said. “We only have the chevelle.”

“And my bike.” Michael added. He eyed Kyle for a moment before asking, reluctantly “Do you think you could drive it?”

Kyle’s eyes lit up and he nodded eagerly. “Yes.”

Michael narrowed his eyes and glared at him. “Be careful with it.” He turned to Liz. “Sorry about your jeep Liz.”

“Don’t be.” Liz grinned. “You just blew up Tess’s jeep.”

“What?” Michael asked in amazement. “Tess’s jeep is silver, isn’t it?”

“More of an ash grey.” Kyle laughed. “I changed the color to black.”

“With your powers? I thought you weren’t able to use them.” Max frowned.

Kyle shrugged, but his chest was puffed and it was clear he was proud of his work. “I’ve always been able to rise to the occasion. So, I’ll take Liz back to my place to collect her jeep. Will you take Maria home?”

Max held Liz's hand tightly in his, reluctant to let her go.

She smiled at him. “It’s for the best Max, my parents have forbidden me from seeing you. If they find out that we were together, two hours after the forbid it, they’ll be really pissed.”

“Mine too.” Max conceded grudgingly. He looked at his watch and swore. “I should get home before Mom and Dad think I’ve done a runner.”

“We’ll drop you off first Max, then I’ll take Maria and Michael to her place, and then I’ll drop Larek home.” Isabel decided authoritatively. Nobody argued. “Lets get Maria into the car.”

Michael scooped Maria off the ground and carried her to the car. Larek rushed ahead to open the car door and Isabel gave Kyle a meaningful glance before she followed them.

“I’ll…uh… go see if I can start that bike.” Kyle said, excusing himself.

Max realised that Isabel had left him alone with Liz, he shot her a quick grateful smile before turning all his attention back to Liz. “Are you ok?”

Liz nodded. “It’s just been a really emotional rollercoaster of a day. First I figured out about Maria, then we confronted her, then I had an argument with you, had an argument with my parents and was forbidden from seeing you, had a heart to heart with my Mom, discovered that I was right about Maria and learned that Tess wanted to kill me, used my powers successfully and help save Maria’s life.

“Phew, and all before dinnertime.” Max smiled. “Liz, I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you this morning. I should have believed you.”

“I understand why you didn’t. I had no real proof that I was right and Maria – Tess, was able to convince you that she wasn’t possessed.” Liz assured him.

“But when you told me that you had a feeling, I should have listened to you. You’ve always been right in the past.” Max protested.

Liz smiled. “I’m a scientist Max, I believe in facts over feelings. If the evidence is telling you something then generally it’s right.”

“The rules of science don’t seem to apply to us.” Max sighed. “I promise in future that when you have a feeling I’ll put more faith in it and I’ll always help you. I let you down this morning. I want to be somebody you can rely on and depend on. I don’t want to be the one who lets you down.”

“Thanks Max.” Liz smiled. “What did your parents say to you about Tess?”

“I’m grounded and all my earnings have to go to an account they’re setting up for the baby and I can’t see you anymore.” Max grimaced. “Oh, and I have to sell my car.”

“Ouch.” Liz bit her lip in hesitation. “Maybe you should tell them the truth, it might make things easier for them to understand. There’s still a shapeshifter out there, not to mention whenever Larek needs to talk to you or if Tess strikes again, or Kivar tries another trick. If your parents –”

“Those are all the reasons I don’t want to get them involved.” Max interrupted. “They’re right, I did something incredible thoughtless and stupid and I deserve to be punished. Please don’t give me a hard time about this, I get enough of that from Isabel.”

“Max, I feel that you should tell them.” Liz urged.

“That’s not fair Liz.” Max chided. He noticed Michael beckoning impatiently from the car. “Are you grounded?”

Liz shook her head. “No, I didn’t do anything wrong, but I’m not allowed see you either or go to the museum anymore. And you’re banned from the Crashdown.”

Max sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “If I can get Isabel to let me take a few hours off from work tomorrow morning will you be able to meet me somewhere?”

“I’ll probably be at Maria’s, can you come over there? We’ll have to talk to her anyway and find out what she knows.” Liz suggested.

“Good idea.” Max agreed. He saw Michael beckoning again. “I should go before Michael comes over here and drags me into the car.”

“Yeah, I should go home too.” Liz nodded.

Neither made an attempt to move away, instead they gripped each other’s hands tighter.

Suddenly Max pulled Liz into his arms and held her close to his body. “When I saw your jeep go over the edge and I thought I’d lost you, it was the worst moment of my life.” He whispered into her hair. “I was going to jump over the edge to be with you. I couldn’t live without you Liz Parker. You’re the air and the sun to me. I love you, I love you more than anything.”

“I love you too Max.” Liz responded tearfully. “Do you still have your cellphone?”

Max nodded. “I’ll call you tonight on yours.” He kissed her gently, savouring the unique taste of her lips. Behind him he was aware of Michael growing increasingly frustrated, normally he would have ignored him or enjoyed the chance to wind him up but he knew that Michael was anxious to get Maria home so reluctantly he pulled away from Liz.

“I love you Liz.”

Slowly Liz stepped out of his embrace and began to walk away, she turned to him one last time and smiled. “I love you too.”


*


Later that night Kyle knocked on the Deluca’s front door. “Hey Ms Deluca.”

“Hello Kyle.” Amy smiled. “And please call me Amy.”

“Sure.” Kyle agreed. “I’m looking for Michael, is he still here?”

Amy nodded. “Poor Maria seems to have caught a bad case of the flu so she’s been in bed all day. Michael’s been looking after her. They’re upstairs in her room, you can go on up to them.”

“Thanks Ms Deluca.” Kyle said and climbed the stairs. He knocked quietly on the door and peered inside. Maria was curled up in a ball under her duvet, fast asleep. “Michael, are you here?” Kyle whispered.

Michael appeared from Maria’s walk-in closet. “Hey Valenti, I’m just going through some stuff here that I think Tess was using while she possessed Maria.”

“Anything interesting?” Kyle asked with a scowl.

“Don’t know yet.” Michael shrugged. He put down the bundle of notebooks, glared at Kyle and crossed his arms. “Is my bike ok?”

“Yes, it’s fine.” Kyle assured him. “It’s outside, here’s your keys.”

“Thanks.” Michael said, as he pocketed the keys. “And you know…for today…thanks.”

“No problem.” Kyle grinned. “I’m going to go, say hi to Maria for me.”

“Sure.” Michael said turning back to the notebooks.”

Kyle paused outside the door for a moment before going back inside the room. Michael looked up in surprise.

“Today, when I tried to change the color of the jeep I wasn’t able to do it at first.” Kyle began, then stopped to consider his words.

“Yeah…” Michael prompted.

Kyle shook his head. “Liz asked me to try it again, because she didn’t want to give up her own jeep and have to use Tess’s instead so I did.”

“And…”

“And it worked, but…I don’t think it was me.”

Michael frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I think somebody else changed the color because I’ve tried it out a few times since then on my own car and all I can manage is to change the color of my handprint.” Kyle explained. “I thought maybe it was the adrenaline rush that made me able to do it this afternoon, but now I’m not so sure. I think there was somebody else there today and they changed it.”



*
Image
Banner by Evelyn
User avatar
tequathisy
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 292
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: I'm behind you.
Contact:

Post by tequathisy »

As usual, thanks for all the feedback. This story is in the home stretch now so hopefully I'll have it finished soon, but there's still a few chapters to go yet. This chapter is mostly transition.

Arianneleigh
Itzstacie
Otherworldly – yes. Ghostly – no.
Ellie I guess what Max/I meant was that he’s trust her instincts and intuition. Even though I think she’s right about telling his parents, Liz’s not right to impose her feelings into Max’s relationship with his parents.
BehrObsession
Liz86000
sylvia37
Grace52373
Lazza
I think despite everything else she did, Tess did genuinely care about Kyle and his good opinion and respect mattered to her. She knows that what she’s done is wrong and Kyle is the one she wants to apologize to. Maybe because she feels he’s the only one that never hurt or excluded her.
Emz80m
begonia9508
Timelord31
Maybe!
Buffsteraddict
Nibbles2




Chapter 32

“You look tired.” Nancy Parker commented from the passenger seat of Liz's SUV.

Liz glanced at her quickly before returning her attention to the road. “I didn’t sleep great last night.”

“Is there something bothering you? You were very quiet all last night?” Nancy asked.

“I just have a lot of things on my mind.” Liz told her. “Max and … stuff.”

“I tried to talk to your dad about easing up on Max but he wouldn’t hear of it.” Nancy said as Liz pulled into the Deluca’s driveway. “Too soon I guess.”

“I didn’t really expect him to change his mind, but I appreciate you trying.” Liz said with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Max is going through some things right now and it’s hard not being able to be there for him.”

Nancy patted her hand. “I know sweetie. But at least you and Maria patched things up.” She added brightly.

“Thank god.” Liz agreed. “Let’s go in.”

Sean Deluca let them in as he hurried out to work, they found Amy drying dishes in the kitchen and talking to Michael Guerin.

“Oh Nancy. I completely forgot we were supposed to go shopping together today.” Amy exclaimed in dismay when she spotted the Parkers. “Maria’s not well at the moment and I’m not sure if I should leave her.”

“Poor Maria, is it serious?” Nancy asked in alarm.

“I’m not sure, she had a really bad headache last night and a high temperature, but she’s still asleep this morning so I haven’t had a chance to check up on her.” Amy flustered. “It’s not like her.”

“You go.” Michael interjected. “I’ll stay with Maria.”

“I’ll stay too.” Liz added quickly before Amy could protest. “I know that you and Mom were looking forwards to this. If Maria needs you we’ll call you on your cell.”

Amy wrung her hands with indecision. “Are you sure?” She eventually asked.

“Of course.” Michael assured her, taking the dishcloth from her hands.

“Ok, thanks Michael, Liz.” Amy sighed. “I’ll just run up and check on her. There’s some chicken broth defrosting in the saucepan on the stove, she likes that.” She disappeared up the stairs.

“You’re up early Michael.” Nancy said conversationally.

“Sean took a lot of pleasure in making as much noise as he could this morning so I didn’t really have a choice.” Michael told her.

“Oh…you stayed here last night?” Nancy said with surprise.

Michael scratched his eyebrow. “Yeah.”

“Oh...” Nancy said again.

“Alright, I’m ready.” Amy said cheerfully as she bustled back into the kitchen. “Maria’s temperature seems to be normal, but be sure to call me if she gets worse.”

Michael and Liz promised they would and waved off the two women.

As soon as they were gone, Liz turned to Michael. “So? How’s Maria? Were you talking to her? Did you find out anything?”

Michael held up his hands to stop the flow of the questions. “She woke up a few times during the night, she was a bit disorientated at first, her head was hurting her a lot. She knew that Tess had possessed her but that’s all. I went through some things up there that I think belonged to Tess, maybe you could have a look at them later.”

Liz nodded. “What did you tell Amy was wrong with her?”

“Just that she had a bad headache, but if it persists I have an idea.” He took a jar of pills from his pocket and handed them to Liz. “They’re Maria’s painkillers for her wrist. I gave her one of those last night and it seemed to help her headache. Read the warning on the side.”

May cause headaches, drowsiness and nausea.” Liz read aloud. “So we tell Amy it was a bad reaction to the pills?”

“She’s pretty anti-western medicine so she’d believe it, right?” Michael asked.

Before Liz could answer they heard a loud scream from Maria’s room. Michael raced up the stairs with Liz hot on his heals and burst into Maria’s room.

They found Maria standing in front of the mirror, holding her hair. She turned around to face them in outrage. “That bitch cut my hair.” She spat out in fury. “I’m so going to kill her.”

“Jesus Christ Maria.” Michael admonished, “I though it was something serious.”

Maria turned to face him with a look of anger on her face. “Why don’t you let me cut your hair and see how you like it.”

“Michael brought his hand to his hair protectively.

“Maria.” Liz murmured and threw herself into her friend’s arms. To her surprise she realised she was crying. “I’m so sorry.”

“Liz, don’t apologise. From what Michael says, you were the one who figured it out.” Maria said as she patted her friend’s back.

“I should have realised it straight away, right from the day you…she …I should have known.” Liz sobbed. “I’m so sorry. I’m such a bad friend.”

“It’s ok Liz. Michael told me that she gave you a really hard time.” Maria said as she patted Liz's back soothingly. “You figured it out in the end and I’m fine now. Please don’t cry. Don’t give her the satisfaction of making you cry.”

Liz sniffed and pulled away from Maria to get a tissue. She blew her nose loudly, raising a smile from Maria and Michael.

“I have to tell you something.” Liz said quietly. She looked at Michael quickly.

Surprisingly he understood that she wanted to be alone with Maria for a moment. “I’m going to make you some breakfast, is there anything you’d like.”

“Something light, toast maybe.” Maria suggested, rubbing her stomach. “I still feel a little nauseous.”

She took a seat on the bed and patted the comforter for Liz to take a seat beside her.

“I have to tell you something. I should have told you right away but I was afraid.” Liz began. “I thought you’d hate me and then Tess figured it out and really made me feel awful about it. I hope you won’t react the same way but I think I’d deserve it if you do.”

“Liz, you don’t have to tell –”

“I burned down your house.” Liz blurted out. “When we were watching that tape, I made the TV blow up. It wasn’t booby trapped, it was me.”

Maria took Liz’s hands in hers and squeezed them gently. “I already knew that.”

“What?” Liz gasped.

“You know that feeling you get sometimes if you touch metal, like an electric shock?” Maria asked.

“Static shock?” Liz frowned, wondering where Maria was going with this.

Maria nodded. “Yeah, that’s the one. The night of the fire I got one of those shocks from you just before the TV blew up. I completely forgot all about it because of everything that happened – the fire, my wrist, that tape. Anyway, the night Jennifer Coleman abducted us and you used your powers to deflect that bomb into the lake I was standing right beside you and I got the same shock again. So I figured it out.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“At first I didn’t know if you knew.” Maria explained. “I thought maybe you hadn’t realised that you started the fire and I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d feel totally responsible and I thought you had enough to deal with.”

“I was responsible.” Liz argued.

“No, the crappy wiring was responsible.” Maria countered. “Lots of TVs blow up and don’t start fires, it was the wiring in the house. You can read the report they gave my mom if you like.”

Liz shook her head, no matter what Maria said she would always feel responsible. “I’m sorry Maria.”

“Stop saying that.” Maria said in mock anger, making a strangling gesture with her hands. “Do you remember what happened the next day?”

“We took Jennifer Coleman to meet the Whitman’s.” Liz recalled.

“After that you I told you something.” Maria reminded her. “I said that I loved you even if you turned green and sprouted antenna. Well that was code for I love you even if you blow up my TV and start a fire and burn down my house.”

“So you’re not mad?” Liz asked in disbelief.

“I was a little bit…miffed at first because you hadn’t told me.” Maria admitted. “But then we went to see the Whitman’s. It made me realise what it would have been like if I lost you. I’d never really considered it before, that you died that day in the Crashdown.” She took a deep breath and exhaled it. “It was only a house Liz. You’re my bestfriend in the whole universe. The way I look at it, you have powers because you were brought back from the dead. If losing my house was a sacrifice I had to make to keep you then that’s one I’m more than willing to make.”

“Really?” Liz asked in a small voice.

“Really, really.” Maria laughed. She hugged Liz tightly. “And hey, look at this palace. It wasn’t much of a sacrifice.”


*


Michael stood at the foot of the stairs, Maria’s breakfast tray in hand and listened carefully. There was no shouting or screaming coming from Maria’s bedroom, which had to be a good sign. He decided not to interrupt their conversation just yet, he could easily make more toast when Maria was ready.

As he made his way back into the kitchen, the doorbell chimed. He doubled back and answered it. Max, Isabel and Brody were on the other side.

“Hey guys. Come on in.”

“It’s Larek.” Isabel whispered as she passed Michael and nodding in Brody’s direction. “How’s Maria?”

“She’s ok.” Michael informed the trio as he led them into the kitchen. “Liz is upstairs with her now. Kyle will be here soon. Was he talking to either of you last night?”

Max and Isabel shook their heads.

“He called over last night to leave back my bike. He thinks that there was somebody else there yesterday when he changed the color of the jeep.” Michael explained.

“Who?” Isabel asked.

Michael shrugged. “The only person I can think of is the shapeshifter.”

“But why would he help Kyle and Liz?” Max asked.

“We’ve sort of assumed that he…or she wouldn’t be on our side because of Nacedo, right? But what if we’re wrong? What if this shapeshifter is a good guy?” Michael asked.

“Are you saying that you think we should trust the shapeshifter?” Isabel asked in disbelief.

“No.” Michael responded quickly. “Just maybe, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions.”

Max glanced at Isabel and saw that she looked just as stunned by this comment as he felt. He shook his head. “Do you think Maria would be able to answer some questions this morning?”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to answer your questions but I’ll try.” Maria said as she came into the kitchen arm in arm with Liz. She glanced at Brody. “Larek, I presume?”

“Yes. How are you feeling today?” The alien asked.

Maria sat on one of the tall stools at he breakfast bar. “Better. Last night it felt like the population of Antar was River-dancing in my head, today it’s just a bad headache.”

Liz left her side and took a seat beside Max. He took her hand in his and squeezed it gently.

“That’ll last for a few days, but I don’t think you’ll have any other side effects.” Larek smiled.

“So what’s the last thing you remember?” Max asked after Michael had put a plate of toast in front of Maria and commanded her to eat.

“Moving in here, going to bed that night.” Maria said between mouthfuls.

“The next morning I came by here and we had that fight about the fire.” Liz said. “Maria said she already knew that I started it. I think Tess knew that as well and deliberately goaded me into blowing up the lamp so she could ‘realise’ the truth and have that argument.”

“That makes sense, but why did she want to argue with you?” Isabel asked. “If she wanted to keep a close eye on things why did she cause a rift between the two of you?”

Liz shrugged. “To get back at me?”

“Maybe she knew that you’d be the one to figure it out so she wanted to keep you at arms length to give herself more time.” Max suggested. He turned to Michael. “How did you figure it out?”

Michael rubbed the back of his neck. “I had a weird dream. When I woke up I just knew, so I came over here to – make sure I was right. I kissed her and I got a flash from Tess.”

“So why was she able to fool me but not Michael?” Isabel asked Larek.

“I presume you two have been intimate.” Larek said, gesturing between Maria and Michael. They nodded and both turned interesting shades of pink. “There are some connections that can’t be fooled.”

“You left a message for Liz, how did you do that?” Max asked Maria.

“The note on the invoice?” Maria shrugged. “I just found myself standing in the kitchen one day and I knew that I had been gone for a while. I don’t know how I knew what was going on, I just did. Sean was on the phone and I knew I didn’t have much time so I just wrote it. I was only conscious for about a minute.”

“Good thinking, it’s what made me realise what was going on.” Liz complimented.

Maria smiled and gave a mock bow. “So how did she fool you guys?” She asked.

Everyone looked away guiltily for a moment.

Michael sighed. “Apart from the way she treated Liz, she acted like you.”

“And you bought that, am I really a bitch?” Maria asked.

“No, of course not.” Liz exclaimed. “You weren’t acting like a bitch, just somebody who was really angry and hurt. I guess we everything that’s happened lately it was kind of understandable. At first we thought it would pass and you’d get over it.”

“She knew things that only you could have known.” Max added hastily. “I called over one night and you and your Mom were looking at photographs your grandmother had sent. You…she knew things from when you were really young. She told us a story about a photograph of your dad you had taped to the back of your drawer and -”

“She told my mom that?” Maria exclaimed in alarm.

“It’s true?” Liz said in surprise.

“Yeah, I can’t believe she told my mom that.” Maria sighed. She looked at Michael. “What about when we kissed? Didn’t you get flashes?”

“There was no kissing.” Michael informed her. “She pretended to be too upset over Liz and when I tried to talk her into easing up on Liz, she pretended to be mad at me.”

“Oh.” Maria said, considering Michael’s words. Liz looked up at him, startled and touched by that admission.

“When I dreamwalked you, she was able to fool me.” Isabel continued. “Larek was talking to her a few times but she never told us. He had tried to warn us that Kivar had the technology to possess humans.”

“That was ironic I guess.” Maria smiled. “If I hadn’t ordered Larek to report to me first when he possessed Brody, this could have been solved days ago.”

“She acted very protective of Brody, she was always urging us to tell him the truth.” Max said. “It just seemed normal.”

“Well I hate to say this but I agree with Tess on that one.” Maria said with a grimace. “I’m going to tell Brody the truth.”

“What? No, Maria you can’t.” Max argued. “If we tell him then who knows what he’ll do. We need to be able to communicate with Larek.”

Maria glared at Max. “You have no idea what it’s like to be possessed, how scary it is to wake up and realise that you’re missing days from your life. Brody thinks he’s going crazy, he deserves to know that he’s not. I’m telling him Max.”

Max glanced at Michael and Liz, silently urging them to dissuade Maria.

“You can’t tell Brody about us if we don’t want you to Maria.” Michael sighed, reluctant to start an argument with Maria so soon. “Nobody is saying that he doesn’t deserve to know, but Max is right, we need Brody to be here, on friendly terms with us. It may sound selfish but the future of an entire planet is at stake here”

“He could be days away from checking himself into a psychiatric hospital, how will you be able to communicate with him then?” Maria asked. She turned back to Max. “You’re not my king. I don’t have to do what you say. Brody deserves to know the truth, it doesn’t have to be the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I can leave bits out and tell some white lies, but I am telling him.”

Before Max could open his mouth to argue, the doorbell rang again. Michael answered and returned with Kyle.

“So what did I miss?” Kyle asked, leaning over and nabbing Maria’s last slice of toast.

“We’re going to take a vote.” Maria announced with a gleam in her eye. “On whether we should tell Brody the truth about what’s happening to him or not. All those in favor, raise your hand.”

Kyle’s hand shot up and he smirked at Max. “He deserves to know the truth.”

Max ignored him and tuned to Liz.

She bit her lip guiltily. “Maria’s right, it doesn’t have to be the whole truth but he does deserve to know.” She slowly raised her hand.

“Three against three.” Michael said, pointedly crossing his arms over his chest.

“Ahem.” Isabel cleared her throat and waved her hand, which was also in the air. “I agree, Brody should be told.” She turned from her brothers to Maria. “It might help if I’m with you when you tell him.”

Maria smiled smugly at Max. “Thanks Isabel.”

“I know it’s not my place.” Larek said. “But I believe that Brody should be informed. Maria makes a persuasive argument and I have felt for some time now that it is wrong to keep abducting him when it is causing such havoc in his private life.”

Max sighed. “I guess you win then.”

Maria’s smile faded. “I promise it’ll be ok Max.”

“So did you learn anything from Tess?” Liz asked Michael, trying to change the subject. “Why did she want me dead? Apart from the obvious?”

“Apparently there are three ways for Max’s son to inherit the seal.” Michael began. He noticed the way Liz winced when he mentioned Max’s son. “One, Max abdicates. Two, Max dies, which was the original plan. But Tess wasn’t able to carry that out when she was possessing Maria. Or three, if the four people in the foursquare all commit an act of treason or betrayal then it’s dissolved and the heir becomes king and he forms a square of his own.”

“One that would have included Kivar.” Max said with realisation. “But why you?”

Michael bit his lip. “According to Tess I was the only one who didn’t betray it already. She did when she agreed to hand us over to Kivar, Isa…Vilandra when she…you know. And you when you saved Liz.”

“I didn’t betray you.” Max said aghast.

“You broke our rules and put Liz ahead of our safety and the promise you had made to us.” Michael said, he held his hands up defensively before Max could argue. “I’m glad you did it Max – now. But at the time that’s how we felt.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore Max.” Isabel added hastily. She turned to Michael. “I’m still a little confused, if Max saving Liz’s life was seen as betrayal then why did you have to kill her? Is the foursquare still intact?”

“I’m a little confused myself.” Michael admitted. “I don’t think it was so much what I did but that I had to do something. If I was willing to betray the foursquare to save Maria’s life then it didn’t matter what I did. I think killing Liz was just a personal bonus for Tess.”

“So is it still intact?” Isabel asked again.

“Yes.” Max said in a strange tone. He looked up when he realised everybody was looking at him and shrugged. “I just know it is.”

“But if you all died then how are you still the foursquare?” Kyle asked. “Wouldn’t the heir have inherited the seal or whatever when you died?”

“You’re thinking in earth terms Kyle.” Larek smiled. “It’s a little different on Antar. Zan died prematurely and without naming an heir, in the past when that happened the king was usually brought back from the dead and things continued as normal until he died of old age. This is the first time that the reviving process took place on a different planet and involved the DNA of an alien species, which is why it took longer than usual to recreate you.”

“Oh…” Max said lamely. How were you supposed to respond to something like that? “So it’s common practise to bring people back from the dead on Antar?”

“Only one of the foursquare can be brought back and as far as I know it’s only happened a handful of times in Antar’s history.” Larek said. “That’s going back a couple of millennia, earth time.”

“Has Antar always had the technology to bring people back from the dead, even thousands of years ago.” Liz gasped.

“No, it’s not usually done with technology. It’s a process carried out by the granolith.” Larek shook his head. “Although there was a lot of science involved this time.” He added gesturing at Max, Isabel and Michael.

“So what is the granolith exactly?” Liz asked.

Larek shrugged. “Nobody knows, we do know that it came from space and landed on Antar millions of years ago and that it contains vast amounts of untouched energy. The earliest Antarians somehow learned to harness that energy and created the very first foursquare. Although there is a very popular belief that it’s the very centre of a star that died. It’s thought that all the energy from the black hole that the implosion of the star caused is contained in that rock. Others say it was formed during the big bang. But they’re just a theories, nobody knows for certain.”

It was Kyle who broke the uncomfortable silence that followed. “Anyway, did you tell them what I said about yesterday?” He asked Michael.

“Kyle thinks that somebody helped him change the color of the jeep yesterday.” Michael explained to Maria and Liz quickly.

“I think it was your shapeshifter.” Kyle said to Max. “I know there’s no way that I was able to change the color of that jeep all by myself.”

“But why would he help Kyle?” Liz asked.

“We just assumed he was a bad guy, maybe he’s not.” Max shrugged.

“But then why hide? Why all this secrecy? Where’s he been until now?” Isabel asked in frustration.

Max ran his hand through his hair. “I have no idea what goes on inside the mind of a shapeshifter. Maybe he’s a good guy, maybe not. I guess we’ll have to keep an open mind but remain cautious.”

“Are you going to contact him?” Liz asked.

Max was silent for a moment. “I’m not sure, I’d like to talk to him, get some answers but…”

“But.” Liz nodded. He didn’t need to say more, they all knew why Max was unwilling to trust a shapeshifter.

Michael scratched his eyebrow and nodded his head towards Maria. Max glanced at her and saw that she was holding her head as though in pain. He realised that it was a lot to deal with for one morning.

“We should get back to work, I’d hate for my parents to call the museum and find out I’m not there.” He said, bringing the conversation to a conclusion. “We can talk about the shapeshifter later.”

“One last thing,” Larek said. “This was probably Kivar’s last real chance to get control of the granolith, and now it’s gone. Our forces have inflicted a great deal of damage on him and he is losing a lot of ground everyday. He’s lost a lot of men too, many of them have joined the rebels and are now fighting against him. But he will never surrender and he’ll never stop fighting until he’s dead. So be on your guard. I believe that he will probably make another last attempt. It will be desperate and rushed, but make no mistake, it will be dangerous. You must be extremely careful until I tell you that the danger is passed.”

Everyone nodded and looked at each other nervously. Larek wavered on his feet. “I think it’s time to get me back to the museum, I have to go now.”

Isabel rose to her feet and hugged Maria. “I glad you’re ok.” She said. “If it’s ok with you, I think I’ll tell Brody now, I think I know what to say to him.”

“Are you sure?” Maria asked, although by her tone, Isabel realised that she was only asking out of politeness, she needed to go back to bed.

“I’m sure.” She smiled.

Liz walked Max to the door. “I wish you didn’t have to go.” She said with a sigh.

“Me either, the last thing I want to do right now is let you out of my sight.” Max told her. “Although I guess you’re in safe hands here with Michael.” He caressed her cheek gently and then kissed her. “I’ll call you again tonight.”

Liz nodded. It was so unfair that she would have to wait until tonight to talk to Max again. She watched as he drove away and rounded a corner. She missed him already.

Liz made her way back into the kitchen where Michael was clearing up the breakfast dishes. He looked up when she entered.

“Maria’s gone back to bed. She’s not feeling great again.” He explained.

“I’ll just run up to her and see if she needs anything.” Liz said, she paused before she left the kitchen and went back to Michael.

“I just wanted to say, thanks for not killing me yesterday.” She said gently. “And thanks for sticking up for me even if it meant no nookie.” Without warning she planted a kiss on his cheek and hugged him tightly.

Michael shrugged her off but he gave her a small smile. “Maria would have kicked my ass if I’d let anything happen to you.”

“Thanks Michael.” Liz said again and hurried out of the kitchen.

Maria was already lying in bed when Liz entered the bedroom, the drapes were closed and the room was in semi-darkness. She opened her eyes briefly to see who had come in and then closed them tight again.

“Do you need anything?” Liz whispered.

“Can you stay with me for a while?” Maria asked. “I’m a little afraid to be on my own.”

“Sure.” Liz said, she climbed onto the bed and lay down beside Maria, taking one of her hands in her own. “I’m really glad you’re back. I missed you so much.”

Maria was silent for a long time and Liz assumed she was asleep when suddenly Maria’s eyes opened again.

“Hey Liz, what do you think of my hair?” she asked.

“Honestly? I really like it, it suits you.” Liz told her.

Maria nodded. “Me too.”


*
Image
Banner by Evelyn
User avatar
tequathisy
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 292
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: I'm behind you.
Contact:

Post by tequathisy »

Once again thanks to everyone who posted feedback, it means a lot to know that people are actually reading my story. If there's any lurkers out there, come on in - drop me a line.

I might not be able to post a new part next week but I'll do my best.

Timelord31 It’s Maria, I guess her new hair cut grew on her (awful pun not intended)
sylvia37
Emz80m
begonia9508
BehrObsession
Ellie
harroc83
That’s right, Tess is safe from the other members of the 4 square. They can’t lay a finger on her.
Liz86000
Ti88
Tess wasn’t really pushing to tell Brody, she was acting that way because that’s how Maria would have acted. She knew that the aliens would never go for it, so it was a safe tactic.
Grace52373
Lazza
Michael as a nurse? Mmm.

And so, on with the show...


Chapter 33


“Brody.”

At first it sounded like he was underwater and the voice was coming from far away. He didn’t know who it belonged to but he followed it because somehow he knew that it was the only way out of the murky water.

“Brody.”

It felt like he was waking up after a long night’s sleep but slowly things began to enter his brain that told him he was wrong. For starters, he wasn’t lying down, he was sitting in a chair. And there was somebody calling him, a woman – Isabel. Then his memories came flooding back.

“Brody.” Isabel called again, the worry evident in her voice. “Brody can you here me?”

He opened his eyes and smiled at her. “I’m fine, I guess it didn’t wo….”

Brody looked around in surprise. He was sitting in his office at the museum, not in his own home. Isabel was wearing different clothes. His eye landed on the clock and it was pointing to 10 o’clock. He gasped. “What happened?”

Isabel smiled at him. “It worked, I have lots to tell you.” She glanced over her shoulder and Brody saw Max standing behind her, leaning against the door. He looked worried.

“How are you feeling?” Max asked.

“I’m fine.” Brody reassured him.

Isabel gestured to a cup of steaming coffee and a Danish on the desk. “We brought you some breakfast, in case you were hungry. Do you want to wait a few minutes before we begin.”

“No, let’s start now.” Brody said as he picked up the Danish and began eating it ravenously.

Max came forward and took a seat beside Isabel. Brody noticed the way Isabel looked at him, as if silently asking for his permission to continue. Max nodded once.

“It sounds really strange, but yesterday afternoon I made contact with the alien who’s possessed you.” Isabel revealed. She swallowed nervously and watched carefully for Brody’s reaction.

Brody blinked once. “I’m being possessed by an alien?”

“Yes. All those blackouts you have, the days you don’t remember, they’re caused when the alien takes over your brain.” Isabel told him. “His name is Larek.”

“Larek.” Brody repeated quietly to himself. It sounded familiar but he couldn’t tell where he had heard it before. He looked back up at Isabel. “So I’m not going crazy.”

“No, it’s really happening to you.” Isabel answered. “Larek says that he’s really sorry for the inconvenience he’s caused you and the mess it’s made of your life. It was never intended to go on this long.”

“It’s not harmful to you.” Max added suddenly. “They cured your cancer as a show of good faith, to show that they won’t hurt you.”

Brody nodded. His Danish lay on the desk, half-eaten and forgotten. He sat and replayed Isabel’s revelation in his head again. “Why? Why me? What are they doing here?”

Max and Isabel exchanged glances again, before Isabel licked her lips and turned back to Brody.
“Larek lives on a planet that’s at war with another planet ruled by this guy called Kivar. He’s a really bad guy. Kind of like the Hitler of space, only far worse. He has plans to take over the whole galaxy he lives in, including Larek’s planet.” She explained, her hands were shaking gently but her voice was steady. “There was a really powerful religious icon on Antar that Kivar wanted but they managed to get it off the planet before he could get his hands on it. Larek sent it to earth for safekeeping and he sent some soldiers with it. They were in the crash of ‘47. Anyway the war is almost over, Kivar is nearly defeated so they need to get it back, to finish him off. Larek has been using you to get in touch with the safekeepers to let them know what’s going on.”

She paused to let this sink in. Brody nodded for her to continue.

“The reason they chose you was for your brain. They needed somebody with your skills and knowledge to help rebuild their craft so that they could get home.” Isabel told him “Obviously they have to rebuild it from scratch because the army took the other one.”

“Obviously.” Brody said.

“I know this sounds like the plot for a bad movie.” Isabel said apologetically. “But it’s real. You know that it’s happening to you, you’ve got alien devices. You can trust us, it’s really happening to you.”

“How do you know that Larek was telling the truth, that he’s the good guy.” Brody asked.

Isabel stammered unsure how to answer that question.

“It’s part of her gift.” Max blurted out. “She can sense things like that.”

“What about Steve?”

“I was talking to Jim Valenti last night, he said that Steve had a brain tumour, that’s what caused his delusions.” Max said sadly. “But you’ve had tests, you’re in great shape physically. Larek keeps you healthy. You’ve nothing to worry about that way.”

“What about you?” Brody asked. “Is this what happened to you?”

Max shook his head. “No, Larek said that I’ve never been taken, I probably had concussion or something. Isabel did her thing with me too and she got nothing. They’ve really only ever possessed a handful of people. Most of the other alleged abductees are just wrong.”

Brody nodded in agreement. He had investigated many claims and had only found one or two others that he really believed in.

“Now that you’re here is Roswell, it’s easier for him to get in touch with the other aliens so he’ll only need to take you for a very short period of time.” Isabel continued. “But if you want it to stop, they’ll find another candidate.”

“So there are aliens in Roswell?” Brody asked in astonishment.

“They look just like humans.” Max grinned. “But to protect their identities, Larek didn’t say who they are.”

Brody nodded again and rubbed his temples. “So you can really communicate with aliens?” He asked.

“Think of a word, any word.” Isabel said suddenly. “Concentrate on it.”

Brody closed his eyes and thought of his daughter, her second name flashed into his mind.

“Daphne.” Isabel said gently. “Sydney Daphne Davis. That’s what you’re thinking of.”

Brody gasped and nodded in confirmation.

“I’m not a fake, I’m not trying to trick you or fool you. I’m your friend and I want to help you. You can trust me, us.” She said softly. “We won’t let anything bad happen to you and either will Larek.”


“We realise that this is a lot to take in.” Max said. He rose to his feet. “It’s pretty busy downstairs today. I guess all the tourists that weren’t able to come when we were closed yesterday are here today. Isabel and I will go back to work. You should rest, think about what we’ve said. Decide if you want to continue.”

Isabel stood beside him. “Don’t worry about anything downstairs, I’ll take care of it.”

They turned to leave.

“Thank you Isabel.” Brody called out. “It’s nice to know I’m not crazy.”

“We knew you weren’t crazy Brody, I’m just glad we could help.” Isabel told him with a smile, then she stepped out of the office and closed the door after herself.


*


Liz was standing at the each of a cliff, it was so high that when she peered over the edge she couldn’t even see the bottom, it was obscured by clouds like in the Roadrunner cartoons. She spun around to find a heavily pregnant Tess standing beside her. Tess smiled, grabbed her arm and shook her. “I’m coming for you, Liz.”

Suddenly Liz felt herself falling, even though she could still feel Tess’s hand on her arm, shaking her.

“Liz, Liz.”

She sat up suddenly, gasping for breath, and clutched the hand that had shaken her awake.

Michael’s face hovered into view. “Are you ok?”

“I must have dozed off, I was having a dream.” Liz said. She looked around the room to make sure she was really in Maria’s bedroom and not at the bottom of a cliff. She looked back at Michael who was watching her with an amused expression. “It was a freaky dream.”

“I need to show you something.” Michael said.

“I’ll be there in a minute.” Liz said. She slid off the bed and made her way into Maria’s bathroom where she splashed cold water on her face and took a couple of deep breaths to steady her nerves.
She found Michael in the kitchen with a couple of notebooks spread across the table. Liz poured herself a glass of ice cold water and sat down opposite Michael.

“Are you alright?” Michael asked.

Liz nodded. “What do you need to show me?”

Michael pushed a notebook in front of her. “I found these in Maria’s room last night. It’s not Maria’s writing so I looked through them. I think Tess used them while she was possessing Maria.”

The open pages were covered in furious scribbles, some words seemed to run into each other and other sentences were unfinished. Liz leafed through the book and saw that they were all the same. “They’re Maria’s memories.” She gasped in horror.

Michael nodded grimly. “Tess went through them to see what she could use against us, to help her cause.”

Liz came to a page where one sentence jumped out, it was in writing three times larger than all the rest and underlined so ferociously the pen had torn the page.

Liz started the fire!!!!

“Anything else?” Liz scowled. She tossed the notebook back on the table angrily.

“This one seems to be where she wrote down her plans to…kill Max.” Michael said brandishing another notebook. “She seems to have come to the conclusion that she couldn’t kill Max without powers so most of them involved trying to steal that terrificum amplifier thingy from Brody. In the end she seems to have given up on it and decided to go with plan B.”

“I hate her, I just hate her.” Liz said fiercely through gritted teeth. The glass at her elbow suddenly splintered into dozens of small pieces and the water gushed across the table.

Michael gathered up the notebooks quickly and waved his hand over the table, evaporating the spilled water.

“Sorry.” Liz mumbled.

“I’ve done it myself a few times, only in my case it always seems to be the TV.” Michael said with a sigh. He laid the books down again and picked up another one. “Look at this one.”

The notebook he handed Liz was full of the strange alien writing from the map they had found in Riverdog’s cave and the book. “Does it make any sense to you?” Liz asked.

Michael shook his head. “Not really, but I’ve been looking at it for a while and I think Tess was trying to communicate with the shapeshifter.” He took the book from Liz's hands and flipped a few pages until he found the one he was looking for. “This one here, that’s the message she wanted to send to him.”

“What does it mean?” Liz asked.

“I think she’s offering him a way home.” Michael said. “I’m going to compare it with the translation book later and see if I can make any sense of it.”

“So she believed that the shapeshifter would help her. Do you think that’s why he was there yesterday, because she asked him to be?” Liz wondered aloud. “But he helped us instead of her. Why?”

“I don’t now if she ever communicated with him. She wasn’t expecting us to figure it out yesterday and she didn’t get a chance to communicate with him after I confronted her so I don’t think he was there because they had planned it.” Michael mused.

“Which means he was probably watching us.” Liz guessed. “If Kyle is right and he was the one who helped change the color of the jeep then he’s on our side. But why didn’t he make himself known to us?”

Michael shrugged. “I really don’t know.”

“Do you think we should try and communicate with the shapeshifter?” Liz mused. “He’s here, he seems to be friendly, and he might have some answers.”

Michael sighed. “It goes against everything in my nature to trust somebody, especially after what happened the last time we trusted one but…I don’t know, if he was willing to help yesterday maybe he’s not all bad. What do you think?”

Liz bit her lip. “I think that maybe you guys should talk to him. The last time we trusted Nacedo because he seemed to have all the answers and we needed somebody to guide us but we know now that it’s up to us, we don’t need a leader because we can do it ourselves. I think we should keep an open mind but stay cautious.”

“I think so too.” Michael agreed. “We should at least find out where he’s been and what he knows and what he has to say for himself before we make up our minds about him.”

They heard the sound of running water coming from upstairs. “Maria must be awake again.” Liz said.

“What should I do with this?” Michael asked, picking up the memory notebook. “Should I give it back to her or destroy it?”

“I think you should destroy it, it would just upset her more to see it.” Liz suggested.

Michael nodded and seconds later the notebook disintegrated into fine dust particles.

Liz brushed them into the palm of her hand and disposed of them down the sink.

“Liz,” Michael began hesitantly. “In the other notebook, the one where she plots how to kill Max, you’re mentioned a lot. She was planning to use you as bait to lure Max to the granolith chamber and then threaten to kill you if he didn’t do whatever she wanted him to do. The only reason she didn’t do that was she had no way to force you there against your will or to kill you…. The only reason I’m telling you this is because of what Larek said this morning. If she gets a second chance or if Kivar decides to do it himself or whatever, I think they could still come after you.”


*

From the moment the UFO museums doors had opened that morning, there had been a non-stop stream of people coming through the door. Apparently there was nothing like the mysterious death of an employee to drum up business, and there were more locals than tourists milling around the exhibition area. Max spent a large part of the morning standing guard to prevent snoops accessing the private areas.

By late afternoon, the rush finally died down and Max was able to leave is sentry post. He found Isabel in the gift shop and beckoned to her.

“Have you heard from Brody yet?” He asked.

Isabel shook her head. “One of the Crashdown waitresses dropped off some lunch a while ago but apart from that, he hasn’t come out of his office, I think we should check on him.”

“It’s a lot of stuff to deal with.” Max said to her. “He probably just needs time to get his head around it. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Isabel smiled. “Aren’t you the one who’s supposed to be worried and I’m the one who says it’ll be fine.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “I just hope we did the right thing. The story we told him wasn’t too far fetched, was it?”

“No more far fetched than the truth.” Max replied. “Let’s go up there.”

“Ok.”

They made there way up the stairs and knocked on the door. Isabel peered around it cautiously. Brody was chatting on the phone, but he gestured for her to come in.

“That’s great sweetie, I have to go now. I love you too. Bye honey.”

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to interrupt your phone call.” Isabel apologised. “Was that Sydney?”

“Yes, she has a piano lesson in a few minutes so she had to go anyway.” Brody told her. He had a grin on his face and Isabel realised that he looked cheerful and relaxed, as though a great weight had been lifted off him.

“We just wanted to see how you were doing.” Max told his boss.

“I’m fine.” Brody laughed, “Actually I’m better than fine – I’m great. It feels so great to know that you’re not crazy.”

“So you’re ok with what we told you this morning?” Isabel asked, a little incredulously.

“I’ve been thinking about it all day. At first I was really annoyed that somebody would just take over my brain and my body like that.” Brody informed them. “And then I realised something. “Exactly a year ago today I was in hospital, I had just been told that the revolutionary new treatment I had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for had been a complete failure and that I had, at most, eight to ten months to live.”

“Oh my God, that’s awful.” Isabel whispered.

“And if it wasn’t for…Larek…I would be dead by now. He gave me my life back. And it wasn’t just me, it was Sydney too. She had cancer as well and she was cured. It wasn’t the treatment at the hospital that cured her and it wasn’t an angel. Did you know that they found a silver handprint on all the children who had been cured?”

Max and Isabel shook their heads.

“I think it was the aliens - The ones who are here in Roswell. They cured her like they cured me.” Brody smiled. “We should both be dead. But because of them my daughter gets to grow up, and I get to see it. So I owe them everything, my life and my daughter’s life. If they want to take over my body for a few days every so often they’re welcome to it.”

“So you’re happy.” Max asked.

“I’m very happy. Thank you for your help and if you’re ever talking to Larek again, tell him thank you from me and ask him to pass on my deepest gratitude to the Roswell aliens, whoever they are.”

“We will.” Isabel smiled. “We should get back to work.”

Max followed her out of the office and into the smaller one she sometimes used. He could feel laughter bubbling up inside him.

Isabel smiled tearfully at him and hugged him.

“I’m glad we told him.” Max admitted. “I feel better knowing he’s ok with it.”

“Me too.” Isabel laughed in relief. Despite her confidence earlier, she had been terrified that Brody wouldn’t take the news well and that forcing Max to tell him the truth would backfire very badly. She looked at Max’s smiling face and decided to seize the opportunity.

“Max, please, can we tell Mom and Dad.” She pleaded.

Max sighed and pulled away from her. “Isabel, please don’t start this now. We should get back to work.”

Isabel watched him leave the room with a smile on her face, it was the first time he hadn’t said no.


*

Jim Valenti was never a ‘desk’ cop. He liked to be out on the beat, talking to people, driving around, knowing what was going on in his town first hand. So he had never developed any computer skills during his many years of office.

And now he found himself sitting at his desk, with a towering stack of reports that he had to read and then enter the necessary details into the online police website. It was slow work, especially as he used only his right index finger to type. The work was tedious and mind numbing, truthfully it was his idea of hell. But it was police work, it would pay the bills and it allowed him to retain his self-respect and dignity so he wasn’t going to complain to anybody about. So when a younger deputy knocked on his office door and told him he had a visitor, Jim almost jumped for joy.

He instructed the deputy to show the visitor in and quickly tidied up the desk as best he could.

“Good afternoon.” The visitor said as she entered the office. She was middle aged, average height, conservatively dressed and unremarkable looking. Her hair was brown, with grey beginning to show, her skin wrinkled from the weather.

Jim held out his hand as he tried to think where he had met her before. “Afternoon.” He greeted and gestured to the only other chair in the office.

“Thank you.” The woman said as she took the seat. “We’ve never met before, at least you haven’t met me.”

“I don’t understand, Ms…?.” Jim frowned.

The woman smiled enigmatically and ignored his unsubtle hint. “I believe you knew a former colleague of mine. I was hoping you could help me.”

“I’ll do my best.” Jim told her. “Who was your colleague?”

“I believe you knew him as Nacedo.” The woman said.

Jim’s hand automatically reached for the gun at his side, even before the words had fully registered with him.

The woman raised her hand, almost lazily and Jim’s arm was frozen in position, unable to move or unsheathe his weapon.

“I don’t have a name, we were never given any. You can call me two.”


*
Last edited by tequathisy on Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Banner by Evelyn
User avatar
tequathisy
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 292
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: I'm behind you.
Contact:

Post by tequathisy »

Thanks to everyone who left feedback, haven't got time to thank you all individually.



Chapter 34


Jan knocked gently on her boss’s office door. “Bert Gerritsen is here to see you Philip.”

“Great, send him in.” Philip instructed, rising from his desk and walking to the door. He met his visitor in the doorway and the two men shook hands cordially. “Take a seat Bert, would you like something to drink?”

“Coffee, black.” Bert said gruffly, as he took a seat and placed a manila folder on his lap.

Philip nodded at Jan who left the office and returned minutes later with a tray of freshly brewed coffee. Philip resumed his seat and poured two cups of coffee.

Bert remained seated, unmoving. He raised an eyebrow at Philip in a silent hint.

“Of course.” Philip said, taking his personal checkbook from his drawer and writing one out. He slid it across the table to Bert who examined it before pocketing it. Once he had been paid his whole demeanour changed and he relaxed in the chair.

“Thank you for coming to see me today.” Philip said. “Did you find out anything interesting?”

“Something very interesting, actually.” Bert said. He placed the folder on the expensive mahogany desk and took a couple of pages from it. “Ed Harding married Sheila Harding, they had one daughter Tess. They divorced in 1985 and shared custody of their daughter. In 1989, Ed Harding collected his daughter on a Friday night. Their bodies were found the next morning. Cause of death unknown.”

Philip took the newspaper article that Bert offered him. It showed a smiling six-year-old girl with long brown hair. Father and daughter (6) killed in mysterious circumstances .

“But that’s impossible, Tess Harding is alive. She went to school in Roswell with my son and daughter.” Philip said in bewilderment. “There must be some mistake. You’ve got the wrong people.”

“Not according to her school file.” Bert said. He held up his hand to prevent Philip from asking how he had seen that. “Best you don’t know. The details in her file are exactly the same as the ones in this case. Same date of birth, same address, same school record up until time of death. Her parents are given as Ed and Sheila, all the details are the same. The only difference are their social security numbers.”

“But how is that possible?” Philip asked. “Why?”

Bert shrugged. “It’s unusual. My first guess would be that somebody needed a new identity and stole theirs but why leave the bodies to be found?”

“Any luck finding their current whereabouts?” Philip asked wearily.

“That’s the other strange thing.” Bert began. “I could find nothing about Ed Harding. If he worked for the military then that might explain it, but he designed buildings for them. Nothing covert that they might need to cover up. And absolutely no trace of them since they left Roswell. The forwarding address the school has for Tess is completely bogus. Ed Harding hasn’t worked since leaving Roswell last year, Tess hasn’t accessed her bank account. They have simply vanished off the face of the earth.”

Philip placed the pages on the desk and pinched the bridge of his nose. His mind was swimming. What the hell had Max got mixed up in?

“So you’re telling me that you have no idea who they really, where they came from or where they are now?” Philip summarised. That was money well spent he thought bitterly.

“I’m afraid not Philip.” Bert agreed, not in the slightest bit embarrassed about the complete lack of information. “I have another contact I’d like to try, but I don’t think these people want to be found.” He slid the folder across the desk to Philip. “Here’s everything I could find.”

“Were they murdered?” Philip asked. “The real Ed and Tess.”

“Like I said cause of death was never established, the general opinion seems to be that Ed killed the daughter and then himself. But there’s no evidence to back it up, I read the coroners report and according to that, Ed put up a fight. He sustained several bruises. I think that, yes, they were murdered.”

“By the man who assumed his identity?”

Bert nodded.

Philip sighed and opened the folder. The first thing he saw was a copy of the coroner’s report. He pulled it out of the folder and a photograph slipped from it to the ground. He picked it up and winced. “What’s that on his chest?”

“The handprint?” Bert said leaning over to have a look. “Not sure. It was on the bodies when they found them, you can see it on the crime scene photos but it wasn’t on the bodies when the coroner did his report.”

“Thank you Bert.” Philip said, please keep looking, it’s really important that I find this girl.”

Bert stood up. “I will Philip, but I have to warn you, I don’t think I’m going to be able to find out anything more.”

“Tess is pregnant.” Philip said hoarsely. “If that helps.”

Bert nodded, understanding in part now why Philip needed to find these people. “I’ll look into it.” He stood up to go.

Philip barely heard any of Bert’s departing words. Something on one of the papers had struck him and made his blood run cold. He grunted a goodbye without looking up from the page that held his attention.

It was a date. Three weeks after Max and Isabel had been found at the side of the road, the real Tess Harding had disappeared from her mother’s life and the impostor had begun her new life with her new identity.

“It has to be a coincidence.” Philip murmured to himself. There was no link between Ed or Tess Harding with Roswell before they had moved there last year. They had turned up in Boston, thousands of miles away from Roswell.

But the more he thought about it, the more Philip was certain that it wasn’t a coincidence. For too long now, he had refused to listen to the little voice in the back of his head, but it was getting louder and more persistent. Ever since he had found out the shocking truth about Michael.

There was something very far from normal about his children.


*


“I’m not going to harm you. I’m not here to cause any trouble.”

Jim raised an eyebrow at the shapeshifter to express his disbelief.

Two smiled at him. “If you promise not to shoot me I’ll release your hand. It wouldn’t do any good, even if you did. I wouldn’t die and it would bring every cop in town running to your office.”

“I won’t shoot you.” Jim acceded. At that instance, his hands were unfrozen. He brought it up to his chest and flexed it a few times to get rid of the pins and needles. “What do you want?”

“I’ve been in town for a while, observing the comings and goings of certain people.” Two began. “Most of what I’ve learned has been very surprising. And disturbing. I’m aware that my colleague caused a lot of trouble for Isabel, Max and Michael. That is why I’ve hesitated to approach them before and that’s why I’m coming to you now. I feel that I will be needed.”

“You were needed a long time ago.” Jim said bitterly. “Where were you then?”

Two nodded. “I was not here, and that is most unfortunate. Perhaps you can tell me something, how old were they when they came out of their pods?”

“Six.”

“I see.” Two said. “That was not supposed to happen. They were not due to come out until they had reached full adult maturity, at the age of 21. It was my intention to come to Roswell to set up a base to prepare for their re-birth in three years time. So imagine my surprise, when I arrived here to find them walking around. It was afternoon when I got into town and I didn’t want to go out to the podchamber until after dark so I decided to pay a visit to that quaint little UFO Museum. And to my horror, I discovered my King, working there.”

“That was weeks ago, why have you waited so long to approach us?” Jim asked, the scorn thinly veiled in his voice.

“That’s a fair question.” Two conceded. “After recognising Zan – Max, I shapeshifted. He should have sensed it immediately and known I was there, I fully expected him to come looking for me, but he didn’t and I realised that he had fully developed all his powers. I had no way of knowing how much he knew, if anything.”

Jim shook his head in disgust. “So you decided to sneak around a spy on them?”

“I decided to bide my time and wait until I figured out the right time to approach them. I didn’t want to just walk up to them out of the blue. So I observed them, to see what they knew, how far their powers and knowledge had developed. Then I learned what Tess had done at the behest Nacedo, I knew that they wouldn’t trust me. They know I’m in town, I have left them messages to contact me.” Two shook her head. “I understand why they are cautious and unwilling to trust me. I would give them more time if I could, try to show them that I am trustworthy but unfortunately time is running out.”

“What do you mean?” Jim asked, hiding his alarm.

“I can feel it, the foursquare bond is growing weaker. If it breaks then Kivar will win and nowhere in the universe will be safe from his wrath.” Two said, far too casually for Jim’s liking. She spoke as though she was talking about bad weather. “They need me.”


*


“Will this day ever end?” Isabel sighed as she joined Max by the vending machine.

Max glanced at his watch. “Just another hour to go. And I’d rather be here than at home, disappointing Mom and Dad.” He bent down to retrieve the bar of chocolate from the bottom of the machine. “How’s Brody doing?”

Isabel smiled. “Fantastic, it’s like he’s ten years younger.”

“I’m glad we told him.” Max said and unwrapped the bar.

“I take it that means it went well.” Michael said coming up behind Max.

“Very well.” Isabel confirmed. “He decided that if it wasn’t for aliens then both he and his daughter would both be dead so he owes them a couple of hours of his time every so often. And I really think he was beginning to believe that it was all in his head and that he was going insane so he’s very relieved to find out that it is actually happening. He’s practically singing and dancing since we told him.”

“I hope you told him that he could go talking about it to other people.” Michael said grumpily.

“Of course. It’s fine, we don’t have to worry about the Brody situation anymore.” Max assured him.

Michael gave a little snort but said no more, which was as close as they would ever get to Michael admitting he was wrong.

“How’s Maria.” Isabel asked, changing the subject.

“Tired but cheerful.” Michael answered. “Apparently Tess spent a load of her money on clothes so she and Liz spent the entire afternoon going through them. I had to get out of there.” He stopped talking as a uniformed member of staff walked past them. “Can we go somewhere?”

Isabel led them into a small storage room and closed the door. “What’s up?”

“I was going through some of the notebooks that Tess had been using when she was possessing Maria.” Michael began. “It appears that at first her plan was to kill you Max, but she realised that she couldn’t because she had no powers. It would have been easy for you to defend yourself against her. So she came up with another plan, only in the end she didn’t use it.” He hesitated.

“Go on.” Max urged, realising that he wasn’t going to like whatever Michael was about to say.

Michael scratched his eyebrow. “Her plan was to use Liz as bait and either force you to kill yourself or to start up the granilith and give yourself up to Kivar. There is another crystal for it, Steve the gift shop guy was supposed to have it, but she broke into his place to look for it and it wasn’t there. In the end, she went with plan B.”

The image of Liz's jeep disappearing over the edge of the cliff and exploding in flames flashed through Max’s mind. He remembered the grief that he had felt when he believed she was dead. And he knew without a doubt, if it came to a choice between his life and Liz's, that he would willingly sacrifice his own.

“The thing is” Michael continued. “If she comes back again, or Kivar sends somebody else to do it, they’re going to have the same problem. How do they kill you without alien powers?”

“Liz.” Max said hoarsely, he could barely hear his own voice over the sound of his heart, thumping in his chest.

Isabel covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh my God.”

Michael nodded once. “She needs to learn how to defend herself, not just against somebody like Maria, but somebody a lot bigger and stronger. She needs to know how to use those powers.”

“That’s your plane to protect her?” Max yelled. “Let her defend herself?”

“What else can we do? Michael asked in return. “We can’t babysit her twenty-four seven. You’re not supposed to be anywhere near her. I have to work. Isabel has a job. So I don’t see any other choice.”

“There is one other thing we could do.” Isabel said quietly. She glanced at Max who was pacing the small room. “If we could get her to leave town, until this over. She went to stay with her aunt last summer right? She could tell her parents she wants to get away again, they’d probably be delighted to put several states between you and her.”

“I’m not going to send her away.” Max said fiercely. How could they ask him to do that, being so far away from her last summer had been torture and now they wanted him to go through that again? So soon after getting back together with Liz?

“Max, if it gets her out of harms way, then what choice do we have?” Isabel asked rationally. “Larek says that Kivar is nearly beaten, he might only have one last chance to get what he wants. If he comes back and Liz isn’t here then he won’t win. It’s not just Liz's life at stake here Max, it’s everyone on Antar. We might not remember them, but they gave us life, this life. We owe it to them to do whatever we can to prevent Kivar from winning. And if all that involves is sending Liz on vacation to Florida for a couple of months then I say we should do it.”

“Me too.” Michael added.

Max bowed his head. He recognised the sense in Isabel’s words. Michael and Isabel were just trying to look out for Liz. Asking her to stay meant putting her life in danger, asking her to leave meant that she and all of Antar would escape Kivar’s evil reach. It was simple really.

“It’s not up to us though, it’s up to Liz.” Max told them. “I’ll talk to her.”


*


Diane looked at the clock on the wall as Max came through the door. He was right on time. She felt bad for imposing these restrictions on her son, but Max needed to learn that actions had consequences.

“Hi Mom.” Max said in a distracted voice.

“Hi Max.” Diane smiled. “There’s somebody here to see you.”

Max looked up and realised that Jim Valenti was sitting at the table finishing off a cup of coffee.

“Thanks for the coffee Diane.” He said and left the cup on the sink. “Can we go outside?” He asked Max.

“Sure,” Max nodded, then turned to him mother “Is that alright?”

Diane flushed and nodded.

Jim and Max made their way into the yard and leaned against the wall.

“So I had a visitor today.” Jim began. “A woman by the name of Two. Except that’s not her real name and she’s not a woman.”

“The shapeshifter?” Max gasped. Jim nodded. “But why did she go to you?”

“Because you trust me but you don’t trust her. She wants me to be the liaison between the two of you.” Jim explained. He told Max what Two had told him earlier that day.

Max listened quietly. When Jim was finished talking they lapsed into silence. “Do you believe her?” Max finally asked.

Jim shrugged. “I really don’t know. She came across as believable, but that’s probably why she chose the form of a middle-aged lady today. More believable and trustworthy. Did Kyle tell you about yesterday?”

“That he thinks the shapeshifter changed the color of the jeep? Yeah.” Max sighed. “We were considering getting in contact with him, her.”

“She’d like to meet up.” Jim said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get much of a chance to ask her more questions.”

“I’ll talk to the others and then we’ll decide.” Max declared. “But it’s going to be tricky for me to meet him. My parents have grounded me and they’re pretty strict about it.”

“They might let you come with me.” Jim said. “I’m supposed to call Two on her cell when you’ve decided what you’re going to do. She says that in the mean time she’ll be around, looking out for you.”

Max snorted. “Wonderful.”


*

Philip entered the kitchen of his home and kissed his wife’s cheek. “Is Max home?”

Diane looked up from the vegetables she was cutting. “He’s out in the yard with Jim Valenti.”

“What are they talking about?” Philip wondered aloud as he gazed out the window. He watched Max, deep in conversation with the lawman and Philip was struck with a pang of jealously. Why couldn’t he and Max have talks like that? What secret was Max guarding that he couldn’t tell his own father?

Max and Jim finished talking and walked back into the house. Max nodded at his father before disappearing into his room.

“Evening Philip, thanks for the coffee Diane.” Jim said as he picked up his hat.

“I’ll walk you out.” Philip announced suddenly.

Once they reached Jim’s car Philip turned to him. “Have you an address for Tess Harding?”

“Kyle has an email address for her. She’ll send on her address when she knows it.” Jim replied.

“That’s right, they move around a lot, don’t they.” Philip said. “I’d really appreciate if you could give me that email address. Max hasn’t been able to make contact with her.”

“I’ll have Kyle send it to him.” Jim told him. He attempted to climb into the cruiser but Philip stood in the way.

“You know, don’t you.”

“About Tess being pregnant? Yes.”

“No, you know his secret.” Philip said. He put his hand on Jim’s shoulder. “Tell me. How can I protect my son if I don’t know what kind of trouble he’s in?”

Jim removed Philip’s hand gently. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Philip. As far as I know Max isn’t in any trouble, apart from the baby. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work.”

Philip stood aside and allowed him to climb into the jeep. Back in the house he found Diane standing at the window looking worried. “What was that about?” She asked.

“Nothing.”

“Don’t do that Philip.” Diane said shrilly. “I get enough of being kept in the dark from Max and Isabel, I don’t need it from you too. Tell me what’s going on?”

Philip sighed “Ok.” He glanced down the corridor to make sure that Max’s bedroom door was closed then he ushered Diane into his office and closed the door tightly. He opened the small safe he kept in the house for money and important documents and pulled out a thick file.

“How much do you know about Michael?”

Diane blinked in surprise. She hadn’t expected that. “Not a lot.”

“I found out something about him a couple of days ago.” Philip began. “He was found wandering in the desert three days after we found Max and Izzy. Six miles away.” He pointed out the two locations on the map. “I talked to the farmer who found him. His description of Michael was exactly the same as how Max and Iz were. Naked, silent, thirsty, acted like he’d never seen people before.”

“Oh my God.” Diane gasped. She sank into one of the office chairs and shook her head in disbelief. “Does that mean he’s their brother? Why haven’t they ever said anything?”

“Have you ever seen the kids do something that you couldn’t explain?” Philip asked.

Diane looked away.

Philip sat in the chair next to her and took her hands in his. “The Roger’s kid swears that he saw Michael levitate the TV. There are a couple of reports in Michael’s file where different foster parents have claimed that Michael did things, weird things.”

He paused. “I’ve seen something.”

Diane’s head whipped around to face him.

“You were out one day, and I was looking after the kids. They were out in the yard playing. I went upstairs for something and I heard Isabel crying so looked out the window and she was on the ground holding her nose and there was blood coming from it. I saw Max run up to her. So I rushed downstairs, but when I got out into the yard she was fine. No pain, no tears, no blood.” Philip paused. “I think Max healed her nose.”

“Remember that fire we had in the kitchen last year when you were out of town?” Diane said suddenly. “Max put it out. He told me that he used the water from the pot, but I read some fire safety leaflets afterwards. It was a grease fire, there’s no way he could have put it out with water, that would only have made things worse.”

“You never said anything.”

“Either did you.” Diane said with a small smile. “I asked Max about it. There was a tape too, from when we took them to the park. There was a bird with a broken wing and Max picked it up, when he let it go, the bird was fine. It flew away.”

“What did Max say?”

“Nothing. He asked me to leave it alone, not to ask questions.” Diane recalled. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about it Philip but I didn’t know what to say.”

“There’s something very strange about Tess Harding too.” Philip revealed. “She’s not who she claimed to be and I think Max knows that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I hired a private detective to find Tess.” Philip explained. “The real Tess Harding and her father were killed eleven years ago. Shortly after Max, Isabel and Michael were found.”

“So the Tess Harding we know is an impostor?” Diane cried. “Do you think there’s some connection?”

Philip shrugged. “Possibly. She lived with Jim Valenti for several months. Why? I think Jim knows a lot about what’s going on. There’s a connection somewhere but I can’t figure it out.”

“Jim was very …interested in Max last year.” Diane added. “After the burglary he practically interrogated Max and Isabel. He was the one who gave me the fire leaflets and pointed out that Max couldn’t have used water to put out the fire.”

Philip pounded on the desk. “What the hell is going on?”


*
Image
Banner by Evelyn
User avatar
tequathisy
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 292
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: I'm behind you.
Contact:

Post by tequathisy »

Thanks for the feedback.

begonia9508
Liz86000
BehrObsession
Grace52373
Timelord31
Ellie
Lazza
Emz80m


let me know what you think.

Chapter 35


“I don’t understand, why all the subterfuge?”

Liz giggled. “Subterfuge? When did you start using words like subterfuge?”

“It’s a cool word.” Maria shrugged. “But tell me, why did I have to pick you up outside the Crashdown and drive three blocks away, then get out and walk through these smelly alleyways just so we could go in the back door of the UFO museum at 4am? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just cross the street?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot that you didn’t know about that.” Liz exclaimed. “Max and I aren’t allowed to see each other. Our parents found out about Max getting Tess pregnant, so the Evan’s have grounded him and my parents have forbidden me from seeing him. And it’s not 4am, we have to have the meeting before everyone starts work. It’s the only place that Max can go apart from home.”

“Oh my God.” Maria shrieked. “How did they find out?”

Liz stopped walking. “Tess told my mom.”

“You mean…?” Maria pointed at herself. “Oh God, Liz I’m so sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” Liz assured her.

“But maybe I can fix it, I could tell them that I made it up, or I was mistaken or…”

“They already know its true, and I don’t think you can say anything to fix it.” Liz said sadly. “I had a talk with my Mom and she was pretty understanding, but my dad is furious. He never really liked Max anyway, so he’s delighted to have the excuse to stop us from seeing each other.”

“Wow, you two really are the Roswell version of Romeo and Juliet.” Maria sighed. “Literally star crossed lovers. And you even have the balcony.”

“Except that Max can’t climb into my room, because of the alarm.”

“What alarm?”

Liz shook her head. “Oh yeah, my Dad took the ladder away and replaced it with a new one that has an alarm that goes off if anybody uses it. I can’t figure out how to dismantle it without alerting the cops.”

“Your Dad took the ladder away,” Maria gasped. “That’s so mean. Doesn’t he trust you?”

“Depends on the day of the week. One day I’m wonderful and honest and I have a jeep and the next day he doesn’t trust me and he puts alarms on my window so I can’t sneak out.”

“Wait, jeep?”

“Weren’t you paying attention? Michael blew up Tess’s jeep because it looked like mine. Kyle just had to change the color. My parents gave it to me, to say thanks for all the work I do in the Crashdown and to show that they do trust me.”

“They gave you a jeep?” Maria squealed in excitement. “That’s so cool. What’s it like? Can I drive it? Does it have a CD player? And air con? You have to let me drive it, you must owe me at least a thousand miles on the Jetta.”

Without warning Liz wrapped her arms around Maria and pulled her into a bone-crunching hug. “I missed you so much.”

“Thanks Liz.”

Liz pulled away from her friend, wiped the tear from her eye and knocked loudly on the metal door of the Crashdown. Max opened it to let them in.

“Hi Max.” Maria called as she passed him quickly.

“Is she ok?” Max asked in concern.

“I think she’s just trying to give us a moment alone.” Liz grinned stepping so close to Max their noses were almost touching. “I’ve been filling her in on all the latest developments and she thinks it’s romantic, very Shakespearean.”

Max smiled sadly. “I wish it wasn’t like that though. It would be nice if things were kind of boring for a while.”

Liz pressed her body flush against him and wound her arms around his neck. “I don’t know, I think it’s kind of sexy.” She said breathlessly.

There was a seconds as they stared into each others eyes before Max lowered his head and captured Liz's lips with his own. Just as his tongue reached out to seek her mouth, the sound of somebody clearing their throat caused them to break apart.

“Sorry, but we’d like to start now.” Isabel said sympathetically.

Max and Liz reluctantly separated and followed Isabel to the office. The Valenti’s, Michael, Maria and Isabel were waiting for them.

“We haven’t got a lot of time, the others will be arriving for work soon.” Max began. “There are a couple of things to go over. Isabel and I told Brody some of the truth yesterday, he was satisfied with what we told him, but be careful what you say and do around him.”

Everyone murmured their agreement. Max nodded at Michael to go next.

“I was going through Tess’s notes yesterday. If Larek is right and they make another attempt to possess somebody, the most likely thing they’ll do is try to use Liz to get to Max.” Michael said.

Maria suppressed a cry of alarm and clutched Liz’s arm tightly. Isabel too reached out and placed her hand on Liz’s shoulder on a gesture of support.

“It’s really important that you and Kyle develop your powers and learn to control them. We need to find out a way to call for help without alerting Tess or whoever it is.”

“I’ll see what I can do about that.” Jim offered. “From what Kyle said, Isabel was able to throw Tess out of Maria’s head. Can either of you do that?”

Michael and Max shook their heads in the negative.

“Is there any way to help a person who’s been abducted?”

“Just try and stop them from being hurt until Isabel can to her thing.” Michael shrugged.

“So everyone be alert for unusual behaviour and try to keep an eye on Liz.” Max summarised. “The last thing is the shapeshifter made contact with Valenti yesterday.”

Jim retold his story of the conversation with Two.

When he was finished Max spoke up again. “What we have to do is decide whether or not to meet up with her…him. I know that we’re all reluctant to do so because of Nacedo, but Two is not Nacedo. We need her help and she seems willing to give it. So I think we should vote.”

“I thought she seemed genuine, but it’s hard to tell.” Jim said. “I think you should talk to her.”

Kyle raised his hand. “I think we should at least hear her out. She did help me with the jeep.”

The three girls raised their hands also.

Michael sighed and nodded his head curtly. “I guess.”

“Ok, so that’s settled. We’re all agreed that we’ll meet up with the shapeshifter and talk to her.”

“I’ll give her a call and set it up.” Jim told Max. He checked his watch. “I have to get to work now. I’ll be in touch.”

Max took Liz's hand. “I need to talk to you.” He led her into Brody’s office and motioned for her to sit down in one of the chairs.

Without having to ask Liz knew that Max had something important to talk to her about so she took her seat and waited patiently for him to gather himself together.

“Michael, Isabel and I were talking yesterday about Tess and you and how we could protect you. Like you heard we don’t have may options. They could take anyone, a complete stranger or a cop or one of your parents. He could happen anywhere, anytime. And there’s no way that we can prevent it.”

“We have no way of knowing what they’ll do, they might not come near me at all.” Liz said in an attempt to ease his worries.

“You’re my strength but you’re also my biggest weakness Liz.” Max whispered. “When Pierce…when he…Pierce threatened to hurt you and I caved like a wet towel. I know that I’ll always cave when it comes to you.”

“What are you saying Max?” Liz asked.

“I’m saying, you have to leave Roswell.” Max blurted out. “You have to go to Florida and stay there until this is over, it’s-”

“I’m not leaving you.” Liz told him plainly.

“Liz, it’s the only way. If you’re in Florida and I’m here then they can’t hurt you.” Max implored.

“Then they’ll find somebody else to use against you, like your parents or Isabel or a little kid.” Liz cried. “It doesn’t matter who they use, because you’d never left anybody get hurt and Tess knows that. Besides they already have a hostage in their hands if they want to get to you. Your son.”

Max shook his head. “They can’t hurt him because they need him alive. He’s important to them, you’re not. But you are important to me.”

“I’m not leaving you. I’m not going to let her chase me away from my home and my family and you. I’m not giving her that satisfaction.”

“But if it ruins her plans, if it stops her from getting what she wants she won’t have any satisfaction.” Max pointed out.

“No. I’m not leaving you Max. Never again.”

Max knelt in front of her and took her hands in his. “Please Liz, this might be the only way to save your life and beat Tess.”

“I can’t believe you’re asking me to do this.” Liz cried, pulling her hands from his grip. “We’ve just got back together, we said that we wouldn’t let anything come between us again and you’re going to let her separate us. We have to work together Max, all of us. We’re stronger that way.”

“I love you Liz, I want to keep you safe. Please think about this.” Max beseeched.

They were suddenly interrupted by Isabel who knocked on the door and entered. “Brody’s here.”

“We’re finished here now anyway.” Liz said.

“Liz…” Max called after her.

“I’m not mad Max, I’m just not leaving.”


*


“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” Maria asked with a mixture of amusement and concern after watching Liz stomp around the Crashdown banging plates and glaring at everyone.

Liz flopped into the seat opposite Maria and Michael. “It’s Max. You’ll never guess what he did now.” She noticed Michael looking away guiltily. “Or you might.”

“What did he do?” Maria asked.

“He suggested that I leave Roswell for the summer and spend it in Florida again.” Liz revealed. “He says it’s for my protection.”

“It makes sense Liz.” Michael couldn’t help interrupting. “You’re his Achilles’ heel, if they come back and you’re nowhere to be found it’ll put a major crimper in their plan to get Max. It’ll only be for a couple of weeks and when you come back it’ll be all over and you can go back to normal. Will you tell her?” He said nudging Maria.

“I’m not telling her anything.” Maria protested. “What happens if they go after while she’s in Florida? Who’ll be there to protect her?”

“Or if I’m not here, they’ll just use somebody else, like his parents. At least if they take me, I have powers to defend myself and I’ll know what’s going on.” Liz added. “I might be their number one choice but that doesn’t mean they won’t use somebody else if they have to. Tess knows Max, she knows that he’ll do what he can to help anybody who’s in danger from her or Kivar.”

“We’re supposed to be a team, remember? Liz is the brain of the group. If she’s not here, we’re screwed. We need her.” Maria continued.

Michael held up his hands. “Sorry for trying to look out for Liz.”

“I appreciate it, but I really don’t think it’ll help.” Liz told him. “I want to be here, for whatever goes down. She killed Alex and almost killed both Maria and me. I have to be here.”

“Fine.”

“So will you go back and tell Max that?” Liz asked Michael.

“You know what Max is like, once he gets an idea in his head that’s it. And he certainly won’t listen to me.” Michael said, conveniently forgetting that it the Liz going to Florida idea had been his.

“He’ll just have to learn.” Liz groused.

“Hey is your dad here?” Maria asked brightly, in an obvious attempt to change the subject and lighten the mood. “I had a check up on my arm today and its fine. I can start back to work next week. The doctor said that it healed much faster than expected.”

“That probably had something to do with your possession.” Liz guessed.

“May I join you?”

They looked up in surprise to find an unfamiliar teenage girl, about their own age standing by their table.” She had light brown curly hair pulled into a tight ponytail and a splash of freckles across her nose. She was carrying a small rucksack and was wearing an alien abductee volunteer T-shirt.

Liz glanced around the half empty diner, trying to see why she wanted to sit with three completes strangers. “Sure, we were just finishing up.”

“Don’t get up because of me.” She said in a southern drawl. “I was hoping to get to know y’all a little better.” She held out her hand for Michel to shake. “I’m Two.”

Liz and Maria gasped. Under the table Maria gripped Michael’s hand tightly, whether for her own comfort or to keep Michael calm, she didn’t really know.

“Who?” Michael asked.

She smiled at him. “Come, there’s no need to play games. You know who I am and I know who you are. Jim Valenti told me that you had agreed to talk to me, so here I am.”

Michael and Liz exchanged worried glances.

“Max isn’t here.” Liz pointed out.

“So I see.” Two grinned. She beckoned to a waitress. “Can I get a cola please?” When the waitress was gone she turned back to Liz. “You’re the one I’m interested in talking to right now, who are you? Where did you get those powers of yours?”

“I -” Liz began but Michael cut her off.

“We’re not talking to you without Max and Isabel. And you’re going to be the one answering our questions.”

“Like where the hell have you been for the last eleven years?” Maria whispered furiously.

“As I explained to Jim already...”

“Don’t call him Jim. It’s weird.” Maria commanded.

Two laughed. “Ok. As I explained to Deputy Valenti already, the pods weren’t due to open for another three years. If I had known sooner, I would certainly have been here.”

“I guess you weren’t in contact with Nacedo then.” Liz said, a little bitterly.

“No, I haven’t been in contact with … Nacedo for three decades.” Two said sadly. “We had an argument about our roles on earth. He wanted me to take on the role of protector and let him to my job.”

“Ok then, what was your job?” Michael asked, curious despite himself.

She reached into her rucksack and pulled out a small silver case, a little bigger than a pencil case. It shimmered in the light and all three teens recognised it as an alien metal. They gasped when they saw a curious symbol on it. “This is the Kings crystal. It’s used by a king for very important functions. Such as forming a foursquare, naming his heir or abdicating.”

“Is it always kings? Do you have queens?” Maria asked.

“We have had both, in my language there is no gender difference. The word for ruler means king or queen. I use the word king when I am speaking english because our current ruler is a king.”

“Ok then.” Maria said, mollified. “Go on.”

Two smiled again. “It was damaged in the coup that killed the Royal four and my job on earth was to repair the damage and recharge it. A difficult process that takes many years to accomplish. I had to travel to may places around the world to find the right materials and conditions.”

“Is it charged now?” Liz asked.

“Yes.” Two glanced around the diner to ensure that nobody was watching then slowly opened the small case. The crystal lying inside was a huge dazzling diamond that seemed to have its own light source deep inside it. It was similar in shape and size to the crystal they had found together in Los Cruses, but far more beautiful.

Liz reached out a hand to pick it up to examine it closer but Two slapped her hand away. “It’s not yours.” She admonished. “It would be dangerous for you to touch it.”

Two shut the case and gently slid it across the table to Michael. “On Antar, it was your responsibility to look after this until such time as the king needed it. I have fulfilled my duty and restored it to its full power. Now I am returning it to you. Please take good care of it, I don’t think I need to point out that should it fall into the wrong hands, there would be a catastrophe. Don’t let anybody else touch it.”

Michael took the case carefully in his two hands. Only Maria, whose hand was lying on his thigh, felt the quiver run through his body as he took it into his possession.

“Please recognise this as a gesture of good faith.” Two said. “I am here to help you. You can trust me, I hope that by giving this back to you, that I have shown that I am trustworthy.” She bowed her head at them and stood up. “I’ll be in touch again.” Then she was gone before anybody had a chance to stop her.


*
Last edited by tequathisy on Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Banner by Evelyn
User avatar
tequathisy
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 292
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2003 8:49 pm
Location: I'm behind you.
Contact:

chapter 36

Post by tequathisy »

As always thanks for reading and leaving feedback.

Lazza The baby can’t inherit the royal seal unless Max dies or the foursquare is broken, which is why Tess tried to get Michael to betray the others and thereby end the foursquare.
Emz80m
Ellie
begonia9508
Grace52373
They can’t form a new foursquare if Tess is still alive, even though she has betrayed them she is still a member of the foursquare. She can only be replaced if she dies and since killing her would destroy the foursquare they can’t do anything about it.
Timelord31
nibbles2




Chapter 36



Michael balanced the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he buttered his bread. “It looks like the last one, except it’s…more.”

“More what?” Isabel asked.

“I don’t know - more powerful, more sparkly.” Michael shrugged. “Just more.”

He could hear Isabel relaying his answer back to Max. There came the sound of a scuffle at the other end of the phone and Max’s voice came on the line. “How do you know it’s more powerful?”

“I can feel it, when you’re holding the box it just vibrates with power. The girls didn’t feel it but I could.” Michael told him, heaping the filling onto his sandwich and smearing it with mayonnaise.

“So how do you know that she’s telling the truth and it’s really what she says it is and not something else?”

“I just know, I recognised it.” Michael told him, a little defensively. “You’ll know what I mean when you see it.” He took a big bite of his sandwich and began to chew.

Apparently Isabel had wrestled the phone back from Max as she was the one who spoke next. “What are you going to do with it? Are you just going to keep it in your apartment, where anybody could break in and steal it? Are you eating?”

Michael swallowed his mouthful. “No. It’ll be safe here for tonight and then we can decide what to do with it. Haven’t you guys got more than one phone?”

“Yes we do, but Max isn’t allowed use it while he’s grounded.” Isabel said pointedly. “Did she say anything else?”

“No, just what I’ve already told you seven times.” Michael groaned. This conversation was beginning to get boring and he was hungry.

“Can we go back to what she said about Liz's powers?” Max asked.

“I already told you what she….” He paused at the sound of somebody knocking at his door. “I have to go, there’s somebody at the door. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

He hung up the phone and grabbed another bite of his sandwich. To his surprise, he found Philip Evans on the other side.

“Mr Evans. “Michael exclaimed as he gulped down his food.

“Good evening Michael, I hope this isn’t a bad time.” Philip smiled.

“No, I was just getting dinner.” Michael assured him. He held the door open for the older man to enter the apartment.

“Sorry to interrupt your meal but I was passing and I wanted to talk to you, so I thought I’d drop in. We don’t see you at the house as much.” Philip told him.

“I’m busy at work and stuff.” Michael replied. He spotted the diamond case sitting on the counter and winced. “Do you want a sandwich or a drink?”

“I’m fine thanks, Diane will have dinner ready when I get home.”

Michael began gathering up the butter and mayo and meat he had used to make the sandwich, surreptitiously picking up the case amongst the food and placed them all in the fridge. “So what did you want to talk about?”

“May I?” Philip asked gesturing at one of the stools by the counter. Michael nodded and he took a seat. “I’ve gone through your file and I’ve spoken to a couple of people over at Child services about it.”

“Oh yeah, I’d kind of forgotten about that. Any luck?”

“I’m afraid not, there really isn’t much grounds for appeal because legally you are over eighteen and therefore, no longer a ward of the state, even though you are still at highschool.” Philip began. “It’s an unfortunate situation for you and a real shame. You could appeal on the grounds that you were younger than six years old when you were taken into care. According to your file, your date of birth was unknown so they assigned you a new one. You could argue that they failed to take into account the fact that you would still be in highschool when you became a legal adult and therefore they were negligent in their care for you.”

“That sounds like a lot of fuss.” Michael said uncomfortably.

“Yes, it would probably have to go to court. And I imagine, garner a lot of publicity. I think that you would get the public vote too, a good looking young man valiantly trying to overcome a difficult childhood to graduate from highschool.” Philip added. “It would probably drag on for a while too, you probably will have finished highschool by the time it’s over.”

Michael scratched his eyebrow. “It doesn’t matter, it was just a thought.”

“So you don’t want to pursue and appeal?” Philip asked to make sure.

“It’s not like I was getting a lot of money before anyway, I’ll manage without it. I can get a second job or something.” Michael told him.

“So you’re going to stay in school?”

“I stuck it out this long, I might as well finish it.” Michael smirked.

“Good, I’m glad to hear it.” Philip told him genuinely. “I really admire you Michael. Most kids in your situation would have dropped out or taken up a life of crime. But you’ve stayed in school, got a job an apartment a bike, you eat healthily. You’ve shown a real sense of responsibility and maturity that’s missing from a lot of teenagers today. I don’t think that Max or Isabel would have coped as well if they were in your place.”

Michael snorted in disbelief.

“No, I’m serious. They’ve had everything handed to them on a plate all their lives.” Philip said. “And when it comes to showing some maturity and responsibility, Max was severely lacking. The way he has…” Philip shook his head. “I didn’t come over here to talk about Max. I do have an offer for you. I’ve spoken to the partners at my firm about your situation and they’ve agreed that we’d like to help you.”

“I’m not going to pursue it, I’ll be fine.” Michael reminded his friend’s father.

“I thought as much. So we’re offering a different kind of help.” Philip told him. “We’d like to offer you a scholarship or sorts. We’ll contribute towards your financial upkeep for the year and then at the end of the year we’ll review. If your grades and attendance are satisfactory we will consider continuing through college.”

Michael stared at him wordlessly, unsure how to respond. Eventually he shook himself out of his stupor. “You don’t have to do that.”

“You haven’t had many breaks in life so far Michael, you deserve one. It’s a generous offer and gives you a chance to achieve something more that being a short order cook for the rest of your life. Don’t reject it out of hand because of pride. Think about it, talk it over with your girlfriend.”

Michael nodded. “I will. Thanks for the offer Mr Evans.”

Philip smiled. “I’m glad that there’s someway we can help. I wish I had been aware of your situation earlier, so much….” He trailed off and shook his head. “I’m sorry that things worked out so badly for you Michael"

“I think they worked out ok in the long run.” Michael assured him.

“I should go, I don’t want to keep dinner waiting. Let me know what you decide.” Philip told him as he stood up and made his way to the door. He paused and turned back to Michael.

“I know that you, Max and Isabel are good friends and that if you need help you’re always there for each other.” Philip told him. “But I want you to know that you can come to me too, you can trust me. It might seem like I’m the enemy sometimes but I have your best interests at heart. I love my children and would do anything for them, anything. And that includes helping you, so whatever it is that Max has going on right now, I know you know what it is, if it gets too big for you kids to handle, if you need help – you can come to me. I’m on your side.” He nodded to Michael and then was gone.


*


“I’ve been thinking.” Maria began the next morning as she waited for Liz to get ready for work.

Liz looked up from the mirror where she was putting on her make-up and feigned concern. “Did it hurt?”

“Only a little bit.” Maria smirked, hitting Liz gently with her pillow. “Anyway, I was thinking about the situation with your parents. Maybe I should talk to your Dad about Max, tell him that I was making it up or something.”

“I don’t think it would do any good, he knows it’s true so anything you tell him will sound like your just trying to change your story. Max got Tess pregnant and that’s all that matters.” Liz said sadly.

“Maybe, I could tell him that Tess tricked Max. Like, she got him drunk.” Maria said excitedly.

“Underage drinking? That’s not going to win him any points. Face it, my dad hates Max and now he has the perfect excuse to stop us seeing each other.” Liz sighed. She pulled on her uniform and began doing up her buttons.

“I have to try something, you guys have to be allowed see each other.” Maria groaned flopping onto Liz’s bed. “He can’t stop you from seeing each other forever.”

“I guess we’ll just have to be patient, I’ll be eighteen soon and next year I’ll be going away to college, eventually he’ll see that Max and I aren’t going to break up and there’s nothing he can do about it. He’ll either have to accept it or…there is no or, he’ll just have to accept it.”

“I feel so bad about it though, like it’s my fault.” Maria said.

“Don’t be silly, how could it be your fault?” Liz asked her.

“I know it’s not my fault, but I still feel responsible, there has to be something I can do.”

“Maybe you won’t have to.” Liz whispered. “Now that they have the key to the granolith.”

Maria frowned. “You think Max is going to go away? Don’t be silly Liz, he’s not going to leave you, he loves you.”

Liz shrugged. “His son needs him, he’s all alone on that planet, surrounded by enemies. He’s only a little baby. Max isn’t going to just abandon him to Kivar and Tess. And it’s not just his son, it’s Antar. Max is the king, he can’t turn his back on his kingdom just because he wants to.”

“No Liz, I see the way he looks at you. You’re the world to him, he’s not going to leave you for the spawn of Tess.” Maria protested.

“He’s just an innocent baby Maria, and Max loves him. I see it when he talks about him, he gets this pained look in his eyes. I know that when the time comes, Max will choose to save his son and that’s the way it should be. He wouldn’t be the man I love if he didn’t.”

“But Kivar is almost beaten, Larek will rescue the baby and maybe Max won’t have to go back.” Maria said as she wrapped her arm around Liz's shoulders.

“If Tess dies, the baby will be an orphan. Do you really think Max is going to leave him there, all on his own?” Liz asked.

“I guess not.” Maria admitted reluctantly.

“I think he’s going to leave Maria, I can feel it deep down inside me, I’m going to lose Max.” Liz admitted in a low voice.

“Is that why you’re refusing to go to Florida?” Maria asked.

Liz nodded. “Do you agree with Max?”

“I don’t know, maybe.” Maria admitted reluctantly. “If Michael’s right and you are the target for Tess or whoever then maybe it’s a good idea if you are thousands of miles away. If anything happened to you Liz, I don’t know what I’d do.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to me.” Liz protested. “I can look after myself, I have powers now.”

“The last time, when she was possessing me, her plan A didn’t work because I didn’t have powers, if they possessed you, they would and then they could do anything they liked.” Maria added. “Max wouldn’t have suggested it if he didn’t think it was for the best. You two have just got back together, the last thing he would want to do is to spend another summer without you.”

“I know…. It makes sense I guess.” Liz admitted. “I just feel, that if I go away then Tess wins.”

“If Tess comes looking for you and you’re not here then her plan fails and you win.” Maria pointed out.

“But then what? They’ll find another way to get what they want, if it isn’t me it’ll be his parents or Isabel. And even if none of that happens I could still loose him. Because Max isn’t just going to sit here and leave his son in Kivar and Tess’s hands.” Liz said, with tears pooling in her dark eyes. “I’m going to loose him Maria, I can feel it.”


*

“Brody won’t be in until 11, he has a meeting with his lawyer this morning so we can use his office.” Isabel told Michael when she and Max met him outside the UFO museum before it opened.

She unlocked the front door to let the other employees in and Max and Michael made their way up to the office where they waited for Isabel to finish handing out instructions before she joined them.

“Did you bring it with you?” Max asked Michael once Isabel was in the office and the door firmly closed.

Michael nodded and pulled a case form his back pocket. He handed it to Max who opened it slowly and gasped at the dazzling beauty of the diamond inside.

“Wow. It’s beautiful.” Isabel whispered reverently. She reached out her hand to touch it, but stopped. Something in the back of her mind told her not to touch it.

“So Two just handed it over?” Max asked again without taking his eyes from the diamond.

“Yes.” Michael confirmed. “She said that the reason she wasn’t around sooner was because she was charging it up.”

When Michael had told them of his conversation with Two the night before, Max had been unimpressed with her excuse and with the presentation of the diamond, but now that it was in his hands and he could feel the power radiating from it, his opinion changed. Instinctively he understood that Two’s task of charging the diamond and protecting it was very important and that handing it over to them was far more than a simple gesture. The diamond he held in his hand was extremely powerful.

Max handed the case to Isabel to hold but even though it was no longer in his hands he found it difficult to take his eyes from it.

“What are we going to do with it?” Isabel asked.

“We’ll have to find somewhere safe to keep it.” Michael answered. “Somewhere better than my fridge.”

“And not the pod chamber either.” Max added. “Just in case Tess or Kivar somehow manages to access the chamber it’s probably best we keep the diamond somewhere else.”

“I think only the three of us should know where it is kept.” Michael said, “Tess was able to access all of Maria’s memories, if she or Liz are possessed again it might be best if they don’t know where it’s kept.”

“Agreed.” Max nodded. “You hang on to it today and we’ll try think of something by tonight.”

Isabel closed the case and handed it back to Michael.

“There’s something else.” Michael announced. “Your dad came to see me last night, to talk about the support checks I’m no longer entitled to …”

“And?” Max prompted.

“It was a little weird.”

Max and Isabel exchanged worried glances.

“How so?” Isabel asked.

Michael shrugged. “I dunno, like he came over for a different reason than the one he claimed. He was talking about appealing the decision and stuff but instead of trying to convince me he kind of argued against it and it was like he was waiting for me to react a certain way.”

“So you’re not going to appeal it?” Max asked. “What does that mean? Are you going to drop out of school, because I don’t think that’s a good idea. You should finish school.”

“He’s right. You have to stay on. We’ll find a way somehow.” Isabel added quickly.

Michael scratched his eyebrow. “He said that his firm would give me a scholarship to finish school and maybe even go to college.”

“That’s great Michael.” Isabel said with a delighted smile. “I don’t understand what the problem is.”

“He just seemed to have a hidden agenda when he came over. I think he was fishing for clues into Max’s behaviour.”

“So was the scholarship a bribe? Tell him what Max’s secret is and you’d get the money?” Isabel asked. “That doesn’t sound like Dad, he genuinely wants to help you Michael.”

“I didn’t say that. When he was leaving, he made a comment about going to him for help if we ever needed it, even if what we were involved in was illegal. That we could trust him, no matter what. And there was something else, he made a comment about my birthday. He knows it’s just some arbitrary date assigned by social workers and not the day I was really born on. If he knows that he knows why they had to pick a date.”

“The same reason that they had to pick a date for Max and I.” Isabel finished. She turned excitedly to Max. “Do you see what this means, he must have added the two together and realised that we’re connected in some way. Maybe he’s figured it all out.”

“I doubt it Isabel, he knows there’s something weird going on and he’s probably investigating it.” Max sighed. “It’s unlikely that he’s worked out we’re aliens from that.”

“But he knows there is something weird about us and he told Michael that he would help no matter what, even if he doesn’t know what it is, he wants help. Please Max. lets tell him and mom. Please.” Isabel begged. She glanced at Michael. “Please.”

Michael looked away guiltily. “I have to get to work.” He pocketed the case. “See you guys later.”

“I should start work too.” Max said without looking at Isabel. He followed Michael to the door. But Isabel raised her hand and it shut behind Michael, trapping Max in the room with her. He sighed and turned back to face her.

“I’m sorry Isabel but I haven’t changed my mind about telling them. There’s too much going on right now, I think it’s better that they don’t know. Right now it seems that anybody who knows about us is in danger and I want to protect them.”

“But maybe later?” Isabel asked, optimistically seizing on the sliver of hope.

Max said nothing but opened the door and left the office.


*

“One heavenly hash special and one UFOmelette, no tomatoes extra cheese.” Liz called to Michael through the hatch. “Are my two alien brains ready?”

“Just a second.” Michael said as he finished preparing the scrambled eggs.

Liz glanced over he shoulder to make sure her father was out of hearing range. The only person close to them was a boy in his late teens who was bobbing his head to his ipod. She turned back to Michael and asked in a low voice. “Did you see Max this morning?”

“Yeah, I was talking to him before I came over here.” Michael told her as he dished the eggs onto the plates.

“How is he? Did he say anything about me? What were you talking about?” Liz asked.

“Fine. No. I was just showing him the crystal.” Michael answered. He placed two plates on the hatch. “Two scrambled alien brains on Rye toast.”

“Did he give you a message for me?” Liz asked hopefully.

Michael shook his head. “No, now go serve those eggs before the customers complain.”

Despondently, Liz picked up the plates and plopped them down in front of the waiting customers, after giving a cursory glance around the diner to make sure nobody else need a waitress, she returned to the hatch.

“Did he say what he’s going to do with the crystal?”

“Keep it safe.” Michael shrugged. “What else?”

“Has he talked to you about what he might do?”

Michael didn’t look up from the food he was preparing. “Might do about what?” He asked distractedly.

“About his son? Now that he has the crystal, will he use it?”

Michael stopped what he was doing and looked at Liz in surprise. “You mean, to go get him?” As he spoke he waved the whisk above his head.

Liz nodded.

“He’s never said anything like that to me, did he tell you something?” Michael frowned. Once, the thought of going ‘home’ had consumed him night and day but since that fateful day at the granilith chamber when he had made his decision to stay, he hadn’t given it a second thought. So the idea of Max wanting to give up everything he had on Earth to return to certain doom certainly hadn’t crossed his mind.

“No, it’s just a feeling. You know Max, there’s no way he’s going to leave his son alone up there. And now that he has the diamond, there’s nothing to stop him from going.” Liz said quietly.

“Max is a smart guy. He’s not going to just take off, there’s too much to keep him here.” Michael assured her before turning back to the grill.

“But, what if something happens? Do you think he’d go?” Liz persisted.

“Excuse me, Miss?” A voice called, interrupting the conversation. Liz tore herself away from the hatch and turned to face the customer who was calling. The teenage boy who was sitting at the counter listening to his ipod was holding out his glass for a refill.

“You really should be more careful when you’re having conversations like that in a public place.” The boy said when she placed the glass back in front of him. “You never know who’s listening.”

Liz blinked in surprise.

He grinned at her and lifted up the lapel of his jacket to reveal a U2 badge.

“Two?” Liz asked in surprise.

“Good morning Ms Parker.” Two smiled.

“I thought you were female.” Liz whispered.

“I’m nothing Liz, nothing and everything. Nobody and anybody.” Two said enigmatically.

“Ok, can I get you anything else?” Liz asked.

“Tell me how you got powers, I think I already know but I’d like to hear it for myself.” Two told her.

Liz shook her head. She wasn’t sure what the situation was between Two and the aliens now, but she wasn’t about to volunteer any information without Max’s and the others approval.

“Fine, how about we trade?” Two sighed. “You tell me that one little thing that I already know anyway and I’ll help you and Max have an evening together.”

“How?” Liz asked suspiciously.

“Like I said I can be anybody.”

Liz bit her lip and glanced around the diner uncertainly. The thought of an evening alone with Max was too good to turn down.

“I’ll start it for you. He healed you because….” Two prompted.

“I was shot, here in this diner almost two years ago and he healed me.” Liz confided in a low voice.

“He healed you in public? Before you knew his secret identity, I presume?” Two asked incredulously.

Liz nodded.

Two sighed and shook his head in disbelief. “Unbelievable! Fine, make your own arrangements for tonight and I’ll make sure Max meets you.”

“Thanks.” Liz smiled.

“My pleasure.” Two grinned. He fished in his pocket and pulled out some money. “Keep the change, my compliments to the chef.”


*
Image
Banner by Evelyn
Locked