Dedicated to: Timelord31 (2X), begonia9508, sylvia37, ISLANDGIRL5, belleoftheball, Evans3, Ellie, *shiri&jensen4ever*, Roswelllostcause.
Chapter Seven
Daric watched the shock that registered across their faces, and he wasn’t quite sure as to what they were going to say. The words had come pouring out of him, he knew that he had to do the right thing. Sierra had spoken to him, she knew that he had to do the right thing. Her life and his life had to be sacrificed and it should be known the sacrifice that they would make. He had to face this decision like an adult, the way that he was supposed to. The way that his parents had raised him, never shirk away from responsibility.
“What have you lied about, Daric?” Max asked with a hard edge in his voice. This was the thing that had worried him, that he would believe Daric, but that there had been something that he had been keeping from them. Liz believed in Daric so much that it scared Max, there was such an indisputable connection between the two of them.
“It’s so crazy, I wasn’t even going to tell you about it. I thought what was the point of telling you? What was it going to do? Would it help make things better? No. It wouldn’t make things better, if anything it might just make things worse. See how the mighty have fallen. My mother always believed that there was a raison d’être, I don’t know if I believed in that, but I think that she was right. After seventeen years, I think that she was right.” Daric said, running his hand through his hair agitated. He hadn’t been at peace for the past two years since his sisters had been killed, but this was his time to get his peace. The truth would bring him peace and justice.
“Daric, what are you talking about?” Liz asked, moving out of Max’s arms and closer to Daric. But when she tried to get closer to him, he moved away from her, kept moving away from her until he was standing at the window that had been their entrance. He wouldn’t look at her and that alarmed her. What was wrong with him? What was going on inside of his head?
“Don’t, don’t touch me, Liz. Don’t. I don’t want you to see the things that I have done. I’m so ashamed of myself. I hate that you know what I have done, that I killed someone. I did it for you, I killed him for you.” Daric said, tears flowing from his eyes. Liz was standing in front of him, and he didn’t want to see her so he closed his eyes. He never believed that she would be standing in front of him, that she would know what kind of a person that he had become. To see the things that he had done. It was hell to him.
“Daric,” Liz said, softly, as she placed her hand on his arm, knowing what was going to happen, begging for it to happen. Needing to know, needing to understand his pain.
“You know, when I was little, your grandma always made me learn the meaning to all these different words. It always seemed so silly to me at the time, but it was only when I was older that I realized what she was doing. She wanted me to know so much more, she wanted me to know everything. One of my favorite words growing up was juxtapose. Do you know what that means, sweetheart? It means to place side by side. And over the years, I have placed my two different lives side by side and I am so much happier here with your father. Do you understand that, Daric?” Liz Parker looked into the dark eyes of her son. He was her everything, her heart and her soul. Her child was destined to be everything.
“But they were your friends, they were your family.” Eight year old Daric told his mother. His mother didn’t talk about what her life had been like before, her life in Roswell, New Mexico before she had learnt the truth about herself. But Daric had heard the stories, his father had always been so proud to tell him about who his mother was. Her strength, her power.
“They were, but people change, baby. We are the only beings that are given this, being able to talk, to walk, to feel, to change. When my best friend Alex died, I thought that I had died along with him. He was someone that I loved so much, he was such a huge part of my life. I was searching for a reason to live when your father found me. He gave me a reason to live for, he gave me you.” Liz said with a smile as she ran her fingers through Daric’s black hair.
“Were you mad at Dad because he didn’t tell you the truth?” Daric questioned. He knew that his father had lied to his mother, but his father had explained that it had been a good lie. That sometimes you had to lie to the people that you loved, it wasn’t a way to be mean and hurt them, but it was for their own good. But the way Daric saw it, a lie was still a lie no matter if it was a good one or a bad one.
“Mad? I don’t know, I mean, when I meet your father I felt something for him that I recognized. A familiar, you know what that’s like don’t you?” Liz said with a smile, as Daric nodded his head. “You know, I guess you could say that I was angry at Dad. The two years before I meet your father had been so strange, you never knew what to expect. I actually thought that I was getting away from it all by moving to Florida with my aunt, but it wasn’t until your father found me that I realized that I would never get away from it.”
“Because of Neith?”
“That’s right, because of Neith. Because of who I am. Now, I have a question for you. What do you think that your little sisters are going to look like?” Liz said, placing her son’s hand over her burgeoning stomach that kept her twin daughters safe.
“They’re going to look like you, Mommy. They are going to look so much like Neith that they are going to alarm people. They won’t expect for them to look the way that they will. No one will expect them to be as strong as they will be, but they don’t know that any child of yours will be strong.”
*****
Max watched Liz and Daric, unsure about what was going on. What had Daric meant that he had killed him for her? Was he talking about Michael? Daric admitted that he had killed Michael in the future. What did Daric mean by saying that he killed him for her? For Liz? It couldn’t be for Liz, it didn’t make any sense. Daric was the one that had told them that Liz wasn’t going to be involved in their future.
Liz gasped as the connection was severed. Now she understood why Daric had been so afraid to tell them the entire truth. The truth was something that they wouldn’t be prepared for, it was shocking. Daric had kept so much inside of himself, made himself not say anything, thinking that it was for the best. All he had was their well being on his mind, the things that he felt, he made them second. Liz swallowed hard as she drew Daric’s head closer to her body, wanting to give him the comfort that he needed.
“Liz, what’s wrong?” Max asked, watching the two of them. He had this terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach that there was something going on that he didn’t understand. It seemed so intimate whatever was going on with Liz and Daric.
Liz ran her hand through Daric’s hair, knowing that it comforted him. It had always comforted him. She looked up at Max with tears in her eyes, not knowing what he was going to think about what she would tell him. What would his reaction be? Was he going to be shocked, unprepared for the truth that had been kept from them. It had been kept for a good reason, she understood. But it was so unconscionable.
“Daric didn’t want for us to know, Max. He didn’t keep the truth away for a bad reason, he did it for a good reason. It was a good lie. An understandable lie.” Liz said as she continued to run her hand through Daric’s hair. She knew that her comfort was helping him, she could feel it in her blood. He was calming down and that was all that she cared about right now.
“Liz, what are you talking about?” Max asked, moving so he stood in front of Liz and Daric. He wanted to understand what was going on. The look that Liz was giving him was frightening him, the look in her eyes was filled with so much emotion, pain, loss, sadness. Whatever it was that she knew, it was big he realized.
“Daric’s father is Khivar. But his mother is someone you know, Max. His mother is me. I’m his mother.” Liz said, still unable to believe it herself. She was Daric’s mother, it was so hard for her to believe. That this person that she held in her arms was her child. He was going to come from her body. In eight months, she was supposed to be pregnant with this person. Daric was her child.
“What? What are you talking about?” Max questioned, trying to grasp what Liz had just told him. Liz was Daric’s mother. How was that even possible? Liz couldn’t be Daric’s mother, there was just no way that it could be possible.
“I know how hard it is to believe, Max. But it’s the truth, I’m his mother. In two years, I’m supposed to give birth to him.” Liz continued dazed by the truth. The implications about what Daric was doing here hit her like a ton of bricks. Her child had traveled through time to change things. Even if they could save Alex’s life, her own child would never be born. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do. It was something that she had wondered about in the week that followed Future Max leaving, had they had children? He had never said anything, so maybe they had thought that it would never be safe for them to have children, to bring a family into the world. But she had brought a family into the world with Khivar, Max’s enemy. How had that even happened?
Daric took in a deep breath, hating himself for his meltdown. Yes, he knew that it had been coming for a long time. But still, he hated it. He bottled his emotions up inside of him and tried to tell himself that they didn’t matter. What he was doing didn’t matter. But it did. He was giving up his life, his entire existence was going to be erased. Once he and Evans had come up with the idea of him coming back, Daric had forced himself not to think about his imminent demise. He had to get a hold on his emotions and tell them what was going to happen, what would have happened. They needed to know the truth. Khivar was still going to come, there was no mistake about that. He was simply biding his time. Khivar wanted only one thing: Liz.
“I’m sorry, Evans. I’m sorry that I lied. It seemed like it was the best thing to do. I didn’t think telling the entire truth about who I was would do much good. I guess you could say that I had my conscience talk to me. Liz is telling you the truth, she’s my mother.” Daric admitted as he started to ease himself away from Liz. He wanted to get away from her, away from her touch. She was his mother but than again she wasn’t. This was his mother when she was seventeen years old, before her life had fallen apart.
Liz didn’t say anything as Daric removed himself from her embrace. It made her feel empty, and she knew that she had no reason to feel like that. But it was so confusing to her. This beautiful boy who was standing in front of her was a part of her, a part of her family. “Who’s Neith?”
“I want to know how Liz can be your mother. You said that she left after Alex died. So what exactly happens that Liz somehow ends up with Khivar and is your mother.” Max demanded, wanting to understand. Liz. Liz of all people was going to join up with his enemy and end up having his children. Not just one, but three. How the hell was that going to happen? Had he really screwed up that badly in the future?
“Don’t worry, I’ll answer all of the questions. After Alex dies and you get Tess pregnant, Liz is going to leave. She is going to go back to Florida to stay with her aunt Ruth. Well, she is going on with her life, trying to escape the alien abyss and she starts up a friendship with her aunt’s next door neighbor. He’ll tell you that his name is Kellen and he’s from Rhode Island. And there is just something about him that seems so familiar and you can’t help what happens. He’s someone who wants you, he isn’t in the alien abyss, and one night things go too far and you become pregnant from that night. With me.” Daric began explaining. He knew that he was doing the right thing, he could feel it in his blood.
“So Khivar pretends to be someone that he’s not and he purposely goes after Liz? Why does he go after Liz? Does he do it on purpose, to get me back? Or is there some other reason?” Max questioned, feeling that it wasn’t altogether about himself. That there was some other reason that Khivar would pretend to be someone else for months just to get to Liz.
“Hasn’t Liz always seemed familiar to you, Evans. Just something about her?” Daric asked, still surprised that it had taken them so long to look at the obvious truth.
“Yes.”
“Liz was — is someone from Antar. I know that you’re thinking that this is all crazy, and I know that it sounds crazy, but she is. She is the reason why Khivar is going to go after her. See it’s after Liz becomes pregnant with me that she finds out the truth about who she is and about who Kellen really is. Neith is the name of who Liz used to be. She’s been born before, twice before to be exact. She was born even before your time on Antar, Evans. And she died sacrificing herself in war, and there was a prophecy on Antar saying that Neith would be born again and she was. It was during your time on Antar, Evans. She was a goddess on Antar, there was no one like her, there will still be no one like her. Look, on Antar, Khivar was in love with Neith. She’s what he really cares about, you know. Keeping Antar in line and getting Neith back.” Daric continued explaining. There was so much about Neith, about Antar. If he talked about everything that he knew, it would take him at least a day and a half.
“So that’s why she is familiar to me, because I knew her back on Antar? How? How is that even possible?” Max wondered. How could Liz have been on Antar with him? Sure, it made sense as to why he had always felt something about her, but how was it possible? And that couldn’t be the whole reason why he had always felt something for her. He refused to believe that, he loved her. Everything about her he loved. It wasn’t just about whatever had happened back on Antar.
“Nancy Parker is from Antar. Her and that sister of hers in Florida.” Daric replied, hoping that it would start making sense to Evans and Liz. It was a struggle inside of himself to call her Liz. That wasn’t who she was to him, she was his mother but he knew that he couldn’t call her that. It wasn’t right to call her his mother, because technically he wasn’t even born. This was the girl who would become his mother. If he didn’t change anything. Now that was what made sense to him.
“So the woman who’s supposed to be my mother is really an alien from Antar?” Liz asked, wondering how exactly her mother had duped her father. Her father couldn’t know what was going on, it made sense to her that her mother would have done this all on her own. Nothing had ever seemed out of the ordinary with her father, but sometimes — just sometimes, things had seemed kinda strange with her mother. Like something wasn’t right.
“Yes, I don’t know exactly what her plans are. Who she is working with, I mean, I don’t think that she is working with Khivar’s side, because he doesn’t know where you are. He won’t know where you are until a couple of more weeks. Days, maybe. Those are questions that you are going to ask Nancy, because I don’t know for sure. I. . . do you have any more questions?” Daric asked, still unsure about what he had just told them. The words tumbling out of him were the things he knew that he should tell them, but still he was all weird about just having told a seventeen year old named Liz Parker that she was his mother.
“Daric, what happened to your sisters? My daughters?” Liz couldn’t help but ask. It was hard to hear that you were going to have a child with someone who was considered the enemy. To have your child standing right in front of you, living, breathing, moving, a seemingly good person. No matter what had happened, what Daric had been forced to do, Liz did not doubt that he was a good person. He was amazing to her, he was so strong.
Max clenched his jaw at her words. He wasn’t sure talking about the children that were supposed to come from the future was the best thing to talk about. Learning about them would only have them also on their consciences. Knowing that because of what they would change, that they wouldn’t be born. This was going to be hard for Liz, Max knew. Having Daric standing right in front of her, he knew that she was going to feel so guilty by what would have to be done. Max knew that there was no way that he would ever forget about Daric, or the fact that he himself was supposed to have a child of his own. Sure, he was supposed to have a child with someone that he didn’t want a kid with. But he was changing his child’s existence.
“It was only a day before we were supposed to leave the place we had been living in, when somehow Michael Guerin got his way inside the compound. He. . . he had some sort of bomb and it went off. And Ibis and Soraya were there when it happened. When what happened with Guerin, he told me that he hadn’t meant for them to be there. It hadn’t been his intention to kill them, but that doesn’t change what happened. Doesn’t change that they died. They were beautiful little girls.” Daric said with a sad smile. Though he had sometimes thought that his sisters were pain in the butt, he would give anything to just see them again, to play with them. He wished for so many things, but he wasn’t sure if he would ever get them. Hell, he didn’t even know if he would see the light of day.
“I’m going to kill Isabel, right? And than Michael is going to kill me? ” Liz asked, meeting Daric’s eyes. She remembered everything that she had seen when she connected with Daric. She was putting it all together in her mind. The events that were supposed to unfold, how life was supposed to be. Her daughters were going to get killed, Khivar was going to kill Michael’s wife, who had to be Maria. She was going to kill Isabel, Michael was going to kill her, and Daric would kill Michael. She didn’t want to live in that world. So much death.
Max looked over at Liz, realizing that she was right. He was desperate to change all of this. He didn’t want for Liz to kill Isabel, his own sister. They were the two most important women in his life, and they were going to end up bitter enemies and than Isabel would die at Liz’s hands. And than his best friend would kill Liz. It was so horrible. Things just changed so fast, he realized. Last year, he had been worried about Valenti finding out that he was an alien and now he was the disposed king of a planet, and the love of his life was supposed to join up with his enemy and would eventually kill his own sister.
“Like I said before it’s going to be a blood war. Yes, you do end up killing Isabel Evans. And yes, Guerin ends up killing you. That’s another reason why I did what I did.” Daric admitted to her, his ability to lie was completely out of the window now that she knew the truth about who she was to him. He knew that she had a thousand things going through her mind right now and some of the answers that she wanted, he couldn’t give her. Even though he had never kept secrets from her, she kept secrets from him. There was so much that he didn’t know about his mother’s life.
“Was I happy?” Liz couldn’t help but ask. From what she had seen from Daric, it seemed that she was happy with the life that she had. This was so different from when Future Max had come, he hadn’t wanted to tell her what the world was going to be like, what her life was going to be like, and it had been on her mind constantly. She knew that Daric was reluctant to tell her too much, maybe his memories of the life that they had together were just too much for him. God, she felt so selfish for asking him.
“Liz, I don’t see how this will help us.” Max injected, not wanting to talk about this. He didn’t understand how talking about this future would help them. Knowing about the kids that they would have had, knowing that they were happy with someone else. It was eating at him, maybe that was why it bugged him. He didn’t want to know that Liz was happy with Khivar, it was his enemy. His freaking enemy that she was supposed to have children with. Build a life with.
“Max, it’s something that I need to know. What kind of a person that I was in this future? I mean, I was with the enemy, I am going to end up killing your sister if things don’t change. I need to know what kind of a person that I was. I. . . I want to know how I could live with myself in that future. After the things that I had done.” Liz responded, wanting to know more about her life. If she was supposed to change things, change the very existence of her own child, she supposed that she’d better be doing it for a good reason.
“Yes, you were happy. You had everything that you needed. Your husband, your children, friends, family. That was all that you needed. I guess you can say that your perspective about things changed. Nothing much happened in the first few years after you and Dad were together, but something happened when I was around three or four years old and that was when you pretty much cut yourself off from Maria. The two of you never talked to each other again. You felt that she didn’t know the truth about the war anyway, that she was only involved because of Guerin.” Daric told her. He knew that the break up of the friendship had bothered his mother occasionally, but she felt that it had been for the best, considering the things that she had known.
“What’s the truth about the war?” Max asked, curious about how he had lost the throne on Antar in the first place. History showed that only careless and inadequate leaders lost their power, so was that what he had been? What had been important to him on Antar? He hadn’t been in love with his wife, so it wasn’t like it had been about the love of a woman that had lead to his losing his throne. What exactly had it been that he’d felt for Liz back on Antar?
“There was a lot of anger and resentment about Antar. You and Vilandra weren’t your mothers only children. She had a child before she decided to get married. Khivar is your brother. Half brother to be exact, he was born about ten years before you were born on Antar. He wasn’t raised in a good household, he was discarded by your mother, and it was the reason for his resentment. He vowed that he would make something of himself, show her that he was something that she shouldn’t have thrown away. He quickly moved himself through the ranks and was working under Rath’s father. Khivar never agreed with some of the things that Zan’s father did, his distribution of the spice was one of them. He believed that everyone should have some, and the Antarians should stop being selfish with it. So in the end there were dozens of different reasons why Khivar decided to overthrow Zan.” Daric explained to them. There was so much about Antar, what had happened to make his father overthrow Evans on Antar.
“I don’t care about what happened to make Khivar overthrow Max on Antar. It doesn’t matter to me. I just. . . want to understand how I could do what I’m going to do. I want to know what my life was like. I want to know who I become.” Liz hissed, not caring about how she sounded. She was scared of the future, about how her life was going to turn out. Despite Daric’s insistence that she was happy in the future, Liz wasn’t sure. Daric had come back so he could change things, he was going to change his own life. If things were changed, than Daric would never live. It wasn’t something that she couldn’t take lightly. This was her son’s life that they were talking about.
“Liz— “ Max began. His heart was breaking in two at the look on her face. Maybe he hadn’t realized how hard this was for her to hear.
“Evans, stop. She wants to know. She wants to understand. I’m going to help her understand. Let her see some more.” Daric said with a sad smile, as he reached into his pants pocket. This was what he had been afraid of, his mother wanting to know more, his mother wanting to understand. He knew that she couldn’t get past it all, how her life had turned out the way that it had. Sure, it hadn’t been a bad horrible life but it was a life that the seventeen year old Liz Parker didn’t understand how it had come. “This was yours.”
Liz walked over to Daric and took what he had in his hand. It was a ring. It was an oval shaped ring, with what looked to be a moonstone. It had to be a moonstone, it was so luminescent. It was set in a white gold band, and it was so beautiful. Liz was in love with it. How could it be hers? She had never had anything as beautiful as this. “It’s so beautiful. Can I put it on?”
“Of course, it was yours after all. Dad gave it to you the day that I was born. Now, if you put it on, you will probably see something from the future, I know that’s what you want, but I just want you to be prepared for it. Okay?” Daric asked, looking at his mother. Even though she was small, he knew that she was far from fragile. She was the strongest woman that he knew, and he knew that everything was going to be alright. He trusted in her, he knew that she would do the right thing.
“Yes, I’m prepared for it, Daric. I want to see.” Liz responded, wanting to see what her life had been like, what it had been like watching Daric grow up, raising her child. She wanted to know, she wanted to see everything. She wasn’t scared about what her future had been like. All she wanted was to understand, to know. Right now, nothing else mattered.
Max didn’t say anything as he watched Liz and Daric’s interaction. It hurt for him to watch Liz, but he knew this was what she wanted. She wanted to see what her life had been like. But Max didn’t want for her to see it. He didn’t want for her to see what her life with Khivar had been like. He didn’t want her to see it and wonder if maybe she would be happier with Khivar. No, don’t you dare think like that, he told himself. He knew that everything was going to be alright, all she needed was to understand. And this was the only way that she was going to understand, the only way for her to get any sort of peace with the two of them changing their futures. Yes, everything was going to be alright.
TBC. . . . .
Here is a pic of the ring that Daric shows Liz, just so you guys can see it for yourselves:
http://www.topazery.com/pics_database/p ... tem=rg1208
Great to see you again. 
