At All Costs (CC, M/L Mature) pt. 23 11/20 COMPLETE

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sprayadhesive
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At All Costs (CC, M/L Mature) pt. 23 11/20 COMPLETE

Post by sprayadhesive »

At All Costs
Rating: Mature
Category: M/L
Summary: The story picks up at the end of Max to the Max. Maria, Michael, Isabel, Alex, Tess, and Liz have decided to wait for further instructions from Nasedo before pursuing Max, much to Liz’s dismay. Max’s in the white room, but what will happen when the agency brings in an unexpected pawn? The main focus is M/L, however, MM and AI will also be present.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything. The characters, the music, the movies referenced, none of it is mine.
Author’s Note(s): This has been an idea that I’ve had in my head for a while. The original idea came from a dream I had. I will be borrowing some of the parts of the White Room, but the rest is my own plot. In part one a, the italics are Valenti talking to Deputy Fisher about Max Evans a few days before the beginning of this story.

Thank you to my beta, Timelord31.

This amazing banner was created by lizard_queen. I absolutely adore it.
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Part 1a

“I don’t know what it is about him. I never heard much of him until the day in the Crashdown when shots were fired. Some tourists reported that Liz Parker got shot and he went up to her. They said that they did something to her, and she was healed. Her uniform had a bullet hole in it, with some blood around the opening. We never found the bullet.”

Liz Parker sat in her favorite booth in the Crashdown, the one that Max had been sitting in when she was shot. Everyone had been here not a half an hour before, but eventually they all realized they had to go home. Isabel had to explain Max’s absence to her parents, because she wanted to hear from Nasedo before telling them. Telling them where he was would mean telling them that they were aliens. Michael, Isabel, and Tess had all decided to wait a few days for Nasedo to show up before going after Max. Liz still wasn’t entirely convinced that it was a good idea, but Tess had Michael, Isabel, Alex, and Maria convinced that it was for the best. Tess returned to her empty house and Alex went home after the Pod Squad had left, but Maria stayed behind upon Liz’s request. Liz wasn’t taking Max’s abduction well, and Maria was her best friend.

“Liz Parker never came forward with any information about it. Do you know that she dated my son, Kyle? A few weeks after that episode in the Crashdown, she broke up with Kyle. According to him, she had a thing for Max.”

Maria was up in Liz’s room at the time, getting ready for bed. Liz had told her that she would be up in a few moments. Liz sat with her head held in her hands, her elbows on the table. Max came to save her, with disregard to his own safety. That reckless disregard had saved her, but now his fate was uncertain.

“I don’t know what was going on for a while, though. Liz entered some blind date thing, setting her up with a boy in college. She didn’t even make it though the date. Apparently Kyle went out with Max, and Max somehow won her back again.”

No one knew who Pierce was. He answered to no one. That’s what scared the group the most. As Liz thought about it, a tear ripped down her cheek. She may never see Max again. She shook the thought from her head, she had to think positive.

“From then on, I rarely saw them apart. The always told their friends that they were in love with each other, and let me tell you, it didn’t look like a teenage love to me. It always looked like the real thing. Liz doesn’t trust me anymore. She used to. I think they’re hiding something.”

She heard a creak behind her, like someone was creeping in the back room, but she ignored it. It was probably Maria snooping through the kitchen, anyway. She began to weep as she remembered how Max came after her and followed her through the maze. When he was caught, he didn’t take his eyes off of Liz, and it broke her heart.

“He would do anything for her. I don’t think that most people realize the connection that they have. Every time I enter a room that the two of them are in, he steps in front of her. He’s determined to keep her safe; I think he’d do anything to protect her.”

Liz lay her head down on the table, closing her eyes. She wanted to help Max so badly. If everyone’s safety wasn’t on the line, she would have been looking for clues already. Everyone was in danger now, though.

“Yeah, I reckon he’d do or give anything to save her.”

Liz was suddenly highly alert. It sounded like more than one person was in the back room. She heard someone go upstairs and try the doorknob. For some reason, the door was locked. Liz was too petrified to look behind her. It could just be Maria and Alex playing around with her, but she doubted that they would pick such a delicate time to play a prank. The door swung open, and Liz kept her eyes squeezed tight. The footsteps approached her booth and stopped right behind her. Liz got the courage to lift up her head. She slowly opened her eyes and began to turn her head towards where the footsteps had stopped. She never got a chance to see who the person behind her was. They had, at that moment, injected something into her that made her go unconscious the moment it was stuck into her.

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Part 1b

“He’s not telling us anything.” One of Pierce’s men was growing tired of watching the interrogation of the alien. Pierce continued to fire questions at the boy, but he was only telling them things like where he lived and requesting that they call his parents.

The dark-haired teenage boy looked nothing like an alien, and he certainly dressed like every other teenager in the country. His looks were deceiving. When they got the multiple test results back, everything was normal except for two things: his blood and the amount of brain activity. His brain was normal, but the activity was way off the charts for a normal human brain. It was like he had tapped into some unlocked portion of it.

After the results had come back, Pierce had continually tried to question the boy, but he wouldn’t answer anything. The agents were growing antsy.

“Don’t worry,” Pierce smirked, “We’re getting ready to go into the next phase. We’ll get our answers… at any cost.”

On the other side of the one-way window, Max Evans was sitting, strapped to a table in a room with four white walls, a white ceiling, a white floor, and no apparent entrances or exits. He was completely petrified sitting there. He had been poked and prodded to the nth degree, and he knew that his captors had no thought of release. Suddenly a section of the wall opened up and in strode a man with clean room gear donned.

He spoke in a jesting voice, “You and I don’t need procedure, now do we, Max?” He removed his gear and smiled smugly at Max.

Max strangled a cry of disbelief, gasping, “You’re the deputy?”

Pierce smirked again and spoke in a fake Southern accent, “You have your tricks, I have mine.”

Max’s eyes were vacant. With Pierce’s disguise as one of Valenti’s deputies, there was no telling how far the corruption goes. Valenti could be in on the whole thing. Even worse, Valenti could be perfectly oblivious. That put everyone in even more danger, because Pierce could use his position to get to everyone else.

“And since you haven’t been giving us any answers, I needed to use one of my tricks.”

Pierce waved his hands towards one of the walls. Max tensed up. Despite his restraints, they hadn’t done anything but test him. Over the intercom, they filled Max in on the results. They had proven he wasn’t from around here. It was then that Max started to think that he’d never make it out of the White Room.

A door opened suddenly on the wall at the top of Max’s head. Several men walked in, donned with clean suit gear. One was wielding a syringe, filled with a substance that Max didn’t recognize. Max clenched his fists, gritting his teeth as they walked closer. Pierce stood at Max’s head as the man took his position at Max’s side. He was about to inject Max’s arm when Pierce held up a halting finger.

“When you wake up, I have a surprise for you. I think you’ll rather enjoy it.”

Max struggled against his restraints as the needle drew nearer and nearer to his flesh. The hopelessness and despair grew, his insides churning. The joy laced into Pierce’s voice as he told him about the surprise filled Max with agony. Anything that made Pierce happy couldn’t be good for him.

The last thing Max saw before he fell asleep was Pierce’s smug face.

Max opened his eyes and he was in a pitch-dark forest. The only sounds that could be heard were him stumbling around on the forest floor, searching blindly for something. He didn’t know exactly what that something was, but its presence was strong. Tree limbs caught at his arms, causing him to bleed. A tree root surprised him and he fell over, tumbling.

He lay on his back for a minute, and then heard a voice calling to him softly, “Max.”

Sitting up, he looked around him. Directly in front of him, no telling how far away, was a bright light. He stumbled towards it, tripping over countless things. He started to run faster, desperate to get to the voice, “Max.”

He got into range of the light and realized that the light was actually two small ones. He reached out towards the lights trying to touch them. He was a few feet away when it felt like something slapped him hard across the face. He fell over onto his back, and knocked the back of his head on a rock, instantly falling unconscious.


“Max!” A feverish voice spoke from above him, and someone shook his shoulder.

The serum was starting to wear off, and he wearily blinked his eyes. “Liz,” he gasped, not believing his eyes. He started to talk to himself, “That’s not Liz. It can’t be. You’re hallucinating, it’s the only reason.”

He closed his eyes, groaning. He longed to be with her, to hold her, to look into her brown eyes and kiss her once more. He would never have that joy again. Tears fell from his eyes and he tried to move his hands, tried to lash out, anything. But he couldn’t. His hands were still tightly bound to the cold, hard table. He screamed in frustration, and then warm, comforting fingers touched his cheek. The fingers were trembling, and his eyes slowly traveled up them and found an arm. That arm lead to a neck, a whole person that should’ve gone away, but hadn’t.

Liz’s hand was stroking him, stroking his face. “No,” he mumbled. An aching pain was starting to grow in the back of his head, causing his speech to slur, “You’renotreal. Not Real. You’re. Pierce. A trick.”

“No, Max. I’m here. I’m real.” Liz’s other hand cupped his other cheek, and she slowly bent over, kissing him on the lips.

The kiss made him more aware, “You’re here. Oh God, you’re here.” His voice wasn’t thankful but frightened and full of self-blame. The sudden movements had made his head pound even more and he winced. “I’m so sorry, Liz.”

Liz shook her head, “Don’t blame yourself, Max. You can’t blame yourself. I was careless, too. And that headache’s from the drugs they’ve been giving you. It’ll go away. Maria was upstairs when they took me and…” She seemed to be unable to control what was coming out of her mouth.

Max cut her off at the same moment that the door behind his head opened once more. He struggled to speak quicker, “Liz, are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

Liz stopped him, “I’m fine Max, and we’ll get to me later. Are you okay?” Two suited men walked up behind Liz and grabbed her, forcing her away from Max.

Max struggled against his restraints, “Don’t touch her! Let her go!” He screamed at the men as loudly as he could manage, the blood pulsing through his veins. He continued to struggle, grunting and gasping as the bindings cut into his flesh. Blood began to trickle from his wrists and ankles. They couldn’t get to Liz. Nothing that she could ever say would convince him that her capture wasn’t his fault. He’d never be able to forgive himself if something happened to her. He didn’t think he would be able to survive.

A calm voice spoke from the doorway, one that made Max cringe, “It’s alright, Max. We’re not going to hurt her. But right now I’m not here to talk to you. I’m here to talk to your friend, Liz.”

Liz turned a shocked face to Pierce, her voice cracking with sorrow for Max and fear of Pierce, “What do you want with me?”

“I merely wanted to tell you my plan for Max. You see, the agency wants answers. Max hasn’t been giving us these answers, and from what Valenti said, you two are very close,” he stressed the last two words, lacing them with self-satisfaction, “So we plan on… persuading Max to give us these answers. Let’s just say that this won’t be a verbal persuasion. Here’s the kicker – you’re going to be on the other side of one of these walls, watching the whole thing.”

Pierce paused, studying the two and then continued, “I would like to make it known that if at anytime, either of you decides to talk, the persuasion will cease.”

At Pierce’s last words, Max’s entire body was washed over with cold. He couldn’t tell Pierce many of the things that Pierce wanted to know, because he himself didn’t know them. He wouldn’t tell Pierce the things that he did know, because it could put Michael, Isabel, Tess, Nasedo, and the others in danger.

Max looked to Liz. He could see her trembling from here and her face had gone stark white. She tried to make a step towards him, but the men held her back. She opened her mouth to say something, but Max shook his head. He couldn’t afford to let Pierce know anything else. He had exposed himself, ultimately when he healed Liz in the Crashdown, and he was willing to accept the consequences of this. He had to prevent Michael and Isabel from assuming his fate.

Pierce made a gesture with his hand, and the men started to move out, dragging Liz with them. Liz tried to fight back and remain behind with Max, but they were overpowering her. Max spoke shakily and quickly, “Liz, no matter what they do to me, you can’t tell them anything. Don’t tell them anything, no matter what. Promise me, Liz!”

Liz’s head shook, telling Max that she couldn’t make that promise, tears flowing from her eyes, “Max, I can’t…”

Max yelled desperately, “You have to! Promise me!”

Liz whispered as she was about to leave the room altogether, loudly enough for him to hear, “I promise.”

The door slammed shut behind her, leaving Max empty and cold. He had to try and shut down, not only for his sake, but for Liz’s. He was alone in the room for what felt like days. The silence was driving him literally insane, not a sound from the outside floated in. His body grew restless from being kept in the same position. The blood that had trickled down his wrists and ankles while Liz was here was dried onto his flesh, causing him to itch.

His mind wasn’t with him. The entire time he laid there, his mind traveled to dark places. Places where Liz was being kept in a room adjacent to his, starving, afraid, and alone. His own well-being didn’t matter at all, Liz’s did. The fear for her safety drove him to try to escape from his restraints a few times, it never worked.

He was fighting a losing battle, but he was fighting it for her.

The thoughts of her tormented him, until he finally cracked. He screamed to no one, limbs trying to thrash about, “You can’t do this to her! Let her go! You have to let her go! She doesn’t know anything! She’s not involved!” His screams went unanswered and he grew more frustrated. Tears were steadily streaming down the sides of his face and he whispered to himself, voice cracking with emotion like someone who had gone insane, over and over again, “It’s entirely my fault. How could I have let this happen? I’m so sorry Liz.”

The whispering continued and he grew hoarse. He ignored this and kept whispering, as if it would bring her to safety. When his throat was completely dry and began to throb, he kept whispering. He could feel blood trickling down the back of his throat as different sections cracked from being so dry, but he couldn’t stop. The tears fell until he could cry no more.

Over that long period of time that he was in there, emotionally torturing himself, no one came in with food or water and no one came over the intercom. He grew weak and pale, often times growing faint. Max wouldn’t allow himself to sleep. While Liz was here, he couldn’t afford it. He had to stay awake just incase. Just incase.

When the door finally opened again, he fully believed that it couldn’t get any worse. He was never more wrong in his life.
Last edited by sprayadhesive on Fri Nov 24, 2006 12:52 am, edited 39 times in total.
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sprayadhesive
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Post by sprayadhesive »

Asabetha, angeleyes, Micheala141, Timelord31, trulov, Rhazie, and AllieXie, and any lurkers that may be reading this, thank you all for all of the positive feedback. I really, truly appreciate it.

I rushed with this part, trying to get it out as soon as possible. I must confess that it's not my favorite and I'm not very happy with it, but it will serve it's purpose in the story. I'm hoping to have the next part out soon, hopefully by Wednesday.

Without further ado, here's part two. Let me know what you guys think. :wink:

Part 2
At least ten men filed into the room, Pierce was nowhere to be found. Various objects and tables were brought with them. Max struggled against his restraints once more, the bonds driving him insane. He spoke angrily, his voice louder than normal, “Let her go!”

No one looked him in the eye, much less speak to him. Max chuckled like someone who had gone insane, “Where’s the team leader? Where is that son of a bitch, Pierce?!”

A cool voice spoke over the intercom, “Did you miss me Max?”

Max scoffed, rattling at his bindings, “You have no idea.”

“Don’t worry, I’m watching you. I’ve been watching you for a while. Your friend Liz and I, actually, have been watching and listening.”

“Liz?!” Max screamed. He had to know if she was okay. Men worked around them but he ignored them, his eyes darting around the room. Nothing met his eyes but white walls. He fell deeper into anguish as he heard the intercom switch off.



Liz sat on immediately on the other side of the glass. She had watched as Max had suffered through twelve hours of solitude. She had darkly noted that all of his turmoil came from him fearing for her safely. Pierce had deceived him, however. They had merely run a few tests on her. Once it was concluded that she was completely normal, they had set her up in the viewing room. She had a chair, which deceptively was comfortable and sat in the corner directly in front of the window. She had been kept nourished.

Pierce had maliciously kept the speakers on in the room. Apparently they were ultra-sensitive, because Liz had been able to hear every single one of Max’s whispers. She couldn’t show weakness, though. She had promised Max that she wouldn’t say anything, and she felt that if she shed a single tear she would crack and betray that promise.

Pierce also entered the room occasionally, as if trying to tempt her into speech. An hour ago, he had entered and never exited. He began to whisper orders around the room. Liz looked up to a clock hanging above the window. It had been 12 hours since she last spoke to Max and twenty-four since he was last seen by the others. Something told her that they weren’t feeding him properly. Pierce gave another one of his hand motions, and that’s when the men had entered.

Max’s scream for her had startled her. Pierce had forbidden her to speak during any intercom sessions; if she did he said Max would have major repercussions. Tears were brimming as the intercom was shut off and Pierce turned to face her, “I believe my men will be ready shortly.”

Liz hadn’t been told what his men were getting ready to do, but she watched in fear of what was to come.

Max felt his table being hoisted, now perpendicular to the floor. With swift motions, his bindings were removed and he crumpled painfully to the floor. Before he had time to try and spring to his feet, two men grabbed him by the arm and forced him against the glass separating him from Liz.

Liz let out a gasp of horror as the side of Max’s face was pressed up against the pane. She reached out, trying to touch him and was confronted with the cold feel of glass. Up close, Max looked even worse. The dark bags under his eyes were ten times more profound, and it seemed that he had lost at least fifteen shades of color since the last time they’d been together. She tried to stand up and reach him, but Pierce shoved her back down.

The men in the white room dragged Max over to the right wall, and forced his hands above him. Metal rings stood waiting. Liz hadn’t seen them earlier. It seemed like Pierce had many more surprises in store for them. Max’s hands were kept in the rings, bound tightly. She saw Max try to force his hands out of them, but they wouldn’t budge.

Two rings waited at his feet, in a position that would cause him to stand with his legs spread slightly apart. They, too, were mercilessly forced into the bindings.

Max was now shamed, standing with his stomach pressed up against the wall. He kept his line of sight to looking over his right shoulder. This was, unknown to him, the wall that Liz was watching him through.

Someone came up behind him, and Max felt cold metal slowly traveling up his back. With a dull realization, he felt his shirt being cut from him. His whole back was exposed and he felt the scissors slowly traveling up both of his sleeves. The shirt fell to the floor and goose bumps formed all over his skin.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see all of the men leaving but one. Max couldn’t see what was going on behind him, but he heard what he thought was a piece of metal crackling in flames. He heard footsteps approach him and the crackling grew louder. He had to stay strong for Liz, but he couldn’t help the fear that was building up inside of him. The man found a way to stay in his blind spot, and it was killing Max. His stomach squirmed and turned. As he heard the footsteps come to a stop behind him, he closed his eyes as tightly as he could and bore his teeth down.

White-hot metal seared his skin, and Max screamed out in agony. His screams reverberated around the room and in the observation room as well. Pierce hadn’t forgotten to turn the speakers back on. Liz broke out into tears as the man drew the brand away.

Max opened his eyes as he felt the metal being lifted from his right shoulder blade. The metal may have been removed, but the pain hadn’t. He felt his skin begin to blister and ache from the sudden change in temperature. The pain continued to flood through his body, making him light headed and woozy.

Liz tried to see what was branded onto Max, but his position prevented her from doing so. The area around it was swollen, red and puffy.

Max yearned to scratch at it, to claw and rip his skin off. It itched so much that he felt like his skin would somehow fall off at any point. He heard the man rustling with something and a dawning realization occurred to him – the man wasn’t done. He heard as another brand was placed into the flames.

He felt like he was going to puke. He bore down his teeth once more, and squeezed his eyes together tightly. The brand touched his skin, and the sensations occurred all over again. This brand was larger, however, than the other one (which was two inches long and one inch across). The brand was placed directly below the first, and seemed to have many more points of contact.

Max felt light-headed again as the pain began to take over his body. The sting seemed to travel from the spot the metal had touched him and traveled slowly through the entirety of his body. The man left the brand on for a lot longer than the first, and by the time that he lifted it, the metal had cooled off considerably. Max didn’t feel the cool down, however. His senses had gone into overload as blood rushed into his head and he passed out. His body slumped against the wall, his arms being suspended limply above him.

Liz squinted her eyes, struggling to see what the last brand said, but she couldn’t make it out. When Max passed out, she briefly lost the ability to breathe. His wrists seemed to be slowly and painfully cut up, due to his weight and gravity. His fingers turned purple and the blood flow started to cut off from his arms in general. His head was slumped against his left arm, but Liz could see that his eyes slowly began to flutter.

Max awoke with a splitting headache and flaming skin on his shoulder blade. He had momentarily forgotten that his hands were bound and struggled to itch at it. When his hand was restrained, he cried out in frustration. The sound of a door shutting behind him made him jump. He had completely forgotten that the man had still been in the room.

Liz turned to face Pierce, who had just cleared his throat. “We have every intention of leaving Max like that, in this room for a full forty-eight hours until we enter it again. The only thing that can stop this is you giving me the location of the orb right now. You tell me the location and we’ll unbind Max and let him stay that way until we feel fit, as well as give him food and water.”

She gulped, knowing about the promise that she had made with Max. Seventy-two hours without food or water, not to mention God knows what else they’ll do to him could very well kill him. She had to agree. She slowly nodded her head, “Let him down and I’ll tell you where it is. After you get it, you nourish him.”

Pierce nodded, contently and Liz told him exactly where to find the orb. He sent a few men from the room, presumably to retrieve it. After they had left, he toggled with a few controls on the wall. The rings around Max’s hands and feet released him and retracted into the wall.

Max crumpled to the floor once more. He shakily raised his left hand and felt the area where they had branded him. The area instantly started itching like a rash, and his fingernails tore at it. He backed into a corner of the room, and curled his knees into his chest. He could feel the blood trickling down his back, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that Liz had passed the first hurdle and hadn’t told Pierce anything – or so he thought. He lowered his head onto his knees, once more captured in his mind.

Liz stood, her hands pressed against the window. She would give anything to run to Max, comfort him and tell him that everything would be okay. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and save him from himself. She knew that on the inside he was destroying himself. The extent of the destruction was yet to be seen.

In a mere half an hour, the men returned. One was clutching the orb and he held it out proudly to Pierce. Pierce snatched it and lay in on the table in front of him. The time to get the orbs to work would have to wait. He needed Max’s mentality to lessen before he could really break into his mind.

Liz spoke shakily to Pierce, “You said that you would feed him, give him something to eat and drink. Do it now.”

Pierce smiled smugly at her, “I say a lot of things. Cut the lights!”

The white room became pitch black, and Max stumbled to his feet. He kept his hand on the wall, banging periodically. He couldn’t see a single thing, and he tripped over his own feet. He landed hard on the floor, and felt blood trickle from his chin. Max rolled over, curling into the fetal position.

Forty-eight hours past and Max was still wide-awake. Despite his constant attempts at sleep, they were often disrupted by a loud beep that would echo around the room every thirty seconds. No one would be able to sleep with that noise.

Twenty, Twenty-one, Twenty-two…’ He counted in his head, waiting for the next beep. The tension built as he awaited its annoying tone. ‘Twenty-nine, Thirty.’ He gritted his teeth and waited out the obnoxious pitch. He buried a finger into each of his ears, hoping to drown out the sound. His efforts were fruitless. Tears formed in his eyes as the sound tormented him. There was a brief moment of relief as he realized that the beeping was over, but then the tension started all over again. ‘Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen.

He had been counting like this for at least the last two hours. In those last two hours, his stomach began to grumble. The last time he had eaten anything was minutes before he found out that Nasedo had taken Liz. Now, that seemed like it was years ago.

His throat was dry and scratchy from earlier and lack of hydration and his stomach now felt like it was eating itself. ‘Thirty.’ He grabbed at his hair with his hands, pulling at it. Clumps fell out into his hands, and the beeping continued. It was longer this time. He scratched at his arms, striving to take his mind off of the beeping. His arms began to bleed, and suddenly he felt like he hand been hit by a train. After suffering for two days of sensory deprivation, he was sent into sensory overload.

The lights were turned on full-blast and a blaring siren-like noise filled the room. Max shrieked and rolled over onto his stomach. He shoved fingers into his ears, attempting to close his eyes and block out the light. The floors had started to light from beneath, and the position’s effectiveness was hindered.

Max squinted as he opened his eyes, blinded by the light. Spots were blocking his vision as he stumbled around the room. He failed to find a dark spot. Instead, he huddled into a corner, once more drawing his knees up to his chest. He screamed, the pulsing beat almost driving him insane. It was too much at once, and tears began to fall from his eyes. The siren turned into a screeching noise, accompanied with a hint of nails-on-chalkboard.

Max’s head began to throb, the noise and light giving him a terrible headache. If only he could find a way to stop it. He knew that there would never be a way. He kept his eyes jammed closed, but his eyelids shone with red light. There was no way that the Special Unit was going to let him sleep or be comfortable. After an hour of pure torture, the lights dimmed to normal and the sound stopped completely. Max lay limply on the floor, exhausted.

His head still pounded from the noise, and he heard echoes of it in his head. Every thirty seconds he would twitch, his hand jerking like he needed to stuff a finger into his ear. His eyes closed heavily, and he lay on his left side. The cool nature of the floor against his sweaty skin gave him chills, and he suddenly realized that the temperature of the room was decreasing dramatically. Shivers went up his spine. He opened his eyes suddenly at the sound of the door swinging open. Even though he knew it would bring pain, seeing other life forms came as such a relief for him. The solitude of the room, for so long, had caused his voice to cease working. He assumed that the use would return soon.

Someone grabbed his upper-arm, and Max was too weak to resist. He was pulled to his feet. His legs shook madly underneath him, and if it hadn’t been for the tight grip around his arm, he wouldn’t have been able to support himself. His eyesight remained on the ground with his head bent forward. The man uttered no words, but brought Max over to the restraints that had come out of the wall once more. His chest was pressed against the freezing wall, and his goose bumps worsened. His hands and feet were bound like before, but he found it hard to keep his feet on the ground. His body slumped against the wall and his head flopped against his left arm, the same as last time.

The man exited the room, and entered shortly after carrying a leather bag. From the bag, he drew out a leather whip, which split out into nine ends. At the end of each was a sharp piece of metal. Pierce walked into the room, and stood beside Max. He looked directly into Max’s eyes with satisfaction.

“Your little friend, Liz, told us where the orb was, Max. She tried to bargain with us for it. We told her that if she told us where it was, we’d let you out of your bindings for a while, and we’d give you something to eat, maybe even some water…” he paused, watching Max’s face for defeat, he didn’t have to search long, it was written all over his face, “Now we’ve been experimenting with the orbs, trying to get them to work. My entire research team is stumped. This is for those answers. Tell us how to work the orbs and it will all stop. I’ll be waiting behind you, incase you want to speak. I think that I should mention that the speakers are on both ways right now, and if Liz would like to stop this at any point, all she has to do is say the word.”

Max opened his mouth, trying to say something to Liz, but he couldn’t get the words out. Pierce shrugged and left Max’s side, retreating to the far side of the room. The man with the whip walked closer to Max, and drew it back sharply. In an instant, it changed direction and cut across Max’s flesh. He cried out in pain, tears in his eyes. The metal had cut at his skin in nine different places, tearing at his flesh.

The man brought the whip back again, and it cracked as it sailed back into his flesh. Skin tore in nine new places, and Max desperately fought back a scream. His cheeks puffed out as he exhaled deeply. His teeth bit hard into the side of his cheek as he awaited the next blow, and the whip sailed into nine new parts of his back. He could taste blood in his mouth, making him gag. The coldness of the room tripled what the pain would have normally been.

His back ached with pain, so much pain on top of the weakness caused by seventy-two hours of deprivation of practically everything necessary for a human to function, he felt light-headed. The whip cracked repeatedly against his back, and blood trickled down it. Welts and cuts were slowly the only thing visible on his red, raw back. With each blow he struggled to restrain his screams. When the last blow struck, one tail had sprawled out and hit him in the cheek. The metal dragged a scratch down his face, and Max couldn’t hold back the scream. A blood-curdling yell escaped from his lips, and he fought to keep from blacking out.

The man with the whip turned to Pierce, “If I keep this up for much longer, we’re going to loose him.”

Pierce nodded, obviously put-out, “That’s enough. I have a new plan, anyways.”

Liz sat with her legs curled up into her chest, rocking back and forth. Her face was wet with tears and her hair was jumbled. It looked like she hadn’t slept, either. She couldn’t bring herself to do it while Max was obviously suffering so much.

The look on his face when he had found out that she told Pierce where the orb was destroyed her. It had seemed impossible, but he looked even more defeated than before. That was when she decided that no matter what, she was going to have to honor her promise to Max from now on. For his sake.

Every lash caused more tears to fall from her eyes, and it made her practically sick to her stomach to see the blood falling down his back. She literally felt like she would vomit at any second. It took every ounce of self-control for her to not call out and tell them what they wanted to hear. She shook her head, knowing that it was impossible. No one knew how the orbs worked. The position was unavoidable.

When she heard that Pierce had another plan, she felt her insides twist. She didn’t know how much more that Max would be able to take, emotionally or physically.

Max was released from his restraints and everyone filed out of the room. In the main hallway of the base, Pierce and his companion stopped briefly.

"Prepare the Alpha Gamma plan; she's not going to talk anymore. We've got to get rid of her."
Last edited by sprayadhesive on Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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sprayadhesive
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Post by sprayadhesive »

Feedback and Part 3

I have the time to comment back to your comments :) I wanted to on the last part, but I couldn't find the time. All of the feedback has been mind-blowing. I don't realize when I write how suspensful that it comes across to you, so I've been trying to get out everything as soon as possible. My life's going to be getting a little more hectic later in the week, but I hope to have anoth part out to you by then:
Rhazie: Thank you very much, unfortunately you'll have to wait another part to find out. :P
Timelord31: Thanks! Read on and you'll see just how close.
Asabetha: If I only knew myself :wink:
... just kidding.
Behrsgurl*87: It means a lot to me to hear that, really. Thank you!
dreamer19: I've found that I'm somewhat drawn to the depths of Max's mind and how different things affect him, like suffering. We'll be seeing more of this later.
Bri+Jason2830: I'm sorry to make you cry! Even the smartest of us can make the biggest mistakes. You're going to find out where they are, they could never bail on Max!
SweetnSpicyCandy: Michael's got some things holding him back, even if they aren't yet apparent. I'll keep writing, don't worry... I've got to get this out of my head. As for the Pierce fics, I'll have to get back to you.
Clueless: Thank you kindly. I appreciate the positive feedback.
ChemChic: I'm glad to hear that you're connecting with the characters. It's a fear of mine that it'll be impossible to get emotionally into the story. Sorry again for the suspense!!
Lurkers: If there are any of you out there, thank you for reading this. I'm touched by all of you.

Okay, so I'm probably not the best commenter to your comments. I'll try to improve on that.

**********

This part will back-track a little and take us to the others. I know that many of you are going to be disappointed, but this is a part directly influencial to Max and Liz's situation.

Don't hate me, but they're not in this one. Am I giving too much away? I'd better shut my mouth. Oh, but another note... it's a little shorter than the other two, but not much. :?

Part 3a

Three days earlier: The night of Liz’s capture.

Maria sobbed uncontrollably into the receiver, speaking incoherently to someone on the other line, “Upstairs… Liz… downstairs… Door locked… g-gone…” She couldn’t spit out any words, finding it too hard to breathe and speak at the same time.

A cool voice spoke from the phone, trying to keep her under control. “Take a deep breath, Maria. Calm down. Take deep breaths!”

Maria started to breathe deeply, but tears were still pouring down her face. Without a single word from her, the voice spoke again, “We’re coming over. It won’t take longer than five minutes. I have to pick up Alex on the way over there, though. I’m at the Evans’s right now.”

Maria croaked into the phone, “Hurry.”

The phone line went dead, and Maria sunk to the floor. She was sitting in the middle of the Crashdown. Minutes earlier, she had finally gotten around the locked door (via the balcony), and had barreled in to find Liz missing. She searched everywhere and found absolutely no sign of her except for tears on the table that Liz was sitting at.

She remained in this position until, five minutes later, Michael tore open the door. He skidded to a halt beside her, reached down, and scooped her into his arm. He cradled her like a baby, holding her and making soothing noises. She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest, sobbing once again.

Isabel and Alex had crept into the Crashdown behind him. Somehow someone had forgotten to call Tess, but no one noticed. They both froze at the sight before them. Michael had never been able to show that much affection towards Maria, but when he saw her in pain he had been able to throw his reservations aside.

Minutes trickled by and, finally, Michael got Maria to stop crying. He carried her over to a booth and sat her down on one of the tables. He drew up a chair next to her and then rubbed her knee absent-mindedly. He spoke in soothing, yet urgent tones, “What happened to Liz, Maria?”

Maria hiccupped, “I-I don’t know. I was upstairs getting everything ready for bed. Liz was down here, she told me that she would be up in a minute. I wanted to give her some time alone because of the whole Max thing…” Isabel and Michael shifted restlessly, still highly aware of and uncomfortable with Max’s captured-status, “…and then someone ran up the stairs and I heard the door lock. So I started banging on it, trying to open it and then I remembered about Liz’s balcony so I ran down through the alley and Liz was g-gone…”

Michael stood up and put a finger over Maria’s mouth, “We’ll figure this out. We’ll get her back.” He turned to Isabel, “We’ll get them both back.”

Maria looked around the room, “You didn’t call Tess?”

“Oh shit. I totally forgot about her, I’m not used to her being around.” Michael looked to Isabel questioningly, “Can you call her up and tell her about what’s going on?” Isabel nodded, too caught up in her emotions to speak.

While Isabel was calling Tess, Michael stood with his hands in his back pockets, looking guiltily at Maria and Alex. They were Liz’s best friends. Alex spoke to him shakily, “You are going to get her back.” It wasn’t a question or a comment, it was a command, “They took her to get to Max, and you know it.”

Michael swallowed guiltily, but before he was able to respond, Maria jumped to her feet. She was muttering wildly, “They took her to get to Max. Someone told Pierce how close they were, it’s the only way that he could’ve known.”

Michael spoke rationally, “No, they saw them together, Maria. They’ve been watching us for weeks.”

Maria shook her tear-stained face, “I have a feeling, Michael.” With a dawning realization, her eyes widened, “Valenti.” Without another word, she tore from the Crashdown with Michael and Alex at her heels.

Isabel froze on the spot, stopping in mid-sentence talking to Tess, “Oh my God, Tess. Meet us at the Crashdown. I think Maria just cracked.” She hung up the phone and sprinted after them.

Michael caught up with Maria halfway down the street. He grabbed one of her arms and spun her around to face him. Maria looked like she was going to protest, but Michael spoke first, “Maria, we can’t go talk to Valenti yet, even if he does have something to do with all of this.”

Tears filled Maria’s eyes, “Liz’s safety is at stake here, Michael!” She shouted, her voice quavering.

“Mine is too.” He spoke seriously, solemnly. The idea hit Maria over the head like a bat. She shook on her spot and then collapsed onto Michael. He held her in his arms, comfortingly rubbing her up and down her back. He took her hand and led her past a baffled Alex and Isabel, back into the Crashdown.

Isabel and Alex joined them in the booth that they sat in, and minutes later Tess joined them. She looked a little angry that no one had called her when Liz was first taken, but she put this thought behind her.

“What’re we going to do?” Maria spoke sternly, glaring at Tess. Tess had persuaded them not to go looking for Max. If they had gone looking for Max, maybe Liz wouldn’t be where she is right now.

Isabel spoke slowly, “We find them. I’m tired of waiting for Nasedo.” She checked her watch, “It’s been twelve hours already, who knows what they’ve already done to him!” Her voice grew high-pitched and it took her a lot of effort to speak, “He could already be dead.”

Michael shook his head, “Max’s too strong for that, too smart for that. He can’t be dead.”

“He isn’t dead. I would feel it.” Faces turned towards Tess, “I would feel it.” She repeated herself with certainty.

“How…?” Isabel gulped. She wasn’t sure that she believed her. After all, she’d spent her whole life with him, and she couldn’t tell anything. It scared her.

Alex suddenly got an idea, “Isabel, can you dreamwalk Max or Liz? It’s not really acting until we find Nasedo,” He shot Tess a look, “and it could help us prepare for when he does come.”

Maria scoffed, “If he does come.”

Tess protested, “He will come!”

The door to the Crashdown jingled as it opened, startling them all, “You’ve always been loyal to me, Tess.”

Nasedo strode in, sporting the form of Ed Harding. His face was as hard and emotionless as always. Tess turned to the group, her face showing satisfaction, wearing an expression that clearly said ‘Told you so’. Maria was about to open her mouth and swipe the smirk off of her face when Michael and Isabel rushed towards Nasedo.

Michael looked mutinous, “Where have you been?! Do you know what kind of a mess you’ve made?! They have Liz now, too!”

Nasedo nodded his head, “I’m fully aware of this. I know everything that’s been going on with Max. I’ve had to watch over him, because he stupidly put himself in danger trying to protect her.”

Alex rolled his eyes, “I knew that you were going to say something like that. You come in here and make the humans look like a joke, like they’re nothing. I’ve got news for you! Without the humans on this planet, the five of you probably wouldn’t be alive right now!” He looked startled with himself, “And why haven’t you been watching over Liz?”

Nasedo chuckled, “It’s not my job to look after her.” Maria and Alex both started to move towards Nasedo, but he held up a hand. The mere gesture made them stop in their tracks, “I am fully aware of her conditions. Nothing has been going on with Max or Liz that I don’t know about.”

“So if you know where they are, why aren’t they with you now?” Michael’s voice was quavering.

“The base that they’re being held at is the very same one that I was held at when the ship first crashed in ’47. Unfortunately, from what I’ve been able to see, Pierce has been making quite a few security upgrades. I can no longer bypass the security system. It requites an x-ray scan of my hand, and I don’t have the same bone structure that a human being posses. It’s going to be a lot harder to get to them than I originally thought.”

Isabel felt Alex walk to her side, and she grabbed his hand instinctively. She held on as if it was her lifeline, “What’re we going to do?” Her voice was weak and strained.

“The three of you will be able to get through the security with no problem. For the next few days, until I say you’re ready, you will all be put under an intense training program. Teaching you like this will mean that I will have to leave Max and Liz unattended for a while, so I expect the utmost discipline from you. The humans,” he nodded to Alex and Maria, “will not be able to accompany you three on your mission.”

Tears fell from Maria’s eyes, “We can’t just stay here and do nothing while we know that they’re with Pierce!”

“You’re going to have to.” It was Michael who spoke this time, not Nasedo, “It’s bad enough that Pierce has Liz and Max, we can’t afford to have anyone else get caught.”

Maria nodded silently, still not convinced.

“Isabel, Michael, and Tess, grab enough luggage for the week. I don’t know how long this is going to take, but we’re going to be up for long hours, training. Meet me back at my house in an hour. Isabel, you’re going to need to use that time to formulate an excuse for your absence.”

Isabel nodded, “No problem, I’ll just tell them that I’m going to accompany Max on his camping trip.” She cringed when she thought about the excuse that she made up for him. He was alone and scared having God-knows-what done to him, and she told her parents that he went camping. It made her insides squirm.

Nasedo nodded, “Very good. I’ll see you then.”

Michael turned to Maria, “I’ll call you whenever I can. I promise that I’ll get her back for you.”

Maria shook her head, “I don’t like this, Michael…”

“I know you don’t, you just have to trust me.” His voice was so reassuring, and she believed him at that moment. She lifted her chin up towards him and he descended upon her, kissing her softly.

“See you soon.” He turned on the spot and headed out of the Crashdown, presumably to get his things from his apartment.

Isabel turned to Alex, “Alex, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry about Liz. It’s all because of…”

A smile spread across Alex’s face and he held a finger up to her lips, “It’s not your fault, Isabel.” He gave her a quick hug, “Unless you take the whole ‘guilty by association’ thing into mind…”

Isabel laughed, pushing him away from her playfully. After her laughter had subsided, she hugged him again. She whispered into his ear softly, “I’ll be back.”

Part 3b

Caught Up With the Story: Around the time that Pierce gave the order for preparations of the Alpha Gamma plan.

Sweat dripped down Michael’s forehead and he strained his eyes in concentration. He was studying a picture of the underside of a finger, more specifically the fleshy part that held the fingerprint. His finger was stretched out beside the picture. Slowly, his finger started to glow. When the glow stopped, he could tell that his print matched the picture exactly. “Time!”

Michael looked up, excitedly. His powers had been growing over the last few days, and his control was getting much better.

“Five seconds, Guerin. Very good. I think you’ve officially passed all aspects of your training…” A satisfied grin crossed Michael’s face, “although you’ve completed it a full day after the other two.” The grin was wiped from his face, replaced with a scowl.

“That’s not fair, Nasedo! They’ve been using their powers for years. You practically just told me about this one!” Michael frowned at him. It had been just after they had all settled in at the house that Nasedo had told them all about their powers, and had taught Michael that he had some latent ones that he hadn’t yet tapped into.

Isabel and Tess crossed back into the room; they had been alternating using their power on one another. Isabel grinned broadly at Michael, talking to him like he was a child, “Does widdle Michael want a cookie for controlling his new power?”

He glared at her, but instead turned to Nasedo, “We’ve all got our powers, you said so yourself. I want to get Max and Liz back… today.”

Tess looked at Nasedo. He didn’t usually take orders well, “Michael, Nasedo told us that he would tell us when we’re ready…”

“And you are. It’ll take a few hours for us to review and practice the game plan. I’ve taken the time to write out instructions to all of you.” Nasedo passed around six sheets of paper, two for each person, “and I expect you to memorize them. The other sheet is a map of the building. Memorize this, because we will have to split up.”

Isabel and Michael looked at one another. In a few hours, hopefully, Max would be with them again. How whole he would be? They had no idea. The best things that they could do at that point were listening to Nasedo and following his instructions.

They both had noticed Nasedo’s voice of finality. It seemed like he was preparing them for not only what was coming tonight, but for what was ahead in the future. As if he could tell that all of this was just the beginning.
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Post by sprayadhesive »

Parts of this are left intentionally vague. Thank you everyone for all of the wonderful feeback.

On another note, lizard_queen made me a lovely banner. I can't thank her enough. I wanted to post it here to make sure that everyone saw it, but it will be posted on the first post.

Image
Part 4a

Max sat in a hard, straight-backed chair and stared straight ahead of him with his jaw clenched. His hands were tied primitively behind his back, and his feet were each tied to a chair leg. The sorrow radiating from his eyes was more than the girl sitting across from him could handle.

Liz was sitting across the room from Max, facing him and bound in the exact same way. The only difference between the two was the gag that cut tightly into Liz’s mouth. Tears were brimming in her eyes.

Max exhaled deeply. His ankles were tied tightly to the bottom of the legs, so any attempt that he made to cross the room failed miserably. He finally founds words, “Liz, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

Liz shook her head and sounds came muffled from the gag. Max continued to talk, “I can never forgive myself for this. I’m going to do anything and everything I can in order to get you out of here.” He breathed deeply; each word took a lot out of him. His head hung down, not able to bring himself to look at her anymore. Everything was his fault.

Liz looked up in alarm when she heard the door open. From behind Max, the door opened and Pierce strode in with two suited men. Max didn’t even bother to look up. Pierce stopped directly between the two, looking at them with keen interest.

“I noticed that I’ve been taking the wrong approach this whole time. There were things that I missed, but I’ve realize them now.” He moved directed his gaze towards Max, “We can’t get any more information from Liz; you made sure of that, Max. I wonder if we’ll be able to get any information from you when there’s a little role reversal.”

The two men kicked into gear. One untied Liz’s feet from the chair while the other one raised her bodily from it. He lifted her off of the floor completely and backed up. The man turned and hooked Liz’s feet into the restraints on the wall. After this, he untied the ropes around her wrists and hooked her wrists into their respective irons. Unlike Max, Liz was strapped with her back to the wall.

Max looked fearfully upon the scene and his bottom lip began to tremble. The whole room felt like it had dropped a few degrees. The blood felt like it drained out of his body. His voice croaked, and he couldn’t keep his eyes off of the sight playing out in front of him, “What’re you going to do with her?”

Pierce laughed, actually finding Max’s anguish amusing. Pierce briefly redirected his view to the men standing around Liz, “Bring in the… tools. Make sure the knife’s the first thing used.”

Pierce spoke, now staring at Liz. “Do you know what’s interesting, Max? How much you care for this… human. She’s not even your species! Tell me what I want to know and I’ll stop it. I’ll stop everything.” Before Max had time to respond, one of the men reentered the room with a long, surgical knife. Pierce filled the gap that was between him and Liz. He reached out and his cold fingers grazed upon her stomach as he slowly rolled up her shirt until it reached the bottom of her bra.

Tears were streaming down Liz’s cheeks. The fear of what was to come was overpowering her, but she couldn’t let Max down. She’d promised.

Words caught in Max’s throat and thoughts were scrambled in his head. The knife was drawing nearer to Liz’s flesh. Just a few more moments and it would be cutting into her gut. Millimeters away, Max was able to spit out a single word, “Stop!”

Pierce grinned with a feigned look of questioning on his face. The knife stopped its motion towards her stomach. Max was able to think clearly again. He had unknowingly been holding his breath, and he exhaled. Tears were trickling from his eyes, “Stop. I’ll tell you what you want to know. I’ll tell you everything!” His voice was brimming with emotion, and his posture showed even more defeat than it had before. He hung his head, and began to stare at his feet.

Pierce’s grin grew, “Everything?”

“Everything. But you have to promise to let her go.”

“As soon as you tell me everything I want to know.” Pierce crossed and sat in front of Max in the chair that Liz had left deserted.

Max looked past Pierce and stared deeply into Liz’s eyes, “I don’t want her to hear this.”

Liz shook her head in an attempt to beg him not to ask them to take her away from him. Max swallowed hard and stared at Pierce. Pierce nodded, and his men unlatched Liz and took her from the room.

Max began, “Around ten years ago, I came out of a pod. I had no idea where, who, or what I was. I came into a chamber, and I was all alone. There wasn’t anyone in sight.” Max was altering the story to protect everyone. He tried to make mental notes of where he would alter the story. Before he knew it, almost the whole thing was fabricated, “I stumbled towards a wall in front of me, because something in my mind told me to go towards it. Like magic, the solid stone opened. I don’t remember much from that night, everything’s patchy. I can’t remember where I was in the desert; I just remember walking for hours and a pair of headlights coming towards me.

That’s when the Evans’s found me. From there I’ve been in hiding. I told my adopted sister, Isabel, when we were still kids about my gifts. Then I told my best friend, Michael. We determined that my abilities weren’t human. We drew the only conclusion that made sense to us, which was that I wasn’t from around here. Not even from this planet. I… I healed Liz when she was shot a few months ago. That led to her to discovering my secret. Soon after, she told her best friends Maria and Alex. I healed Liz and saved her life, but that’s when you started hunting me. Everyone that knows my secret is uncomfortable around me. Everyone’s afraid of me and what comes with my life.

A few weeks ago, a man who called himself Nasedo showed up out of the blue. I didn’t have much contact with him, but he was like me. He wouldn’t tell me about my past. He left and I didn’t see him until a few days ago when he took Liz and tried to use her as bait. I chased after them, and you captured me. He’s the one that’s responsible for all of those deaths, not me. I don’t want to hurt anyone, I just want to survive.

I don’t remember anything about my alien past. I don’t know how to activate the orbs. All that I know is that I’m alone in the world. You have to believe me…” Tears streamed down his face and he suddenly had an idea, a risky, but possibly God-send of an idea, “I have a proposition for you…”

On the other side of the glass, Liz could see the two men talking. Every tear that fell out of Max’s eyes tore her apart. She was standing and placed her fingers lightly on the glass. After a few minutes (that seemed like hours), something happened that shocked her. Pierce shook Max’s hand

Pierce’s eyes glistened with satisfaction. He left the room. An hour later, he returned with a man that Liz hadn’t seen before. He carried a briefcase with him, along with a laptop. Pierce set up a table and three chairs in the middle of the room. They all sat around it. The man kept nodding and glancing in Max’s direction as if he’d seen a ghost. Not long after, the man started typing at his laptop. When he had read over the manuscript a few hundred times, he nodded. They all sat back, as if waiting for something to happen. Another man walked into the room, carrying two manila envelopes. He hands them to the other man and exits.

The man opens up one envelope and seems to explain something to both Max and Pierce. Max nods occasionally, showing that he understands. Pierce merely signs the paper in front of him. The man takes out an identical-looking set of papers and gives it to Pierce as well. The set that Pierce already signed, he gives to Max. Once both men had signed both of the papers, they were replaced into the envelope. Max took one of the envelopes and wrote something on it. He then took a pierce of blank paper and scribbled something on that. Max placed the paper in the envelope he had just writing on and made a comment to the man. The man shook his head to show understanding.

Taking both of the envelopes with them (Pierce grasping one and the man holding the one Max scribbled on), they left Max alone once more.

Liz jerked her head up suddenly and saw Pierce standing above her with a smile on his face. “I hope you didn’t have a problem with your transportation last time.” He smiled as he looked in on Max.

Liz looked at him, failing to mask her utter confusion, “What’re you talking about?”

Her bitterness seemed to please him. He laughed and withdrew something from his pocket. It was a filled syringe. With a sweeping motion, he plunged it into her neck. The last thing that she remembered seeing was Pierce’s satisfied smile.

When Liz woke up, she was laying alone in the desert. She had absolutely no idea where she was. Panic swept through her body.

Flashes of the events that had lead her to be here flooded her memory. Max had done something to set her free, it was the only explanation. Those hours of talking hadn’t been Max trying to bide time, it was him making some kind of a deal with Pierce.

An overwhelming feeling came over her. Her stomach twisted and churned at the mere thought of Max giving something away for her, yet again. First it was his captivity for hers, now what would it be? She reminisced about the torment that Max had been through and the sizzling sound of his skin as metal made contact with him and it made her gag. She bent over, clutching at her stomach, and threw up the crap that they had been feeding her at the base – all of it.

Liz wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand and stood up clumsily. She looked up and down the road that was next to her, trying to get her bearings.

To the left, everything was straight, flat, and looked a lot like desert. To the right, everything was straight, flat, and looked a lot like desert.

“Great,” she mumbled to herself, “Just great.”

With a little hesitation, she turned to her left and followed the road in that direction.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part 4b

The jeep tore down the highway. Michael squinted his eyes briefly as he tried to make out a figure on the horizon. If it weren’t so oddly shaped, he would have thought that it was a sign. He lifted a finger and pointed it in the object’s direction, causing Isabel, too, to look ahead of her.

Michael, Isabel, and Tess were all in the jeep, anxious to start their attempt on saving Max. Nasedo had skipped out at the last minute, but had given them the go-ahead with the plan. Isabel was riding shotgun to Michael and Tess was anxiously hanging over the space between the front seats. Her butt was barely touching the seat behind her.

In the seconds that it took them to close the gap between themselves and the object, it became clear that it was moving. Michael scoffed, “I wonder how a drunk got way out here.”

The object was closer now, and there was a distinct silhouette of a person teetering around. It seemed like he or she could hardly stand.

The jeep whizzed past it and Michael had barely gone a few yards before Isabel screamed, “TURN AROUND!”

Michael swerved the steering wheel in surprise and the Jeep zigzagged down the road. He steadied it and then put his foot on the brake. Isabel barely waited for the Jeep to slow down; as soon as it was at a safe speed she jumped out of the side. Michael cursed and turned around. He saw Isabel sprinting towards the drunk, who was no more than fifty yards behind them. He killed the ignition and ripped the keys out of the Jeep before he sprinted after her. He was feet away when he realized that the figure was a girl. Before he could get a good look at her, Isabel had pulled her into a tight embrace. The girl slumped against her, and Michael rushed forward to help her with the weight.

Isabel had tears in her eyes as Michael grabbed the girl from her. It was only then that he saw who it was – Liz. He glanced nervously around him, unsure of whether any agents were around. When he saw that no one was there but him, Isabel, and the fast-approaching Tess, he checked Liz’s appearance. She seemed okay, and she was wearing the same clothes that she wore the night that she was taken. The only negative thing about her appearance was the fact that she was currently passed out in his arms.

He gulped. He wasn’t sure what her release meant. Did that mean that they had killed Max and let her go? Was she no use to them? What was the reason? Was she even okay? His heart beat wildly and he looked up at Isabel and Tess. Both wore worried expressions.

“We have to get her back to Maria and Alex.” He knew that taking her back now would throw off the plan a little.

“But Michael, if we go back now we’re going to have to rework our entire timetable.” Tess’s tone held concern.

“I know! We have to worry about Liz right now, though. We have her with us. We…” he gulped, “We don’t have Max. We don’t know if we’ll ever get him back. She’s going to take priority.”

Isabel put her hand to her mouth and put her back to the group. She inhaled deeply before turning around again, “Let’s go. We need to get Liz some help. After we know that she’ll be okay, we’ll turn around and try to – I mean, save Max.”

Tess nodded, obviously overruled. They all walked back to the Jeep, Michael carrying Liz. He deposited her safely into the back seat next to Tess, and they turned around. Michael floored it on his way back to his house.

The group had decided earlier that Michael’s house would have to serve as their meeting place from now on. The Crashdown was getting too dangerous with Liz’s parents lurking around, constantly drilling them with questions about her location. Maria had told them a story about how Liz had decided to go camping in the desert and collect specimens for a Biology project. She wasn’t sure if they bought it.

Isabel used her cell phone to call Maria and Alex and tell them what was going on. Thankfully, they were both together. When they heard the news, they both hastily agreed to drop whatever it was that they were doing and come to Michael’s ASAP. Isabel pursed her lips and leaned her head back against her head rest. She was fighting so hard to keep the tears back. She was glad that Liz was back, but she couldn’t help but think that she would never see her brother again.

When they pulled into Michael’s driveway, Maria’s car was already there. Liz was slowly waking up, but she was terribly groggy. Michael assisted her while she got out of the car, and put his arm around her waist as he helped her into the house.

Maria jumped off of the couch, tears falling from her eyes. Alex came forward and put his arm around the other side of Liz’s waist. They laid Liz down on the couch, and Maria dropped to her knees beside Liz. She looked at Liz, laughing and crying at the same time.

Liz opened her eyes and saw them all standing there, and she, too, started to cry. Maria hugged Liz briefly and let her go. “Oh Liz,” she managed to subdue her crying/laughing fit and fired off questions, “I was so worried about you. What happened? Where’d they take you? Are you okay? What did they do to you?”

“Whoa, Maria. Let the girl breathe.” Alex put his hand on Maria’s shoulder gently. He spoke soothingly, “Liz, when you’re ready, we’ve got a few, well, a lot of questions for you.”

Liz nodded. Her throat was dry and her head was pounding. The emotions that she was feeling rushed into her body and caused her to become disoriented. She croakily asked, “Do you have any aspirin?”

Michael nodded and left the room, going behind them all and into the kitchen.

Maria reached out and stroked Liz’s hair. Nothing seemed to be wrong with Liz, except for the fact that she had huge bags under her eyes. Michael returned with a glass of water and two pills. Liz took them shakily and placed the pills on her tongue. She took a sip of the water and swallowed hard.

Michael looked down at her, “Liz, we really need to know what’s been going on the last couple of days. What happened?”

She nodded. She knew that this would be coming. She closed her eyes and began to speak, “I was sitting in the Crashdown and I heard people. Before I could turn around and see who it was, something was stuck into my neck. When I woke up, Pierce was sitting next to me. He didn’t say much.” She recounted her whole story, including everything that she had seen with Max. Everyone gasped, hearing what he had gone through so far. Isabel lost her battle to uphold her Ice Princess Façade, and began to cry.

Liz finished, recalling the last things that she could remember, “And then Max met with Pierce for what seemed like hours. I don’t know what it was about, though. I can’t imagine what he would have told him to make Pierce want to let me go. Whatever it was, there was a lot of documentation flying around the room. Pierce and Max both signed some things.”

She started to cry again, “And with all that I let Max go through, all that he suffered through, I didn’t say anything. But the one time that they threatened to hurt me…” Her sentence was interrupted by a few noisy heaves and sniffs, “The one time they threatened to hurt me, he spoke up. I’m so sorry, Isabel. I should’ve said something, but I couldn’t. I promised Max that I wouldn’t say anything to them!”

She was hysterical. Isabel had no idea why Liz had called on her out of all of the others, but she walked over to Liz. Instead of slapping her (like what Liz expected her to do), she squatted in front of Liz. She took Liz’s face into her hands and spoke soothingly, “You did the right thing. You did the right thing.”

Liz leaned her head onto Isabel’s shoulder and continued her hysterical crying. Isabel looked up to Michael, asking him with her eyes about what they should do next. Michael finally had something to say, “It’s more important than ever to get Max back. Whatever this meeting was, it doesn’t sound good. We have to get to him now before they can hurt him anymore.”

Liz hiccupped, “What can I do to help?”

“Liz, you’re not coming.” Tess finally spoke up, “It’s too dangerous, and you’re too fragile right now.”

Liz looked like she was about to protest but bit her lip. Tess was right, the drugs still hadn’t worn off completely, “I can help and not come with you, Tess. I know what most of the base looks like, I know how many people stay in the observation room, and I know the kind of room that Max is staying in.”

Liz filled them in on every detail that she could remember. They thanked her, double-checked that she was okay, and then the Pod Squad left. Maria and Alex were finally given some time to spend with Liz.

She scooted up on the couch, creating room for the two of them to sit on either side of her. Maria sat on Liz’s left, and immediately started to run her fingers through Liz’s hair. Liz leaned her head against Alex’s shoulder with her eyes closed.

He spoke softly, “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah…” she whispered, “But I can’t stop thinking about what I let them do to Max or what they could be doing to him right now. It scares me.”

“It’s going to be okay, Liz.” Maria spoke reassuringly, “The others are going to get Max back. They’re going to get him back and then everything’s going to go back to normal.”

Liz was inches from sleep, she yawned deeply, “I don’t think anything’s ever going to be normal again.”

She fell asleep seconds later, and then Maria followed her into the dream plane. Alex looked over the two. He smiled, and kissed Liz softly on the top of her head. He, too, eventually fell asleep.
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sprayadhesive
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Post by sprayadhesive »

I think there might've been some confusion after the last part. Max didn't give up Michael and Isabel, he wrote them out of his alien history. He merely said that they were humans who learned his secret.

On another note, thank you for the overwhelming response. Your responses really motivated me to write yesterday, and I finished three parts ahead of time. I'm hoping to have them posted every two days? I get antsy when I sit with an unposted part on my computer.

The meeting's details will come out in part 6. For now, we're catching back up with Max.


Part 5

Max was cornered in the room. He backed frantically into the wall, trying to hide in the non-existent shelter of the two walls. He pressed his back firmly against the fierce cold and immediately felt goose bumps spring up on his body. His shirt had been removed earlier, for the sake of the… experiment.

Pierce had his medical staff drain all chemicals from Max’s body earlier. His abilities should be in good use, but there was no telling if they were or not. Armed guards were stationed at either end of the White Room, so Max dared not to try. These guards were the least of his worries right now.

A gun was pointed directly at his navel. Pierce was standing a mere three feet away with a wild look in his eyes. Max frantically tried to find an escape, but there was no where to go. He opened his mouth to plead with Pierce, but a gun shot rang out through the room.

Max felt his abdomen go numb. He looked down and instantly wished that he hadn’t. A pool of blood was forming on his skin and falling quickly out of the wound. Pain started where the place of impact was, and then slowly spread out, like a spider web, throughout his body. He fell to his knees with his hand over the wound. He cried out in pain, and looked up at Piece. Black spots were beginning to form in his vision, and Pierce roared fiercely, “HEAL IT!”

Max had filled Pierce in on his abilities earlier, and Pierce was anxious to see how they worked. Pierce walked closer to Max, lifting his head up by the hair to force Max to look into his eyes. “HEAL IT!” he barked again. He slapped Max hard against the face, “Heal it,” he repeated softly, “or are you forgetting about our… meeting?”

He groaned, falling to the ground. The pain was almost too much to bear. He had to do it, he had to heal himself. What Pierce wanted, Pierce got.

He put his hand over his wound once more, and he felt Pierce kick him onto his back. He noted vaguely that Pierce was holding a video camera up, anxious to capture every second of it. He concentrated, trying to heal himself. Nothing happened. Panic swept through his body.

“It’s not working!” He called out in agony, his head pounding and his body aching, “It’s not working, you bastard!”

Pierce’s face went ashy, “It’s supposed to work. We took out all of the chemicals that hindered your abilities. It has to work.” He was suddenly flushed, “It’s you! You’re not trying hard enough! YOU HAVE TO HEAL YOURSELF! DON’T FORGET ABOUT OUR MEETING, MAXWELL!”

Max heaved and coughed up a considerable amount of blood. He put his hand on the wound and tried once more. He felt his hand warm and saw a dim light emerge from it. He put all of what remained into his strength and focused on the area. His hand began to glow brighter, and he felt the blood stop flowing from his body. The pain slowly was erased completely, and he removed his hand from his abdomen. His flesh was completely repaired, and a silvery handprint took its place.

He let out a sound of relief and broke down into hysterics. He couldn’t stop laughing. None of this was happening. The past couple of days had been a dream.

His laughter startled Pierce. He kicked Max sharply again and spoke, highly satisfied, “So this is what you did to Liz Parker, isn’t it?”

Max nodded, his laughter long gone. He was really here, and he could never leave.

Pierce smiled, “Very good. I’m glad that you remembered the terms of our meeting. Clean yourself up, you’re disgusting.”

Max wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand. Blood smeared on it, and he consequently wiped his hand on his pants. His hands were now shaking as he realized what Pierce had just done to him. He had to control himself, he had to. He tried to stand on his feet, but he immediately fell over. His whole body was weaker than it had ever been before in his entire life. A dawning realization came over him – he had used the last of his strength to heal himself.

Without care for what Pierce wanted with him next, he laid his head down on the floor. He closed his eyes, and in the next instant fell into a deep slumber. Pierce walked towards the center of the room and spoke to the guards, “Let him sleep. We’re going to need him to be completely alert when we test his other abilities. You two stay here; we’re keeping the serum out of him. If he shows any sign of using his powers to escape, shoot him in a limb as a warning. Make sure I’m alerted, and then let him heal it.”

Max woke up. Any movement of any part of his body felt like it took all of his strength. The guards had disappeared from the room. Pierce appeared in the doorway, and a stretcher was brought in behind him. Someone was on the stretcher, but a sheet was covering them.

Pierce spoke harshly, “You hurt everyone you love, Max. You’re dangerous.”

The sheet was dramatically withdrawn from the stretcher and Michael was laying on it. Max hurdled himself at the stretcher, “NO!”

Guards caught him by the arms and forced him away from Michael’s corpse. He can’t be dead. “Michael!”

Pierce shook his head, “He can’t hear you Max.”

Max screamed, falling to his knees, “Who did this?! WHY?!”

Pierce shook his head, “You did it, Max. You’re dangerous. You killed him, just like you killed the others. See?”

He pointed to Michael’s chest where a glowing, fierce, red handprint was burning. Max grabbed at his hair, rocking back and forth, “NO! I- I couldn’t. How?!” Pierce’s other sentence sunk in, “The others?”

Pierce nodded, and seven more stretchers were wheeled in one by one. His dad was laying on the first one, a glowing, red handprint across his neck. The second contained his mother, an identical mark lying on her face.

Then came Tess, Alex, and Maria, all with a handprint lying across their necks. Max shook his head, unbelieving. He backed into the corner frantically. “NO! I didn’t do that! I didn’t!”

Pierce nodded his head, “Yes, you did, Max. You did this too.”

The other two stretchers were unloaded and guards threw two corpses recklessly in front of Max. Max’s face fell, his insides twisting sickeningly. “NOOOOOOOO!”

Isabel’s blank face was staring up at him, remnants of blood plastered across her face. On her right cheek, another identical handprint burned more fiercely.

He sunk to his knees, clutching at her clothing. He shook her, “Why?! WHY?!”

It was then that he noticed the second corpse’s identity. It was Liz. He began to tremble and he shifted his position, facing her fully, “Oh God.”

He cupped her face in his hands, “Oh God, no.” Her shirt lifted slightly from her abdomen and a fierce handprint glowed on it, “No, no, no, no.”

He put his hand on the handprint and tried desperately to heal her. Nothing happened. When he removed his hand from his body, she didn’t move. She didn’t spring to her feet, smiling. She lay there. He looked at where his hand had just rested and groaned. The handprint had turned black.

He cried out again and tears swam from his eyes angrily, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! It’s all my fault!!” He threw his body over hers, his hand laying on her stomach. Tears wet her shirt, but he couldn’t stop crying.

They were all dead. He had killed them. No matter what he did, they were in danger. He was a killer.

“Max.” Pierce shook him, trying to take him off of her, “WAKE UP!”


Pierce slapped Max across the face, and Max woke up suddenly. His face was hot with tears, and he was huddled up in the corner. He looked around hastily, but no corpses were in the room, “You’ve been sleeping long enough, Max, we’ve got things that we need to do.”

Max shook his head warily, “Sleeping?”

The agent looked at him impatiently, “Yes, sleeping. You’ve been sleeping for two hours, now get up.”

Max looked like he was going to protest, but Pierce kicked him in the gut, “Get on your feet and stop crying. You make me sick.”

He got up and stood shakily. It had all been a dream. A nightmare. Pierce looked at him with pure repulsion, “I’ve got something for you, Max. I think you might like it.”

He held up a clunky band of metal. Max twitched slightly as Pierce attacked him with it. He didn’t have the strength or desire to fight back. Max felt the metal around his neck. It clung tightly to him, resting at the base of his neck. Max looked up at Pierce numbly, “What is it?”

“Oh, just a little something to insure that you don’t forget our meeting. It’s not activated yet, because I need to study your powers some more. When it is activated, you’ll know it – trust me.”

“On another note, I thought that we would do a little experiment with you today. At the crash site, we found some substances. One of them was contained in a vial, and our scientists have been studying it for years. We think that it’s a virus of some sort.”

“We injected it into your friend Topolsky, but nothing happened to her. We want to know what’d happen if we injected it into you. Alien y Alien, Mano y Mano.”

Max stared back at Pierce, his eyes blank and lifeless. After a few seconds, he nodded his head curtly. Pierce grinned and withdrew a syringe from his pocket. It seemed to be a translucent, green substance that was glowing green.

Max closed his eyes when Pierce came at him with the syringe. He felt it puck into his right arm, felt the substance swim through his blood stream, but he didn’t feel any different. Nothing was happening. He opened his eyes, and Pierce was putting the syringe back into his pocket.

“We’ll just wait a few days to see how you react. If it’s a virus, there’s going to be an incubation period.”

Max nodded, and Pierce spoke again, “Alright, we’re going to be focusing on how your body reacts to different changes. We’re going to be testing the extremities of heat, ice and cold, electricity, water…” He chuckled sarcastically, “It’s going to be fun.”

Max gulped, “Wh-what?”

Pierce smiled and turned, walking out of the room. He walked from the room without another word. After a few minutes, Max sunk down with his back against the middle of one of the walls. His back was already starting to sweat, and the room felt sweltering hot. Beads of water were dripping down into his eyes and mouth. It started to get hard to breathe. If it weren’t for his lack of undergarments, he would’ve ripped off his pants. He could practically feel his blood boiling in its veins. The walls and the floors were beginning to scorch his skin.

He stood hastily, but the bottoms of his feet were scalded. In pain, he cried out and sunk to his knees. He tried to sit cross-legged in the middle of the room so that the only thing touching something was his pants. The sweat continued to slip down his aching body. Oddly, the blood caked on his body from the wound remained there.

Mercy prevailed and the door opened. A doctor came in to check his vitals. Without a word, he turned and left. When the door snapped shut, Max could feel the temperature of the room lowering. It slowly regained its previous temperature, but it didn’t stop there. The temperature just kept dropping. Before long, his sweat was causing him to freeze. He rubbed at his bare arms, desperate to keep up his body heat.

Two men entered the room carrying a large box around the shape of a casket. They lifted a lid off of it and he saw that it was full of ice. He backed against the wall, knowing what was coming.

They grabbed his upper-arms and dragged him back towards the box. One man released his grip on his arm (the other quickly took hold of it, too) and grabbed at his ankles. Max was lifted from the floor and into the box. His body was shoved under the ice cubes, but he could feel his nose poking above the ice for air. The lid of the box was closed, and he could hear the sound of it locking

Max panicked, trying to force the lid of the box open. His skin was starting to burn from the ice, and his teeth started to chatter. Despite the fact that the box was the shape of the casket, it was much smaller than one. There was little than an inch between the top of the box and the ice, and it was deep enough to cover Max’s entire body. The width limited almost all of his movements.

He cried out, because the situation frightened him beyond many of the other things that had happened. There couldn’t be a lot of air in the box. He struggled again, but then he felt something peculiar –it felt like the box was moving.

Pierce led the box to an industrial-sized freezer. The deposited it inside, and then Pierce locked the door from the outside.

Max tried to shift and get into a more comfortable position, but he couldn’t. He tried to open his mouth to say something and ice cubs immediately fell into it. He sputtered and forced them from his mouth. Spit dribbled onto his cheek and it froze almost instantaneously.

In half of an hour, someone returned and opened the box’s cover. Max tried to force his way out, but the man pushed him back under the ice. Horror followed when water could be felt. They were adding water to the box. Max struggled again to get out, but the top of the box collided with his head. He hadn’t even realized that they had shut the box. His teeth were chattering incessantly and he could practically feel his lips turning blue.

His toes and fingers went number first, then his face. After that, his arms, legs, and torso followed. He was a prisoner in his own body. His tears froze his eyes shut, and the water around him urged frozen crystals to form all over his body. Max fought to sleep and escape reality, but nothing would allow him to do so.

He wrenched open his mouth, planning on screaming, totally forgetting about the ice that had formed on them. Instantly, he could feel and taste blood pouring from his lips. He cried out in pain and freezing water rushed into his system. He forcefully closed his mouth and swallowed the remaining water as best he could.

At that moment, the box began to move again. Water sloshed up against the box’s edges and top. It stopped suddenly, and he felt the box make contact with the floor. He lid was opened and Max stiffly tried to make his way out. No one stopped him. He could do nothing more than flub over the edge of the box and onto the floor. Everything was still numb and frozen. After what happened to his lips, he didn’t dare try to open his eyes yet. He didn’t need to open his eyes to find out where he was, the mere ominous feeling told him that he was back in the White Room.

Another doctor rushed in and hastily took his vitals. His whole body was tingling and he could feel the ice crystals melting from him. He attempted to move his fingers to wipe at the water, but they wouldn’t do anything. He groaned in frustration. He breathed in deeply, letting the air come in contact with his ice-cold spit. The feeling made him shudder more than he already was.

The ice around Max’s eyes softened and he opened them. Pierce’s form was looming above him. “For God’s sake..,” he managed to mumble out as he tried to shirk away from Pierce.

Pierce lifted a foot and rested it on Max’s chest, stopping his movements, “Calm down, Max. Just one more experiment and then you’re going to have a short break.”

Max groaned again. He still hadn’t regained the movement to any of his limbs. Pierce maintained his position until that all-too-familiar table and some equipment was placed in the room. Men lifted Max once more, laying him on the table. They tightened the restraints around his ankles and wrists, but he was loosing the will to fight back.

Electrodes were hooked up to various sensitive regions of his body. With no warning, Pierce flipped a switch and turned a knob all of the way up. Electricity flowed into Max’s body through the electrodes, and he screamed out. The switch was flipped and the voltage stopped. Max struggled to break free as a doctor checked his vitals once more.

Pierce flipped the switch and the energy coursed through him. Max screamed, his heart beating wildly. It felt like it would jump out of his chest at any moment. Pierce flipped the switch off after a minute, and Max was panting heavily.

“That’s all for today, I think.” Pierce wasn’t speaking to Max, but all of the men around him.

Max cough, tasting blood in his mouth for what felt like the thousandth time in the past week, “Kill me.”

Pierce faltered, taken aback, “What?”

Tears fell bitterly from his eyes and he screamed so everyone could hear, “KILL ME!”

Pierce sniggered, looking down at the boy. Any spunk that was there earlier this morning had completely vanished. “Not today, Max, not today. In fact, I think that we’ve got a very long road ahead of us.”

Max was dumped off of the table and didn’t even attempt to move as everyone else made their way out of the door. He swallowed hard, his whole body limp. He didn’t want to survive anymore. There was no hope of ever making it out, and if he couldn’t do that, he wanted to die.

The door opened a foot or so and Max’s first meal in six days slid across the floor to him. He glared at it and pushed it back towards the door. If they wouldn’t kill him, he could starve himself. Or he could deprive himself of sleep so much that his brain just shut off. Could you do that? He hoped so.
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sprayadhesive
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Post by sprayadhesive »

I promised to have this out to you today, so here it is. It solves one burning question.

Thanks once again for all of the wonderful feedback. Part 7 may be out tomorrow, or it may be out two days from now. We'll see how it goes...

Part 6

Liz awoke suddenly. It had been late at night when the others left, so she was shocked to see the sunlight. She realized there was a banging coming from the door. She walked over to it and opened it up. A mailman was standing there, looking rather annoyed.

“I’ve been banging on this door for fifteen minutes!” he said annoyed.

“I’m really sorry. I was sound asleep. You could’ve just left it on the stoop…” her voice trailed off.

“No, I couldn’t have. I was given specific instructions to hand-deliver it to someone at this place of residence. It seems really important. Could you just sign here to signal that you got the letter? I’ve really got to start on my route.”

Liz took the package cautiously, “Um, yeah… sure.” She wedged it underneath her left arm and then took the pen with her right hand. She signed the form shakily and then closed the door. She took a good look at the envelope and her whole body went numb. It was Max’s handwriting, “Alex! Maria!”

The two hurtled into the room, Alex had a lamp raised above his head. He was looking wildly around the room, “What is it?!”

Liz laughed at his appearance, “No, no one’s here. It’s…” She held out the envelope to them, “It’s from Max. I think it’s the thing that I saw him and Pierce sign. Well one of them at least.”

Maria went to tear it open, but Liz drew it into her chest. She wanted to be the one to open it. She scanned the front of the letter once more:

Michael Guerin
Roswell, NM


That was it. No return address, no additional address. She wondered how the mailman had found the house. With trembling fingers, she opened the envelope. She knew that it was addressed to Michael, but she had to know. She slid the papers out and gasped. She spoke quickly, “Maria, call Isabel. Tell them to come back. Max signed a contract.”

Maria ran to the phone and dialed the numbers, “Hello?”

Isabel spoke in a whisper, “Maria, we’re kind of in the middle of something.”

“Isabel, something just came in the mail. It’s from Max. It’s what Liz saw them signing right before they left. She said it’s really important.”

Isabel was impatient, “Maria, we’re about to walk into this base. Give me a better reason.”

Liz snatched the phone from Maria, “Isabel, if this wasn’t important, I wouldn’t have called you. This contract’s going to directly affect your plan. You three need to see this.”

Isabel sighed, “Alight, we’ll get there as soon as we can.” She hung up her cell phone.

Liz hung her end of the phone up and sighed. She didn’t even read the contract, but she knew that whatever it was, it was important enough for Max to send to Michael. As a record.

Tears welled in her eyes and she sunk onto the couch, waiting for the others to arrive.

Maria came up next to her, “Hey, do you want any breakfast?”

Liz shook her head, but Maria and Alex headed into the kitchen anyways and stared to cook things. Liz could smell eggs, toast, bacon, and sausage. After thirty minutes, Maria shoved a plate underneath her nose. At that precise moment, Isabel and the very haughty-looking Michael and Tess barged through the door. Liz swatted he plate aside and stood up immediately.

“What is it, Liz? What couldn’t wait until we had Max back?” Michael sounded very angry.

“This.” Liz shoved the documents under his nose, “Read them out loud, none of us have read them completely yet.

Michael looked at her and then the paper. He was highly exasperated, “Liz… can’t this wait?”

She shook her head stubbornly, “Michael, please…”

Alex spoke next, “Michael, I’m sure that whatever’s in this is important enough for Max not to want Liz to overhear it while it was being drafted. Whatever it was, he was trying to make sure that she couldn't interfere with it. If that doesn't scare the hell out of you, I don't know what will.”

Isabel spoke shakily, “You know, Michael, he has a point. He would’ve known that Liz would interfere with whatever it was. And obviously it was important enough for him to make sure they sent a copy to you.

Michael sighed and looked at Tess. She merely shrugged. He sighed and then began to read, rather disgruntled. After the first paragraph, he was convinced that they were right, it was important:

I, Maxwell Evans, hereby confess of my alien-origins. Henceforth, I will be known as the first party in this document.

I, Daniel Pierce, am overseeing the observation and testing of the first party. Henceforth, I will be known as the second party in this document.

The first party hereby forfeits all of his rights known to man-kind. He no longer is a citizen of the United States, and he has no political or judicial immunity. He shall remain under control of the US Government, most specifically under the Alien Unit. He gives up his right of any kind of freedom, and is henceforth owned by the government. The first party shall remain under constant surveillance of the second party. Any birth certificate that the first party may have come into control over is void. The adoption papers that the first party’s host family were given are now void as well.

Any identity that the first party held is now completely void. The first party agrees to return to government control if ever rescued by another party (second party excluded).

At any time, the first party can be subjected to movement to a new location, torture for information, or precautionary murder. The first party is also subject to any tests which will reveal the composition and make-up of his body. Cruelties are permitted at the expense of the first party.

The first party will agree to go wherever or do anything the second party tells the first party to do. The first party is reduced to a form of modern-day slave under the care of the second party and the United States Government.

The first party also can be subjected to any GPS or mechanical device that will ensure his total and complete custody.

The first party agrees to the above conditions as long as the second party holds true to the conditions below.

The first party requests that his host family merely is told that he was killed in an accident while he was driving home from camping.

The second party will tell the host family whatever is necessary in order to hold up this story. The host family will be notified of his presumed death in two weeks time. No information concerning him will reach the host family until that date.

The second party will release one, Liz Parker, and leave her alone for good.

Additionally, the first party requests the safety of individuals and their immunity to his case. Those individuals will be listed below.

Isabel Evans of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. She will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

Michael Guerin of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. He will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

Elizabeth Parker of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. She will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

Alexander Charles Whitman of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. He will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

Maria Deluca of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. She will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

Diane Evans of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. She will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

Phillip Evans of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. He will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

Nancy Parker of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. She will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

Jeff Parker of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. He will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

Amy Deluca of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. She will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

Tess Harding of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. She will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

Edward Harding of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party.

Kyle Valenti of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. He will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

James Valenti of Roswell, New Mexico shall never be detained by the government in response to gaining information or discussing the matter of the first party. He will never be hurt or killed at the hands of the government.

The first party also requests that a copy of this contract as well as a letter (attached) to Michael Guerin. No attempt should be made by the government to recover either of the articles, and the government should never be allowed to read the letter attached. Any documents (such as the adoption papers, U.S. citizenship, or birth certificate will be reinstated if this contract is violated.

If any of these terms are violated by either party, the contract becomes invalid.

I, the first party agree to the terms and conditions stated above. I agree that this contract will be void if I, the first party, violate any section of it.


Underneath, Max had shakily scrawled his signature.

I, the second party, agree to the terms and conditions stated above. I agree that this contract will be void if I, the second party, violate any section of it.

Underneath, Pierce had neatly signed his name.

“Oh my God,” Isabel gasped, “He sold his soul… for us. For everyone.”

Tess spoke numbly. He had even included her and Nasedo, “But why Kyle and the sheriff? We all know that Max doesn’t exactly consider Kyle a friend, and the sheriff’s been hunting Max for a while now…”

“He knows that they’re innocent and there’s a chance that they could get messed up in all of it.” Alex supplied the answer.

Isabel wasn’t hearing any of this, “He sold his soul. Oh my God. He sold himself. He’s practically a slave now. He’s got to do anything and everything they tell him to.” She walked to the couch and sat on it shakily. She hunched over the arm of the couch and hid her face, and then she broke down tears. Alex walked over to her and sat next to her, trying to comfort her.

Maria looked up at Michael, “Where’s the letter?”

He had seemed to be lost in his own head, “What? Oh. The letter.” He shuffled through the papers and found a paper with words scribbled out shakily by Max. He read it aloud, instantly drawing everyone’s attention:

Hey guys,

I suppose by now you’ve read the contract. Michael, you probably hate me right now. It’s understandable, but it was the only thing for me to do to keep everyone safe.

I hope that I guessed right when I assumed that you guys told Mom and Dad that I went camping. It was the only excuse that I thought you could come up with. I don’t know why I told them to wait two weeks before they tell everyone that I’m dead. I figured that it’d be easier on all of you if you got used to the whole situation before it went public.

I wanted to say something little to everyone, and I will after a few notes. Michael, you’re probably the one reading this because I sent this to your house. It was the only safe place that I could think of. You’re like a brother to me, and I beg you to keep everyone safe. If anyone comes after anybody that I listed in the contract (and I beg to know that I didn’t forget anybody), show this document to the authorities. They’ll take care of it. Make sure that everyone’s safe and that they never again have to endure what we did before.

This contract is my safety net. Keep it safe.

Maria and Alex, thank you for tolerating the alien madness. Take care of Liz for me.

Tess and Nasedo, I really appreciate everything that you guys tried to teach us. I don’t follow destiny’s rules, though, no matter what any alien book says. I love Liz.

Isabel, you’re the warmest person that I know. I beg you to stop hiding that behind your icy exterior. Let Alex in, he cares for you. I can tell. I love you so much and I will think of you constantly. Take care of Mom and Dad for me.

Liz, my sweet Liz,


Michael squinted at the paper; it was starting to become tearstained.

Can you ever forgive me for what they put you through? You’re most likely upset with me. I made you promise to not tell them anything and you didn’t. They made you sit there and watch… what they did to me. I had to keep everyone safe, though. That’s why I made you make that promise. When they threatened to hurt you, I immediately cracked. There was no way that I could let that happen. I told them an altered version of my history. I told them that I was the only alien that I knew of, besides Nasedo. I couldn’t write him out since they already knew that I was in contact with him. I love you so much, more than words can even express. I hope you know this and that you will eventually forgive me. Everything that’s happened to everyone else has been completely my fault. It’s no one else’s but my own.

I swear to you that you will constantly be on my mind.

To all of you, please make sure that you don’t dwell on my capture or finding a way for my release. Stick to the story that I created – the one that says that you were all afraid of me and that ensured your loyalty to me.

I don’t know how much longer Pierce will want to keep me alive. There’s only so much prodding and testing that he can do. That’s the biggest reason that you can’t dwell on me.

I implore everyone to push me to the furthest corner of their mind. The faster you move past me, the better for you. Don’t let this contract go in vain.

I owe you all my life for putting up with everything that comes from knowing me. This is my way of repaying that debt. The only way. Isabel and Michael because I disobeyed the rules and put you in danger (even though I don’t regret what I did). Liz, Alex, and Maria because you never asked for any of it. Tess and Nasedo because you held onto the hope of me accepting my destiny and I can never do that.

I don’t know how much longer I could’ve gone on thinking none of you were safe.

None of what Pierce may do to me matters so long as I know that this contract is in existence. It’s granting me peace of mind.

Once again, please keep it safe.

Lots of love,

Max.


No one made a noise throughout the whole letter and now no one was moving either. Michael suddenly cursed, “DAMN YOU, MAX!”

He crumpled the letter in his fist and then threw it at his feet. He stormed into his bedroom, slamming the door.

Liz numbly crouched down and picked the letter up. She sat on the other end of the couch, opposite Alex and Isabel. She tried to flatten out the letter so that she could read it herself. Her throat seized up as she realized that most of the words were tearstained. She stroked it gently with her fingers, fighting the tears from coming out.

Isabel was right, he sold his soul to the Devil and now he was the Devil’s slave. All for them. She vaguely heard Isabel start sobbing again, and Maria knocking on Michael’s locked door.

She blindly fought her way across the room and finally found the door on the other side. Twisting the handle, she stepped out into the cool air and broke into a run, her tears hindering her vision.

Maria called after her, and then cursed. She was in no way faster than Liz. She’d never catch her now.

She turned back to the door of Michael’s room and saw that Tess had joined her. “Tess, can you…?”

Tess nodded mutely and hovered her hand over the doorknob. Maria heard it click, “Thanks, Tess. Can you look after Isabel and Alex for me while I try to sort out Michael? There’s nothing we can really do about Liz for now…”
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sprayadhesive
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Post by sprayadhesive »

A lot is going to happen in this part. I hope everyone finds it up to their standards. behrluv32, Jennifer24, RhondaAnn, Timelord31, and any other lurkers that I hope are reading this, thank you very much. All of the feedback that I've been receiving is inspiring.

Part 7

Tess nodded again and headed off towards the couch. Maria entered the room silently and unnoticed. Michael was walking around the room, tearing every shred of Max Evans from his life. Isabel had set pictures in his room of the three of them the day he moved in, and he was now slamming them into the wall. Glass flew everywhere and a pierce even caught Michael under the eye.

He continued on to his closet where it seemed Max had been keeping a set of emergency clothes. He walked over to his window and threw them out. Maria had about a million snappy comments about a bad breakup scene, but she knew it wasn’t the time or place.

His basketball soon joined the clothes out of the window, and Maria was pretty sure she could hear it bounce into the street. A few Counting Crows CDs and various DVDs were shattered as Michael slammed them against a wall.

He was more aware of Maria’s presence than she knew, but he couldn’t stop what was coming next. He sunk down to his knees and sobbed, right there, in the doorway of his closet.

Maria was taken aback. She’d never seen Michael cry like this before. She walked over sat beside him, immediately putting her arms around him. He shifted to sit down completely and leaned his head on her shoulder, still sobbing.

She spoke soothingly, “It’s okay, Michael. Be mad at him, you’re allowed to be.”

“Maria,” he sniffed, wiping at his nose with the back of his hand, “He left me alone. I mean, yeah I have you and Isabel and everyone else, but he was my best friend. He’s been watching over me for as long as I can remember. Everything that he’s ever done is making sure that I was safe. It just doesn’t seem fair to me. I’ve been running around trying to find out all of this stuff and all now he’s being punished.”

Maria shushed him like she would shush a child, “Michael, stop blaming yourself. There’s nothing that you could have done to stop him from signing that contract. If you had been there, I bet he would have signed it anyway.”

“That bastard!” Michael roared again. He seemed to be bouncing back and forth between anger and self-blame, “How dare he make all of these decisions without talking to anyone about it?!”

Maria tried speaking to him rationally, “Michael, you know, technically it was his decision. Pierce already had him. He just wanted to make sure that Pierce couldn’t get you or anyone else.”

“I don’t care… I hate him. I hate everything he stands for.” Michael’s tone was extremely bitter.

Maria shook him sternly, “You can’t hate Max! He’s your best friend! And what he stands for? Give me a break, Michael! He did this out of total disregard for himself!”

“I wasn’t talking about him, Maria, I was talking about Pierce!” Tears continued to flow down his cheeks as he suddenly got to his feet. He pointed at the window to the other side of him, “I’m going to get Max, and so help me, if Pierce stands in my way, I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him, Maria.”

He stormed out of the room and found Alex and Tess still trying to comfort Isabel. He spoke commandingly, “Tess, Isabel, get up. We’re going to and get Max. I hope you remember the plan.”

Tess spoke up, “Michael, he signed a contract. Even if we got in, I don’t think that he’d go with us.”

“I don’t care!” He spat out, “I’ll drag him from that base if I can!”

“What about the contract?” Tess spoke slowly.

“Screw the damn contract!” Michael screamed, “Now let’s go!”

Isabel rose to her feet and nodded to Michael. She didn’t seem like she was able to speak. Tess followed after them, clearly not liking where this was going.

The three were gone before Alex or Maria could process what just happened.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An agent strode down the passage. Michael leaped out from behind one of the doors and slammed his head into the wall. The agent immediately fell unconscious.

Michael dragged the lifeless form into the closet. Isabel and Tess stood waiting for him. Michael nodded to Isabel, “Crawl through the grate and get to the car. Keep it running and get ready to blast out of here. We’re starting in six minutes.”

Isabel nodded back and crawled through the air vent that they came from. Tess remained behind, “Okay, Michael. Get this guy’s fingerprints and suit. In six minutes, I’m going to mind warp everyone in this base excluding you. Max will think that he’s still here while we’re getting him back. Hopefully I can keep up the mind warp long enough for us to get him in the car. Maybe you can knock him out or something in the meantime.”

Michael nodded and focused on the man’s finger. He quickly accessed his fingerprint’s identity. He removed the man’s suit and donned it. He checked his watch and counted down the minutes until the plan was ready to be put into action.

They had decided that the best way to get Max out of the base was to mind warp him. Any struggled would waste precious time.

When the sixth minute rolled around, Tess began her mind warp. Michael looked at her to make sure that she was completely emerged in the warp, and then he took off down the hallway. It was spooky to see how everyone walked around, carrying out the actions but not actually doing anything. All of their eyes seemed completely blank.

Nasedo’s training had really furthered their abilities.

He placed his finger on the scanner in apprehension, and then smiled when the lights turned green and the gate was opened to admit him. He walked in without another hesitation.

It didn’t take him long to find Max’s, for lack of a better word, cell. The observation room outside smelled stale and like chemicals. It made Michael gag. He knew that he would have to act quickly.

He barged through the door and finally noticed Max. His ribs could be seen through his skin. He was curled up in the very center of the room. The room, Michael noted, was exactly how Liz had described it to him. With a sickening glance, he noticed the blood stained on Max’s hands, abdomen, and pants.

Michael grabbed him, throwing him over his shoulder. Max was whimpering, apparently still lost in the White Room. Tess was doing her job.

Max was a lot lighter than Michael had remembered. It scared him. Michael ran as fast as he could while still maintaining control over Max’s weight. He struggled down the hallway, and after he got out of the security door, something went terribly wrong: the alarms went off.

Michael frantically scampered for the door. It was only a hundred yards ahead. Tess stood in the doorway, urging him on. He could hear footsteps behind him and he realized something – she was out of the mind warp. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Pierce running at him. Michael fumbled and pressed the emergency button to the security door. It began to slide shut.

Before he could move behind it for shelter, Pierce had taken aim and fired a shot. Pain seared through his arm that was supporting Max. Max, somewhat peculiarly, remained in his dream state. Michael shifted him over to the other arm, and Tess rushed forward to help him. She grabbed Max’s other side and together the two rushed into the fresh air. Michael could hear Pierce banging on the security door and shouting orders to his men.

Isabel was waiting with the car running outside of a gap in the chain link fence. She shouted at them worriedly, “Hurry up!”

Michael and Tess threw Max into the backseat and he flopped over the side. Tess clambered in after him and sat in the backseat, laying his head across her lap. They had to stay low.

“Isabel, get in the passenger’s seat!” Michael barked at her.

Isabel did as she was told and stayed low to the floor. Michael used his left arm to steer with the wheel, using his right when it was needed. Isabel gasped, “Michael, your arm!”

Michael grunted, “I know. I’m going to be fine, okay, Isabel?”

They heard sounds of coherence coming from Max. Isabel turned to Tess, “Mind warp him!”

Tess nodded and closed her eyes, propelling thoughts into Max’s mind. He immediately began to whimper and groan. Isabel shrieked as a vehicle tore out of nowhere behind them. She heard rapid gunshots. Michael took an exit for Frazier Wood. He knew the place intimately. He cut through semi-concealed paths and took so many turns that Isabel herself lost her sense of direction.

“Michael?” She asked nervously. The sounds of the vehicle were long gone.

“It’s okay, Isabel. I’ve got this. We’re almost to the other side of the wood. We’ll come out a few blocks from my house.

She nodded, her bottom lip trembling. Sure enough, they shot out into the road and flew by houses. Within seconds, they were parking in Michael’s driveway. Isabel guided Tess into the house; she still had the mind warp going on Max. Michael threw Max over his shoulder and walked into the empty house. It was the middle of the day, and Maria and Alex had gone out to find Liz.

Michael dropped Max forcefully on the couch and then sat on the edge of the table. He hadn’t lost as much blood as he first anticipated. He motioned to his room, “Get a bandana. Tie it around the wound. I’m going to need Max to heal it; the bullet is really shallow, so it’s not that bad.”

Isabel nodded and returned with a bandana clutched in her hand. She took it and wrapped it tightly around the wound. They had decided not to wake Max from his mind warp until everyone had gotten back.

A half an hour passed and finally, mercifully, the door opened. Maria walked in with her arm around Liz’s shoulder, Alex behind them. They stopped dead just feet in the door.

Max was lying sprawled all over the couch, in a state that made them all queasy. He had a blanket thrown over his chest. Michael was on the table, his entire right arm was covered in blood, and a blood-soaked bandana was wrapped around his upper-arm. Tess was sitting in a chair, her eyes closed in deep concentration. Isabel was merely sitting in the middle of the floor, in front of the others, gazing at nothing. Her eyes didn’t seem to be registering anything.

Maria screamed, “Oh my god! Michael!” She rushed over to him and he opened his eyes warily. He shushed her, but it was too late. Tess was thrown out of her trance. She looked startled.

Isabel finally began to register the events. She stood up and crossed to Alex, who merely held her. There was no need for words. Liz stayed back, unsure of what to do.

Max was here.

Here.

Here at Michael’s house.

There was one small inconvenience, though. He was unconscious. The obstacle began to disintegrate, however, as Max began to open his eyes. He looked around the room and blinked. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, and then opened them once more. He sat bolt, upright, so fast that all of the blood went rushing to his head.

He was in Michael’s house.

Everyone was here.

Liz was here.

Here.

Here at Michael’s house.

He pressed his back into the couch as if trying to escape them, “No…” he whispered, “No, no, no!”

He fought to back off of the couch, but ended up tumbling over behind it instead. Isabel and Tess left their positions and went to get him back. The clutched at his upper-arms and tried to keep him steady.

He didn’t seem to be able to control himself. He was shaking uncontrollably with a wild look in his eyes, “What did you do? What did you do?” It was the only thing that they could get out of him.

The walked him to the front of the couch and then set him down so that he was sitting in the very middle of it. They sat on either side of him, holding him down. He shook his head madly, “What did you do?”

Michael stood up and faced him. Maria, Alex and Liz went and stood by Michael. After all of this time, they were able to get a good look at Max.

The bags under his eyes were heavy and dark, and his skin was so pale it was almost translucent. They could see every one of his ribs, and there were dark circles all over his body, one on each of his temples, and a few on his arms. His eyes seemed dull and lifeless, and he had bruises all over.

The blanket had fallen off of him during his tumble, and his bare chest was exposed to them. More dark circles could be seen there. His hands, front, and pants were soaked with blood that they assumed could only be his own. His hair was disheveled, and the corners of his mouth were caked with blood.

No one answered him. It was then that most of them noticed the metal collar around his neck.

“Max, what is that?” Michael asked, shakily pointing to Max’s neck.

Max shook his head wildly, still in a state of panic. Tess frowned and slapped him across the face, hard. Max seemed to come to his senses. He looked at each of them and buried his face in his hands, “Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.”

“Max, what is that?” Michael repeated, still pointing to Max’s neck.

Max looked up at him and noticed now that Michael’s arm was bleeding. He cursed and got up from the couch. It took him a few seconds to close the gap between himself and Michael, each step taken shakily and slowly. He stopped just short of Michael and bent low, over his arm.

He focused, hovering his hand above Michael’s wound. His hands should be glowing now. There should be some kind of change in Michael’s wound. His hands weren’t glowing and there was no change. He backed into the corner of the room, behind the couch, “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.”

He gulped deeply, his head shaking slowly from side to side. Everyone’s eyes were on him. He couldn’t heal Michael.

“Max?” Isabel asked timidly, “Max, why can’t you heal him? What’s on your neck?”

A look of comprehension came across Max’s face. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, “It’s a device. A device to control me. Pierce thought that it would be necessary. I think that it’s suppressing my abilities. It must be releasing the chemicals to my brain every so often.”

He walked forward, and then thinking better of it, turned and walked back into the corner. He faced them uncertainly. Maria spoke tentatively, “Max, what’s on your back?”

Max reached instinctively to his right shoulder blade, and fingered the scars, “Um… nothing. It was… just a string. From the blanket.” He pretended to swat at something on his back.

Liz shook her head, “Max, that wasn’t a string. I was there. I saw what they did to you. Show me, Max. Please show me.”

He walked with his back to the wall towards the front door. He had to get out of here. Unfortunately, Alex knew exactly what he was doing and grabbed Max’s shoulders. He spun him around bodily. Max fought against Alex, but was too weak to flee. He could hear the others inching closer to him to get a good look at the two brands on his right shoulder blade.

He didn’t even know what the brands were of. It wasn’t like the FBI had walked into the room with some mirrors, asking him what they thought. He heard the girls gasp behind him, “What? What is it? What do they say?”

Maria spoke, quivering, “The first one… is one of those alien heads. Like the stereotypical, alien souvenir shop alien head. It’s like… a stencil of one.”

“And the second one?” He asked.

“The second one,” She took a deep breath, “Has a warning:

CAUTION:
The FBI has proclaimed this creature
is a dangerous life-form.
If found, please contact FBI
immediately. He could become violent.


What the hell?” she stopped speaking, utterly bewildered.

“Violent? What?” Alex asked, utterly dazed.

Max used Alex’s moment of confusion to escape from his clutches. He was walking towards the door when a beep came from his collar. A single beep. That’s when he knew that it had been activated. The collar, whatever it did, now worked.

Liz’s voice filled his ears and comfort washed over his body, “Max, come here.”

She walked towards him, her arms outstretched. He immediately backed away. Pierce said that the collar’s activation would only bring bad things. He wouldn’t let it happen to Liz.

She stopped short when he backed away from her, and tears filled her eyes, “Max?”

He shook his head at her. Isabel came forward now, and tried to reassuringly stroke his back. Max side-stepped her in alarm. Isabel stopped, her eyes now watering as well. Her brother was shirking her.

Liz was suspicious, “Max, take the collar off.”

He shook his head frantically but she wouldn’t listen, “Fine, if you won’t I will.” Her hand suddenly wrapped around his wrist.

Jolts of electricity stretched outwards from the collar, filling his senses with nothing but pain. He screamed in agony, wrenching his arm from her grasp.

The trials of Pierce’s testing were catching up with him. The energy coursed through his body even while her hand was removed, causing his stomach to twist in agony. He fell onto his hands and knees, screaming. In another instant, the electricity stopped. He heaved and coughed, blood flying out of his mouth and onto the carpet.

Liz backed slowly away from him. She had touched him and the thing went off. It hurt him. She hurt him. Isabel hadn’t registered the concept, though. She ran to her brother’s side and grabbed his arm, trying to help him up.

It happened again. The electricity coursed through his body and he fell onto his side. Isabel immediately withdrew her hand and backed up to Liz’s distance. Max screamed louder, the jolts magnified three times what they had been before. They lasted for two times as long, too. He twisted and writher on the ground. When it stopped, he groaned in frustration.

Isabel took a hesitant step towards him and he growled at her, “No, Iz. You can’t. Please.”

His voice was pleading and pitiful. It broke her heart. Alex grabbed Isabel’s hand and led her to the couch. The two sat down, staring at Max. Maria went to Michael’s side; he was standing by the table. Liz remained where she was, and Tess was standing against the wall on the other side of the room. The last fit had caused tears to flood down Liz’s cheeks.

Max started to wheeze. Something in his chest felt mucusy, but it was strange. He’d never been sick before. He coughed again, and more blood came from his throat. Liz winced.

Fatigue washed over his weak body. His stomach growled sickeningly, and Tess scowled, “When was the last time they gave you food?”

He thought and spoke hesitantly, “A few hours ago. That’s not the real question, though, is it, Tess?”

She looked at him questioningly, “It isn’t?”

“No,” he laughed, almost insanely, “The real question is, ‘Max, when was the last time you’ve eaten?’”

Liz gasped, “Max! They’ve had you for six days. Are you telling me that you haven’t eaten in that entire span of time?”

He nodded his head, entering hysterics, shaking back and forth “Well, I… They weren’t going to do it, Liz. They weren’t going to do it so I had to try. I had to try…”

She bit her lower lip, “What weren’t they going to do, Max?”

“Kill me.”
Last edited by sprayadhesive on Sat May 06, 2006 12:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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sprayadhesive
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Post by sprayadhesive »

I know that I've been distressing many of you, and I'm really sorry about it! I've still got some twists and major plot events coming up, so bear with me if you can!

Thanks mezz, nibbles2, RhondaAnn, Jennifer24 and Timelord31 for the feedback, and if anyone else happens to be reading this, thanks to you as well.

I feel like there's something else that I need to be saying right now, but I can't put my finger on it. If I remember I'll post it as an A/N or something or wait for the next part.

I'm planning on releasing part 9 on Wednesday (May 10th). I have through part 11 all settled and beta'd (Thanks again to Timelord31 for volunteering to beta this) so I'm expecting to release those parts every other day, unless there's something that pops up unexpectedly in my life.

Thanks again, and thanks for bearing with the extended author's note.

Part 8

The words had escaped from his lips before he could stop them. He groaned, looking towards the ceiling. He shifted and sat right side up, his back pressed into the corner. His body was still shaking convulsively.

“What?” Liz asked, completely mystified.

He mumbled, “I didn’t say anything.”

Alex nodded, “Yeah, you did.”

Max shook his head slowly, “No…”

Maria’s ears had always been sharp, “You wanted to die, Max? You begged them to kill you?”

Max felt his cheeks flush. Everyone was staring at him. He hated it. He didn’t want to think about what had happened to him. He directed his gaze towards the ceiling.

Isabel croaked, “Why?”

He shifted uncomfortably. He had to get up, move around. He found his feet but he swayed there for a moment. All of the blood had rushed into his head. He crossed the room and felt his hand grab at the doorknob of Michael’s room.

He turned the doorknob and felt the door open mercifully. It shocked him. He didn’t realize that something would unlock and be open to him. Liz crossed the room after him, but he hurried into the room and closed the door. His fingers felt the lock and he pushed it in.

Liz called in after him, “Max? Unlock the door.”

He didn’t say anything. He knew that Isabel or Michael could unlock it at any time. He couldn’t bear to be in their presence anymore. He was pathetic. He couldn’t afford to let them see him like this. No one could see him.

And then he went and slipped up. He was such an idiot. He didn’t want to open that can of worms, but he’d said it anyway. He was such an idiot. He wasn’t going to let anyone know anything else, though. They wouldn’t ever find out. He had to keep it to himself.

“Max?” Liz’s voice sounded again, softer and gentler.

He lifted his head and saw the door that connected Michael’s room to the bathroom. He walked to it slowly and turned the doorknob. The door opened. Second one in a row. He closed the door behind him and locked it. He turned to the door that connected the bathroom to the living area.

He found his way to the shower and turned it on. He adjusted the temperature so that it was as cold as it could get. He tore off his pants, and stepped hastily into the shower. The water rushed over his skin and he ran his fingers through his hair. When was his last shower? It seemed like years ago.

About a week’s worth of grime slid from his body and onto the floor. He shivered in the cold. He reached his hand and grabbed a bar of soap and washed himself thoroughly, covering every square inch of his skin.

He had forgotten about the metal around his neck, but it seemed to be unaffected by it. He reached up and grabbed at it angrily, trying to wrench it off. Electricity flowed through his fingers, amplified by the water, “SHIT!”

He withdrew his hands hurriedly and put them bracingly on the wall beside him, and inhaled deeply. Pierce had thought of everything. He sputtered, pain still coursing through his body. It took everything in him to not close his eyes and fall over.

Pierce. The name made him feel unnatural. He turned the water to the other extremity and scalding hot water poured from the shower head. He leaned his head forward and into the water so it flowed down his face. His skin was prickling with the heat, and the air around him started to get stuffy. He’d forgotten to turn the fan on in the bathroom, but that didn’t matter now.

The only thing that mattered was getting the sickening feeling from his skin. He rubbed the soap over him once more, and reached above him for the shampoo. He poured a good portion into his hand and then fiercely attacked his scalp with it. He rubbed at it frantically, as if trying to remove his hair completely. When fully satisfied, he placed his hands on either side of the shower head and leaned into it with his head down.

The water washed over him again, burning his face and neck. He gritted his teeth, taking in the pain. He couldn’t stay in here forever. The thought was lingering in the back of his mind. Eventually, he’d have to face the others. He turned the shower off and found a clean towel stashed under the sink. He wrapped it around his waist and walked out into Michael’s room.

It had been a good thing that he kept a spare set of clothes at Michael’s house. He dug through the drawer that he had left them in, but he couldn’t find anything. None of his clothes were here. What the hell?

He looked everywhere, tearing the room apart. Now that he thought about it, none of his things were here. He shuffled over to the window, scowling. He looked to the sky, staring up at the sun. It looked hard and dead to him. He looked back towards the Earth. Everything looked dead to him here, too. That’s when he noticed his clothes sprawled out, feet from Michael’s window.

Max frowned, wondering what the reason was. He secured his towel with his hand and clumsily climbed out of the window and into the yard. He hastily gathered the scattered clothing – his dark blue sweater, a gray t-shirt, khaki pants, and white socks. He swung back into the room and closed the pane and curtains behind him.

He dressed hurriedly and then realized what the room’s appearance actually was. Devastated DVDs and CDs lay at the bottoms of a couple of the walls. Picture frames were broken and the glass panels lay in a million pieces. The pictures were haphazardly strewn about the room. Max noticed that all of the disheveled pictures had him in it. He swallowed hard.

He looked at the dresser and saw that all of the pictures excluding him were intact. The DVDs and CDs, upon closer inspection, all were ones that Michael had borrowed from him. Upset claimed Max’s facial expressions. He didn’t realize how much this was affecting Michael or how much Michael blamed Max for the current events.

Max heard someone knock on the door again, “Max, can we just talk? It can be just me and you…”

He closed his eyes and felt light-headed. His breath caught. It was Liz again. He stayed as silent as possible. She knocked again, “Max, unless you jumped through that window, you’re in that room. If you don’t come out willingly, I’m going to have Michael or Isabel or even Tess open this door.”

Max grunted and moved himself onto the bed. He didn’t want to talk about anything right now. He wanted to be left alone. He lay down and sprawled himself out, snapping his eyes closed with seconds to spare.

Liz stepped hesitantly into the room with Tess at her heels. She saw that Max was sleeping and turned dejectedly from the room. Tess took this as a clue and followed her out.

Max sat up and breathed in deeply. The bed was so soft that it was making him uncomfortable. He shifted restlessly. He clambered off of the bed and onto the floor. He lay down on it on his stomach, and put his arms crossed and under his head. He didn’t hear the door open and close again.

Liz’s black converses appeared in his line of vision. He blinked and shut his eyes firmly.

“Max, I know you’re not sleeping. I just watched you move around and close your eyes.”

He opened his eyes and turned onto his back. Liz was standing next to him, her eyes filled with sympathy.

“I wish you wouldn’t look at me like that, Liz.”

She shook her head taken aback, “Like what?”

He was about to say ‘Like a pathetic life form that had been reduced to nothing.’ He couldn’t bring himself to say it. It was the truth. “Just… like that.”

She shifted uncomfortably, “Max, you can’t hide in here all day. You need to get out… get some sunlight, some fresh air, talk to someone.”

He shrugged, “There’s nothing to talk about.”

She scoffed, “Max, there’s an electronic device around your neck that won’t allow anyone to touch you, you signed some insane contract with Pierce, and you’ve gone through God-knows-what at his hands. I think that’s something to talk about.”

“Forget it, Liz.” He ground his teeth.

She persisted, “Max, how am I supposed to forget about this?!”

He got to his feet slowly, bracing himself against the dizzying, nauseous feeling. “You just do!!”

He hated yelling at her. He had to space himself from her, though. He had to. Tears surfaced in her eyes and she spoke slowly, “What are you doing to yourself, Max?”

“What am I doing to myself?” He asked her blankly.

“Yes, Max. You’re ripping my heart out every time you push me away. Don’t you understand how hard it was to be kept in the dark while you drafted that… that thing with Pierce? Tell me what he did to you, Max.”

Everyone had suddenly appeared in the room. Were they there the whole time? He shook his head and passed in between two unseen faces. He reached the front door in the other room and Isabel’s voice called out to him, “Where are you going?!”

“For a walk!” He threw open the front door and slammed it shut behind him, the sunlight blinding him.

He walked hurriedly from the house, anxious to get away by cautious enough to not over-exert himself. The door didn’t open and no one hurried after him.

He walked down the street, his head swimming. Why hadn’t Pierce come looking for him yet? Why did everyone keep pestering him about what happened in the White Room? Why couldn’t they just understand that he didn’t want to talk about it?!

He shoved his hands forcefully into his front pockets and hung his head, meandering down the road. At one house, a man was taking out his garbage. He eyed Max suspiciously. Max didn’t even take notice of him. He was too intent on getting as far from Michael’s as possible.

He thought about buying some kind of a bus ticket and making a break for it, but Pierce would come looking for him and the first place that he would look would be at everyone else’s houses. Pierce wasn’t going to stop until he found Max… dead or alive.

He wouldn’t take him alive. He was going to do everything possible to help the others and escape a lifetime with Piece.

He walked along the road and found himself standing outside of his house. His parent’s cars were gone and he walked hesitantly up to the front door. He stretched out his hand and tried to open it, but it was locked. Of course it was, there was no one home and there’d been a break-in earlier in the year, they weren’t going to leave it unlocked.

He reached his hand out and tried to unlock it, but nothing happened. Oh yeah. His powers were stripped or something. He walked to the back of his house and found his room’s window. He always left it unlocked for Michael and wasn’t surprised when it fell open at the touch of his hand. His climbed hesitantly in the window.

His room felt weird. It didn’t even seem like it was his anymore. He felt like he was trespassing in someone else’s house. He ran his fingers along the comforter. It made him shiver.

The curtains were drawn over his windows, casting shadows all around. His bed was neatly made, and hardly had a crease on it. His room was completely spotless. He definitely hadn’t left it that way. Maybe Isabel had come in and cleaned up after him? She hated cleaning though. He shook it from his head.

He walked out of his room and into the hallway. He walked down a little bit and into Isabel’s, unaware of how unnaturally clean her room was, too. It was almost just the same as he had left it. He turned and walked back up the hall and into the kitchen. Once again, it was spotless. He noticed a note on the fridge. It was in his mother’s handwriting.

Isabel (and Max if you’re back from camping yet),

We’ve left money for you so that you can buy some food while we’re gone. We should be gone around a week or two, the plans aren’t definite. Hoping to get tan on the sunny beaches of Destin!

Mom and Dad


Beneath it was some money magnetized to the fridge.


He fought back a moan. He had hoped to get a glimpse of his parents, if only briefly. Of course, they wouldn’t see him… he had had it all planned out in the back of his mind.

Instead, they were gone.

He walked idly back into his room, milling around. He reached into his underwear drawer and pulled out a picture of him and Liz, a small wallet sized one. They were laughing together at something, he couldn’t remember. He couldn’t imagine ever being that happy. Everything before the White Room felt like a lifetime ago, like he hadn’t ever been allowed to experience life.

He placed the photo in his back pocket and decided that it was time to walk back towards Michael’s house. He would go, say goodbye to the others, and try to find Pierce. Pierce was going to be enraged that he got away, but maybe he could explain everything to him.

He lumbered down the road, feeling very tired. The walk there had drained him of what little energy he had gotten back. It took him three times longer than usual to get onto Michael’s street.

The road was unnaturally dark and quiet considering the time of day. It had to be nearing two o’clock by now. He walked further down the road and noticed an unfamiliar black sedan parked in Michael’s driveway.

Unfamiliar.

Unfamiliar black sedan.

There was only one explanation: Pierce.

It didn’t seem like Pierce would come alone, though.

Max ran the rest of the distance and slowed to a halt behind the vehicle. He had to be careful.

He cautiously tried to look into Michael’s bedroom curtains, but they were dawn closed. Max slipped, hoping to remain unnoticed, towards the front door. There was only one way of finding out if Pierce was really there… go inside.

He opened up the door hesitantly. No sounds were coming from inside. He walked cautiously down the short hallway that served as an entrance. He peeked around the corner into the main room.

From out of nowhere, Liz’s voice rang out, “MAX! LOOK OUT!”
Last edited by sprayadhesive on Mon May 08, 2006 9:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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sprayadhesive
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Post by sprayadhesive »

behrinthecity, clueless, RhondaAnn, Timelord31, tequathisy, and Jennifer24, thank you so much for the feedback. Once again, you kindness amazes me.

So, this part's kind of um... intense, I suppose. Everyone may, perhaps, be questioning the state of my mind after this. I SWEAR I'm sane. I absolutely love all of the characters of Rowell (I suppose even Tess and Pierce in a bittersweet kind of way) so I don't mean to do them too much harm, but it happens.

Don't hurt me for anything that happens to Max in this chapter. I know that he's been through a lot, but I feel it ALL necessary in the big picture. I'm afraid that I'm once more giving too much away, I am deeply sorry.

Here's Part 9. (Part 10 should be along the day after tomorrow [May 12th, Friday])

Part 9

He pressed himself flat against the wall and heard a gunshot ring out. Without thinking, he threw himself across the hall and into the bathroom. He locked the door behind him and turned to lock the door that lead to Michael’s room.

He was panting heavily. From the next room he heard Liz scream out. His heart raced, “LIZ?!”

An answer came. It was a voice that he’d been dreading for a long time, “She’s okay Max. She’s okay for now. They all are.”

He panicked, pacing around the tiny bathroom, “All of them?”

Pierce responded, “Liz, Maria, Michael, Isabel, Alex, Tess, the sheriff, Kyle…”

Max’s head shot up. The sheriff and Kyle?

Pierce continued, “I was looking for everyone else in our contract… but I couldn’t find Jeff and Nancy, your parents were out of town, and Maria’s mother was nowhere to be found. They’re lucky. Ed Harding’s also M.I.A.”

Max gulped, “What do you want with them?!”

“I didn’t want them, Max. I wanted you. Come out of the bathroom…”

“Let them go first! You signed the contract! You signed it! You can’t hurt them or keep them captive or anything!” His voice was high-pitched and unnatural.

“Oh no, Max. That contract was void as soon as I shot your friend Michael as he was taking you out.”

“That… what?!” He shouted at the door.

“It said so in the contract. If anyone of them were hurt by the FBI, the contract was void. I hurt Michael and so the contract was annulled.”

He felt like such a moron. How could he have forgotten about a contract he’d practically created all of the terms for? Nothing was standing in Pierce’s way of killing them all.

“If I come out, do you promise to let them all go?”

Pierce didn’t respond. After a few minutes, Pierce spoke again, “Max, I’ll give you three seconds. If you’re not out by then, I’m shooting one of them in the head.”

Max swallowed, hard.

“Three…”

The door swung open and Max stood in the doorway. Pierce looked shocked, “You care for humans a lot more that I thought possible, Alien. I thought you would’ve at least waited until one.” He practically spat out the word "alien" treating it as if it was Max's name - his whole identity.

Without a second’s hesitation, Pierce turned the gun to Max and shot him to the side of his left shoulder, towards his chest. Max fell to his knees, pain searing through his body once more.

Several people screamed his name at once, “MAX!”

Max heard Valenti trying to reason with Pierce, but he couldn’t hear all of the words. His ears were sort of muffled like someone was covering his head with a pillow.

“… Fisher … is going on here…?” Valenti sounded confused.

Pierce laughed bitterly, “I’m no deputy, Valenti. I’m the head of the special unit in the FBI, the unit involved in hunting aliens. That was just a precaution.”

Valenti’s suspicions about Max were confirmed. His mute response didn’t help Max’s uneasy feeling about his finding out.

“Holy shit.” Kyle spoke in a low voice. Max groaned, the pain ripping through his body. He’d forgotten Kyle was there.

Max lay down on his side, curling into a ball. He clutched at his shoulder, feeling the warm, sticky blood flow over his palm. Pierce had officially shot Max two times. He clenched his teeth and jammed his eyes together, trying to fight the overwhelming pain.

He looked up at the others. They were all kneeled in a line: Kyle (at the far left, furthest away from him), Valenti, Tess, Alex, Maria, Michael, Isabel, and Liz. Their hands were tied behind their backs.

Pierce walked over to him and kicked him. Max’s body jerked and contorted. He’d forgotten about the thing around his neck. He screamed involuntarily. Pierce laughed again, “I thought you might like that collar.”

Pierce held up what looked like a miniature remote control with multiple buttons on it. He pressed one and Max felt more electricity surge through his body. He shrieked, his body turning at angles he never knew it could before. Pierce kept his finger on the button. The electricity continued to surge through him. He squirmed on the floor, screaming at the top of his lungs. A continual, piercing scream that echoed throughout the house. Pierce chuckled and released the button.

Max’s throat was hoarse. He rolled over so that he was sitting on his shins, hunched over. He breathed in raspily, and exhaled deeply. The mucusy feeling in his lungs intensified. His body twitched and he hacked up an even larger amount of blood. The blood dripped faster from his shoulder, and made sickening ‘plop’s as it fell to the ground. Max felt like he was going to vomit at any second.

“What’s going on here?!” Yelled Valenti, “Why are you doing this to him?! Why are we all being held captive?!”

“Calm down, Jim. I’m sure you know the answer to all of those questions.” Pierce smiled at him briefly and held the gun steady, pointing it at all of them. The remote lay in his other hand.

Max shuddered with every breath taken, “He… doesn’t… know…” In between every word his body shook. He had to concentrate every ounce of his energy into his speech. Sweat was dripping down his face profusely. He rocked back and forth in his position, groaning.

“Why would you put them in the contract if they didn’t know, Max?” Pierce asked almost playfully. It seemed that he enjoyed watching the effort it took Max to spit out a few words.

“They…” He inhaled and exhaled quickly. The blood continued to drip from his shoulder, “were… getting… close… I…” He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. His entire body quavered, “had… to… protect… them.”

A pain shot through Max’s body again from some unknown cause and he groaned, grinding his teeth together. Pierce chuckled, “How very kind of you. I’ll do you a favor and tell them, then…”

Max gasped, trying to maintain consciousness, “Please… don’t…”

Pierce gazed at the Valentis and spoke with a hint of arrogance, “Your current subject of interest, Jim… Max Evans. All of your suspicions were right. He healed Liz Parker when she was shot at the Crashdown. He’s an alien.”

Max’s jaw clenched. He could feel Kyle and the sheriff’s eyes boring holes into the top of his head. He looked up and into their eyes. Kyle looked disgusted and Valenti looked bewildered.

Max tried to stand on his feet, but fell shakily back to the ground. He couldn’t support his own bodyweight. Pierce walked over to Max with a thick rope in his hands. He grabbed at Max, ignoring the boy’s squirming from the constant electric flow into his body. He wrenched Max’s arms behind his back, tearing the flesh on his shoulder open even further. Max cried out, the pain was blinding. Tears dripped down his face.

Pierce finished the many knots and kicked Max over so that he was lying on his stomach. Just when the voltage had stopped, Pierce grabbed Max’s ankles and bound them tightly together. Max’s screams seemed continual now, all flowing together with no real end.

His screams started to die out, growing weaker. The carpet irritated his open wound, and he tried to shift over to one side or the other, but it was impossible. He turned his face on the side so that he could see the others. Pierce walked into his line of vision and placed his shoe on Max’s head. He pressed down hard and made motions like he was trying to grind it into the carpet.

Max’s continual screams picked up again, between the voltage and the overwhelming feeling that his head was going to burst at any second. Pierce removed his shoe and walked to the middle of the room, still wielding his gun, “Pathetic.” His lip was snarled.

Isabel whimpered, sympathy practically radiating from her body. She felt tears trickle down her face. How much more could Max take?

Pierce shifted his snarling face to meet hers, “SHUT UP!”

Isabel stifled her whimpering at once, and looked to the carpet in front of her fearfully.

Everyone was too afraid to speak. Max’s blood was still gushing out of his body with no sign of relenting. He felt a pool of blood around his shoulder blade. Either the bullet was poking out of his flesh, or it had cut straight through.

It didn’t matter, though. Not to him. He spoke with a quivering voice, “Let… them… go.” He took short inhales of air and long exhales between each breath, “You… want… me.”

Pierce laughed, “Max, they’re all witnesses to this. No one can know about you or the special unit. They have to die.”

Pierce grabbed at something in his bag and withdrew a handful of bandanas and duct tape. He shoved the first into Kyle’s mouth and closed his mouth forcefully with duct tape. He repeated this for every single one of them.

Pain shot through Max’s body again and he groaned and squeezed his eyes shut. Pierce looked satisfied with his bindings.

He crossed to Max and pointed the gun right in his face. Max looked past the barrel and looked at Liz. She looked so afraid. He couldn’t let Pierce kill them.

Pierce barked at Max, “Stand up!”

Max tried to get to his feet but pain shot through his body. He sunk to his knees, gasping.

Pierce pressed the gun into Max’s temple, “GET UP!”

Max stood, his knees shaking. Black spots were forming in his line of vision. He tried to blink them away but they didn’t go anywhere.

Pierce led him in front of the line of people, directly in the middle of them. He hopped over, unbalanced and put-off by his ankles’ bindings. Max could see all of them perfectly now. He knees were seconds from buckling. He bit at his tongue, forcing himself to fight the pain and the faint feeling that was coming over his body.

He had to find a way to stop Pierce. Pierce held the gun, pointing it at Maria. She closed her eyes tightly. Pierce knew that if he remotely threatened anyone, Max would do exactly how he was told.

“Don’t…” Max shook his head, his voice feeble and soft, barely a whisper. He could see Michael squirming in his bindings.

Pierce barked at him again, “SIT DOWN!”

Max somehow managed to ignore the searing pain and sit cross-legged on the floor. It was better than standing, at least. The blood continued to flow down his front and back, but it had slowed down a little. He bit at his lip; his stomach felt like an entire box of Pop Rocks had been put in there. He didn’t have any powers to try and save anyone. Pierce walked up and down the lineup.

He bent down to tie his shoe and Max knew he had to try. The gun was lying right beside Pierce on the floor. He got to his feet as quickly as he could, but the instant he had reached full height, a searing pain was sent through his body again. Max’s body shook with pain. Pierce had thrown a knife, of which Max hadn’t known existed, and it was sticking out of his thigh. Almost all of the blade was in his flesh.

Max screamed in pain again and stumbled. Pierce stood up and pointed his gun fiercely at Isabel. Max fell over, anxious to show Pierce that he didn’t want to make anymore trouble. Pierce lowered the weapon and frowned, “You shouldn’t have done that, Max. You’re loosing a lot of blood. That wound’s just increasing your chance of bleeding out.”

“You don’t have powers to heal yourself, you know. That collar came equipped with an emergency stock of represents. It’s been injecting you with a dosage every hour since I activated it.”

Max couldn’t help it anymore. His grief and sorrow hit him full force. He lay on his back, clutching his shin to his chest and sobbed. Everyone was going to die and it was his fault. Once again, he’d put everyone in danger. He wished that he could have changed so much. He wished that he had just turned himself in to Valenti the day that Liz and Maria found out about him or that night at the Crash festival.


“I…” he was trying to speak in between breaths again, “am… so… sorry. So… sorry.” The tears wouldn’t stop.

Everyone’s eyes were on him. A few people made noises with their throat that weren’t distinguishable through their gags.

Pierce smirked and walked to Max, pressing the tip of his foot into his shoulder. Max cried out in pain, and there it was again. The familiar and yet ever-more-painful shocks sent through his body. He writhed on the ground, trying to get away. Pierce held him there.

“You’re going to watch all of them die, Max. If you pass out, I’ll wait for you to wake up. I’ll wait for as long as it takes. Who should die first, though?”

Pierce bent low over Max’s leg and took the knife into his hand. He could feel the knife scrape against his bone. He winced, biting hard on his bottom lip. Muffled whimpers came from him.

Pierce released Max from his hold and walked mockingly up and down the line of people. “Who will die first?”

He faked a conclusion, “We’ll save Liz for last… I want her to see her friends lying in their own brains.”

He walked up and down for what seemed like a thousand times, “Yes… looks good to me. Left to right.”

He walked around behind Kyle, pressing his gun into his skull. Fear filled the eyes of everyone in the room except for Pierce. Kyle looked like he was fighting the tears back, too strong to show that he was scared out of his mind.

Max couldn’t let it happen, he couldn’t, “Wait!”

Pierce lifted the gun up, away from Kyle’s head, “I’ll… I’ll tell you how to work the orbs…”

Pierce’s eyes narrowed, “You told me that you don’t know how to work them.”

Max laughed bitterly, keeping up his act, “And you told me that you wouldn’t hurt any of them.”

Pierce smirked, “Well now that I know that you know how to work them, I’ll get it out of you some other way. I’m not going to alter my plans.”

He lowered the gun and pointed it back at Kyle’s head. “Three…”

“Two…”

Kyle closed his eyes, as did almost everyone else in the room. “Keep your eyes open, Max!” Pierce ordered him.

Max did as he was told, opening his eyes and looking at the fear in Kyle’s eyes. It made him sick.

Pierce continued to count. “One…”

At that instant, the front door flew open, Pierce went flying into the wall behind him, and a gun fired.
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Post by sprayadhesive »

I promise that I'm going to touch on the Michael, Isabel and Tess thing... just not in this part. You guys once again amaze me with your feedback. I'm hoping to have the next few parts out on schedule, but once I look back on some of them, I think I may need to rewrite parts before I pots them so that they'll be more clear.

So... basically... that puts us at: I have no idea when the next part is going to be updated.

Really sorry for the late update, I've had so much stuff going on in life. Hope you life it. I'm starting to fret that I'm never going to be able to live up to the great expectations.

Part 10

Max looked around, bewildered. Kyle was in pain, but he wasn’t dead. He wasn’t dead… yet. Max heard footsteps behind him and he turned to see Ed Harding striding into the room. Nasedo.

Nasedo waved his hands over Max’s bindings and they instantly dissolved from his wrists. He strode forward towards Pierce, motioning for Max to stay still. Pierce was getting shakily to his feet, looking for his gun. Nasedo focused on the gun that lay by Kyle for a moment and it went flying across the floor in the opposite corner of the room.

Pierce looked onto him, shaking. His eyes were wild. Nasedo walked over to him, his hand outstretched and glowing. His other hand found Pierce’s neck and he pinned him to the wall while the other made contact. Pierce didn’t even have enough time to scream. His body slid down the wall, and his suit had a handprint burned into it.

Pierce was dead.

Max made a strangled, relieved noise. He couldn’t believe it. He spoke shakily, “Kyle?”

Kyle grunted, clearly injured badly. Max needed to get his powers back. He looked to Nasedo, “Find… a… remote…”

Nasedo nodded and looked around the room, finding it hidden underneath Pierce’s body. He walked across the room and handed it to Max. The buttons were labeled. He smiled to himself. Two welcoming buttons were on there: Release Collar and Antidote to Serum.

How incredibly cheesy of the FBI, absolutely no challenge whatsoever.

He used his right hand and pressed the Antidote to Serum button. Something pricked him in the neck and he felt a peculiar sensation rush through his body. He pressed the Release Collar button and the collar fell from his neck. He let out another strangled, relieved sound.

Max breathed heavily, looking at everyone. He turned back to Nasedo, “Get… bindings… off… of… them….”

Nasedo didn’t hesitate and did exactly as he was told. He crossed to the sheriff and undid the bindings around his hands. Jim reached up and ripped the duct tape off of his mouth, spitting out the bandana, “Kyle… oh my God, Kyle?!”

Kyle’s eyes were unfocused and his breathing was becoming shallower. Max dragged his body, using only his right arm, over the few feet that separated them. Jim turned Kyle over gently and Max saw the bullet’s entry point. The blood was coming from right around Kyle’s right kidney.

Max pulled up Kyle’s shirt with his good arm. He placed his right hand over the spot and focused his energy on Kyle and only Kyle. Slowly, he could feel his hand warm up. It took longer than usual, but Kyle’s wound was healed. Max let out sounds of pain, fighting to keep his own eyes steady.

Max’s bloody hand reached up and wiped the sweat away from his forehead, streaking blood across it. Jim looked at Max with mixed emotions. He spoke strangled, “Thank you.”

Max didn’t know if he had enough strength in him to respond. His vision was blurred. It took ever ounce of his concentration to discern figures and make out whether or not they were people or objects. He dragged himself over to Michael who had yet to be undone. Liz had gone over to check on Kyle and help untie him with Isabel at her heels.

He placed his hand over Michael’s arm, directly on the gunshot. Healing Kyle had brought all of Max’s pain back to the front of his mind. He was so weak and drained, but he had to heal Michael. He had to.

Michael tried to get out of Max’s grasp, shaking his head wildly. Max had to heal himself first, he was fifty times worse than he was, “Max… no”

Max ignored him and closed his eyes, groaning in agony. His hand heated up again. He screamed out in pain. Like when he healed Kyle, he received flashes. But the flashes were foggy and Max’s throbbing prevented him from seeing anything. He didn’t care… he liked it better that way.

He lifted his hand from Michael and saw blurrily that it had healed completely. Max let out a shuddering sigh of relief.

Nasedo came behind Michael and untied Michael’s hands. They immediately reached up and ripped off the masking tape on his mouth, he spit the bandana out to the side.

Max’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head. All of his energy was completely gone and he was loosing so much blood. His body crumpled onto the floor sickeningly.

Michael screamed, “NO! MAX! WAKE UP!” He shook him, desperate to get a reaction. His fingers fumbled on Max’s neck searching for a pulse. He didn’t know where to look… he never went to Health class.

They ran up and down his neck until he finally felt it. He could feel a faint pulse. It was faint, but it was existent. He cried out in relief, and then realized that it wasn’t okay just yet.

Everyone was undone now. Valenti had carried a confused and weak Kyle to the couch and then went to Michael’s side. Liz, Maria, Alex, Isabel, and Tess were all crowded around Max’s limp form.

Nasedo stood to the side, apparently uninterested in anything.

Valenti took action, “Michael and Alex, help me pick him up and bring him into the other room. Michael, can we use your bed?”

Michael nodded hastily and helped the other two lift Max off the floor. They carried him into the bedroom and Valenti turned to the girls standing behind him, “Leave him his dignity. You can wait outside. You’re not going to want to see a lot of this anyway.”

The door snapped shut, separating the two rooms. He nodded to the two boys, “Carefully take off his shirt and pants. Try not to scrape at the wounds with anything. This has to be done slowly and meticulously.

Michael and Alex nodded and removed the sweater and shirt cautiously. Max’s chest was a bloody mess. They moved to his pants and tried to pull them off without touching the wound. The entire right pant leg was soaked through.

Valenti bent low over his shoulder, anxious to check and see if the bullet was still in there somewhere. He couldn’t see it from the front. He lifted Max’s torso carefully and examined the back wound. Sure enough, the bullet was halfway in his body, sticking out to the right of his shoulder blade.

Valenti turned to Michael, “Get a bucket of hot water and a few clean towels. If you have any bandages, bring them here as well.”

Michael nodded and turned from the room. He walked out of the room and five pairs of eyes were on him. Kyle was sitting up on the couch now, and everyone was fussing over him. Michael rolled his eyes, Kyle was fine. Kyle spoke, “How is he?”

Michael shook his head and hurried into the kitchen. He cleaned out the bucket under his sink and filled it was hot water. He carried it, careful not to slosh anything anywhere, and brought it into the bathroom. He grabbed a few towels from under the sink and grabbed a kit that he’d put together not too long ago with medical supplies. He entered his room through the connecting door. He set the bucket down by Valenti and threw the supplies on the bed next to Max.

Valenti took a Swiss Army Knife from his pocket and motioned to Alex, “Keep his back up so I have clear access to the bullet. This might hurt him a lot, Michael, make sure he keeps steady.”

Michael gulped and walked over to Max, leaning his weight on Max’s legs. Max was still unconscious, miraculously. His breathing was still extremely slow.

Jim steadied his hand and poised his knife above the bullet. He brought it down slowly, cutting into Max’s flesh. He sliced around the bullet, trying to loosen it from his body. More blood appeared at the surface of the wound, and Valenti finally was able to loosen the bullet enough. He used the knife’s blade as a lever, pulling it out of Max.

Max’s body writhed on the bed in pain, but Michael held him there. Valenti looked around for a place to put the bullet, but he couldn’t find anywhere. He stood, “I’m going to go get a cup or something to put this in. Take the warm water and a towel and wash the wounds. After they’re clean, wrap up his shoulder. Do it tight so that the bleeding will stop. Don’t touch the leg, yet. I’ve still got to look at it.”

Michael nodded and dipped a towel into the water. He brought it up to Max’s back, cleaning it and ridding it of the blood. Max’s body shook gently, and a whimper came from his lips. Michael tried to make soothing noises. He held Max up and handed Alex a fresh towel.

Alex repeated the process, only on the front of Max’s shoulder. There was a lot more blood to clean up here. It took longer, but he worked it out. Alex nodded and grabbed two gauze pads and a long bandage from the first-aid kit. He handed one of the gauze pads to Michael. They both placed them over the wounds. They wrapped the bandage around them both carefully, anxious to not inflict any more pain on him.

Valenti returned with a plastic cup that held the bullet. He looked at the bandages and nodded his approval, “Good job.”

Max shivered lying on the bed; he looked like he was freezing. Michael went to his drawer and got out one of his old hockey jerseys, pulling it over Max’s torso. He looked a tad more comfortable. Michael held Max’s hand tenderly.

Valenti looked at Max’s right thigh. He frowned, “It’s deep.”

Alex’s voice was quavering, the events of the entire day weighing upon him, “What do we do?”

Jim shrugged, “I don’t know. We’ll clean it out for now and bandage it up. It’s amazing that he held consciousness for as long as he did. Truly amazing.”

He took another towel and dipped it in the water, cleaning the wound and the bloody areas around it. He wrapped some bandage tightly around the leg and stood up somberly.

“And now, we wait.” Michael spoke, softly. He reached into his drawer and pulled out a pair of old, worn flannel pajama bottoms. He pulled them over Max’s legs. He reached under Max, picking him up in his arms, “Alex, can you pull down the blankets for me?”

Alex nodded and grabbed at the blankets, drawing them back so that Michael could get Max under them. He deposited Max under the blankets and drew them up to his chin. Max whimpered, thrashing about in the bed.

Alex opened the door and walked out to the girls and Kyle, “He’s in there… you can go whenever you’re ready.” Liz and Isabel rushed into the room. Maria and Tess stayed behind, watching over Kyle. Alex surveyed him, he looked okay, “How’re you doing, Kyle?”

“I’m fine! I was just a little shaken up, but I’m fine now.” Apparently the girls had kept him confined to the couch. Kyle looked up as his father came into his vision.

Jim looked to everyone, “Would you mind giving me some time with my son?”

Everyone nodded and left for Michael’s room to join the others.

Liz and Isabel had walked into the room seconds before and stopped dead in their tracks. Bloody towels and clothes were lying all over the floor. Liz swallowed hard and looked at Max lying in the bed. The only thing that she could see was his head.

“Jeez,” she heard Isabel whisper. No one had seemed to remember to wipe the mix of Max and Kyle’s blood from Max’s forehead. Isabel grabbed the last towel and dipped it into the bucket. She wiped away the blood gently.

Michael walked around the room, picking up the towels and clothes. He took Isabel’s towel from her and deposited everything into his hamper. Isabel sat next to Max on the bed, stroking his hair. He shifted slightly.

Max opened his eyes slowly, painfully. His body was aching. He moaned, trying to focus his eyes. Everything was blurry around him.

Isabel continued to stroke his head, “Max?” She spoke relaxingly.

He tried to swallow, but his throat was dry, “Water?” His voice was barely a whisper.

He heard someone leave the room.

They returned about a minute later. He felt a glass being put to his lips, and he opened his mouth. A steady trickle fell onto his dry tongue. He swallowed gratefully.

He spoke through the pain, “Kyle?”

Liz knew what Max was asking, “He’s fine. Sheriff Valenti’s talking to him right now.”

“Michael?” He squeezed his eyes shut.

“I’m fine.” Michael’s tone was hard, “You?”

Max shrugged. A pain shot through his shoulder. He winced. He’d forgotten about the gunshot.

“Can you heal yourself?” Michael asked in the same tone.

Max grimaced, “Is everyone okay? Is anyone else hurt?”

“No, Max. We’re all fine.” Alex interjected, “I promise.”

Max’s body relaxed. He tried to breathe as deeply as he could, but it was still very shallow. He shivered.

“Can you heal yourself?” Michael asked angrily. He was sick of playing games.

Max shrugged again, keeping his eyes closed.

“Try it.” Michael demanded.

Max did not move. He didn’t make an effort to respond.

“Try it!”

Max didn’t respond again. Michael grabbed Max’s shoulders, shaking him fiercely. Max cried out in pain. Alex grabbed Michael and jerked him off of Max, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Max’s hands were on his arms now, rubbing them fiercely like he was freezing. His entire body was shaking, his hands quivering, and his lips tinged blue.

“Max… Max… are you okay?” Isabel crossed to him, pulling the blanket further up his body.

He quivered, “So… so… cold.” His hands continued to attack his arms for warmth.

Liz ran to Michael’s closet and removed a blanket. She brought it over to Max and laid it on him. His shivers slightly decreased.

Jim walked into the room shortly after and into the thick, depressing silence. He looked to Max, “Glad to see you’re awake.” His voice was solemn.

Max closed his eyes heavily. Valenti. The secret was out, Valenti and Kyle knew that he was an alien. They’d seen Nasedo use his powers. It was only a matter of time before they found out about Michael, Isabel, and Tess.

A warm hand cupped his cheek and he flinched under its touch. A single tear trickled down Liz’s face and fell onto Max’s hand that was lying across his chest. It startled him. He opened his eyes and looked at Liz. “Don’t cry…” His voice was soft, gentle, and pleading.

His right arm felt like lead, but he somehow managed to lift it and bring his hand to her face. He wiped the remnants of the tear from it. He withdrew his hand quickly and it landed heavily on the bed. It was a moment of weakness. He couldn’t afford any more weakness. He turned his head from her grasp to face the other direction.

Valenti strode forward, “Max, can I speak to you for a moment? Alone?”

Max nodded slightly. No one seemed to want to leave the room. “It’s fine. I’m fine…” No one looked convinced, “It’s fine. Go.”

They looked from him to Valenti and then exited the room. Valenti went up to Max slowly, “Max, you’ve been loosing a lot of blood. I don’t know how much longer that you can maintain consciousness at this rate.”

“What does that mean, Sheriff?”

“Well… after that it’s only a matter of time until you die. I know that you’re weak and tired and that this is asking a lot from you, but I need you to try and heal yourself.”

Max nodded. His right hand found his thigh and he placed it over the wound gently. He focused.

Nothing happened.

He tried again.

His hand’s warmth flickered and died. He looked up to the sheriff, “I can’t. I can’t do it.”

Jim nodded, obviously worried, “We’re going to have to try again soon, okay?”

Max nodded. As Jim was about to leave the room, Max’s feeble voice spoke again, “Don’t tell the others. Please. About anything. Please, sheriff. And I need to talk to Nasedo. Please.”
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