My lack of willpower is rearing it's head again. Since my lovely beta okayed the next two parts I'm going to go ahead and post them. I probably won't update again until Tuesday or Wednesday. Enjoy the weekend, everybody!
Chapter 11
“How in the hell are we going to do this?” Michael asked as the group finished loading up the Jetta with the remainder of their bags, “Doesn’t someone need to stay behind in case Tess shows up again?”
“No,” Kyle said, speaking for the first time since the gang decided to go to Las Cruces in the first place. The six teens had briefly gone their separate ways before joining back together at Maria’s house. “She’ll go to Las Cruces. We’ll find her there.”
“How do you know?” Maria asked.
“She needed answers,” Kyle said, “And she’s been having dreams about Alex going there. That was the only thing she was clear about. If it was me I’d start there, too.”
“So it’s decided,” Max said, “We’re all going to Las Cruces together.”
“Where do we look first?” Liz wondered, “Las Cruces is pretty big. Before we go anywhere we’re going to need a starting point.”
“Well, that’s where I come in,” Maria said to Liz, “When we split up I called up a friend of Alex’s whose specialty is hacking. You see it occurred to me that if we each got several emails from Alex while he was in Sweden and he was never in Sweden to begin with then where the hell was he when he sent the emails, huh?”
“Right,” Liz agreed, “So where did the they come from?”
“The University of New Mexico in Las Cruces,” Maria announced triumphantly, “He even locked it down to a specific computer…”
“So we are on the right track,” Isabel murmured.
“Most definitely,” Michael said, “And Max and Liz were right all along…Tess is in this up to her neck. I know you want to trust her, Valenti, but she’s going to have a helluva time explaining all this shit away.”
“She will,” Kyle declared confidently.
“Okay, so let’s get on the road,” Michael said, galvanized for the long trip, “We’ve got almost four hours of highway ahead of us.”
“I’ll ride with Kyle in the Mustang,” Isabel volunteered, already heading off towards the sports car. Kyle followed, seeing little point in arguing over her presumptuousness.
“We’ll follow them in the Jetta,” Michael said as he and Maria ducked inside the car.
Max and Liz exchanged small, self-conscious smiles. “I guess that leaves you and me,” he murmured softly.
“All alone,” Liz replied inanely.
“It’ll give us time to talk,” Max told her, taking hold of her hand and leading her off for the Jeep. He helped her climb inside before crossing around to the driver’s side and scooting into seat. By the time he cranked the ignition the mood between them had become decidedly somber.
They weren’t on the highway ten minutes seconds before Liz said, “So we’re really going to have a baby, huh? I’m still trying to get used to the idea.”
“Yeah…me, too…”
She chewed at her lower lip, twisting her hands in her lap. “I got sick this morning.”
“I know,” he whispered, “I heard you in the bathroom…”
Liz ducked her head, her cheeks staining with mortified color. “I thought you were asleep.”
“I…I was going to come in after you,” Max stammered in explanation, “But I didn’t know if you wanted me to. This whole thing feels…surreal.”
“Well, having your boyfriend watch as you puke your guts out tends to be a little disconcerting,” Liz mumbled in mild sarcasm.
“It…um…sounded pretty bad,” Max commented with a grimace.
“Yeah…well…it wasn’t a fiesta going on in there.”
Max rolled his lips inward. “Right.”
“So…um…are you…” She chanced an uncomfortable glance at him, wishing devoutly that she could read minds at that moment. “You’re not having second thoughts about anything, are you?”
“You mean like about having the baby?” he asked, meeting her quizzical gaze briefly. His heart lurched in his chest at her question before plunging down into his stomach. He wasn’t having second thoughts at all but his stomach turned a little to think that she might be. Max decided to ask her. “Are you?” He held his breath while he awaited her answer. After an extended pause of silence, Liz finally shook her head negative. “Neither do I,” he said, “But beyond that…I don’t know a damned thing. I’m scared, Liz.”
“Me, too. I got, like, a million things running around in my head right now. What are we going to do about school, Max?” she groaned mournfully, “Better yet…how are we going to explain to our parents why our baby is born months before it’s supposed to be and perfectly healthy, too?”
“I don’t know…”
“Exactly how long will my pregnancy be?” she asked stridently, “I mean I know it’s accelerated but how fast are we talking about here?”
“I don’t know…”
“And I keep thinking that, if by some miracle, everything does work out with our parents,” she rambled on, “How are we going to manage college and a baby, too? I can’t believe I just said that. Hah, college! We haven’t even graduated high school yet, Max! There’s no way we’re going to college!”
“We’re going to college,” Max disputed quietly.
“This was supposed to be the best time of our lives,” Liz muttered, “Now… Alex is dead. Tess is crazy. And I’m pregnant…all within a week. We could write our own soap opera, Max. We could call it ‘As Antar Turns So Does the Hell in My Life.’”
Max knew he shouldn’t laugh, especially when she was so plainly miserable but he could hardly stifle the snicker that escaped him. Liz leveled him with a woebegone look and Max wisely reined it in. “I guess we really screwed up, didn’t we?” he sighed.
“Oh…so hugely you can’t even imagine,” Liz grunted, “How are we supposed to take care of a baby, Max…an alien one at that?”
He glanced at her sharply, zeroing in on her aggrieved tone. “Does it bother you…that our baby is…different?”
“I love you, Max,” Liz whispered, “And I love this tiny life that we’ve made together. More than you could possibly know, but… I can’t help but worry about him being different and how are we supposed to explain that to people? I mean, I know we’re dealing with a lot right now but we’ve got to face the fact that this is an alien pregnancy.”
“He’s human, too, Liz,” Max interjected quietly, “I’m human…mostly. I have to think our child will be as well.”
“Okay, so maybe we won’t have to worry about hiding him, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Liz considered, “We haven’t even discussed how or what we’re going to tell our parents, where we’re going to go to school, if we’re going to go to school, not to mention whether or not we can support this baby and ourselves. I mean…where are we going to live, Max!”
“Slow down, Liz,” he murmured when she seemed on the verge of emotional meltdown, “I thought we agreed not to take this all on at once.”
“We did.”
“Okay…so let’s tackle one thing at a time,” Max suggested.
“So what should we ‘tackle’ first,” Liz asked gamely.
“First the progression of the pregnancy,” Max sighed, “I’m pretty sure I’ll…um…feel it when the baby grows. I felt when he was conceived so I’ll probably feel it as he progresses from stage to stage, too.”
“Oh…” Liz sighed in obvious relief, “That makes sense.”
“And I…um…did some calculations…”
“You?” Liz laughed in surprise.
“You want to hear my findings or not?”
She bit her lip to keep from smiling. “Go ahead.”
“Okay…so I’m thinking you’re progressing like three weeks for every week that passes,” he explained. However, when Max’s spied her quizzical frown as she tried to calculate how he reached that conclusion, he expounded, “I read somewhere that morning sickness can start as early as the third week of pregnancy.”
“Wow…okay,” Liz said, digesting that tidbit of information.
“So that means…in a normal pregnancy what take three weeks to develop only take you 5 to 7 days,” he concluded, “So I’m figuring you’ll be full term in alien terms at about 13 weeks.”
“13 weeks?” Liz echoed, “You’re kidding. That’s little more than three months.”
“I’m just guessimating here,” Max said, “I’m not certain. Whatever happens though, I don’t think we should put off telling our parents.”
“And what are we going to tell them, Max?” she queried softly.
“The truth.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“You know something,” Michael surmised when he noted Maria’s preoccupied expression.
Her green eyes went round with innocence. “What?”
“Very cute. Don’t what me, DeLuca,” he tossed back glibly, “You know something. Now spill your guts.”
Maria pretended to study her manicure. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” she bluffed.
“You already kept me in the dark about all that Future Max crap,” Michael reminded her brutally, “Do you really want to go down that road again?”
Maria threw him an exasperated glance. “Geez, you’re never going to let me live that down, are you, Spaceboy?” she sighed, “For the last time…it wasn’t my secret to tell.”
“Whatever,” Michael dismissed, “Tell me what the hell is going on.”
“It’s not my secret to tell,” Maria replied vaguely.
“So then Liz asked you to keep it a secret.”
“Not exactly.”
“Then tell me,” he insisted.
“She’ll kill me.”
“Maria--,”
“—I’m not even sure if it’s true--,”
“—Maria.”
“Fine! Fine!” she snapped in annoyance, “Max and Liz are doing it.”
“Doing what?” Michael queried blankly.
Maria rolled her eyes. “They’re having sex, nimrod.”
Michael’s mouth fell open. “No way.”
“Yes way,” Maria countered in a laugh, “Or maybe way…I’m not sure. Liz never admitted it to me outright.”
“So that’s what all the secret looks were about,” Michael muttered to himself, “I knew he was hiding something all along. ‘I told you everything’ my ass!”
“Michael, it’s private,” Maria reminded him mildly, “You can’t just go waving it around in their faces.”
He ignored her admonishment altogether. “When?”
“The night Liz talked to Valenti about how Alex died,” she said, “She went to Max and…”
“They had sex.”
“Made love,” Maria corrected, “And I think they made love. Like I said…Liz never admitted to anything but they do seem really cozy.”
“Yeah, well, with all the blushing they’ve been doing I can believe it.” Silence fell between them as they’re conversation took on a decidedly intimate slant. “Do you…um…do you ever wonder what it feels like?” Michael asked in a gruff tone.
“What?” Maria queried, “You mean making love?” Michael jerked his head in a nod. “Yeah…sometimes,” she confessed dishonestly, “How about you?”
Michael cut her with sharp brown eyes. “I think about it a lot,” he whispered deeply, “But I’ve always been afraid, you know. I thought being with you might be dangerous or something because of what I am.”
“Oh.”
“But…well, if Max and Liz are doing it--,”
“—We don’t know for sure,” Maria interjected quickly.
“I don’t want to wait anymore.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“So you seem really protective of Tess,” Isabel remarked in order to ease the taut silence that had fallen between her and Kyle. “What’s that all about?”
“Why do you want to know?” he sniped.
“I’m just curious I guess,” Isabel brazened, “I never realized the two of you had grown so close, that’s all.”
“Funny, I had the same impression about you,” Kyle retorted drolly.
“I just never figured you two would click, okay,” Isabel tossed back in a defensive tone.
“I’m sorry I can’t just write her off as an evil bitch,” he retorted acidly.
Stung by his harsh tone, Isabel griped, “Did I ask you to do that? Why are you being such an ass to me?”
Kyle immediately felt bad for snapping at her and apologized. “I guess I’m sort of on edge,” he expounded sheepishly, “I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”
“You’re worried about Tess,” Isabel surmised inanely.
He shook his head in anxious reverie. “You didn’t see her Isabel,” he sighed, “She was so messed up. I found her sitting in the shower, fully clothed and shivering her ass off. Her lips were fucking blue, for crying out loud. She looked like death. I could tell just by looking at her that she didn’t know what the hell was going on.”
“Wow…you really do care about her,” Isabel realized with some surprise.
“Yeah,” Kyle admitted a little uncomfortably, “She’s my friend.” Isabel leveled him with a speculative, sideways glance, silently challenging his phrasing. “Okay…she’s more than my friend.” He hung his head a little and blew out a sigh. “I think I’m falling in love with her, Isabel,” he confessed.
“When did you realize it?”
Kyle tossed Isabel a startled glance before returning his eyes back to the road. He had expected some level on disgust on her part or, at the very least, derision. Her calm acceptance shocked him into dumbfounded silence.
“Well?” she prodded impatiently.
“Christmas,” Kyle answered wistfully, “She just…seemed so happy. My dad and I laughed like we hadn’t in months, really since my mom split. We were a family. We were a family because of her.”
“How’d you know?” Isabel queried thickly.
Kyle didn’t have to ask what she meant. “My chest would ache whenever she came into the room,” he said, “Her perfume would always get to me…I’d always be smelling my clothes for the scent. Basically, I acted like your brother does over Liz. I’ve just never been like that over a girl.” He looked over at Isabel again, noting her pained expression. “So how did you know?”
“Know what?” she returned dully.
“That you were in love with Alex?” Isabel inhaled a sharp gasp but otherwise didn’t make eye contact with him or betray a single emotion. “You were, weren’t you? I mean…that’s the impression I got at prom.”
Isabel managed a small nod. “I was,” she confessed gruffly, staring out the window so that Kyle wouldn’t see the tears falling from her eyes, “God, why didn’t I tell him that? Why didn’t I?”
Yours (CC M/L ADULT) ( Complete)
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Deejonaise
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Some parts of this chapter are taken directly from Baby, It's You.
Chapter 12
Tess crept into the abandoned house slowly, her entire body shaking. She didn’t know what there was to find there, but her instincts had driven her to this place. Inside her, she recognized that the house was significant. There was a faint film of dust covering the sheets of plastic hanging from the ceiling. In the orange dusk of the setting sun it looked like sparkles of fire. Tess took her time tracing over every minute detail, hoping it would jog her memory but coming up with a blank.
She wished that Kyle could have come with her. While there was something within her that balked against the idea of trusting him, her heart wanted to fully. Tess knew deep within that doing so was a good choice. But knowing and doing were two different things and Tess was too tired to fight any longer.
As she tiptoed down the narrowed hallway every creak and squeak startled her. She was hardly aware of it when her nose started to bleed again, but merely wiped away the offending trickle, smearing it across the lower half of her face. With every successive step she took her heart pumped in anticipation. She knew she was getting closer but to what Tess didn’t know.
The moment she entered the room at the very back, however, it all came flooding back to her. It was empty, just the way she’d left it, save for a computer desk, chair, computer and the Antarian device she’d left behind for added insurance. She drifted closer to the alien security device hovering just where she’d left it and spoke the voice code in a strong, clear voice. The device immediately collapsed in on itself and drifted down harmlessly to the computer table. She stumbled forward and collapsed into the chair as the memories of the last time she was here washed over her.
“Why are we doing this?” Alex asked as his fingers flew over the keys at lightning speed.
“So he won’t know,” Tess told him, “If he knows where to find the crystal then we’re dead. You and I are dead.”
“I don’t understand what’s happening, Tess,” Alex mumbled, “Is this real?”
“I don’t know…”
He nodded towards the computer screen. “Is this the Destiny book?”
“Yes.”
“Why are we decoding it?”
“Because it will lead us to another book…the greatest book of all,” she answered vaguely, “The destiny book is written in the ancient Antarian language. No one could understand or read it until now.”
“Why are we doing this?” Alex asked again, his tone as hollow and bewildered as Tess’.
“If we don’t hide it then he’ll have all the power,” Tess told him, “We can’t ever tell anyone what we’ve done, Alex.”
“But Max and the others can help,” he protested.
“No one can help us,” Tess countered firmly, “Nicholas can find out whatever he wants. He’ll find a way into our minds and he’ll know.” She slipped her fingers into the disheveled hair at his temples, framing his skull with her hands. “That’s why I have to make sure we don’t remember.”
“No,” Alex cried, shaking his head wildly, “Please don’t mindwarp me again, Tess. Please…”
“I’m protecting us,” she whispered, her eyes locking with his as the connection formed.
As Tess penetrated the weakened barrier of Alex’s mind she penetrated her own. She felt what he felt. The memories she took away from him she took away from herself as well. The pupils of his eyes dilated with the increased brain activity and Tess’ pupils dilated right along with them. Tess forgot their reason for being there and so did Alex. As the mindwarp neared its conclusion Tess couldn’t remember why she was doing it in the first place and she dropped her hands.
She was surprised to find Alex sitting there, staring off into space with a slackened expression. Frightened, she nudged his shoulder experimentally. “Alex?” Other than the thin line of dribble that escaped the corner of his mouth she got no response. As best she could Tess repaired the damage to his brain with her powers but her efforts weren’t on the scale of Max’s healing ability. She managed to restore enough of Alex’s coherency to get him to stand, however. The rest would take time.
Together, they limped from the house, neither one understanding how or why they’d come to be there in the first place.
Tess surged upright with a start. She remembered that day vividly now. When she managed to come out of the warp she and Alex had been in together in a dorm room on the University campus, poring over the Destiny Book notes. That day had been her first awareness of what was going on. Though she wasn’t absolutely sure about what was happening and her mind had been weakened by Nicholas’ repeated mind rapes Tess was still cognizant enough to recognize the significant work that she and Alex were doing. She also knew that she must keep that work from Nicholas at all cost.
It had taken her three days to solidify the details and her efforts had taxed her waning strength. While Alex was hard at work decoding the book, Tess was hard at work using the clues he uncovered to find the crystal. With the clues left in the Destiny Book, Tess managed to uncover the crystal and secure a place to hide it. She bought a safe, reinforced it with her powers and hid the crystal and the copy of the Destiny Book inside. Only two people knew the combination to that safe. One was dead now and the other…she only just remembered that moment.
Trying not to think of Alex too much, Tess stumbled over to the wall and uncovered the safe. She worked the combination with shaking fingers, dots of perspiration breaking out over her forehead as she concentrated. With she finally propped open the heavy metal door, her lungs quivered with a sigh of relief.
“It wasn’t for nothing, Alex,” she whispered as she removed the translation and crystal from their hiding place. She stroked her fingers gingerly over the pristine white pages. Tess knew she had no choice but to go to Max and the others now. She couldn’t do this thing on her own. “I’m so sorry, Alex,” she sobbed pitiably, “But it wasn’t for nothing.”
“Bravo, majesty.”
Tess lurched around at Nicholas’ sinister quip and faint applause, her heart pounding like a frightened bird. Her first instinct was to blast him with her powers but Nicholas easily thwarted the attempt, scattering the idea from her mind as quickly as it came. “No…no…” Tess whimpered, “No…”
“How did I know you would lead me right where I wanted?” Nicholas asked, kneeling down before a cowering Tess. He reached forward and stroked a finger down her cheek, delighting in the fearful way she flinched away. There was something gratifying about cowing a queen. “Poor little Avarre, did I scramble your brain too much?”
“You’re sick.”
He only laughed at the insult. “I knew you would spring back from it,” he remarked casually, “You’ve always been a resilient girl, Avarre…even in your past life. I’ll take the book and crystal now.”
Tess shook her head wildly, clutching the book to her breasts. “No…no…”
Nicholas blew out a bored sigh and snapped his fingers for his attendants. “Take the book,” he ordered, “And hold her down. I don’t want to get kicked like last time.”
Tess let loose a blood-curdling scream as the beefy skins snatched the book and crystal from her hands and then caught her in a vise-like hold. Her arms were twisted behind her back so that every attempt she made for escape caused her excruciating pain. “Now then,” Nicholas said, seemingly impervious to Tess’ agony, “Let’s see if you managed to get yourself pregnant since the last time we were together.”
She began whimpering and sobbing anew when he laid his hands on her, but was helpless to fight him off as he crawled inside her mind. The images came fast and unbidden, not just of Tess but every interaction she’d had in the last few days, every conversation, everything she had seen, everything she knew… When Nicholas finally broke away from her his features were twisted with disgust.
“You stupid bitch,” he uttered softly, “You have one assignment and you screw that up! There’s an heir all right…but by the wrong damned female!”
“Leave Max alone,” Tess ordered feebly, “Or you’ll pay for what you’ve done.”
“Oh, isn’t that sweet,” Nicholas patronized, giving her cheeks a vicious pinch, “So loyal to your king even when he’s fucking his human whore!”
“You don’t know anything!” Tess screamed, “You’re just Khivar’s pathetic minion trapped in a pre-teen’s body! How much respect can he really have for you, Nicholas!”
He didn’t want to admit it but Tess could tell that her words smarted. He leveled her with a glacial stare of hatred before flicking a glance to his attendants. “Kill her,” he commanded, sweeping up the book and crystal, “Khivar wants an heir…I’ll give him one. The Queen has no further use…”
As he walked away Tess’ screams echoed through the house, following him down the hall until they were abruptly cut short. He waited patiently for his attendants to rejoin them, casually leafing through the pages of the translated Destiny Book.
“Is she dead?” he asked. When he received a nod of confirmation, Nicholas smiled. “Well, let’s be on our way gentlemen,” he ordered cheerfully, “We have a great deal of work to do before we can return home.”
When he eased into the stretch limousine waiting outside Nicholas’ smile widened a bit as he found himself seated across from the bedraggled teenaged boy. His clothes were grimy and torn, his lower jaw shadowed with a week’s worth of beard growth. Though his blue eyes flashed with defiance when they lit on Nicholas he was helpless to act on it. He was secured good and tight with alien bonds and flanked by two very capable guards. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“You have what you want now,” Alex said feebly, “Just let me go home to my family.”
“Not just yet,” Nicholas murmured, “You’ve already decoded one book for us…now it’s time for the bigger prize.”
“No…” Alex replied rebelliously, “I’m not helping you anymore. I’m not…”
“You know, it’s actually funny that you think you have a choice,” Nicholas laughed. He leaned forward, his smile becoming positively feline with he said, “Don’t worry, Whitman, you’ll have company where you’re going.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“Okay, so this is the room,” Liz announced as she and her five friends filed into the confined dorm space, “Let’s take this place apart and see if we can find any clues.”
They searched fruitlessly as a unit for half an hour before finally giving up. Not so much as a crumpled gum wrapper had been left behind. Max slammed the cupboard doors shut with a disgusted grunt.
“This is a waste of time,” he announced grimly, “There’s nothing here.”
“There has to be something,” Isabel said desperately, “The clues can’t just dead end here…they can’t!”
“What are we supposed to do?” Maria asked, “We don’t know where else to look. Did you see how fucking big this campus is?”
“We can’t give up, you guys,” Liz rallied, “We’re so close. We owe it to Alex to find the truth.” She and Max locked eyes from across the room. “Let’s just look one more time.”
As they scattered once more to comb through the dorm room a curious student poked his head in through the door. “Can I help you guys with something?”
Liz whipped around guiltily and sidestepped the door so that she could block the student’s view and the fact her friends were ransacking the place. Max came to stand alongside her, casually draping his arm over her shoulder. “Uh…yeah,” he said, “We were actually looking for a friend of ours. Tall, dark hair…blue eyes…”
“He stayed in this room for a while,” Liz clarified, “We thought we’d drop him a line.”
“You mean Ray?” Liz and Max exchanged brief quizzical glances. “Kind of a nerdy guy,” the student expounded, “Looked a little like Tom Hanks.”
Max nodded his head and smiled. “Yeah…that would be…Ray…”
“Yeah, I knew him,” the student confirmed, “He was here for a couple of months. That dude barely talked to anybody. No offense, but I thought he was pretty weird.”
“He was hard to know,” Liz improvised.
“Did he…uh…say what he was doing here?” Max asked, “Like why he came in the middle of the semester and all? You see, he was acting a little erratic before he left home and we’ve been really worried about him.”
“I totally understand why,” the guy snorted.
“Wh-What do you mean?” Liz stammered.
“He, like, never left his room, that’s why,” the student replied, “The only time he opened the door was when they delivered his Thai food. The dude was like a fucking hermit.”
“Thai food,” Liz echoed, trading another look with Max.
“Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everyday,” the student said, “I think the guy had a food fetish, if you ask me. Too weird.”
“So are you telling us that he literally never left this room?” Max charged in disbelief.
“Well…not in the daytime, at least,” the guy replied, “There was this one night…I was out partying with some buds of mine. I got back pretty late and then I see him coming out of the Litvack building. Now I was pretty wasted that night but I fucking remember that moment clear as a bell because I had never seen him out of this dorm room. So I’m like, ‘What’s up, bud, how’s it hanging?’ The guy doesn’t even acknowledge my presence. He just walked straight past like he didn’t see me at all. Pretty creepy.”
Max felt Liz start to tremble beside him and he gathered her closer. “Damn,” he muttered to himself and then he asked the student, “So what’s the Litvack building anyway?”
“Computer lab,” the student said, “I’m not really into that kind of stuff but, from what I hear, the University has this incredible super computer over there.”
“Can you tell us where to find it?” Liz asked.
After he was gone, Max shut the door and sealed it with his powers to afford the group some privacy. As he and Liz fell back against it, digesting all they’d just learned their friends converged around them, their expressions ranging from quizzical to concerned.
“So what the hell was that about?” Michael demanded.
“Alex was definitely here in this room,” Max revealed, “He was…going by the name Ray and apparently kept to himself while he was here.”
“So nobody really knew him or talked to him,” Maria asked.
Liz shook her head. “That guy who was just here said that Alex barely came out of his room.”
“And that he ate Thai food all day long,” Max concluded direly. Four pairs of eyes widened with the implication.
“This is getting too weird, you guys,” Isabel muttered, “What was Alex doing here in the first place?”
“That guy said he saw Alex coming out of a computer lab building one night,” Liz said, “I have to assume that whatever or…whoever brought Alex here…it had something to do with computers.”
“We should check out the Litvack building,” Max said, “That’s the computer lab where Alex was.”
“You mean tonight?” Maria wondered.
“No…it’s late,” Max replied, “We wouldn’t be able to find anyone to help us. Besides…we’ve been traveling most of the evening and we’re all exhausted. I think we should stop for some food and then get a room for the night.”
“A room,” Kyle emphasized quizzically, “I like you guys but not that much.”
“Several rooms then,” Max corrected dryly, “I just don’t care at this point. I’m dead on my feet.” He slid his arm around Liz and gathered her close and together the six exited the dorm room.
As they descended out onto the dorm steps the faint strains of music reached their ears. Maria stopped dead in her tracks on the way to the car. “Oh my God,” she gasped, squinting off at the concert unfolding in the distance, “Is that Nelly Furtado? Is Nelly Furtado playing here live?”
“Maria, I’m tired,” Liz whined.
“Just one song,” Maria begged. She swung a pleading glance around the circle of her friends. “Just one,” she wheedled, “I’ll love you forever.”
Max was the first one to break. “One song,” he conceded wearily, “But dinner’s on you.”
They trudged over towards the throng of people dancing before the stage platform. Maria giggled with the excitement of a teenybopper while Kyle, Isabel, Max, Liz and Michael dragged behind her. Every so often the gang would throw disgruntled looks in Michael’s direction. They received the finger for their efforts.
Limp with fatigue, Liz yawned and leaned her head on Max’s shoulder. A few seconds later she felt his lips sifting through the top of her head. “Tired?” he murmured in question.
“I want a hot meal, a hot shower and you,” she sighed, “Not necessarily in that order.”
“Liz…” he hissed out her name in an exasperated whimper.
“I know…I know,” she groused, “Business before pleasure.” She twisted a look up at him. “I just want you so much.”
“I want you, too,” he whispered. They shared a soft, slow kiss, swaying to the music that blared all around them.
“Oh fuck.” Kyle’s swear broke through their sweet moment but his frantic nudging at Max’s back destroyed it completely. “Isn’t that the girl?”
“What girl?” Liz demanded in exasperation.
“Alex’s girl,” Kyle clarified, pointing off into the crowd, “Isn’t that the girl from the pictures…Leanna?”
Both Max and Liz craned their necks to see where he indicated. “Oh my God,” Liz gasped, fumbling around in her jacket pocket for one of the photos she’d brought along. She, Max and Kyle peered down at it avidly, then back to the girl, then back to the photo again. “That’s her.”
“What’s going on?” Isabel asked, noticing their huddle.
Max nodded towards their blond quarry. “We think that’s Leanna…you know, the girl Alex was with in Sweden.”
Isabel snatched the picture from Liz’s hand and did her own inspection. “That’s definitely her,” she announced a moment later, “What the hell is she doing here?”
“We have to go and talk to her,” Liz said, already starting forward.
“No,” Max clipped, catching hold of her arm, “We don’t know what she is, Liz. She could be dangerous. I don’t want you anywhere near her.”
“This is my fight, too, Max!” Liz cried, “She might have killed Alex!”
“You have other people to think about,” Max replied in a low tone, flicking a meaningful glance to her belly, “Please…please stay here…”
“Max, she’s leaving,” Isabel informed him anxiously, “We need to move. Come on!”
Maria and Michael were left stuttering in confusion as Max, Isabel and Kyle suddenly rushed past them and began winding their way through the crowd. “What’s going on?” Michael demanded, instantly on alert.
“It’s Leanna,” Liz whispered, “She’s here. They went after her.”
She and Maria watched helplessly as Michael was swallowed into the crowd as he charged after them. His retreating back was the last thing Liz saw before she slid to the soft turf below in a dead faint.
Chapter 12
Tess crept into the abandoned house slowly, her entire body shaking. She didn’t know what there was to find there, but her instincts had driven her to this place. Inside her, she recognized that the house was significant. There was a faint film of dust covering the sheets of plastic hanging from the ceiling. In the orange dusk of the setting sun it looked like sparkles of fire. Tess took her time tracing over every minute detail, hoping it would jog her memory but coming up with a blank.
She wished that Kyle could have come with her. While there was something within her that balked against the idea of trusting him, her heart wanted to fully. Tess knew deep within that doing so was a good choice. But knowing and doing were two different things and Tess was too tired to fight any longer.
As she tiptoed down the narrowed hallway every creak and squeak startled her. She was hardly aware of it when her nose started to bleed again, but merely wiped away the offending trickle, smearing it across the lower half of her face. With every successive step she took her heart pumped in anticipation. She knew she was getting closer but to what Tess didn’t know.
The moment she entered the room at the very back, however, it all came flooding back to her. It was empty, just the way she’d left it, save for a computer desk, chair, computer and the Antarian device she’d left behind for added insurance. She drifted closer to the alien security device hovering just where she’d left it and spoke the voice code in a strong, clear voice. The device immediately collapsed in on itself and drifted down harmlessly to the computer table. She stumbled forward and collapsed into the chair as the memories of the last time she was here washed over her.
“Why are we doing this?” Alex asked as his fingers flew over the keys at lightning speed.
“So he won’t know,” Tess told him, “If he knows where to find the crystal then we’re dead. You and I are dead.”
“I don’t understand what’s happening, Tess,” Alex mumbled, “Is this real?”
“I don’t know…”
He nodded towards the computer screen. “Is this the Destiny book?”
“Yes.”
“Why are we decoding it?”
“Because it will lead us to another book…the greatest book of all,” she answered vaguely, “The destiny book is written in the ancient Antarian language. No one could understand or read it until now.”
“Why are we doing this?” Alex asked again, his tone as hollow and bewildered as Tess’.
“If we don’t hide it then he’ll have all the power,” Tess told him, “We can’t ever tell anyone what we’ve done, Alex.”
“But Max and the others can help,” he protested.
“No one can help us,” Tess countered firmly, “Nicholas can find out whatever he wants. He’ll find a way into our minds and he’ll know.” She slipped her fingers into the disheveled hair at his temples, framing his skull with her hands. “That’s why I have to make sure we don’t remember.”
“No,” Alex cried, shaking his head wildly, “Please don’t mindwarp me again, Tess. Please…”
“I’m protecting us,” she whispered, her eyes locking with his as the connection formed.
As Tess penetrated the weakened barrier of Alex’s mind she penetrated her own. She felt what he felt. The memories she took away from him she took away from herself as well. The pupils of his eyes dilated with the increased brain activity and Tess’ pupils dilated right along with them. Tess forgot their reason for being there and so did Alex. As the mindwarp neared its conclusion Tess couldn’t remember why she was doing it in the first place and she dropped her hands.
She was surprised to find Alex sitting there, staring off into space with a slackened expression. Frightened, she nudged his shoulder experimentally. “Alex?” Other than the thin line of dribble that escaped the corner of his mouth she got no response. As best she could Tess repaired the damage to his brain with her powers but her efforts weren’t on the scale of Max’s healing ability. She managed to restore enough of Alex’s coherency to get him to stand, however. The rest would take time.
Together, they limped from the house, neither one understanding how or why they’d come to be there in the first place.
Tess surged upright with a start. She remembered that day vividly now. When she managed to come out of the warp she and Alex had been in together in a dorm room on the University campus, poring over the Destiny Book notes. That day had been her first awareness of what was going on. Though she wasn’t absolutely sure about what was happening and her mind had been weakened by Nicholas’ repeated mind rapes Tess was still cognizant enough to recognize the significant work that she and Alex were doing. She also knew that she must keep that work from Nicholas at all cost.
It had taken her three days to solidify the details and her efforts had taxed her waning strength. While Alex was hard at work decoding the book, Tess was hard at work using the clues he uncovered to find the crystal. With the clues left in the Destiny Book, Tess managed to uncover the crystal and secure a place to hide it. She bought a safe, reinforced it with her powers and hid the crystal and the copy of the Destiny Book inside. Only two people knew the combination to that safe. One was dead now and the other…she only just remembered that moment.
Trying not to think of Alex too much, Tess stumbled over to the wall and uncovered the safe. She worked the combination with shaking fingers, dots of perspiration breaking out over her forehead as she concentrated. With she finally propped open the heavy metal door, her lungs quivered with a sigh of relief.
“It wasn’t for nothing, Alex,” she whispered as she removed the translation and crystal from their hiding place. She stroked her fingers gingerly over the pristine white pages. Tess knew she had no choice but to go to Max and the others now. She couldn’t do this thing on her own. “I’m so sorry, Alex,” she sobbed pitiably, “But it wasn’t for nothing.”
“Bravo, majesty.”
Tess lurched around at Nicholas’ sinister quip and faint applause, her heart pounding like a frightened bird. Her first instinct was to blast him with her powers but Nicholas easily thwarted the attempt, scattering the idea from her mind as quickly as it came. “No…no…” Tess whimpered, “No…”
“How did I know you would lead me right where I wanted?” Nicholas asked, kneeling down before a cowering Tess. He reached forward and stroked a finger down her cheek, delighting in the fearful way she flinched away. There was something gratifying about cowing a queen. “Poor little Avarre, did I scramble your brain too much?”
“You’re sick.”
He only laughed at the insult. “I knew you would spring back from it,” he remarked casually, “You’ve always been a resilient girl, Avarre…even in your past life. I’ll take the book and crystal now.”
Tess shook her head wildly, clutching the book to her breasts. “No…no…”
Nicholas blew out a bored sigh and snapped his fingers for his attendants. “Take the book,” he ordered, “And hold her down. I don’t want to get kicked like last time.”
Tess let loose a blood-curdling scream as the beefy skins snatched the book and crystal from her hands and then caught her in a vise-like hold. Her arms were twisted behind her back so that every attempt she made for escape caused her excruciating pain. “Now then,” Nicholas said, seemingly impervious to Tess’ agony, “Let’s see if you managed to get yourself pregnant since the last time we were together.”
She began whimpering and sobbing anew when he laid his hands on her, but was helpless to fight him off as he crawled inside her mind. The images came fast and unbidden, not just of Tess but every interaction she’d had in the last few days, every conversation, everything she had seen, everything she knew… When Nicholas finally broke away from her his features were twisted with disgust.
“You stupid bitch,” he uttered softly, “You have one assignment and you screw that up! There’s an heir all right…but by the wrong damned female!”
“Leave Max alone,” Tess ordered feebly, “Or you’ll pay for what you’ve done.”
“Oh, isn’t that sweet,” Nicholas patronized, giving her cheeks a vicious pinch, “So loyal to your king even when he’s fucking his human whore!”
“You don’t know anything!” Tess screamed, “You’re just Khivar’s pathetic minion trapped in a pre-teen’s body! How much respect can he really have for you, Nicholas!”
He didn’t want to admit it but Tess could tell that her words smarted. He leveled her with a glacial stare of hatred before flicking a glance to his attendants. “Kill her,” he commanded, sweeping up the book and crystal, “Khivar wants an heir…I’ll give him one. The Queen has no further use…”
As he walked away Tess’ screams echoed through the house, following him down the hall until they were abruptly cut short. He waited patiently for his attendants to rejoin them, casually leafing through the pages of the translated Destiny Book.
“Is she dead?” he asked. When he received a nod of confirmation, Nicholas smiled. “Well, let’s be on our way gentlemen,” he ordered cheerfully, “We have a great deal of work to do before we can return home.”
When he eased into the stretch limousine waiting outside Nicholas’ smile widened a bit as he found himself seated across from the bedraggled teenaged boy. His clothes were grimy and torn, his lower jaw shadowed with a week’s worth of beard growth. Though his blue eyes flashed with defiance when they lit on Nicholas he was helpless to act on it. He was secured good and tight with alien bonds and flanked by two very capable guards. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“You have what you want now,” Alex said feebly, “Just let me go home to my family.”
“Not just yet,” Nicholas murmured, “You’ve already decoded one book for us…now it’s time for the bigger prize.”
“No…” Alex replied rebelliously, “I’m not helping you anymore. I’m not…”
“You know, it’s actually funny that you think you have a choice,” Nicholas laughed. He leaned forward, his smile becoming positively feline with he said, “Don’t worry, Whitman, you’ll have company where you’re going.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“Okay, so this is the room,” Liz announced as she and her five friends filed into the confined dorm space, “Let’s take this place apart and see if we can find any clues.”
They searched fruitlessly as a unit for half an hour before finally giving up. Not so much as a crumpled gum wrapper had been left behind. Max slammed the cupboard doors shut with a disgusted grunt.
“This is a waste of time,” he announced grimly, “There’s nothing here.”
“There has to be something,” Isabel said desperately, “The clues can’t just dead end here…they can’t!”
“What are we supposed to do?” Maria asked, “We don’t know where else to look. Did you see how fucking big this campus is?”
“We can’t give up, you guys,” Liz rallied, “We’re so close. We owe it to Alex to find the truth.” She and Max locked eyes from across the room. “Let’s just look one more time.”
As they scattered once more to comb through the dorm room a curious student poked his head in through the door. “Can I help you guys with something?”
Liz whipped around guiltily and sidestepped the door so that she could block the student’s view and the fact her friends were ransacking the place. Max came to stand alongside her, casually draping his arm over her shoulder. “Uh…yeah,” he said, “We were actually looking for a friend of ours. Tall, dark hair…blue eyes…”
“He stayed in this room for a while,” Liz clarified, “We thought we’d drop him a line.”
“You mean Ray?” Liz and Max exchanged brief quizzical glances. “Kind of a nerdy guy,” the student expounded, “Looked a little like Tom Hanks.”
Max nodded his head and smiled. “Yeah…that would be…Ray…”
“Yeah, I knew him,” the student confirmed, “He was here for a couple of months. That dude barely talked to anybody. No offense, but I thought he was pretty weird.”
“He was hard to know,” Liz improvised.
“Did he…uh…say what he was doing here?” Max asked, “Like why he came in the middle of the semester and all? You see, he was acting a little erratic before he left home and we’ve been really worried about him.”
“I totally understand why,” the guy snorted.
“Wh-What do you mean?” Liz stammered.
“He, like, never left his room, that’s why,” the student replied, “The only time he opened the door was when they delivered his Thai food. The dude was like a fucking hermit.”
“Thai food,” Liz echoed, trading another look with Max.
“Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everyday,” the student said, “I think the guy had a food fetish, if you ask me. Too weird.”
“So are you telling us that he literally never left this room?” Max charged in disbelief.
“Well…not in the daytime, at least,” the guy replied, “There was this one night…I was out partying with some buds of mine. I got back pretty late and then I see him coming out of the Litvack building. Now I was pretty wasted that night but I fucking remember that moment clear as a bell because I had never seen him out of this dorm room. So I’m like, ‘What’s up, bud, how’s it hanging?’ The guy doesn’t even acknowledge my presence. He just walked straight past like he didn’t see me at all. Pretty creepy.”
Max felt Liz start to tremble beside him and he gathered her closer. “Damn,” he muttered to himself and then he asked the student, “So what’s the Litvack building anyway?”
“Computer lab,” the student said, “I’m not really into that kind of stuff but, from what I hear, the University has this incredible super computer over there.”
“Can you tell us where to find it?” Liz asked.
After he was gone, Max shut the door and sealed it with his powers to afford the group some privacy. As he and Liz fell back against it, digesting all they’d just learned their friends converged around them, their expressions ranging from quizzical to concerned.
“So what the hell was that about?” Michael demanded.
“Alex was definitely here in this room,” Max revealed, “He was…going by the name Ray and apparently kept to himself while he was here.”
“So nobody really knew him or talked to him,” Maria asked.
Liz shook her head. “That guy who was just here said that Alex barely came out of his room.”
“And that he ate Thai food all day long,” Max concluded direly. Four pairs of eyes widened with the implication.
“This is getting too weird, you guys,” Isabel muttered, “What was Alex doing here in the first place?”
“That guy said he saw Alex coming out of a computer lab building one night,” Liz said, “I have to assume that whatever or…whoever brought Alex here…it had something to do with computers.”
“We should check out the Litvack building,” Max said, “That’s the computer lab where Alex was.”
“You mean tonight?” Maria wondered.
“No…it’s late,” Max replied, “We wouldn’t be able to find anyone to help us. Besides…we’ve been traveling most of the evening and we’re all exhausted. I think we should stop for some food and then get a room for the night.”
“A room,” Kyle emphasized quizzically, “I like you guys but not that much.”
“Several rooms then,” Max corrected dryly, “I just don’t care at this point. I’m dead on my feet.” He slid his arm around Liz and gathered her close and together the six exited the dorm room.
As they descended out onto the dorm steps the faint strains of music reached their ears. Maria stopped dead in her tracks on the way to the car. “Oh my God,” she gasped, squinting off at the concert unfolding in the distance, “Is that Nelly Furtado? Is Nelly Furtado playing here live?”
“Maria, I’m tired,” Liz whined.
“Just one song,” Maria begged. She swung a pleading glance around the circle of her friends. “Just one,” she wheedled, “I’ll love you forever.”
Max was the first one to break. “One song,” he conceded wearily, “But dinner’s on you.”
They trudged over towards the throng of people dancing before the stage platform. Maria giggled with the excitement of a teenybopper while Kyle, Isabel, Max, Liz and Michael dragged behind her. Every so often the gang would throw disgruntled looks in Michael’s direction. They received the finger for their efforts.
Limp with fatigue, Liz yawned and leaned her head on Max’s shoulder. A few seconds later she felt his lips sifting through the top of her head. “Tired?” he murmured in question.
“I want a hot meal, a hot shower and you,” she sighed, “Not necessarily in that order.”
“Liz…” he hissed out her name in an exasperated whimper.
“I know…I know,” she groused, “Business before pleasure.” She twisted a look up at him. “I just want you so much.”
“I want you, too,” he whispered. They shared a soft, slow kiss, swaying to the music that blared all around them.
“Oh fuck.” Kyle’s swear broke through their sweet moment but his frantic nudging at Max’s back destroyed it completely. “Isn’t that the girl?”
“What girl?” Liz demanded in exasperation.
“Alex’s girl,” Kyle clarified, pointing off into the crowd, “Isn’t that the girl from the pictures…Leanna?”
Both Max and Liz craned their necks to see where he indicated. “Oh my God,” Liz gasped, fumbling around in her jacket pocket for one of the photos she’d brought along. She, Max and Kyle peered down at it avidly, then back to the girl, then back to the photo again. “That’s her.”
“What’s going on?” Isabel asked, noticing their huddle.
Max nodded towards their blond quarry. “We think that’s Leanna…you know, the girl Alex was with in Sweden.”
Isabel snatched the picture from Liz’s hand and did her own inspection. “That’s definitely her,” she announced a moment later, “What the hell is she doing here?”
“We have to go and talk to her,” Liz said, already starting forward.
“No,” Max clipped, catching hold of her arm, “We don’t know what she is, Liz. She could be dangerous. I don’t want you anywhere near her.”
“This is my fight, too, Max!” Liz cried, “She might have killed Alex!”
“You have other people to think about,” Max replied in a low tone, flicking a meaningful glance to her belly, “Please…please stay here…”
“Max, she’s leaving,” Isabel informed him anxiously, “We need to move. Come on!”
Maria and Michael were left stuttering in confusion as Max, Isabel and Kyle suddenly rushed past them and began winding their way through the crowd. “What’s going on?” Michael demanded, instantly on alert.
“It’s Leanna,” Liz whispered, “She’s here. They went after her.”
She and Maria watched helplessly as Michael was swallowed into the crowd as he charged after them. His retreating back was the last thing Liz saw before she slid to the soft turf below in a dead faint.
Last edited by Deejonaise on Fri Jun 04, 2004 11:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Deejonaise
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So it's not Tuesday...sue me.
Chapter 13
When Liz opened her eyes the first thing she saw was Max’s concerned face. Her mind instantly flew back to Leanna and she lurched upright, bringing with her sudden movement a sickening wave of vertigo. She clenched her fingers into Max’s t-shirt to keep from thudding back into the ground. “Take it easy,” Max soothed, gently lowering her back down into the grass, “I think you might still be a little dizzy.”
“Leanna?” she croaked in question.
“She got away before we could reach her,” Max said sadly, “I’m sorry, Liz.”
“No,” she moaned plaintively, “No…”
“We’ll find her, okay,” he vowed softly, “I promise we will.”
Liz found she could focus a little more with his reassurance. She knew that if Max said he would do it then it would be done. Feeling better with the knowledge, it slowly began to dawn on Liz that she was lying in the grass and that her friends had formed a haphazard circle around her. Liz frowned. “What happened?”
“You fainted,” Max said, helping her ease up slowly. He gently brushed dried leaves from her hair, his hand lingering against her back. Liz smiled at him, feeling his worry for her vibrating through his fingers.
“I’m okay,” she whispered.
“You scared me,” he whispered back, leaning forward so that their foreheads touched, “When I saw you lying on the ground…”
“Shh…” she said quietly so no one else could hear, “Evidently, your son wanted to remind me that he was in there.” They shared a soft laugh and a kiss, seemingly oblivious to their friends’ impatient stares. With Max’s assistance, Liz rose to her feet on shaky legs. She frowned again. “So I fainted, huh?”
“Yeah, you did,” Maria confirmed worriedly, “One minute you were talking to me and the next you were crashing to the ground like a felled tree. Are you sure you’re okay?”
Liz cast a cautious glance up at Max before she replied tentatively, “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not,” Kyle argued, “People just don’t pass out for no reason, Parker.”
“I told you I haven’t been eating…” Liz protested feebly.
“Sorry…that’s not gonna wash this time, Liz,” Maria deadpanned, “Cuz you see, I saw you wolf down two chili cheese dogs the last time we stopped for gas.”
“And a bag of chips,” Kyle threw in, “And a package of HoHo’s.”
“Don’t forget the Big Gulp,” Isabel interjected, “There’s no way your blood sugar is low after all that. So why don’t you tell us what’s really going on.”
“Yeah…what’s with all the secret looks happening between you and Maxwell lately,” Michael queried rudely, “Someone needs to come clean with us quick, fast and in a hurry. Who’s gonna start?”
“This really isn’t any of your business,” Max ground out tightly, “It doesn’t pertain to the group at all.”
“Fucking hell it doesn’t,” Michael countered, “Whatever affects you two affects the rest of us, Maxwell, so tell us what’s going on!”
“Max, tell them,” Liz prodded quietly, “They are going to find out eventually anyway.”
With a heavy sigh, Max laced his fingers with Liz’s and together they turned to face their friends. “Liz is pregnant,” he announced quietly.
Automatically, Michael and Isabel swung expectant looks around to Kyle while Maria just gaped in disbelief. Kyle threw up his hands in mock dismay. “Hey, don’t blame this on me,” he cried, “My guys aren’t strong enough to swim across open air.” He hitched his chin towards Max. “Look to El Presidente over there.”
Isabel favored her brother with a questioning glance. “Isabel, you already know that night with Kyle was just a set up,” Max reminded her gently, “He and Liz didn’t really sleep together.”
“Then is it someone else’s?” Michael asked bluntly.
“It’s mine,” Max confirmed, “The baby is mine.”
“But…how is that possible,” Maria stammered, “You guys have only been back together for a few days. How can Liz possibly be pregnant?”
Max and Liz regarded each other uneasily before addressing the group again. “It’s an…alien thing,” they answered simultaneously.
“Pregnant,” Isabel uttered in disbelief, “Oh my God…”
“Didn’t you use anything?” Michael queried harshly.
“Not the first time,” Max mumbled in answer.
Kyle quirked his brow at Max’s response. “The first time? So you’ve done it more than once, huh, Evans?” he mocked, “Way to go!”
“Kyle, kiss my ass,” Liz interrupted in a starchy tone, shocking everyone present, even Max, “Yes, Max and I are going to have a baby. Yes, we know we screwed up royally. Yes, we are dealing with it. The sooner you can accept it, the sooner we can move on.”
“You’re being really blasé about this, Liz,” Maria commented pithily, “In case you’ve forgotten,” she went on, lowering her voice to a vibrating hiss, “We’re talking about alien babies here!”
“Would you rather I freak out then,” Liz tossed back, “Because I can definitely do that but it won’t be the least bit productive.”
“How long have you known?” Isabel asked flatly.
“Two days,” Max answered.
“Were you even going to tell us?” she wondered.
“I really didn’t have a choice in the matter,” Max mumbled, “The baby’s growing fast. The truth would have come out before long anyway.”
“When you say fast,” Kyle began apprehensively, “How fast are we talking about?”
“We’re thinking about thirteen weeks,” Max confessed in a mumble, “But it’s just an approximation.”
“Holy shit!” Michael exclaimed.
“Thirteen weeks!” Isabel cried, “How are we supposed to explain that to Mom and Dad? No baby is that premature, Max!”
“I…Liz and I were thinking we could tell them the truth.”
“Whoa, Maxwell,” Michael replied dubiously, “Hey…are you punch drunk or what?”
“What’s the alternative, Michael?” Max countered brutally, “How am I supposed to explain to my parents and Liz’s how our baby was born after little more than three months of pregnancy?”
“Or why it’s green with four fingers and three eyes,” Maria added in mumbled underbreath, “I’ll bet you’ll have a hella time explaining that one to Papa Parker. ‘Oh, he looks just like you, Dad, except for the green skin and all.’”
“As obnoxious as they are being about this,” Isabel interjected pointedly, “I have to agree with Michael and Maria. Even if we do tell our parents the truth how are we supposed to hide this baby from the rest of the world, Max?”
“Look, can we continue this conversation elsewhere?” Max asked self-consciously, “I know you guys have a lot of questions but Liz and I are really hungry.”
“There’s a diner about fifteen minutes from here,” Kyle suggested, “You know the one near the highway? We’ll meet up there.”
Once they were alone in the jeep and following the others to the diner Liz threw her seat back in a reclining position with an exasperated groan. “That went well…not!”
“I didn’t expect them to be calm about it,” Max murmured, “Did you?”
“Guess not,” Liz muttered from behind her hands, “This is a nightmare.”
“Okay…so let’s talk about the things we can control,” Max reasoned after a moment, “Tomorrow morning I think the group should split up.”
“Split up,” Liz parroted, surging upright, “Why do you want to split up?”
“Kyle’s worried about Tess…we need to follow the lead on Leanna, plus we’ve got to go to the Litvak building and find out what Alex was working on there,” Max said, ticking off the list with a sigh, “We’ll work quicker if we split up.”
Liz eased back into her seat with a weary groan. “You’re right. I just wish we had a moment to breathe, you know?”
Max nodded in agreement. “I know,” he said, “It seems like we’re taking one hit after another, huh?” He turned to stare briefly at Liz’s forlorn profile in the moonlight before reaching across the jeep to smooth a loving hand down her belly. “You okay?” he whispered gently.
“No…yes,” she groaned miserably, “I’m just so damned tired.”
“I know.”
“I wish I could escape for a little while,” she murmured. She stroked her fingertips over the back of his hand, marveling over how strong and capable it seemed. Liz always felt protected when Max was around. She felt like, even in the mist of all the chaos, he could make sense of it all. “Hmm…” she sighed, gradually relaxing under the massaging pads of his fingers, “That feels good what you’re doing.”
“Are you still feeling nauseous?”
Liz nodded. “It’s worse because I haven’t eaten anything in a while,” she said, “Isn’t that wild? I feel like I’m going to throw up when I do eat and then I still feel like I’m going to do it if I don’t.”
Max favored her with a tender look of sympathy. “I wish I could do something to help.”
She touched his hand again, shivering at the delicious warmth spreading through her body beneath his palm. “Maybe you can,” she whispered, covering his hand with her own and pushing his fingers lower so that they brushed the waistband of her jeans.
“Liz…” Max breathed, catching her silent proposition instantly, “I…I don’t know if we should. The timing…”
Liz rolled her head against the headrest to regard him, her eyes sparkling in the dimness. “Isn’t it all right to forget, Max,” she cajoled, working her fingers to unsnap her jeans, “I need you to touch me. Don’t you want to?”
“You know I do.”
She coaxed his fingers lower, causing the tips to disappear past the tops of her jeans and breech the waistband of her panties. They both gasped at the sensation of his fingers against her bare skin. “Touch me, Max…”
Max groaned his acquiesce, working his fingers lower without further prodding. He brushed the coarse curls between her thighs and groaned. “Pull your jeans down a little,” he commanded raggedly. Smiling a little at his breathless tone, Liz shoved her jeans and panties down so that they pooled around her ankles. She then parted her legs for Max’s ardent exploration. “Oh God…” he moaned, eagerly seeking out the hot center of her.
His fingers slipped in and out of her body in an easy rhythm, retreating briefly to play over the swollen lips of her sex before plunging back inside once again. The silence in the jeep was gradually cut through with Liz’s serrated breathing and moans of pleasure. “Hmm…Max…that feels…so good…” She arched into his hand hungrily, her fingers twisting in the armrest and lifting her hips for his penetration again and again.
Max surged his fingers deeper, shuddering at the feel of her creamy heat contracting around him. His cock throbbed painfully with the sudden lust waving through his body. He gripped the steering wheel hard, forcing himself to keep focused on the road when all he really wanted to do was watch his fingers disappear inside Liz over and over. “Hmm, Liz…” he ground out breathlessly, “I want you…I want you so much… How can you feel this good…be this wet?”
“For you,” she gasped, pumping against his fingers shamelessly, “You make me wet, Max! Ahh…yes…mmm…more.”
It took marvelous concentration for Max to keep them on the road. He increased the driving thrusts of his fingers, using the pad of his thumb to massage her aching clitoris. Liz writhed beneath his touch, her moans becoming choppy and loud. The increasing humidity in the car caused a faint sheen of condensation to form against the jeep cover. The excitement built to a feverish pitch as Liz’s body began to tremble with the first vibrant streaks of her orgasm and she reflexively clamped Max’s busy hand between her thighs. “Yes…yes…yes…Max!”
Liz pressed down onto his questing fingers, gritting her teeth as she clamped down around him, her inner walls contracting tightly as she came. Very gradually the sexual haze faded from around Liz and she began to unsnarl her fingers from the jeep’s upholstery and relax back into the seat. Max removed his fingers from her and brought them to his lips, licking away the excess wetness. He seemed to savor the taste, his throat working spasmodically. Liz watched him suck his fingers, her eyes darkening with renewed desire at the action.
“Max?” She whispered his name tentatively, shifted in her seat to slide a searching hand up the length of his thigh.
“I’m fine,” he grated, returning both hands to the steering wheel and clenching it hard, “Just give me a minute to calm down.”
“Let me make it better,” Liz whispered, already working to unfasten his trousers. She slid his zipper down over the taut ridge of his erection, taking some pleasure in Max’s muttered words of encouragement. He shifted back his seat to provide easier contact, his heart racing with excitement for whatever she had planned to “make it better.” When she actually lifted his stiffened flesh from his boxers he released a happy sigh.
Liz took a moment to study him, tracing the meandering veins first with her finger and then with the tip of her tongue. Max hissed in reaction but he didn’t flinch back from her as she expected but buried his hand in her hair instead. With a massive amount of restraint he managed to keep from pushing her head down. “You don’t have to,” he told her gruffly, “I’m…I’m not expecting it…”
For some reason his words encouraged rather than discouraged her. Liz whisked her tongue across the plum shaped head for a cautious lick before taking it completely into her mouth. Max mumbled something loud and incomprehensible as he was consumed by the hot vortex of her mouth but, if the way he was holding her head and arching into her mouth were any indication, he was enjoying her exploration thoroughly.
Liz gradually took his entire length into her mouth, using her tongue as leverage so that she wouldn’t gag. As she accustomed herself to the size and taste of him Liz grew bolder in her ministrations. She swirled her tongue against the grooved tip, collecting the oozing drops of fluid there. Max went wild then. He thrust into her mouth, quick and shallow, holding her head still so that he could set the rhythm he wanted.
Max filled the confines of the jeep with a loud groan of satisfaction a few moments later when his body exploded. Tingling all over, he flooded Liz’s mouth with the salty taste of his semen. Even after his orgasm was done Liz continued to suck him, applying maddening pressure to the tingling tip of his cock. The pleasure was so gratifying, so painful that Max actually cried out for her to stop. He swerved the jeep erratically in his distraction.
When she shifted upright she was surprised to find his eyes gleaming with tears. “Did I hurt you?” she asked in disbelief.
He shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe she’d asked such a question and leveled her with an emphatic stare. “Liz…” he breathed, “you’ll never know how absolutely amazing that felt. Especially at the end when you kept… It felt incredible…too incredible and I just couldn’t take it, you know?”
Liz nodded her understanding, unable to break eye contact with him. “I know.”
“We should put ourselves back together,” he suggested, nodding his head towards the windshield, “We’re almost to the diner.”
Max and Liz were relatively composed when they alighted from the jeep five minutes later though their legs were still a bit shaky. Both hoped devoutly that the truth concerning their actions the previous fifteen minutes was not apparent on their faces. They offered one another shy smiles as their friends began congregating around them.
Maria scurried over to Liz’s side and grasped hold of her hand. “You have so much explaining to do, Gidget, so start talking,” she groused, dragging Liz towards the diner entrance. As they ducked beneath the restaurant’s fluorescent lighting Maria noticed her friend’s high color for the first time. “You can start by telling me why the hell you’re so flushed right now.”
Liz answered with only a secret smile before slipping through the diner’s swinging doors.
Chapter 13
When Liz opened her eyes the first thing she saw was Max’s concerned face. Her mind instantly flew back to Leanna and she lurched upright, bringing with her sudden movement a sickening wave of vertigo. She clenched her fingers into Max’s t-shirt to keep from thudding back into the ground. “Take it easy,” Max soothed, gently lowering her back down into the grass, “I think you might still be a little dizzy.”
“Leanna?” she croaked in question.
“She got away before we could reach her,” Max said sadly, “I’m sorry, Liz.”
“No,” she moaned plaintively, “No…”
“We’ll find her, okay,” he vowed softly, “I promise we will.”
Liz found she could focus a little more with his reassurance. She knew that if Max said he would do it then it would be done. Feeling better with the knowledge, it slowly began to dawn on Liz that she was lying in the grass and that her friends had formed a haphazard circle around her. Liz frowned. “What happened?”
“You fainted,” Max said, helping her ease up slowly. He gently brushed dried leaves from her hair, his hand lingering against her back. Liz smiled at him, feeling his worry for her vibrating through his fingers.
“I’m okay,” she whispered.
“You scared me,” he whispered back, leaning forward so that their foreheads touched, “When I saw you lying on the ground…”
“Shh…” she said quietly so no one else could hear, “Evidently, your son wanted to remind me that he was in there.” They shared a soft laugh and a kiss, seemingly oblivious to their friends’ impatient stares. With Max’s assistance, Liz rose to her feet on shaky legs. She frowned again. “So I fainted, huh?”
“Yeah, you did,” Maria confirmed worriedly, “One minute you were talking to me and the next you were crashing to the ground like a felled tree. Are you sure you’re okay?”
Liz cast a cautious glance up at Max before she replied tentatively, “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not,” Kyle argued, “People just don’t pass out for no reason, Parker.”
“I told you I haven’t been eating…” Liz protested feebly.
“Sorry…that’s not gonna wash this time, Liz,” Maria deadpanned, “Cuz you see, I saw you wolf down two chili cheese dogs the last time we stopped for gas.”
“And a bag of chips,” Kyle threw in, “And a package of HoHo’s.”
“Don’t forget the Big Gulp,” Isabel interjected, “There’s no way your blood sugar is low after all that. So why don’t you tell us what’s really going on.”
“Yeah…what’s with all the secret looks happening between you and Maxwell lately,” Michael queried rudely, “Someone needs to come clean with us quick, fast and in a hurry. Who’s gonna start?”
“This really isn’t any of your business,” Max ground out tightly, “It doesn’t pertain to the group at all.”
“Fucking hell it doesn’t,” Michael countered, “Whatever affects you two affects the rest of us, Maxwell, so tell us what’s going on!”
“Max, tell them,” Liz prodded quietly, “They are going to find out eventually anyway.”
With a heavy sigh, Max laced his fingers with Liz’s and together they turned to face their friends. “Liz is pregnant,” he announced quietly.
Automatically, Michael and Isabel swung expectant looks around to Kyle while Maria just gaped in disbelief. Kyle threw up his hands in mock dismay. “Hey, don’t blame this on me,” he cried, “My guys aren’t strong enough to swim across open air.” He hitched his chin towards Max. “Look to El Presidente over there.”
Isabel favored her brother with a questioning glance. “Isabel, you already know that night with Kyle was just a set up,” Max reminded her gently, “He and Liz didn’t really sleep together.”
“Then is it someone else’s?” Michael asked bluntly.
“It’s mine,” Max confirmed, “The baby is mine.”
“But…how is that possible,” Maria stammered, “You guys have only been back together for a few days. How can Liz possibly be pregnant?”
Max and Liz regarded each other uneasily before addressing the group again. “It’s an…alien thing,” they answered simultaneously.
“Pregnant,” Isabel uttered in disbelief, “Oh my God…”
“Didn’t you use anything?” Michael queried harshly.
“Not the first time,” Max mumbled in answer.
Kyle quirked his brow at Max’s response. “The first time? So you’ve done it more than once, huh, Evans?” he mocked, “Way to go!”
“Kyle, kiss my ass,” Liz interrupted in a starchy tone, shocking everyone present, even Max, “Yes, Max and I are going to have a baby. Yes, we know we screwed up royally. Yes, we are dealing with it. The sooner you can accept it, the sooner we can move on.”
“You’re being really blasé about this, Liz,” Maria commented pithily, “In case you’ve forgotten,” she went on, lowering her voice to a vibrating hiss, “We’re talking about alien babies here!”
“Would you rather I freak out then,” Liz tossed back, “Because I can definitely do that but it won’t be the least bit productive.”
“How long have you known?” Isabel asked flatly.
“Two days,” Max answered.
“Were you even going to tell us?” she wondered.
“I really didn’t have a choice in the matter,” Max mumbled, “The baby’s growing fast. The truth would have come out before long anyway.”
“When you say fast,” Kyle began apprehensively, “How fast are we talking about?”
“We’re thinking about thirteen weeks,” Max confessed in a mumble, “But it’s just an approximation.”
“Holy shit!” Michael exclaimed.
“Thirteen weeks!” Isabel cried, “How are we supposed to explain that to Mom and Dad? No baby is that premature, Max!”
“I…Liz and I were thinking we could tell them the truth.”
“Whoa, Maxwell,” Michael replied dubiously, “Hey…are you punch drunk or what?”
“What’s the alternative, Michael?” Max countered brutally, “How am I supposed to explain to my parents and Liz’s how our baby was born after little more than three months of pregnancy?”
“Or why it’s green with four fingers and three eyes,” Maria added in mumbled underbreath, “I’ll bet you’ll have a hella time explaining that one to Papa Parker. ‘Oh, he looks just like you, Dad, except for the green skin and all.’”
“As obnoxious as they are being about this,” Isabel interjected pointedly, “I have to agree with Michael and Maria. Even if we do tell our parents the truth how are we supposed to hide this baby from the rest of the world, Max?”
“Look, can we continue this conversation elsewhere?” Max asked self-consciously, “I know you guys have a lot of questions but Liz and I are really hungry.”
“There’s a diner about fifteen minutes from here,” Kyle suggested, “You know the one near the highway? We’ll meet up there.”
Once they were alone in the jeep and following the others to the diner Liz threw her seat back in a reclining position with an exasperated groan. “That went well…not!”
“I didn’t expect them to be calm about it,” Max murmured, “Did you?”
“Guess not,” Liz muttered from behind her hands, “This is a nightmare.”
“Okay…so let’s talk about the things we can control,” Max reasoned after a moment, “Tomorrow morning I think the group should split up.”
“Split up,” Liz parroted, surging upright, “Why do you want to split up?”
“Kyle’s worried about Tess…we need to follow the lead on Leanna, plus we’ve got to go to the Litvak building and find out what Alex was working on there,” Max said, ticking off the list with a sigh, “We’ll work quicker if we split up.”
Liz eased back into her seat with a weary groan. “You’re right. I just wish we had a moment to breathe, you know?”
Max nodded in agreement. “I know,” he said, “It seems like we’re taking one hit after another, huh?” He turned to stare briefly at Liz’s forlorn profile in the moonlight before reaching across the jeep to smooth a loving hand down her belly. “You okay?” he whispered gently.
“No…yes,” she groaned miserably, “I’m just so damned tired.”
“I know.”
“I wish I could escape for a little while,” she murmured. She stroked her fingertips over the back of his hand, marveling over how strong and capable it seemed. Liz always felt protected when Max was around. She felt like, even in the mist of all the chaos, he could make sense of it all. “Hmm…” she sighed, gradually relaxing under the massaging pads of his fingers, “That feels good what you’re doing.”
“Are you still feeling nauseous?”
Liz nodded. “It’s worse because I haven’t eaten anything in a while,” she said, “Isn’t that wild? I feel like I’m going to throw up when I do eat and then I still feel like I’m going to do it if I don’t.”
Max favored her with a tender look of sympathy. “I wish I could do something to help.”
She touched his hand again, shivering at the delicious warmth spreading through her body beneath his palm. “Maybe you can,” she whispered, covering his hand with her own and pushing his fingers lower so that they brushed the waistband of her jeans.
“Liz…” Max breathed, catching her silent proposition instantly, “I…I don’t know if we should. The timing…”
Liz rolled her head against the headrest to regard him, her eyes sparkling in the dimness. “Isn’t it all right to forget, Max,” she cajoled, working her fingers to unsnap her jeans, “I need you to touch me. Don’t you want to?”
“You know I do.”
She coaxed his fingers lower, causing the tips to disappear past the tops of her jeans and breech the waistband of her panties. They both gasped at the sensation of his fingers against her bare skin. “Touch me, Max…”
Max groaned his acquiesce, working his fingers lower without further prodding. He brushed the coarse curls between her thighs and groaned. “Pull your jeans down a little,” he commanded raggedly. Smiling a little at his breathless tone, Liz shoved her jeans and panties down so that they pooled around her ankles. She then parted her legs for Max’s ardent exploration. “Oh God…” he moaned, eagerly seeking out the hot center of her.
His fingers slipped in and out of her body in an easy rhythm, retreating briefly to play over the swollen lips of her sex before plunging back inside once again. The silence in the jeep was gradually cut through with Liz’s serrated breathing and moans of pleasure. “Hmm…Max…that feels…so good…” She arched into his hand hungrily, her fingers twisting in the armrest and lifting her hips for his penetration again and again.
Max surged his fingers deeper, shuddering at the feel of her creamy heat contracting around him. His cock throbbed painfully with the sudden lust waving through his body. He gripped the steering wheel hard, forcing himself to keep focused on the road when all he really wanted to do was watch his fingers disappear inside Liz over and over. “Hmm, Liz…” he ground out breathlessly, “I want you…I want you so much… How can you feel this good…be this wet?”
“For you,” she gasped, pumping against his fingers shamelessly, “You make me wet, Max! Ahh…yes…mmm…more.”
It took marvelous concentration for Max to keep them on the road. He increased the driving thrusts of his fingers, using the pad of his thumb to massage her aching clitoris. Liz writhed beneath his touch, her moans becoming choppy and loud. The increasing humidity in the car caused a faint sheen of condensation to form against the jeep cover. The excitement built to a feverish pitch as Liz’s body began to tremble with the first vibrant streaks of her orgasm and she reflexively clamped Max’s busy hand between her thighs. “Yes…yes…yes…Max!”
Liz pressed down onto his questing fingers, gritting her teeth as she clamped down around him, her inner walls contracting tightly as she came. Very gradually the sexual haze faded from around Liz and she began to unsnarl her fingers from the jeep’s upholstery and relax back into the seat. Max removed his fingers from her and brought them to his lips, licking away the excess wetness. He seemed to savor the taste, his throat working spasmodically. Liz watched him suck his fingers, her eyes darkening with renewed desire at the action.
“Max?” She whispered his name tentatively, shifted in her seat to slide a searching hand up the length of his thigh.
“I’m fine,” he grated, returning both hands to the steering wheel and clenching it hard, “Just give me a minute to calm down.”
“Let me make it better,” Liz whispered, already working to unfasten his trousers. She slid his zipper down over the taut ridge of his erection, taking some pleasure in Max’s muttered words of encouragement. He shifted back his seat to provide easier contact, his heart racing with excitement for whatever she had planned to “make it better.” When she actually lifted his stiffened flesh from his boxers he released a happy sigh.
Liz took a moment to study him, tracing the meandering veins first with her finger and then with the tip of her tongue. Max hissed in reaction but he didn’t flinch back from her as she expected but buried his hand in her hair instead. With a massive amount of restraint he managed to keep from pushing her head down. “You don’t have to,” he told her gruffly, “I’m…I’m not expecting it…”
For some reason his words encouraged rather than discouraged her. Liz whisked her tongue across the plum shaped head for a cautious lick before taking it completely into her mouth. Max mumbled something loud and incomprehensible as he was consumed by the hot vortex of her mouth but, if the way he was holding her head and arching into her mouth were any indication, he was enjoying her exploration thoroughly.
Liz gradually took his entire length into her mouth, using her tongue as leverage so that she wouldn’t gag. As she accustomed herself to the size and taste of him Liz grew bolder in her ministrations. She swirled her tongue against the grooved tip, collecting the oozing drops of fluid there. Max went wild then. He thrust into her mouth, quick and shallow, holding her head still so that he could set the rhythm he wanted.
Max filled the confines of the jeep with a loud groan of satisfaction a few moments later when his body exploded. Tingling all over, he flooded Liz’s mouth with the salty taste of his semen. Even after his orgasm was done Liz continued to suck him, applying maddening pressure to the tingling tip of his cock. The pleasure was so gratifying, so painful that Max actually cried out for her to stop. He swerved the jeep erratically in his distraction.
When she shifted upright she was surprised to find his eyes gleaming with tears. “Did I hurt you?” she asked in disbelief.
He shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe she’d asked such a question and leveled her with an emphatic stare. “Liz…” he breathed, “you’ll never know how absolutely amazing that felt. Especially at the end when you kept… It felt incredible…too incredible and I just couldn’t take it, you know?”
Liz nodded her understanding, unable to break eye contact with him. “I know.”
“We should put ourselves back together,” he suggested, nodding his head towards the windshield, “We’re almost to the diner.”
Max and Liz were relatively composed when they alighted from the jeep five minutes later though their legs were still a bit shaky. Both hoped devoutly that the truth concerning their actions the previous fifteen minutes was not apparent on their faces. They offered one another shy smiles as their friends began congregating around them.
Maria scurried over to Liz’s side and grasped hold of her hand. “You have so much explaining to do, Gidget, so start talking,” she groused, dragging Liz towards the diner entrance. As they ducked beneath the restaurant’s fluorescent lighting Maria noticed her friend’s high color for the first time. “You can start by telling me why the hell you’re so flushed right now.”
Liz answered with only a secret smile before slipping through the diner’s swinging doors.
Last edited by Deejonaise on Sun Jun 06, 2004 11:51 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Deejonaise
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Chapter 14
Liz began her morning by praying to the porcelain gods.
She curled her body around the toilet, feeling shaky and sick and miserable. But the moment became tempered with humiliation when she felt Max brush back her skein of hair and hold it away from her face so she could be sick without obstruction. When it was finally over she collapsed back against the bathroom wall while Max reached over to flush the toilet. “Well, that was embarrassing and gross,” she grunted, burying her face in her knees, “God…”
“Liz, it’s okay,” Max whispered, “I’m not disgusted if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“That makes one of us,” Liz muttered.
Her reaction struck Max as strange and yet endearing as well. He thought it was funny that Liz should be so freaked about him seeing her be sick when he had touched and tasted the most intimate parts of her body. Truly, there were no longer any secrets between them so her embarrassment seemed a bit misplaced.
“Maybe you should stay here,” he suggested gently when she didn’t move up from the floor, “The others are already ready and waiting out in the parking lot.”
“What time is it?” Liz asked sharply.
“About fifteen after eight.”
“And they’re already dressed and ready?” she sighed in disbelief.
Liz hadn’t expected that. They had all been up most the night. Kyle, Maria, Michael and Isabel firing questions at them about the pregnancy and Max and Liz doing their damnedest to answer them. By the time they finally left the diner it was fast approaching two o’clock in the morning. And once they had all checked into their respective motel rooms another hour had gone by.
“So everybody’s waiting on me then,” she surmised in self-irritation.
“You don’t have to rush.”
“No,” Liz protested, “Just give me a sec…” But when she rose too quickly a wave of dizziness assaulted her and she ended up collapsing into Max’s waiting arms.
“You’re staying here,” he declared in a tone that brooked no argument. Still, Liz argued.
“No, Max…I can’t,” she said, “This investigation with Alex…I’ve been on it since the beginning. I want to see it through.”
“I’m not trying to cut you out, Liz,” Max assured her, “I know how much finding Alex’s killer means to you but… You’ve been running on empty for days now. On top of that you’re pregnant and it seems to be taking a lot out of you. I’m sure with the baby’s rapid growth he’s depleting the nutrient stores in your body so you have nothing for yourself. I know you don’t want to but you need to rest.”
“Max, please,” she begged, “Don’t ask me to do this.”
“I’m asking you to think about the baby,” he whispered. She pushed away from him, slashing him with a betrayed stare. “I’m just asking for one day of rest,” he implored, “That’s all. I promise I’ll tell you everything we find when we get back.” When she remained unyielding Max decided to argue logic instead. “Liz, you can barely stand right now. How much help do you think you’ll be today?”
“That’s not fair.”
“Maybe not,” Max conceded without an ounce of guilt, “But I’m worried about you. I’ll do anything to make sure you’re okay.”
Liz didn’t like the idea of being left behind, especially when she had been the one to launch the investigation in the first place. She had come too far, too close to fall to the wayside now. Liz didn’t want to be cut out. But she could also clearly see the worry in Max’s eyes, his unease over the prospect. Much as she wanted to go along, much as she felt she belonged there, Liz knew if she went she’d probably end up only distracting Max rather than contributing to the investigation and finding Alex’s killer was much more important than that. She was willing to sacrifice being there personally if it was able to bring them one step closer to finding Alex’s killer.
“Okay, I’ll stay,” she mumbled, “But only because I know that you’re worried and I don’t want to make this situation we’re in anymore crazy than it is already.”
“Thank you,” Max murmured, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Liz warned him, “I’m giving in this time only. I plan to be there for the rest of it no matter what, Max.”
“Fine…I’ll deal with that.”
He helped her back to bed, tucking her beneath the covers as if she were a little girl. “Do you want me to ask Maria to stay with you?” he asked gently.
“No. There’s no point in Alex having two useless friends,” she mumbled.
“Liz, you’re not useless,” Max insisted, “You’re pregnant and you’re exhausted. Cut yourself some slack, okay.”
Liz reached up to trace the curving line of his lips. “God, I love you,” she sighed wistfully.
“And I love you,” he whispered in return, dropping a kiss to the tip of her nose, “Get some sleep and I’ll see you later this afternoon.”
“Later,” she mumbled, already drifting off.
In pure inspiration, Max pressed a kiss to her tummy through the thick blankets. “You take care, too, buddy,” he murmured lovingly, “I’ll be back soon.”
When he strode outside Max found his friends lingering alongside their cars waiting for him. “Where’s Liz?” Maria asked as he neared.
“She’s not feeling well,” Max told her, “She’s been sick since early this morning so she’s going to stay here and rest up.”
“Should I stay?” Maria wondered anxiously.
“She said no,” Max replied, “I think she’ll be okay. She just needs sleep.”
“Okay, so how are we going to do this, Maxwell?” Michael asked, redirecting everyone’s attention to the group’s impending tasks, “You said last night we should split up.”
“I still think that,” Max said, “I was thinking Kyle and Isabel could look for Tess while you and Maria follow-up on Leanna.”
“What are you going to do?” Isabel asked.
“I’m going to go to the Litvack building and find out what Alex was working on,” Max replied, “We might have a better idea of what we’re dealing with then. Let’s get started.”
They left with their minds focused on the work ahead never realizing the evil they had left lurking behind.
~~~***~~~***~~~
“So…uh…what’s so special about these computers anyway,” Max asked as the professor randomly punched in data. He had no clue what the man was doing. It was all Greek to him. But he wanted to stay focused, afraid that if he let his mind wander he would miss some important detail.
“Nothing yet,” the professor replied in a laugh, “Right now these computers are nothing more than multi-million dollar toys. The greatest potential is in the field of cryptography. In theory, a quantum computer can break just about any code.”
“Huh?” Max said.
“Your friend was obviously trying to decode something,” the professor clarified simply. He surfed through the computer’s database until he found what he was looking for. “Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. I was right. Your friend was definitely trying to decode something…something major, I’d say.”
“Can you find out what he was doing?” Max asked.
“It’s possible.”
“Would you try it?” Max prodded.
“Sure…give me a little time.”
He watched as the professor’s fingers went to work once more, flying over the computer keys. Max might have continued staring the man down if a knock on the Plexiglas window of the door didn’t catch his attention. He glanced up to find Maria and Michael standing outside, their expressions anxious.
“Can you excuse me for a minute?” he asked the professor politely, pushing up from his chair to answer the door. He stepped out into the hallway with his friends, pulling the door up behind him. “So did you find anything?”
“Her real name is Jennifer Coleman,” Michael told him, “We’ve got a lock on her dorm room, her classes…you name it.”
“Okay, we’ll check it out when I’m done here,” Max said, “Have you heard from Isabel and Kyle in the meantime?”
“No sign of Tess,” Maria replied, “They’re on their way over here as we speak.”
“All right, we’ll regroup then,” Max decided, “Concentrate on finding this Jennifer Coleman. Maybe she’ll have the answers.” He finished up the last of his statement quickly because the professor had opened the door.
“Max, you should get in here,” he said, “I think I found your friend’s source material.”
Max hurried back inside the lab room with Michael and Maria close on his heels. The three teens leaned over the professor as he uncovered his findings. “This is pretty strange looking stuff,” he commented faintly, “Reminds me of hieroglyphics almost…like it’s some sort of language. I think it looks a bit Native American.”
Maria gasped audibly as Max and Michael’s eyes flared wide. They recognized the symbols almost immediately. The Destiny Book. Max started to shake as Michael leaned down for a closer look at the computer screen. “What was he doing with this?” he asked in a thready whisper.
The professor twisted a glance around at him. “He was decoding the text.”
“Meaning?” Michael prompted impatiently.
“He was translating it into English apparently.”
“Was he able to do it?” Max asked woodenly.
The professor shrugged. “I’m not sure,” he replied, “He deleted all the results afterward. But…the last day he was here, he created this huge text file and emailed it to this address.” He scribbled out the email and passed the slip to Michael.
“jcoleman@ulascruces.edu,” Michael read aloud, “This is Leanna’s email.”
“Thank you for your time,” Max said to the professor, “We should really be going now.”
“Let me know if you need anything else,” he called after them.
Max strode down the hall, his mind racing in a million different directions. Evidently, Alex had gotten a hold of the Destiny Book and had set about translating it. What Max couldn’t understand was how he’d come in possession of the text in the first place. He had kept its whereabouts safely hidden and only a few people knew where and none of them would have given the book to Alex, not without his knowledge. Once again all fingers pointed to Tess. So then Max had to wonder exactly who “Leanna” was. Was she a cover Tess invented to cover her tracks or was she an accomplice?
“We have to find Leanna,” Max determined, “Where’s her address?”
“Shouldn’t we wait for Isabel and Kyle?” Maria asked, scurrying after him.
“We don’t have time to wait,” Max said, “Let’s find her and end this.”
They made it across campus in fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, Jennifer was not there, as her roommate so helpfully informed them. She had gone home to visit her mother in the hospital. However, Max, Michael and Maria didn’t let that deter them. While Maria distracted the roommate with her inane babble Max and Michael quickly but meticulously combed through Jennifer Coleman’s personal effects, searching for clues while under the guise of looking for physics notes.
The ruse seemed to work because they managed to abscond from the room with Jennifer Coleman’s mail and without her roommate calling security. Only when they had gained the safety of an open courtyard did the three pick through their findings.
Michael blandly ticked through the items. “Magazine renewal notice, credit card application, bank statement, something from Open Sky Property Management. This is a bill for renting a property outside of Las Cruces.”
“Call Kyle and Isabel,” Max ordered, “Tell them to meet us out there instead.”
They pulled up outside the abandoned house about half past noon. As they climbed from their vehicles Kyle and Isabel arrived as well, looking harried and flustered.
“Okay, what’s this about, Evans?” Kyle demanded, “I thought we were supposed to be meeting you at the University.”
“Alex had the Destiny Book,” Max informed him bluntly.
“What?” Isabel cried in stunned incredulity, “How…what was he doing with it?”
“Translating it,” Max said, “And I can think of only one person who could have given it to him.”
“Wait a minute,” Kyle muttered, “If this is another accusation towards Tess--,”
“It sure as hell is!” Max roared, “She’s the only fucking person who could have given Alex the book. She’s the only one who would and could have made him translate it. He would have told us otherwise!”
“What about Leanna--,”
“Fuck Leanna!” Max barked angrily, “I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt after the mindwarping, even after her knowing Alex was here in Las Cruces but not after this. She’s behind everything that’s happened so far! For all we know she killed Alex and not Leanna!”
“Son of a bitch!” Kyle growled, taking a wild swing and catching Max across the jaw. As Max fell into the dirt, Michael caught hold of Kyle before he could launch another attack. Kyle struggled against him furiously. “That’s what all this shit was about, wasn’t it? From the very beginning you all wanted to blame this on Tess!” He shoved out of Michael’s arm, roughly pushing off the bigger man. “What kind of friends are you?”
“Valenti, I hate to admit it,” Michael confessed gruffly as Isabel and Maria helped Max to his feet, “But Max has a point. I didn’t give Alex the book. Neither did Isabel or Max. That just leaves Tess.”
“And she has done stuff like this before,” Maria pointed out quietly, “It’s not beyond the realm of possibility.”
“I know you don’t want to believe it,” Max interjected calmly, lifting his fingers to his mouth to heal the split lip Kyle had given him, “But you need to start facing reality.”
“He loves her, you guys,” Isabel spoke up, “He loves her.”
“She wouldn’t do something like this,” Kyle moaned pitiably, “I know she wouldn’t.”
“You’re deluding yourself, Valenti,” Max sighed in disgust, “Come on…let’s go inside.”
Kyle hung back as Maria, Max and Michael disappeared into the house. Isabel came over to his side. “Come with us,” she prodded gently, “Max is just feeling angry and betrayed. He’s mad at Tess, not you.”
“Could she have really done all this, Isabel?” Kyle mumbled woodenly, “Because if she did I really didn’t know her at all.”
“Come on inside,” Isabel cajoled again, taking hold of his hand and pulling him forward.
When they entered Max, Maria and Michael had already begun searching the dusty premises. Isabel quickly joined them. Kyle left the four to their search and whispered mutterings to drift down the hallway, drawn by a low moaning sound coming from the back. Kyle’s heart did a slow dip as he crept closer to the sound. As he drew nearer to the back room the mewling grew louder. That’s when he lunged through the door and found her.
She was lying semi-conscious in a small pool of blood. With a mournful cry, Kyle rushed over to her side and gathered her limp body against him, cradling her close. “Oh God, what happened to you?” he sobbed, unmindful to the blood soaking into his trousers and shirt, “What…what did they do to you?” He wiped at the blood streaming from her nose and screamed for Max. “Tess…Tess,” he wept, kissing her pale features randomly, “God…open your eyes and talk to me… Tess, please…please don’t die.”
That was how Max and the others found him a short while later. They stopped dead in their tracks to see Kyle cradling a seemingly lifeless Tess in his arms. He twisted a desperate look around at Max. “You have to help her,” he implored tearfully, “She’s…she’s still alive but just barely. Please…please, Max…”
Max felt understandably torn. Here was the woman who had betrayed him and his loved ones monstrously but also someone who was an indelible part of him. Whether he liked or not, whether he accepted it or not, Tess was a part of them. Even if he did refuse to acknowledge that fact Kyle’s visible grief was harder to ignore. Losing Tess would surely kill him. Max knew he couldn’t let her die.
He knelt down alongside Kyle. “Lower her to the floor,” he whispered. Kyle did as he was told, gently lowered his unconscious beloved back to the floor. Max sucked in a deep breath and placed his hand against Tess’ chest, prepared to see her for the person she truly was.
Yet, when the connection unfolded Max was surprised rather than disgusted. As the damage to Tess’ brain and body healed Max saw clearly how she’d been manipulated and abused by Nicholas for months. He felt her struggle against the mindwarp, how, even in her vulnerable state; she had done her best to protect Alex. He saw what her determination cost her and how it all led to Alex’s death. Max also felt Tess’ guilt over that, sensed her faint hope that he would let her die because of it.
When the connection was finally broken Max was in tears, for all the things she had endured, for Alex, for them all…because he realized the pain was just beginning. Tess fluttered open her eyes and Kyle fell upon her prone body with a sobbing cry. “Thank you…thank you…thank you…”
“Max, what did you see?” Isabel asked as he pushed to his feet.
“She didn’t kill Alex,” Max told them. Tess glanced up at him in startled surprise, surprised by his explanation but Max didn’t waver. It was the truth. Alex’s death would have never occurred without Nicholas’ instigation. Max couldn’t let Tess bear the stigma of that crime. She was loathing herself enough already and he didn’t want to make it worse. “Nicholas killed Alex,” Max expounded, “He’s still alive and he’s been mindraping Tess for the last few months now.” He and Tess connected gazes briefly and she mouthed him a silent “thank you.”
“What?” Michael burst out, “But why? Does this have something to do with Khivar?”
“The Destiny Book translation,” Max clarified, “He needed it for the Granolith…to unlock its power.”
“Now he has all he needs,” Tess croaked as Kyle helped her to her feet, “We have to stop him from taking the Granolith. It’s our responsibility to protect it.” She glanced around at their various confused expression, noticing for the first time that Liz wasn’t among them and her blue eyes flared wide with panic. “Why isn’t Liz with you?” she asked frantically, “Where is she?”
“Calm down, Tess,” Max soothed, “She’s fine. She stayed behind because…because she wasn’t feeling well.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Tess cried, “Nicholas will go after her! We have to get to her before he does. Don’t you see?” she said when her words failed to galvanize the group, “He knows Liz is pregnant! He wants her baby, Max! Your baby!” Finally that propelled them into motion and they all went scrambling for their cars.
“We have to get to her,” Tess muttered as she collapsed back into the passenger’s seat of Kyle’s Mustang, “We have to get to her before it’s too late.”
Liz began her morning by praying to the porcelain gods.
She curled her body around the toilet, feeling shaky and sick and miserable. But the moment became tempered with humiliation when she felt Max brush back her skein of hair and hold it away from her face so she could be sick without obstruction. When it was finally over she collapsed back against the bathroom wall while Max reached over to flush the toilet. “Well, that was embarrassing and gross,” she grunted, burying her face in her knees, “God…”
“Liz, it’s okay,” Max whispered, “I’m not disgusted if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“That makes one of us,” Liz muttered.
Her reaction struck Max as strange and yet endearing as well. He thought it was funny that Liz should be so freaked about him seeing her be sick when he had touched and tasted the most intimate parts of her body. Truly, there were no longer any secrets between them so her embarrassment seemed a bit misplaced.
“Maybe you should stay here,” he suggested gently when she didn’t move up from the floor, “The others are already ready and waiting out in the parking lot.”
“What time is it?” Liz asked sharply.
“About fifteen after eight.”
“And they’re already dressed and ready?” she sighed in disbelief.
Liz hadn’t expected that. They had all been up most the night. Kyle, Maria, Michael and Isabel firing questions at them about the pregnancy and Max and Liz doing their damnedest to answer them. By the time they finally left the diner it was fast approaching two o’clock in the morning. And once they had all checked into their respective motel rooms another hour had gone by.
“So everybody’s waiting on me then,” she surmised in self-irritation.
“You don’t have to rush.”
“No,” Liz protested, “Just give me a sec…” But when she rose too quickly a wave of dizziness assaulted her and she ended up collapsing into Max’s waiting arms.
“You’re staying here,” he declared in a tone that brooked no argument. Still, Liz argued.
“No, Max…I can’t,” she said, “This investigation with Alex…I’ve been on it since the beginning. I want to see it through.”
“I’m not trying to cut you out, Liz,” Max assured her, “I know how much finding Alex’s killer means to you but… You’ve been running on empty for days now. On top of that you’re pregnant and it seems to be taking a lot out of you. I’m sure with the baby’s rapid growth he’s depleting the nutrient stores in your body so you have nothing for yourself. I know you don’t want to but you need to rest.”
“Max, please,” she begged, “Don’t ask me to do this.”
“I’m asking you to think about the baby,” he whispered. She pushed away from him, slashing him with a betrayed stare. “I’m just asking for one day of rest,” he implored, “That’s all. I promise I’ll tell you everything we find when we get back.” When she remained unyielding Max decided to argue logic instead. “Liz, you can barely stand right now. How much help do you think you’ll be today?”
“That’s not fair.”
“Maybe not,” Max conceded without an ounce of guilt, “But I’m worried about you. I’ll do anything to make sure you’re okay.”
Liz didn’t like the idea of being left behind, especially when she had been the one to launch the investigation in the first place. She had come too far, too close to fall to the wayside now. Liz didn’t want to be cut out. But she could also clearly see the worry in Max’s eyes, his unease over the prospect. Much as she wanted to go along, much as she felt she belonged there, Liz knew if she went she’d probably end up only distracting Max rather than contributing to the investigation and finding Alex’s killer was much more important than that. She was willing to sacrifice being there personally if it was able to bring them one step closer to finding Alex’s killer.
“Okay, I’ll stay,” she mumbled, “But only because I know that you’re worried and I don’t want to make this situation we’re in anymore crazy than it is already.”
“Thank you,” Max murmured, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Liz warned him, “I’m giving in this time only. I plan to be there for the rest of it no matter what, Max.”
“Fine…I’ll deal with that.”
He helped her back to bed, tucking her beneath the covers as if she were a little girl. “Do you want me to ask Maria to stay with you?” he asked gently.
“No. There’s no point in Alex having two useless friends,” she mumbled.
“Liz, you’re not useless,” Max insisted, “You’re pregnant and you’re exhausted. Cut yourself some slack, okay.”
Liz reached up to trace the curving line of his lips. “God, I love you,” she sighed wistfully.
“And I love you,” he whispered in return, dropping a kiss to the tip of her nose, “Get some sleep and I’ll see you later this afternoon.”
“Later,” she mumbled, already drifting off.
In pure inspiration, Max pressed a kiss to her tummy through the thick blankets. “You take care, too, buddy,” he murmured lovingly, “I’ll be back soon.”
When he strode outside Max found his friends lingering alongside their cars waiting for him. “Where’s Liz?” Maria asked as he neared.
“She’s not feeling well,” Max told her, “She’s been sick since early this morning so she’s going to stay here and rest up.”
“Should I stay?” Maria wondered anxiously.
“She said no,” Max replied, “I think she’ll be okay. She just needs sleep.”
“Okay, so how are we going to do this, Maxwell?” Michael asked, redirecting everyone’s attention to the group’s impending tasks, “You said last night we should split up.”
“I still think that,” Max said, “I was thinking Kyle and Isabel could look for Tess while you and Maria follow-up on Leanna.”
“What are you going to do?” Isabel asked.
“I’m going to go to the Litvack building and find out what Alex was working on,” Max replied, “We might have a better idea of what we’re dealing with then. Let’s get started.”
They left with their minds focused on the work ahead never realizing the evil they had left lurking behind.
~~~***~~~***~~~
“So…uh…what’s so special about these computers anyway,” Max asked as the professor randomly punched in data. He had no clue what the man was doing. It was all Greek to him. But he wanted to stay focused, afraid that if he let his mind wander he would miss some important detail.
“Nothing yet,” the professor replied in a laugh, “Right now these computers are nothing more than multi-million dollar toys. The greatest potential is in the field of cryptography. In theory, a quantum computer can break just about any code.”
“Huh?” Max said.
“Your friend was obviously trying to decode something,” the professor clarified simply. He surfed through the computer’s database until he found what he was looking for. “Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. I was right. Your friend was definitely trying to decode something…something major, I’d say.”
“Can you find out what he was doing?” Max asked.
“It’s possible.”
“Would you try it?” Max prodded.
“Sure…give me a little time.”
He watched as the professor’s fingers went to work once more, flying over the computer keys. Max might have continued staring the man down if a knock on the Plexiglas window of the door didn’t catch his attention. He glanced up to find Maria and Michael standing outside, their expressions anxious.
“Can you excuse me for a minute?” he asked the professor politely, pushing up from his chair to answer the door. He stepped out into the hallway with his friends, pulling the door up behind him. “So did you find anything?”
“Her real name is Jennifer Coleman,” Michael told him, “We’ve got a lock on her dorm room, her classes…you name it.”
“Okay, we’ll check it out when I’m done here,” Max said, “Have you heard from Isabel and Kyle in the meantime?”
“No sign of Tess,” Maria replied, “They’re on their way over here as we speak.”
“All right, we’ll regroup then,” Max decided, “Concentrate on finding this Jennifer Coleman. Maybe she’ll have the answers.” He finished up the last of his statement quickly because the professor had opened the door.
“Max, you should get in here,” he said, “I think I found your friend’s source material.”
Max hurried back inside the lab room with Michael and Maria close on his heels. The three teens leaned over the professor as he uncovered his findings. “This is pretty strange looking stuff,” he commented faintly, “Reminds me of hieroglyphics almost…like it’s some sort of language. I think it looks a bit Native American.”
Maria gasped audibly as Max and Michael’s eyes flared wide. They recognized the symbols almost immediately. The Destiny Book. Max started to shake as Michael leaned down for a closer look at the computer screen. “What was he doing with this?” he asked in a thready whisper.
The professor twisted a glance around at him. “He was decoding the text.”
“Meaning?” Michael prompted impatiently.
“He was translating it into English apparently.”
“Was he able to do it?” Max asked woodenly.
The professor shrugged. “I’m not sure,” he replied, “He deleted all the results afterward. But…the last day he was here, he created this huge text file and emailed it to this address.” He scribbled out the email and passed the slip to Michael.
“jcoleman@ulascruces.edu,” Michael read aloud, “This is Leanna’s email.”
“Thank you for your time,” Max said to the professor, “We should really be going now.”
“Let me know if you need anything else,” he called after them.
Max strode down the hall, his mind racing in a million different directions. Evidently, Alex had gotten a hold of the Destiny Book and had set about translating it. What Max couldn’t understand was how he’d come in possession of the text in the first place. He had kept its whereabouts safely hidden and only a few people knew where and none of them would have given the book to Alex, not without his knowledge. Once again all fingers pointed to Tess. So then Max had to wonder exactly who “Leanna” was. Was she a cover Tess invented to cover her tracks or was she an accomplice?
“We have to find Leanna,” Max determined, “Where’s her address?”
“Shouldn’t we wait for Isabel and Kyle?” Maria asked, scurrying after him.
“We don’t have time to wait,” Max said, “Let’s find her and end this.”
They made it across campus in fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, Jennifer was not there, as her roommate so helpfully informed them. She had gone home to visit her mother in the hospital. However, Max, Michael and Maria didn’t let that deter them. While Maria distracted the roommate with her inane babble Max and Michael quickly but meticulously combed through Jennifer Coleman’s personal effects, searching for clues while under the guise of looking for physics notes.
The ruse seemed to work because they managed to abscond from the room with Jennifer Coleman’s mail and without her roommate calling security. Only when they had gained the safety of an open courtyard did the three pick through their findings.
Michael blandly ticked through the items. “Magazine renewal notice, credit card application, bank statement, something from Open Sky Property Management. This is a bill for renting a property outside of Las Cruces.”
“Call Kyle and Isabel,” Max ordered, “Tell them to meet us out there instead.”
They pulled up outside the abandoned house about half past noon. As they climbed from their vehicles Kyle and Isabel arrived as well, looking harried and flustered.
“Okay, what’s this about, Evans?” Kyle demanded, “I thought we were supposed to be meeting you at the University.”
“Alex had the Destiny Book,” Max informed him bluntly.
“What?” Isabel cried in stunned incredulity, “How…what was he doing with it?”
“Translating it,” Max said, “And I can think of only one person who could have given it to him.”
“Wait a minute,” Kyle muttered, “If this is another accusation towards Tess--,”
“It sure as hell is!” Max roared, “She’s the only fucking person who could have given Alex the book. She’s the only one who would and could have made him translate it. He would have told us otherwise!”
“What about Leanna--,”
“Fuck Leanna!” Max barked angrily, “I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt after the mindwarping, even after her knowing Alex was here in Las Cruces but not after this. She’s behind everything that’s happened so far! For all we know she killed Alex and not Leanna!”
“Son of a bitch!” Kyle growled, taking a wild swing and catching Max across the jaw. As Max fell into the dirt, Michael caught hold of Kyle before he could launch another attack. Kyle struggled against him furiously. “That’s what all this shit was about, wasn’t it? From the very beginning you all wanted to blame this on Tess!” He shoved out of Michael’s arm, roughly pushing off the bigger man. “What kind of friends are you?”
“Valenti, I hate to admit it,” Michael confessed gruffly as Isabel and Maria helped Max to his feet, “But Max has a point. I didn’t give Alex the book. Neither did Isabel or Max. That just leaves Tess.”
“And she has done stuff like this before,” Maria pointed out quietly, “It’s not beyond the realm of possibility.”
“I know you don’t want to believe it,” Max interjected calmly, lifting his fingers to his mouth to heal the split lip Kyle had given him, “But you need to start facing reality.”
“He loves her, you guys,” Isabel spoke up, “He loves her.”
“She wouldn’t do something like this,” Kyle moaned pitiably, “I know she wouldn’t.”
“You’re deluding yourself, Valenti,” Max sighed in disgust, “Come on…let’s go inside.”
Kyle hung back as Maria, Max and Michael disappeared into the house. Isabel came over to his side. “Come with us,” she prodded gently, “Max is just feeling angry and betrayed. He’s mad at Tess, not you.”
“Could she have really done all this, Isabel?” Kyle mumbled woodenly, “Because if she did I really didn’t know her at all.”
“Come on inside,” Isabel cajoled again, taking hold of his hand and pulling him forward.
When they entered Max, Maria and Michael had already begun searching the dusty premises. Isabel quickly joined them. Kyle left the four to their search and whispered mutterings to drift down the hallway, drawn by a low moaning sound coming from the back. Kyle’s heart did a slow dip as he crept closer to the sound. As he drew nearer to the back room the mewling grew louder. That’s when he lunged through the door and found her.
She was lying semi-conscious in a small pool of blood. With a mournful cry, Kyle rushed over to her side and gathered her limp body against him, cradling her close. “Oh God, what happened to you?” he sobbed, unmindful to the blood soaking into his trousers and shirt, “What…what did they do to you?” He wiped at the blood streaming from her nose and screamed for Max. “Tess…Tess,” he wept, kissing her pale features randomly, “God…open your eyes and talk to me… Tess, please…please don’t die.”
That was how Max and the others found him a short while later. They stopped dead in their tracks to see Kyle cradling a seemingly lifeless Tess in his arms. He twisted a desperate look around at Max. “You have to help her,” he implored tearfully, “She’s…she’s still alive but just barely. Please…please, Max…”
Max felt understandably torn. Here was the woman who had betrayed him and his loved ones monstrously but also someone who was an indelible part of him. Whether he liked or not, whether he accepted it or not, Tess was a part of them. Even if he did refuse to acknowledge that fact Kyle’s visible grief was harder to ignore. Losing Tess would surely kill him. Max knew he couldn’t let her die.
He knelt down alongside Kyle. “Lower her to the floor,” he whispered. Kyle did as he was told, gently lowered his unconscious beloved back to the floor. Max sucked in a deep breath and placed his hand against Tess’ chest, prepared to see her for the person she truly was.
Yet, when the connection unfolded Max was surprised rather than disgusted. As the damage to Tess’ brain and body healed Max saw clearly how she’d been manipulated and abused by Nicholas for months. He felt her struggle against the mindwarp, how, even in her vulnerable state; she had done her best to protect Alex. He saw what her determination cost her and how it all led to Alex’s death. Max also felt Tess’ guilt over that, sensed her faint hope that he would let her die because of it.
When the connection was finally broken Max was in tears, for all the things she had endured, for Alex, for them all…because he realized the pain was just beginning. Tess fluttered open her eyes and Kyle fell upon her prone body with a sobbing cry. “Thank you…thank you…thank you…”
“Max, what did you see?” Isabel asked as he pushed to his feet.
“She didn’t kill Alex,” Max told them. Tess glanced up at him in startled surprise, surprised by his explanation but Max didn’t waver. It was the truth. Alex’s death would have never occurred without Nicholas’ instigation. Max couldn’t let Tess bear the stigma of that crime. She was loathing herself enough already and he didn’t want to make it worse. “Nicholas killed Alex,” Max expounded, “He’s still alive and he’s been mindraping Tess for the last few months now.” He and Tess connected gazes briefly and she mouthed him a silent “thank you.”
“What?” Michael burst out, “But why? Does this have something to do with Khivar?”
“The Destiny Book translation,” Max clarified, “He needed it for the Granolith…to unlock its power.”
“Now he has all he needs,” Tess croaked as Kyle helped her to her feet, “We have to stop him from taking the Granolith. It’s our responsibility to protect it.” She glanced around at their various confused expression, noticing for the first time that Liz wasn’t among them and her blue eyes flared wide with panic. “Why isn’t Liz with you?” she asked frantically, “Where is she?”
“Calm down, Tess,” Max soothed, “She’s fine. She stayed behind because…because she wasn’t feeling well.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Tess cried, “Nicholas will go after her! We have to get to her before he does. Don’t you see?” she said when her words failed to galvanize the group, “He knows Liz is pregnant! He wants her baby, Max! Your baby!” Finally that propelled them into motion and they all went scrambling for their cars.
“We have to get to her,” Tess muttered as she collapsed back into the passenger’s seat of Kyle’s Mustang, “We have to get to her before it’s too late.”
-
Deejonaise
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- Posts: 385
- Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2002 12:48 am
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Chapter 15
Max burst into the motel room he shared with Liz approximately fifteen minutes after Tess’ ominous revelation but he was not surprised to find it empty. Ever since Tess revealed that Nicholas would go after Liz, Max had known that the skin already had her. Their room had not been ransacked. In fact, it looked oddly the same as when he’d left it, except that Liz was no longer tucked safely between the bed sheets.
“Maybe she went to get herself something to eat,” Maria suggested lamely, surveying the almost baffling order of the room. It didn’t look to her like Liz had been kidnapped.
“No,” Max denied gruffly, “he has her.”
He fell to his knees at the side of the bed and ran his open palm across the sheets, bidding the flashes to come. She didn’t even have time to struggle. Nicholas had come in when she was still groggy with sleep. He had done something to her, wormed his way into her head so that she had merely walked out the room with him. Max could tell something was wrong from her slackened expression, her vacant eyes. It was as if she’d been hypnotized. As Liz and Nicholas exited the room in his vision Max concentrated hard on the glowing red numbers of the digital clock. Nicholas had made his move just ten minutes after they’d all left that morning.
“That son of a bitch,” Max hissed, shaking off the flash and surging to his feet, “He was just waiting for us to leave this morning. He’s got a four hour head start on us already!”
“Where’s he headed?” Michael asked when the others seemed incapable of speech.
“The pod chamber,” Tess answered quietly, “Now that he has Liz he’ll want to secure the Granolith and leave the planet for Antar.”
“The pod chamber,” Isabel echoed shortly, “He doesn’t even know where to find it.”
Maria forsook that part for the latter. “What the hell do you mean by ‘leave the planet’?”
“I mean leave the planet,” Tess clarified and then she shook her head sadly before turning her shameful stare towards the floor. “And it’s not so true that Nicholas doesn’t know how to find the pod chamber,” she mumbled, “He knows everything I know. There’s not a part of my mind that wasn’t accessible to him.”
“Great!” Maria muttered in misplaced anger and frustration.
“It’s not your fault,” Kyle whispered to Tess, pulling her stiffened body closer, “Nicholas took those things from your mind. You didn’t help him willingly.”
“None of that matters if he has Liz!” Max cried sharply, “Enough talk! We need to get back to Roswell!”
“Max, we’ll never make it in time!” Isabel cried as he ran out to his car, “Liz is probably half-way to our world right now!”
“No!” Max snapped back as he ducked into the jeep, “I won’t believe that! Tess, get in! I want you to explain to me everything that’s going on.”
Tess threw Kyle a helpless glance of longing but scurried to do as Max ordered. The moment she was secured in her seat belt he stamped on the gas and peeled out of there, leaving the others with no choice but to do the same. “So is Isabel right?” he asked glumly, “Is all this pointless? Is Liz lost to me?”
“You might still make it to her in time,” Tess rallied optimistically, “Nicholas will have to prepare the ship…which may take a few hours. That might buy us some time to get there.”
Max leveled her with a penetrating look, sensing the lack of conviction in her tone. “Now tell me the truth,” he said flatly.
“You’ll never make it there in time,” she murmured sadly, “I’m sorry, Max.”
“Are you?” he barked bitterly, “Because I know you were never very keen on the idea of Liz and I being together. Now I’ve probably lost her for good…and our baby, too. Isn’t this what you wanted all along?”
“No.”
“Sure, Tess,” he tossed back sarcastically.
“I won’t deny that you were right about me once, Max,” Tess whispered, “I wasn’t very happy with the idea of you and Liz being together. Nasedo raised me to believe that you and I belonged together. And for a long time I believed that with everything I had. I really believed it, Max. I thought everything I did to you was justified because I had to help you to believe that, too.”
“But I don’t believe that, Tess,” Max said softly, “I never have and I never will. Even if Liz and I don’t see each other again I…I can never be with you. I belong with Liz. I love her more than anything. I don’t want to be with anyone else.”
“You don’t have to convince me, Max,” Tess told him quietly, “I know that Liz is the one you want and I’m over it.”
“So why is all this happening?” he cried, “Why is Nicholas targeting us again? I thought he was dead. I thought this was over.”
“As far as I’m able to tell Nicholas first screwed around with my head back in New York,” Tess replied, “That whole thing in the school with the fireball was just a trick. But I didn’t realize that…not then. Things didn’t really start to get confusing for me until I came back from Vegas. That’s when I started having all the strange dreams about Alex and Nicholas and when everything started getting fuzzy for me.” A pregnant pause fell between them at the mention of Alex. Tess stared down at her hands in visible shame. “Thanks for…um…what you said back at the house,” she mumbled, “You could have told them the truth about what happened to Alex but you didn’t.”
“I did tell them the truth,” Max insisted, “Nicholas is the reason Alex is dead, not you. He’s the one who should pay.”
“I should have been stronger,” Tess mumbled, turning her conflicted gaze out the window, “I should have been able to protect him. I’m sorry, Max. I’m so sorry.”
His instinct was to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder to give her some reassurance. That’s what he would have done for Isabel or Maria, but Max hadn’t reached the point yet where he could freely touch Tess. So much had happened between then that it was simply his natural inclination to keep emotionally distanced from her. Still, he was aware of the hell she’d been through and he made an effort to be kind to her.
“You did what you could,” Max told her, “There’s nothing we can do for Alex now.” Tess sniffled and Max’s heart lurched a bit to know she was crying. Tears made her…vulnerable somehow…human… Max felt himself softening towards her even though he wasn’t sure he wanted to. “I don’t blame you for what happened,” he said.
“But the others will,” Tess predicted, “Especially Liz.” She brushed away the last remnants of her tears and straightened in her seat. “I’m going to tell them all the truth, Max,” she stated implacably, “I…I really appreciate what you did for me back there but I can’t hide behind you. I need to face what I did and the consequences.”
“Tess, you couldn’t control what you did anymore than I could control the things you made me feel and do.”
“That’s a reason, not an excuse,” Tess replied dully, “I guess now I know how it feels to have someone fuck around with your head.” She appraised Max with a sorrowful glance. “I’m sorry for those things I did to you when I first arrived, Max. It was really twisted of me to invade your mind that way and…and I’m not surprised you had a hard time trusting me because of it.”
“It’s over, Tess,” Max said, dismissing the events altogether, “We need to focus on getting to Liz. What’s going to happen to her if Nicholas manages to take her back to Antar? Can she even survive there?”
“I’m sure she can,” Tess assured him, “After all, we can survive here. It only makes sense.”
“What do they want with her?”
“Well, I suppose Khivar and Nicholas are going to go through with the plan they had for me originally,” Tess considered.
“Which was?”
“Challenge your right to the throne and then name your heir as the successor,” she explained, “You see…you’re on shaky ground with our people, Max. The planet has been experiencing civil unrest. There have been power plays for the throne from everyone, not just Khivar and the nation is divided. The people want to follow you but… Your seeming indifference and your refusal to return home has furthered Khivar’s agenda. If he can convince the people that you’re unfit to rule and replace you with your child then all he has to do is form a union with Liz to rule the planets uncontested.”
“What happens to Liz after that?” Max asked fearfully.
“Once he’s established himself as the baby’s legal guardian he won’t need Liz anymore,” Tess reasoned, “It’s likely he’ll…get rid of her then.”
Max groaned, his mind playing torturous images of Liz being mistreated and abused and all because of him. “God… God, what have I done?”
“He won’t hurt her,” Tess assured him confidently, “Not until after the baby is born. Everything he wants hinges on that baby. If anything he’ll treat her like royalty because of it.”
“So what are we supposed to do?” Max railed, “If Nicholas has already left the planet with Liz how the hell are we supposed to go after her without a ship? How am I supposed to help her…or our child.”
“I might know where to find a ship,” Tess murmured quietly.
“What?” Max pierced her with a dissecting glance. “You know of a ship and you never told us?”
“I said I might,” she corrected pointedly, “It’s a long shot but I…I overheard Nasedo talking once about a ship he kept underground in case he had to leave the planet fast. After he was murdered that possibility looked even more likely because he obviously knew he couldn’t trust the Skins so maybe there’s a ship after all.”
“Where?”
“Marathon, Texas,” Tess answered, “There’s apparently some kind of dome there and the ship is supposed to be hidden in the ground beneath it.”
“No…we were there,” Max replied with a protesting shake of his head, “We went underground…and there was no ship. There was nothing beneath that dome but a bunch of dusty files.”
“It can’t hurt to look, right?” Tess said, “What do we have to lose?”
“And if there is a ship…how will we navigate it?”
“I know a few things,” Tess said, “We’ll manage somehow. Our biggest problem will be getting it off the planet undetected.”
“God, I hope we don’t need it,” Max muttered, “I hope we make it to her in time.”
“I hope so, too, Max,” Tess said and from the way her voice trembled with remorse as she said the words Max could almost believe she meant them.
~~~***~~~***~~~
Liz awoke in a cell. White, immaculate and certainly high-tech but a cell just the same. The moment her eyelids fluttered up her vision was filled with Nicholas’ malevolent face. He hovered above her, his expression strangely thoughtful as he regarded her prone form. Liz launched herself at him in a moment of pure fury only to realize there was an invisible force field separating them. She received a jolting shock for her efforts.
“That was just a warning,” Nicholas told her, “Now I’m upping the voltage. Touch it again and you’ll be a barbecued briquette.” Liz took a reflexive step back from the entrance of her cell, her chest heaving with fear. “That’s a smart girl,” Nicholas commended blandly, “I must say…Zan sure can pick them.”
“What do you want from me?” Liz uttered.
“Isn’t that obvious by now?” Nicholas whispered, “Already your body is beginning to change…grow… I think pregnancy is a beautiful process, don’t you?”
“You’re…you’re crazy,” Liz replied breathlessly, stumbling back a few extra steps.
“I think you’ll find yourself comfortable here,” Nicholas went on blandly, “You’ll have all the amenities of home. A bed, hot meals, any entertainment you wish. You should relax…it’s going to be a long trip.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you!” Liz cried defiantly, “You’re going to pay when Max finds out what you’ve done.”
Nicholas laughed at that. “You know…Tess said the exact same thing to me just the other day,” he remarked, unaffected, “I’ve haven’t ‘paid’ yet so I can’t say I’m quaking right now.”
“You can’t have my baby!” Liz screamed, “You’re deluded if you think you can.”
“What is it with you humans and this omnipotent complex you seem to possess?” Nicholas jeered, “Let me clarify the situation for you, sweets. You are my prisoner. I have the upper hand right now. Your precious Max has no idea where the hell you are at this moment because he’s too busy chasing after the false leads I planted for him. And, by the time he figures it out, we’ll be long gone from this planet.”
“I don’t believe you,” Liz replied shakily.
“Yes, you do,” Nicholas countered smugly, “That’s why that lower lip is all a tremble right now.”
“Go to hell!”
Nicholas feigned hurt. “Such language,” he admonished laughingly, “And after I went to such trouble to make sure you were comfortable and happy. Talk about being an ingrate, Liz.”
“I’ll kill you…I swear I will,” Liz vowed, stalking towards them.
“Ah…ah,” he scolded, prompting her to stop just before she reached the force field, “Remember the voltage. Don’t forget yourself, sweets. If you let anything happen to that baby well then I’d surely have to kill you.”
“You’re a bastard.”
“Yeah, I know…I know,” Nicholas sighed indifferently, “Like I said…get comfortable. You’re going to be here for a long, good while.”
Liz growled in frustration as he walked away, wanting to wipe that damned smug grin off his face in the most painful way possible but knowing she couldn’t. Instead she satisfied herself by tossing the tiny cell upside down in a frantic search for escape. There was a tiny window obstructed by metal bars but it only led into yet another cell. Liz quickly learned that, other than the entrance that was fortified with the force field, she could find no vents or openings that might provide escape. Still, she kept up her fruitless search because it gave her some sense of control.
“You’re wasting your time.” Liz froze when the voice sounded behind her, not because she was startled but because the sound was so familiar. She knew that voice. “Don’t I even get a hello, Parker?” Liz pivoted around slowly on her heel, her face draining of color and her limbs trembling.
His face was pressed against the bars of the window. On jellied knees Liz drifted closer, caught somewhere between disbelief and hope. The prisoner’s face was obscured behind a scraggly beard and his hair was tousled and unkempt but Liz would have recognized those blue eyes anywhere…laughing blue eyes, eyes she thought she’d never see again.
The blood roared in her ears as she advanced ever closer, her mind rebelling against what she saw but her heart rejoicing wildly over the possibility. When she stood just beneath the window he grinned at her, weary and worn, but genuine still the same. “It’s good to see you again, Liz, but your timing could have been better,” he joked, “What took you so long?”
“Oh my God…” Liz uttered, lifting one trembling hand to finger the rough, curling hair of his beard, “Alex, is that you…”
Alex clasped hold of her hand and pressed a firm kiss to her knuckles. “It’s me, Liz…”
“Oh my God…” she sobbed again, “You’re not dead…you’re not dead…”
“No Parker, I’m not,” he answered somberly, “I never was.”
Liz wanted to shout with joy, to weep with relief but the emotions flooding her body right then were suddenly too much to contain. Her head swam fuzzily and her vision doubled. As she fell to the floor Liz was vaguely aware of Alex’s crying out her name and making a desperate grab for her arm.
She fainted with a smile.
Max burst into the motel room he shared with Liz approximately fifteen minutes after Tess’ ominous revelation but he was not surprised to find it empty. Ever since Tess revealed that Nicholas would go after Liz, Max had known that the skin already had her. Their room had not been ransacked. In fact, it looked oddly the same as when he’d left it, except that Liz was no longer tucked safely between the bed sheets.
“Maybe she went to get herself something to eat,” Maria suggested lamely, surveying the almost baffling order of the room. It didn’t look to her like Liz had been kidnapped.
“No,” Max denied gruffly, “he has her.”
He fell to his knees at the side of the bed and ran his open palm across the sheets, bidding the flashes to come. She didn’t even have time to struggle. Nicholas had come in when she was still groggy with sleep. He had done something to her, wormed his way into her head so that she had merely walked out the room with him. Max could tell something was wrong from her slackened expression, her vacant eyes. It was as if she’d been hypnotized. As Liz and Nicholas exited the room in his vision Max concentrated hard on the glowing red numbers of the digital clock. Nicholas had made his move just ten minutes after they’d all left that morning.
“That son of a bitch,” Max hissed, shaking off the flash and surging to his feet, “He was just waiting for us to leave this morning. He’s got a four hour head start on us already!”
“Where’s he headed?” Michael asked when the others seemed incapable of speech.
“The pod chamber,” Tess answered quietly, “Now that he has Liz he’ll want to secure the Granolith and leave the planet for Antar.”
“The pod chamber,” Isabel echoed shortly, “He doesn’t even know where to find it.”
Maria forsook that part for the latter. “What the hell do you mean by ‘leave the planet’?”
“I mean leave the planet,” Tess clarified and then she shook her head sadly before turning her shameful stare towards the floor. “And it’s not so true that Nicholas doesn’t know how to find the pod chamber,” she mumbled, “He knows everything I know. There’s not a part of my mind that wasn’t accessible to him.”
“Great!” Maria muttered in misplaced anger and frustration.
“It’s not your fault,” Kyle whispered to Tess, pulling her stiffened body closer, “Nicholas took those things from your mind. You didn’t help him willingly.”
“None of that matters if he has Liz!” Max cried sharply, “Enough talk! We need to get back to Roswell!”
“Max, we’ll never make it in time!” Isabel cried as he ran out to his car, “Liz is probably half-way to our world right now!”
“No!” Max snapped back as he ducked into the jeep, “I won’t believe that! Tess, get in! I want you to explain to me everything that’s going on.”
Tess threw Kyle a helpless glance of longing but scurried to do as Max ordered. The moment she was secured in her seat belt he stamped on the gas and peeled out of there, leaving the others with no choice but to do the same. “So is Isabel right?” he asked glumly, “Is all this pointless? Is Liz lost to me?”
“You might still make it to her in time,” Tess rallied optimistically, “Nicholas will have to prepare the ship…which may take a few hours. That might buy us some time to get there.”
Max leveled her with a penetrating look, sensing the lack of conviction in her tone. “Now tell me the truth,” he said flatly.
“You’ll never make it there in time,” she murmured sadly, “I’m sorry, Max.”
“Are you?” he barked bitterly, “Because I know you were never very keen on the idea of Liz and I being together. Now I’ve probably lost her for good…and our baby, too. Isn’t this what you wanted all along?”
“No.”
“Sure, Tess,” he tossed back sarcastically.
“I won’t deny that you were right about me once, Max,” Tess whispered, “I wasn’t very happy with the idea of you and Liz being together. Nasedo raised me to believe that you and I belonged together. And for a long time I believed that with everything I had. I really believed it, Max. I thought everything I did to you was justified because I had to help you to believe that, too.”
“But I don’t believe that, Tess,” Max said softly, “I never have and I never will. Even if Liz and I don’t see each other again I…I can never be with you. I belong with Liz. I love her more than anything. I don’t want to be with anyone else.”
“You don’t have to convince me, Max,” Tess told him quietly, “I know that Liz is the one you want and I’m over it.”
“So why is all this happening?” he cried, “Why is Nicholas targeting us again? I thought he was dead. I thought this was over.”
“As far as I’m able to tell Nicholas first screwed around with my head back in New York,” Tess replied, “That whole thing in the school with the fireball was just a trick. But I didn’t realize that…not then. Things didn’t really start to get confusing for me until I came back from Vegas. That’s when I started having all the strange dreams about Alex and Nicholas and when everything started getting fuzzy for me.” A pregnant pause fell between them at the mention of Alex. Tess stared down at her hands in visible shame. “Thanks for…um…what you said back at the house,” she mumbled, “You could have told them the truth about what happened to Alex but you didn’t.”
“I did tell them the truth,” Max insisted, “Nicholas is the reason Alex is dead, not you. He’s the one who should pay.”
“I should have been stronger,” Tess mumbled, turning her conflicted gaze out the window, “I should have been able to protect him. I’m sorry, Max. I’m so sorry.”
His instinct was to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder to give her some reassurance. That’s what he would have done for Isabel or Maria, but Max hadn’t reached the point yet where he could freely touch Tess. So much had happened between then that it was simply his natural inclination to keep emotionally distanced from her. Still, he was aware of the hell she’d been through and he made an effort to be kind to her.
“You did what you could,” Max told her, “There’s nothing we can do for Alex now.” Tess sniffled and Max’s heart lurched a bit to know she was crying. Tears made her…vulnerable somehow…human… Max felt himself softening towards her even though he wasn’t sure he wanted to. “I don’t blame you for what happened,” he said.
“But the others will,” Tess predicted, “Especially Liz.” She brushed away the last remnants of her tears and straightened in her seat. “I’m going to tell them all the truth, Max,” she stated implacably, “I…I really appreciate what you did for me back there but I can’t hide behind you. I need to face what I did and the consequences.”
“Tess, you couldn’t control what you did anymore than I could control the things you made me feel and do.”
“That’s a reason, not an excuse,” Tess replied dully, “I guess now I know how it feels to have someone fuck around with your head.” She appraised Max with a sorrowful glance. “I’m sorry for those things I did to you when I first arrived, Max. It was really twisted of me to invade your mind that way and…and I’m not surprised you had a hard time trusting me because of it.”
“It’s over, Tess,” Max said, dismissing the events altogether, “We need to focus on getting to Liz. What’s going to happen to her if Nicholas manages to take her back to Antar? Can she even survive there?”
“I’m sure she can,” Tess assured him, “After all, we can survive here. It only makes sense.”
“What do they want with her?”
“Well, I suppose Khivar and Nicholas are going to go through with the plan they had for me originally,” Tess considered.
“Which was?”
“Challenge your right to the throne and then name your heir as the successor,” she explained, “You see…you’re on shaky ground with our people, Max. The planet has been experiencing civil unrest. There have been power plays for the throne from everyone, not just Khivar and the nation is divided. The people want to follow you but… Your seeming indifference and your refusal to return home has furthered Khivar’s agenda. If he can convince the people that you’re unfit to rule and replace you with your child then all he has to do is form a union with Liz to rule the planets uncontested.”
“What happens to Liz after that?” Max asked fearfully.
“Once he’s established himself as the baby’s legal guardian he won’t need Liz anymore,” Tess reasoned, “It’s likely he’ll…get rid of her then.”
Max groaned, his mind playing torturous images of Liz being mistreated and abused and all because of him. “God… God, what have I done?”
“He won’t hurt her,” Tess assured him confidently, “Not until after the baby is born. Everything he wants hinges on that baby. If anything he’ll treat her like royalty because of it.”
“So what are we supposed to do?” Max railed, “If Nicholas has already left the planet with Liz how the hell are we supposed to go after her without a ship? How am I supposed to help her…or our child.”
“I might know where to find a ship,” Tess murmured quietly.
“What?” Max pierced her with a dissecting glance. “You know of a ship and you never told us?”
“I said I might,” she corrected pointedly, “It’s a long shot but I…I overheard Nasedo talking once about a ship he kept underground in case he had to leave the planet fast. After he was murdered that possibility looked even more likely because he obviously knew he couldn’t trust the Skins so maybe there’s a ship after all.”
“Where?”
“Marathon, Texas,” Tess answered, “There’s apparently some kind of dome there and the ship is supposed to be hidden in the ground beneath it.”
“No…we were there,” Max replied with a protesting shake of his head, “We went underground…and there was no ship. There was nothing beneath that dome but a bunch of dusty files.”
“It can’t hurt to look, right?” Tess said, “What do we have to lose?”
“And if there is a ship…how will we navigate it?”
“I know a few things,” Tess said, “We’ll manage somehow. Our biggest problem will be getting it off the planet undetected.”
“God, I hope we don’t need it,” Max muttered, “I hope we make it to her in time.”
“I hope so, too, Max,” Tess said and from the way her voice trembled with remorse as she said the words Max could almost believe she meant them.
~~~***~~~***~~~
Liz awoke in a cell. White, immaculate and certainly high-tech but a cell just the same. The moment her eyelids fluttered up her vision was filled with Nicholas’ malevolent face. He hovered above her, his expression strangely thoughtful as he regarded her prone form. Liz launched herself at him in a moment of pure fury only to realize there was an invisible force field separating them. She received a jolting shock for her efforts.
“That was just a warning,” Nicholas told her, “Now I’m upping the voltage. Touch it again and you’ll be a barbecued briquette.” Liz took a reflexive step back from the entrance of her cell, her chest heaving with fear. “That’s a smart girl,” Nicholas commended blandly, “I must say…Zan sure can pick them.”
“What do you want from me?” Liz uttered.
“Isn’t that obvious by now?” Nicholas whispered, “Already your body is beginning to change…grow… I think pregnancy is a beautiful process, don’t you?”
“You’re…you’re crazy,” Liz replied breathlessly, stumbling back a few extra steps.
“I think you’ll find yourself comfortable here,” Nicholas went on blandly, “You’ll have all the amenities of home. A bed, hot meals, any entertainment you wish. You should relax…it’s going to be a long trip.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you!” Liz cried defiantly, “You’re going to pay when Max finds out what you’ve done.”
Nicholas laughed at that. “You know…Tess said the exact same thing to me just the other day,” he remarked, unaffected, “I’ve haven’t ‘paid’ yet so I can’t say I’m quaking right now.”
“You can’t have my baby!” Liz screamed, “You’re deluded if you think you can.”
“What is it with you humans and this omnipotent complex you seem to possess?” Nicholas jeered, “Let me clarify the situation for you, sweets. You are my prisoner. I have the upper hand right now. Your precious Max has no idea where the hell you are at this moment because he’s too busy chasing after the false leads I planted for him. And, by the time he figures it out, we’ll be long gone from this planet.”
“I don’t believe you,” Liz replied shakily.
“Yes, you do,” Nicholas countered smugly, “That’s why that lower lip is all a tremble right now.”
“Go to hell!”
Nicholas feigned hurt. “Such language,” he admonished laughingly, “And after I went to such trouble to make sure you were comfortable and happy. Talk about being an ingrate, Liz.”
“I’ll kill you…I swear I will,” Liz vowed, stalking towards them.
“Ah…ah,” he scolded, prompting her to stop just before she reached the force field, “Remember the voltage. Don’t forget yourself, sweets. If you let anything happen to that baby well then I’d surely have to kill you.”
“You’re a bastard.”
“Yeah, I know…I know,” Nicholas sighed indifferently, “Like I said…get comfortable. You’re going to be here for a long, good while.”
Liz growled in frustration as he walked away, wanting to wipe that damned smug grin off his face in the most painful way possible but knowing she couldn’t. Instead she satisfied herself by tossing the tiny cell upside down in a frantic search for escape. There was a tiny window obstructed by metal bars but it only led into yet another cell. Liz quickly learned that, other than the entrance that was fortified with the force field, she could find no vents or openings that might provide escape. Still, she kept up her fruitless search because it gave her some sense of control.
“You’re wasting your time.” Liz froze when the voice sounded behind her, not because she was startled but because the sound was so familiar. She knew that voice. “Don’t I even get a hello, Parker?” Liz pivoted around slowly on her heel, her face draining of color and her limbs trembling.
His face was pressed against the bars of the window. On jellied knees Liz drifted closer, caught somewhere between disbelief and hope. The prisoner’s face was obscured behind a scraggly beard and his hair was tousled and unkempt but Liz would have recognized those blue eyes anywhere…laughing blue eyes, eyes she thought she’d never see again.
The blood roared in her ears as she advanced ever closer, her mind rebelling against what she saw but her heart rejoicing wildly over the possibility. When she stood just beneath the window he grinned at her, weary and worn, but genuine still the same. “It’s good to see you again, Liz, but your timing could have been better,” he joked, “What took you so long?”
“Oh my God…” Liz uttered, lifting one trembling hand to finger the rough, curling hair of his beard, “Alex, is that you…”
Alex clasped hold of her hand and pressed a firm kiss to her knuckles. “It’s me, Liz…”
“Oh my God…” she sobbed again, “You’re not dead…you’re not dead…”
“No Parker, I’m not,” he answered somberly, “I never was.”
Liz wanted to shout with joy, to weep with relief but the emotions flooding her body right then were suddenly too much to contain. Her head swam fuzzily and her vision doubled. As she fell to the floor Liz was vaguely aware of Alex’s crying out her name and making a desperate grab for her arm.
She fainted with a smile.
-
Deejonaise
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- Posts: 385
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Chapter 16
It was the sensation of cold water being doused against her face that brought Liz back to reality. Her eyes popped open abruptly and she was both stunned and relieved to see that Alex had not disappeared. Though he still looked as scruffy as ever there was no denying he was real and alive. He hadn’t been a figment of her imagination after all. She hadn’t conjured up his image in her grief. He was really there before her, his face pressed into the cold iron bars, his blue eyes clouded with worry.
“You okay, Liz?” he asked, “You hit the floor kinda hard.”
She nodded slowly and pushed herself upright before rolling to her feet, ignoring the wave of vertigo that came with the motion. “You’re really here,” she breathed in wonder.
Alex could manage nothing more than a grateful smile and quiet nod. When she had collapsed to the floor so abruptly he had been wild with panic. His frustration and fear grew with his inability to get to her. As a last ditch effort he had flung water on her face to revive her and, thankfully, it had worked.
Liz touched him as much as she could through the bar barrier, his eyes, his hair, his cheeks. Each glance across his face reaffirmed reality. He was really there. He was really alive. Liz couldn’t check the tears falling from her eyes. “Alex, what’s going on?” she wondered in weepy confusion, “We saw you in the casket. We saw them bury you. This can’t be happening. Am I just going crazy right now?”
“You’re not crazy, Liz. You did see someone in that casket,” Alex told her, seeming to share her same rabid need to touch, “But it wasn’t me… It was a husk made to look like me. Nicholas set the whole thing up. He faked my death.” He expelled a mirthless chuckle. “God, Parker…I never thought I’d see you again…”
“I don’t understand,” Liz mumbled in a daze, “Why would he do that to you, Alex? What does he want? Is this about Isabel and…and Khivar…is that why?”
“It would be easier if it was,” Alex muttered, “But…Khivar and Nicholas want me for a different reason altogether.”
“What reason?” Liz asked fearfully, “Alex, what’s going on?”
“The Granolith,” Alex whispered, “It’s very powerful. They think I can help them learn how to harness that power.”
Liz swallowed spasmodically at his reply, her palms beginning to sweat with agitation. “How would you know that, Alex? How would you know anything about the Granolith at all?” She linked her fingers with his through the bars, needing to have some physical contact with him for the badness she knew was to come.
“I’ve been translating the Destiny Book for several months now,” Alex explained quietly, “And the book references the Granolith’s power. There’s reported to be a book that shows exactly how to control that power…and that’s how I know so much.”
“You’ve been translating the Destiny Book,” Liz echoed blankly, “For months? But you never said a word. Why would you just start translating the book and then not say anything to anyone about it?” Almost the moment Liz asked the question the answer came to her. “It was Tess, wasn’t it? She made you do it…Isabel, Michael and Max would have never asked in the first place.”
“It’s not what you think, Liz,” Alex rushed out.
“I knew she was behind this,” Liz seethed, “All this craziness has been all her fault!”
“Liz, it’s not like that,” Alex said, “Tess…she was trying to help me but she was really as helpless as I was. It was Nicholas who manipulated this whole thing. It was Nicholas who faked my death and it was Nicholas who wanted the translation for the Destiny Book. Tess didn’t have any control over the situation.”
“But I don’t get it,” Liz reasoned aloud to herself, “If you’ve already translated the book for him then why is he keeping you at all? Why fake your death?”
“He wants something else from me…something bigger,” Alex told her grimly, “Faking my death just helped to tie up some loose ends. I…I don’t know exactly what he expects I will accomplish for him but I know it’s the only thing…it’s the only thing keeping him from killing me.”
Liz stared up into his eyes, shivering over their lack of vibrant sheen, the dull acceptance she found there. The blue lacked sparkle now, something uncharacteristic for Alex Whitman. It was almost as if…he’d just given up.
“Alex, don’t say things like that,” she whimpered, “We have to be positive.”
But Liz was finding that prospect difficult herself. Alex’s ominous declaration made her fear even more for her unborn child. Liz felt helpless and vulnerable. If she couldn’t protect herself then how was she supposed to shield her baby? And what if Nicholas decided he didn’t need her child after all…what would he do then?
“So where are we right now,” she asked tentatively, glancing around her small room.
“I think you know already,” Alex replied ominously.
“No…no…” she cried angrily, “I’m not going to accept that! I won’t!”
“Liz, you don’t want to be trouble. Nicholas is ruthless,” Alex warned, “I…I think he already killed Tess and who knows how many others before her…”
“Tess is dead?” Liz breathed in disbelief.
“Nicholas was with her the other night,” Alex recounted softly, “He went after her into this abandoned house where she’d evidently hidden the book translation. But when Nicholas came out later…Tess didn’t… I drew my own conclusions based of what I’ve already seen of him. When he doesn’t need you anymore he…just gets rid of you. There’s no human feeling in him at all. He’s sick, Liz. He actually takes pleasure out of causing other people pain.”
“Alex?”
“You should have seen his face the day of my funeral,” Alex expounded in embittered reverie, “He watched my parents grieve for me…watched my mother all but breakdown and he laughed about it, like it was some great joke. I saw how much pain you all were in because he made me watch it. It was like I was dying for real…” He mutinously blinked back the tears gathering in his eyes, as if he’d already shed enough and refused to give any more.
Liz’s heart ached for him, for the newfound hardness she sensed in him. “God, Alex….” she wept in both pity and fear. She was crying for them both.
She wilted into the wall as Alex’s mournful account caused a wild trembling to spread through her limbs like wildfire. It was difficult to imagine anything intimidating about a pubescent thirteen-year-old boy but obviously Nicholas made up for his lack of stature and presence in unmitigated cruelty. Liz had only experienced a small taste but she could tell he got off on making other people unhappy.
“We have to get off this ship, Alex,” Liz mumbled, “If we stay then he’ll kill us for sure.”
“There’s no way, Liz,” Alex replied glumly, “I’ve already tried but Nicholas is quite good at mind control. Frankly, I’ve had all I can stand of people walking around in my head uninvited. I try to antagonize him as little as possible.”
“We can’t just stay here,” Liz protested in agitation.
“We can’t risk escape either,” Alex pointed out softly, “Liz, you…you need to think about your baby.” Liz ducked her head at his quiet observation, feeling his searching eyes bore into the top of her head. “So it’s true then?” he asked quietly, “You’re pregnant?” Liz jerked a nod. “And it’s Max’s?” Another nod. “So…um…I guess that means you guys got over that whole Kyle thing, huh?”
“Oh,” Liz groaned, closing her eyes, “The Kyle thing…you don’t know about that…”
“Recent development?” Alex queried. Liz nodded. “Yeah…I’ve been a little busy the last couple of days,” he joked, “Lay it on me.”
“It’s a new revelation actually,” Liz clarified sheepishly, “Basically the thing with Kyle was a set-up. I never slept with him. I was just trying to drive Max away.”
“I figured that,” Alex mumbled, “You’ve never been the type to have casual sex, Parker, and even if you were I’d think you’d set your standards higher than jock-boy.”
“Yeah…well…I’d tell you why I did everything I did but…” she fell into momentary silence, her eyes roaming about the wide expanse of her cell room, “…the walls probably have ears if you know what I mean.”
“Liz, I don’t want to scare you but…Nicholas can find out anything he wants,” Alex whispered, “He can strip you with just a touch. I watched him do it to Tess and I’ve experienced a taste of it myself. Don’t cross him. Play along and protect your baby, Liz. Those are your two priorities.”
“What about you?” she asked.
“What about me?” he countered.
“Everyone…all our friends were devastated to learn you’d been killed,” Liz said, “They’ll want to know you’re safe and alive.”
“I doubt we’ll be sharing that happy news anytime soon, Parker.” He flicked his eyes about his own cell as well as her own. “I think you and I are going to be here for a good, long while.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
Nicholas stepped into the Granolith chamber and felt currents of spiritual energy ripple through his body. He fell to his knees with a reverent gasp, cradling the crystal in his palms like a precious jewel. The otherworldly blue light from the incandescent relic bathed his skin, saturated his entire body. For Nicholas the moment was akin to looking on the very face of God. Magnificent, awe-inspiring… He stared down at the crystal and tightened his fingers around the crystal as a streak of covetous possessiveness thudded in his heart. There was no reason he had to turn the Granolith over to Khivar, was it? If he possessed it then he would be the one with all the power…
“Remember whom you serve, Orayn.”
Nicholas lurched around to face the sentinel but the blackened eyes of the guard alerted him that this was no longer his subordinate standing before him, but his master. As much as Nicholas prided himself on his mind manipulation gift Khivar put his abilities to shame. Not because Khivar was as adept…no one was but because Nicholas mindwarps always proved useless against his master. Nicholas knew better than to make the attempt.
Scrambling to his feet, he affected his most deferential posture. “I am readying the ship at this very moment, my lord,” Nicholas replied dutifully, “We should be prepared for take-off within the hour.”
“Do not think of betraying me, Orayn,” Khivar warned coolly, “You have been a loyal servant to me thus far but I would not hesitate to dispose of you if the need arose.”
“Yes, my lord,” Nicholas agreed with uncharacteristic meekness, “I was not thinking clearly.”
“You were not,” Khivar agreed, extending one hand for the crystal, “But then the power of the Granolith tends to blind one.” Nicholas passed it over without even a whimper of protest. Khivar stared down at the glinting rod in his hand with reverential wonder. “I have waited nearly a century for this, Orayn.” Khivar regarded the Granolith in unconcealed hunger, skating his fingers over the cool, sleek surface. “I had another dream last night,” he informed Nicholas, “I am more certain than ever that Zan’s heir is the key. His blood will unlock the Granolith and I will have the entire Universe at my feet. Through his sacrifice I shall have glory.”
“But you’re not certain,” Nicholas dared to venture.
Khivar conceded his point. “I must have the translation to be sure,” he admitted, “But I have no doubt my premonitions are correct. I will rule our world…and this one. I will rule them all.”
He knelt down at the base of the Granolith and inserted the crystal into the hull. The metal liquefied and concealed around the crystal, humming to life when both the materials were joined. A moment later the relic began to glow and pulsate, filling the cavern with a white, blinding light. Nicholas shielded himself against the brightness but Khivar continued to look on, a smile of anticipation quivering on his mouth. When it finally winked out, leaving behind its characteristic low blue light, Khivar found an inscription at the base of the massive structure. He traced over the grooved symbols with the tips of his fingers. “So it isn’t a book after all…” he murmured in amazement.
“My lord?” Nicholas knelt before him, mimicking his master and tracing the foreign letters as well. “Do you recognize what it says?”
“No,” Khivar answered but without discouragement, “It is the ancient language. No one has been able to read it for eons until… You have the boy, do you not?”
“He’s secured right alongside the Parker girl, my lord.”
“It is something of a blow to the ego that our own people could not manage this after so many centuries,” Khivar muttered, “These humans are primitive, pathetic beings and yet…we are in their debt, are we not, Orayn. Ironic wouldn’t you say?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“I want to begin work as soon as you’ve returned to Antar,” Khivar concluded, straightening, “The gods have blessed the human with a gift and he will serve us well, Orayn. Everything is happening as I planned it.” He pinned Nicholas with a hard look, tempered with impatience. “I will expect you to leave within the hour,” he commanded.
“As you wish, my lord.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“…and they deliver your meals to you three times a day,” Alex explained to Liz, “You get all the reading material you want and there’s a monitor in the console beside your cot. You can even watch television.”
As Alex ticked off the perks of her cell room Liz couldn’t help but feel a flash of pity for him. He sounded so…resigned, as if he’d given up all hope. “Alex, you know we won’t be here forever,” Liz whispered, “Max is going to find us. He’ll fix this.”
“How will he do that, Liz?” Alex countered dully, “The only person who could possibly tell him what’s going on is Tess and she’s dead now.”
“You have to keep a positive outlook,” Liz rallied.
“I’m afraid I’m all out of positivism, Liz,” Alex mumbled, “I guess you could say that I’m broken. You don’t know the hell I’ve been through this last week. At night I’m afraid to fall asleep because I don’t know if I’ll wake up in the morning and in the morning I’m afraid to open my eyes because I don’t know what horrors the new day will bring. I’ve been living on the edge of a cliff. I just want this all to be over.” He snorted, tears welling in his eyes once more. “It’s not like once it is over anything will be better though, huh?” he sobbed, “I still can’t go home. My fucking parents think I’m dead!”
“Oh, Alex…” Liz murmured tearfully, “Tell me what happened to you.”
“I…I went to see Tess,” Alex recounted shakily, “I…I finally figured out that she was warping me into translating the book but… Something was off. I couldn’t figure out what it was. Anyway, I kept begging her not to do it again, that she was killing me but she kept on muttering to herself, arguing back and forth.
“I thought she was going crazy,” he said, “But then…she invaded my head again and it felt like my brain exploded. When I opened my eyes again I was here and with the worst headache I’ve ever had in my life. The pain was so bad…I wanted to die for real.”
“So Tess was mindwarping you,” Liz surmised bitterly, “That bitch almost killed you.”
“I told you it was complicated, Liz,” Alex whispered, “I was here for a couple of days when I found out the truth. Nicholas has been controlling Tess. After my ‘death’ I guess his hold on her started to crack and Tess started to come out of the warp.”
“She has been acting erratic lately,” Liz considered in an underbreath, “Or…she had been acting weird.” She still hadn’t processed the news that Tess was dead. Too much was happening too fast and Liz wasn’t processing a single thing. She was simply drifting through her reality in a dazed fog.
“When you come out of an extended warp it’s really confusing,” Alex told her, “You can’t tell what’s reality and what’s not. I was still half convinced that my funeral was a mindwarp, too, until I saw you today.”
“What are you saying, Alex?”
“That Tess went through the same hell I did,” he said, “I don’t blame her and…I don’t want you to blame her anymore either. At least she has some peace now. We’re the ones who are about to suffer.”
“Alex…what do you mean by that?” Liz asked grimly.
Right on the heels of Liz’s question the ground beneath her feet began a hushed rumbling. She glanced up sharply at Alex, her eyes going round while Alex merely sighed with the inevitable. “What’s happening?”
“You should buckle yourself into the safety harness, Liz,” Alex advised, stepping away from the bars, his shoulders hunched with weary defeat. He was like a lifer in the penitentiary, completely institutionalized. His demeanor alarmed Liz more than the apparent movement of the ship.
“But, Alex, what’s happening?” she screamed out in terror but she already knew. Dear Lord, she already did! “Alex?”
“We’re taking off, Liz,” Alex sighed in resignation. She pressed up against the window, watching with frantic eyes as he strapped himself in. “Strap in,” he told her again, “I’m sure this is bound to be a rough ride.”
“Alex, we’re not…”
“…leaving the planet?” he queried dully, “Yeah, Liz…we are.”
It was the sensation of cold water being doused against her face that brought Liz back to reality. Her eyes popped open abruptly and she was both stunned and relieved to see that Alex had not disappeared. Though he still looked as scruffy as ever there was no denying he was real and alive. He hadn’t been a figment of her imagination after all. She hadn’t conjured up his image in her grief. He was really there before her, his face pressed into the cold iron bars, his blue eyes clouded with worry.
“You okay, Liz?” he asked, “You hit the floor kinda hard.”
She nodded slowly and pushed herself upright before rolling to her feet, ignoring the wave of vertigo that came with the motion. “You’re really here,” she breathed in wonder.
Alex could manage nothing more than a grateful smile and quiet nod. When she had collapsed to the floor so abruptly he had been wild with panic. His frustration and fear grew with his inability to get to her. As a last ditch effort he had flung water on her face to revive her and, thankfully, it had worked.
Liz touched him as much as she could through the bar barrier, his eyes, his hair, his cheeks. Each glance across his face reaffirmed reality. He was really there. He was really alive. Liz couldn’t check the tears falling from her eyes. “Alex, what’s going on?” she wondered in weepy confusion, “We saw you in the casket. We saw them bury you. This can’t be happening. Am I just going crazy right now?”
“You’re not crazy, Liz. You did see someone in that casket,” Alex told her, seeming to share her same rabid need to touch, “But it wasn’t me… It was a husk made to look like me. Nicholas set the whole thing up. He faked my death.” He expelled a mirthless chuckle. “God, Parker…I never thought I’d see you again…”
“I don’t understand,” Liz mumbled in a daze, “Why would he do that to you, Alex? What does he want? Is this about Isabel and…and Khivar…is that why?”
“It would be easier if it was,” Alex muttered, “But…Khivar and Nicholas want me for a different reason altogether.”
“What reason?” Liz asked fearfully, “Alex, what’s going on?”
“The Granolith,” Alex whispered, “It’s very powerful. They think I can help them learn how to harness that power.”
Liz swallowed spasmodically at his reply, her palms beginning to sweat with agitation. “How would you know that, Alex? How would you know anything about the Granolith at all?” She linked her fingers with his through the bars, needing to have some physical contact with him for the badness she knew was to come.
“I’ve been translating the Destiny Book for several months now,” Alex explained quietly, “And the book references the Granolith’s power. There’s reported to be a book that shows exactly how to control that power…and that’s how I know so much.”
“You’ve been translating the Destiny Book,” Liz echoed blankly, “For months? But you never said a word. Why would you just start translating the book and then not say anything to anyone about it?” Almost the moment Liz asked the question the answer came to her. “It was Tess, wasn’t it? She made you do it…Isabel, Michael and Max would have never asked in the first place.”
“It’s not what you think, Liz,” Alex rushed out.
“I knew she was behind this,” Liz seethed, “All this craziness has been all her fault!”
“Liz, it’s not like that,” Alex said, “Tess…she was trying to help me but she was really as helpless as I was. It was Nicholas who manipulated this whole thing. It was Nicholas who faked my death and it was Nicholas who wanted the translation for the Destiny Book. Tess didn’t have any control over the situation.”
“But I don’t get it,” Liz reasoned aloud to herself, “If you’ve already translated the book for him then why is he keeping you at all? Why fake your death?”
“He wants something else from me…something bigger,” Alex told her grimly, “Faking my death just helped to tie up some loose ends. I…I don’t know exactly what he expects I will accomplish for him but I know it’s the only thing…it’s the only thing keeping him from killing me.”
Liz stared up into his eyes, shivering over their lack of vibrant sheen, the dull acceptance she found there. The blue lacked sparkle now, something uncharacteristic for Alex Whitman. It was almost as if…he’d just given up.
“Alex, don’t say things like that,” she whimpered, “We have to be positive.”
But Liz was finding that prospect difficult herself. Alex’s ominous declaration made her fear even more for her unborn child. Liz felt helpless and vulnerable. If she couldn’t protect herself then how was she supposed to shield her baby? And what if Nicholas decided he didn’t need her child after all…what would he do then?
“So where are we right now,” she asked tentatively, glancing around her small room.
“I think you know already,” Alex replied ominously.
“No…no…” she cried angrily, “I’m not going to accept that! I won’t!”
“Liz, you don’t want to be trouble. Nicholas is ruthless,” Alex warned, “I…I think he already killed Tess and who knows how many others before her…”
“Tess is dead?” Liz breathed in disbelief.
“Nicholas was with her the other night,” Alex recounted softly, “He went after her into this abandoned house where she’d evidently hidden the book translation. But when Nicholas came out later…Tess didn’t… I drew my own conclusions based of what I’ve already seen of him. When he doesn’t need you anymore he…just gets rid of you. There’s no human feeling in him at all. He’s sick, Liz. He actually takes pleasure out of causing other people pain.”
“Alex?”
“You should have seen his face the day of my funeral,” Alex expounded in embittered reverie, “He watched my parents grieve for me…watched my mother all but breakdown and he laughed about it, like it was some great joke. I saw how much pain you all were in because he made me watch it. It was like I was dying for real…” He mutinously blinked back the tears gathering in his eyes, as if he’d already shed enough and refused to give any more.
Liz’s heart ached for him, for the newfound hardness she sensed in him. “God, Alex….” she wept in both pity and fear. She was crying for them both.
She wilted into the wall as Alex’s mournful account caused a wild trembling to spread through her limbs like wildfire. It was difficult to imagine anything intimidating about a pubescent thirteen-year-old boy but obviously Nicholas made up for his lack of stature and presence in unmitigated cruelty. Liz had only experienced a small taste but she could tell he got off on making other people unhappy.
“We have to get off this ship, Alex,” Liz mumbled, “If we stay then he’ll kill us for sure.”
“There’s no way, Liz,” Alex replied glumly, “I’ve already tried but Nicholas is quite good at mind control. Frankly, I’ve had all I can stand of people walking around in my head uninvited. I try to antagonize him as little as possible.”
“We can’t just stay here,” Liz protested in agitation.
“We can’t risk escape either,” Alex pointed out softly, “Liz, you…you need to think about your baby.” Liz ducked her head at his quiet observation, feeling his searching eyes bore into the top of her head. “So it’s true then?” he asked quietly, “You’re pregnant?” Liz jerked a nod. “And it’s Max’s?” Another nod. “So…um…I guess that means you guys got over that whole Kyle thing, huh?”
“Oh,” Liz groaned, closing her eyes, “The Kyle thing…you don’t know about that…”
“Recent development?” Alex queried. Liz nodded. “Yeah…I’ve been a little busy the last couple of days,” he joked, “Lay it on me.”
“It’s a new revelation actually,” Liz clarified sheepishly, “Basically the thing with Kyle was a set-up. I never slept with him. I was just trying to drive Max away.”
“I figured that,” Alex mumbled, “You’ve never been the type to have casual sex, Parker, and even if you were I’d think you’d set your standards higher than jock-boy.”
“Yeah…well…I’d tell you why I did everything I did but…” she fell into momentary silence, her eyes roaming about the wide expanse of her cell room, “…the walls probably have ears if you know what I mean.”
“Liz, I don’t want to scare you but…Nicholas can find out anything he wants,” Alex whispered, “He can strip you with just a touch. I watched him do it to Tess and I’ve experienced a taste of it myself. Don’t cross him. Play along and protect your baby, Liz. Those are your two priorities.”
“What about you?” she asked.
“What about me?” he countered.
“Everyone…all our friends were devastated to learn you’d been killed,” Liz said, “They’ll want to know you’re safe and alive.”
“I doubt we’ll be sharing that happy news anytime soon, Parker.” He flicked his eyes about his own cell as well as her own. “I think you and I are going to be here for a good, long while.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
Nicholas stepped into the Granolith chamber and felt currents of spiritual energy ripple through his body. He fell to his knees with a reverent gasp, cradling the crystal in his palms like a precious jewel. The otherworldly blue light from the incandescent relic bathed his skin, saturated his entire body. For Nicholas the moment was akin to looking on the very face of God. Magnificent, awe-inspiring… He stared down at the crystal and tightened his fingers around the crystal as a streak of covetous possessiveness thudded in his heart. There was no reason he had to turn the Granolith over to Khivar, was it? If he possessed it then he would be the one with all the power…
“Remember whom you serve, Orayn.”
Nicholas lurched around to face the sentinel but the blackened eyes of the guard alerted him that this was no longer his subordinate standing before him, but his master. As much as Nicholas prided himself on his mind manipulation gift Khivar put his abilities to shame. Not because Khivar was as adept…no one was but because Nicholas mindwarps always proved useless against his master. Nicholas knew better than to make the attempt.
Scrambling to his feet, he affected his most deferential posture. “I am readying the ship at this very moment, my lord,” Nicholas replied dutifully, “We should be prepared for take-off within the hour.”
“Do not think of betraying me, Orayn,” Khivar warned coolly, “You have been a loyal servant to me thus far but I would not hesitate to dispose of you if the need arose.”
“Yes, my lord,” Nicholas agreed with uncharacteristic meekness, “I was not thinking clearly.”
“You were not,” Khivar agreed, extending one hand for the crystal, “But then the power of the Granolith tends to blind one.” Nicholas passed it over without even a whimper of protest. Khivar stared down at the glinting rod in his hand with reverential wonder. “I have waited nearly a century for this, Orayn.” Khivar regarded the Granolith in unconcealed hunger, skating his fingers over the cool, sleek surface. “I had another dream last night,” he informed Nicholas, “I am more certain than ever that Zan’s heir is the key. His blood will unlock the Granolith and I will have the entire Universe at my feet. Through his sacrifice I shall have glory.”
“But you’re not certain,” Nicholas dared to venture.
Khivar conceded his point. “I must have the translation to be sure,” he admitted, “But I have no doubt my premonitions are correct. I will rule our world…and this one. I will rule them all.”
He knelt down at the base of the Granolith and inserted the crystal into the hull. The metal liquefied and concealed around the crystal, humming to life when both the materials were joined. A moment later the relic began to glow and pulsate, filling the cavern with a white, blinding light. Nicholas shielded himself against the brightness but Khivar continued to look on, a smile of anticipation quivering on his mouth. When it finally winked out, leaving behind its characteristic low blue light, Khivar found an inscription at the base of the massive structure. He traced over the grooved symbols with the tips of his fingers. “So it isn’t a book after all…” he murmured in amazement.
“My lord?” Nicholas knelt before him, mimicking his master and tracing the foreign letters as well. “Do you recognize what it says?”
“No,” Khivar answered but without discouragement, “It is the ancient language. No one has been able to read it for eons until… You have the boy, do you not?”
“He’s secured right alongside the Parker girl, my lord.”
“It is something of a blow to the ego that our own people could not manage this after so many centuries,” Khivar muttered, “These humans are primitive, pathetic beings and yet…we are in their debt, are we not, Orayn. Ironic wouldn’t you say?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“I want to begin work as soon as you’ve returned to Antar,” Khivar concluded, straightening, “The gods have blessed the human with a gift and he will serve us well, Orayn. Everything is happening as I planned it.” He pinned Nicholas with a hard look, tempered with impatience. “I will expect you to leave within the hour,” he commanded.
“As you wish, my lord.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“…and they deliver your meals to you three times a day,” Alex explained to Liz, “You get all the reading material you want and there’s a monitor in the console beside your cot. You can even watch television.”
As Alex ticked off the perks of her cell room Liz couldn’t help but feel a flash of pity for him. He sounded so…resigned, as if he’d given up all hope. “Alex, you know we won’t be here forever,” Liz whispered, “Max is going to find us. He’ll fix this.”
“How will he do that, Liz?” Alex countered dully, “The only person who could possibly tell him what’s going on is Tess and she’s dead now.”
“You have to keep a positive outlook,” Liz rallied.
“I’m afraid I’m all out of positivism, Liz,” Alex mumbled, “I guess you could say that I’m broken. You don’t know the hell I’ve been through this last week. At night I’m afraid to fall asleep because I don’t know if I’ll wake up in the morning and in the morning I’m afraid to open my eyes because I don’t know what horrors the new day will bring. I’ve been living on the edge of a cliff. I just want this all to be over.” He snorted, tears welling in his eyes once more. “It’s not like once it is over anything will be better though, huh?” he sobbed, “I still can’t go home. My fucking parents think I’m dead!”
“Oh, Alex…” Liz murmured tearfully, “Tell me what happened to you.”
“I…I went to see Tess,” Alex recounted shakily, “I…I finally figured out that she was warping me into translating the book but… Something was off. I couldn’t figure out what it was. Anyway, I kept begging her not to do it again, that she was killing me but she kept on muttering to herself, arguing back and forth.
“I thought she was going crazy,” he said, “But then…she invaded my head again and it felt like my brain exploded. When I opened my eyes again I was here and with the worst headache I’ve ever had in my life. The pain was so bad…I wanted to die for real.”
“So Tess was mindwarping you,” Liz surmised bitterly, “That bitch almost killed you.”
“I told you it was complicated, Liz,” Alex whispered, “I was here for a couple of days when I found out the truth. Nicholas has been controlling Tess. After my ‘death’ I guess his hold on her started to crack and Tess started to come out of the warp.”
“She has been acting erratic lately,” Liz considered in an underbreath, “Or…she had been acting weird.” She still hadn’t processed the news that Tess was dead. Too much was happening too fast and Liz wasn’t processing a single thing. She was simply drifting through her reality in a dazed fog.
“When you come out of an extended warp it’s really confusing,” Alex told her, “You can’t tell what’s reality and what’s not. I was still half convinced that my funeral was a mindwarp, too, until I saw you today.”
“What are you saying, Alex?”
“That Tess went through the same hell I did,” he said, “I don’t blame her and…I don’t want you to blame her anymore either. At least she has some peace now. We’re the ones who are about to suffer.”
“Alex…what do you mean by that?” Liz asked grimly.
Right on the heels of Liz’s question the ground beneath her feet began a hushed rumbling. She glanced up sharply at Alex, her eyes going round while Alex merely sighed with the inevitable. “What’s happening?”
“You should buckle yourself into the safety harness, Liz,” Alex advised, stepping away from the bars, his shoulders hunched with weary defeat. He was like a lifer in the penitentiary, completely institutionalized. His demeanor alarmed Liz more than the apparent movement of the ship.
“But, Alex, what’s happening?” she screamed out in terror but she already knew. Dear Lord, she already did! “Alex?”
“We’re taking off, Liz,” Alex sighed in resignation. She pressed up against the window, watching with frantic eyes as he strapped himself in. “Strap in,” he told her again, “I’m sure this is bound to be a rough ride.”
“Alex, we’re not…”
“…leaving the planet?” he queried dully, “Yeah, Liz…we are.”
Last edited by Deejonaise on Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Deejonaise
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Chapter 17
There was nothing left.
The six teens stepped into the hollowed out chamber, their hearts brimming with insurmountable dread. Maria was the one to break the disbelieving silence with her harsh sobs. “No…no…no…” she wept brokenly, turning into Michael’s arms and burying her face deep in his chest while Max just stood there in shock.
“Max?” Isabel whispered tentatively, “Max, are you okay?”
“She can’t be gone,” he mumbled, stumbling around the empty chamber, “This isn’t happening. This isn’t…”
They had torn apart the pod chamber, leaving no stone unturned but there had been no sign of Liz or Nicholas, only a great, gaping hole in the ceiling of the cave. The sunlight that filtered down through the fissure was almost mocking them with its brilliant cheeriness. By the time they ducked into the Granolith chamber no one was surprised to see it gone.
Max staggered forward and fell to his knees. “No,” he groaned, rocking back and forth, “This isn’t happening…it’s not real…”
“Maxwell, you have to get a grip,” Michael said from somewhere beyond his shoulder, “We have to come up with some kind of plan. Now isn’t the time to break down.”
“We’re going to get her back,” Tess vowed to the disheartened group, “I swear we will.”
“And how would you know that?” Isabel snapped, “God, this is all your fault! You brought this chaos into our lives. You and destiny! Why did you and Nasedo have to find us at all?”
Tess flinched with every word, shrinking back into the craggy expanse of the cave wall with shimmering eyes. “I understand your need to blame someone…” Tess began woodenly.
“Oh shut up!” Maria snapped harshly, “She’s blaming you because you are to blame!”
“That’s enough,” Kyle barked, “She’s not responsible for what Nicholas has done.”
“No, they’re both right,” Tess whispered, shaking off the comforting hand Kyle offered. She refused to look at him and, therefore, missed the look of anguished hurt he gave her. “All this began when Nasedo came into your lives. He…He had an agenda from the very beginning and not necessarily one in your best interests. I knew that but…I kept silent.”
“So you’re as bad as he was,” Michael accused gruffly, cradling his weeping girlfriend closer, “You were just playing us the entire time!”
“I regret what I did,” Tess muttered.
“What does your regret get us?” Maria screamed hysterically, “Alex is still dead and Liz is still gone! But you’re still here, aren’t you? You’re like a fucking cat! Now that’s irony, dammit!” She broke down again, shoving Michael’s arms away to search out a place to weep in solitude.
“That’s enough,” Max interrupted dully, wiping away the tears tracking his cheeks, “Michael’s right. So let’s stop blaming each other and come up with a plan.”
“I gotta say I’m feeling a little powerless here, guys,” Kyle muttered, “I mean…Nicholas has left the planet. We don’t have a countermove for that.”
“Yes, we do,” Max countered flatly, “There’s a ship.”
“We think there’s a ship,” Tess corrected, “There’s no guarantee, Max.”
“Well, it’s the only hope we have right now,” Max argued.
“What the fuck are you two talking about?” Michael demanded.
“Tess thinks Nasedo may have hidden a ship,” Max answered him, “…Under the dome in Marathon, Texas.”
“No way, Maxwell,” Michael protested, “We were there, remember? There wasn’t a damned ship.”
“It can’t hurt to look, can it?” Maria asked desperately, “We owe it to Liz to explore every lead we’ve got!”
“Wait a minute!” Isabel cried, “We’re talking about leaving the planet, you guys! What about school? What about our parents? How are we even supposed to know what direction to travel?”
“What about Liz and my son,” Max whispered gruffly, “I’m not leaving them out there, Isabel. I won’t. So either you can either come with me or stay here…because for me it’s not an option.”
“Isabel, I can answer your last question,” Tess interjected quietly, “Nasedo said that the ships from our world are encoded with failsafe that we’ll autopilot the ship home in case of emergencies. All we have to do is activate it.”
“So then it’s a clear shot to Antar?” Michael asked, “We don’t have to do any work?”
“Well, you’ll have to steer clear of asteroid fields but…yeah, I guess so.”
“Can we survive on the planet?” Kyle asked, “Is there, like, oxygen or will we need spacesuits or some shit like that.”
“I’m pretty sure Antar’s atmosphere is similar to Earth’s,” Tess said.
“Pretty sure,” Kyle echoed with a grimace of discomfort, “Somehow I don’t feel very reassured.”
Michael gnawed at the inside of his cheek in consideration of these latest tidbits. He wasn’t so worried about Antar’s atmosphere though because he still wasn’t certain they could even make it to the planet in the first place. “How long will it take us to get there?”
“A little over a month,” Tess revealed quietly.
“So that doesn’t give us a very large window of opportunity,” Max said, going into commander mode. He had to keep focused and controlled; otherwise he’d never make it through the mission ahead. “Liz’s pregnancy is going to last roughly three months, maybe a little longer. We have to get to her before she gives birth. Khivar and Nicholas won’t harm her as long as she’s carrying our son.”
“Okay…so say the ship is there,” Isabel considered, playing devil’s advocate, “Autopilot aside…what happens when we have to steer the damned thing? We don’t know anything about UFO’s!”
“Trial and error,” Max said glibly, “We don’t really have a choice, Isabel.”
“Great,” Kyle muttered.
“Will we have chance to notify our folks?” Maria asked.
“No,” Max replied sadly, “I wish we had the time but we don’t. We need to stock up on supplies and then we have to leave with the clothes on our backs.”
“What if we don’t come home? We don’t know what we’re going to fucking face out there, Maxwell,” Michael grated fearfully.
“You’re right,” his friend agreed grimly, “We don’t.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“Alex, are you asleep?” Liz whispered loudly as she lay on her own cot.
“Not hardly,” Alex laughed mirthlessly, “I don’t sleep anymore, Liz. Too much changes when you open your eyes again.”
Liz blinked back tears of frustration and sorrow at his embittered reply. He seemed so cynical and hardened, so different from the happy, carefree Alex she’d once known. It made Liz wonder what he’d been through this last week. She suspected he hadn’t told her everything and, having glimpsed Nicholas penchant for merciless cruelty, Liz could guess that whatever had happened must have been horrific. Liz wanted to ask him about it but she lacked the courage. Instead, she focused on a less explosive subject.
“So how long will it take us to get there?” she wondered glumly, “Do you know?”
“About six weeks,” Alex sighed and then he added, as if he sensed her coming question, “I asked my guard. He’s surprisingly chatty.”
“Six weeks in this tiny room,” Liz uttered in misery, “I’ll go insane.”
“You won’t,” Alex countered, “I’ve been here a week already and…you acclimate.”
Liz shifted onto her side, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes only to be absorbed into the pillow beneath her cheek. “Aren’t you scared, Alex?” she sniffled. She had been lying there for the past hour, wondering if she would ever see her parents again and Maria and…Max. Her heart ached at the prospect of never seeing him again, never touching him… The pain was driving her stir crazy while Alex seemed strangely indifferent.
“Alex?”
“I’m scared every day, Liz,” he answered gruffly, “Every day I wake up in this place.”
“But you seem so together about everything,” she protested, “So…so cool… It’s freaking me out a little.”
“I have to be,” he told her, “If…if I let myself think about what’s happening…really think…I’d go crazy.”
“You mean because your parents think you committed suicide?” Liz murmured.
Alex choked at that. “Damn…is that what they think?” he uttered, “Whoa…that’s pretty bad. How did…um…how did they take it?”
“Your dad’s holding up,” Liz muttered, “But your mom…she’s in a really bad way, Alex. Mr. Whitman…your…your dad said she doesn’t get out of bed anymore.”
“Jesus,” Alex hissed, “Why would they…where did they get the idea I committed suicide? As if being dead to them wasn’t painful enough.”
“Well…Valenti…” Liz hedged in explanation. Rather than finishing, however, she pushed herself from the cot and padded over to the window. “We never believed that about you, Alex,” she whispered fervently, “None of it. We’ve been trying to figure out the truth ever since.”
“We?” he inquired, tossing her a look from where he reclined on his own cot. He swung upright and scratched his head. “Who was ‘we’? You and Maria?”
Liz nodded. “And Michael and Max and Kyle and Isabel,” she added, “We’ve all been investigating your death. We found out all about Leanna, Alex. Was she an alien, too?”
“Leanna?” he echoed blankly and then he shook his head, “Oh…the decoy. She didn’t really have anything to do with this, you know. She was a hapless pawn in an intergalactic game of politics.”
“Huh?”
“She didn’t know what the fuck was going on,” Alex clarified flatly, “Nicholas used her the same way he used Tess and me. She’s probably walking around in dazed confusion just like Tess and I did.”
“So Max and the others are chasing a dead lead?” Liz whispered.
“Pretty much.”
“And they’ve probably discovered I’m missing by now,” she sighed dejectedly, “which means they’ve wrongly assumed that Leanna is the one who took me.”
“Now you’ve got it,” Alex threw out grimly, “By the time they figure out what’s happening, if they figure it out, it won’t matter a damn anyway.” He flicked her with a flinty stare. “You know they’re going to kill us, right?”
“Alex, stop it,” Liz ordered him gruffly, fed up with the pessimistic attitude he was displaying, “We’re never going to make it out of this if you keep up with this attitude.”
However, Alex appeared just as fed up with her optimism. “Listen Liz,” he grunted impatiently, “I’m all for looking on the brighter side of things, but let’s face the facts, shall we? We are currently en route to an alien planet. There are people waiting there to kill us and the only people who could possibly help us think I’m dead and you’re someplace else entirely. Our captor is a mind-controlling freak of nature who won’t hesitate to put the mental squeeze on us if the situation warrants it. So I have to ask you…where the hell is the bright side?”
“Who are you and what have you done with my friend?” Liz whispered, “The Alex Whitman I knew wouldn’t have given up this easily.”
“The Alex Whitman you knew hadn’t been mindwarped and tortured for the last two months,” he replied miserably, “I’m not the same person I was.”
“You want to live, don’t you?” Liz charged, gripping the window bars in a white-knuckled grasp.
“Yes,” he murmured thickly.
“Then hold onto that desire and fight, Alex,” she whispered, “We’re going to get out of this. I promise you.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“What’s wrong,” Kyle remarked to Tess after ducking back into the car to wait for Max and Michael to finish gassing up their rides, “You haven’t spoken two sentences to me since this morning.”
“I don’t have anything to say,” Tess mumbled.
“Bullshit,” he countered brusquely, “What’s eating you?”
Tess appraised him with a tentative glance from beneath her lashes. “Do you…do you hate me, Kyle?”
He frowned at her. “What the hell kind of question is that?” he demanded, “No, I don’t hate you, Tess. I could never hate you…”
“You’re the only friend I have,” she whispered gruffly, “I don’t…I don’t want to lose that. I don’t want to lose you. I just needed to make sure.”
“Whoa…whoa,” Kyle said, shaking his head, “Where’d you get the impression you were losing me?”
Tess alternately stared down at her hands and fiddled with her lower lip. However, she didn’t look at Kyle at all. That feat seemed an impossible one. “I’m not a good person, Kyle,” she expounded hoarsely, “When I first moved in with you and your Dad I had every intention of taking you both for a ride. Humans didn’t mean a damned thing to me. You were just a means to an end.”
“So then what happened?” Kyle prodded in a whisper.
Tess frowned as she answered, as if she was totally bewildered by the fact. “You…you cared about me,” she stammered out, “And I didn’t have to give you anything…make you any promises…you just did. Not because you had to or because you felt obligated but because you’re a good person. You and your dad both made me feel at home when I had nowhere else to go. Now you’re my family…my home and…I don’t want to screw that up.” Her tears fell in fat, silent plops against her hand. “You’ve got a big heart, Kyle,” she whispered hoarsely, “No one has ever shown me the kindness you have.”
Kyle reached across the distance and cupper her chin, turning her watery gaze to his. “You know why I did all those things, right?” he asked, brushing away the fallen remnants of her tears. Tess bit her lip in uncertainty and shook her head. “I love you,” he told her fervently, “I love you, Tess.”
“Don’t say that,” she groaned, trying to turn away.
Kyle held her fast. “No, listen to me,” he persisted, “I…I probably would have never told you if…if these last few days I hadn’t come to see how terribly short life is and how quickly it can change. Alex is gone now and we might never see Liz again. You almost died yourself. I just…I don’t want to have any regrets, Tess. I want you to know how I feel about you.”
“You can’t love me, Kyle,” she protested, shaking off his hands, “You don’t even really know me. Believe me, if you did, you’d run.”
“Tess, I’d never run from you.” Kyle dragged his hands down his face in a gesture of extreme weariness. “God! Do you think I was trying to fall in love with you?”
Tess cut him with a staggered blue gaze. “In love with me,” she choked, “You’re in love with me, Kyle?”
“What did you think I was telling you just now?” Kyle asked with laughing irritation, “I’m in love with you, Tess. I want us to be together.” She started shaking her head so vehemently at the prospect that Kyle uttered a self-deprecating grunt. “You’re acting like it’s a fate worse than death,” he quipped.
“No, you don’t understand,” Tess cried stridently, “You can’t be in love with me!”
“Because you belong with Max,” Kyle concluded with a glum stare.
“Because I will ruin your life,” Tess predicted darkly, “That is an uncontested fact.”
Conversely, he grinned over that. “I doubt it.”
“Alex is dead because of me, Kyle,” she whispered, “What if you’re next? I can’t risk the vulnerability…not after everything’s that’s happened.”
“Tess, Alex is dead because of Nicholas,” Kyle countered gently, “You can’t blame yourself for his actions.”
“Max lied,” she blurted, “He…he lied about what happened to Alex.”
“What?”
“I…I mindwarped Alex to death,” she whispered mournfully, carefully avoiding his gaze as she made her admission, “He died of a brain hemorrhage. Nicholas wanted the book translation. He used me and I used Alex and now he’s dead.”
“You were under Nicholas’ influence,” Kyle said, his alarm fading, “You can’t blame yourself for those things. You didn’t have control.”
“I tell you I killed your friend and that’s all you have to say?” Tess cried hysterically, “What’s the matter with you?”
“I know you never intended to hurt Alex,” he whispered, “I forgive you, Tess. You’re the one who can’t forgive yourself.”
He wondered how she planned to respond to that but she never had the opportunity. Seconds later, Michael was rapping on his car window. “We’re ready to move out, Valenti,” he said, “Another four hours to go.”
Kyle cranked the ignition to the Mustang, following the Jeep and Jetta from the gas station and silently lamenting Tess’ verbal and mental retreat back inside herself.
There was nothing left.
The six teens stepped into the hollowed out chamber, their hearts brimming with insurmountable dread. Maria was the one to break the disbelieving silence with her harsh sobs. “No…no…no…” she wept brokenly, turning into Michael’s arms and burying her face deep in his chest while Max just stood there in shock.
“Max?” Isabel whispered tentatively, “Max, are you okay?”
“She can’t be gone,” he mumbled, stumbling around the empty chamber, “This isn’t happening. This isn’t…”
They had torn apart the pod chamber, leaving no stone unturned but there had been no sign of Liz or Nicholas, only a great, gaping hole in the ceiling of the cave. The sunlight that filtered down through the fissure was almost mocking them with its brilliant cheeriness. By the time they ducked into the Granolith chamber no one was surprised to see it gone.
Max staggered forward and fell to his knees. “No,” he groaned, rocking back and forth, “This isn’t happening…it’s not real…”
“Maxwell, you have to get a grip,” Michael said from somewhere beyond his shoulder, “We have to come up with some kind of plan. Now isn’t the time to break down.”
“We’re going to get her back,” Tess vowed to the disheartened group, “I swear we will.”
“And how would you know that?” Isabel snapped, “God, this is all your fault! You brought this chaos into our lives. You and destiny! Why did you and Nasedo have to find us at all?”
Tess flinched with every word, shrinking back into the craggy expanse of the cave wall with shimmering eyes. “I understand your need to blame someone…” Tess began woodenly.
“Oh shut up!” Maria snapped harshly, “She’s blaming you because you are to blame!”
“That’s enough,” Kyle barked, “She’s not responsible for what Nicholas has done.”
“No, they’re both right,” Tess whispered, shaking off the comforting hand Kyle offered. She refused to look at him and, therefore, missed the look of anguished hurt he gave her. “All this began when Nasedo came into your lives. He…He had an agenda from the very beginning and not necessarily one in your best interests. I knew that but…I kept silent.”
“So you’re as bad as he was,” Michael accused gruffly, cradling his weeping girlfriend closer, “You were just playing us the entire time!”
“I regret what I did,” Tess muttered.
“What does your regret get us?” Maria screamed hysterically, “Alex is still dead and Liz is still gone! But you’re still here, aren’t you? You’re like a fucking cat! Now that’s irony, dammit!” She broke down again, shoving Michael’s arms away to search out a place to weep in solitude.
“That’s enough,” Max interrupted dully, wiping away the tears tracking his cheeks, “Michael’s right. So let’s stop blaming each other and come up with a plan.”
“I gotta say I’m feeling a little powerless here, guys,” Kyle muttered, “I mean…Nicholas has left the planet. We don’t have a countermove for that.”
“Yes, we do,” Max countered flatly, “There’s a ship.”
“We think there’s a ship,” Tess corrected, “There’s no guarantee, Max.”
“Well, it’s the only hope we have right now,” Max argued.
“What the fuck are you two talking about?” Michael demanded.
“Tess thinks Nasedo may have hidden a ship,” Max answered him, “…Under the dome in Marathon, Texas.”
“No way, Maxwell,” Michael protested, “We were there, remember? There wasn’t a damned ship.”
“It can’t hurt to look, can it?” Maria asked desperately, “We owe it to Liz to explore every lead we’ve got!”
“Wait a minute!” Isabel cried, “We’re talking about leaving the planet, you guys! What about school? What about our parents? How are we even supposed to know what direction to travel?”
“What about Liz and my son,” Max whispered gruffly, “I’m not leaving them out there, Isabel. I won’t. So either you can either come with me or stay here…because for me it’s not an option.”
“Isabel, I can answer your last question,” Tess interjected quietly, “Nasedo said that the ships from our world are encoded with failsafe that we’ll autopilot the ship home in case of emergencies. All we have to do is activate it.”
“So then it’s a clear shot to Antar?” Michael asked, “We don’t have to do any work?”
“Well, you’ll have to steer clear of asteroid fields but…yeah, I guess so.”
“Can we survive on the planet?” Kyle asked, “Is there, like, oxygen or will we need spacesuits or some shit like that.”
“I’m pretty sure Antar’s atmosphere is similar to Earth’s,” Tess said.
“Pretty sure,” Kyle echoed with a grimace of discomfort, “Somehow I don’t feel very reassured.”
Michael gnawed at the inside of his cheek in consideration of these latest tidbits. He wasn’t so worried about Antar’s atmosphere though because he still wasn’t certain they could even make it to the planet in the first place. “How long will it take us to get there?”
“A little over a month,” Tess revealed quietly.
“So that doesn’t give us a very large window of opportunity,” Max said, going into commander mode. He had to keep focused and controlled; otherwise he’d never make it through the mission ahead. “Liz’s pregnancy is going to last roughly three months, maybe a little longer. We have to get to her before she gives birth. Khivar and Nicholas won’t harm her as long as she’s carrying our son.”
“Okay…so say the ship is there,” Isabel considered, playing devil’s advocate, “Autopilot aside…what happens when we have to steer the damned thing? We don’t know anything about UFO’s!”
“Trial and error,” Max said glibly, “We don’t really have a choice, Isabel.”
“Great,” Kyle muttered.
“Will we have chance to notify our folks?” Maria asked.
“No,” Max replied sadly, “I wish we had the time but we don’t. We need to stock up on supplies and then we have to leave with the clothes on our backs.”
“What if we don’t come home? We don’t know what we’re going to fucking face out there, Maxwell,” Michael grated fearfully.
“You’re right,” his friend agreed grimly, “We don’t.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“Alex, are you asleep?” Liz whispered loudly as she lay on her own cot.
“Not hardly,” Alex laughed mirthlessly, “I don’t sleep anymore, Liz. Too much changes when you open your eyes again.”
Liz blinked back tears of frustration and sorrow at his embittered reply. He seemed so cynical and hardened, so different from the happy, carefree Alex she’d once known. It made Liz wonder what he’d been through this last week. She suspected he hadn’t told her everything and, having glimpsed Nicholas penchant for merciless cruelty, Liz could guess that whatever had happened must have been horrific. Liz wanted to ask him about it but she lacked the courage. Instead, she focused on a less explosive subject.
“So how long will it take us to get there?” she wondered glumly, “Do you know?”
“About six weeks,” Alex sighed and then he added, as if he sensed her coming question, “I asked my guard. He’s surprisingly chatty.”
“Six weeks in this tiny room,” Liz uttered in misery, “I’ll go insane.”
“You won’t,” Alex countered, “I’ve been here a week already and…you acclimate.”
Liz shifted onto her side, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes only to be absorbed into the pillow beneath her cheek. “Aren’t you scared, Alex?” she sniffled. She had been lying there for the past hour, wondering if she would ever see her parents again and Maria and…Max. Her heart ached at the prospect of never seeing him again, never touching him… The pain was driving her stir crazy while Alex seemed strangely indifferent.
“Alex?”
“I’m scared every day, Liz,” he answered gruffly, “Every day I wake up in this place.”
“But you seem so together about everything,” she protested, “So…so cool… It’s freaking me out a little.”
“I have to be,” he told her, “If…if I let myself think about what’s happening…really think…I’d go crazy.”
“You mean because your parents think you committed suicide?” Liz murmured.
Alex choked at that. “Damn…is that what they think?” he uttered, “Whoa…that’s pretty bad. How did…um…how did they take it?”
“Your dad’s holding up,” Liz muttered, “But your mom…she’s in a really bad way, Alex. Mr. Whitman…your…your dad said she doesn’t get out of bed anymore.”
“Jesus,” Alex hissed, “Why would they…where did they get the idea I committed suicide? As if being dead to them wasn’t painful enough.”
“Well…Valenti…” Liz hedged in explanation. Rather than finishing, however, she pushed herself from the cot and padded over to the window. “We never believed that about you, Alex,” she whispered fervently, “None of it. We’ve been trying to figure out the truth ever since.”
“We?” he inquired, tossing her a look from where he reclined on his own cot. He swung upright and scratched his head. “Who was ‘we’? You and Maria?”
Liz nodded. “And Michael and Max and Kyle and Isabel,” she added, “We’ve all been investigating your death. We found out all about Leanna, Alex. Was she an alien, too?”
“Leanna?” he echoed blankly and then he shook his head, “Oh…the decoy. She didn’t really have anything to do with this, you know. She was a hapless pawn in an intergalactic game of politics.”
“Huh?”
“She didn’t know what the fuck was going on,” Alex clarified flatly, “Nicholas used her the same way he used Tess and me. She’s probably walking around in dazed confusion just like Tess and I did.”
“So Max and the others are chasing a dead lead?” Liz whispered.
“Pretty much.”
“And they’ve probably discovered I’m missing by now,” she sighed dejectedly, “which means they’ve wrongly assumed that Leanna is the one who took me.”
“Now you’ve got it,” Alex threw out grimly, “By the time they figure out what’s happening, if they figure it out, it won’t matter a damn anyway.” He flicked her with a flinty stare. “You know they’re going to kill us, right?”
“Alex, stop it,” Liz ordered him gruffly, fed up with the pessimistic attitude he was displaying, “We’re never going to make it out of this if you keep up with this attitude.”
However, Alex appeared just as fed up with her optimism. “Listen Liz,” he grunted impatiently, “I’m all for looking on the brighter side of things, but let’s face the facts, shall we? We are currently en route to an alien planet. There are people waiting there to kill us and the only people who could possibly help us think I’m dead and you’re someplace else entirely. Our captor is a mind-controlling freak of nature who won’t hesitate to put the mental squeeze on us if the situation warrants it. So I have to ask you…where the hell is the bright side?”
“Who are you and what have you done with my friend?” Liz whispered, “The Alex Whitman I knew wouldn’t have given up this easily.”
“The Alex Whitman you knew hadn’t been mindwarped and tortured for the last two months,” he replied miserably, “I’m not the same person I was.”
“You want to live, don’t you?” Liz charged, gripping the window bars in a white-knuckled grasp.
“Yes,” he murmured thickly.
“Then hold onto that desire and fight, Alex,” she whispered, “We’re going to get out of this. I promise you.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“What’s wrong,” Kyle remarked to Tess after ducking back into the car to wait for Max and Michael to finish gassing up their rides, “You haven’t spoken two sentences to me since this morning.”
“I don’t have anything to say,” Tess mumbled.
“Bullshit,” he countered brusquely, “What’s eating you?”
Tess appraised him with a tentative glance from beneath her lashes. “Do you…do you hate me, Kyle?”
He frowned at her. “What the hell kind of question is that?” he demanded, “No, I don’t hate you, Tess. I could never hate you…”
“You’re the only friend I have,” she whispered gruffly, “I don’t…I don’t want to lose that. I don’t want to lose you. I just needed to make sure.”
“Whoa…whoa,” Kyle said, shaking his head, “Where’d you get the impression you were losing me?”
Tess alternately stared down at her hands and fiddled with her lower lip. However, she didn’t look at Kyle at all. That feat seemed an impossible one. “I’m not a good person, Kyle,” she expounded hoarsely, “When I first moved in with you and your Dad I had every intention of taking you both for a ride. Humans didn’t mean a damned thing to me. You were just a means to an end.”
“So then what happened?” Kyle prodded in a whisper.
Tess frowned as she answered, as if she was totally bewildered by the fact. “You…you cared about me,” she stammered out, “And I didn’t have to give you anything…make you any promises…you just did. Not because you had to or because you felt obligated but because you’re a good person. You and your dad both made me feel at home when I had nowhere else to go. Now you’re my family…my home and…I don’t want to screw that up.” Her tears fell in fat, silent plops against her hand. “You’ve got a big heart, Kyle,” she whispered hoarsely, “No one has ever shown me the kindness you have.”
Kyle reached across the distance and cupper her chin, turning her watery gaze to his. “You know why I did all those things, right?” he asked, brushing away the fallen remnants of her tears. Tess bit her lip in uncertainty and shook her head. “I love you,” he told her fervently, “I love you, Tess.”
“Don’t say that,” she groaned, trying to turn away.
Kyle held her fast. “No, listen to me,” he persisted, “I…I probably would have never told you if…if these last few days I hadn’t come to see how terribly short life is and how quickly it can change. Alex is gone now and we might never see Liz again. You almost died yourself. I just…I don’t want to have any regrets, Tess. I want you to know how I feel about you.”
“You can’t love me, Kyle,” she protested, shaking off his hands, “You don’t even really know me. Believe me, if you did, you’d run.”
“Tess, I’d never run from you.” Kyle dragged his hands down his face in a gesture of extreme weariness. “God! Do you think I was trying to fall in love with you?”
Tess cut him with a staggered blue gaze. “In love with me,” she choked, “You’re in love with me, Kyle?”
“What did you think I was telling you just now?” Kyle asked with laughing irritation, “I’m in love with you, Tess. I want us to be together.” She started shaking her head so vehemently at the prospect that Kyle uttered a self-deprecating grunt. “You’re acting like it’s a fate worse than death,” he quipped.
“No, you don’t understand,” Tess cried stridently, “You can’t be in love with me!”
“Because you belong with Max,” Kyle concluded with a glum stare.
“Because I will ruin your life,” Tess predicted darkly, “That is an uncontested fact.”
Conversely, he grinned over that. “I doubt it.”
“Alex is dead because of me, Kyle,” she whispered, “What if you’re next? I can’t risk the vulnerability…not after everything’s that’s happened.”
“Tess, Alex is dead because of Nicholas,” Kyle countered gently, “You can’t blame yourself for his actions.”
“Max lied,” she blurted, “He…he lied about what happened to Alex.”
“What?”
“I…I mindwarped Alex to death,” she whispered mournfully, carefully avoiding his gaze as she made her admission, “He died of a brain hemorrhage. Nicholas wanted the book translation. He used me and I used Alex and now he’s dead.”
“You were under Nicholas’ influence,” Kyle said, his alarm fading, “You can’t blame yourself for those things. You didn’t have control.”
“I tell you I killed your friend and that’s all you have to say?” Tess cried hysterically, “What’s the matter with you?”
“I know you never intended to hurt Alex,” he whispered, “I forgive you, Tess. You’re the one who can’t forgive yourself.”
He wondered how she planned to respond to that but she never had the opportunity. Seconds later, Michael was rapping on his car window. “We’re ready to move out, Valenti,” he said, “Another four hours to go.”
Kyle cranked the ignition to the Mustang, following the Jeep and Jetta from the gas station and silently lamenting Tess’ verbal and mental retreat back inside herself.
-
Deejonaise
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Special thanks to Kay for being an awesome beta! She's definitely helping to whip this story into shape.
Now the real excitement begins...
Chapter 18
Being without sleep for nearly twenty-four hours straight and without a decent meal in between had put everyone on edge. By the time they reached Marathon everyone was bitching and complaining alternately. Consequently, while they worked hard digging out the basement floor of the dome tempers were a little short and snarking abounded.
“There’s nothing here, Maxwell,” Michael grunted as he rooted about in the dusty confines, “This was a complete waste of time.”
“It’s not,” Max snapped impatiently, straightening long enough to wipe the sweat from his dripping brow, “Just keep digging, okay.”
“Geez…now I know what slave labor feels like,” Kyle muttered from his end, “This sucks!”
“I’m exhausted,” Isabel huffed wearily.
“And I’m hungry,” Maria complained.
Off to her left Isabel rolled her eyes in annoyance while Tess merely grunted. “There’s a Snickers bar in my jacket, Blondie,” Michael told her, “Help yourself.”
“Snickers,” Isabel perked up at the mention of food, her stomach rumbling to life, “You didn’t say you had food. Maria, give me half.”
“You didn’t ask,” was Michael’s cheeky reply as the girls split the candy bar between themselves. Kyle stared over at their booty longingly, remembering only at the last second to wipe the covetous drool from his mouth.
“This is so good,” Maria sighed happily around a mouthful of nougat, “Better than sex.” She hadn’t eaten in more than six hours and she was starting to feel dizzy in the heat.
“How would you know?” Michael grumbled, “You’ve never even had sex.”
“Well, I have,” Kyle threw in, “And as hungry as I am right now…sex would definitely have to take a backseat to food, dude…in a heartbeat.”
“Okay, that’s it!” Isabel declared, throwing down her shovel, “I’m tired. I’m hungry and I smell. This Snickers isn’t going to cut it. I need a real meal! My arms are aching and I’ve got calluses, Max! Calluses? What women do you know with callused hands, huh? I can’t take this anymore. I need a break.”
Max stopped digging for a second time, not bothering to mask his annoyance as he regarded the bedraggled group. All while they had bickered he had not ceased in his toil, but Isabel’s spoiled exclamation had tested the limits of his patience and broken it.
“This isn’t a game, you guys,” he grated, “You’re all standing around complaining and moaning when Liz needs us. So get up off your asses and fucking work!”
On some subconscious level Max recognized he was being unfairly harsh with them. He knew he was acting like a machine, just going through the motions but at the moment he felt impotent. The total lack of control surrounding him scarred him shitless. Max Evans was a man who liked consistency and continuity. He liked being able to predict his circumstances and exercise a degree of control over them. But this situation with Liz was completely out of his hands, consequently the things that he could control he handled with the brusqueness of a dictator. It was the only way he could keep from going insane.
When the group continued to watch him with varying degrees of concern, Max snapped, “Are you going to dig or what?”
“Max, calm down,” Maria whispered, “We’re all in this together, okay. We want Liz back as much as you do.”
“Then act like it,” he muttered.
The tension within the room doubled to the tenth degree. “Well, couldn’t we use our powers to…um…dissolve the dirt or something?” Tess asked tiredly, “This manual labor bites.”
“I concur,” Kyle threw in, followed by several grumbling replies of agreement from the others.
“We could do that,” Max replied tartly, “But then we also take the chance of dissolving the ship right along with it. There are six of us here. If we all work together we can knock this out.”
“Maxwell, I get that you’re worried about Liz,” Michael returned quietly, “But we’re all operating on very little sleep and no food. We need some rest, man.”
“Fine,” Max tossed back furiously, his control finally snapping altogether, “You rest then…I’ll fucking dig!”
Kyle scooted towards the stairwell leading to the main floor. “I’m gonna go into town and get some food,” he volunteered, “Who wants to come with?”
“I’ll come with you,” Isabel said, dusting off her hands and started to follow him up the steps. She paused at the first step and turned back to regard her friends and family. “Anybody want anything specific?” she asked, “Max?” He shook his head. “Maria?”
“Bring me back massive quantities of fat,” Maria instructed, “And chocolate.” She pressed a wad of dollar bills into Isabel’s hand that she had fished out of her pocket.
“Michael?” Isabel questioned, “You want anything?”
“Bring me back a Gatorade, a package of cupcakes and a hot dog with the works…oh and nachos if they have them, extra peppers.” Isabel gaped at his dubious list but Michael only shrugged. “Hey…you asked.”
Isabel held out her hand expectantly. “I need money…hello?” she groused, “I know you don’t expect me to pay for all this crap.”
Michael flicked a glance at his girlfriend, which incurred a groan even before he asked, “You mind handling this for me, babe?”
Once Isabel and Kyle were gone Maria, Michael and Max went back to digging while Tess made a halfhearted effort. She was too preoccupied with watching Max, her blue eyes darkened with concern. Maria noted her perusal and took to grumbling under her breath over it. Despite all the revelations they had learned in the past few hours Maria wouldn’t trust Tess with a garden slug. She didn’t put it past the girl to try and put the moves on Max when he was numb and crazy with grief. Consequently, Maria watched her with an eagle eye, determined to protect her best friend’s interests.
Michael, however, attributed less sinister motives to Tess’ watchful stare. He knew her intention even before she stabbed her shovel in a mound of dirt and began making her way over to Max. He tried to catch her eye and silently transmit to her what a terribly bad idea that was but she didn’t look in his direction. Sensing imminent disaster, Michael sang a little tune in his head in the hopes of blocking out the impending melee. Maria, on the other hand, began pounding at the ground with gusto, as if she were imagining Tess’ blond head beneath her shovel right then instead of clumpy earth.
Approaching him tentatively, Tess meant only to put her hand out to touch his shoulder in a gesture of kindness but he twisted out of her reach. “Don’t…touch me,” he grated.
Tess retreated back a reflexive step but otherwise her features remained blank. “I think you’re working yourself too hard,” she said.
“Somebody has to,” he grunted, resuming his digging, “Liz is out there and I’m the only one who seems to have any urgency where this is concerned.”
“That’s not fair, Max!” Michael interjected sharply, “We’re all just as concerned about Liz as you are. But we’re dead tired, okay. We haven’t eaten or slept in almost 24 hours. We’re not fucking machines!”
“We’re digging right along with you!” Maria threw in, “We're scared, too!”
“You have no idea how scared I am right now. Every minute we waste is a minute further Liz is away from us,” Max replied tightly, “We don’t have time to rest, you guys.”
“And what good will it do Liz if we drop from exhaustion before we can get to her?” Michael countered wisely, “Think about that.”
“Michael’s right,” Tess spoke up quietly, “Liz is going to need you strong and ready when you find her. Pushing yourself this way is only going to make matters worse.”
“What do you want me to do?” Max all but sobbed.
He knew they were right. He was dead tired, literally dragging on his feet yet, every time he closed his eyes he saw Liz alone and scared. His body was close to giving out but, at present, Max was operating on pure adrenaline. However, he knew that if he continued on as he was he would be no good to Liz at all when he found her. Max knew she would need his strength…so would his son.
His son. He could barely think of their unborn child at all because the reality just freaked him out. The past few days since he’d found out Liz was pregnant Max hadn’t had much time to contemplate what fatherhood meant. He had just accepted the fact that Liz was pregnant and moved on.
Now Max let himself think of his son, not just as a responsibility but someone he wanted to watch grow into a man. Max hadn’t realized how important that was until Liz went missing. He loved Liz but…he loved their child, too. A fierce bloom of protectiveness had unfolded in his heart, consuming all reason and logic. Max could focus only on one goal: to get to Liz and their son. The determination to do so, unfortunately, made him a bit unreasonable.
“Won’t you take a break?” Tess implored, noting how Max struggling to keep his eyes open, “You need rest, Max.”
“And if I rested would you dig?” he challenged wearily.
“Yes,” Tess told him, “If you rest, I’ll dig.”
“We’ll all dig, Max,” Maria promised.
He stretched out onto a faded, dilapidated sofa in the corner and feel asleep almost the instant he nestled his head again the armrest. It wasn’t surprising that he dreamed of Liz though the circumstances concerning the dream were a bit strange. Max entered the all white room and found them seated at a table, dressed in foreign, flowing white robes and playing a game of…GIN???
Max crept in closer because it didn’t make a bit of sense. There was Alex, as Max had never seen him, with the scraggly growth of a beginning beard and a wild shock of hair. Liz’s appearance was much less unkempt, her dark hair loose and long and slipping over her shoulders as she scrutinized her hand. Despite the apparent coziness of the scene, however, neither Alex nor Liz looked very happy.
Curious and confused, Max stepped forward and laid his hand against Liz’s shoulder. She glanced up at him, startled, her expression flashing off a myriad of emotions. “Find us, Max,” she implored softly, “Find us.”
Max jerked out of the dream in a cold sweat and lurched upright. In a wave of disorientation, he vaguely recognized that he was alone downstairs in the basement but for the moment he was still shaking so with the aftermath of his dream that he couldn’t react. What the hell had that been about? Why was he dreaming of Liz…and Alex in some sort of weird white…room, together and playing gin of all things?
Alex was dead. Granted, his funeral had only taken place a week earlier but still… Were his dreams trying to tell him something? Were Liz…dead, too? Was that why he dreamed of her surrounded by white…because she was in heaven? Max shook off the numbing considerations. No way. Now way that Liz was dead. He would have known it…felt it. But the dream had a realistic quality to it that Max couldn’t shake off. He knew that it meant something…he just had to figure it out.
A moment later Michael came tromping down the steps, startling him out of his reverie. “You’re awake,” his friend observed, “Kyle brought back some chicken. We’re taking a break for lunch and then we’ll get back to the digging.”
His friends ate their food with enthusiasm while Max could have been chewing cardboard for all the enjoyment he received. He couldn’t seem to stop worrying and obsessing, obsessing and worrying. He couldn’t shake his feeling that something was fundamentally out of whack and it wasn’t just Liz’s obvious kidnapping.
“Cheer up, Max,” Maria said beside him, nudging him with her shoulder, “I know Liz. She’s going to hold her own with Nicholas. She’ll be okay.” Max wondered if Maria was trying to convince herself as much as him. She offered him a small smile. “I know you’re going to find her,” she whispered, “That’s why I’m not really worried. I’ve seen you two together. I know the love you guys share can overcome anything and I know you’ll find her.”
“You have a lot more confidence in me than I do,” Max scoffed bitterly, “This whole thing just seems hopeless.” He shoved away his paper plate. “Part of me just thinks I’ll never see her again. I’ll never be able to hold my kid in my arms. It’s…paralyzing.”
“Come on, you guys,” Isabel rallied softly, humbled by her brother’s evident pain, “Let’s get back to work.”
With full bellies and a modicum of rest the teens progressed the work rather quickly. They worked well into the late afternoon, digging until they thought their arms would fall off in exhaustion when they finally, unbelievably they hit pay dirt. Kyle’s shovel struck something hard and unyielding beneath the surface and everyone froze.
“Everybody let’s just keep calm,” Max advised, “We don’t know what it is right now. Maybe it’s just a rock or a…”
Kyle scraped the tip of his shovel across the surface, clearing away the clumps of ground. “Well, fearless leader, it definitely ain’t a rock.”
They all gathered around at his comment, staring down into the hole with soft curses and whistles of disbelief. There, amid all the dirt and rock, was the dull glinting of metal. Before their eyes the faint scratches Kyle had incurred to the hull with his shovel tip repaired themselves, leaving the surface dirty but undamaged. There was a ship down there after all.
Michael’s next words summed up their collective feelings nicely: “Holy shit.”
“We’ll use our powers to bring it to the surface,” Max said a little breathlessly.
“Thank God,” Isabel muttered.
“Tess, do you have any idea how big this thing is?” Michael wondered.
“Not a clue,” she said, “But it can’t be that big if it’s buried beneath the dome, right?”
“Guess so,” Michael conceded with a shrug, “Let’s get this damned thing out of the ground.”
Kyle and Maria stepped back as the four aliens linked hands to combine their powers and raise the ship. Beneath their feet the ground began to rumble and shake. Maria made a desperate grab for Kyle’s arm as the surface suddenly shifted beneath them. And then they began to be lifted, ever so slowly from the ground. The dome made a loud creaking and groaning as it was torn off its foundation.
“Um…guys,” Maria called out uneasily when dirt began to pour from the top of the ship as it was pulled up from the ground, “Maybe we should rethink this.”
“Buddha, I hope no one is within a twenty mile radius cuz we’re going to have some serious ‘splaining to do otherwise,” Kyle said in his best Ricky Ricardo impression.
The four podsters basically ignored their comments as they focused all their energy and concentration on unearthing the ship. Maria stumbled over to the basement window and climbed onto some boxes so that she could peak through. She couldn’t see land anymore, only skyline. “Holy fuck,” she whispered to herself, “This thing must be huge.”
Kyle crossed over to join her, assisting her as she came down from the top of the boxes. “What did you see?” he asked anxiously.
“You don’t even want to know,” Maria replied, her expression shell-shocked, “Let’s just say I think we’ve bitten off more than we can chew.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“It’s a desert planet,” Alex informed Liz, “Very mountainous, which means it’s probably riddled with underground caverns and such.” Alex paused meaningfully and Liz comprehended what he’d left unspoken. Plenty of places to hide. Their eyes met in a brief, transitive moment before each resumed their idle personas. Alex lounged in a bucket seat chair while Liz lazed about on her cot.
Liz flopped over onto her stomach to frown at him. “How do you find out all this stuff?”
“I told you…my guard is very chatty,” Alex teased, “I guess he must miss home or something because I can’t get him to shut up about it. Besides…talking to him gives me something to beat the monotony while you sleep.”
“I can’t help it,” Liz mumbled, “This pregnancy is totally draining me.”
“Yeah…I can tell,” Alex said, “You were whimpering in your sleep earlier. Nightmares?”
“Not really,” Liz sighed, “I dreamed about Max. I dreamed he came here and he rescued us. But when I woke up…”
“…You were still here,” Alex concluded sadly, “Now you see what I mean, Parker.”
“Hmm…” Liz considered, “But you know what I wonder?”
“What do you wonder?”
“Why are they being so nice to us,” she said, “I mean…I expected this place to be torture or something but so far it’s been pretty cushy. Not that I have a problem with the fact Nicholas is letting us visit and pretty much indulging most of our whims but…why? Why is he being so amiable all of a sudden? It’s creepy.”
Amiable didn’t even begin to describe Nicholas’ tactics. His outward display was one of kindness and compassion but both Liz and Alex could easily see the malice lurking behind his calculating eyes whenever they suffered his presence. Still, he had surprised them when, without explanation, he had removed Alex from his cell and abruptly pitched him in with Liz.
“You can stay until late evening,” Nicholas had informed them coldly, “And then it’s back to your own.”
“I think maybe Nicholas is just trying to keep you happy,” Alex speculated to Liz presently, “You’re in a delicate condition, remember? He’s got a lot riding on your pregnancy. I doubt he wants anything to happen to you…at least as long as you’re pregnant anyway.”
“That’s the part that scares me, Alex,” Liz murmured, shifting onto her back to run her palms down the expanse of her still flat tummy, “What the hell do they want with my baby?”
Now the real excitement begins...
Chapter 18
Being without sleep for nearly twenty-four hours straight and without a decent meal in between had put everyone on edge. By the time they reached Marathon everyone was bitching and complaining alternately. Consequently, while they worked hard digging out the basement floor of the dome tempers were a little short and snarking abounded.
“There’s nothing here, Maxwell,” Michael grunted as he rooted about in the dusty confines, “This was a complete waste of time.”
“It’s not,” Max snapped impatiently, straightening long enough to wipe the sweat from his dripping brow, “Just keep digging, okay.”
“Geez…now I know what slave labor feels like,” Kyle muttered from his end, “This sucks!”
“I’m exhausted,” Isabel huffed wearily.
“And I’m hungry,” Maria complained.
Off to her left Isabel rolled her eyes in annoyance while Tess merely grunted. “There’s a Snickers bar in my jacket, Blondie,” Michael told her, “Help yourself.”
“Snickers,” Isabel perked up at the mention of food, her stomach rumbling to life, “You didn’t say you had food. Maria, give me half.”
“You didn’t ask,” was Michael’s cheeky reply as the girls split the candy bar between themselves. Kyle stared over at their booty longingly, remembering only at the last second to wipe the covetous drool from his mouth.
“This is so good,” Maria sighed happily around a mouthful of nougat, “Better than sex.” She hadn’t eaten in more than six hours and she was starting to feel dizzy in the heat.
“How would you know?” Michael grumbled, “You’ve never even had sex.”
“Well, I have,” Kyle threw in, “And as hungry as I am right now…sex would definitely have to take a backseat to food, dude…in a heartbeat.”
“Okay, that’s it!” Isabel declared, throwing down her shovel, “I’m tired. I’m hungry and I smell. This Snickers isn’t going to cut it. I need a real meal! My arms are aching and I’ve got calluses, Max! Calluses? What women do you know with callused hands, huh? I can’t take this anymore. I need a break.”
Max stopped digging for a second time, not bothering to mask his annoyance as he regarded the bedraggled group. All while they had bickered he had not ceased in his toil, but Isabel’s spoiled exclamation had tested the limits of his patience and broken it.
“This isn’t a game, you guys,” he grated, “You’re all standing around complaining and moaning when Liz needs us. So get up off your asses and fucking work!”
On some subconscious level Max recognized he was being unfairly harsh with them. He knew he was acting like a machine, just going through the motions but at the moment he felt impotent. The total lack of control surrounding him scarred him shitless. Max Evans was a man who liked consistency and continuity. He liked being able to predict his circumstances and exercise a degree of control over them. But this situation with Liz was completely out of his hands, consequently the things that he could control he handled with the brusqueness of a dictator. It was the only way he could keep from going insane.
When the group continued to watch him with varying degrees of concern, Max snapped, “Are you going to dig or what?”
“Max, calm down,” Maria whispered, “We’re all in this together, okay. We want Liz back as much as you do.”
“Then act like it,” he muttered.
The tension within the room doubled to the tenth degree. “Well, couldn’t we use our powers to…um…dissolve the dirt or something?” Tess asked tiredly, “This manual labor bites.”
“I concur,” Kyle threw in, followed by several grumbling replies of agreement from the others.
“We could do that,” Max replied tartly, “But then we also take the chance of dissolving the ship right along with it. There are six of us here. If we all work together we can knock this out.”
“Maxwell, I get that you’re worried about Liz,” Michael returned quietly, “But we’re all operating on very little sleep and no food. We need some rest, man.”
“Fine,” Max tossed back furiously, his control finally snapping altogether, “You rest then…I’ll fucking dig!”
Kyle scooted towards the stairwell leading to the main floor. “I’m gonna go into town and get some food,” he volunteered, “Who wants to come with?”
“I’ll come with you,” Isabel said, dusting off her hands and started to follow him up the steps. She paused at the first step and turned back to regard her friends and family. “Anybody want anything specific?” she asked, “Max?” He shook his head. “Maria?”
“Bring me back massive quantities of fat,” Maria instructed, “And chocolate.” She pressed a wad of dollar bills into Isabel’s hand that she had fished out of her pocket.
“Michael?” Isabel questioned, “You want anything?”
“Bring me back a Gatorade, a package of cupcakes and a hot dog with the works…oh and nachos if they have them, extra peppers.” Isabel gaped at his dubious list but Michael only shrugged. “Hey…you asked.”
Isabel held out her hand expectantly. “I need money…hello?” she groused, “I know you don’t expect me to pay for all this crap.”
Michael flicked a glance at his girlfriend, which incurred a groan even before he asked, “You mind handling this for me, babe?”
Once Isabel and Kyle were gone Maria, Michael and Max went back to digging while Tess made a halfhearted effort. She was too preoccupied with watching Max, her blue eyes darkened with concern. Maria noted her perusal and took to grumbling under her breath over it. Despite all the revelations they had learned in the past few hours Maria wouldn’t trust Tess with a garden slug. She didn’t put it past the girl to try and put the moves on Max when he was numb and crazy with grief. Consequently, Maria watched her with an eagle eye, determined to protect her best friend’s interests.
Michael, however, attributed less sinister motives to Tess’ watchful stare. He knew her intention even before she stabbed her shovel in a mound of dirt and began making her way over to Max. He tried to catch her eye and silently transmit to her what a terribly bad idea that was but she didn’t look in his direction. Sensing imminent disaster, Michael sang a little tune in his head in the hopes of blocking out the impending melee. Maria, on the other hand, began pounding at the ground with gusto, as if she were imagining Tess’ blond head beneath her shovel right then instead of clumpy earth.
Approaching him tentatively, Tess meant only to put her hand out to touch his shoulder in a gesture of kindness but he twisted out of her reach. “Don’t…touch me,” he grated.
Tess retreated back a reflexive step but otherwise her features remained blank. “I think you’re working yourself too hard,” she said.
“Somebody has to,” he grunted, resuming his digging, “Liz is out there and I’m the only one who seems to have any urgency where this is concerned.”
“That’s not fair, Max!” Michael interjected sharply, “We’re all just as concerned about Liz as you are. But we’re dead tired, okay. We haven’t eaten or slept in almost 24 hours. We’re not fucking machines!”
“We’re digging right along with you!” Maria threw in, “We're scared, too!”
“You have no idea how scared I am right now. Every minute we waste is a minute further Liz is away from us,” Max replied tightly, “We don’t have time to rest, you guys.”
“And what good will it do Liz if we drop from exhaustion before we can get to her?” Michael countered wisely, “Think about that.”
“Michael’s right,” Tess spoke up quietly, “Liz is going to need you strong and ready when you find her. Pushing yourself this way is only going to make matters worse.”
“What do you want me to do?” Max all but sobbed.
He knew they were right. He was dead tired, literally dragging on his feet yet, every time he closed his eyes he saw Liz alone and scared. His body was close to giving out but, at present, Max was operating on pure adrenaline. However, he knew that if he continued on as he was he would be no good to Liz at all when he found her. Max knew she would need his strength…so would his son.
His son. He could barely think of their unborn child at all because the reality just freaked him out. The past few days since he’d found out Liz was pregnant Max hadn’t had much time to contemplate what fatherhood meant. He had just accepted the fact that Liz was pregnant and moved on.
Now Max let himself think of his son, not just as a responsibility but someone he wanted to watch grow into a man. Max hadn’t realized how important that was until Liz went missing. He loved Liz but…he loved their child, too. A fierce bloom of protectiveness had unfolded in his heart, consuming all reason and logic. Max could focus only on one goal: to get to Liz and their son. The determination to do so, unfortunately, made him a bit unreasonable.
“Won’t you take a break?” Tess implored, noting how Max struggling to keep his eyes open, “You need rest, Max.”
“And if I rested would you dig?” he challenged wearily.
“Yes,” Tess told him, “If you rest, I’ll dig.”
“We’ll all dig, Max,” Maria promised.
He stretched out onto a faded, dilapidated sofa in the corner and feel asleep almost the instant he nestled his head again the armrest. It wasn’t surprising that he dreamed of Liz though the circumstances concerning the dream were a bit strange. Max entered the all white room and found them seated at a table, dressed in foreign, flowing white robes and playing a game of…GIN???
Max crept in closer because it didn’t make a bit of sense. There was Alex, as Max had never seen him, with the scraggly growth of a beginning beard and a wild shock of hair. Liz’s appearance was much less unkempt, her dark hair loose and long and slipping over her shoulders as she scrutinized her hand. Despite the apparent coziness of the scene, however, neither Alex nor Liz looked very happy.
Curious and confused, Max stepped forward and laid his hand against Liz’s shoulder. She glanced up at him, startled, her expression flashing off a myriad of emotions. “Find us, Max,” she implored softly, “Find us.”
Max jerked out of the dream in a cold sweat and lurched upright. In a wave of disorientation, he vaguely recognized that he was alone downstairs in the basement but for the moment he was still shaking so with the aftermath of his dream that he couldn’t react. What the hell had that been about? Why was he dreaming of Liz…and Alex in some sort of weird white…room, together and playing gin of all things?
Alex was dead. Granted, his funeral had only taken place a week earlier but still… Were his dreams trying to tell him something? Were Liz…dead, too? Was that why he dreamed of her surrounded by white…because she was in heaven? Max shook off the numbing considerations. No way. Now way that Liz was dead. He would have known it…felt it. But the dream had a realistic quality to it that Max couldn’t shake off. He knew that it meant something…he just had to figure it out.
A moment later Michael came tromping down the steps, startling him out of his reverie. “You’re awake,” his friend observed, “Kyle brought back some chicken. We’re taking a break for lunch and then we’ll get back to the digging.”
His friends ate their food with enthusiasm while Max could have been chewing cardboard for all the enjoyment he received. He couldn’t seem to stop worrying and obsessing, obsessing and worrying. He couldn’t shake his feeling that something was fundamentally out of whack and it wasn’t just Liz’s obvious kidnapping.
“Cheer up, Max,” Maria said beside him, nudging him with her shoulder, “I know Liz. She’s going to hold her own with Nicholas. She’ll be okay.” Max wondered if Maria was trying to convince herself as much as him. She offered him a small smile. “I know you’re going to find her,” she whispered, “That’s why I’m not really worried. I’ve seen you two together. I know the love you guys share can overcome anything and I know you’ll find her.”
“You have a lot more confidence in me than I do,” Max scoffed bitterly, “This whole thing just seems hopeless.” He shoved away his paper plate. “Part of me just thinks I’ll never see her again. I’ll never be able to hold my kid in my arms. It’s…paralyzing.”
“Come on, you guys,” Isabel rallied softly, humbled by her brother’s evident pain, “Let’s get back to work.”
With full bellies and a modicum of rest the teens progressed the work rather quickly. They worked well into the late afternoon, digging until they thought their arms would fall off in exhaustion when they finally, unbelievably they hit pay dirt. Kyle’s shovel struck something hard and unyielding beneath the surface and everyone froze.
“Everybody let’s just keep calm,” Max advised, “We don’t know what it is right now. Maybe it’s just a rock or a…”
Kyle scraped the tip of his shovel across the surface, clearing away the clumps of ground. “Well, fearless leader, it definitely ain’t a rock.”
They all gathered around at his comment, staring down into the hole with soft curses and whistles of disbelief. There, amid all the dirt and rock, was the dull glinting of metal. Before their eyes the faint scratches Kyle had incurred to the hull with his shovel tip repaired themselves, leaving the surface dirty but undamaged. There was a ship down there after all.
Michael’s next words summed up their collective feelings nicely: “Holy shit.”
“We’ll use our powers to bring it to the surface,” Max said a little breathlessly.
“Thank God,” Isabel muttered.
“Tess, do you have any idea how big this thing is?” Michael wondered.
“Not a clue,” she said, “But it can’t be that big if it’s buried beneath the dome, right?”
“Guess so,” Michael conceded with a shrug, “Let’s get this damned thing out of the ground.”
Kyle and Maria stepped back as the four aliens linked hands to combine their powers and raise the ship. Beneath their feet the ground began to rumble and shake. Maria made a desperate grab for Kyle’s arm as the surface suddenly shifted beneath them. And then they began to be lifted, ever so slowly from the ground. The dome made a loud creaking and groaning as it was torn off its foundation.
“Um…guys,” Maria called out uneasily when dirt began to pour from the top of the ship as it was pulled up from the ground, “Maybe we should rethink this.”
“Buddha, I hope no one is within a twenty mile radius cuz we’re going to have some serious ‘splaining to do otherwise,” Kyle said in his best Ricky Ricardo impression.
The four podsters basically ignored their comments as they focused all their energy and concentration on unearthing the ship. Maria stumbled over to the basement window and climbed onto some boxes so that she could peak through. She couldn’t see land anymore, only skyline. “Holy fuck,” she whispered to herself, “This thing must be huge.”
Kyle crossed over to join her, assisting her as she came down from the top of the boxes. “What did you see?” he asked anxiously.
“You don’t even want to know,” Maria replied, her expression shell-shocked, “Let’s just say I think we’ve bitten off more than we can chew.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“It’s a desert planet,” Alex informed Liz, “Very mountainous, which means it’s probably riddled with underground caverns and such.” Alex paused meaningfully and Liz comprehended what he’d left unspoken. Plenty of places to hide. Their eyes met in a brief, transitive moment before each resumed their idle personas. Alex lounged in a bucket seat chair while Liz lazed about on her cot.
Liz flopped over onto her stomach to frown at him. “How do you find out all this stuff?”
“I told you…my guard is very chatty,” Alex teased, “I guess he must miss home or something because I can’t get him to shut up about it. Besides…talking to him gives me something to beat the monotony while you sleep.”
“I can’t help it,” Liz mumbled, “This pregnancy is totally draining me.”
“Yeah…I can tell,” Alex said, “You were whimpering in your sleep earlier. Nightmares?”
“Not really,” Liz sighed, “I dreamed about Max. I dreamed he came here and he rescued us. But when I woke up…”
“…You were still here,” Alex concluded sadly, “Now you see what I mean, Parker.”
“Hmm…” Liz considered, “But you know what I wonder?”
“What do you wonder?”
“Why are they being so nice to us,” she said, “I mean…I expected this place to be torture or something but so far it’s been pretty cushy. Not that I have a problem with the fact Nicholas is letting us visit and pretty much indulging most of our whims but…why? Why is he being so amiable all of a sudden? It’s creepy.”
Amiable didn’t even begin to describe Nicholas’ tactics. His outward display was one of kindness and compassion but both Liz and Alex could easily see the malice lurking behind his calculating eyes whenever they suffered his presence. Still, he had surprised them when, without explanation, he had removed Alex from his cell and abruptly pitched him in with Liz.
“You can stay until late evening,” Nicholas had informed them coldly, “And then it’s back to your own.”
“I think maybe Nicholas is just trying to keep you happy,” Alex speculated to Liz presently, “You’re in a delicate condition, remember? He’s got a lot riding on your pregnancy. I doubt he wants anything to happen to you…at least as long as you’re pregnant anyway.”
“That’s the part that scares me, Alex,” Liz murmured, shifting onto her back to run her palms down the expanse of her still flat tummy, “What the hell do they want with my baby?”
Last edited by Deejonaise on Fri Jun 18, 2004 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Deejonaise
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- Posts: 385
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Okay, so I'm weak...we knew this, didn't we?
Chapter 19
“So it’s…ah…a little bigger than we expected,” Max commented lamely when he and his friends stood ground level again. Everyone’s awed gazes were fixed towards the gigantic spaceship they unearthed, identical shock reflected on all six of their faces.
“Um…little is an understatement, Max,” Maria muttered with a low whistle, “This thing is fucking monstrous.”
“I second that,” Kyle mumbled in disbelief.
“How the hell did Nasedo get this underground?” Michael wondered in a daze, “I don’t know what to fucking say.”
Isabel didn’t have that problem. Her thoughts weren’t exactly eloquent but they were definitely emphatic. “Shit…” she uttered tonelessly.
“Double shit,” Tess added.
The silver shaped disk could very possibly fit neatly inside a football stadium. At the very top of the ship the gang could just barely make out Atherton’s tiny dome. In comparison to the size of the ship it more resembled a primitive hut. The chrome surface glinted in the sun even through the haze of grime coating the hull. It was just as Maria described it: monstrous.
“Um…yeah…” Kyle croaks, giving his brow a thoughtful scratch, “We’re not going to be able to get this thing off the ground undetected. It’s just lucky as hell we’re in the middle of nowhere right now. I just hope no planes or helicopters go flying overhead.”
“Get it off the ground?” Isabel scoffed, “Are you kidding? We’re certainly optimistic, aren’t we?”
“I hate to agree but…Isabel’s got a point,” Maria said, “We don’t even know how to get inside it. This is hopeless, you guys. We need to find another way.”
Max opened his mouth to provide the dejected group some reassurance when a wave of vertigo suddenly seized him. As the world tilted crazily, Max stumbled against the cool metal of the ship and was immediately inundated with a flash. But, curiously, the picture that came up in his mind felt more like a memory rather than a playback. Max could suddenly recall another time and another ship clear as a bell, one that he had piloted when his world had declared war on Bangkar, the third planet. Max flickered back and forth between the past and present for several moments before they finally converged into one reality. Just like that he knew, not only how to open the ship, but how to navigate it as well. He was remembering who he was…
He came out of his stupor abruptly when Michael placed a concerned hand on his shoulder. “Maxwell, you okay?” he whispered, “You look like you’re gonna hurl.”
Max didn’t answer. Instead, he hustled to the east side of the ship and waved his hand before the concealed motion detector. The monitor illuminated with the green shadow of his handprint before activating the entrance. The whooshing sound of the mechanical doors as they opened mingled with the surprised gasps of his friends as they came to stand behind him.
“How the fuck did you do that, Evans?” Kyle demanded breathlessly.
“I don’t know,” Max answered just as breathless, “I just did it.” Stunned with the new knowledge suddenly pounding in his head, Max started up the ramp only to cast a last minute glance back at his friends when he realized they weren’t following him. “Aren’t you coming?”
“Max…” Isabel hedged, frowning at him in concern, “I don’t know if it’s such a good idea that we try this.”
“This is our one chance to get to Liz,” Max said, “I told you before…either you stay behind or you come with me, but you’re not changing my mind. No way in hell.” He disappeared into the dark interior of the ship, giving the others no choice but to trot along after him.
Michael ran ahead and fell into step with Max as he made his way purposefully and knowingly through the ship’s corridors. “Max,” he asked in a low tone so the others couldn’t overhear, “What the hell was that back there? How did you know how to open the ship?”
“It was so weird. While we were standing outside…I had a memory,” Max revealed quietly.
“You mean a flash,” Michael concluded.
“No, a memory,” Max persisted, “Michael, I know how to fly this ship. I’ve piloted one of these crafts before…back on our world. You and I trained together and I can remember that.”
“Are you telling me that you’re starting to remember our life on Antar?” Michael uttered incredulously, “Are you sure you just haven’t been out in the heat too long?”
“It’s not the heat. I remember how to fly this kind of ship…and several others, too,” Max told him and then he surveyed Michael with a meaningful stare, “I remember how navigate and get us back home without the autopilot. I also know I’m going to need a co-pilot to get us off the ground, Michael.”
Michael comprehended the unspoken request in Max’s eyes and began shaking his head wildly. “No way!”
“Michael, you can do this,” Max insisted, “We can do it together…like always.”
To his uncomfortable suspicion, Michael didn’t think Max was talking about present time. “This is nuts, Maxwell,” he hissed, “It’s so obvious that the desert heat has fried your brain! Maybe you’re just hallucinating.”
“I’m not.”
“Okay…well, even if you do remember how to fly this ship, I don’t,” Michael argued, “And if you need a co-pilot to take off then we’re just screwed!”
Max grabbed hold of Michael’s forearm and gave it a forceful squeeze. “We can do this, Rathalan.” He was hardly aware of using Michael’s true Antarian name. It had just slipped out naturally for him, but Max’s usage of it made Michael feel even uneasier. “You’ve always trusted me before…trust me now.”
Michael started to jerk out of Max’s hold, seriously unnerved by his friend’s strange behavior but then he was abruptly transported back into another moment, another time…
They spoke with their eyes, sharing a connection that was closer than brothers. That was the way among their people and even though Rathalan could clearly decipher Zanden’s emotions, his fear and vice versa Rath still felt the need to speak his feelings aloud. Though they were warriors, servant and King, Rath could hardly squelch the wave of emotion running through him.
“If we die tonight…we will die alongside each other,” he said in their Native tongue, “Together…as brothers…”
“We’re still brothers, Michael,” Max uttered softly, snapping Michael from the shared memory, “Please trust me.”
“Yes,” he murmured in shaky agreement, “Let’s do this.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
Liz tried not to squirm as the Antarian physicians checked her vital signs. They ran regular human tests as well as a few invasive Antarian ones but Liz didn’t so much as whimper as they poked and prodded her. Her stoicism mattered little, however. The physicians barely addressed her but instead relayed all their findings directly to Nicholas. Liz noted that they didn’t speak aloud but rather seemed to communicate with one another telepathically, thus shutting her out of the loop completely. She bit down against her frustration until the physicians filed out of the cell, leaving her and Nicholas alone.
“This is my child,” she snapped at him, “I have a right to know what’s going on!”
“Well…you’re having a healthy baby boy,” Nicholas informed her drolly, not even flinching under Liz’s unwavering stare, “But somehow I suspect you already knew that.”
“So tell me something I don’t know,” Liz said, neither confirming nor denying his accusation.
“Your child is approximately the size of a six week old fetus,” Nicholas informed her, “Because of his rapid growth he’s consuming your nutrient stores in large quantities. That is the reason you’ve been feeling so listless and tired later. The shot our physicians gave you was a vitamin supplement and you will receive those shots three times a day, every day until we arrive on Antar.”
“Why do you even care?” Liz spat.
“Because if you die so does the child,” Nicholas replied tartly, “And I cannot let that happen. I will do everything in my power to keep you healthy so that the child can thrive.”
“What do you want with him?” she whispered fearfully.
“You’ll know that soon, sweets,” Nicholas promised with a malevolent grin, “Sooner than you realize.” He gave her cheek a pleasant squeeze before sailing from her cell and reestablishing the force field block.
“He’s so sure of himself,” Alex muttered through the bars when they were alone, “I hate that guy.”
“I just wish I knew what was going on,” Liz whispered, sliding from the examination table and cringing when it began automatically converting itself back into her cot. She crossed over to the window between the adjoining cells. “It just really hit me this morning,” she said tiredly, “We’re actually going to an alien planet…as unbelievable as that sounds. It feels like I’m having a nightmare and I’m just waiting to wake up.”
“I know what you mean…” Alex mumbled, “Some days I feel totally cool, like I’m ready to face whatever’s coming head on and then other times… This is going to sound incredibly lame but…others times I just want my mommy.”
“I can relate,” Liz told him, “I want my mommy, too.”
“So why don’t we talk about something to distract ourselves,” Alex suggested, “Brooding over our possible fate isn’t going to help the situation.”
“What do you want to talk about?” Liz queried dully.
“Hmm…how about telling me how the turn out was at my funeral,” he piped cheerily, “I only got there at the tale end as people were leaving.”
Liz gaped at him incredulously. “Alex!” she cried, “I can’t believe you just asked me that…that totally morbid question.”
“We have to look at the humorous side of this,” he considered, “I’m not really dead, after all, and…how many people do you think get to witness their own funerals? Besides all the anguish and fear and turmoil I was feeling at the moment, I could definitely feel the love.”
She found herself grinning at him in spite of her fierce conviction not to. “You’ve got serious issues, my friend.”
“Possibly,” Alex returned with a cheeky grin, “So how did Isabel take my…you know…my death, huh?”
“I can’t believe you’re asking me this,” Liz choked.
“This is me,” Alex said, “My obsession for the woman has already long since been established and…there was a little spark between us at prom. Yet another reason on a long list for kicking Nicholas’ ass! Do you have any idea how close I was, Parker?”
“Close to what?”
“Close to having the woman of my dreams,” Alex grumbled, “I mean after all the crap I thought she was really beginning to see me…that she was ready to give me a chance. I bought us concert tickets to Beth Orton and everything. And then it just all vanished.”
“It didn’t just vanish, Alex,” Liz reassured him, “If it makes you feel better, and there’s something totally weird about you if it does, Isabel was really broken up about your death. She was going to leave Roswell completely after graduation just to escape her grief.”
“So then what happened to change that?”
“I found something fishy about your death,” Liz whispered, “After that we banded together to find out what really happened.”
Alex blinked back tears of gratitude, his heart suddenly swelling with emotion. “So you guys really do love me. I wasn’t just the convenient sidekick?”
“You idiot!” Liz laughed, “We love you, Alex. You’re a part of us. We all…we all belong together.” She didn’t know why she felt that or why her statement felt more like conviction than emotional espousing but Liz was absolutely certain it was true.
“So I guess that’s how you and Max end up…ah…getting together,” Alex prodded laughing, “Comforting each other over my untimely death and all…”
“Alex!”
“I’m just saying…what was it like?”
Liz groaned. “I so cannot believe you’re asking me this stuff.”
“I’m curious…for my own personal knowledge, okay!” he laughed, “I want to know what to expect in case me and Isabel ever… Well, you know…” He trailed off, his face bright read with tongue-tied embarrassment. “Oh, forget it…”
“Does that mean you’ve actually got some faith that we’re going to make it out of this, Alex?” Liz challenged cheekily.
Oddly enough, he realized he did. All this time he was sure he’d lost faith completely and resigned himself to the fact he and Liz would probably die on an alien planet. But sometime between his last conversation with Liz and this one Alex had started thinking differently. Against all odds, even with the misinformation that had been put out there, his friends had discovered the truth. They might not have realized their persistent digging would lead to the knowledge that he hadn’t died, but they never gave up in the meantime. They were a determined bunch and Alex was sure if anyone could get to him and Liz to save the day it was his friends. It was just as Liz had told him…they all belonged together.
“I’ve got every confidence,” he murmured to Liz with a hopeful smile, “Every confidence in the world.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“Is he sure he knows what the hell he’s doing?” Isabel muttered to Michael as he helped her secure the last remaining fastens of her white spacesuit jumper, “He’s creeping me out, Michael.”
“Trust me…he’s knows what he’s doing.”
“Obviously,” Isabel returned, gesturing down the length of her person, “That’s the part that scares me. He knows where to find the jumpers and how to put them on. He knows how to activate the ship’s quarters…hell, he knows how to activate the ship! What’s going on, Michael?”
“I think Max is getting his memories back,” Michael told her.
Isabel jerked in startled surprised. “His memories,” she echoed slowly, “You…you mean from before?” Michael answered with a deliberate nod. “Tess!” Isabel spat in disgust, “She’s up to it again…or else Nicholas is playing around with her head!”
“It’s not Tess,” Michael interjected quietly, “First of all, she’d have nothing to gain by giving us memories that would help us if she was really against us. Secondly, Max broke the mindwarp hold when he healed her so she’s no longer under Nicholas’ control. Besides that he thinks she’s dead, which works to our advantage as well.”
“Okay…so if Tess isn’t messing around with his head then where are the memories coming from?”
“They’re real, Isabel,” Michael revealed dramatically, “I’m having them, too.” Isabel gasped for a second time. She weaved on her feet and Michael helped her down into the nearest seat so she could regain her bearings. “Max and I think you and Tess will start to remember soon as well.”
“What?” Isabel whispered in confused disbelief.
“We think seeing the ship triggered some kind of mechanism inside us,” Michael explained, “We’re getting our memories back. I’m not just remembering bits and pieces of Rath’s life…I am Rath, Isabel.”
“Oh my God…” she uttered in horror, “Michael, does that mean…does that mean…”
“I’m not in love with you, Isabel,” he said mildly, “I never was… You, me, Max and Tess were more like brothers and sisters than anything else. Max and Tess married to keep the peace between her home world, Asten and our world of Antar.”
“So we weren’t engaged?” Isabel asked.
“No…we were,” Michael said, “But only because Khivar was pursuing you and you thought announcing your impending marriage to me would deter him. It didn’t…”
“Why can you and Max remember but Tess and I can’t?” she wondered a little wildly.
“I can remember,” Tess answered quietly from the entrance of the utility room. Almost the instant she appeared, Michael crossed the room and enfolded her in a heartfelt hug. If Isabel hadn’t already been sitting down her knees would have collapsed beneath her to see it.
“Avarre,” Michael breathed, skimming his fingers over her features as if he were seeing her for the first time, “I can’t believe the way we’ve treated you. Can you forgive us?”
“You couldn’t trust me,” Tess whispered, hugging him tight, “I couldn’t trust me. This whole thing is very confusing.”
“What the hell is going on!” Isabel cried hysterically. Michael and Tess broke apart to regard her. “Why can you two remember and I can’t? What does all this mean?”
“I’m going to give you the shortened version,” Tess told her, “Nasedo wasn’t really our protector. His true name was Il-Kor and he served as the chief agent to my brother. He was sent after us with the direct instructions to destroy Rath and Zan’s pods but to preserve us alive. But he only managed to make his escape with me.”
“Your…your brother?”
“Khivar,” Tess revealed in a whisper, “My brother was in line for the throne on my home planet but Antar and Asten were at war. Many died…many innocents. We were the fourth planet, which meant that most of our raids affected the one between us and that only led to further friction and more war.
“In an effort for peace my father arranged for an alliance between Zanden and myself,” Tess explained, “When we were married Zan became rightful ruler to Asten once my father’s spirit rejoined the Great Ones. This made my brother very angry. He was already wild with grief over our father’s death and he felt that Zan had usurped his position. Another war ensued…bloodier than the first.”
“So then what happened?” Isabel whispered.
“The battles were horrific…men, women, children…just needless slaughter,” Michael continued, “Many Antarians and Astenians died because Khivar resorted to guerilla tactics and your mother grew very concerned because Antar soon lost its alliance with the second planet of Ista. Civil unrest was spreading through the stellar system. She begged Zan to form a treaty with Khivar.”
“What treaty?”
“He was to marry you,” Tess said, “And then serve as a vassal King on Asten. He would retain the power but Zan would still be the true ruler.”
“And,” Isabel prodded impatiently.
“He fooled us all into believing he would be content with that arrangement,” Tess went on, “But the entire time he was plotting against the throne. Unaware of my brother’s duplicity, you fell in love with him, Isabel. But…Khivar fell in love with you as well. As your feelings for each other deepened he foolishly thought that he could tell you of his plan and still keep your love.”
“But he couldn’t,” Isabel answered, her own memories suddenly flooding her mind with the force of a tidal wave, “When he told me the truth I was…devastated and torn because as much I loved him…I loved my brother just as much.”
“You went to Zan and told him Khivar’s plan,” Michael continued as if recounting a story Isabel didn’t know, “A price was put on Khivar’s head for treason but he escaped to the 5th planet before we could take him. He found powerful allies there and with their assistance he staged an attack on Antar. The planet was already fraught with rebellion and civil war so we were vulnerable to his attack. Eventually he stormed the palace and…you know the rest.”
“Il-Kor and Orayn said that you betrayed us,” Tess whispered, “But I’ve never believed that, my friend.”
“I did go to him,” Isabel confessed shamefully, “I thought that his love for me would be stronger than his hatred for my brother. I promised him that I would stay with him if he stopped the attack. He said he wanted to surrender to Zan and do it face to face out of respect for me and our love but…he killed him. He killed my brother right before my eyes.” She began to weep with the memory, burying her face in her hands as harsh sobs wracked her body.
She might have gone on that way forever, suspended in those last memories of Vilandra if she hadn’t felt a gentle pair of hands coast over her hair. When she looked up again, Max was there, smiling at her. “I’m not dead,” he whispered, “We’re here and we’re together and no one is going to come between any of us again.” He held out his hands for Michael and Tess and they all formed a semi-circle around Isabel.
“One of us is missing, Max,” Isabel whispered shakily.
“Asha,” Max answered grimly, “Liz is Asha. We have to find her before Khivar realizes the truth.”
Chapter 19
“So it’s…ah…a little bigger than we expected,” Max commented lamely when he and his friends stood ground level again. Everyone’s awed gazes were fixed towards the gigantic spaceship they unearthed, identical shock reflected on all six of their faces.
“Um…little is an understatement, Max,” Maria muttered with a low whistle, “This thing is fucking monstrous.”
“I second that,” Kyle mumbled in disbelief.
“How the hell did Nasedo get this underground?” Michael wondered in a daze, “I don’t know what to fucking say.”
Isabel didn’t have that problem. Her thoughts weren’t exactly eloquent but they were definitely emphatic. “Shit…” she uttered tonelessly.
“Double shit,” Tess added.
The silver shaped disk could very possibly fit neatly inside a football stadium. At the very top of the ship the gang could just barely make out Atherton’s tiny dome. In comparison to the size of the ship it more resembled a primitive hut. The chrome surface glinted in the sun even through the haze of grime coating the hull. It was just as Maria described it: monstrous.
“Um…yeah…” Kyle croaks, giving his brow a thoughtful scratch, “We’re not going to be able to get this thing off the ground undetected. It’s just lucky as hell we’re in the middle of nowhere right now. I just hope no planes or helicopters go flying overhead.”
“Get it off the ground?” Isabel scoffed, “Are you kidding? We’re certainly optimistic, aren’t we?”
“I hate to agree but…Isabel’s got a point,” Maria said, “We don’t even know how to get inside it. This is hopeless, you guys. We need to find another way.”
Max opened his mouth to provide the dejected group some reassurance when a wave of vertigo suddenly seized him. As the world tilted crazily, Max stumbled against the cool metal of the ship and was immediately inundated with a flash. But, curiously, the picture that came up in his mind felt more like a memory rather than a playback. Max could suddenly recall another time and another ship clear as a bell, one that he had piloted when his world had declared war on Bangkar, the third planet. Max flickered back and forth between the past and present for several moments before they finally converged into one reality. Just like that he knew, not only how to open the ship, but how to navigate it as well. He was remembering who he was…
He came out of his stupor abruptly when Michael placed a concerned hand on his shoulder. “Maxwell, you okay?” he whispered, “You look like you’re gonna hurl.”
Max didn’t answer. Instead, he hustled to the east side of the ship and waved his hand before the concealed motion detector. The monitor illuminated with the green shadow of his handprint before activating the entrance. The whooshing sound of the mechanical doors as they opened mingled with the surprised gasps of his friends as they came to stand behind him.
“How the fuck did you do that, Evans?” Kyle demanded breathlessly.
“I don’t know,” Max answered just as breathless, “I just did it.” Stunned with the new knowledge suddenly pounding in his head, Max started up the ramp only to cast a last minute glance back at his friends when he realized they weren’t following him. “Aren’t you coming?”
“Max…” Isabel hedged, frowning at him in concern, “I don’t know if it’s such a good idea that we try this.”
“This is our one chance to get to Liz,” Max said, “I told you before…either you stay behind or you come with me, but you’re not changing my mind. No way in hell.” He disappeared into the dark interior of the ship, giving the others no choice but to trot along after him.
Michael ran ahead and fell into step with Max as he made his way purposefully and knowingly through the ship’s corridors. “Max,” he asked in a low tone so the others couldn’t overhear, “What the hell was that back there? How did you know how to open the ship?”
“It was so weird. While we were standing outside…I had a memory,” Max revealed quietly.
“You mean a flash,” Michael concluded.
“No, a memory,” Max persisted, “Michael, I know how to fly this ship. I’ve piloted one of these crafts before…back on our world. You and I trained together and I can remember that.”
“Are you telling me that you’re starting to remember our life on Antar?” Michael uttered incredulously, “Are you sure you just haven’t been out in the heat too long?”
“It’s not the heat. I remember how to fly this kind of ship…and several others, too,” Max told him and then he surveyed Michael with a meaningful stare, “I remember how navigate and get us back home without the autopilot. I also know I’m going to need a co-pilot to get us off the ground, Michael.”
Michael comprehended the unspoken request in Max’s eyes and began shaking his head wildly. “No way!”
“Michael, you can do this,” Max insisted, “We can do it together…like always.”
To his uncomfortable suspicion, Michael didn’t think Max was talking about present time. “This is nuts, Maxwell,” he hissed, “It’s so obvious that the desert heat has fried your brain! Maybe you’re just hallucinating.”
“I’m not.”
“Okay…well, even if you do remember how to fly this ship, I don’t,” Michael argued, “And if you need a co-pilot to take off then we’re just screwed!”
Max grabbed hold of Michael’s forearm and gave it a forceful squeeze. “We can do this, Rathalan.” He was hardly aware of using Michael’s true Antarian name. It had just slipped out naturally for him, but Max’s usage of it made Michael feel even uneasier. “You’ve always trusted me before…trust me now.”
Michael started to jerk out of Max’s hold, seriously unnerved by his friend’s strange behavior but then he was abruptly transported back into another moment, another time…
They spoke with their eyes, sharing a connection that was closer than brothers. That was the way among their people and even though Rathalan could clearly decipher Zanden’s emotions, his fear and vice versa Rath still felt the need to speak his feelings aloud. Though they were warriors, servant and King, Rath could hardly squelch the wave of emotion running through him.
“If we die tonight…we will die alongside each other,” he said in their Native tongue, “Together…as brothers…”
“We’re still brothers, Michael,” Max uttered softly, snapping Michael from the shared memory, “Please trust me.”
“Yes,” he murmured in shaky agreement, “Let’s do this.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
Liz tried not to squirm as the Antarian physicians checked her vital signs. They ran regular human tests as well as a few invasive Antarian ones but Liz didn’t so much as whimper as they poked and prodded her. Her stoicism mattered little, however. The physicians barely addressed her but instead relayed all their findings directly to Nicholas. Liz noted that they didn’t speak aloud but rather seemed to communicate with one another telepathically, thus shutting her out of the loop completely. She bit down against her frustration until the physicians filed out of the cell, leaving her and Nicholas alone.
“This is my child,” she snapped at him, “I have a right to know what’s going on!”
“Well…you’re having a healthy baby boy,” Nicholas informed her drolly, not even flinching under Liz’s unwavering stare, “But somehow I suspect you already knew that.”
“So tell me something I don’t know,” Liz said, neither confirming nor denying his accusation.
“Your child is approximately the size of a six week old fetus,” Nicholas informed her, “Because of his rapid growth he’s consuming your nutrient stores in large quantities. That is the reason you’ve been feeling so listless and tired later. The shot our physicians gave you was a vitamin supplement and you will receive those shots three times a day, every day until we arrive on Antar.”
“Why do you even care?” Liz spat.
“Because if you die so does the child,” Nicholas replied tartly, “And I cannot let that happen. I will do everything in my power to keep you healthy so that the child can thrive.”
“What do you want with him?” she whispered fearfully.
“You’ll know that soon, sweets,” Nicholas promised with a malevolent grin, “Sooner than you realize.” He gave her cheek a pleasant squeeze before sailing from her cell and reestablishing the force field block.
“He’s so sure of himself,” Alex muttered through the bars when they were alone, “I hate that guy.”
“I just wish I knew what was going on,” Liz whispered, sliding from the examination table and cringing when it began automatically converting itself back into her cot. She crossed over to the window between the adjoining cells. “It just really hit me this morning,” she said tiredly, “We’re actually going to an alien planet…as unbelievable as that sounds. It feels like I’m having a nightmare and I’m just waiting to wake up.”
“I know what you mean…” Alex mumbled, “Some days I feel totally cool, like I’m ready to face whatever’s coming head on and then other times… This is going to sound incredibly lame but…others times I just want my mommy.”
“I can relate,” Liz told him, “I want my mommy, too.”
“So why don’t we talk about something to distract ourselves,” Alex suggested, “Brooding over our possible fate isn’t going to help the situation.”
“What do you want to talk about?” Liz queried dully.
“Hmm…how about telling me how the turn out was at my funeral,” he piped cheerily, “I only got there at the tale end as people were leaving.”
Liz gaped at him incredulously. “Alex!” she cried, “I can’t believe you just asked me that…that totally morbid question.”
“We have to look at the humorous side of this,” he considered, “I’m not really dead, after all, and…how many people do you think get to witness their own funerals? Besides all the anguish and fear and turmoil I was feeling at the moment, I could definitely feel the love.”
She found herself grinning at him in spite of her fierce conviction not to. “You’ve got serious issues, my friend.”
“Possibly,” Alex returned with a cheeky grin, “So how did Isabel take my…you know…my death, huh?”
“I can’t believe you’re asking me this,” Liz choked.
“This is me,” Alex said, “My obsession for the woman has already long since been established and…there was a little spark between us at prom. Yet another reason on a long list for kicking Nicholas’ ass! Do you have any idea how close I was, Parker?”
“Close to what?”
“Close to having the woman of my dreams,” Alex grumbled, “I mean after all the crap I thought she was really beginning to see me…that she was ready to give me a chance. I bought us concert tickets to Beth Orton and everything. And then it just all vanished.”
“It didn’t just vanish, Alex,” Liz reassured him, “If it makes you feel better, and there’s something totally weird about you if it does, Isabel was really broken up about your death. She was going to leave Roswell completely after graduation just to escape her grief.”
“So then what happened to change that?”
“I found something fishy about your death,” Liz whispered, “After that we banded together to find out what really happened.”
Alex blinked back tears of gratitude, his heart suddenly swelling with emotion. “So you guys really do love me. I wasn’t just the convenient sidekick?”
“You idiot!” Liz laughed, “We love you, Alex. You’re a part of us. We all…we all belong together.” She didn’t know why she felt that or why her statement felt more like conviction than emotional espousing but Liz was absolutely certain it was true.
“So I guess that’s how you and Max end up…ah…getting together,” Alex prodded laughing, “Comforting each other over my untimely death and all…”
“Alex!”
“I’m just saying…what was it like?”
Liz groaned. “I so cannot believe you’re asking me this stuff.”
“I’m curious…for my own personal knowledge, okay!” he laughed, “I want to know what to expect in case me and Isabel ever… Well, you know…” He trailed off, his face bright read with tongue-tied embarrassment. “Oh, forget it…”
“Does that mean you’ve actually got some faith that we’re going to make it out of this, Alex?” Liz challenged cheekily.
Oddly enough, he realized he did. All this time he was sure he’d lost faith completely and resigned himself to the fact he and Liz would probably die on an alien planet. But sometime between his last conversation with Liz and this one Alex had started thinking differently. Against all odds, even with the misinformation that had been put out there, his friends had discovered the truth. They might not have realized their persistent digging would lead to the knowledge that he hadn’t died, but they never gave up in the meantime. They were a determined bunch and Alex was sure if anyone could get to him and Liz to save the day it was his friends. It was just as Liz had told him…they all belonged together.
“I’ve got every confidence,” he murmured to Liz with a hopeful smile, “Every confidence in the world.”
~~~***~~~***~~~
“Is he sure he knows what the hell he’s doing?” Isabel muttered to Michael as he helped her secure the last remaining fastens of her white spacesuit jumper, “He’s creeping me out, Michael.”
“Trust me…he’s knows what he’s doing.”
“Obviously,” Isabel returned, gesturing down the length of her person, “That’s the part that scares me. He knows where to find the jumpers and how to put them on. He knows how to activate the ship’s quarters…hell, he knows how to activate the ship! What’s going on, Michael?”
“I think Max is getting his memories back,” Michael told her.
Isabel jerked in startled surprised. “His memories,” she echoed slowly, “You…you mean from before?” Michael answered with a deliberate nod. “Tess!” Isabel spat in disgust, “She’s up to it again…or else Nicholas is playing around with her head!”
“It’s not Tess,” Michael interjected quietly, “First of all, she’d have nothing to gain by giving us memories that would help us if she was really against us. Secondly, Max broke the mindwarp hold when he healed her so she’s no longer under Nicholas’ control. Besides that he thinks she’s dead, which works to our advantage as well.”
“Okay…so if Tess isn’t messing around with his head then where are the memories coming from?”
“They’re real, Isabel,” Michael revealed dramatically, “I’m having them, too.” Isabel gasped for a second time. She weaved on her feet and Michael helped her down into the nearest seat so she could regain her bearings. “Max and I think you and Tess will start to remember soon as well.”
“What?” Isabel whispered in confused disbelief.
“We think seeing the ship triggered some kind of mechanism inside us,” Michael explained, “We’re getting our memories back. I’m not just remembering bits and pieces of Rath’s life…I am Rath, Isabel.”
“Oh my God…” she uttered in horror, “Michael, does that mean…does that mean…”
“I’m not in love with you, Isabel,” he said mildly, “I never was… You, me, Max and Tess were more like brothers and sisters than anything else. Max and Tess married to keep the peace between her home world, Asten and our world of Antar.”
“So we weren’t engaged?” Isabel asked.
“No…we were,” Michael said, “But only because Khivar was pursuing you and you thought announcing your impending marriage to me would deter him. It didn’t…”
“Why can you and Max remember but Tess and I can’t?” she wondered a little wildly.
“I can remember,” Tess answered quietly from the entrance of the utility room. Almost the instant she appeared, Michael crossed the room and enfolded her in a heartfelt hug. If Isabel hadn’t already been sitting down her knees would have collapsed beneath her to see it.
“Avarre,” Michael breathed, skimming his fingers over her features as if he were seeing her for the first time, “I can’t believe the way we’ve treated you. Can you forgive us?”
“You couldn’t trust me,” Tess whispered, hugging him tight, “I couldn’t trust me. This whole thing is very confusing.”
“What the hell is going on!” Isabel cried hysterically. Michael and Tess broke apart to regard her. “Why can you two remember and I can’t? What does all this mean?”
“I’m going to give you the shortened version,” Tess told her, “Nasedo wasn’t really our protector. His true name was Il-Kor and he served as the chief agent to my brother. He was sent after us with the direct instructions to destroy Rath and Zan’s pods but to preserve us alive. But he only managed to make his escape with me.”
“Your…your brother?”
“Khivar,” Tess revealed in a whisper, “My brother was in line for the throne on my home planet but Antar and Asten were at war. Many died…many innocents. We were the fourth planet, which meant that most of our raids affected the one between us and that only led to further friction and more war.
“In an effort for peace my father arranged for an alliance between Zanden and myself,” Tess explained, “When we were married Zan became rightful ruler to Asten once my father’s spirit rejoined the Great Ones. This made my brother very angry. He was already wild with grief over our father’s death and he felt that Zan had usurped his position. Another war ensued…bloodier than the first.”
“So then what happened?” Isabel whispered.
“The battles were horrific…men, women, children…just needless slaughter,” Michael continued, “Many Antarians and Astenians died because Khivar resorted to guerilla tactics and your mother grew very concerned because Antar soon lost its alliance with the second planet of Ista. Civil unrest was spreading through the stellar system. She begged Zan to form a treaty with Khivar.”
“What treaty?”
“He was to marry you,” Tess said, “And then serve as a vassal King on Asten. He would retain the power but Zan would still be the true ruler.”
“And,” Isabel prodded impatiently.
“He fooled us all into believing he would be content with that arrangement,” Tess went on, “But the entire time he was plotting against the throne. Unaware of my brother’s duplicity, you fell in love with him, Isabel. But…Khivar fell in love with you as well. As your feelings for each other deepened he foolishly thought that he could tell you of his plan and still keep your love.”
“But he couldn’t,” Isabel answered, her own memories suddenly flooding her mind with the force of a tidal wave, “When he told me the truth I was…devastated and torn because as much I loved him…I loved my brother just as much.”
“You went to Zan and told him Khivar’s plan,” Michael continued as if recounting a story Isabel didn’t know, “A price was put on Khivar’s head for treason but he escaped to the 5th planet before we could take him. He found powerful allies there and with their assistance he staged an attack on Antar. The planet was already fraught with rebellion and civil war so we were vulnerable to his attack. Eventually he stormed the palace and…you know the rest.”
“Il-Kor and Orayn said that you betrayed us,” Tess whispered, “But I’ve never believed that, my friend.”
“I did go to him,” Isabel confessed shamefully, “I thought that his love for me would be stronger than his hatred for my brother. I promised him that I would stay with him if he stopped the attack. He said he wanted to surrender to Zan and do it face to face out of respect for me and our love but…he killed him. He killed my brother right before my eyes.” She began to weep with the memory, burying her face in her hands as harsh sobs wracked her body.
She might have gone on that way forever, suspended in those last memories of Vilandra if she hadn’t felt a gentle pair of hands coast over her hair. When she looked up again, Max was there, smiling at her. “I’m not dead,” he whispered, “We’re here and we’re together and no one is going to come between any of us again.” He held out his hands for Michael and Tess and they all formed a semi-circle around Isabel.
“One of us is missing, Max,” Isabel whispered shakily.
“Asha,” Max answered grimly, “Liz is Asha. We have to find her before Khivar realizes the truth.”
Last edited by Deejonaise on Fri Jun 11, 2004 2:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Deejonaise
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Chapter 20
Liz was locked in the throes of a fitful dream. She twisted her fingers into the sheets, fitfully muttering an unconscious Antarian prayer under her breath as her mind was saturated. Her body hummed with a low, unearthly glow.
He watched her intently as she offered prayer and thanks to the Great One, just as he always had.
He didn’t seem to care that his adoration was causing talk among the royal house or that he was dancing on the precipice of something that had been forbidden among their people for thousands of years.
Feeling his presence, Asha broke from her prayers and met his expressive eyes. She watched the aura shift around his brilliant form, darkening from its usual warm blue to a vibrant red as he recognized she’d become aware of his scrutiny.
“This is a holy place, majesty,” she informed him without scorn, “You profane it with your presence.”
“Would you rather I go?”
She floated over to him, shaking her head as she did so. His aura warmed with her nearness, becoming like the ripe hoyden berry found her home world. “This is a very dangerous situation, Zan,” she told him, boldly using his given name though she knew it was forbidden. However, they had been taking such liberties with each other for some time now. Still, Asha attempted sensibility. “The planet is already in chaos. Would you make it worse by breaking thousands of years of tradition?”
“Nothing has happened between us, Asha,” he laughed.
“Not yet,” she replied brusquely.
“Is it wrong that I want you?” he whispered.
“I am the High Priestess of the Gran-Al-lit…a holy one. You are the King of Antar. What you want for us can never be.”
“You want it as well,” he charged softly.
“No.”
“Now you profane the temple with your lies, Asha,” he said, “Let’s not have games between us.”
“The alliance between you and Avarre must happen,” she insisted, “I saw it in a vision.”
“Only because you connect us,” Zan insisted, “You are the reason, Asha…because we must protect you. That is what was prophesied…not that I must love Avarre.”
“Stop this, Zan, before it becomes uncontrollable,” she begged.
“It already is uncontrollable,” he responded fervently, “I love you, Asha. I will love you for eternity.”
Liz reared upright in a cold sweat, her heart thundering beneath her ribs. She was filled with a vague sense of panic but couldn’t figure out why. Upon waking the dream skittered off on the edges of her consciousness before dissipating altogether. She pulled at the clinging remnants of her clothing, feeling as if she were suffocating inside them.
“Liz?” She stifled a yelp at the sound of Alex’s voice. “Are you okay?”
“Wha…yeah, I’m fine,” she stammered back faintly.
“You were crying,” Alex remarked in concern, “In your sleep.”
“Bad dream,” she answered, swinging her legs over the edge of the cot. But she sat there for a moment, making no attempt to rise.
“You wanna talk about it?”
“I don’t remember,” Liz uttered, her body shaking inexplicably, “I can’t…” She rubbed at her aching temples. “I feel like it’s important but…”
“Don’t push yourself about it,” Alex advised, “It will come when it does.”
Liz snorted a chuckle over his simple suggestion. “Thank you, Confucius,” she teased, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Alex asked with a yawn.
“I’m fine.”
“Okay…I’m going back to bed.”
But Liz wasn’t sleepy at all. She felt restless and cramped and, after a mere day in her small cell, she was beginning to go a little stir crazy. Liz stretched languorously, straightening the bunched muscles in her back. However, all movement was stopped when she felt an odd tingle in the pit of her belly. Liz gasped at the sensation and flattened her hands against her abdomen…and it started to glow.
“Oh my god…” she uttered in wonder, “You really are in there, aren’t you?” As if in answer, the glowing intensified, deepening to a warm and vibrant blue.
~~~***~~~***~~~
They rocketed away from the earth’s surface and were hurtling through the atmosphere in less than six minutes. The speed was ridiculously intense but then that hardly gave them time to be detected on any governmental radar. Isabel watched from the reinforced view window as the earth’s atmosphere burned around the hull of the ship. However, the fierce shaking and rumbling hardly bother her. She had experienced turbulence enough times not to be fazed by it any longer. Of course the last time she’d been in a craft such as this had been over fifty years ago.
When they burst out into dark space Isabel held her breath. Her heart contracted as the giant blue orb grew smaller and smaller behind them. For the first time it truly hit her what she was leaving behind as well as the possibility she might never see her parents again.
“We’ll come back, Iz,” Max promised when he noticed her forlorn stare, “We’ll see them again.”
“I just wish we could have told them where we were going, at least,” she muttered, “You know how Mom worries.”
“Yeah…I know,” he murmured, locked up in his own feelings of guilt.
Maria sensed this was a tense time for everyone. Max and Michael sat at the ship’s helm, guiding the craft through space with considerable ease. The moon went by in a dizzying blur, freaking Maria out a little. “So…um…is anyone going to tell Kyle and me what the hell is going on?”
“Exactly,” Kyle spoke up softly, “I mean…we get that you guys remember your pasts now but…who is Asha and how does she figure into all this?”
“Asha is Liz,” Max told him.
“So you’ve told us already,” Kyle replied, “But that doesn’t explain anything. You see, Liz is human so how can she be this…this Asha person?”
“Asha wasn’t Antarian,” Isabel explained simply, “She was a High Priestess, a holy one.”
“Give it to us in English,” Maria deadpanned.
“She kept the Granolith,” Michael answered, “Uh…it’s difficult to explain but…she was a child of the Granolith…a part of it.”
“What exactly is the Granolith?” Kyle wondered.
“It’s our world’s equivalent of the Bible,” Tess told him, “It’s how we communicate with the Great One.”
“You mean God,” Maria reasoned.
“Yes, God,” Tess confirmed.
“Okay…so what does that make Asha?” Kyle asked.
“Like Isabel said she was a holy one,” Max recounted painfully, “On our planets, Asha was regarded like the Pope is in the Catholic faith. She was Holy…a saint. Pure… We, the five of us, each represented one of the five planets. I represented the first one…Antar. Asha represented Ista.”
“I represented the third planet…Bangkar,” Michael said.
“And I represented the fourth planet called Asten,” Tess added.
“I represented my mother’s home world,” Isabel revealed, “The fifth planet called Tankan. Together we were all assigned as protectors of the Granolith and Asha was the keeper.”
“Why you five in particular?” Kyle wondered, “I mean…were you just chosen at random or what?”
“We were all born under the vee constellation,” Tess answered, “When the planets were aligned…probably within minutes of each other. Our destinies were prophesied long before our births.”
“Okay, but that still doesn’t explain why you think Liz is this Asha person,” Maria said.
“When Asha was killed her spirit would have been transferred into the Granolith,” Max explained, “When we were sent to earth she was sent with us…via the Granolith.”
“We already know that Liz’s grandmother was at the crash site before the officials arrived,” Michael went on, “We think that perhaps Asha’s energy…essence, whatever was transferred into Claudia Parker until she was eventually reborn as Liz.”
“I don’t get it,” Kyle mumbled.
“Liz was born when the five planets were aligned,” Max said, “Just like she’d been in the first lifetime. I didn’t realize that…didn’t understand the reason I was so drawn to her until today when my memories returned.”
“Why were you the only one to recognize her?” Kyle asked, “Why not Isabel and Michael, too? And Tess? I mean, if you were all connected back on the five planets why were you the only one who seemed to be drawn to Liz?”
“I loved her,” Max confessed gruffly, “Asha…I loved her.”
“It was forbidden for them to be together,” Tess elaborated when Max wouldn’t expound further, “Max and I had a marriage of convenience but we were very good friends. I knew that he loved Asha and I helped cover for him when things became serious between them…”
“But it was wrong. You must understand that she was a Holy One,” Isabel said, “Relationships like that were forbidden. Asha was to remain pure because she was directly linked to the Granolith…a priestess. A relationship would have been a defilement to her position.”
“But we saw each other anyway,” Max continued, “We made love for the first time the night I was killed…she was killed. I didn’t see her again until nearly forty years later.”
“Wow…” Maria breathed in awe, “Now that’s one hell of a love story. You guys really are soulmates.”
“So wait…is that the reason Nicholas took Liz in the first place?” Kyle asked, “Does he know she’s this Holy One.”
Tess shook her head in answer. “Khivar wants Liz’s baby,” she said, “He doesn’t realize that Asha was reborn.”
“Yet,” Michael interjected grimly, “We can’t just fall back on the reassurance that he doesn’t know because that could change at any time. Orayn can find out whatever he wants…whether Liz is aware that the memory exists or not.”
“Whoa, man!” Kyle grunted, titling his head back against the rest of his seat, “This is some seriously heavy shit.”
“Yeah…you’re telling me,” Michael grumbled in agreement.
~~~***~~~***~~~
“You’ve barely said a word since we passed Mars,” Michael commented when he and Maria were alone in their quarters later that evening, “Something on your mind, Blondie?” He watched her silhouette flex and bend behind the dressing screen as she readied herself for bed.
Maria grunted. “You’ll forgive me if I’m a little freaked,” she called back fretfully, “A week ago one of my best friend’s was murdered but I barely have time to grieve before my other best friend is kidnapped by the same maniacal alien that murdered the first one. My boyfriend just recently remembered his past life on another planet, which by the way, includes him being engaged to another friend of mine. And I am currently on an alien spacecraft bound for an alien planet! You’re damned lucky I’m not in a corner screaming hysterically right now, Michael Guerin!”
“So…ah…then you’re a little stressed,” he concluded inanely.
“Yes!”
She stepped from behind the screen, dressed in a satin blue nightgown, her blond hair falling across her shoulders in glossy blond waves. Michael blinked at her. “Where did you get that?”
“There’s an…um…simulator…” she explained lamely, “It makes whatever you ask it, too. I actually had a triple cheeseburger…tasted synthetic though.”
“So…um…why that particular nightgown?” Michael stammered, trying valiantly not to be affected by the way the shimmery material clung to her hips and breasts. He failed miserably. The outline her hardened nipples formed against the nightgown’s bodice kept drawing his attention. Michael licked his lips, reading the pensive expression in her eyes even across the distance. “Maria, what are you thinking?”
She came to kneel before him and rested a shaky hand on his knee. “Did you mean what you said to me in the car before?”
Michael swallowed hard. “You mean about not wanting to wait anymore.” Maria nodded. “Yeah…I meant it.”
Smiling shyly, Maria closed her eyes and took hold of his hand, bringing it to the swell of her breast. “Then let’s not wait,” she whispered.
He didn’t ravish her, though he wanted to. Instead the logical portion of his brain was busily working and wondering over her sudden attempt at seduction. “What is this about, Maria?” he asked her gently.
Maria flushed at the question, her eyes flaring wide with mortification. “Michael…I’m asking you to make love to me, okay.”
Michael removed his hand from her breast and swept it across the plane of her cheekbone. “Maria…you don’t have to prove anything to me.”
“Prove anything?” she spat, surging to her feet and whirling away from him. But Michael Guerin was no dummy. He knew she was wiping away her tears even if her back was turned to him. “God…only you,” Maria muttered in tearful laughter, “You say you want me and then when I offer myself to you you’re all like, ‘Oh Maria, you don’t have to prove anything.’ What a line of bullshit!”
“I just don’t think now would be the right time,” he whispered.
It was amazing how having Rathalan’s memories had done wonders for grounding Michael’s personality. Beneath the surface he was still a hothead, still prone to fits of temper, but now he possessed Rath’s calm and rationalization. After all, he could have never rose to the ranks of second command in the King’s army being a reckless soldier. Which was why he didn’t allow Maria’s peculiar mood to put him on the defensive.
“Maria, come sit back down and talk to me,” he crooned serenely.
“No!” she cried, “I just feel like everything in my life is spinning horribly out of control. I need something to hold on to!”
“Maria--,”
“It’s her, isn’t it?” Maria ranted, whirling on him abruptly, “That’s why you’re rejecting me right now!”
“Who?”
“Isabel!” she spat, “You still have feelings for Isabel, don’t you?”
“I don’t have feelings for Isabel,” Michael replied, “I never had feelings for her. She’s always been like my sister…in this life and the last.”
“But…But you were engaged…are engaged,” she stuttered mournfully.
“Were,” Michael clarified, “And that’s over. We became involved solely for the purpose of deterring Khivar, but nothing ever happened between us, Blondie. The only woman I’ve ever been in love with, in my entire life…both of them, is you.”
Maria began sniffling again but this time it was evident her tears were tempered with happiness. “You really mean that?”
“Yes, you exasperating girl!”
She frowned at him. “Exasperating?” she says, “Since when does Michael Guerin use words like exasperating?”
“Since he learned that he was Rathalan al- Qui of the House of Tazu and the planet Bangkar,” Michael answered quietly, “He’s a part of me now, Maria. I can’t deny him anymore than I could deny who I am now. Can you accept that?”
She bit at her lower lip in nervous consideration before finally inclining her head in an affirming nod. “But you still love me, right?” she asked meekly.
“Of course, I love you,” Michael said, rising from the stool on which he sat so that he could embrace her in a tight hug, “You make me a better person, DeLuca. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
Maria leaned her head into his shoulder weakly, finally allowing a week’s worth of exhaustion and worry to overcome her body. Michael scooped her up into his arms and carried her over to the bed, gently tucking her beneath the covers. “You know…” Maria sighed, as her lids grew heavy with sleep, “This is the first peaceful moment I’ve had in seven days. I love you, Michael.”
He leaned down to brush her forehead in a fleeting kiss. “Ditto.”
Liz was locked in the throes of a fitful dream. She twisted her fingers into the sheets, fitfully muttering an unconscious Antarian prayer under her breath as her mind was saturated. Her body hummed with a low, unearthly glow.
He watched her intently as she offered prayer and thanks to the Great One, just as he always had.
He didn’t seem to care that his adoration was causing talk among the royal house or that he was dancing on the precipice of something that had been forbidden among their people for thousands of years.
Feeling his presence, Asha broke from her prayers and met his expressive eyes. She watched the aura shift around his brilliant form, darkening from its usual warm blue to a vibrant red as he recognized she’d become aware of his scrutiny.
“This is a holy place, majesty,” she informed him without scorn, “You profane it with your presence.”
“Would you rather I go?”
She floated over to him, shaking her head as she did so. His aura warmed with her nearness, becoming like the ripe hoyden berry found her home world. “This is a very dangerous situation, Zan,” she told him, boldly using his given name though she knew it was forbidden. However, they had been taking such liberties with each other for some time now. Still, Asha attempted sensibility. “The planet is already in chaos. Would you make it worse by breaking thousands of years of tradition?”
“Nothing has happened between us, Asha,” he laughed.
“Not yet,” she replied brusquely.
“Is it wrong that I want you?” he whispered.
“I am the High Priestess of the Gran-Al-lit…a holy one. You are the King of Antar. What you want for us can never be.”
“You want it as well,” he charged softly.
“No.”
“Now you profane the temple with your lies, Asha,” he said, “Let’s not have games between us.”
“The alliance between you and Avarre must happen,” she insisted, “I saw it in a vision.”
“Only because you connect us,” Zan insisted, “You are the reason, Asha…because we must protect you. That is what was prophesied…not that I must love Avarre.”
“Stop this, Zan, before it becomes uncontrollable,” she begged.
“It already is uncontrollable,” he responded fervently, “I love you, Asha. I will love you for eternity.”
Liz reared upright in a cold sweat, her heart thundering beneath her ribs. She was filled with a vague sense of panic but couldn’t figure out why. Upon waking the dream skittered off on the edges of her consciousness before dissipating altogether. She pulled at the clinging remnants of her clothing, feeling as if she were suffocating inside them.
“Liz?” She stifled a yelp at the sound of Alex’s voice. “Are you okay?”
“Wha…yeah, I’m fine,” she stammered back faintly.
“You were crying,” Alex remarked in concern, “In your sleep.”
“Bad dream,” she answered, swinging her legs over the edge of the cot. But she sat there for a moment, making no attempt to rise.
“You wanna talk about it?”
“I don’t remember,” Liz uttered, her body shaking inexplicably, “I can’t…” She rubbed at her aching temples. “I feel like it’s important but…”
“Don’t push yourself about it,” Alex advised, “It will come when it does.”
Liz snorted a chuckle over his simple suggestion. “Thank you, Confucius,” she teased, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Alex asked with a yawn.
“I’m fine.”
“Okay…I’m going back to bed.”
But Liz wasn’t sleepy at all. She felt restless and cramped and, after a mere day in her small cell, she was beginning to go a little stir crazy. Liz stretched languorously, straightening the bunched muscles in her back. However, all movement was stopped when she felt an odd tingle in the pit of her belly. Liz gasped at the sensation and flattened her hands against her abdomen…and it started to glow.
“Oh my god…” she uttered in wonder, “You really are in there, aren’t you?” As if in answer, the glowing intensified, deepening to a warm and vibrant blue.
~~~***~~~***~~~
They rocketed away from the earth’s surface and were hurtling through the atmosphere in less than six minutes. The speed was ridiculously intense but then that hardly gave them time to be detected on any governmental radar. Isabel watched from the reinforced view window as the earth’s atmosphere burned around the hull of the ship. However, the fierce shaking and rumbling hardly bother her. She had experienced turbulence enough times not to be fazed by it any longer. Of course the last time she’d been in a craft such as this had been over fifty years ago.
When they burst out into dark space Isabel held her breath. Her heart contracted as the giant blue orb grew smaller and smaller behind them. For the first time it truly hit her what she was leaving behind as well as the possibility she might never see her parents again.
“We’ll come back, Iz,” Max promised when he noticed her forlorn stare, “We’ll see them again.”
“I just wish we could have told them where we were going, at least,” she muttered, “You know how Mom worries.”
“Yeah…I know,” he murmured, locked up in his own feelings of guilt.
Maria sensed this was a tense time for everyone. Max and Michael sat at the ship’s helm, guiding the craft through space with considerable ease. The moon went by in a dizzying blur, freaking Maria out a little. “So…um…is anyone going to tell Kyle and me what the hell is going on?”
“Exactly,” Kyle spoke up softly, “I mean…we get that you guys remember your pasts now but…who is Asha and how does she figure into all this?”
“Asha is Liz,” Max told him.
“So you’ve told us already,” Kyle replied, “But that doesn’t explain anything. You see, Liz is human so how can she be this…this Asha person?”
“Asha wasn’t Antarian,” Isabel explained simply, “She was a High Priestess, a holy one.”
“Give it to us in English,” Maria deadpanned.
“She kept the Granolith,” Michael answered, “Uh…it’s difficult to explain but…she was a child of the Granolith…a part of it.”
“What exactly is the Granolith?” Kyle wondered.
“It’s our world’s equivalent of the Bible,” Tess told him, “It’s how we communicate with the Great One.”
“You mean God,” Maria reasoned.
“Yes, God,” Tess confirmed.
“Okay…so what does that make Asha?” Kyle asked.
“Like Isabel said she was a holy one,” Max recounted painfully, “On our planets, Asha was regarded like the Pope is in the Catholic faith. She was Holy…a saint. Pure… We, the five of us, each represented one of the five planets. I represented the first one…Antar. Asha represented Ista.”
“I represented the third planet…Bangkar,” Michael said.
“And I represented the fourth planet called Asten,” Tess added.
“I represented my mother’s home world,” Isabel revealed, “The fifth planet called Tankan. Together we were all assigned as protectors of the Granolith and Asha was the keeper.”
“Why you five in particular?” Kyle wondered, “I mean…were you just chosen at random or what?”
“We were all born under the vee constellation,” Tess answered, “When the planets were aligned…probably within minutes of each other. Our destinies were prophesied long before our births.”
“Okay, but that still doesn’t explain why you think Liz is this Asha person,” Maria said.
“When Asha was killed her spirit would have been transferred into the Granolith,” Max explained, “When we were sent to earth she was sent with us…via the Granolith.”
“We already know that Liz’s grandmother was at the crash site before the officials arrived,” Michael went on, “We think that perhaps Asha’s energy…essence, whatever was transferred into Claudia Parker until she was eventually reborn as Liz.”
“I don’t get it,” Kyle mumbled.
“Liz was born when the five planets were aligned,” Max said, “Just like she’d been in the first lifetime. I didn’t realize that…didn’t understand the reason I was so drawn to her until today when my memories returned.”
“Why were you the only one to recognize her?” Kyle asked, “Why not Isabel and Michael, too? And Tess? I mean, if you were all connected back on the five planets why were you the only one who seemed to be drawn to Liz?”
“I loved her,” Max confessed gruffly, “Asha…I loved her.”
“It was forbidden for them to be together,” Tess elaborated when Max wouldn’t expound further, “Max and I had a marriage of convenience but we were very good friends. I knew that he loved Asha and I helped cover for him when things became serious between them…”
“But it was wrong. You must understand that she was a Holy One,” Isabel said, “Relationships like that were forbidden. Asha was to remain pure because she was directly linked to the Granolith…a priestess. A relationship would have been a defilement to her position.”
“But we saw each other anyway,” Max continued, “We made love for the first time the night I was killed…she was killed. I didn’t see her again until nearly forty years later.”
“Wow…” Maria breathed in awe, “Now that’s one hell of a love story. You guys really are soulmates.”
“So wait…is that the reason Nicholas took Liz in the first place?” Kyle asked, “Does he know she’s this Holy One.”
Tess shook her head in answer. “Khivar wants Liz’s baby,” she said, “He doesn’t realize that Asha was reborn.”
“Yet,” Michael interjected grimly, “We can’t just fall back on the reassurance that he doesn’t know because that could change at any time. Orayn can find out whatever he wants…whether Liz is aware that the memory exists or not.”
“Whoa, man!” Kyle grunted, titling his head back against the rest of his seat, “This is some seriously heavy shit.”
“Yeah…you’re telling me,” Michael grumbled in agreement.
~~~***~~~***~~~
“You’ve barely said a word since we passed Mars,” Michael commented when he and Maria were alone in their quarters later that evening, “Something on your mind, Blondie?” He watched her silhouette flex and bend behind the dressing screen as she readied herself for bed.
Maria grunted. “You’ll forgive me if I’m a little freaked,” she called back fretfully, “A week ago one of my best friend’s was murdered but I barely have time to grieve before my other best friend is kidnapped by the same maniacal alien that murdered the first one. My boyfriend just recently remembered his past life on another planet, which by the way, includes him being engaged to another friend of mine. And I am currently on an alien spacecraft bound for an alien planet! You’re damned lucky I’m not in a corner screaming hysterically right now, Michael Guerin!”
“So…ah…then you’re a little stressed,” he concluded inanely.
“Yes!”
She stepped from behind the screen, dressed in a satin blue nightgown, her blond hair falling across her shoulders in glossy blond waves. Michael blinked at her. “Where did you get that?”
“There’s an…um…simulator…” she explained lamely, “It makes whatever you ask it, too. I actually had a triple cheeseburger…tasted synthetic though.”
“So…um…why that particular nightgown?” Michael stammered, trying valiantly not to be affected by the way the shimmery material clung to her hips and breasts. He failed miserably. The outline her hardened nipples formed against the nightgown’s bodice kept drawing his attention. Michael licked his lips, reading the pensive expression in her eyes even across the distance. “Maria, what are you thinking?”
She came to kneel before him and rested a shaky hand on his knee. “Did you mean what you said to me in the car before?”
Michael swallowed hard. “You mean about not wanting to wait anymore.” Maria nodded. “Yeah…I meant it.”
Smiling shyly, Maria closed her eyes and took hold of his hand, bringing it to the swell of her breast. “Then let’s not wait,” she whispered.
He didn’t ravish her, though he wanted to. Instead the logical portion of his brain was busily working and wondering over her sudden attempt at seduction. “What is this about, Maria?” he asked her gently.
Maria flushed at the question, her eyes flaring wide with mortification. “Michael…I’m asking you to make love to me, okay.”
Michael removed his hand from her breast and swept it across the plane of her cheekbone. “Maria…you don’t have to prove anything to me.”
“Prove anything?” she spat, surging to her feet and whirling away from him. But Michael Guerin was no dummy. He knew she was wiping away her tears even if her back was turned to him. “God…only you,” Maria muttered in tearful laughter, “You say you want me and then when I offer myself to you you’re all like, ‘Oh Maria, you don’t have to prove anything.’ What a line of bullshit!”
“I just don’t think now would be the right time,” he whispered.
It was amazing how having Rathalan’s memories had done wonders for grounding Michael’s personality. Beneath the surface he was still a hothead, still prone to fits of temper, but now he possessed Rath’s calm and rationalization. After all, he could have never rose to the ranks of second command in the King’s army being a reckless soldier. Which was why he didn’t allow Maria’s peculiar mood to put him on the defensive.
“Maria, come sit back down and talk to me,” he crooned serenely.
“No!” she cried, “I just feel like everything in my life is spinning horribly out of control. I need something to hold on to!”
“Maria--,”
“It’s her, isn’t it?” Maria ranted, whirling on him abruptly, “That’s why you’re rejecting me right now!”
“Who?”
“Isabel!” she spat, “You still have feelings for Isabel, don’t you?”
“I don’t have feelings for Isabel,” Michael replied, “I never had feelings for her. She’s always been like my sister…in this life and the last.”
“But…But you were engaged…are engaged,” she stuttered mournfully.
“Were,” Michael clarified, “And that’s over. We became involved solely for the purpose of deterring Khivar, but nothing ever happened between us, Blondie. The only woman I’ve ever been in love with, in my entire life…both of them, is you.”
Maria began sniffling again but this time it was evident her tears were tempered with happiness. “You really mean that?”
“Yes, you exasperating girl!”
She frowned at him. “Exasperating?” she says, “Since when does Michael Guerin use words like exasperating?”
“Since he learned that he was Rathalan al- Qui of the House of Tazu and the planet Bangkar,” Michael answered quietly, “He’s a part of me now, Maria. I can’t deny him anymore than I could deny who I am now. Can you accept that?”
She bit at her lower lip in nervous consideration before finally inclining her head in an affirming nod. “But you still love me, right?” she asked meekly.
“Of course, I love you,” Michael said, rising from the stool on which he sat so that he could embrace her in a tight hug, “You make me a better person, DeLuca. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
Maria leaned her head into his shoulder weakly, finally allowing a week’s worth of exhaustion and worry to overcome her body. Michael scooped her up into his arms and carried her over to the bed, gently tucking her beneath the covers. “You know…” Maria sighed, as her lids grew heavy with sleep, “This is the first peaceful moment I’ve had in seven days. I love you, Michael.”
He leaned down to brush her forehead in a fleeting kiss. “Ditto.”