Author: Gater101
Pairing: Max/Liz angst but it takes a while for Liz and Max to see each other again, hints of Zeegh/Liz, although they never have a relationship.
Summary: Liz disappears after she leaves the Valenti residence after her argument with Max about Tess’ powers. No one knows where she has gone, thinking that she was being stubborn and blowing off steam. Fighting wars for a planet not her own, risking her life for the cousin of the Royal Kind of Antar, tortured, tormented and finding herself in love with yet another Antarian royal, will Liz Parker be the same once she is returned to Earth, or will her past follow her?
A/N: I know, you’re all thinking “Oh no, not another one of these stories.” But trust me, give it a go. I’m trying to make it as different as possible. Also, sentences in italics is a different language in this prologue.
--*--
Liz Parker had been missing for almost ten months. No one had seen or heard from her since she had left the Valenti household after her blow out with Max over Tess’s power.
Initially, he had assumed that she had run off to Sweden like she had said she would if it would answer her questions but then, three weeks later she still hadn’t returned and they had began to worry. Mr and Mrs Parker informed the police and reported her missing after two days of her going missing and froze her bank account after checking that she hadn’t taken her funds from her savings account. It was then, when they realised that she had no money, no passport, nothing that they had all begun to really panic. Okay, so Maria had panicked the instant that Liz had vanished and so one could only imagine the state she was in after two months.
Max was livid. Not only because Liz had been right about Tess, right about Alex’s death but because she hadn’t returned even after all these months.
Maria had picked up Liz’s trail soon after Liz’s her magical vanishing act - even after her loud protests about Liz’s investigation - and it had been uncovered that everything Liz had said had been true. But the betrayal came from much closer to home. Much closer to Max’s heart than anyone had thought: the mother of his (at the time) unborn son was a cold-blooded killer. Jealous of his love for Liz.
Kyle had been the first to bring up what Max had known they were all thinking as soon as they realised that Liz was not purposefully void: was alien foul play involved? But then, when days turned to weeks and no ransom came about her they had lost faith in that idea. Of course, these unknown aliens could have just outright killed her as soon as they captured her but Max thought that that wasn’t the case. Wouldn’t they make a point to let the members of the alien abyss know about her death, to scare them, intimidate them?
And of course, it didn’t help that Mr and Mrs Parker thought that her disappearance was a human murder, human related – which it very well could have been but the pod squad knew better. With them, it was never that ‘simple’. The grief had been too much for the loving pair and Mrs Parker had moved to the west coast to be with her sister five months ago, leaving Mr Parker alone with the Crash Down and his memories of his daughter.
It was then that Max had started to hate Liz. Didn’t she realise what she was doing? Surely, she must have known that upping and leaving like that would destroy the lives of those around her. She must have and that is what had frustrated Max.
Initially, he had tried to feel her out through the broken tendrils of their connection and he was almost sure that he had felt her, distant (okay, very distant) but there, none the less. But then, as soon as the feeling appeared, it was gone and he was left to believe that he had imagined it. Isabel had tried dreamwalking her but that had failed, with Isabel being met with a haze ‘like a TV without a signal’, she had said.
Then, during a fight with creatures that were clearly not of Earthly origins, he could have sworn he had seen her, fighting alongside those who seemed to be fighting with (okay, so Max, Isabel and Michael had hidden behind a rock once they realised that there was two sides fighting against one another) them against these… bugs. It had been his imagination, of course, he told himself. He had just wanted to see her and was conjuring her image up in his mind and – considering that Isabel and Michael had been looking at the same person and not noticed anything was only further proof of his over active imagination.
And that led to now, the five of them (himself, Michael, Maria, Isabel and Kyle) sitting around the Crash Down café ten months later with nothing to do as the late night sky twinkled with stars. Mr Parker always allowed them to stay after hours when Maria was closing, as long as they tidied up any mess they left. Normally, the mood was unnaturally light but not tonight. Tonight was unusually sombre and none of them knew the reason. Rolling his head on his neck, Max glanced at his watch and noticed it was well after ten pm, on a Thursday night, no less.
“So… what’s up with everyone?” Maria asked as she swung her legs over the edge of the table, scuffing her toes along the tiled floor.
Max raised his eyebrows at her and smiled in an amused manner before shaking his head and biting his bottom lip.
“Got a headache coming on, actually,” he murmured, feeling the dull ache in his head, reaching out across his brain and quickly enveloping it.
“So, use your magic fingers and-“
“-mit, Zeegh!”
His words froze in his throat and his head whipped towards the back room and it was when he heard a murmured “Holy…” from three of the occupants at the table that he was up on his feet sprinting towards the swing door that led to the staff room.
It couldn’t be. It was just a burglar, he kept telling himself, feeling his heart rate increase and all the blood moving to his feet, effectively slowing him down in his dart towards the voice, his hand raised in case his pessimistic self was right.
Holy crap.
He reached the door and hesitated, his hand hovering over the push bar. His shaking hand, he noticed. He looked to Maria, to Michael and then back to the door, not registering the looks of impatience on their faces. He knew who was behind the door. He could feel it.
A flash of light from within the room distracted him and he was frozen. What the hell was going on?
“Dammit, Zeegh, don’t do this!”
He pushed the door open and stepped inside slowly.
And there she was.
Her back was to the door and despite the total difference in her appearance he knew it was her. The long, tightly curled brown hair, nor the white flowing dress cut down in a V at the back with glowing, ethereal gems making the shape of the seal of Antar could not fool him.
“Oh my, God, Liz!”
She spun around at Maria’s voice, her hand hovering over a device in her hand that was glowing hot white.
He stared at her. Her hair was darker, spiralled into semi-tight curls, tumbling across her shoulders, her bust, spiralling to an end at her second or third rib. Her skin was dark, tanned, contrasting the stark whiteness of the dress but… she moved slightly and the dress lost it’s whiteness. It looked velvety but moved with the fluidity of silk, hugging her body in all the right places (namely her now, full breasts) before fanning out gracefully at her hips. It was cut into a sharp ‘V’ at the bust, revealing an ample amount of cleavage but, unlike the back V this one was void of the five shimmering gems. The dress was so pure and when the door swung as Isabel moved into the room, it glittered into an ice blue then settled back to white. It was ethereal. Her eyes were wide and staring, haunted, scared. Her lip was bleeding at the corner, her eyebrow too and Max wanted nothing more in that moment than to reach out and heal it, to preserve the purity of her image.
“Shit.”
He’d never heard her curse, until then.
~*~
“Andrya, you have to go! It is not safe here for you now.”
“It was not safe before, and you know it. Why now? Where are-“
“Two telros to interception,” the computer spoke behind her on the helm of the bridge in its usual monotonous voice and Andrya swore that when she got back to Antar she was changing it into a more manly voice that changed each time it informed her of something.
“Andry, please, you know why it is different now. This is certainty of death, now.”
“Which is precisely why you need me with you, Zeegh.”
“One and a half telros to interception.”
“Goddamit, shut up!” She screamed at the voice, as though it could hear her. “I am supposed to protect you, I cannot and will not leave you on this ship – my ship - to die!”
“You must protect the seal, you know this!”
“You have the seal!”
“Only a vague essence of the seal is in my blood, you know this, also.” He smiled gently at her and moved towards her, his feet padding across the floor, his leather clad legs coming into view of her down-turned vision. “Did I tell you how beautiful you are tonight?”
She looked down at her Etherean dress in the traditional Antarian colours. White, shimmering in ice blue. With his closeness and the bare essence of the seal, Andrya knew that the five gems in the ‘V’ formation would be glowing faintly. They had been in the middle of a banquet of Syria when the carrier had told them that the Atarlians were headed towards Earth’s system, with clearly only one intention. It hadn’t taken long for her to be at the helm of The Voresh with Zeegh right behind her. Wherever she went, he was there, under her protection. She turned to speak with Kovin, but he was no where to be seen. Then Zeegh pinched her neck and she passed out, cold on the floor while he took control, hitting her eyebrow and lip on the way down (for which Zeegh apologised profusely once she awoke).
“You did not.” She smiled when he did. “What would Evanessa think, if she heard you now?” She asked wryly, her lips curling into a tight smile.
“Half of one telros to interception.”
Before she knew what was happening, he was kissing her and she returned it eagerly. She had fallen under his spell easily, but never caved. What was it Tess had said? What was it with her and Antarian Seal bearing men?
As quickly as it began, it had ended.
“Dam-“
A white light enveloped her before she could finish.
“-mit, Zeegh!”
She looked up, hoping to see his eyes but instead came face to face black lifeless ones and she stepped back suddenly before realising that they were lifeless: belonging to the inanimate alien mural on the backroom of the Crash Down café. She leaned down and fumbled at the hem of her dress before clutching the small oval shaped orb and yanking it up to her bust, palming it before passing her right hand across it.
The white light enveloped her again and she heard the familiar “zhdunk” noise it makes as it engaged. For an instant she felt cold then she opened her eyes and saw the same wall in front of her.
He was blocking her! She couldn’t believe that he had figured out how to block incoming transportations. She tried again but the beam would not engage at all.
“Dammit, Zeegh, don’t do this!” She shouted quietly.
“Oh my, God, Liz!”
Oh… bullpoop.
She spun around and, sure enough, there they were – or, more accurately, there he was. Looking as handsome as ever. Only, his eyes were momentarily devoid of emotion when she caught his gaze but they ignited in fire as soon as they left her face and travelled across her body. She could feel the Granolithas warming her back at the presence of his complete seal and she involuntarily pushed her shoulders back to remove them from her back, thrusting her bust out. They shouldn’t have seen her. This shouldn’t have happened. They weren’t supposed to see her. She had been so careful every time they had been back on Earth, for one reason or another, and now, here he was standing in front of her, raking in her drastically different appearance.
Arleta was going to kill her when she found out. If she didn’t already know, that was.
Closing her eyes, she dropped her hands and tried to hide the glowing Berlisa in her hand.
“Shit.”
Cursing had become a regular thing for her, recently.
TBC
