Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the feedback! You guys are being far too kind and I love reading all of your reactions. I'm so sorry that I didn't get this part out remotely close to when I was aiming for. Summertime's going to clear my schedule drastically so hopefully I'll be able to up the rate of posting.
Thanks again for the feedback and the bumps!
LB4: Lovely, lovely Laira. Without you, I'd have punctuation errors.
katydid
Alien_Friend
clueless
Shiesty23
Flamehair
raemac
Rowedog: Okay, that last statement of yours was a little prophetic. Or maybe you just jinxed it...
Scottie
RhondaAnn
raemac
loviedovie
Michelle in Yonkers: We'll see about Alex and Maria. The plus side to this being posted now is you only had to wait half as long as everyone else?
Amber Eyes
Allie Xie
hazz
cardinalgirl
dreamerfrvrp3
cardinalgirl: Because Kyle's a guy. That's why he didn't take more than one gun.
Just kidding. He was just under a lot of stress at the time and the thought didn't occur to him remotely.
Part 3
October 6, 2000
“How many did we lose?”
“Fifteen.”
“Shit. There’s no point in avoiding it, now. They’ve been exposed and so have we. We need to move in and get the situation under control.” She told the man in front of her, the very same man she’d barked orders to that morning.
Despite what it seemed, the two had known each other for a very long time. Their motives were almost identical.
The man nodded, “I’ll get the order out. We’ll have them brought here in less than an hour.”
The woman shook her head, “No. I’m going to go get them myself.”
“Do you think that’s safe? Especially after what happened tonight and the incident with their Protector?”
“They were just attacked. They’re scared. We’re going to be better off if I go alone than if we charge their location, giving them all heart attacks. Rath would probably have one or two of us dead before we could explain ourselves.”
He nodded, “You’re right. Do you want any backup?”
“No.” She gazed out of the window, staring at her car. “I’ll be back in two hours. I sent a message to Antar not too long ago. Make sure you stick around, in case they send any orders.”
<center>… … …</center>
“We can’t just go back home! What if they’re following us?!” Alex asked, his voice panicked. Isabel had insisted on getting in the car with Max, to make sure that he was going to hold up, and Alex had, out of pure habit, gone with her.
Liz shifted slightly around, wincing as a sharp pain shot up from her ankle through her calf. She shook her head, “What are we supposed to do, Alex? We’ve got no choice!”
“
Maria, watch the road!” Michael’s voice barked out of the phone that Isabel had open in her hand. They were currently on a three-way phone call with all of the cars: Michael and Maria in the Jetta and Kyle and Tess in the Mustang, everyone else in the jeep. All of the phones were on speakerphone.
“
I can’t watch the road, Michael! I’m freaking out!!”
Max, Maria and Tess all had the pedals floored. They were breaking ninety miles per hour, desperate to lose the creatures behind them.
Max spoke softly, his voice strained, “There’s always the pod chamber.”
“
That’s on the opposite side of town.” Kyle reminded him, “
If those things are following us, that’ll just lead them straight into Roswell.”
“
We could skirt around Roswell,” Tess commented. “
There won’t be roads the whole way, and it’s only a little bit of dirt. The cars can handle it, and we could fix them up after we get to the chamber.”
“
I don’t know…” Michael said hesitantly.
Liz looked sideways at Max. His knuckles were white from clutching the steering wheel so tightly. The steering wheel was bloody and slick. He was driving with one hand, his other cradled delicately in his lap. He winced constantly, the strain from even pressing down on the gas pedal bordering on too much for him to handle. They needed to get somewhere soon.
“We’re going to the pod chamber.” It wasn’t a suggestion that he was posing this time. It was a command.
“
How nice of you to take charge once in a while.” Michael quipped sarcastically.
Isabel barked back, “
Shut up! You’re such a hypocrite!”
Michael went to make a comment back, but there was a beep on the phone, signaling it being switched off of speakerphone, and then Maria’s voice came through, “
I am freaking out, driving 100 miles an hour at one in the morning, driving away from things straight from a sci-fi movie and all you guys can do is argue?! HELLO?! I. AM. FREAKING. OUT.”
There was commotion on their end of the line and Michael’s voice came next, “
I think she’s freaking out.”
Tess slammed her hand against the steering wheel, “
Well get her to stay semi-rational! We’re all on the verge of a freak-out here and we’re dealing with it.”
Michael muttered something about never being able to calm Maria down and they could hear Maria screaming profanities at him.
“Just keep up.” Max looked over his shoulder. The Jetta was the last car in the line, the Jeep was the first. He quickly turned to the front, “Make sure someone keeps a watch on the road behind us.”
“
Yeah, whatever.” Michael sighed.
“This is not ‘whatever’, Michael, this is our lives.” Max bit out angrily. He was sick of Michael’s attitude.
“
I am watching the damned road, Your Highness.” Another beep, signaling their connection to the Jetta was terminated.
Max groaned and had to fight to not stop the car and pummel Michael right then and there.
Final statements were made between the Jeep and the Mustang and the phones were disconnected. Alex touched Max on the shoulder, “Are you okay? I can drive if you need me to.”
“I’m fine.” He shrugged his shoulders. Each time they passed a road light, a glint of determination was apparent in his eyes. “We can’t stop. Not yet.”
A few miles from Roswell, Max veered off of the road and onto the flat desert dirt. Dust flew up behind the Jeep and the cars behind him pulled up alongside of him to increase their range of visibility.
They skirted the town, keeping at least five miles between them and the outskirts of town at all times. The travel time was tripled, but it was worth trying to keep Roswell safe.
In the Mustang, things were just as frosty as they were in the other cars.
Kyle sat forward in the passenger’s seat, his arms resting on his knees, “My adrenaline is pumping so badly right now.”
“This isn’t a game,” came Tess’s cold reply.
“Don’t you think I figured that one out when Evans and Liz came out of the woods all bloody, followed closely by these… things… that were shooting at us?!” He shook his head angrily, “Stop acting like you’re the only one who should be worried about this.”
He rubbed his hand over his cheek bone tentatively. The hit he had taken was really starting to sink in. It hurt every time he spoke and he was pretty sure there would be a bruise there.
“Kyle, there are creatures that I have never seen before in my entire life trying to kill us. I’m not trying to act like this doesn’t affect me. I’m trying to keep myself from falling apart like Little Miss Princess Deluca back there.”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m five.”
“God, you’re impossible.”
“Yeah, I suppose I’m just not alien enough to understand you, huh?” He glared angrily out the passenger’s window. “I need to get out of this car before I go crazy.”
“Don’t act like you’re fine.” Tess’s eyes narrowed, “You were injured. Max probably won’t be able to heal your face immediately, either. He’s got to be exhausted.”
Kyle scoffed, “You would be concerned with him, wouldn’t you?”
“And that’s supposed to mean what, exactly?” Tess glared at him, “That I have a little compassion for someone other than you and it’s eating you up inside, right?”
“Whatever.”
Five minutes of silence descended on them.
“What the hell were those things?!” Kyle couldn’t stop thinking about them. He had a hunch that they were on the minds of the rest of the group, too.
Tess shook her head, “I don’t know.”
A minute’s silence. And then, “What WERE those things?!”
“I DON’T KNOW!” Tess screamed at him. Why wasn’t it sinking in?!
“I’m glad your training’s coming in handy.” Kyle quipped sarcastically. He knew it was a low blow. He didn’t even mean his statement. There was no way that he wanted Tess to be on the front lines fighting those things. He was just finding the situation so hard to grasp.
Tess went silent and bit her lip. Nasedo had trained her for years to be a fighter. And the one time she needs to fight to keep her life and the lives of her friends, she fails. She couldn’t bring herself to act upon her dangers. Fear had won. The car swerved slightly.
Kyle placed a hand on the steering wheel, straightening out the car, “Are you trying to kill us?!”
Tess rubbed her head slowly, “I’m sorry, okay?!” She groaned, “I have a killer headache.”
Kyle’s expression softened, “Do you have any Tylenol that I can get for you?”
“In my purse.” She pointed to the bag lying at his feet.
Kyle dug through it for a few seconds, pulled out a bottle and shook out two pills. He offered them to Tess and watched her swallow them dry. He spoke softer this time, more aware to be concerned with her headache, “Do you get headaches a lot?”
“No.” She shook her head, “Only when I’m super stressed. I think it’s some sort of a side effect of my power. The energy builds when the stress builds and I have to work to keep my powers in control and not mindwarp everything that moves. It hurts my head a bit.”
Kyle frowned, “Does that happen with all of you?”
She shrugged, “I’ve never really thought to ask them about it.”
“Listen, Tess, I didn’t mean what I said about your training. I just…” He tightened his lips slightly, “Buddha help me, but one day I’m a normal kid, the next I’m getting healed by an alien and the day after that I’m getting hunted by aliens.”
“We’re all stressed. Don’t worry about it.”
“It’s just… it’s important for us to all band together right now. We got out alive because we worked with each other.”
He noticed how she kept checking her rearview mirror and called her out on it. She frowned again, “I keep waiting to see them following us. Why aren’t they coming?”
“Maybe they couldn’t keep up?”
She shrugged, the wheels spinning in her head, “Didn’t it look like they were just… I don’t know… teleporting? Wouldn’t it be easy to follow us that way?”
Kyle scrunched up his face in thought, “I don’t know… Maybe someone else got a better look.”
“Yeah.” She ran a finger through a curl framing her face, “Maybe.”
They sat in a more comfortable silence and Kyle stared straight ahead. He could see the rock formation beginning to loom on the horizon.
<center>… … …</center>
The group slowly made their way up the rocks, Max leading them at a pace that everyone was sure he wasn’t fit to be traveling. He was trying to keep up the appearance of being uninjured and strong, but everything about his stance and occasional winces screamed the opposite. He had healed Liz’s ankle enough for her to limp up the rocks without any major pain, but he had saved his energy as opposed to healing himself.
Kyle and Tess brought up the back, Kyle making sure that Tess constantly had her footing on the loose pebbles and sometimes even keeping a hand on the small of her back for added security. Tess wasn’t complaining.
No one spoke a word until the rock sheet slid closed behind them and they were illuminated by the unearthly glow of the pods. The lighting wasn’t excellent, but it would do for their meeting.
They all sat around the chamber, sitting closer than they would have chosen before, but still not close enough. They all looked at Max, who had remained standing with Liz.
Liz spoke tentatively, “Are you sure that you’re alright?”
“Yes.” He groaned.
“Is everyone okay?” Maria looked around, but her eyes slowed over Michael and then fell on Liz, “Are you?”
Liz shrugged noncommittally. Her ankle hurt, but she was too busy worrying about other things right now.
An uneasy silence fell over the group. Kyle broke it, “What the hell was that back there? What were those… things?”
Everyone instinctively looked to Tess.
She eyed them all before tugging at her hair, “I don’t know!!”
“You don’t have to be so nasty,” Maria snapped, wrapping her arms across her stomach.
“I am so not in the mood to deal with you right now.” Tess blew a strand of hair out of her face, glaring at Maria.
“Tess and Maria, both of you stop!” Max shouted. Everyone looked at him with equal expressions of surprise. “We need to use what we have left of our excused time from home to regroup and come up with a plan, because whether we like it or not, something has just changed in our cozy little lives.
“What did you have in mind?” Isabel chimed in.
Max looked around, “I want to get everyone healed, first.”
“Can you start with yourself?” Alex raised his eyebrows pointedly.
Max shook his head, “I healed myself already.”
“You can’t bend your arm and your knee has been shaking since you came out of the woods. You need to heal it,” Liz pitched in.
Max hesitantly complied and placed a hand next to his knee. He instantly felt some of the strength return to his body, but it was weakening his mind. He couldn’t remember ever using his powers as much as he had been using them tonight. He then healed his elbow. When that was done, he bent over and finished healing Liz’s ankle.
“Michael, take off your shirt.” Isabel blurted out.
The entire group turned to stare at her. She looked back at them defensively, “He got hit with a blast square in the chest. Max only healed him enough to get him going again. I just want to see if there’s any mark or anything.”
Michael responded by removing his shirt. Isabel and Maria gasped. A charred black round shape was on his skin.
“Does that not hurt?” Alex asked slowly.
Michael shrugged, “Not too much. Max healed most of it earlier, remember?”
“We got so lucky.” Maria stated lowly, her eyes still on the burn.
“She’s right.” Kyle added. He paused, “I just can’t stop thinking about those things. What the hell were they?”
No one answered this time. Max was bent over Michael, healing him. He stopped and took a step back. The mark was completely gone.
Max then walked over to Kyle and repeated the task. Kyle thanked him.
Isabel looked at Max with concern, “You look a little pale. Maybe you should sit down.”
“I’m fine.” He groaned, “I’m just a little dizzy.”
“Is everyone alright, now?” Tess looked around.
They all nodded.
Max suddenly backed against the far wall of the cavern and sunk down into a sitting position against it. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
Liz was by his side in seconds, “Are you okay?”
“I just got really light-headed. It’s nothing to get worried about.”
“Seriously, guys, what were those things?” Kyle’s voice interrupted.
“I like to call them Skins.”
A voice fit to carry a tune came from the opening of the pod chamber. Max jumped up and moved in front of the group immediately, holding out his arm and channeling the feeling of his need to protect others that overpowered him earlier tonight when his shield would appear.
A green wall separated the newcomer and the group. The woman quirked an eyebrow and gave him a half smile as well as an approving nod, “New power?”
“Who the hell are you?” Michael had risen to his feet and gone to stand next to Max.
“I’m Serena.” Her smile grew, “And you must be Rath’s duplicate.”
“What do you want?” Max spoke slowly, carefully. The strain from using his powers yet again was making his outstretched arm shake.
She held up her hands, “Take it easy. I’m not here to hurt anyone.”
Her hair was short, cut to her chin but flipped outwards. Right now it was an auburn color, but from the boldness of the color, it seemed like she changed her hair color frequently. A pair of white framed Jackie Onassis sunglasses sat on top of her head, not that she needed them in the dark. It seemed like they were there more out of habit than anything else.
She had almond shaped emerald green eyes and light freckles on her nose and cheeks. She wasn’t too tan or too pale. She was a good, average height and she hadn’t stopped smiling since she’d arrived.
“How do you know about those things?” Kyle demanded from behind Michael and Max.
“I’ve been battling them for fifty years or so.” She commented softly, her demeanor becoming more business-like, “I was sent here to collect the Royal Four and keep them safe before we can negotiate a means to return them home.”
She stepped closer to the shield, but Max barked at her, “Don’t come any closer.”
His words were moot point when the shield flickered, died, and he collapsed.
Serena cursed and moved towards him, but Michael had extended his arm and was sending her a silent message. One that she understood completely: move and die.
Liz and Isabel went over to Max and watched as he slowly opened his eyes and gave them a faint, sad smile, “I don’t feel too well.”
“What’d you expect after the night you had?” Serena frowned, her first since she’d arrived. She was wearing a bubble gum pink halter top and a pair of low rise jeans with a pair of black flip flops. “It’s your powers telling you to slow down on the usage.”
“How are we supposed to believe anything you say?” Michael demanded, ignoring her statements completely.
“You just do.”
Alex’s ears had perked up with her last question, “How do you know what we did tonight?”
“I’ve had scouts follow you since we found you this morning.” She shrugged, “I can’t take any chances where the Royal Four are concerned. I had to make sure you were them.”
“Isn’t that convenient? She’s been following us since this morning and we get attacked tonight.” Michael frowned.
Max growled, “Michael, let her have her say.”
Serena grinned when Michael stopped talking, figuratively pointing her tongue out at Michael in revenge, “Thank you, Your Highness. As I was saying, I was trailing you to make sure that nothing was out of the ordinary until… well…”
“We were attacked.” Max supplied.
Serena nodded, “My scouts were too far to be effective immediately so one of them gathered some soldiers to head to your position. By the time they arrived, you guys were already on the way out of the forest. They dealt with the Skins, so that problem’s averted… for now.”
“What do you want from us?” Max spoke tactfully, not committing to her statements but not disowning them completely.
“I’d like you four to come and train with us. The Others already know that we’re here. It won’t be long before they track us. Hopefully we’ll be gone by the time that happens.”
“Fo--?” Maria started.
Max cut her off. He didn’t want Liz’s status exposed to a complete stranger. It would just put her in the middle of trouble, especially with Serena’s last statement. “I want to talk to our protector before this goes any further.”
Serena’s eyes flitted with something for a moment before she hesitantly nodded, “Okay. Call him.”
Max nodded and took his cell phone out of his pocket. He was shocked it wasn’t smashed into a million pieces. He dialed Nasedo’s number and the answering machine immediately picked up, “
If this is Max, dial pound and then the Royal number.”
Max fumbled the phone in shock and then punched pound followed by five, the only number he could come up with. The message started after a beat, “
They’ve found me. I’m in trouble. Serena and her men should be landing soon. Find them. She’ll help--.” It sounded like he was running. He had recorded the message while on the run. There was a loud bang and a noise, followed by Nasedo’s blood curdling scream. Then the line went dead.
Max dropped the phone numbly and looked around the cave, “I think he’s dead.”
Serena nodded, “We found him a few days ago. There were signs of the Skins all around him. It’s why we decided to find you guys.”
“You knew?” Tess asked, her voice sounding funny. She might not have particularly liked the guy, but he was her father figure. “Why didn’t you tell us before he called?!”
“Would you have believed me?” Serena raised an eyebrow.
Alex shook his head, “She’s right.”
“Of course I am.” Serena started smiling again.
“So what do you expect us to do?” Isabel chimed in. “Pack up and leave Roswell without so much as an explanation to our parents?”
Serena shook her head, “Oh no, we’ll be staying in Roswell.”
“You’re staying in Roswell?” Maria repeated blankly, “You don’t think anyone will notice a bunch of extra terrestrials checking into the one and only motel in the town?”
“I have a house.” Serena repeated, her voice sounding bright and ignorant to Maria’s sarcasm.
When she wasn’t speaking war, she was very… bubbly.
Serena turned her back to the group and walked towards the exit. She looked over her shoulder, the grin apparent yet again, “Coming?”
They all looked at each other and shrugged. Liz didn’t look very happy with Max, but she allowed him to take her hand. They’d been holding hands for a second before Serena turned around, a look of shock on her face.
“You’re the Queen.” She said animatedly, “He healed you. You’ve been Saved.”
“How did you know that?” Liz asked, awestruck. Beside her, Max was cringing. He didn’t want her to know. He wanted to be able to keep Liz unattached and safe.
Serena’s smile grew, if that was even possible. She threw her arms around Liz, “The aura of the room changed. Oh, thank you, thank you! You have no idea how happy I am that King Zan’s found his Queen. Do you know what this means?!”
“…No.” Liz was almost completely lost at Serena’s logic.
“We can beat him. We have hope! I wish I had more time to think about this, but there really isn’t any. We have to get back to the base before anything else happens. Oh my goodness, I am
freakin’ excited.” And then she turned, leaving them in the cave, expecting them to follow.
Max stared after her, an image burned into his brain. On her upper arm, he’d seen a black tattoo, with five triangles making a band across her arm. There were three of the triangles pointed downwards alternating with two triangles pointing skywards. Something about it seemed very familiar.
TBC...
