Is it too late for them to run away? After the hole in Max's chest is fixed I mean. For some reason I'm missing their innocence and the purity of their relationship today.
*Sigh*
Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie (AU M/L ADULT) COMPLETE 5/5/17 + A/N 5/5/19
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Morning Dreamgirl
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Re: Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie (AU M/L ADULT) Ch. 92 5/5/16 p. 77
Hey Jo - remember chapter 43 (I think it was) when M/L were together the first time and it was the longest chapter we'd had at the time, there wasn't any fighting between them or their friends and it didn't end in a massive cliffhanger? It was the two of them finally getting to just be Max and Liz... now peeps are being blown up, having their faces melted off, fighting amongst themselves and stressed so that even when they're "together" they're still stuff going on in the background.
Is it too late for them to run away? After the hole in Max's chest is fixed I mean. For some reason I'm missing their innocence and the purity of their relationship today.
*Sigh*
Is it too late for them to run away? After the hole in Max's chest is fixed I mean. For some reason I'm missing their innocence and the purity of their relationship today.
*Sigh*
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max and liz believer
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Re: Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie (AU M/L ADULT) Ch. 92 5/5/16 p. 77
Aww... Sweet sweet AshleyMorning Dreamgirl wrote:Hey Jo - remember chapter 43 (I think it was) when M/L were together the first time and it was the longest chapter we'd had at the time, there wasn't any fighting between them or their friends and it didn't end in a massive cliffhanger? It was the two of them finally getting to just be Max and Liz... now peeps are being blown up, having their faces melted off, fighting amongst themselves and stressed so that even when they're "together" they're still stuff going on in the background.
Is it too late for them to run away? After the hole in Max's chest is fixed I mean. For some reason I'm missing their innocence and the purity of their relationship today.
*Sigh*
So sorry about that. It was bound to take an ugly turn, I'm afraid, but even if I haven't made it known officially (I guess I kinda am now), this fic has dreamer insurance. Things will be okay. For our dreamer couple, at least. Now... I certainly understand the wish to get back to their happy zone, when it was just the two of them.
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The sun is shining, the wind is warm and here's an Author's Note
Peeps!
I'll be updating this tomorrow, so you'll be put out of your misery.
That is all.
I'll be updating this tomorrow, so you'll be put out of your misery.
That is all.
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Morning Dreamgirl
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Re: Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie (AU M/L ADULT) A/N 5/11/16 p. 78
Updates are a good thing. 
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max and liz believer
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NINETY-THREE
Hi everyone!
I know that things are looking a bit grim for the characters right now. We've hit a rough patch of the story. Just have faith in that I'm very protective of my characters and I'll get them through this. But there might be some bumps along the way (which you've already encountered
)
Just give me a second to answer some of your questions, before we dive straight back into it.
Ashley (Morning Dreamgirl)
And one of my best friends told me very recently to spend some time each day on writing, for my own well-being, so hopefully the time between updates won't be too long.
But I felt the frustration across the Atlantic, so...
Okay, no. Probably not
And thank you, as always, for your insightful (and slightly frustrated) feedback
Carolyn (keepsmiling7) - Thank you
Helen (Roswelllostcause)
Natalie36 - Thank you
Eve (begonia9508)
It'll get better. Hopefully. Thank you so much for the feedback!
mela3
Thank you for the feedback!
From NINETY-TWO:
His voice was the same, but his mouth wasn’t. The left corner of his mouth looked…melted. It was hanging down with the rest of his cheek. Blood was running down the side of his throat and his teeth were colored pink from blood where the melted lip failed to cover them.
A memory from a dream about my mother’s face melting while standing in front of me flashed through my mind and I had to fight with everything inside of me to not scream.
My body was shaking as I slowly looked up his face, at the red and blistered left side of his head, where hair was missing. Burnt off.
How was he walking around? How was he talking?
He must know how badly he was hurt, or else he wouldn’t be looking at me with such fearful desperation. But he wasn’t the issue. He wasn’t the one who needed my attention.
He told me as much when he turned to look over his shoulder towards the opening of the small passageway, just as Michael crawled out and reached inside the passageway to pull at something. Someone.
I felt Alex look back at my face, but I kept my eyes on the activity at the passageway. Because even in the darkness I recognized the arms being pulled on by Michael. I recognized the dark mop of hair that was becoming visible as the - obviously unconscious - person was being extracted from the small opening inch by inch.
Max.
Max Max Max.
”Lizzie,” I heard Alex say slowly, just as Max’s chest and then abdomen were revealed and I heard someone scream. A loud frightened scream from the deepest parts of something very primal.
I distantly realized that it was I who was screaming, right as I was falling to my knees and my scream turned into agonized loud sobs.
When I stared at the cavity in Max’s abdomen, with the hint of exposed intestines and smoke still rising from the corners of the wound, I was certain that I was looking at Max’s corpse. But Alex said, ”We need you to heal Max.”
NINETY-THREE
”Calm her down, Alex.”
Dresden’s voice sounded far away. Everything was far away. The world was dim and subdued. The only thing that felt real was the pressure of my nails as they dug into the soft beaten tissue of my upper arms as I wrapped my arms tightly around myself.
With the slow rocking back and forth of my body, and my eyes stinging from being left without blinking for too long, I was back to the day when I had lost my mom. I was watching the raging fire devour my house. I was searching through flames and heat, through black suffocating smoke, to find my mother. I was being pushed up against a wall, restrained as Sean assaulted me and forced himself inside my mind. I was watching Max get shot by Sean. I was watching him get knifed by Sean. I was watching the blood pour out of the boy that had fought to secretly protect me my whole life. I was being held captive by aliens. I was almost getting raped, almost strangled, almost killed. Through Steven Carter’s memories, I was watching my mother get raped and suffer one miscarriage after the other.
”She’s in shock. I’m… It’s too… It’s difficult to get through.”
”We need her. Now. He’s dying.”
The shadows of my dark memories were lurking around the fringes of my inner eye as I kept staring at the wound in Max’s abdomen. But ’wound’ would be an understatement. Gaping hole would be more accurate. How he was alive was beyond me.
However, judging from the urgency in the aliens around me, Max was obviously still alive.
I wanted to help him. I was fueled with a pulsating very demanding need to help him, but I couldn’t get myself to function. I was shutting down. Disappearing inside of myself again.
It was as if I had that same hole in me. There was something really important missing from my soul. Something that I desperately needed right now. Something I desperately needed to function.
I couldn’t get my mind around what they meant by me healing Max. I had healed a cut on his hand once, but I’m pretty sure any alien would do a better job than me at fixing Max right now.
I was no alien. I was no healer. Why were the assuming that I was?
Then two rough impatient hands were ripping me up by the elbows, holding me in the air when my feet refused to support my weight.
In the midst of the chaos in my heart, the fog in my mind, the frozen state of my soul, I could feel a warm soothing calmness. It made it difficult for me to breathe. It overwhelmed me and left me shaking with emotional overload. But it also succeeded in calming me down. In making me focus.
Enough to make me aware of my surroundings. I noticed Dresden’s long warm fingers circled around my upper arm. I noticed his other hand holding Alex’s upper arm in a similar fashion. I looked at Alex long enough to see the concentration on his face and discern that Dresden was magnifying Alex’s powers, helping Alex to calm me down, before I had to look away from the sight of Alex’s distorted face to not immediately lose that wobbly acquired calmness.
”Better?” Dresden asked and I nodded.
It was better. But there was still a hole in my boyfriend’s abdomen. A hole they wanted me to mend.
And my body was finally understanding what my mind wanted. To get close to Max. To make him better. To talk to him. To comfort him. To make him feel safe.
To heal him.
I ripped out of Dresden’s hold and willed my feet to get to work. The walk to Max was a stumbling mess, but after what felt like an eternity, I fell to my knees next to his head.
I avoided looking down his body. I needed to focus. And to do so, I needed to ignore the fact that he was no longer intact.
Instead I looked at his face. He was dirty, almost black, and there were patches of dry blood on his cheeks, on his forehead. It made it impossible for me to evaluate his coloring. His eyes were closed, his lips parted. But his face was unharmed.
I bit my lower lip and cradled his cheek in my shaking hand as I leaned over him. My silent tears were landing on his face in large droplets, running down his cheeks and forehead, creating disordered streaks in the dirt covering his skin.
”Max?” I called in a whisper.
But he wasn’t there.
It was like looking at a shell. A shell that looked like Max but wasn’t Max.
Panic flew through me. He’s dead. I looked down at his chest, grateful that it was difficult to see the injury to his abdomen from this angle, and placed my palm against his chest. To feel his breaths.
While my mind was continually searching for his mind through our once shared mental bond, my panic was building to horrifying proportions - making my throat close up - as I waited to feel any breaths.
I tasted blood on my tongue as I bit hard into my bottom lip to stop myself from collapsing into debilitating sobs.
You’re not breathing. You’re not breathing. Breathe, Max. Breathe. Don’t leave me, please. You can’t be dead. Please. Max. Please, breathe. Please.
And there it was. That small, barely noticeable, rise of his chest in a shallow random breath.
It was like everything inside of my imploded and I refocused my eyes on his face, pressed tear-stained lips to his dry ones in a relieved kiss (which felt odd without him reciprocating), before I buried my face in the curve of his neck to search out his familiar warmth.
But he was uncharacteristically cold.
Max. You’re safe. You’re here. Fight. You hear me? Fight!
I didn’t know why I was trying to communicate telepathically when I knew that something had happened to the connection, which meant that he might not be hearing me. But it felt more important somehow to use the connection. As if it was important to fight for it to come back. To not give up on it.
I knew that they were watching me. Dresden. Alex. Maybe even Michael.
I was consoled by the fact that they were giving me some space and time. I knew that time was of the essence, but for this to work I needed to find myself again. Maybe they knew that. Hopefully they knew that as a human being this situation - and what they were asking from me - was not only frighteningly alien, but also bordering on impossible.
I kept my face pressed against Max’s skin and tried to focus on calming myself down. I tried to will myself to switch on my scientific and rational mindset in order to figure out how to go about healing Max. As they had requested.
Not many seconds had passed before the urgency of the situation was enough to drown me. That calmness I was searching for was nowhere. All I could feel was stressed panic about the fact that I was suddenly the only thing standing in the way of Max dying. That I literally had his life in my hands.
”I can’t heal,” I got out, my voice muted by Max’s skin against my lips, feeling stupid for voicing it, because they should know this fact.
”You’re connected to Max,” Dresden said behind me, as if that statement alone refuted my inability to heal. ”That’s the main part.” His voice sounded distant. ”You just need our help to boost your energy, since Max is incapacitated.”
A memory from a cold basement where Isabel had helped me supply Max with warmth flashed through my mind.
But there was a massive difference between giving someone warmth and knitting their tissue together.
”He’ll die,” Dresden pointed out grimly.
Anger flashed through my system and I lifted my head from Max’s prone head and glared up at Dresden furiously, ”Don’t you think I know that?! There’s a fucking hole in him!”
Time was running out for Max and they weren’t doing anything to help. How dare they put it all on my shoulders?!
I felt my newfound resolve breaking, the previous small dose of calmness supplied by an extraterrestrial influence baring the way for grief. Positioned on my knees, I straightened up next to Max and pointed accusingly at first Dresden and then Alex, who were looming over me in the darkness, ”You were supposed to protect him! He was not to get hurt! He’s important, remember?!”
My breath hitched on my sobs and I was about to continue my angry rant when Michael appeared in front of Dresden and Alex - blocking my view - leaned down and grabbed my arm to tighten steely fingers around my tired muscles before using the hold to give my upper body a violent shake.
Droplets of saliva flew in my face as he pushed his face an inch from mine and spit out heatedly, ”Get a fucking grip, woman! Who the fuck cares! You need to fix him! NOW!!"
”Hey!” Dresden cried, removing Michael’s red face from my view.
But Michael was already stepping back, his head whipping from side to side. He seemed momentarily lost and I was still too stunned by his intimidating savagery to retaliate.
My anger was still there though and I was just about to shout at them to help me, when Michael said, ”Where’s Blondie?”
His question infuriated me further and I looked back at Max’s unresponsive features to gain a second to reign my anger back in. I was smart enough to know that it might not be a good thing to get Michael too riled up in this situation. He seemed too…irrational.
”Maria,” I heard Alex clarify, even though I’d had a suspicion who ’Blondie’ was. And not just because she was literally the only blonde person in our present group constellation.
I couldn’t look at Alex. His melted face was horribly frightening. Instead I blindly pointed in the direction of the turn of the tunnel. ”She’s over there.”
”Alone?” Michael grumbled and from the sound of quick steps I deduced that he was already moving in that direction.
With Michael gone, I looked back up at Dresden, narrowed my eyes, and let my anger flow through, ”You need to help me heal him. Right now. He’s dying.”
Dresden’s face darkened, but he sat down next to me without a word. Nevertheless, it was almost as if I could read on his face that he wanted to tell me, ”That’s what I’ve been saying all along,” but he remained quiet.
Max was our main focus right now.
”We need to switch,” Dresden said and I looked from Max’s face to Dresden’s, acutely aware of the feel of Max’s skin underneath my fingers as they pressed to his cheek.
”You need to be close to the wound,” Dresden explained further.
I nodded. Of course.
Not trusting my legs, I decided to crawl around Dresden and place myself straight in front of the wound.
The nausea came instantly.
Max wasn’t bleeding much. Whatever had burnt a hole through him had probably also cauterized the organs it had hit. Closing the bleeders at the same time as it had opened them. But even if he wasn’t bleeding to death, he needed his organs to survive. And compared to the fetal pig Max and I had dissected together in school not too long ago, Max’s insides looked like someone had placed them inside a microwave and turned the dial to the highest capacity.
I swallowed back the acidic gastric fluid so many times that I was eventually doing it unknowingly. It seemed that once I had started looking at Max’s injury, I couldn’t look away. In the midst of feeling the cold sweat dampen my back, and my fear keeping my nausea on the brink of exploding, I was hit with an overwhelming grief.
A sadness that someone had done this to Max. Had destroyed his beautiful body like this. Had attempted to end his life (and might still be successful at that). Had attempted to remove his beautiful presence from this world.
I placed chilled fingers against the side of his abdomen, just an inch from the wound, and felt coldness fuel me. A hatred I had never known before started to seep into me, before it flooded me like an unforgiving tsunami.
”Is he dead?” I pressed out dispassionately through my tight lips.
”No,” Dresden answered, misunderstanding me, ”He’s still alive. But we have to move fast. He won’t be for too much longer.”
The hatred was clogging up my throat, putting up walls around my heart, stiffening my body. Even my voice felt foreign as I enunciated blankly, ”Not Max. Him. The…” I had almost said ’person’, but that was the wrong word, ”monster who did this to him.”
There was a loaded pause before Dresden answered. Then, ”Yes. He’s dead.”
The satisfaction I felt at this was too small, too fleeting, too worthless. It did nothing to retreat my anger. Still, I stated hard-set, ”Good.”
Dresden shuffled in his seat next to me. ”Listen to me, Elizabeth. I know you’re upset right now. I know you are confused and probably feeling every emotion known to a human, but for this to work - for you to even have a chance at bringing him back - you need to focus on good things. You can’t heal with black energy. You can’t heal an act of malicious violence with sadness or hatred. You have to search deep inside of you and find the love and compassion you have for Max. And let that guide you. If you do, it’ll come naturally.”
My heart burnt. My unshed tears were caustic to my eyes.
”As stupid as it might sound, you have to heal him with love.”
The hatred eased off. The darkness paralyzing my mind pulled back on the pressure.
My tongue got stuck to the dried roof of my mouth, which had me make a clicking noise with my first word as my tongue detached from the palate, ”It’s not….” I swallowed. ”It’s not stupid.”
I looked over at him. At this alien who I didn’t really know, who seemed a lot nicer than any other alien of his generation that I had encountered so far.
He even attempted a soft smile as our eyes met. A twitch of the mouth to make me feel better. To support me in this. To give me strength.
”It actually makes a lot of sense,” I whispered, holding his eyes.
I didn’t flinch when he reached over and took my free hand (my other hand still pressed against the unharmed part of Max’s abdomen). I immediately felt comforted by the warmth of Dresden’s palm and with a shaky breath I closed my eyes and returned my attention to the wound.
I let my eyes remain closed and started to focus on my breathing. Just like Isabel had taught me during yoga.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Iiiinhale.
Exhaaale.
Iiiinhaaale.
Exhaaaaaale.
My pulse was slowing down. My mind was clearing. And I could feel tingles in my hand where it was connected to Dresden. It was almost painful. Like when you got an electric shock from touching something that had built up static energy.
My instinct was to pull my hand away, but I bit back the uncomfortable sensation of the current, and after a few seconds the electricity fortunately ebbed and turned into simple warmth.
Behind my closed eyelids I started to visualize zippers, tape, glue, bandages. Just any tool that could be used to fix a hole. Because that went along the lines of what I had done to heal that tiny cut in Max’s hand previously. In other words, it was the only method of healing that I was familiar with.
I tried to conjure up the mental image of Max’s injury - because I couldn’t find the courage to actually look at the wound in real life - and then fastened a large imaginary white zipper at the bottom of his injury, at level with his bellybutton.
Both of my hands - one holding Dresden’s and one pressed up against Max’s skin - began to heat up, and I held my breath as I saw the zipper move upwards in my mind, tucking Max’s organs away, repairing his skin.
The image had come to me so naturally that it easily could have been mistaken for being reality, which made it so much harder to accept that Max’s injury was unchanged when I opened my eyes to check.
The panic that flooded me at my failure was so thick that it drowned out any disappointment or self-criticism I might be expected to feel. Instead I basically saw Max dying in front of me. I saw his skin turn even whiter. I saw his dried and unmoving lips blanch.
And the wound seemed even more detailed and present than before.
There was absolutely no improvement. I hadn’t healed him. And now he was going to die.
Dresden’s hand felt even warmer than before, as if his energy was fueling my mortification, and the panic was rushing through me with a full-fledged panic attack being the ultimate destination.
”I can’t,” I got out, the pressure over my chest threatening to make me break. ”You have to try. You have to try.”
Dresden had sounded so certain when he had given me instructions on how to do it, he himself must know how to do it. Even if he only knew it in theory it must be better than what I knew.
”We have to do everything to help him,” I added, talking quickly now, the panic speeding up my words, making my voice breathless. ”Even if we don’t think it’ll work, we have to try it. We have to-”
And then Alex placed his hand on my shaking shoulder, soothing the most abrasive points of my panic, making me lose track of what I was saying.
Every single word spoken by his familiar gentle voice shouted with brisk clarity straight into my system, ”Try it again, Lizzie. Don’t think about it. Don’t make it scientific. Just think about Max. About who he is. About what you feel for him. Let it fill you up. That’s all you need to think about. No medical or surgical facts. Turn your brain off and let your heart lead.”
Tears were running unhindered down my cheeks as I looked up at my childhood friend. I almost (almost) didn’t notice his injuries this time, seeing only the support and love in his eyes.
His voice softened further and he nodded encouragingly in Max’s direction, ”Trust me. It’ll work. You’re the most amazing human being I’ve ever met. If anyone can do this, it’s you.”
Even though I knew that he was using his powers on me, to push my panic away, there was nothing fake about the love I was seeing in his eyes. It was all real. And it was thrumming into my heart, making it alive again.
I had lost my way there for a second, being submerged in darkness, but Alex was leading me home. Pointing out the light to me again.
So this time, with Alex’s touch on my shoulder, Dresden’s energy feeding into me through our connected hands, and my hand pressed to Max’s skin, I didn’t think about Max’s injury when I closed my eyes. I didn’t try to figure out how to heal him.
This time I focused only on Max. On everything that made Max into the person that I loved with every cell in my body.
And I could feel it happening inside of me. The same thing that I had felt thrumming through me just before Max had been injured. Energy. Pure, untainted, energy. Bright and warm. Healing.
I was partly aware of Dresden sharply letting go of my hand and Alex’s hand dropping off my shoulder, as if they had been repelled.
But it failed to engage my attention, because two seconds after that a voice I had longed to hear for what seemed to be an eternity spoke directly into my head.
Three simple words that had the power to save my whole existence.
I love you.
TBC...
I know that things are looking a bit grim for the characters right now. We've hit a rough patch of the story. Just have faith in that I'm very protective of my characters and I'll get them through this. But there might be some bumps along the way (which you've already encountered
)Just give me a second to answer some of your questions, before we dive straight back into it.
Ashley (Morning Dreamgirl)
TrueJOOOOO!!!!
GET BACK HERE!!
The cliffhangers might not be avoidable but the time between them isn't.
And one of my best friends told me very recently to spend some time each day on writing, for my own well-being, so hopefully the time between updates won't be too long.You are most likely very correct about this.Jo... I know something no one else besides you know. Something I almost forget occasionally during the ups and downs. What is it?
That you love me and all the other readers. You love us so much you'd never do anything to hurt our sensitive little hearts.
Mad? NoYou didn't think I was mad at you did you? Because I wasn't. I wasn't even considering hunting you down (I know, I'm shocked too). Mostly I was shocked at the turn of events.
But I felt the frustration across the Atlantic, so... Dresden? You'll find out in the next chapter. Isabel and the parents? Explanation is coming up, but not in this chapter. So feel free to consider your theories for some while longerI'm (shockingly) curious about Dresden and Isabel. We know Michael and Alex are still alive. What about Dresden? And where in the world did Isabel go? With the parents? Where are they? I can't, for the life of me, figure out where they've gone. But I have theories. Don't I always?
Weeell...I don't think Max is dead. As much as your cliffhanging abilities can scare me sometimes I don't think you'd actually kill off Max. Well, at least not at this point of the story.
Okay, no. Probably not
Probably. In his own way (whatever that is).Now then - I'm pretty sure Michael is beating himself up.
Well, he was born into being a protector, so I guess (theoretically) he could be a heartless protector. But, he most likely wouldn't be a very good protector without a heart. And, remember, I very seldom write completely black and white characters...I don't think Michael wants Max to die. I don't think he's as heartless as Liz assumes he is. Can you really be heartless and be a protector?
There'll be an explanation to this eventually, I'm sure.And Alex. Poor man! Not exactly the epitome of a good time - half your face being melted off. What in the world happened?
Exactly.Now the question they need to discover the answer too is energy. During the dessert scene earlier this morning Max had so much energy even without connecting to Liz that he was blowing up boulders and steaming in the rain. They need to figure out how to tap into that. That's the real secret weapon. If Max and Liz can both tap into that? There's no stopping them.
Liz wouldn't have (mentally or physically) survived these last couple of weeks without possessing some true kick-ass traits. She doesn't realize how strong she is, but seems like some aliens have always known (Dresden, maybe. Philip?) and some found out along the way (Sergeant, Sean, Command).And can I just say Liz rocks? She hears this battle, has no idea what's going on, could be surrounded by enemies at any moment but she still manages to drag Maria to cover. Girl has some amazing survival instincts and the ability to think during high pressure situations. A lot of people don't. Go Liz!
Hopefully you are, because it's coming upOkay - I'm ready for the next part. I think. Maybe. I'm pretty sure.
Do you know how much that means to me? I'm petrified about writing war scenes and yet here you are, complimenting it. You're amazing. Thank you so much!ETA: You're really good at writing these war scenes. They're paced correctly, not too gory but at the same time there's enough detail for us to actually see it and feel like we're there watching it happen. That's a really amazing feat. Good job you!
And thank you, as always, for your insightful (and slightly frustrated) feedback
Carolyn (keepsmiling7) - Thank you
Helen (Roswelllostcause)
It's not every day that someone screams at me in capitals. Let's hope the next chapter can calm you down. Keeping my fingers crossed. Thank youGET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!
MAX CAN'T DIE!
I REPEAT !
MAX CAN'T DIE!
Natalie36 - Thank you
Eve (begonia9508)
Sorry about frightening youOh my... It took me a really looooooong time to have the courage and read the part in his totality and I let the gory sentences and details aside,
because it was so horrible! But last sentence from Alex was finally calming me down! But if the next part isn't so horrible and with you... who knows!
It'll get better. Hopefully. Thank you so much for the feedback!mela3
Well, we don't really know how many men they were up against. Maybe they were horribly outnumbered. And stronger? Probably with the connection between Max and Liz. But Max was preventing Liz from helping him, thus preventing their connection from reaching full capacity.How could this happen. Maria unconscious, Max dying, where's Dresden? They should be stronger than this.
Yes, you can. You're strong. You can do thisIt's too much. I can't.
Thank you for the feedback!
From NINETY-TWO:
His voice was the same, but his mouth wasn’t. The left corner of his mouth looked…melted. It was hanging down with the rest of his cheek. Blood was running down the side of his throat and his teeth were colored pink from blood where the melted lip failed to cover them.
A memory from a dream about my mother’s face melting while standing in front of me flashed through my mind and I had to fight with everything inside of me to not scream.
My body was shaking as I slowly looked up his face, at the red and blistered left side of his head, where hair was missing. Burnt off.
How was he walking around? How was he talking?
He must know how badly he was hurt, or else he wouldn’t be looking at me with such fearful desperation. But he wasn’t the issue. He wasn’t the one who needed my attention.
He told me as much when he turned to look over his shoulder towards the opening of the small passageway, just as Michael crawled out and reached inside the passageway to pull at something. Someone.
I felt Alex look back at my face, but I kept my eyes on the activity at the passageway. Because even in the darkness I recognized the arms being pulled on by Michael. I recognized the dark mop of hair that was becoming visible as the - obviously unconscious - person was being extracted from the small opening inch by inch.
Max.
Max Max Max.
”Lizzie,” I heard Alex say slowly, just as Max’s chest and then abdomen were revealed and I heard someone scream. A loud frightened scream from the deepest parts of something very primal.
I distantly realized that it was I who was screaming, right as I was falling to my knees and my scream turned into agonized loud sobs.
When I stared at the cavity in Max’s abdomen, with the hint of exposed intestines and smoke still rising from the corners of the wound, I was certain that I was looking at Max’s corpse. But Alex said, ”We need you to heal Max.”
____________________________________
”Calm her down, Alex.”
Dresden’s voice sounded far away. Everything was far away. The world was dim and subdued. The only thing that felt real was the pressure of my nails as they dug into the soft beaten tissue of my upper arms as I wrapped my arms tightly around myself.
With the slow rocking back and forth of my body, and my eyes stinging from being left without blinking for too long, I was back to the day when I had lost my mom. I was watching the raging fire devour my house. I was searching through flames and heat, through black suffocating smoke, to find my mother. I was being pushed up against a wall, restrained as Sean assaulted me and forced himself inside my mind. I was watching Max get shot by Sean. I was watching him get knifed by Sean. I was watching the blood pour out of the boy that had fought to secretly protect me my whole life. I was being held captive by aliens. I was almost getting raped, almost strangled, almost killed. Through Steven Carter’s memories, I was watching my mother get raped and suffer one miscarriage after the other.
”She’s in shock. I’m… It’s too… It’s difficult to get through.”
”We need her. Now. He’s dying.”
The shadows of my dark memories were lurking around the fringes of my inner eye as I kept staring at the wound in Max’s abdomen. But ’wound’ would be an understatement. Gaping hole would be more accurate. How he was alive was beyond me.
However, judging from the urgency in the aliens around me, Max was obviously still alive.
I wanted to help him. I was fueled with a pulsating very demanding need to help him, but I couldn’t get myself to function. I was shutting down. Disappearing inside of myself again.
It was as if I had that same hole in me. There was something really important missing from my soul. Something that I desperately needed right now. Something I desperately needed to function.
I couldn’t get my mind around what they meant by me healing Max. I had healed a cut on his hand once, but I’m pretty sure any alien would do a better job than me at fixing Max right now.
I was no alien. I was no healer. Why were the assuming that I was?
Then two rough impatient hands were ripping me up by the elbows, holding me in the air when my feet refused to support my weight.
In the midst of the chaos in my heart, the fog in my mind, the frozen state of my soul, I could feel a warm soothing calmness. It made it difficult for me to breathe. It overwhelmed me and left me shaking with emotional overload. But it also succeeded in calming me down. In making me focus.
Enough to make me aware of my surroundings. I noticed Dresden’s long warm fingers circled around my upper arm. I noticed his other hand holding Alex’s upper arm in a similar fashion. I looked at Alex long enough to see the concentration on his face and discern that Dresden was magnifying Alex’s powers, helping Alex to calm me down, before I had to look away from the sight of Alex’s distorted face to not immediately lose that wobbly acquired calmness.
”Better?” Dresden asked and I nodded.
It was better. But there was still a hole in my boyfriend’s abdomen. A hole they wanted me to mend.
And my body was finally understanding what my mind wanted. To get close to Max. To make him better. To talk to him. To comfort him. To make him feel safe.
To heal him.
I ripped out of Dresden’s hold and willed my feet to get to work. The walk to Max was a stumbling mess, but after what felt like an eternity, I fell to my knees next to his head.
I avoided looking down his body. I needed to focus. And to do so, I needed to ignore the fact that he was no longer intact.
Instead I looked at his face. He was dirty, almost black, and there were patches of dry blood on his cheeks, on his forehead. It made it impossible for me to evaluate his coloring. His eyes were closed, his lips parted. But his face was unharmed.
I bit my lower lip and cradled his cheek in my shaking hand as I leaned over him. My silent tears were landing on his face in large droplets, running down his cheeks and forehead, creating disordered streaks in the dirt covering his skin.
”Max?” I called in a whisper.
But he wasn’t there.
It was like looking at a shell. A shell that looked like Max but wasn’t Max.
Panic flew through me. He’s dead. I looked down at his chest, grateful that it was difficult to see the injury to his abdomen from this angle, and placed my palm against his chest. To feel his breaths.
While my mind was continually searching for his mind through our once shared mental bond, my panic was building to horrifying proportions - making my throat close up - as I waited to feel any breaths.
I tasted blood on my tongue as I bit hard into my bottom lip to stop myself from collapsing into debilitating sobs.
You’re not breathing. You’re not breathing. Breathe, Max. Breathe. Don’t leave me, please. You can’t be dead. Please. Max. Please, breathe. Please.
And there it was. That small, barely noticeable, rise of his chest in a shallow random breath.
It was like everything inside of my imploded and I refocused my eyes on his face, pressed tear-stained lips to his dry ones in a relieved kiss (which felt odd without him reciprocating), before I buried my face in the curve of his neck to search out his familiar warmth.
But he was uncharacteristically cold.
Max. You’re safe. You’re here. Fight. You hear me? Fight!
I didn’t know why I was trying to communicate telepathically when I knew that something had happened to the connection, which meant that he might not be hearing me. But it felt more important somehow to use the connection. As if it was important to fight for it to come back. To not give up on it.
I knew that they were watching me. Dresden. Alex. Maybe even Michael.
I was consoled by the fact that they were giving me some space and time. I knew that time was of the essence, but for this to work I needed to find myself again. Maybe they knew that. Hopefully they knew that as a human being this situation - and what they were asking from me - was not only frighteningly alien, but also bordering on impossible.
I kept my face pressed against Max’s skin and tried to focus on calming myself down. I tried to will myself to switch on my scientific and rational mindset in order to figure out how to go about healing Max. As they had requested.
Not many seconds had passed before the urgency of the situation was enough to drown me. That calmness I was searching for was nowhere. All I could feel was stressed panic about the fact that I was suddenly the only thing standing in the way of Max dying. That I literally had his life in my hands.
”I can’t heal,” I got out, my voice muted by Max’s skin against my lips, feeling stupid for voicing it, because they should know this fact.
”You’re connected to Max,” Dresden said behind me, as if that statement alone refuted my inability to heal. ”That’s the main part.” His voice sounded distant. ”You just need our help to boost your energy, since Max is incapacitated.”
A memory from a cold basement where Isabel had helped me supply Max with warmth flashed through my mind.
But there was a massive difference between giving someone warmth and knitting their tissue together.
”He’ll die,” Dresden pointed out grimly.
Anger flashed through my system and I lifted my head from Max’s prone head and glared up at Dresden furiously, ”Don’t you think I know that?! There’s a fucking hole in him!”
Time was running out for Max and they weren’t doing anything to help. How dare they put it all on my shoulders?!
I felt my newfound resolve breaking, the previous small dose of calmness supplied by an extraterrestrial influence baring the way for grief. Positioned on my knees, I straightened up next to Max and pointed accusingly at first Dresden and then Alex, who were looming over me in the darkness, ”You were supposed to protect him! He was not to get hurt! He’s important, remember?!”
My breath hitched on my sobs and I was about to continue my angry rant when Michael appeared in front of Dresden and Alex - blocking my view - leaned down and grabbed my arm to tighten steely fingers around my tired muscles before using the hold to give my upper body a violent shake.
Droplets of saliva flew in my face as he pushed his face an inch from mine and spit out heatedly, ”Get a fucking grip, woman! Who the fuck cares! You need to fix him! NOW!!"
”Hey!” Dresden cried, removing Michael’s red face from my view.
But Michael was already stepping back, his head whipping from side to side. He seemed momentarily lost and I was still too stunned by his intimidating savagery to retaliate.
My anger was still there though and I was just about to shout at them to help me, when Michael said, ”Where’s Blondie?”
His question infuriated me further and I looked back at Max’s unresponsive features to gain a second to reign my anger back in. I was smart enough to know that it might not be a good thing to get Michael too riled up in this situation. He seemed too…irrational.
”Maria,” I heard Alex clarify, even though I’d had a suspicion who ’Blondie’ was. And not just because she was literally the only blonde person in our present group constellation.
I couldn’t look at Alex. His melted face was horribly frightening. Instead I blindly pointed in the direction of the turn of the tunnel. ”She’s over there.”
”Alone?” Michael grumbled and from the sound of quick steps I deduced that he was already moving in that direction.
With Michael gone, I looked back up at Dresden, narrowed my eyes, and let my anger flow through, ”You need to help me heal him. Right now. He’s dying.”
Dresden’s face darkened, but he sat down next to me without a word. Nevertheless, it was almost as if I could read on his face that he wanted to tell me, ”That’s what I’ve been saying all along,” but he remained quiet.
Max was our main focus right now.
”We need to switch,” Dresden said and I looked from Max’s face to Dresden’s, acutely aware of the feel of Max’s skin underneath my fingers as they pressed to his cheek.
”You need to be close to the wound,” Dresden explained further.
I nodded. Of course.
Not trusting my legs, I decided to crawl around Dresden and place myself straight in front of the wound.
The nausea came instantly.
Max wasn’t bleeding much. Whatever had burnt a hole through him had probably also cauterized the organs it had hit. Closing the bleeders at the same time as it had opened them. But even if he wasn’t bleeding to death, he needed his organs to survive. And compared to the fetal pig Max and I had dissected together in school not too long ago, Max’s insides looked like someone had placed them inside a microwave and turned the dial to the highest capacity.
I swallowed back the acidic gastric fluid so many times that I was eventually doing it unknowingly. It seemed that once I had started looking at Max’s injury, I couldn’t look away. In the midst of feeling the cold sweat dampen my back, and my fear keeping my nausea on the brink of exploding, I was hit with an overwhelming grief.
A sadness that someone had done this to Max. Had destroyed his beautiful body like this. Had attempted to end his life (and might still be successful at that). Had attempted to remove his beautiful presence from this world.
I placed chilled fingers against the side of his abdomen, just an inch from the wound, and felt coldness fuel me. A hatred I had never known before started to seep into me, before it flooded me like an unforgiving tsunami.
”Is he dead?” I pressed out dispassionately through my tight lips.
”No,” Dresden answered, misunderstanding me, ”He’s still alive. But we have to move fast. He won’t be for too much longer.”
The hatred was clogging up my throat, putting up walls around my heart, stiffening my body. Even my voice felt foreign as I enunciated blankly, ”Not Max. Him. The…” I had almost said ’person’, but that was the wrong word, ”monster who did this to him.”
There was a loaded pause before Dresden answered. Then, ”Yes. He’s dead.”
The satisfaction I felt at this was too small, too fleeting, too worthless. It did nothing to retreat my anger. Still, I stated hard-set, ”Good.”
Dresden shuffled in his seat next to me. ”Listen to me, Elizabeth. I know you’re upset right now. I know you are confused and probably feeling every emotion known to a human, but for this to work - for you to even have a chance at bringing him back - you need to focus on good things. You can’t heal with black energy. You can’t heal an act of malicious violence with sadness or hatred. You have to search deep inside of you and find the love and compassion you have for Max. And let that guide you. If you do, it’ll come naturally.”
My heart burnt. My unshed tears were caustic to my eyes.
”As stupid as it might sound, you have to heal him with love.”
The hatred eased off. The darkness paralyzing my mind pulled back on the pressure.
My tongue got stuck to the dried roof of my mouth, which had me make a clicking noise with my first word as my tongue detached from the palate, ”It’s not….” I swallowed. ”It’s not stupid.”
I looked over at him. At this alien who I didn’t really know, who seemed a lot nicer than any other alien of his generation that I had encountered so far.
He even attempted a soft smile as our eyes met. A twitch of the mouth to make me feel better. To support me in this. To give me strength.
”It actually makes a lot of sense,” I whispered, holding his eyes.
I didn’t flinch when he reached over and took my free hand (my other hand still pressed against the unharmed part of Max’s abdomen). I immediately felt comforted by the warmth of Dresden’s palm and with a shaky breath I closed my eyes and returned my attention to the wound.
I let my eyes remain closed and started to focus on my breathing. Just like Isabel had taught me during yoga.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Iiiinhale.
Exhaaale.
Iiiinhaaale.
Exhaaaaaale.
My pulse was slowing down. My mind was clearing. And I could feel tingles in my hand where it was connected to Dresden. It was almost painful. Like when you got an electric shock from touching something that had built up static energy.
My instinct was to pull my hand away, but I bit back the uncomfortable sensation of the current, and after a few seconds the electricity fortunately ebbed and turned into simple warmth.
Behind my closed eyelids I started to visualize zippers, tape, glue, bandages. Just any tool that could be used to fix a hole. Because that went along the lines of what I had done to heal that tiny cut in Max’s hand previously. In other words, it was the only method of healing that I was familiar with.
I tried to conjure up the mental image of Max’s injury - because I couldn’t find the courage to actually look at the wound in real life - and then fastened a large imaginary white zipper at the bottom of his injury, at level with his bellybutton.
Both of my hands - one holding Dresden’s and one pressed up against Max’s skin - began to heat up, and I held my breath as I saw the zipper move upwards in my mind, tucking Max’s organs away, repairing his skin.
The image had come to me so naturally that it easily could have been mistaken for being reality, which made it so much harder to accept that Max’s injury was unchanged when I opened my eyes to check.
The panic that flooded me at my failure was so thick that it drowned out any disappointment or self-criticism I might be expected to feel. Instead I basically saw Max dying in front of me. I saw his skin turn even whiter. I saw his dried and unmoving lips blanch.
And the wound seemed even more detailed and present than before.
There was absolutely no improvement. I hadn’t healed him. And now he was going to die.
Dresden’s hand felt even warmer than before, as if his energy was fueling my mortification, and the panic was rushing through me with a full-fledged panic attack being the ultimate destination.
”I can’t,” I got out, the pressure over my chest threatening to make me break. ”You have to try. You have to try.”
Dresden had sounded so certain when he had given me instructions on how to do it, he himself must know how to do it. Even if he only knew it in theory it must be better than what I knew.
”We have to do everything to help him,” I added, talking quickly now, the panic speeding up my words, making my voice breathless. ”Even if we don’t think it’ll work, we have to try it. We have to-”
And then Alex placed his hand on my shaking shoulder, soothing the most abrasive points of my panic, making me lose track of what I was saying.
Every single word spoken by his familiar gentle voice shouted with brisk clarity straight into my system, ”Try it again, Lizzie. Don’t think about it. Don’t make it scientific. Just think about Max. About who he is. About what you feel for him. Let it fill you up. That’s all you need to think about. No medical or surgical facts. Turn your brain off and let your heart lead.”
Tears were running unhindered down my cheeks as I looked up at my childhood friend. I almost (almost) didn’t notice his injuries this time, seeing only the support and love in his eyes.
His voice softened further and he nodded encouragingly in Max’s direction, ”Trust me. It’ll work. You’re the most amazing human being I’ve ever met. If anyone can do this, it’s you.”
Even though I knew that he was using his powers on me, to push my panic away, there was nothing fake about the love I was seeing in his eyes. It was all real. And it was thrumming into my heart, making it alive again.
I had lost my way there for a second, being submerged in darkness, but Alex was leading me home. Pointing out the light to me again.
So this time, with Alex’s touch on my shoulder, Dresden’s energy feeding into me through our connected hands, and my hand pressed to Max’s skin, I didn’t think about Max’s injury when I closed my eyes. I didn’t try to figure out how to heal him.
This time I focused only on Max. On everything that made Max into the person that I loved with every cell in my body.
And I could feel it happening inside of me. The same thing that I had felt thrumming through me just before Max had been injured. Energy. Pure, untainted, energy. Bright and warm. Healing.
I was partly aware of Dresden sharply letting go of my hand and Alex’s hand dropping off my shoulder, as if they had been repelled.
But it failed to engage my attention, because two seconds after that a voice I had longed to hear for what seemed to be an eternity spoke directly into my head.
Three simple words that had the power to save my whole existence.
I love you.
TBC...
Last edited by max and liz believer on Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Morning Dreamgirl
- Addicted Roswellian
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Re: Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie (AU M/L ADULT) A/N 5/11/16 p. 78
Awwww!!
Jo!
I don't know how you manage to have him not fully healed and yet still have me smiling at the end of the chapter. Bravo, lady.
Okay - too early for feedback right now. Aaannnnd, there's surprisingly a lot of things in this chapter I have questions/theories/observations on. So perhaps I should re-read the chapter a couple of times just to make sure I don't miss anything.
Jo!
I don't know how you manage to have him not fully healed and yet still have me smiling at the end of the chapter. Bravo, lady.
Okay - too early for feedback right now. Aaannnnd, there's surprisingly a lot of things in this chapter I have questions/theories/observations on. So perhaps I should re-read the chapter a couple of times just to make sure I don't miss anything.
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begonia9508
- Roswell Fanatic
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- Location: Somewhere lost in chocolat Land
Re: Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie (AU M/L ADULT) Ch. 93 5/12/16 p. 78
I can't believe the impact your story has to me! 
Here I am - shouting at Liz to concentrate and not let herself occupied with Dresden and co! At least, Alex was there for her and I couldn't believe Michael, interrupting Liz at what she was doing for Max, to ask about Maria... He is not really the clever alien on earth!
Anyway, spannend part and I am happy Max answered through their minds! EVE 
Here I am - shouting at Liz to concentrate and not let herself occupied with Dresden and co! At least, Alex was there for her and I couldn't believe Michael, interrupting Liz at what she was doing for Max, to ask about Maria... He is not really the clever alien on earth!
Anyway, spannend part and I am happy Max answered through their minds! EVE
- Les jouissances de l'esprit sont faites pour calmer les orages du coeur!
- On reconnaît le bonheur au bruit qu'il fait quand il s'en va!
- L'amour vous rend aveugle et le mariage vous redonne la vue!
- On reconnaît le bonheur au bruit qu'il fait quand il s'en va!
- L'amour vous rend aveugle et le mariage vous redonne la vue!
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keepsmiling7
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Re: Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie (AU M/L ADULT) Ch. 93 5/12/16 p. 78
Amazing........Michael wanted to give up but didn't.......and Liz healed with love.
This is a very close call.......and I don't think we are out of the woods yet.
Thanks for the great part,
Carolyn
This is a very close call.......and I don't think we are out of the woods yet.
Thanks for the great part,
Carolyn
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Roswelllostcause
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Re: Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie (AU M/L ADULT) Ch. 93 5/12/16 p. 78
Love can do amazing things!
Love saved Max!
Helen
Love saved Max!
Helen
Check out my Author page for a list of my fics!
http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopi ... 1&t=155639
http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopi ... 1&t=155639
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Morning Dreamgirl
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Re: Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie (AU M/L ADULT) Ch. 93 5/12/16 p. 78
You'll get a kick out of this, Jo.
That moment when you forget what the date is and saw that the story was updated (on the 12th). You do a quick internal squeal of happiness for such a fast update. Then you realize it's the 14th... *slaps forehead*
Yes, that really happened just now.
Moving on... Food then FB tonight (hopefully).
That moment when you forget what the date is and saw that the story was updated (on the 12th). You do a quick internal squeal of happiness for such a fast update. Then you realize it's the 14th... *slaps forehead*
Yes, that really happened just now.
Moving on... Food then FB tonight (hopefully).