Roswell Fanatics

Howdy avid readers,

Yes, yes, I know… bad authors for letting this fic go to the Dead& Buried. My bro and I humbly throw ourselves at your feet and grovel for forgiveness. Life took us by the throats and shoved us down roads we had no choice but take…We did manage though, to write along the way.

Rhonda Ann: Thank you for the warm cheer…We certainly hope you enjoy the chapters to come.

Skynet: Thank you for holding out hope….so very sorry to make you worry. We hope to not to give you that nasty scare again.

Keepsmiling: Ah, believe it dear friend....and YES! I still love pixie stix, although I have backed off on them of late due to this silly healthy living kick…my siblings have suckered me into. Good thing I got a healthy stash of’em hidden in my stuffed Spuds Mackenzie dog’s head. sssshhhh….

And last but not least, The Lurkers…we certainly hope you all continue lurking our way.

Now on with the story.....
Philip studied his daughter's pale face as she slept against him in the passenger van he rented from a private car service at the Santa Anita airport. Deep shadows marred the delicate skin under her eyes, and her lips were cracked and peeling. He didn't like the slight blue tone to her complexion, or the way her breathing continued to become irregular with every passing hour.

“How is she,” Diane asked, distracting him from his unsettling observations.

“About the same,” he answered, smoothing a hand over their daughter's hair. He glanced up when the driver slowed the van to pull into a large circle drive of a lavished Spanish style villa.

“Thank goodness we've arrived.”

Philip mentally echoed his wife's sentiments. The trip down to Mexico hadn't been bad, but it nonetheless took a toll on the children. He thanked God the Tillers still honored the deal. Unlimited access to their vacation home as compensation for being on retainer turned out to be a blessing. Only once or twice through the years had he and Diane taken advantage of the open invitation. Family activities during the summer kept them from coming more often.

“Will you be needing my services anymore today señor,” the driver asked putting the large van in park. Philip heard hot medal ping and clink under its hood as the engine idled.

“No, but during our stay here, we'll need someone to take us around. Does your company have something smaller than the van?”

“Si señor, sedans, minivans and SUVs.”

“Good, I think a minivan or SUV will do fine.”

“I'll submit the request.”

Philip gently pressed a kiss to Isabel's forehead, waking her. “I'll be back honey.” He helped her sit up, before getting out. Heads turned curiously in his direction as the chief foreman came over to greet him.

“Señor Evans! Welcome back to Casa La Laguna.”

“Thank you Estefan.” Philip shook the portly workman's hand, and then gave the inquisitive people watching them an acknowledging nod. “I trust the Tillers informed you about us not needing the full staff during our stay?”

“Si señor, they'll be gone by the evening. My wife Marietta, a few gardeners and I will be the only ones here. Did the trip down go all right?”

“Well, the kids encountered some bad fish on the plane,” Philip replied, hoping the foreman would buy into the false reason for the children’s ill appearance.

“Oh no, you want for me to call for the doctor?”

“I don't believe that will be necessary,” Diane interjected, as she got out of the car. He doubted Estefan noticed the smile upon her face didn’t quiet reach her eyes. “Do you think your men can spare you for a few minutes to help us get them to bed?”

“Si señorita, it will be no problem.”

Philip gave one of his wife's hands a comforting squeeze before assisting. By the time they got all three teens inside and settled, noon had come and gone. The aroma of Marietta's cooking made his and Diane’s stomachs grumble. He smiled at her blush of embarrassment, as Estefan pushed opened the massive hand-carved oak doors to the master suite for them.

“Perhaps tomorrow after breakfast, I could take you both on a tour of Laguna. New things have been added since your last visit.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful, thank you,” replied Diane. “Please tell Marietta we look forward to dinner. Whatever she's preparing smells heavenly.”

“She will be happy to know you approve. Enjoy your stay.”

Philip shut the heavy doors behind the foreman, and surveyed his extravagant surroundings. Imported fabrics, valuable paintings, sculptures and furnishings peppered the room. The designers, in his opinion, didn't miss their mark on creating a relaxed and serene atmosphere. Something for which, made him grateful. Nothing like a mad dash from the government, and an innovative jaunt through otherworldly phenomenon to make a man value a moment of peace, he thought, as he joined Diane out on the terrace.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, and dropped his chin on her shoulder. A warm breeze drew his gaze to the tropical splendor before them. Casa Laguna offered the illusion of total seclusion. Lush green gardens sprawled over more than 36 acres, making the villa the only one in Cabos with its own private beach. He breathed a little easier in that regard. His family wouldn't have to worry about any curious neighbors.

Philip peered at the horizon, spotting heavy clouds spreading out over the ocean. Another hour or so, and the peaceful blue skies would be nothing but a memory. The air already carried the earthy scent of rain. He straightened when Diane gave a restless shrug of her shoulders.

“I’m scared we’re going to lose them Philip,” she whispered, as she turned to face him. “They're so sick. What if more of the healing ritual River Dog had the others do is required? Or something else, we can't get here?”

He hugged her close. “Then we'll go wherever we need to go to get it…and if the other kids are needed, we'll send for them too. Let's hope the stuff Eddie grabbed from his uncle’s things will help.”

“Do you think the FBI will come for us?”

“I doubt it. We covered our tracks pretty well. But if by some obscure chance they do check into why we left during such a historical event, they’ll discover a normal family who’ve been planning this trip for a long time, and didn't want to lose the money on it.”

When Diane relaxed and laid her head on his chest, Philip prayed he was right. After dinner he went with her to check on the kids. Their son and Michael both appeared to be fairing well. But their daughter, she worried him with the way she tossed and turned in her sleep. The sweat glistening on her brow seemed to run more profusely too.

“Seems to be getting worse,” he murmured, touching her cheek.




Isabel frowned into the gathering darkness around her. She had no idea how long she been in its sweltering heat. A cooling reprieve was what she desperately wanted. Anything to keep the smoldering shadows at bay. There were moments when she sensed her skin on fire, and would glance down to discover her limbs engulf in flame. Panic and terror filled her heart as it happened over and over again.

“Isabel?”

She shifted, hearing her name, but being blinded by the dark void, she saw nothing and no one.

“Isabel can you hear me?”

She flinched when someone touched her hair.

“I think she’s coming around…Isabel?”

Heart pounding, she blinked rapidly as the intense gloom began to recede like a wave from shore. The blackness turned to dull grays then into pale whites.

“Thank God! Come on Isabel, wake up.”

A moaned escaped her lips when cool air brushed her balmy skin. She cracked her eyes open, finding Liz and Maria hovering over her. The fear and concern in both their gazes had her fighting through the last of the fading gloom into full consciousness.

“What’s going on,” she rasped, voice sounding to her own ears, cracked and dry.

“We were sort of hoping you would tell us,” Maria replied.

Isabel sat up with Liz’s help. After images floated in her vision as she took in their surroundings. The three of them appeared to be on some highway in the desert. Not a car or house was in sight. A pitch-black sky hung above with no stars, only a full moon.

“Where are we,” she whispered.

“Again we were sort of hoping you’d tell us.”

She glanced at Maria. “I have no idea.”

Liz gave one of her hands a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry, we’ll uh…we’ll figure it out. Come on, can you stand?”

The instant Maria took her other hand to help her, raw energy surged up Isabel’s spine taking her breath away. Her fingers convulsed around theirs as power coursed out of her into them and back again. Their gasps rang in her ears as everything became hyper sensitive—sight, touch, sound, smell. For a split second, Isabel could not discern what impression was hers. It was as if she shared one body with them, but no sooner did the odd phenomena happen it was over.

Maria and Liz dropped her hands like a hot poker and stumbled back. When an arc of white energy shot between the two of them, they jumped apart, causing little splinters of electrical aftershocks to spider out toward Isabel. She shivered as she got unsteadily to her feet, and backed up until it stopped. By no means was the bewildering occurrence unpleasant. In fact, the whole thing had been downright amazing, but it was disturbing as hell at the same time.

“Okay.” Liz breathed out on a shaky breath. “That was…um…that was—”

“F–freaky,” Maria supplied.

“Yeah…a little bit.” Liz nodded, hugging herself.

Isabel said nothing as a weird and wonderful clarity came over her. She gazed up at the moon, then out into the desert. “What’s the last thing you both remember before this?” When she glanced back at them, Liz and Maria were giving her puzzled looks.

“I think this place isn’t real,” she explained. “I–I mean like true reality.” A cool wind brushed passed them then, seeming to belie her statement.

Maria rubbed her arms, but answered her question anyway. “I…uh remember being in Liz’s room. We were talking about how crazy busy the Crashdown’s been since….you know, you guys and the Granolith left.”

“Yeah, we were on my bed and…” Liz trailed off and Isabel met her gaze. “You think this is a dream, don’t you.”

“Yes.”

“How is that even possible?”

Isabel shrugged. “I don’t know. I think I’m dream-walking one of you, and maybe being sick has something to do with—”

“You're still sick,” Maria interrupted. “The second balance didn't work?”

“Wait,” Liz said, touching her friend's shoulder. When no static energy passed between the two, Isabel noticed Maria relaxed. “It could be taking longer, because all three were hurt, not just one.”

Liz's rational way of thinking sometimes had a welcoming calming effect. Isabel knew her brother and the others have come to count on it, now it would seem so has she.

“Who’s dream?”

She blinked at her. “What?”

“You mentioned dream-walking one of us,” Liz said, “If so, either I or Maria is also walking the other’s dream with you.”

“Now that’s impossible,” Maria told her. “We don’t have super alien powers.”

“No we don’t, but how else do you explain what’s happening?”

Isabel’s brows lifted when they both looked at her. “Hey, I don’t know. I’m just as clueless as you are.”

“Look.” Maria pointed at something behind her.

She turned and squinted. In the distance a figure was fleeing down the highway away from them.

“What’s it running from,” she murmured, looking back in the opposite direction.

On the horizon silvery gray clouds were racing toward them, casting the landscape in their wake into deep shadow. Isabel got the distinct sense something not altogether human was in that darkness, coming just as fast. Thick fog rolled along the road ahead of the racing clouds. She jumped when lightning struck the ground. Grabbing Maria’s wrist, she shouted at Liz.

“Run!”

Xmag: Good’ol Doctor Who, another great TV Show. Yes, we were very mean to leave the last chapter like that so here we are with another chapter to make you happy. Sorry again for the long stay in the old D&B. Thank you very much mags for coming back to read our story.

Keepsmiling: Well thank you for coming back! (hugs) I hope you’re all caught up my dear cause here is another chapter for ya. Now let’s keep your fingers cross that pesky RL will stay away for a while.

Howdy Eve: We are so very happy to have your feedback anytime! All really helps us stay in tune to what our Reader’s perceptions are and if we are staying on course. That part about the baby….was pretty brutal and all my doing. I couldn’t help it…sometimes the dark side over comes me light side. No worries, about Tess though…that poor unfortunate soul has a date with my dark side much to my co-writers dismay… HE likes the heifer. Bleh…which means I can get tooooo medieval on her. Which also means she MAY redeem herself… .

Rhonda! You clever, clever girl….we are extremely happy to be back, and to find you returning with us as well! Between you and mags…y’all just may figure out the road ahead before us all! YOU’VE hit and shed some light upon a very interesting concept!

WHO says it was Isabel dream-walking or her “controlling” the dream-walk? And here’s something that will bake your noodle and give you something to think about… Those little quotes at the beginning of chapters…aren’t just there for decoration! Not only do they hint at the theme of chapter, they also sometimes foreshadow things to come in others.

I know, I know…some of you never read poems and quotes in fics because they’re just to plain tedious to read…but trust me, ours have clues you just might want to take into consideration as you read.

Timelord: Zy and I are very pleased to see that you’ve return as well to carry on this crazy journey… I do hope this is what you were hoping for. If not, please hold tight…because there’s more things down this particular rabbit hole that may answer those questions of yours.

And last but not least...you stealthy Lurkers thank you as well for continuing to lurk our way....

SHI

Liz careened through corridor after endless corridor, raced up and down stairs, turned corners at random trying to find her way out of the interminable hell she was trapped in. Every muscle in her body burned and her lungs were near to bursting, but she dared not rest. Her life depended on the fact that she must keep moving. Without warning, a metal door sprang up before her, causing her to come to a skidding halt anyway.

The frantic beat of her heart boomed loud in her ears as she glanced over her shoulder, her jailers—her tormentors were coming. There was no time to backtrack, no other route to seek. Her impending capture grew with each passing second she stood there. She had no choice. She ran for the door, throwing it wide. Cold wind from the other side blasted her.

Liz put a hand up, keeping as much of the bitter current out of her face as she staggered forward. When the ground beneath her began to shake, she squinted into the freezing air in time to see a massive wave of thick copious fluid barreling towards her. She drew a breath to scream, only to have it knocked out of her once the unbridled tide slammed past her and through the open door.

Flailing wildly, she managed to get her bearings, but the antechamber had flooded and filled with haste. Liz swam for the doorway, only to encounter an invisible barrier at the threshold. Her oxygen starved mind went numb with sick fear as she began to kick and slap at the barricade. The instinct to inhale became pressing as blackness danced at the edges of her vision. The moment her resolve weaken, the obstruction vanished. Her body surged forward, riding the gelatinous slush until she slid to a stop on cold grated floors.

“We're disappointed in you Elizabeth,” her tormentors said as they gathered around her. “You should not have run from us.”

Liz rolled to her back, coughing raggedly as her captors observed her with tilted obsidian eyes within faces that were far too uncanny, too exotic to be real. No one's enemies should be so beautiful. Even the cold detached manner in which she was regarded clashed with their striking appearance.

“You're not here Liz.” A voice told her as they placed her onto a stainless steel table. “They're not real.”

She twisted her head in the direction of the speaker, finding him in a corner trapped behind a tubular glass structure, wearing a hospital gown like her own.

“Max!” Tears filled her eyes.

“You're dreaming Liz. You have to wake up.”

When a glint of steel caught her attention, Liz tore her gaze from him in time to witness one of her tormentors scrutinize a long thin scalpel. The air in her lungs arrested as the being approached.

“Liz!”

She didn't hear Max—not really. The painfully loud drumming in her ears returned to drown out everything, as the razor-sharp tool came down with deadly precision over her heart.

“WAKE UP!”

Liz jerked upright in bed, pulse racing, mind reeling as her gaze searched the shadows around her in a blind panic. When she spotted her best friend sleeping beside her, the air in her lungs came out in a harsh rush. She was home, safe in her room.

“You okay?”

She glanced at Maria, who hadn’t bothered to open her eyes upon asking her the question. A clump of tangled blonde hair sat at the side of her friend’s head, giving a bird's nest a run for its money.

“You're gonna have some serous bedhead in the morning,” Liz murmured flinging the covers off. "Sorry I woke you."

“Don't worry about it...Where ya going?”

“Out for some air.” No way was she going back to sleep with the dream so fresh in her mind.

“At four o'clock in the morning?”

The room was dark, but she could still make out the skeptical frown on her friend’s face. “I'm only going out on the roof.”

“Are you serious? The military keeps flying by with their damn helicopters. Don’t give them a reason to shine that stupid spotlight on you.”

“All right then, I'll go down to the kitchen.” Liz headed for the bathroom. “Go back to sleep, you gotta get up in about an hour.” Maria decided to spend the night with her since the two of them would be working the early bird shift together. She knew it would be near to impossible to be up, showered, dressed and out the door by five. So Liz thought it best to have a sleepover to avoid another lecture from her dad.

“Yeah, don’t remind me… bring me back one of those cupcakes, if your dad’s not up guarding the inventory already. I’m gonna need a sugar rush when I wake up.”

Liz doubted she find anything sweet or otherwise. Business for the Crashdown has tripled in the past few months with tourists and UFO conspirators since the military arrived. Her father’s constant fear is that they’ll run out of something. He’d made it his personal mission to make sure everything’s accounted for and under locks. On other days, his main concern is what they all stressed about— the FBI.

The two agents showing up at the restaurant the night of the healing hadn't helped matters. No one believed for a minute they were there to ask questions about the men who shot her those many months back. Even with a credible story about them being on their wanted list. She fed them the same pack of lies she gave Valenti after the momentous event. Much like him though, the agents had been skeptical, but asked her no more questions.

For three months now, she’s been holding her breath, waiting for pictures of the Granolith to show up in the news or papers. So far, they’ve only read or heard speculative questions regarding the armed forces sudden presence in the New Mexico desert. Of course rumors were spread about it being something extraterrestrial related; however, the more sensible theorists say it’s likely some military mishap the American people will have to pay for later.

Liz was starting to agree with Valenti about the Granolith being too far out in the desert for anyone to have seen it take off. The thing that was really making her nervous was the feds and the military’s silence. They’ve done nothing but camp out in the area where the pod chamber’s rocks once stood. Her father figured since both did a poor job at concealing the last alien incident, they were probably making damn sure this one stays under wraps.

Cutting on the hot water, Liz stared into the bathroom mirror. Her reflection was a scary sight. Dark smudges colored the skin under eyes from too many sleepless nights. The dream she had with Maria and Isabel seemed to have opened up a door or something. The whole group is sharing dreams now, and the episodes are showing no signs of stopping. Some good, some bad, like the one tonight.

Images of the nightmare flashed in her mind. The dream was always the same. The endless running, the torture, the nearly drowning and—Max. Liz frowned. He seemed different this time. The usual fear in his gaze had been present, but something was wrong. Absently she watched steam rise up to the mirror, and froze.

Dear God!


Liz stumbled away from the sink. Her reflection had no face! No mouth, no eyes, no nothing! She squeezed her eyes shut, and then opened them. Once again everything was back to normal.

“Hey Liz, you fall in or what?” Maria’s words spurred her into action. Liz turned, and fled the restroom…





Max punched at the glass barrier surrounding him as the being approached Liz with the scalpel.

“Liz,” he shouted, hitting glass again. It shook but did not break. He sucked in a breath as the thin blade came down towards her chest in a blur.

“WAKE UP!”

Max bolted straight up in bed, throat soar from screaming, heart racing, and a fine film of icy sweat on his skin. He grabbed at his chest as the sensation of the scalpel cutting into Liz followed him out of the dream. He saw no blood or wound, but that didn't stop him from kicking free of the tangle sheets and going for the light switch by the door.

Light chased the shadows from the room, as he peered again at his chest.

Nothing…as always.

Max ran trembling fingers through his riotous hair. The recurring nightmare his and Liz's subconscious insist on sharing, never failed to scare the crap out of him. This one, much like its predecessors, did nothing to edify—only terrify. Sometimes he stayed up for hours trying to make sense of the dream, but no reasonable resolution ever came of it.

Pushing away from the wall, he went to the ornate walk-in closet near the bathroom. No sleep tonight for him. He never really could get any after having the nightmares anyway. Ten minutes later, he was fully dressed and slipping out into the dark hallway beyond his bedroom. Marietta had forgot to leave a lamp on again, she didn't like to waste electricity, so she tended to cut things off once the family had gone to bed.

Max didn’t mind. These days he preferred the deep shadows of the night. Besides, unlike normal human beings who eyes take moments to adjust to different light settings or darkness, his only took mere seconds. He moved along the second-floor gallery to the moonlight bathed main staircase that led to the first floor. He descended without a sound, heading for the massive kitchen. Once there, he slipped out its door into the waiting night.

Tonight's dream hadn't been any different than the last few he and Liz had, but he still wanted to know if she was okay. She seemed less able to fight them than before. In fact, she hadn't even put up much of a struggle when they placed her on the table. The other times, she nearly succeeded in freeing herself.

The image of Liz's pale frightened face flashed in his mind. Max clinched his fists. He wished like hell he had a way to safely contact her. Filled with edgy frustration, he went over to the stone steps, leading down to the beach below the villa. The soothing crash of waves beckoned, as did another concerning noise. Max paused on the bottom step, as the sound became clearer. Soft, yet persistent, the wails of a baby floated upon the cool night air. The distressed tones hovered just at the edge of hearing.

His breath caught in his throat as the cries threaten to transport him to a place he did not want to go. A place he had left in feverish delirium during the weeks following the second balance. Max turned his face into the wind. The salty warmth of it helped bring his mind into sharp focus, and the weeping faded.

“Max, what're you doing out here?”

The question brought him around. Isabel stood a few steps up, dressed in dark denims, and an oversize Nike T-shirt that seemed awfully familiar. The white cross trainers on her feet glowed like Day-Glo under the moonlight. A few weeks ago she had gone into town with their mother, and returned with them, a new haircut and brunette dye job.

Their dad, as well as Michael and himself were still trying to get use it. The style was not at all unbecoming. It just changed her appearance, made her look more—matured. Max nodded at the shirt.

“That mine?”

“Yes, and you're not getting it back so don't ask,” Isabel replied. “What's up with the late night stroll?”

“Needed some air,” he answered, stepping onto the sand. Max heard her trot the rest of the way down to fall into step beside him. Some mornings, the two of them would go out for a run along the water's edge. Every so often, when they would go flat out, everything for him would just sort of fall away, his anger at Tess, Kivar, and Destiny, the frustration of feeling out control, and the haunting cries.

He even found himself, during those moments, entertaining the idea of running on forever, never to look back. The impulse vanished though the moment he would glance over at Isabel. He couldn't leave his family. They needed him, as much as he needed them.

“Why are you up this late?”

Isabel shot him a disgruntled look. “I give you one guess.”

A smile flirted at the corners of his mouth. No one could put that look of pure irritation on her face, but Kyle. “Was he bald and dressed like a monk,” Max asked, remembering the last dream he had with him. There were nights when he and Liz both, had a little reprieve from their nightmare to dream with the others.

The embarrassed flush on his sister's face told him she had shared Kyle's other favorite dream. “Please don't tell me you witnessed him being the 'hands-on' judge at the Miss Playboy pageant.”

“I can't wait ‘til we get home,” Isabel seethed. “I'm gonna make him pray he never has that stupid dream again!”

Max laughed, imagining the outraged expression on his sister's face as Kyle sung some hokey song to the half-naked contestants while they gave him a lab dance. When he caught Isabel’s glare, he gave her a grin.

“Sorry.”

“Pfft, no you're not,” Isabel muttered. “But, I'm glad to hear you laugh even if it is at my expense. You've been quiet more than usual.”

Max turned his gaze toward the ocean, saying nothing, his amusement melting away.

“What's going on Max? Even mom and dad have noticed you've–”

“I've what,” he snapped, glaring at her.

“Changed,” Isabel shot back. She gestured at his furious expression. “This Max, this isn't you. Something's not right.”

“Nothing’s wrong!” God how he was getting tired of them asking if he was okay, if there was something upsetting him. He gave a harsh laugh with no humor in it. What could he tell them, that yes, he believed he was going insane. That he heard the cries of his dea– He couldn't finish the thought, not even to himself would he admit what he suspected. Instead he turned Isabel's accusations back on her.

“I' m not the one who went out and cut all my damn hair off and dyed it a god-awful color. If anyone's change it would be you.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Max regretted them, especially when he saw the hurt look on Isabel's face.

“Iz, I'm sorry,” he shouted when she turned and went back to the house. “Dammit.”


“What do you mean you had no face?” Maria scrutinized her best friend’s frighten features. No more than a minute ago Liz had come tearing out of the bathroom as if the devil himself was after her. Maria could actually see her trembling.

“I–I mean one moment my reflection was fine then the next thing I know it–it…God, maybe I’m losing my mind.”

“No, you’re tired, and you haven’t been sleeping well, hell none of us have.” Maria couldn’t count the number of times she’s woken up exhausted due to a night of dreaming with one or more of her friends. The only thing good about the dream sharing was that they could sometimes manage to communicate through them.

During a dream with Michael and Max, she learned they were healing well and staying in Mexico. By the next one with Isabel, she learned to control the dream enough to let her know what was going on in Roswell.

“You still got that doctor’s appointment tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

“Good, you just might be coming down with something you never know,” she told Liz. “The dream that woke you …was it the one you and Max keep having?” When Liz nodded, Maria’s shoulders slumped. Three stinking months of the same rotten nightmare, and no one understood it. Nor could they make heads or tails out of the one the two of them keep having with Isabel.

“Were you able to talk to Max this time?”

“No.”

The discontent and frustration in that one word made Maria hug her best friend. In her dreams with Michael, she’s able to talk with him, fight with him and even on occasion make love. Liz on the other hand, could utter no more than a word or two before the dreams were over with Max. What the two of them had before will likely never exist again, but still, she knew Liz cared for him.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be…” When Liz pulled back, so did she. “I will the next time.”

The nightmare, and whatever happened in the bathroom left its mark, but Liz also looked determined, steady. Ready for anything—it’s moments like this that made Maria grateful to have this brave, amazing person as her best friend.

“Let’s go find those cupcakes.”

Maria smiled, pushing her covers aside. “May as well get dress while we’re at it, I’m sure your dad’s probably gonna put us to work as soon as we step foot in the kitchen.”

She joined Liz at the bathroom door, when she saw her hand hesitate over the knob. She gave her shoulder a supportive bump, telling her without words that they would brave whatever they might see in the mirror together.

“I’m being stupid. I know there’s a reasonable–”

A guttural growl interrupted Liz in mid sentence. Maria felt her eyes go wide. “Please tell me that was your stomach.”

Her heart leapt to her throat when the restroom door shook, and bulged out, as if some great weight pushed against it. She backed up with Liz when its hinges groaned, and began popping. When the door gave, she screamed.

“Lizzie! Maria! Wake up!”

Maria jolted awake, blinking up into the concern eyes of Liz’s father as he hovered over them.

“You girls all right?” He reached out, and touched Liz’s cheek.

“Yeah,” she mumbled. “What time is it?”

“Four o’clock. You two got less than an hour or so till your shift starts,” he replied. “I think maybe you should take the mid morning one though. You two look worn out. I’m sure the other waitress and Nancy can manage until then.”

“No it’s all right…” Maria glanced briefly at Liz, who was staring at the bathroom door. “We’re okay, we’ll be down soon.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

Once he left, Maria looked over at the bathroom door too. “I really, really hope we’re awake.”

At the corner of her eye, she saw her best friend opened her left hand. “The theory is that you don’t feel pain in dreams.” Crescent marks were in the palm where her nails had dug in. “This stings like hell, so I think we are.”

xmags: Oh how very astute of you mags!! We so get a kick out of your feedback.

keepsmiling: [quote ]LoL nothing going on with Maria's just your average case of bed-head, and Max is being a typical butt head brother who got pissy enough to point out something that could hurt his sister’s feelings. And yep everything is changing for our gang, hence the name of Chapter 12 Conversions: which means changes, adaptations to life or character… As for RL…it did take us again but this time we fought hard not to let it kidnap us for long.

RhondaAnn: Yes they can communicate in the dreams, in fact they all can… Max and Isabel weren’t having a dream when they had that spat on the beach…so I am assuming you meant Liz and Max who can’t seem to communicate well during those shared dreams. Let’s just say something is *hint, hint* blocking them. Now you say enemies…hhmm perhaps…but perhaps not…

Timelord: Thanks T…glad you are enjoying it.

mary mary: Thank you mary! And yes please bring on the cupcakes!!

Skynet We wanted you to know your feedback had us, and our Beta floored…we had to go back and re read over what the heck we wrote to garner such an awesome response…and we think you very much for it. Saw some rather embarrassing flubs in the writing! We hope we continue to impress you Sky…thank you for your wonderful feedback!

As for you Lurkers....we hope you continue lurking and enjoying.

SHI

“Thanks for comin' in on your day off.”

Kyle glanced over at Tobias Hardgrave, owner of Toby’s Garage, as he walked through an open bay. He'd been lying on the couch enjoying the last of his Captain Crunch when he got called in. If it weren’t for the promise of getting paid time in a half, he would still be there—possibly napping. God how sweet would that be to experience a decent moment of sleep.

“Tell Ray he owes me.”

“He's gonna owe us both,” Toby replied, tugging an oil stain Yankees baseball cap over his shaggy blond hair. “Third time this week, he's called in sick…got cars up to our damn eyeballs to fix.”

Thanks to the aliens and military. Kyle shoved his things into a beat-up old locker. Every tourist who came to find out if the Granolith had been real or a hoax appeared to have come in vehicles on their last leg.

“Oh, some girl's waitin' for ya over by Mrs. Finley's truck.”

“Her niece?”

“Don't know. You and Ray's the only ones had the pleasure of meetin' her.”

The sympathetic grin on Toby's face let Kyle know his so-called sickly co-worker filled their boss in on how much a bitch the niece was. The last few times the woman came to check on her aunt's deader-than-shit truck, she reduced poor Ray into a stuttering fool. He braced himself as he went around the large RV to where the vehicle was parked. Once he spotted Liz's dark head bent over his Buddhism self-help book, he released a breath.

“Thank God, for a moment I thought…” The stark expression on her face brought him up short. When he noticed the shadows underneath her eyes, he could guess why the somber look. “Rough night,” he asked, closing the distance between them.

“Yeah,” she replied. “Maria and I had a nightmare that pretty much freaked us both out.”

“What happen?”

“I thought I woke up from one with Max, but didn't.”

Kyle was familiar with the brutal details of the reoccurring dream she had with Max as well as the other with Isabel and Maria, but once Liz told him the rest of this particular one, he made it the winner of being the creepier of the two.

“After my shift this morning,” Liz continued. “I took a shower before my doctor's appointment. When I got out, I happened to glance into the mirror…”

“And…,” he prompted.

“My face was totally gone.”

“Shit.”

“My sentiments exactly…but after a few seconds everything was as if nothing happened. Have you had anything strange happening to you?”

He blinked. “No…why?”

“What makes me different from everybody else is the fact that I was brought back from the dead by an alien.”

“Okay now that you've touched on one of my deepest, darkest fears, let's assume what you saw was nothing but a sign of being over stressed. You know like battle fatigue.” He didn't believe what he just said for a second, but tried to convince her anyway. He nodded at the book in her hands. “Buddha, Take Me Away, is great. Gotten me through some tough times…take young grasshopper, and learn of its wisdom.”

“Kyle, I'm serious!” She tossed the book in the direction of his workbench. The paperback knocked over the little radio Toby gave him. A song by Pearl Jam came through its cracked speakers then died. When she set the thing upright, sparks flew and the lights in the garage flickered.

“Hey, what you two doin' over there?”

“Nothin'…dropped the radio,” Kyle yelled, never taking his eyes off Liz. “Do that again.” The instant she placed a hand on a knob, flames burst from the speakers.
He yanked her back, and dumped the remaining contents of a two-day-old Big Gulp on them. The radio gave one sick pop and a sizzle before giving up the ghost.

“Kyle.”

He turned, hearing the desolate tone in her voice.

“I think I'm changing.”







Bonita Shoodii didn’t look dangerous.
In fact, Bonita Shoodii appeared to be your average native inhabitant of New Mexico with her long black hair and smooth brown skin. However, River Dog knew better.

“This,” she said, bringing his gaze to what she picked up from the shelf in front of her, “can’t be a true piece of the UFO that crashed here.”

“Well, according to the guy who sold it to me it is,” Amy Deluca replied, coming over to the woman with an amused grin. “He said his old man been out wrestling cattle near where the ship crashed, and found it.”

“Sounds like a load.” Shoodii laughed, handing the strange metal object over. Her eyes held no menace, no hidden agenda—just easy going kindness. “But my godson in Chicago would get a kick out of it anyway. I’ll take it.”

Amy’s smile broadened. “It’ll be up at the cash register when you’re ready.”

“Thank you.”

“Excuse me ma’am, do you more of these,” another customer asked Amy, holding up an alien spaceman keychain.

“I believe we do in the back. I’ll check…give me a sec.”

River Dog moved from the partially opened storage room door he’d been peering through, when she headed his way. He’d waited for this opportunity since he followed Shoodii into her shop. His initial intent was to wait and talk to all the adults about the woman, but she came to the store unexpectedly. From the moment he met her, nothing gave him reason to believe she did anything spontaneous. She had a motive for coming here, which did not bode well for any of them.

Amy’s sharp gasp upon seeing him had him stepping further into the shadows when the customer with the keychain glanced her way.

“You all right?”

“Uh yeah,” Amy replied, turning to block the view inside the storage room. “I just remembered we are actually out of those key chains…sorry. Uh Sean, I didn’t log the new merchandise in...Watch the front for me?”

“Sure,” a male voice replied.

River Dog held out a hand, stopping her from closing the door completely, and moved to peered through the small opening that was left. “The shoodii may be sniffing near.”

“What?”

He gestured for Amy to look at the dark-haired woman once she came into view. “Shoodii means coyote in my language. Her name is Bonita Shoodii…Beautiful Coyote.”

“Okay what does that have to do with you being in my—”

“Agent Shoodii,” River Dog interrupted.

When Amy stiffened beside him, he turned and met her widening gaze. “I’ve been following her since she, and the others took me from my home the night I helped the children. She had said their reason for doing so, was to ask me and a few other leaders, to help get our people to cooperate in the free health exams they are offering. The Government wants to be sure we have not been contaminated by high levels of emissions discovered leaking from the power plant that sits between the reservation and Roswell. I do not believe radiation poisoning is the true reason for these tests, nor do I believe a leak exists.”

“My God,” Amy said in a terrified whisper. “They’re hoping to stumble upon them by chance their blood is different from ours aren’t they.”

River Dog glanced once more through the cracked door. “Whoever set this shoodii to hunt perhaps knows that it is.”

Agent Shoodii now stood at the counter. No, she did not appear dangerous with her easy smile, and light banter. But he had seen the truth. He had glimpsed the cold and cunning creature behind the pleasant mask.

“My people have a saying,” he said to Amy then. “Coyote is always out there waiting, and is always hungry. Coyote will not stop hunting until its eating you.”







Seagulls careened through the blue sky above Isabel as she lay back in the cool sand. Normally she would be under the huge umbrella she carried out, but her parents were snuggling underneath the large colorful contraption a few yards away down the coastline. She didn’t mind a little sun bathing. She needed to work on her tan anyway.

Shading her eyes, she glanced up. The birds gave a raucous cry, disturbing the peacefulness of the quiet beach. The salty tang of the ocean breeze had her moving her gaze toward Michael and Max. Both stood on an outcrop of rocks near the breakers. She still hadn’t forgiven her brother for insulting her the night before.

“What does he know about fashion anyway,” Isabel muttered, tossing her bangs out of her eyes. He needs a darn hair cut himself! She lay back against the sand, unwilling to give her moody brother another thought. Unfortunately the faint pang in her back when she took deep breaths wouldn’t let her.

The nagging ache was a constant reminder of their near brush with death. Max insisted he was more than capable of healing her fully now, but if she and Michael still experienced soreness and fatigue, then she didn’t want to run the risk Max might as well. His power to heal took far too much from him even when healthy. She would not have him suffer a relapse on her account—nor anyone else’s.

Closing her eyes, she folded her hands on her stomach, determined to pay no attention to the dull backache. Soon the warm sand eased her tense muscles, and the quiet wind and waves lulled her into relaxing completely. Sound even began to fade, leaving in its wake utter calm. Her breathing slowed, becoming deep and even. She usually entered dream-walking at this state—only she had no picture or someone in mind to ‘walk’.

So she thought…

“Just give me a minute will ya! Gotta take a piss!”

Isabel’s eyes flew open upon hearing that bit of news. “Oh my God!”

“What!”

“Oh my God!” She couldn’t move. “Please God, not another dream…”

“Hey! Toby you say somethin’?”

Isabel blinked, she recognized that voice. “Kyle?”

“Buddha?”

“No idiot, it’s me…Isabel!”

“Where are you?”

She experienced vertigo when he whipped around to look in a stall. “I’m…stop moving! Are you on drugs or something?”

“What?”

“You take something before you slept?”

“No, I didn’t. I’m not asleep…where the hell are you?” The lightheadedness started to dissipate the more he moved around. When he happened to stop in front of a small greasy mirror, she saw and felt his confusion and annoyance.

Okay get a grip! You can sometimes feel people’s emotions when you dream-walk. No big deal! But this didn’t seem like a normal dream-walk. Dear lord am I looking through his eyes!

“This isn’t funny. I’m not in the mood to play some weird alien game.”

“Does it sound like I’m having fun to you,” she snapped.

For a disconcerting moment emotions played across his face and mind so fast she couldn’t identify them until finally he settle on one she could.

Fear.

“Kyle.”

He jerked back from the mirror, holding his head. A loud drumming started. “Kyle, I think that beating sound is your heart…you gotta calm down-”

“Oh God, your voice is coming from my head!”

“Will you calm down and open your damn eyes! I can’t see a thing!”

He snapped his eyes wide, staring into the mirror with horror. “What do you mean you can’t see?”

“Well, I can now…I-I think I’m-”

“God…you’re in me!”

Someone banged on the bathroom door. “Hey man, you okay in there?”

“Oh God, oh God, oh God…”

“Yo Kyle.”

Isabel’s chest became tight. She couldn’t get air…Wait!

“Kyle breath!”

“You’re scarein’ me man…say somethin’.”

Kyle lunched for the door, flung it open. Isabel came face to face…or rather Kyle came face to face with a sweaty older man in oil stained coveralls.

“I’m being possessed by an alien!”

Isabel gave an annoyed inner huff, after that insane declaration. “Lovely.”


“A leak? I never heard anything about a leak at the power plant.”

“Neither has Jim,” Amy’s voice floated up the stairs leading to the Parker’s house, where Liz stood on the landing with Maria. The Crashdown, like most restaurants and shops on Sunday, had closed around six. Amy showed up an hour later to tell Liz’s parents about her encounter with River Dog.

“This Agent Shoodii,” her father said. “Did River Dog mention if she’s working alone?”

“He didn’t say.”

“I don’t like this Jeff.” Liz gripped the banister, hearing the fear in her mother’s voice. “Maybe River Dog’s right…maybe there’s a reason why that woman was in Amy’s shop. She knows something…an-and those mobile clinics. He said they’re coming here next. What if what Max did to Liz shows up in their test?”

“Perhaps it’s time to we do what we discussed,” her father said. “Besides I think boarding school will help Liz get her grades back up. Get her to focus.”

“God knows Maria could use all the help she can get…”

Liz met Maria’s startled gaze upon hearing Amy’s reply. She put a finger to her lips, and pulled her best friend into her bedroom.

“What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, flopping down on her bed after closing the door behind them. “This isn’t the first time I heard about boarding school. My dad’s been itching to send me to one since he found out about my grades taking a drastic dip during the last month of school. What River Dog said to your mother only gave him one more good reason to do it.”

Maria flopped down beside her. “This would explain the miracle I witnessed a few weeks ago,” she muttered, lying back. “Mom called her parents.”

Liz’s brows went up at that. She knew about the turbulent relationship Amy had with Maria’s grandparents. They hadn't approved of Carlos, Maria’s father. Amy was practically disowned for going against their wishes in marrying him. Even Sean’s dad, Amy’s brother, didn’t get along with them.

“At the time she told me she decided to start ‘mending broken fences’,” Maria continued. “Apparently money’s also the motivation behind it because there’s no way she can pay for some fancy school on her own.”

Amy’s parents were very well-off. They could afford tuition without their daughter’s help if this was true. Liz gave her best friend’s shoulder an apologetic bump, knowing her father almost certainly sold her mother on the idea of boarding school.

“My grandparents will probably help her only because they hope boarding school will suppress the “liberal ideals” she’s raised me on.”

“I doubt they’ll get that luxury. You’re far too stubborn to let those ideals go.”

Maria gave a tired laugh, and Liz pulled a blanket over them. Soon the sounds of her friend’s even breathing reached her ears. As tired as Liz was, sleep eluded her. Careful not to wake Maria, she got up and went out on the roof with her journal.

The sun was setting. Gold and purple hues were blending into pink and deep blues. The beauty of it reminded her of a dream she had once about Max. He had been sitting on some distant beach, looking at a similar sunset over an ocean that was an impossible blue. She had actually tasted the salt in the air, heard the waves breaking on the surf, and the strong beat of his heart. The moment she thought he sensed her presence, the dream broke, and she woke with his name upon her lips.

Liz hugged her journal to her chest, remembering how lost she had felt after that dream. She frowned at herself. Since when did she start loving Max Evans again?

Oh who’s she kidding. She never stopped. Yeah but have you forgiven him. A little voice asked. Thoughts of him and Tess entered her mind. The kiss they shared at prom, the baby they created. She glanced down at her hands becoming aware of a crackling sensation. Green arcs of energy curled around her fingers and palms.

Liz clenched her fist, and tucked them under her arms. She guessed that answered the question. Squeezing her eyes shut, she willed whatever was happening to her hands to go away. The sound of a helicopter had her opening them, and looking to the sky again.

A Blackhawk was gliding toward the desert. Valenti found out the military was wrapping up their investigation, and would be gone by summer’s end. Liz hoped the FBI would be going too. This Agent Shoodii unnerved them all. She couldn’t help but wonder if the agent was cut from the same psycho cloth as Pierce. If she was, God help them all…






Wailing cut through the perfect silence of Max’s mind as he gazed at the setting sun. Like razorblades, it tore his moment of peace to shreds. He messaged his temples, willing it to be silent for a few moments more. When it didn’t relent, he let out a frustrated curse, and frowned down at Michael, whose light snoring and occasional muttering wasn’t helping matters. The two of them had come back from the breakers to sit a little ways from a napping Isabel.

Max wasn’t sure he would be welcomed if she woke and found him sitting next to her. She still was pissed about the other night. He glanced down the coastline, spotting his parents walking along the water’s edge hand in hand. The sight brought him a sense of peace.

Once he, Michael and Isabel were strong enough to venture from their beds, life fell into a simple pattern in Los Cabos. They ate breakfast out on the veranda with his parents in the mornings, and went swimming afterwards until the sun drove them back into the shuttering coolness of the villa, where Marietta had cold lemonade waiting for them.

On occasion, they would talk about things, even Michael. An ironic smile played at his lips, as he remembered. Now he was the angry, moody one in the group, staying silent as they converse about their hopes, their fears, and their dreams. In listening though, he’d come to value his family that much more.
Max glanced down at Michael when he mumbled in his sleep and frowned. Max reached down preparing to shake him awake, but the instant his hand touched his friend’s shoulder, the ground shifted.

What tha …

A sand beetle popped out of its little hole on the other side of Michael, apparently disturbed by the strange vibration. Max extended a hand, creating a shield to block its path to Isabel’s calf. Unfortunately, Michael chose that moment to fling his own hand out as if he were knocking something away from his body. Sand bubbled and rippled underneath them at the unexpected movement, causing Max to lose his focus. Within a heartbeat, the shield collapse into a long thin spear of green light, and shot off toward the insect, disintegrating the poor thing in a burst of kinetic energy.

His friend bolted upright at the sound, sending sand spewing up with him. Max gasped as Michael’s power surged between them only to be push back by his own. He stared in disbelief as his best friend’s eyes grew fever bright until they damn near were ablaze. The amazed expression on Michael’s face had him guessing his own eyes were doing the same.

The loud frantic cries of seagulls had his heart skipping an anxious beat. He turned his head toward the sea, praying the birds weren’t alerting that someone was near. At the corner of his vision, he saw Michael follow his lead. Before he distinguished what was happening, twin beams of iridescent white light shot from his eyes. A second set, from Michael followed in their wake.

A deafening crack resounded as the shafts hit the water, sending a ball of steam high into the sky. It evaporated into threads of mist almost instantly. Dead silence hung in the air as oxygen left his lungs in a stuttering burst, and his strength fled his body. Max couldn’t tell if he was falling or flying. He half believed floating until beach and sweet oblivion caught him…

Timelord, mary mary, mags, skynet, keepsmiling and lurkers...Thank you all for hanging in there and reading. Zy and I would also like to thank nibbles for nominating us for one of the categories in this rounds awards! (((HUGS)))

So without further a due...here is chapter 13 oh and be sure to check out the new arts...here.
“We have dispatched one of our remaining echelon squadrons to Earth. We cannot afford to send the few we have left to retrieve this Halfling!”

“I agree with Thelon. Kivar has stepped his guard up considerably since the Granolith’s return. Anyone we send will likely be killed before they can even set foot on Antarian soil. And if by some chance access to the planet is granted, entering Tiendem and then Helkai where the Halfling is kept will be next to impossible.”

“Yes, but if we don’t try all will be lost.”

Larek pinched the bridge of his nose, stifling a groan. This debate had been going on for hours, and they were getting nowhere. Times like these, made him long for the days when he was still on active duty, with a pulsar pistol in his hand and a battlefield under his boots. Now they scraped the grated floors of a battleship that technically didn’t exist.

The Rubicon is the largest stealth vessel in the Alliance fleet, and its best kept secret. His irritated gaze shifted to the liquid silver table in the room’s center. Eighteen council members were present. The holographic commutative system made the other four hundred and eighty-two appeared to be physically sitting with them, but in reality all were either on their own worlds or other ships.

A mental curse sounded in his head when the discussions began to circle back over material they already covered.

“Need I remind you,” he interrupted, having enough of the endless debates. As one, the council turned to stare at him. “The Halfling alone isn’t the only one we must recover from Kivar’s clutches at this point.”
Queen Kathana, he noted, didn’t look pleased with him for speaking out of turn. The woman was shrewd as well as powerful. She also ruled Nimrah, one of the five planets in the Quintile star system which are at the heart of this war.

“Prince Larek,” she coolly acknowledged. “You wish to say something?”

He gave her a respectful nod. “We have wasted too much time,” he replied. “The fighters the Alliance sent to Earth may have already landed and are likely completing the mission as we speak. We need to cease these continuous discussions, and set in motion the second half of our plan! Another squadron must be deployed before Kivar ends up killing the Antarian’s Queen.”

“What you’re saying is true my son,” his father, King Dassin agreed. “However, what Mern said about an Alliance ship possibly being discovered before reaching Antar is also true. We need to discuss this issue to be sure we set a proper course of action.”

“True, true,” several voices chimed in.

Larek muttered another curse when the council once more started up a debate. This was the main reason why many Alliance commanders never waited for a directive from them on what to do when in active combat. They all would be dead if they did.

His father though, surprised him by rising and stopping the talks. “If what the Satori say about the Halfling is true, then my son is right. We need to send a squadron now before it’s too late.”

“And the Queen,” Larek asked, when his father was about sit back down. It was no secret many didn’t like what she had done to try and gain favor with Kivar, but he sensed there was more to her story than what the Alliance had learned. “She is after all one of the Antarian royals we all have been seeking.”

When the wall to his right parted, he turned and saw Antiis su Kota, the most revered Satori among the ancient savants walk through. Nervous rumblings sounded around the room as a contingent of Satorians followed the influential advisor.

“Antar’s former queen will be recovered as well,” Antiis informed them. “Leaving her in our enemy’s hands would be a grave error on the Alliance’s part. Something we cannot allow now that Kivar has breathed doubt in the minds of the Royal Four’s supporters. Rather you acknowledge it or not, we still need them to help us end this war.”

“We are well aware of your views on the subject,” King Dassin replied. “But this mission can only be carried out by high level echelons. All of which, except the four on this ship, are already on important assignments. To send any other prevalent combatant would likely result in failure.”

“I agree with King Dassin.” This came from Galvan, captain of the Rubicon. Larek clinched his fists. The man’s shady tactics and decision making often blur the line of ally and enemy concerning sides in this war.

“As much as I hate to admit this,” Galvan continued. “Echelons are genetically stronger, faster and lethal with their powers. They’re an equal match to the elite centurion fighters Kivar commands. It would be foolish to believe he wouldn’t have them patrolling Tiendem’s under-city. A mid-level or lower skilled squadron would not last long in a battle with them.”

“Very well then the four echelons shall be sent,” Kathana interjected. “A small unit is best in this sort of mission anyway, lessens the loss of valuable fighters.”

“Five.”

She, along with everyone, looked to Antiis.

“There are five echelons on this ship,” the Satorian calmly stated.

“What?”

“Who’s this other?”

“Personnel stats only show four.”

Larek shook his head as they all spoke at once. At this rate, another decade of fighting will have gone by before any decision would be made. He met Antiis’s penetrating gaze when the old man’s turned his way.

“Commander Larek.”

He went utterly still.

“Are you not more than capable to lead the mission?”

Dead silence fell like a heavy cloak around the room, but his father was the first to recover.

“Larek is my sole heir now that his sister has perished in this forsaken war. I cannot give sanction to put him back on active duty.”

King Sero, ruler of Terbium, another planet in the heart of the war, stood. “After what happened to the Antarian royals and my son, Antiis, you know as well as us all that the Alliance made an oath to preserve all royal lineages.”

“If Kivar kills the Halfling in his attempt to gain more power from the Granolith, there won’t be any to keep,” Antiis countered. “Heed me when I say this King Dassin, he is much more than just your heir. Rather you decide to let him go or not, the Halfling must be recovered at all cost.”

Several eyebrows, including Larek’s went up at that cryptic comment. Antiis was rumored to have the very rare gift of prophecy, that is, if you were into that sort of nonsense.

“I will think on it,” his father said, and with that, Larek watched him leave the congregate room. The other royals followed suit. The holographic system blinked off, and soon he was alone with Antiis.

“Don’t suppose you care to elaborate on what you meant by me being more than my father’s heir.”

A small smile lifted the corners of the old man’s mouth. Years of experience told Larek not to press the issue, besides he wouldn’t get a straight answer anyway.

“The female hybrid’s condition is most grave,” Antiis said to him instead, as they turned to leave the large room. “Kivar has expended all he can out of the cloned King’s power signature on the Granolith. Soon, I fear he will seek to wake the Halfling to remedy that.”

“And if he does, will the outcome really be as bad as you say?”

“Yes.” Chilled to the bone and fighting the pull of oblivious slumber, Tess shivered on the floor of her cell curled into a tight ball. She didn’t want to sleep. She was terrified of the nightmares it would bring. She tried focusing on the grimy wall before her, tried counting the tiny icicles that hung like teeth from the ceiling. But she was drowning like a swimmer giving up the fight to stay afloat in a bottomless sea. Her eyelids drooped once, then twice. Soon she lost her battle, and images began to flicker in her mind’s eye along the journey down into nothingness. Max’s accusing glare…the stricken expression on Valenti’s face due to her betrayal…Kivar’s taunting sneer …her child’s broken body, and finally bottom, where Yalix, her tormentor, her true nightmare, sat.


“Tell me, how does this feel.”

God–no, she thought as Yalix positioned a long wire thin probe at her navel. With a cruel twisting thrust, he impaled her flesh until she screamed and writhed against the restraints at her wrists and ankles. The metallic taste of blood bubbled up in her throat, filling her mouth and leaked out between her clenched teeth. The pain was excruciating, a hot fire that spread to infest every part of her body.

“Curious,” he murmured, shoving another probe into her abdomen.

After a moment, he ran his scaled fingertips through the blood that streamed from the wounds.
Tess squeezed her eyes shut. She did need to look to know he licked them clean. He had done so many times before.

“Tell me, what sensation you feel once I do thisss,” his voice hissed near her ear as he pushed the tools deeper.


A terrible wrenching in the pit of her stomach drove her from the nightmare and into painful reality. Biting the insides of her cheeks, she swallowed back sobs, not wanting Yalix to know she was awake. If he knew he would continue afflicting the worse kind of pain upon her—sending waves upon excruciating waves of electric fire into her mind and body with his physic powers and sharp instruments.

She shivered at the thought, as she willed herself to ignore the cold grated floor pressing into her exposed skin. The thin gown she wore during her son’s birth had long since perished, and a replacement was never given. If the brutal experiments didn’t kill her, phenomena probably would.

The subzero temp was due to being underground. Helkai, she learned when Yalix was in a talkative mood, is a subterranean borough that exist directly under the royal city, Tiendem. Twin sisters, he had said, who were forever linked but will always be separate. One of decadence, polish and cool restraint, the other dark, gritty and wild.

Not to mention cold as hell… Tess bitterly thought, flexing her cramping fingers against her stomach. Her mindless clawing at the restraints during her tormentor’s sessions left them raw and bleeding. She couldn’t bear the sight of them. Some were purple and black from him yanking out the nails for samples.

A loud thud had her glancing in fear at the wall to her right. She didn’t know her neighbor, but often she heard his cries of torment when Yalix’s guards got a wild hair in their asses to beat on him.

An agonizing scream drifted through the icy panel then, causing her to ease into a sitting position. Every muscle in her body protested the move, but she knew they would be coming to her next. She shut her eyes. A beating she could heal from, it was the other things they liked doing that left her mind and soul raw.

Resting her head against the wall behind her, she took deep breaths fighting rolling nausea in her stomach. Once a day they bought her food and water, but both were foul tasting. Never could she keep the shit down for long.

Tess steeled herself as voices sounded outside her cell. She drew her legs up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them as the door sheathed open…
Larek moved slowly along the north wall of Yalix’s underground compound, toward a guard standing near a back entrance. Even though he wore heavy-battle gear, he made no sound as he slipped an arm around the man’s neck and wrenched it up with a pop. Hilmar, his fellow echelon moved up to provide cover as he pulled the body into the shadows.

“Kivar has summoned Yalix to the palace,” Menotha whispered, moving to his side. “He should be away for some time. If we are to do this…now is the time.”

Larek gave a slight nod to the Alliance spy, as he removed the dead man’s eyes with his cylix blade. He stood once finished, and held the detached orbs up to a small red light in the door’s center. The steel panel immediately hissed open revealing a dark passageway.

“Stay sharp,” he ordered, leading the way with Menotha at his back, and Hilmar bringing up the rear. The other three echelons in their recovery group remained topside in the royal city to ensure a secure path back to the space docks and off the planet.

“The tunnel to your right,” Menotha whispered once they came to a labyrinth of passageways spiraling in different directions before them. Larek frowned when she skirted around him, heading in its direction. “The cells are further down underground, but he moved her closer to his lab–”

*(Stop!)*

The spy froze at his command just as a small troop of guards marched past the end of the under path. He didn’t have to look to know Hilmar followed him as he eased out behind the group.

*(Plaz-armor.)* He informed him, before firing his pulsar-weapon at the guard’s knees. Body armor protected the torso but not the legs. The troops went down, screaming. Both silenced them for good with a single shot to head.

“The gunfire is bound to bring more. We better hurry,” Menotha told them, taking a passkey from one of the dead fighters.

“Are you certain the Halfling hasn’t been moved,” Larek asked, jogging after her.

“Yes. I delivered food to the aides who maintain its harvester only a min ago. I hadn’t the heart to wake the Queen though when I checked on her. I didn’t want to raise her hopes of rescue.”

“What’s her condition?”

“Bad, but she’s strong, a fighter. She’ll survive.”

Larek didn’t miss a step when he sighted down his weapon and shot the four guards running their way.

“Providing we don’t get caught,” Menotha muttered, moving around the now prone bodies.

The grim smile Larek shared with Hilmar at her expense melted the moment they entered the wing where Yalix kept his most prized experiments. Blacken and dingy doors lined the walls on both sides of the passageway. The stench of decay hung heavy in the frozen air as did the sounds of despair. Moans mingled with sobs and futile pleas of mercy.

All of this though, paled in comparison upon sight of the hybrid once they gained access to her cell. The girl was slumped in a corner with her cheek pressed against the freezing wall. Her unblinking blue eyes stared at nothing. Filth and blood encrusted hair that was so dirty it was hard to discern its natural color. Her mouth was swollen and cut.

Larek noted the fresh smear of blood on her inner thighs. A muscle ticked in jaw. The four guards he killed had been coming from this direction.

“T’zura…it is I, Menotha.”

Larek took up the satchel the spy dropped upon seeing the girl, and pulled out clothing she had packed. Antar’s former queen showed no signs of spirit as they carefully bent her limbs and coaxed them into the garments.

“Has she always been this unresponsive,” he asked his tone sharp.

“I-I don’t know. I’ve only seen her when she sleeps.”

“Commander!”

Larek immediately stood at Hilmar’s alarmed call. When he saw the echelon opened the cell next to the hybrid’s and go inside, he resisted the urge to curse. They did not have time for this.

“Hil–”

“It’s Sarric commander,” Hilmar interrupted.

Larek gazed down at the unfortunate soul who appeared to be a few breaths away from death. The face was unrecognizable what with it being severely cut and bruised. He was about to tell the echelon he was mistaken until he spotted the insignia of the Kaduna crown branded on the man’s chest.

“By Hohlan,” he breathed, squatting down to touch the beaten face of a friend he thought long dead.
“King Sero will be happy to know his son still lives.”

“Yes, but for how long,” Larek murmured, noticing the wounded man’s shallow breaths. “I must retrieve the harvester. Can you manage him?”

“Yes.”

“Get them to the space-docks. I will be right behind you.” Standing, Larek ran out of the cell, heading for Yalix’s lab.

(*An alarm has been triggered!*) The telepathic warning came from Toafin. The echelons left to guard the minor viaduct they used to enter Helkai.

(*How? We didn’t give the guards we encountered a chance to live long enough to send one.*)

(*I think it’s more a case of inactivity. They must have to report in at certain times.*)

Larek cursed under his breath as he eased through the open doors of a dark laboratory. The place was empty, save for the harvester. The tubular machine hovered horizontally above the floor in the center of the room. Huge cables attached to ports along its sides kept it from drifting away on the cloud of air that streamed out of the jets underneath its steel exterior.

(*Look alive!*) Toafin warned. (*Centurions are heading your way!*)

“So much for stealth,” Larek muttered, shooting out a nearby console, causing the cables to release the harvester. Getting on one end of the thing, he shoved it toward the doors, just as a group of aides and guards came through.

Larek sprayed a hail of pulse-bullets as he ran behind the big machine, hoping they would refrain from firing back to accurately for fear of hitting the damn thing. He fought his way out of the compound and into the crowded byways of Helkai only to find a small army of centurions coming his way.

He switched his pulsar-gun’s ammo to something more deadly, as he moved in the direction of a nearby outtake vent. All underground dwellings had them. They vented out stale air while their counterpart blew down fresh.

“Hilmar!” There was no need to keep silent on the con-devices, besides he had an idea. He needed to know if they were clear though. “Status!”

“Topside and nearly home,” came the echelon’s static reply

“Good.” Larek stood and shoved the harvester into the restricted area near the vent, before turning to launch five mini plasma flash-bombs in the direction of the rapidly advancing centurions.

The explosives detonated over toxic vapors coming out of vents in the ground. No doubt the poisonous gasses came from Yalix’s deeper underground laboratories. The city shook as dirt and debris rained down on them all. Aftershocks sent Larek stumbling toward the harvester as the machine sailed under the outtake duct. Within an instant it was suctioned up as if it weighted nothing. Shooting off another bomb, he dove after the thing.

A loud boom echoed up the shaft as heat engulfed him. He looked down, catching site of a boiling cloud of fire racing up behind him. The instant he shot free of the vent, he rolled clear as the flames roared past. Alarms sounded as the heavens above lit up with bright flashes from something high in the atmosphere.

“Please tell me that’s you Lund,” he said, into his con-device.

“Yes, commander,” came a static reply. Lund, captained the Kiburi. The ship the rescue team had come here on. “I got the others and locked onto your position. Sit tight I’m coming.”

“Easier said than done,” Larek responded, spying another platoon of centurions and aero-drones heading his way. “Can you hit a moving target with the porter?”

“To risky…could kill you.”

“Chance it anyway!” Larek propelled the harvester off the nearby cliff the up duct had come out near.
“What? Wait!”

Pulse-bullets as well as energy blasts followed him over as he rode the machine toward the Avilarian Sea. Before he could hit water though, a protective beam of radiant bluish-white light halted his fall. The good captain had chanced it…

Tess opened her eyes.

It was dark in the room. Preternaturally still. She could hear the soft hum of the warship’s engines and the chatter of its crew passing beyond her door. For a moment, her mind struggled to recall just how she came to be here. How she come to wake in this strange place with its white sterile walls, and square picture window showing her the impossible inkiness of space.

Gradually though the fog receded, leaving in its wake a grinding ache that went deeper than physical. She remembered now. Her baby, Yalix and Kivar, it all came back. Hot tears trickled from her eyes, moving in silent, misery down her temples to soak the pillow beneath her head.

He’s dead.

She, with her stupid beliefs and blind faith in the wrong people, had killed him. She wept on as the door to her room whispered open. She did not look to see who had come in, nor did she protests when that someone took her into their arms.

“It is all right zura…cry if you must.”

Tess did until she had no more tears, and the agony of grief was replaced with exhaustion. A deep and profound sadness scarred her soul now, leaving her empty. Her mind began to shut down, to seek relief in the deep oblivion of sleep.

In the days that followed, she slowly went about the business of healing, and getting to know who her rescuers were. Larek and an older man name Antiis visited her often as did Menotha, her guardian angel who let her cry on her shoulder.

“I’ve brought you food,” Menotha greeted, lifting up a tray of food as she came into her room. “Promise me you will try and eat more than a few bites.”

Tess gave the savory fair a disinterested glance. To eat is to live and she didn’t want to do either.

(*Ah but to live, is to fight and survive…and perhaps exact revenge on those who’ve hurt you…no?*) A voice said in her head.

She stiffened as a gentle chiming sounded at her door before it opened, and Larek entered.

“Don’t ever do that again.”

“What,” he asked, with an amused smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Listen in on my thoughts and talk in my head,” Tess accusingly replied.

Deep indigo sparkled into her own deep blue eyes as she held his gaze. The lights in the room glinted off the honey-gold highlights in his hair and shone faintly on the bristles of a new beard. He had a faint scar above one brow and another at the corner of his mouth. He didn’t have a perfect face, but it was an arresting one all the same. Tess resisted the urge to fidget under his quiet scrutiny.

“Revenge your highness,” he finally said, breaking his silence. “It is what fuels even the weariest of us. Eventually if you are fortunate enough, you will learn to carry on without it once you have avenged those you’ve lost. We all want Kivar to fall, but we cannot take him down alone. We must fight together.”

He was right of course—but. “What can we do,” she asked after taking a sip of the broth like liquid Menotha handed her. The tangy flavor reminded her of the lemon sauce Kyle loved to put over his bake chicken. She took another sip, squelching the nostalgic feeling the thought brought.

“We find the one thing our enemy wants most, and we use it against him,” Larek continued.

That’s easy, she thought. Kivar wants Max. Her eyes closed against the images of the boy she once believed to be in love with. Her son’s father had been so eager to learn of his past— yet hesitant to embrace it. She considered him to be a fool for that, when in reality, it was she who was the fool.

“Forgiveness…”

Tess frowned, lost for a moment. “What?”

“For what transpired on Earth before you came to Antar. Perhaps if you asked for forgiveness, Max will–”

She gave a brittle laugh, cutting him off. “What I’ve done cannot be forgiven…nor forgotten. All I want from Max, if I ever see him again, is his help in killing our son’s murderer.”

“And once Kivar is vanquished, what then?”

“Then I guess I’ll be alone with my demons…and if they devour me whole so be it,” she said, defiantly meeting his gaze.

“Will you undergo the conversion?”

Her eyes narrowed,not liking the change in topic. A few days ago she was told they could give her back her old memories. She would no longer have the false ones Nasedo planted in her mind as a child if she underwent this conversion. Of course her savior’s motive of wanting her to go through with it is to have her more mentally ‘stable’. It would appear that when she and the others were made, their creators were force to do a rush job on account of the enemy breathing down their necks. Both sets in reality were flawed.

But with every good thing there is a bad. There was a chance she could be fully taken over by her past self. Become Queen Avanyah, with no memories of her life on Earth.

“I know what you fear,” Larek said into her silence. “But our scientists believe that won’t happen.”

“Your highness,” Menotha said, gaining her attention. “To have no memory of your true past could put you in far greater danger than anything else. If the one thing this war has taught us it’s to know your past mistakes and learn from them.”

Deep down Tess knew they all were right. She couldn’t continue at this “blind” state, but…She frowned feeling dizzy just thinking about it.

Wait! Alarm bells went off in her head. She really was dizzy.

It was then she realized that other people had entered her room. They stood back, silently watching as if they were waiting on something. Another wave of dizziness had her shoving the bowl off her lap in disgust.

“Why,” she whispered, looking at Larek.

“Because I can’t watch you make the same mistakes,” he whispered back.

Tess’s last thought before unconsciousness claimed her was a prayer to the god the Valentis worshiped. She prayed with all her heart and soul that she would remember them, and their kindness...who she was and most of all her baby boy…

Hello Readers,

Zy and I wanted to let you all know we have not forgotten about this fic or you. Life has thrown us some major curve balls these few months, but we’re seeing a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you all for hanging in there with us. We hope to get something out to you all very soon.

Thanks for your patience.


SHI

Liz dreamed of a storm, a wild and ravenous storm. With winds that whipped and whistled around her in a swirling cyclone of debris and dust. She stood within its eye, untouched. Thunder shook the ground and lightning prickled her skin. Dark clouds gathered in the heavens above as unnatural whispers filled the air.

“Hunngrrry…soo hungry…”

The whirling walls of the storm parted before her, revealing the creatures who whispered that gluttonous comment. They stood tall and monstrous with serrated teeth dripping putrid saliva. Their pale flesh stretched over protruding bones as they shifted to regard her with cold calculating eyes.

“Give us tassste…” they hissed, reaching out clawed fingers. Before they could touch her though, the funnel closed.

She stepped back when another hole appeared, but once she glimpsed Kyle through the opening she froze. He was running with Michael and Max. All three had terrified expressions on their faces.

“They’re coming!”

“Run!”

Liz moved foward, wanting to help, but the whirlwind began to close and brake into a million pieces. When the ground went with it, she tumbled into darkness. Fear shredded the heavy hold sleep had on her then. She woke in a cold sweat, trembling. Why in the world would she be dreaming about tornados and monsters for God’s sakes!

She took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm her racing heart. Not since before Christmas has she had a dream like this one. Even before then, she stopped sharing ones like it with Max and the others. Hopefully this wasn’t a sign they were coming back.

Maybe she was just overly tired. She had picked up extra shifts because of spring break and her worrying about hearing from Harvard probably wasn’t helping matters.

The nightmare likely came from her being stressed. Liz closed her eyes, and tried to remember the breathing exercises Maria taught her. Take deep, cleansing breaths. Clear the mind and concentrate on relaxing every muscle of the body. First the toes, then the legs, torso, arms… Now relax darn it!

Crap…it wasn’t working. Anxiety, like the boogeyman hiding in the closet, was still lurking, waiting to pounce. It was just a stupid nightmare…Okay it had been vivid as hell, but not as bad as the others.

She glanced toward the bathroom. She needed to pee, unfortunately the dream she shared with Maria about something growling and pushing against its door popped in her head.

Dammit…Perhaps she could hold it till the sun came up.

“Liz.”

She yelped and flung out an arm when a hand touched her shoulder. She had her back to the headboard of her bed and legs up against her chest within seconds, before she even realized she’d moved.

“It’s okay, it’s me…Max.”

The room was dark, but the pale light of dawn cast soft grays across the familiar planes of the face in front of her. Her frighten gaze took in the slope of his cheeks, the line of his jaw, then met his eyes...

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I shouldn’t have come in your room like this, especially at this time of the morning, but I…had to see you…needed to see you.”

This could be another dream, she told herself. She could still be asleep, and this would shift and fade the moment she attempted to touch him. Never once were they able to make physical contact in the dreams they shared. Liz reached out with an unsteady hand, fully expecting the same result. When he grasped it, she jumped, eyes going wide.

“Oh, God…”

For several seconds she just stared at him, heart pounding like crazy in her chest, but then she surge forward and threw her arms around his neck.

“You’re here,” she breathed against him, voice cracking. “You’re really here.”

“I’m here,” he whispered, hugging her just as fiercely as she was hugging him.

When she sensed a prickling sensation from her hands, she stiffened, and pulled back, but Max caught them in his. The skin was literally glowing just beneath the surface, though there wasn’t any dangerous sparking like it usually was. Her gaze met his, expecting to see shock, but there was none.

“Isabel sort of found out from Kyle what was going on with you.”

Liz gave him an even look. “Translation, she plucked the info out of his head without him knowing.”
A few months ago they discovered Isabel could communicate with Kyle without dream-walking. On occasion, she could also read his thoughts, something Liz knew he wasn’t thrilled about.

When Max brought her hands up to his mouth, she tensed, expecting him to get zapped. All the times Maria or Kyle came near her during these moments they got a nasty shock, but the second his firm lips touched her, the soft glow dimmed considerably. However, the ever present warmth the static energy always had spread up her arms and through her body to settle low in her belly.

“It-it’s never done that before,” she stammered, trying not to stare at his mouth.

“Does it hurt?”

“No...”

“We’ll figure out what’s going on, don’t worry.”

Liz nodded.

“I know I don’t have the right to ask this,” he said after a moment. “But if it’s okay with you…I want to hold you.”

She went still. There were so many things in his eyes that made her stomach tightening with apprehension. She wanted with all her heart to let him do just that, but so many questions swarmed in her head.

He must have sense her hesitance, because he gave her a faint smile and let go of her hands. “I’m sorry…I should go.”

Liz stopped him from rising by grabbing a hold of his arm. The questions could wait. Right now, she gave herself permission to live merely in this moment. Shifting over, she allowed him to get under the covers with her. Once Max pulled her close, the heat of him reminded her that she only had on a thin nightshirt and underwear.

God, so not the time for you to decide you have a libido! All he wants is your comfort and friendship. Just be damn happy he’s back.

And she was. Hell, she still couldn’t even believe he was actually lying next to her. When Max pressed his face into the hair at her neck, she stifled a moan. This was going to be a long morning.

Liz made herself relax, lace her fingers through his over her stomach and close her eyes. She wouldn’t allow herself to think, just feel. It was then she sensed the wall of pain, anger and regret that’s been between them for so long, shatter. Time to let those wounds heal, permit them to fade. She knew things would never be like it was before Tess and the baby…or even before Max’s future self came to her that long ago night, but in this instant, she didn’t care. He was here, and that’s all that mattered.

“Two baby jedi’s—wreck’em and stretch’em,” Nancy said over the crowded Crashdown. “One Captain Kirk sittin’ pretty with Uhura, a brown saucer well done with alien slime…Oh and put a little in the jedi’s.

Maria watched Nancy clip the ticket to the order rail, snatch up two plates off the serving window, and deliver them to a couple sitting at the counter. The woman was like a whirlwind when it came to the breakfast rush. She managed to wait on and serve all her tables including two other waitresses today without missing a step.

“Okay, so what can I get you,” she asked her own customers, rubbing her right temple with her pad. A headache was coming on, and the clatter of dishes and loud conversations weren’t helping. She wondered where the hell is Liz was. She was supposed to be working the morning shift with her today, so they could go out to the rave happening out near the rock quarry tonight.

“Maria, one of your orders is up!”

Great!

“I’ll be right back.”

“Hey, wait a minute. We’ve been waitin’ for you to come to our table over an hour now. We’re ready to order!”

“Okay, just give me a sec.” Maria hurried over to the serving window to get the plates of food Joe had stacked there. Nancy helped her place them on her tray. “Thanks.”

“Do you want me to take that table for you?”

“No, no I got it.” She turned and nearly lost her grip when one of the busboys swung the kitchen door back to far. “Watch it Rudy!”

“Sorry.”

“Okay, I insist you go and take a break,” Nancy told her, taking the tray, and handed it off to a waitress who happened to be walking by. “Can you take this to booth ten? Thank you.” When Nancy gestured for her notepad, Maria reluctantly handed it over.

“Carla, please get table six’s order for Maria. I’ll see if the boys can help with delivering the food to your tables. Thank you.”

“Josh and Pete are busy busing,” Maria protested, as Liz’s mother nudged her through the kitchen door.

“There aren’t any tables empty at the moment, so they can help,” Nancy replied. “Maria’s is taking a break,” she informed the kitchen staff when they looked their way. “Go up stairs and see if you can find my missing daughter.”

“Hey all...” Amy greeted, coming through the back door. “I hope you don’t mind me coming through this way. It’s pretty packed out front.”

“You know we don’t mind at all,” Nancy answered, giving her a hug before glancing through the serving window. “Every walk of life is out there. And all of them want to see an alien, be an alien or be abducted by one. I wish they would go home already. They’re scaring away our regulars.”

“The income they’re bringing in is great though.” Maria heard Liz’s father say. “Enjoy it while it lasts.”

“Yeah well I’d enjoy it better once this rush is over,” Nancy muttered, heading back out to the dining area.

“Here.” Maria glanced at her mother, who was holding out a set of car keys. “I parked the Jetta in the alley…Sean is waiting on me. Remember your curfew is twelve o’clock. I don’t care how hoppin’ that party is getting. You and my car better be home at that time period.”

“Mom, it’s spring break…people will be actually arriving at that time,” she muttered, taking the keys. “How about two o’clock?”

“Pfft, no.”

Maria followed her out into the ally. “One-thirty…and I’ll help you with your summer inventory for the shop.”

“Help clean the storage room too, and I let you stay out ‘til one.”

“Mom–”

“That’s my final offer.”

Maria let out a frustrated breath, knowing she better take the deal. “Fine…are we still eating over at the Sheriff’s tomorrow?”

“Yes, and don’t forget to remind me to bring one of my pies.”

Maria grimace remembering the unfortunate bad luck of coming home one night after work, and finding her mother and Valenti covered in pie and barely anything else on their living room couch. A lifetime of herbal drops and therapy would never get that image out of her head, she shuddered…never!

“Oh come on, I’ve apologized a hundred times for that,” Amy said, guessing her thoughts. “Besides, you should’ve called and told me you changed your mind about spending the night over Liz’s.”

“Believe me, I will make sure I call from now on,” Maria muttered, going back into the Crashdown as her mother left.

Picking up a few empty jars of sugar and salt to refill, she sat down at a small table out of the way of the hustle and bustle of the kitchen staff. Finally she could have some time to herself to keep her brain from exploding.

“Guess what?”

God, just kill me now…

The question came from Kyle, who no doubt was here to rub it in her face that she was likely going to lose the bet with him about his father cooking tomorrow. Valenti normally ordered take-out when her and her mother came over their house for dinner.

“I know all about your dad asking Mrs. Lopez for her enchilada recipe. It still doesn’t mean he’ll actually attempt to cook it,” Maria informed him, not bothering to look up from the sugar container she was filling. “Now, go away. I finally got a break. I want peace.”

“I’m not here about that.”

“Hey! Come on I’m not in the mood…” She grab back the sugar jar he snatched out of her hand, but froze when she finally noticed he wasn’t alone.

“Hey,” Michael greeted, with a crooked grin.

Maria barely registered the shattering of glass when she dropped the jar. Within a heartbeat, she was in Michael’s arms, crying and kissing every inch of his face.
Ahhh…her pillow was so warm. Liz cuddled her cheek against its soft fabric, loving how taunt and smooth it felt. She really didn’t want to get up, but she needed to help with the breakfast rush. The sunlight streaming through windows told her it was getting late. Maria was gonna kill her…

Wait a minute…taunt and smooth?

Liz blinked, bringing her bleary vision into focus on her questionable pillow, and froze when she found herself staring at a black T-shirt instead.

Oh, God…Max!

Her foggy brain cleared in an instant. In her sleep, she had somehow changed from the spooning position with him and now was lying practically on top of him. Worse, her nightshirt had ridden up to her waist, and her right leg, probably looking for warmth, had insinuated itself between his jean clad thighs.

Oh lord help her, one of his hands was cupping her butt! She prayed he was still asleep and she could extract herself without waking him. Slowly she raised her head and found she had no such luck. Her breath caught in her throat at the riveting expression in his eyes.

Heat…hunger.

She shivered as her body grew hot in answer to that look. In a blink, she found herself pinned under him and a faint moan escaped her when he captured her mouth in a deep hungry kiss.

“Liz!”

Maria’s bellow was her only warning that she was heading her way before her best friend came barging into her room.

“They’re—oh my god!”

Liz wanted to scream in protest when Max rolled off of her. She quickly got her wits about her though and got up from her bed. “Maria…I uh…we’re not.” She gestured at Max, face flaming. “We were just—”

“I was just leaving,” he said, standing up in front of her. She blushed harder when he pulled her nightshirt down over her hips, before moving to the door toward a stunned Maria. “Nice seeing you again Maria.”

“I…y-yeah you too, girlfriend.”

Once the door shut behind him, her best friend rounded on her.

“What–”

“Nothing happened,” she insisted.

“From what I saw, I find that pretty hard to believe.”

Liz placed a hand on her flaming face. “We just kissed, that’s all.”

“Uhuh…I’m thinking if I hadn’t have come in here, you’d be doing much more than that,” Maria said, grinning.

Needing to move, Liz grabbed her uniform off the hook on her closet door, and went into her bathroom, but before she closed the door, she gave Maria a pensive glance. “You remember when Michael showed up outside your window that night after him and Hank had a fight?”

The humor vanished from her friend’s face as understanding dawned. From what Maria said about that night, she believed Michael came to her because he needed her love, and comfort, and to be with the one person in this world he felt safe with.

“Is he okay,” Maria asked after a moment.

Liz shook her head. “I don’t know…but I’m going to find out.”


Max managed to slipped out the back door of the Crashdown, and into the morning sun without being spotted. His mood was nowhere near as bright as the rays trying to warm him, but it was far better than what it’s been in a long while. He tilted his face into the cool air, and leaned against the restaurant’s brick exterior, wanting the calm breeze to sooth the dangerous restlessness growing inside of him.

Last night it had been at its worse. The anxiety of coming back to Roswell to resume the life he knew was forever lost, on top of the dreams and everything else, seemed to have given it fuel. He nearly came to blows with Michael an hour after they arrived. If his father hadn’t intervened, they would have. Since the incident on the beach, they tried not to let their emotions get the better of them. Their powers became less controllable when they were angry. So last night, he ignored the hurt and worried looks on his family’s faces and left the house.

He wandered for hours, not caring where he went, until instinct led him to the Crashdown. The moment he climbed up to Liz’s balcony and snuck into her room, the restlessness receded the moment he saw her. For once he was at peace. There was no wailing in his head, no burning anxiety in his gut. He sat on the edge of her bed in blissful silence, wanting only one thing…to touch her.

“Your parents and Isabel stayed up most the night waiting on you to come home.”

Max slowly opened his eyes, and met Michael’s gaze. “How long did you stay up?”

“Fell asleep right after you left and slept like a baby.”

Max suppressed a smile at his friend’s obstinate reply. He pushed off the wall to fall in step with him as they headed out of the alley. “Maria seemed very happy about you being back.”

“That’s funny…she’d been running up to Liz’s room when I left. Don’t remember seeing you at all.”

An enigmatic grin came to Max’s face at Michael’s shrewd glance. “Must’ve just missed me.”

“Yeah I must have.”

“You gonna see her later?”

“Yeah, she’s going to some party with Liz tonight…thought I tag along, see if I can get her to skip out on it early.”

Max shook his head at the nefarious smile on his best friend’s face. He was surprise Michael was waiting until then. He knew how much he missed Maria. The long months that kept them apart seemed to have made the yearning to be with her that much more acute. He knew this because he felt the same about Liz. The dreams and the distance practically had him biting at the bit to see her, touch her, to hear her voice. He suppose that was the reason, he had found himself in her room this morning.

His gut clinched at the memory of her pressed against him in her bed. God, it had been sure torture with her rubbing against him, waiting for her to wake up. He could still feel the soft curve of her ass in his hands.

“All good things come to those who wait, Maxwell,” Michael said, as if reading his mind. “And…I’m sorry about last night.”

“Yeah me too,” he distractedly replied, clearing his throat.

“I’ve been thinking.”

“That’s not good.” Max chuckled when Michael tried to trip him.

“Seriously, if we’re gonna try and make another go at living here under the FBI’s radar, I think I need to find myself a place soon. Living in that big house in Mexico spoiled us…gave us much needed space from each other. Until I can get back on my feet and can afford a place, I’ve asked Valenti if I could stay with him and Kyle.”

Max stayed silent for a moment. He knew what his friend was doing was for the best. Even when they kept their emotions in check, their powers still managed to act up if they stayed in the same room together. There had been a lot of near misses back in Mexico. Regardless, he would miss having him around. Isabel likely would too. They finally had gotten a chance to live together as a family.

“I bet Kyle is thrilled,” he said after a while.

Michael snorted. “Yeah, he’s ecstatic. Told him to look on the bright side, he won’t have to sleep on the couch like he had to when Tess lived with them. They have a twin bed in their garage we can put in his room. Unfortunately, that leaves next to no room in there, but it can work.”

“I hope you don’t end up killing each other.”

“Funny, that’s what Valenti said.”

Hey there Carolyn,

I wanted to answer your feedback and the others feedback for chapter 13 ….

A lot of you feel Tess got what she deserved. Well, she certainly needed a wake-up call that’s for sure, and I hope we did a good enough job in portraying that it wasn’t all roses going back to Antar like she thought it was going to be.

But our Tess is at a crucial cross road…her faith has been shaken. She doesn’t wish to evoke anyone’s sympathy…because to her that’s too close to pity…and we believe Tess Harding wishes for no one’s pity. She’s a strong and brave young woman who deep down wants what we all want…to love…to be loved…and be happy. But first she must let that thick wall she has built around her fall…because the road to redemption won’t be easy by any means if she continues to hide behind it…

As for Liz and Max’s dreams….hhmm… here’s something to think hard about… what are dreams sometime believed to be?

And as for Liz taking her time forgiving… Hell, life to flippin short…ya gotta let some crap go or you NEVER get laid..LMAO!

And thanks about the Art...I like visuals they help sometimes I may even share the Soundtrack to this fic too..

SHI

keepsmiling7 wrote:Hi SHI,

Thank you for taking the time to explain some of these details. I will continue to read this story with those thoughts in mind. This is your story, and I respect that. I will keep my dislike for Tess to myself from now on.

We appreciate that you two are still writing. We have lost so many great authors, I don't want you two to give up before completing this destiny.

Looking forward to chapter 15.
Thank you,
Carolyn

Thank you Carolyn. (hugs) It isn't easy trying to write when the real world keeps throwing you punches...I'm happy to know you still hanging in there.

And thank you Timelord and Natalie 36 as well as you lurkers out there...

SHI