Roswell Fanatics

dream in italics

Part 10

Max stood by the car, watching Liz disappear into the granilith cave. He questioned her motives for wanting to come. He realized that part of her reasoning was to make sure her friend was ok, though; Max couldn’t get rid of the feeling that she was also there to spy for Khivar?

Part of Max didn’t care about her motives. He wanted to follow her and shake the truth out of her. He wanted her to explain her actions; to tell him why; to beg for forgiveness and to throw herself at his mercy. He knew that he couldn’t; at least not now. He had to deal with the other problem at hand.

Max looked towards Michael; he could still make out his silhouette in the distance. Max’s first thought was to let him leave, to give up. If Isabel was gone then there was no point. It was over and having Michael around wouldn’t change a damn thing. They would all be dead soon. He knew it in his soul.

He smiled wryly. Michael had accused him of only caring about Antar, but he had been wrong. It had never been about Antar. It had always been about keeping them alive. With that thought Max’s determination returned. Michael had to stay and Isabel would be found. They would defeat Khivar and then, after it was over, they could find peace.

He turned and walked into the main building, immediately calling for Langley and Onuris.

“Langley, Michael is walking south, towards the outer perimeter. Take whatever help you need but you are not to let him leave. Put him in the cages if you have to.”

Langley bowed, waiting for any other instructions that the king would give him.

Max shooed him away. “Go – NOW!”

Langley scurried off to fulfill his assignment.

Onuris bowed low as he took a step forward to receive his orders.

Max knew Onuris might be the only one who could complete this mission. It had to be someone with a strong mind. “My sister has fled with Michael’s human and probably hers too. I want her found and brought back here. Michael most likely has information about their whereabouts. When Langley gets him back, we will find out what he knows, but for now try to contact Isabel with your mind. We might get lucky.”

“What are your orders concerning the humans that your sister is traveling with?”

Max thought about it. “Let them go.”

“Sire?” Onuris did not look pleased.

Max was not in the mood for questions. “I said LET THEM GO!”

Onuris bowed again. “As you wish, sire. Will there be anything else?”

Max shook his head. Then added, “Wake me if there is anything to report.” He walked out of the room before Onuris could respond.
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It was late and Serena was being escorted back to her cell. She walked through the door to find Gail – Liz (she corrected herself). She ran up and hugged her. “Boo, don’t tell me that caught you?”

Shaking her head, Liz hugged her back. “No – they didn’t. I came willingly.”

Serena let go of her. “Why the hell would you do that? Don’t you dare tell me it was because you were worried about me?”

Liz shrugged a little. “You and Kyle.” She saw Serena wanted more information so she continued. “Kyle is an old friend of mine. I had a vision about him, it wasn’t good, I was worried, and I thought if I came with Max I could prevent the vision from happening.”

Serena sat down on the bed and motioned for Liz to do the same. “So did you? Is Kyle alright? And what’s with this Max guy? You have to tell me everything!”

“Yeah – Kyle’s fine. Max isn’t.”

“So you remember your life before me?” Serena smiled; she liked to pretend that she thought she was the center of everyone’s universe.

“No, I don’t remember anymore but I do know more.” Liz told Serena all that had happened since Serena had been abducted. How she had found her way home, how she had filled in the pieces of her life with the help of her parents, her journal and Kyle.

She had been hesitant to tell her about the journal and what was in it, but she finally did, figuring Serena had a right to know.

Liz was surprised that Serena didn’t seem bothered by any of it. “So this doesn’t freak you out?”

Serena laughed. “Boo, I may look young but I’ve seen a lot in my life, enough to know that you have to keep an open mind. Besides, your boy Max told me his little secret.”

“On his own?” Liz was surprised since she had gotten the impression from her journal and Kyle that sharing their alien status was not something they did often.

“I think I annoyed him and he did it to scare me. I suppose it worked for a half a second but now I’m ok with it.”

Liz realized that if Max told Serena, then Serena was in real danger. She knew that she had to tell Serena all of it. “There’s more. When I got here, Michael and Max got into a fight. I think Michael was going to kill Max. I stopped him.”

Serena nodded. “I would expect nothing less.”

”Don’t you understand? If Max was dead, I think they would have let you go. I stopped that. I’m so sorry.” She pleaded for forgiveness.

Serena put her arm around Liz. “There’s nothing to forgive so don’t fret about it. I don’t want to leave yet. They have this amazing machine here, called the granilith. I’ve never seen anything like it. That’s why they brought me here – to study it. They want to know how it works and I’m not leaving until I find out.”

Liz started to tear up, partly because she was emotionally and physically wiped out but also, she didn’t think Serena understood the situation. “They might kill you when you figure it out. I might have sentenced you to death by saving Max.”

“Liz, honey, I’m not worried.” She couldn’t tell Liz but she knew her destiny, and dying at the hands of Max the alien king didn’t play into it. “And I don’t want you blaming yourself. Your journal said that you loved him – right?”

Liz nodded.

“Well, then you had to save him.” Serena said matter-of-factly. “Look, boo, you don’t have to agree with me but I believe that love that is conditional isn’t love. So basically, true love has to last forever. Now sometimes that love evolves into something different but it always remains in some form. If you truly loved him then you still do, and your heart knows it even if you don’t.”

“But . . . “Liz started to protest.

Serena put her hand up. “Stop there. I will be fine, I promise. Your alien king will not cause my death.”

Liz wanted to tell her more about the granilith and knowing Serena in an alternate timeline, but exhaustion was getting the better of her.

Serena noticed. “Get some sleep Boo. You can use my bed. I have some work to do anyway. We can talk more about all this tomorrow.”

Liz really wasn’t in a position to argue. She was out before her head hit the pillow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He walked into his room to find her sitting there. She might not have her true form but he knew who it was. Immediately he bowed low. “Your majesty.”

“So I see we have a problem.”

He was shaking. He was just a lowly servant and was rarely in the presence of royalty. He stood up but kept his eyes on the ground. “Yes, your highness, we do. Your son has taken the human girl to his headquarters.”

“And you allowed this!”

“Yes ma’am I did.” He knew it was pointless to give her any of his reasons. She would not accept them.

”The second transport is on its way. I hope for the sake of Antar that my children will return on it. We must make sure that Zan comes home.”

“Your son would leave now if he could but your daughter may be another problem.”

“Yes, her human man. Vilandra might believe that her heart belongs to him, but it doesn’t, her heart is here and when the time arrives she will come home. My son is the one we must worry about.”

He didn’t agree but he nodded anyway.

“When you return expect to be punished.”

“Of course.” He answered.

She stood up and walked from his room, ridding herself of the body she had used.
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She had been there, smiling up at him and telling him all that he wanted to hear. That she loved him, she would always be there for him. The others looked on, disapprovingly. They wanted her gone but he wouldn’t listen. She was part of his soul, the reason he was alive. He didn’t care if it was right or wrong. He would keep her by his side, no matter the cost.

The cost was clear when Khivar appeared with malice in his eyes. Max couldn’t move, he held on to his love, trying to protect her from the evil, while he watched as his nemesis murdered Michael, Isabel and Ava.

He looked down at her when he felt her pushing away from him. He saw the betrayal in her eyes. He dropped his arms, defeated. She ran to Khivar. Khivar raised his hands to inflict the final blow. Max looked over at his betrayer. She was watching, mocking him.

Max was startled awake to someone beating on his door. “Dammit.” He should have been happy that his dream was interrupted but mutiny was tiring and even if it was infected with dreams, he needed sleep. He got out of bed and walked to the door, answering it. Langley stood in front of him, looking a little worse for wear. Max knew only one person could have done this to Langley. “Michael?”

“Yes sir. We have him but he isn’t too happy about it. We had to put him down in the cages. He’s not talking.”

Max nodded. “I will speak to him in the morning. Anything else?”

”No sire.” Langley walked away from the door.

Disquieted, Max closed the door. He knew that Michael would be a problem but that wasn’t what bothered him. It was the dream. Dreams were something that Max had done away with a long time ago, or at least he thought he had. Now they were back and he knew it was the traitor’s fault.

He went to his bathroom and splashed water on his face. He had to compose himself. He looked up and saw his reflection in the mirror, he looked terrible. Tired and unshaven.

He heard her voice. “Max is right.”

“How the hell does she know if I’m right or not!?!” He thought.

He grabbed his jeans and yanked them on. He was convinced that Khivar had told her. He also decided that this claim of memory loss was bullshit. He was going to find out the truth. He opened the door to his room and headed down to the cages.
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Part 11


Silently walking into the cave, Max took noticed of the darkness. Except for a few guards keeping watch, everyone was asleep. He didn't care. He was going to find out what the traitor knew.

He stopped for a brief instant in front of Dr. Baptiste's door, trying to decide how best to handle the situation. It was unlike him to rush into anything without a plan, well; at least it had been before a few days ago, when he saw the traitor's picture.

His anger was understandable. She deserved all his wrath for her betrayal. Hell, she had almost gotten his whole family killed. But he knew his anger wasn't caused by her traitorous act. She had fooled him. She had made him believe that she loved him. He had trusted her, he had loved her, he had held her sacred and she had taken those feelings and used them against him. And now, she was there, evoking emotion in him, emotion that had lain dormant for so long.

He swung the door open and took an inventory of the room. Dr. Baptiste was getting up from her desk while Liz lay on the bed peacefully asleep. His anger intensified. She had no right to sleep like that when he couldn't.

Ignoring the doctor, he walked over to the bed. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her awake. "Get up!" He demanded. "I want some answers!"

Serena was aware of the alien king before he opened the door. There was an extra intensity in the air when he was around. As soon as he walked through the door she had noticed his anger. She stood up from her desk readying her defense if it was needed. He didn't even give her a second look. Obviously she wasn't seen as a force to be reckoned with.

Liz opened her eyes to find Max looking down at her, screaming something. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Tired, she felt the aggravation of being awakened. Was the punishment for her supposed crimes sleep deprivation? Frustrated, she ran her hand through her hair.

"How the hell do you know we need all four of us to survive!?!" He yelled.

"What are you talking about?" She was calm but she didn't think that would last if he continued to scream in her face.

"You said I was right about needing Isabel – how do you know that!?!"

"I don't know. It just came to me. I just knew." She knew her journal had said that they couldn't survive without Tess but it had been more then that. It had been a memory. She considered telling him about the journal. What could it hurt? She had read in it about a time when it went missing. She knew from that entry that Max had known she had kept one, but now, she was unsure if the secrets the journal held should be let out in the open.

"You're lying about not remembering!!! I KNOW IT!!! You've really improved on your skills as a liar!!!" Under his breath he muttered, "What can we expect from a traitor?"

"I am not lying!" She yelled, losing the cool she had previously had. "I don't remember much! Sometimes things just come to me!"

Liz looked into his eyes. She heard him yelling, she heard her responding but all coherent thoughts faded away. She knew in an instant that her answer had not been the one he wanted. She felt the heat of his anger.

Max picked her up off the bed and pushed her back against a nearby wall. He grabbed her around the neck and started to yell. "I KNOW YOU'RE LYING!!! SO TELL ME – HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW THESE THINGS!?! DID YOUR FRIEND KHIVAR TELL YOU?"

Liz cowered from him. She felt his hand around her throat; she could see the hatred in his eyes. Was he going to kill her? She never believed that was possible. "Holy shit" she thought, "I might die and I'm getting memories back." She wanted to answer him but she couldn't, he was holding her throat too tight.

Never one to panic, Serena saw the need for action. She picked up the chair from her desk and swung it at the alien king.

Max heard Serena's attack coming. He turned enough to deflect the chair with his powers. The chair flew through the air landing hard against the far wall.

Serena stood in awe for a few seconds. Then regained her composure and looked around for some other weapon but couldn't find one. She walked up to him and kicked him as hard as she could in the shin. She knew from experience that fighting fair when your life was in danger was just plain stupid. The man barely moved. She knew she had hurt him but he didn't even acknowledge it. "Where was that pharmacy man when you needed him?" She asked herself. Liz had said he and Max had fought earlier, she figured he might have been some help.

Max looked down at Liz. She was in a panic. He could feel her hands trying to pull his away as she gasped for breath. A minuscule amount of compassion swept over him. He saw what he was doing and loosened his grip, slowly taking his hand from around her neck. He had wanted answers but he hadn't wanted to hurt her, at least, not yet. Liz relaxed a bit. She rubbed her neck and coughed a few times. Max gave her a moment and then advanced again. He wanted answers. He willed her to give them to him. He grabbed her by the arms. "Answer me; tell me how you know what you claim to know!" He demanded.

There was no connection but he had felt it. Some of his power flowed out of him and into her.
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Pissed off, Michael paced back and forth in the cage. He knew that he could walk out of the cell at any time, and he realized that Max knew it also. Max had only put him down here to make a point. Well, that and to assure himself that he would be informed if Michael did decide to leave.

Michael also understood that Max might keep him against his will but would not kill him. He was part of Max's precious royal four, therefore assuring that Michael was needed to fight Khivar.

Michael knew that Max would be on guard now. He wouldn't make the same mistake he had earlier in the evening. If Michael made a move against him Max's guards would deal with Michael, using whatever force necessary short of death. He had lost the element of surprise and given up his chance to do away with Max.

"Who the hell does Max think he is?" He mumbled. Of course he knew the answer. Max was the King. Michael had always thought he understood. He understood that Max was under more pressure then the rest of them. At just sixteen he had found out that he was a planets savior. He was a king. It was different for princes in royal families on earth. They knew from birth their purpose. They knew that they would be a ruler someday but Max hadn't been prepared for it. It was just dropped in his lap one day.

It didn't matter to Michael how much he understood Max. Max was wrong and he wasn't going to stand for it.

Michael heard yelling from one of the other cages. "What the hell is going on?" He thought. The next thing he heard was a crash.

Michael pushed the door open. It wasn't even locked. "Damn, Max is smug bastard." He thought.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liz peered at Max. Vague memories were returning. She could remember who he use to be, the love she had for him, but her memories weren't completely aligned. She could remember bits and pieces but the whole wasn't there.

Serena took advantage of the moment and pushed her way between Max and Liz. Looking at Max squarely in the eyes she jammed a finger into his chest. "I have known both kings and slaves in my lifetime and you are more of a slave then a king!"
Michael smiled. He couldn't believe what the scene unfolding before him. Max was letting a human tell him off. He walked through the door. "What is going on in here? Hell, Maxwell if you are going to force me to stay here the least you could do is let me get some sleep."

Max glared at Michael but didn't say a word. Instead he took hold of Serena and shoved her at Michael.

Serena was about to say something else but Michael caught her eye and shook his head. Then he pulled her out of the room. He didn't know what was going on but he did know that the doctor didn't need to be involved.

Max glowered at Liz. He knew what the power drain had been. He saw a new recognition in her eyes. She remembered something. For a brief moment he was confused. He didn't know if he had healed her by accident or just by sheer will, a need for her to give him answers. But he had. Maybe not completely, maybe not intentionally but it had happened.
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"What the hell did you do that for!?! He was going to kill Liz!" Serena was pissed. She wanted to be in her room helping her friend.

"But he didn't." Michael answered calmly. She wasn't thinking. She just wanted to rush into that room and save her friend - damn the consequences. He felt the beginnings of melancholy with the realization of how alike Serena and Maria were.

"He might still! I should be in there – stopping him!"

"He's not going to kill her."

Serena had seen Max, how angry he looked, she was not convinced. "How in the hell do you know!?!"

Michael shrugged. "I suppose I don't. I'm just making an educated guess."

"Well, I don’t trust your guesses. I'm going in there!" Serena reached for the door handle.

Michael snatched her hand away. "Do you really think you could stop him? If he wanted to kill her, it wouldn't matter who was in there, she would be dead!"

Serena dropped her hand, defeated. She knew Michael was right. She had seen how he reacted to her attempts to help Liz. They hadn't even fazed him, but she wanted to help. She didn't want another friend to die young. She turned to Michael. "Please help her."

Michael saw that the doctor's eyes were starting to tear. He never could stand to see a female cry, but he knew that if Max was going to kill Liz then there was nothing he could do either. He wanted to comfort her, to assure her that Liz would still be breathing when Max walked out of the room they were in but he couldn't. Nothing he could say would help.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liz was still rubbing her neck. She had been almost certain that Max was going to kill her, but something had stopped him.

Max grabbed her by the arms and turned her around so that she had to look at him. He was calmer now, knowing that at least part of her memory loss had been real, but he was still demanding answers.

Liz noticed something different when she looked up into his eyes. The vacancy in them was gone, overpowered by torment. She wasn't upset, she wasn't scared; she was saddened. Saddened by what he had become. She looked away. She couldn't look into his eyes knowing that he believed what he did about her.

Finally she decided to give him some of his answers – maybe to heal his pain or maybe just to get him to leave her alone. "I knew because I read it in my journal."

Max hadn't thought of her journal in years. She had claimed once that she wrote everything in it. They had looked for it when she disappeared but when they couldn't find it they had assumed that she had taken it with her. "Where is it now?"

She didn't want him to know and go get it. She didn't want him to read it. She shook her head and lied. "I destroyed it."

Max watched her, realizing that he had been wrong about her ability to lie. She was lying now – he knew it. He didn't know what he would find in the journal but he knew he would find something. He was calm but firm as he repeated the question. "Where is it now?"

She stared at him. She was determined not to answer.

"Look, you can tell me or I will send men to your parents house and tear it apart brick by brick until they find it. Your choice."

She saw his resolve and had a feeling that he would do what he said. "Fine, you want to know what is in the journal – how about if I just tell you!"

"You see – that might work if I trusted you – but I don't. Where is the journal?"

She sat back down on the bed. She was so tired. She gave up. "It's behind a loose brick on the roof."

Feeling as if he had won some major battle, Max smiled. He knew she was telling the truth. He let go of her and turned to leave.

Liz watched as he started to walk out. She knew he was going back to Roswell. Soon he would know everything that she did.

She thought about Roswell and her parents. They had to be worried sick, not knowing where she was. She stood up and called after Max. "Can I please call my parents? I will tell them whatever you want me to but they will be worried. I want to ease their minds."

Max turned, his anger was back. "You want to call your parents so they aren't worried!?! I don't think so! You decided to run off six odd years ago and you never bothered to call us! We were fucking worried too!" He was yelling. This really ticked him off. "Of course" he added, "we were worried about the wrong thing!"

"Please Max." Liz pleaded.

"They aren't worried. I already took care of them." He knew he was being an ass but he didn't care. He just wanted her to feel a small amount of the pain that he had so many years ago.

Immediately Max knew that she had come to the conclusion that he had tired to steer her towards – he saw it in her face as she lunged at him.

Becoming hysterical she fought like a wounded animal. Her blows were not effective but she didn't care. She struck out at him anyway she could. Punching, kicking, and scratching. She wanted him dead. She couldn't believe that just moments before she had felt some kind of affection towards him. Now it had been replaced with loathing.

Max didn't even feel the pain of her strike. He was numb to it all. He pinned her against a wall before he pushed her down. He walked to the door and opened the door. She attacked again, but this time, aware of what was happening, guards came to hold her back. Max turned to leave.

"YOU KILLED THEM! YOU BASTARD!!!" He heard her yell as he walked down the long hallway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Relieved but also concerned, Serena ran into the room as soon as Max cleared the doorway. She saw Liz doing her best to free herself from the guard that held her. Serena grabbed the guard to pull him away from her friend but he forced her away immediately with his hand.

Michael walked in behind Serena, saw what was going on and motioned for the guard to leave. Almost instantly the guard let go and walked out of the room. Liz ran to the door but was stopped by Michael.

"LET ME GO! HE KILLED MY PARENTS!" Liz screamed.

Michael didn't let go. "Calm down Liz." He said calmly.

"I will not calm down! He killed my parents! The bastard killed . . ."

"No he didn't! Michael drowned the rest of the sentence out. "Your parents are fine. Ava just mindwarped them, they don't remember you being there."

"But he said . . ." Liz stopped there. He hadn't said that he had killed them; he had just said that he had taken care of them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max knew he had done what he set out to do, he had hurt her. The problem was it didn't give him the satisfaction he thought it would. He even felt a twinge of regret. Maybe it hadn't because he knew her pain was about to end, his never would. As he got to the end of the hall he heard her quiet down and knew that Michael had already told her the truth.

He was chastising himself as he climbed out of the cave. Not for what he did but what he felt. Jealousy, compassion and regret all in one day. Emotions, he hadn't felt in years but one small woman, even if she was a traitor, could bring it out in him. She was some kind of witch who could cast a spell on him and make him weak, he knew it. Well, it was going to stop. He was going to find a way to break free of her spell if it was the last thing he ever did.
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Thanks again for your feedback. It really means so much to me that so many are still reading my story. I hope you enjoy the next part. Thanks Bunches.

A/N Just a little disclaimer: Journal entries with *asterisks* are entries from the show. Entries with ~I don’t know what you call it – swoosh? ~ are entries I wrote.

Part 12

Exhausted, Max climbed up the fire escape onto the balcony. At three in the morning he could be almost certain that the Parker’s would be in bed and wouldn’t notice his intrusion. Looking around he noticed that nothing had changed in the four years that he had stayed away.

He walked over to the wall that once held their initials in a large heart. For a moment, as he touched the wall, he mourned the loss of their love but then regained his composure, attributing his sentimentality to fatigue. “I was such a fool.” He thought before moving on to the task at hand.

He started looking over each brick, trying to find the loose one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Go fish.” Serena smiled.

Serena and Michael had been sitting on the floor by Serena’s cage door for hours, playing cards and talking. They had managed to calm Liz down and convince her that she needed to get some rest, telling her that they would talk in the morning.

The two had discussed sports, politics and music before Michael started to fascinate her with all things alien. Explaining, some of the history and dynamics of the group that Liz had once been a valued member.

Eventually though, the conversation turned to what Michael really wanted to talk about, Maria. He told Serena how they had met and fallen in love, about the good times and the bad. How he had made her leave and how he expected to never see her again. It had been less then 24 hours but he already ached with the loss.

Serena’s heart went out to him but she could tell that Michael hadn’t told her so that she could feel sorry for him – he had told her because he just needed to talk about it – so she kept her mouth shut and listened.

Eventually Michael changed the subject back to lighter issues. He took a card. “So you don’t sleep?”

“Any 8’s? No not really. Never more then five hours a night. What about you?” Serena was enjoying being out of her cell. “The guy might be good for something besides distributing pharmaceuticals.” She thought.

“Go fish. Aliens don’t need as much sleep as humans.”

Serena nodded putting down her cards. “This is really a stupid game.”

Michael took the cards she had laid down and started shuffling. “You’re the one who wanted to play Go Fish.”

“You’re the one who didn’t know how to play Canasta.”

Michael rolled his eyes. “No one knows how to play Canasta.”

Serena watched him shuffling. “So tell me something.”

“Yeah?”

“If you all need me so bad, to figure out the granilith, what would you all have done if I died from your drug spree?”

Michael shrugged. “Max would have healed you.”

“Like he did Liz?”

Michael nodded his head and started dealing the cards.

“So is your king going to try and kill me when I find out how your granilith works?” She wasn’t worried about it but she thought she would ask.

“We’ve had a lot of scientists come through here that haven’t been able to figure out the granilith. What makes you so sure that you can?”

Serena picked up her cards. “What are we playing? I’m smarter then them.” When she saw Michael start to roll his eyes she added, “It’s just a fact. Anyway, you’re avoiding my question.”

“Rummy – Look, I don’t know what he plans. I know that he has never killed anyone that could be mindwarped.”

“Mindwarped?”

Michael put down some cards. “Yeah – it’s what Ava does. She goes into your head and kind of replaces memories that are about us with new ones.”

“Is that what happened to Liz?” Serena played her cards.

Michael shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it’s possible. Maybe after our enemies got the information that they wanted out of her. Of course if they did – they must have done it wrong. She shouldn’t have lost all her memories.”

“So you believe that she betrayed you?”

”Honestly I don’t know what to think anymore. It took me a long time to believe that she would sell out Max in the first place. But eventually I changed my mind. We all did. Until tonight I would have bet my life that she had betrayed us. But then she just tried to save him. I can’t believe that she would try and save Max from me if she had wanted us dead anyway.” He picked up some cards from the pile.

“I know you haven’t told me the whole story about what went on between you people, but from knowing Gail” Serena corrected herself, “or Liz for the last three years, I can’t imagine her ever turning on her friends.”

Michael shrugged and played some cards. Knowing the truth would not be discovered tonight, he changed the subject again. “So Liz is a psychic now?”

Serena nodded. “Yep.”

“So is she for real or does she just bullshit people?”

“Well, she can’t read me but I’m hard to read.” Serena gave Michael a knowing look. “I tend to believe that she is for real.

Michael started to comment but stopped when he heard Liz cry out. Worried that something was wrong, he jumped up and went for the door handle.

“Don’t!” Serena ordered. She knew that Liz didn’t need a freaked out Michael running in and waking her up. “There’s nothing in there that can hurt her. Let her deal with her dreams on her own.”

“Dreams? Are you sure?”

Serena nodded. “They may help her remember. It may be the only way, unless your friend Max wants to use his healing magic on her.”

“I don’t think that will happen.”

They stopped playing their game and sat silently at the door listening to Liz cry in her sleep.
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Max passed the formation that concealed the pod chamber. He pulled the car to a stop. Grabbing the journal, he got out and walked up to the rocks. He had planned on going back to the compound before reading it but his curiosity had gotten the better of him.

He sat down on one of the rocks, ran his hand over the book, causing it to glow, opened it and started to read.

*September 23rd. Journal entry one. I'm Liz Parker and five days ago I died. After that, things got really weird....*

Certain passages started jumping out at him.

*And what is he thinking right now? Is he also obsessed, tortured, going through one sleepless night to the next, wondering what's going to happen between us?*

He knew what would happen between then now. He would eventually rid himself of her, but he couldn’t stop thinking that, at this moment, he was in fact, obsessed, tortured and not sleeping.

*Ever since I found out about Max and Michael and Isabel, I’ve been thinking a lot about secrets. That for everyone who has a secret, there’s someone else who needs to know what that secret is. And now even I, Liz Parker, the smallest of small town girls with the simplest of lives-- even I have something to hide.*

Indignation got the better of him. “Yeah – she has something to hide and I need to know it.” He grumbled. Reading on in hopes that he would discover the secrets she kept.

*The tough thing about following your heart is what people forget to mention, that sometimes your heart takes you to places you shouldn't be, places that are as scary as they are exciting and as dangerous as they are alluring, and sometimes your heart takes you to places that can never lead to a happy ending.*

He felt the weight of knowing that she had realized long ago that their end would not be happy.

*Have you ever had a moment when you're with the one person in the world you want to be with and the wind is blowing through your hair and the song that just describes your entire soul happens to come on, and then the person that you want to be with happens to love the same song and suddenly you realize you're listening to it together? And that no matter how crazy your life has gotten there's this one moment...this perfect moment...where you could just say that no matter what happens, nothing can take this moment away from me..*
.
The fury was replaced by memories of their love. He remembered her as she once had been, not the traitor she was now.

She had written everything. How complete she had felt when they first kissed to how despondent she had been the day in the cave when she walked away from him.
He looked up to see the first signs of dawn. He knew he needed to get back but he couldn’t leave. Not until he finished.

*We try to live responsible, logical lives. But we can't tell our hearts how to feel. Sometimes our hearts lead us to places we never thought we wanted to go. And sometimes are hearts can be the sweetest, gentlest things we have. Sometimes are hearts can make us feel miserable, angry, excited and confused. All at once. But at least my heart is open. And I'm writing again. I'm feeling. I'm breathing.*

He was confused when he looked at the date. It was after junior prom. She hadn’t written for almost a year. He turned the page and found the explanation.

~Have you ever told a lie to someone you love? Not the kind used to save their feelings, but the kind that tears a person up inside, that unforgivable lie that breaks your loved one’s heart. Six months ago I told that lie to the love of my life, Max Evans. ~

She went on to tell how a future version of him used the granilith to come back in time and convince her that she had to lie to him in order to save the world. Sleeping with Kyle had been a ruse to save the world, to save them all.

~When the person you love most in the universe, crosses space and time to ask you to save your friends and the world from destruction, you do it. Even if the price of what he asks is the destruction of your dreams. ~

She wrote in detail about a wedding that this supposed future version of him told her about.

~I cry for the loss of something I never had. For the song that won’t be played, for the wedding that won’t take place, for the friends that won’t share in our joy. ~

The entry included very little about why this had all happened. There were only one or two sentences that explained it. Their enemies invaded and they had been unable to fight them off without Tess.

She ended with her feelings, her beliefs.

~You know that feeling you get when the person you love, who use to love you, is near and your only wish in the world is for them to hold you and tell you that everything will be alright – but then they don’t? That feeling that causes your chest to tighten up until you can’t breath and your mind to turn to mush, unable to form a coherent thought. That feeling that makes your eyes plead for mercy, even if your mouth can’t. That is the feeling I get when Max is around. ~

~Max always said that we make our own destiny, but I know now that he was wrong. Destiny is determined, not by us, but by some irresistible force. We can’t fight it. And now as I watch him finding the destiny he was born for, my heart shatters once again.~

Although there was more, he closed the book slowly and looked out at the morning colors of the desert, trying to assimilate what he had just read. Right or wrong she had sacrificed her dreams for them.

He felt the tears behind his eyes, but they wouldn’t flow, they had forgotten how.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Musical thought . . .
Remember The Feeling
Chicago

Shadows were hiding what I couldn't see
Out in the dark, she was calling to me
Calling to me with a voice I never forgot

She was a vision I couldn't believe
I held her close so that she wouldn't leave
Suddenly helpless, hopelessly falling in love

I remember the feeling
I remember the way
She came up and wrapped her arms around me
Told me that she cared
Said she'd always be there

Taking me places I've never been
She had a beauty that comes from within
Was I just dreaming, was it too good to be true

I was a man all alone in the night
She came along and she showed me the light
I was confused then she told me the way
I was alone and I begged her to stay

She was alive I was caught by the fire
She brought emotions that filled my desire
I should have noticed that something was wrong
When I awoke she was gone
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey there - if you were annoyed (or just plain mad :mad: ) at me for not posting sooner - please be sure to read my heartfelt apology on my previous post.

Part 13a

Liz’s dreams started peacefully enough. There were dreams of childhood and family holidays spent with laughter, dreams of playing with Maria and meeting Alex for the first time. There were dreams of more recent times, dreams of Michael, giving her back her journal, dreams of Isabel, painting their nails, and dreams of Max, kissing in the moonlight.

Then it all changed. She was at the Crashdown with all her friends having a great time, talking about school and movies and such. When all of a sudden the restaurant went dark and all her friends except for Max ran away. She felt someone else there with them. She turned to see the outline of two enormous men. She started to run but tripped. She yelled for Max to help but he didn’t answer.

The men came over to her and held her down, not with their bodies but with their minds. She couldn’t move or scream. She was paralyzed. Her eyes focused on Max, pleading for him to help her but he was backing away, the love that had been in his eyes turning to disdain.

In the blink of an eye the men took her into a cold, dark room and handed her a baby. In this room, everything, including the baby, was much too large for her. It was like she was a small child in an adult world. She couldn’t reach the table tops or get onto the chairs. She looked up and saw a window far above her. Looking out she could see that the sky had an eerie red-gray hue that is seen sometimes during dusk. She noticed more then one moon and knew that she wasn’t on earth.

A large, distorted man walked in wielding an ominous bladed weapon. He took the baby from her and started to brutally dismember it. Liz cried out for the man to stop. But he ignored her. She tried to go over to him, she wanted to fight him, to protect the child, but she couldn’t. Her feet were glued to the floor. She turned to find a mirror to her side. Her reflection terrified her. Her face looked as if it had been mutilated. Her body was covered with blood.

All of a sudden, he stopped and smiled. Then, putting the baby down, he walked out of the room.

She immediately took a step towards the baby, wanting to hold and comfort it, but stopped. The baby was growing at an extremely rapid rate. The child became a man in seconds. When the transformation was complete, he glared at her with evil in his eyes.

Fear engulfed her body as she ran across a room through a door to the outside. Barefoot, she felt the grass beneath her feet, except it wasn’t grass; it was more like moss with sharp stickers in it. The pain of it didn’t dissuade her; she ran hard and fast knowing that someone was chasing her, using dogs or some kind of animal to track her. She saw a river and jumped into it. The water was warm and thick. It clung to her body like day old sweat. She didn’t think about the feeling she just started to swim.

Long before she could make it to the other side, the animals caught up with her. The huge creatures surrounded her in the water, growling, keeping her at bay until their master could get to her. She stared into their beady eyes. They looked like a cross between a dog and a snake. She tried to move away but as soon as she did, they attacked. Fighting, she slipped under the water and passed out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max turned up the radio in his car, trying to drown out his thoughts. His mind has been in turmoil since he read Liz’s journal. He now had a better understanding of what had happened back then but he was determined not to forgive her for the Kyle fiasco. She had lied to him. It was that simple.

The problem was he knew it wasn’t that simple. He knew that it was causing feelings to reemerge, feelings that had been locked up for years. Already, he felt his stomach grumble knowing that he could go and see her at any time, knowing that he could get close enough to her to smell the sweet scent of her hair, touch her warm skin, and look into her beautiful eyes.

He knew he was losing control. She was still a traitor. He had seen it with his own eyes. She had been in a room with Khivar and Nicholas. She had told them everything they had wanted to know, without any coercion. Of course, he had also seen her in bed with Kyle, and that had been a deception, could her betrayal be one too?

He knew he had to stop. He was making himself crazy. Circumstances had thrown them into an impossible situation. One that maybe, should have never happened, but it had, and he was not going to surrender to it. Nothing he had discovered changed anything. He still had a mission and one little brunette from his past would not change that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michael sat on a chair reading a magazine, while Serena worked at her desk. Liz had calmed down and was now sleeping peacefully.

Serena looked up from her work. “I’m starting to get hungry. When is our mush coming?”

“Mush?” Michael questioned.

“Yeah – mush. It’s like runny oatmeal or something.”

“Oh – no. We can’t have that.” Michael got up, opened the door and called for a guard.

“We want to order breakfast.”

The guard stood at attention. “Yes sir.”

“I want pancakes with maple syrup and hot sauce.” He motioned toward Serena. “What do you want?”

Serena was thrilled. “Eggs - scrambled, sausage, biscuits. Too much?”

Michael shook his head. “No they can handle it.” He turned towards the guard. “Right?”

“Of course sir.” The guard answered and started to turn away.

“Wait.” Serena called out. “I would like some REAL coffee, not the watered down shit you’ve been giving me and some Tabasco for the eggs.”

The guard nodded but Michael looked at her strangely.

Serena widened her eyes. “What!?!”

“He thinks you’re an alien because aliens like hot sauce.” Liz had awakened and answered.

Serena laughed. “Yeah – you’re right, me and about 90 percent of the people who live in New Orleans.”

Michael ignored her. “Liz you want anything?”

Liz’s stomach was a mess but she knew she had to eat something. “Coffee and some toast would be fine.”

Michael looked over at the guard. “Do you need me to write this down for you?”

“No sir.”

”Then go! Get our breakfast.” Michael was getting impatient.

“Yes sir – right away.” The guard ran off.

“That was great.” Serena smiled at him. “Glad you have some kind of pull around here.”

“Well, they aren’t sure how long my feud with Max will last so they don’t want to piss me off too bad. I might tell on them.” He smiled mischievously.

Serena rolled her eyes and sat down on the bed next to Liz, putting her arm around her. “So how are you doing, Boo?”

Liz shrugged. “Ok – I guess.”

Michael walked over to them. “So you were freaking us out with those dreams of yours.”

“Do you want to talk about them?” Serena asked.

Still uneasy from her dreams, Liz shook her head. She didn’t know what to make of them. Thanks to Max healing her, she could remember everything about Roswell but she was still missing three and a half years of her life. She knew her dreams were telling her something about them but she didn’t know what. Where they actually memories or were they something else – symbolism? Until she knew she wouldn’t be able decipher them.

Michael was going to ask something else until he saw Serena furiously shaking her head at him.

Liz stood up and walked to the bathroom. She needed a shower.

”Why the hell did you stop me?” Michael asked Serena when Liz was out of ear shot.

“When Liz wants to talk about them she will. She doesn’t need you interrogating her.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How dare you summon me!”

“I’m sorry, your majesty. There has been a development that I thought you would want to know about.”

Impatiently she asked,”How have you failed me now?”

“The girl kept a journal and your son has discovered it.”

The man was happy that the dowager queen embodied a human; he could just imagine the death look he would be getting if he could see her true form.

”First you allow her to be taken by Zan and now you allow him to find a book that she, no doubt, wrote all about her love for my son.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I have heard that Vilandra has left her duties to follow her human. Is this correct?”

The man’s head was sinking lower. He nodded.

“Do you know where she has gone?”

“No I do not. Zan has Onirus looking for her.”

“I want you to make sure I know where she is before my son does. Do you understand? We will have to use drastic measures to fix this mess that you have allowed to happen.”

“Yes your majesty.” He answered as she walked out the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can't believe how much feedback this story got in less then 24 hours. WOW you all are way too wonderful. Thank you so much.

I really enjoyed your comments about the dream. You all have some great ideas as to what it is all about. Keep them coming - I might change my opinion of it. Ok probably not but I really liked reading your thoughts anyway.

OK I am posting 13b - it was supposed to be longer but it started getting too long (so long in fact that I would never have been able to post when I promised) so I stopped and decided to move part of it to Part 14. (A bonus to this move was getting out of part 13. )

Well, thanks again for reading. Hope you enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~
Part 13b

The three prisoners ate their breakfast in silence. Serena enjoying every morsel of the real food, Liz barely stomaching the toast she had ordered and Michael just watching the two of them.

Finally Liz pushed her dream out of her mind. She had to function. She looked up at Serena. “I wanted to tell you something last night.” She started.

“What was that, Boo?”

“Something that might help with the granilith. It was used as a time machine. Max came from the future and . . .” She stopped for a second to weigh the consequences of what she was saying but then remembered that Max would know all about it after he read her journal. “and told me to make him fall out of love with him. He also told me that you were the one who discovered how to use it to go back in time.”

Michael was staring at her in disbelief; Serena was a little more open to what Liz was saying but still skeptical.

“Look, before you two start to believe I’m a lunatic or something let me explain. I know it was him. He knew things that only Max, at least Max from the future could know.”

“Like?” Michael questioned.

“Like what Max would do. He knew that Max would serenade me at a specific time. He knew that he wouldn’t take no for an answer when I told him I wouldn’t got to Gomez. Things like that.”

Liz first looked at Michael. He wasn’t convinced. Serena was a different story. Liz let out a chuckle when she looked into Serena’s eyes. It was just like some old cartoon, she could almost see the gears working in her mind.

Excited, Serena jumped out of her chair. If what Liz was saying was true then she, Serena Baptiste, was about to prove the holy grail of science. She turned towards the door, she had work to do, but then suddenly she stopped.

Liz saw her stop; she knew Serena was worried about leaving her alone. Liz shook her head at Serena. “No – you go. I’m fine!” Liz chuckled. Serena was rarely excited about anything and seeing her reaction to Liz’s news was uplifting.

Serena went and gave Liz a quick hug. “Have someone come get me if you need me. Ok?”

“I will.” Liz agreed.

Serena glanced over at Michael. When she saw him nodding his agreement, she ran out the door.

During the following seconds Michael and Liz just stared at each other, neither one knowing what to say. Michael finally decided to try and start a conversation. “She’s was in a hurry.”

Liz just nodded. She could tell that he wanted to talk but she didn’t know what to say.

They were quiet for a few more minutes.

Michael tried again. “So – you remember me?”

“Yes.”

That was it, nothing else. She was going to drive him insane. “Do you remember Maria?”

Liz stopped herself from rolling her eyes. “I remember everyone Michael. You, Maria, Max, Isabel and . . . Alex.” The wave of sadness as she said his name was overwhelming. She could feel the tears forming in her eyes but she pushed them away. It was as if he had died last week. Of course to her, he had.

Michael had seen the tears and was quiet for a moment while she regained her composure.

“Sorry.” She said.

Michael shook his head. “No need. I’m not quite the insensitive guy I use to be. Maria has me trained now.”

Liz giggled a little. “I always knew if anyone could, it would be her.”

Michael grinned.

“Where is she?” Liz wanted to see her.

Michael felt the anguish once again. “She’s gone.”

Liz started to panic. “She’s not . . . dead!?!”

“No – nothing like that.” Michael said trying to calm her down.

“Max?” She asked.

Michael nodded. “He threatened to . . .” He didn’t know why but he couldn’t tell Liz what Max had threatened. “I sent her away.”

Liz felt Michael’s pain. She put her hand on his arm, giving him the little comfort she could.

“She left yesterday morning?” Liz asked.

“Yeah – how did you . . . oh you’re a psychic now.” He quietly thought about this fact, then asked. “Did you see anything else?”

She saw the expectation in his eyes but knew what she had seen wouldn’t give him the comfort he desired, so she ignored most of the vision, telling him the only part that might help. “No, not really – only that she will be fine.”

Michael shrugged, happy to know that Maria would be ok but he had hoped for so much more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max heard the knock but ignored it. It wasn’t as if he was sleeping or anything. How the hell could he after everything that had happened in the last twenty four hours.

He had spent the last hour sitting on his bed trying to think of some reason that Liz or anyone else would deceive him about her betrayal. He knew the only way Khivar could have gotten the information was through Liz (everyone else who knew about the granilith had been under his control during that time), but he had believed that there had been some kind of coercion involved, at least until he saw Nicholas’ mind and knew differently. If it all had been deception, the deceiver had to be someone who could control Nicholas. Only Khivar could do that.

The problem with that line of thought was that Max couldn’t think of any reason why Khivar would care how he felt about Liz. In fact, if Khivar did care – he should want Max and Liz together not apart. Max never cared about going back to Antar and fighting for his planet’s freedom when he was in love with her. Now, ashamed of his priorities back then, he couldn’t believe he would have been content to stay on Earth with her and live a normal human life, letting his planet rot.

The person on the other side of the door knocked again, getting more insistent and finally, yelling out. “Your majesty, it is important!”

Max didn’t bother getting out of the bed. He waved his hand at the door to open it. “What is it now!?!” He asked the intruder.

“Sir, I’m sorry to bother you, but there is a situation in the granilith lab. That new scientist is causing problems.”

Max rolled his eyes. “You can’t handle it?”

“No sire. She will not abide by our commands. We could use our powers but you said not to damage her.”

Max slowly got out of his bed. “Incompetent fools.” He thought to himself. “I’ll go deal with it.”

“Yes sire.”

“Asim.” Max called as his subject started to walk out the door.

“Yes.”

‘Where have you been?”

“Sire? – Oh I was in Roswell, cleaning up the mess the human girl caused.”

Max nodded as he pulled his clothes back on. Asim walked through the door followed by Max just moments later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First off Howdy to all the new people out there.
Everyone - THANKS again for the feedback and for reading. (I feel so redundant in saying that but I really cannot explain how much your FB means to me. THANK YOU

A/N I am not a physicist. Just needed to share.

Part 14

Max walked up to the door of the lab to find two of his guards outside with a few of the scientists. “What the hell are you doing outside of the lab?”

One of the guards told him. “Dr. Baptiste threw us out.”

Max, shook his head in disgust, he decided to deal with the guards and their incompetence later. He opened the door to the lab and peaked inside.

“No! You have to use a cross between the two theories!” Serena yelled at the scientists standing around listening to her.

Calming down she continued. “Look, assume the theories are correct. There are actually particles, gravitons, in a gravity wave.” She did a wave with her hand. She knew that talking down to them probably wouldn’t be appreciated but hell, where did theses scientists come from? “Now assume these gravitons have molecular structure and the alien society that made this machine can change molecular structure. Meaning an object or a person could be changed into a graviton. Then theoretically you could jump out of our 3 dimensional brane to the 4th dimension, travel on the 2 dimensional surface to the parallel 4th dimension and back into its brane.”

“Excuse me Dr. – ah Serena,” Serena stopped herself from rolling her eyes and nodded for man to continued, “what about supersymmetry.”

Serena dismissed him, “Lagniappe. Don’t worry about it.”

“Lagniappe?”

Vexed, Serena answered. “Gravy – extra!”

“What about other banes?” Someone else asked.

Serena couldn’t believe the questions. She was now beyond annoyed. “My God, did Einstein have this problem when he was working out his theory of relativity?” She thought that comparing herself to Albert Einstein might be a bit presumptuous – but hell – there hadn’t been a chance like this in almost a hundred years.

She looked up to find the alien king staring at her. “What the hell do you want?” She snapped.

Max looked at her. Langley had made the right choice, this time. “What exactly are you doing?”

“Taking your lab over so these morons don’t screw it up.”

“I would like to speak to you outside for a moment, Dr. Baptiste.” Max led her through the door and taking notice once again of the people outside he steered her down the hall.

Serena knew she had pissed him off but she didn’t care. When she was working – she was working. She didn’t need a bunch of interruptions. “Serena – call me Serena – DO NOT call me Dr. Baptiste.” Then under her breath she added, “I hate when people use doctor.”

“Fine I will call you Serena if you stop calling me the pompous alien king.”

Trying to appear innocent, Serena looked up at him questioningly.

Max shrugged. “People talk.”

“Fine – Maaaaax.”

Max ignored her sarcasm. “So you have some ideas.”

”What kind of stupid question was that?” She asked herself. “Yes I have ideas!” Why was he here? “I have ideas on how to best separate your scrotum from your body.”

“Do we have a problem?”

“As a matter of fact we do. You have a bunch of incompetent scientists working for you that are not up to date on the latest theories AND you’re here – bugging the shit out of me. This, at best will take months to figure out and each moment I have to spend with you, explaining it to your dumb ass is another moment I have to be here. Now leave me alone to work!!!”

“I don’t think so! You will not speak to me in that manner!”

“You will not speak to me in that manner.” Serena mimicked. “And you want me to stop calling you the pompous alien king?”

Max ignored her comment; it was obvious they were both tired and frustrated, but he was determined to get the upper hand. “So if they” he motioned towards the lab and the scientists inside “are incompetent then you won’t need them anymore. Is that correct?”

Serena stopped for a moment, knowing exactly what he was threatening. If she didn’t need them then he would get rid of them. She looked up into his eyes. “It’s gone.” She said. “You don’t have it in you anymore. Something happened last night that made you lose your ability to kill – at least unnecessarily.”

“I have never killed unnecessarily.”

Serena scoffed.

Max knew he didn’t have anything to hold over her head anymore but he wasn’t going to give up. He had always hated not being in control. “Besides are you willing to take the chance that you’re wrong?”

Serena checked his eyes once more. She read people pretty well. Not as well as Liz but then Serena didn’t possess Liz’s have supernatural talents. She was almost certain she was right. He wouldn’t kill any of them. But she wouldn’t risk it. She might have if it had just been her but she knew she couldn’t risk others. “Fine you win. Just let go any scientist that can be mind melded. I don’t need them. I’ll use the others. If you do that, I’ll be a good little girl and work for you.”

“It’s mind warped, and I can agree to that.” He was actually relieved that he could let some of them go. “But I want daily reports.”

Serena rolled her eyes. “Daily is a little much. How about weekly?”

He nodded, then turned back, walking towards the door to the lab. Max noticed the guards and scientists that she had kicked out still outside the door of the lab. He motioned towards them. “Why did you kick them out?”

“They scientists kept telling me I didn’t know what I was talking about; your guards seemed to agree.”

“OK – HOW did you kick them out?”

“I’m not as weak as I might look, plus I’m assuming that you told them they couldn’t use their death rays on me.”

Max almost smiled at that. “Not unless you try to leave the cave. So did you did kill my men in Ohio?” He had wanted to ask that questions since he first saw her.

Serena shook her head furiously. “I never killed anyone. At least not in Ohio. I did take them down a notch, but I did not kill them – no matter how much they deserved it.”

Inside the lab, Max gave the order that Serena was now in charge, then left with a rediscovered respect for humankind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Interested in how Max had changed and why, Liz had been prying information out of Michael all morning. “So what about Kyle? Why does he hate Max?”

“Tracy. Did Kyle tell you about her?” When Michael saw Liz affirm that Kyle had he continued. “Well, when she got sick, Kyle went to Max and begged for Max to heal her – but he wouldn’t.”

“Oh.” Liz understood Kyle’s anger but there had to be a reason that Max hadn’t done it – she knew it – he wouldn’t – couldn’t be that cruel.”

“Does anyone still talk to Kyle?”

“Everyone except Max went to Tracy’s funeral and then Maria kept in touch with him up until a year or so ago when Max decided that she couldn’t see him anymore.”

“And Maria stood for that?”

“Well, at first she had a fit but eventually she backed down. Max started getting pretty scary then.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max walked through the hallway trying not to let emotion and lack of sleep get the better of him, when he heard Michael talking to Liz. He stopped at the door of Serena’s cage and listened.

“Tess killed Alex?” Liz asked. “You’re sure?”

“Yep. We found out a couple of years after you left. Tess made a huge mistake. She pissed off Isabel and then let her guard down long enough for Is to dream walk her. After that Tess didn’t last long. Max took her out to the desert one night and . . .”

Liz eyes widened. “He killed her?”

Michael half nodded, half shrugged. “That is the general consensus. After that, he put Zan up for adoption. Max has never talked about it since. At least not to me.”

Max stormed into the room. “Maybe because you might go blabbing to traitors!”

Michael, worried Max was on another rampage, stood up, ready for battle.

Max put out his hand. “Don’t worry I’m don’t want to fight. I need to talk to Liz.”

Michael didn’t say anything. He looked over at Liz, making sure she would be alright if he left. When she signaled she would he walked out.

Max paced the room in silence as Liz looked on.

“Did you find my journal?” She finally asked after what seemed like an eternity.

Max nodded and continued to pace. He really didn’t know what to say. He had told Michael to leave on a whim.

”Do you want to talk about it?”

Max’s stomach was at the fore front of his mind. It felt like someone had just punched hi in the gut. He turned to her, determined not to look into her eyes. “You should have told me.”

“Maybe.” Liz answered quietly.

“No! Not maybe. You should have told me!” He knew his voice was rising but he didn’t care.

“And if I had what would you have done?”

“Found a way out!”

“How exactly? Oh I forgot – you’re all powerful! Max, think about it, you as a man couldn’t find another way out after fourteen years, what makes you think you, as a boy would have had a better chance?”

He considered what she was saying. More than likely she was correct, but he didn’t want to believe it. It was as if some of his youthful optimism had seeped back into his thoughts. He pushed the optimism away, he was a realist now, determined to act like one.

Without another word, Max took her face into his hands and pulled it up to look into his eyes. He knew instantly why he had been avoiding her eyes. All coherent thought left him. He touched her hair, after all these years, she was still the most beautiful girl in the world. All he could think about was what was and what could have been.

He willed himself to concentrate, to make the connection so that he could heal her. He told himself he was doing it so he could find the answers he sought. He felt his heart pounding, he started to shake; he focused all the strength and energy that he had left on this mission.

Liz realized what Max was trying to do, but she knew almost instantly that it wasn’t going to work. She looked up into his eyes and tried to open herself to him but it didn’t help; still nothing happened.

She saw by his expression the exact moment when he realized his efforts where futile.

He gazed into her eyes for just a moment longer; then slowly dropped his hands in defeat and walked away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Serena walked into the room, later that evening, babbling about her brilliance until she saw Liz. She knew something was wrong. “What’s the matter Boo?” She asked as she sat down next to Liz.

Liz turned to Serena, with tears in her eyes and said, “I still love him.”

Serena pulled Liz into a hug. “Oh Boo, it’s ok.”

Liz shook her head “He is an awful man now; you should hear the things Michael said about him. Everyone hates him and from what I understand he deserves it. I shouldn’t love him anymore, it doesn’t make sense.”

Serena couldn’t help but empathize. She had been there once upon a time. “Don’t you dare think that love is supposed to be logical. The heart wants what the heart wants. There’s not much you can do about it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: So just call that the LONGEST DAY. Max finally gets to sleep and maybe – just maybe – he won’t be quite the ass when he wakes up. No really – sorry that took so long but there was a lot going on that you all needed to know (for the future) but I am glad (and you all probably are too) that this day is finally over. See you soon.

I cannot tell you all how happy I am that the “Longest Day” is over. From now on you all should get more answers to your questions than just more questions. And for those of you who are still waiting for the beginning “teaser” – it’s coming.

Again – thank you so much for your wonderful feedback (and those who are sending private messages). Thanks to all you lurkers too!!! You all really are amazing and soooo helpful – I might have given up a long time ago without your support.

Well anyway – one more time . . .

THANK YOU – THANK YOU – THANK YOU!!!

Part 15

“Isabel?” Max questioned Onuris about his sister.

“No sire, we haven’t found her, although we believe she may have gone to Mexico.”

Max nodded. “I need you to take some papers down to Michael.” He had been avoiding the cages for weeks. Actually it wasn’t the cages but Liz. Every time he saw her, his emotions would get the better of him. Guilt or anger would consume him. Sometimes they seemed to blend together so he couldn’t tell exactly what he was feeling. The anger seemed to cause the guilt which seemed to cause more anger. It was an endless cycle causing him to become a little weaker each time – a feeling he could not contend with – so he stayed away.

As a result he had not seen Michael much either, but that hadn’t mattered, each time he had encountered Michael some kind of dispute seemed to occur in a matter of minutes. He knew someday he would have to deal with that situation but he kept procrastinating, telling himself that he had more important things to deal with.

“Of course sire.” Onuris bowed, knowing that he would have one of his underlings do it. He could not risk the human girl seeing him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Has Vilandra been found again?”

“Yes your majesty she has. She is in town of Banff in Alberta, Canada. She has been there for more then a week, she may leave soon.”

“You will not lose her again!”

He shivered at the command, knowing that the queen had not been pleased when they found her last month only to lose her within a few days. “Yes ma’am. We have someone following her.”

“That bit of information does not ease my mind!”

“Yes, your majesty.” He bowed low.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now allowed to walk over to the main house – with a guard of course, Serena sat in Max’s office waiting to give him her report on her progress with the granilith.

Unshaven and in rumpled clothes, Max walked in with another man. Max nodded towards Serena as he grabbed something off of a shelf and handed it to the man.

“I’ll get these to the general posthaste, sire.” The man bowed low and walked out.

Max turned and looked at Serena.

“So you haven’t been sleeping.” She started.

Max nodded. He had learned over the past few weeks it was better not to argue with her. “Would you like something to eat?”

“No I ate with Liz and Michael earlier.” She noticed the pain cross his face as she said it.

He forced a half-smile. “So – the granilith?”

“Of course, I have discovered that we need a key to make it work. This” Serena pulled out a drawing Michael had made. “is what I believe the key will look like.”

Max took the picture. “What is it made out of?”

“I don’t really know. It has to contain a small amount of fuel, other than that it could be made of anything.”

“I will get someone to start looking for it. Anything else?”

“You know it!” Serena got up and walked over to Max, pulling out more of her notes. She went on to tell him everything she had discovered about the granilith this week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Your Excellency.” Bowing, the servant came into Khivar’s bed chamber.

“How dare you!” Khivar lifted his arm to strike the servant down.

The servant immediately prostrated himself on the floor before his master. “Please Your Excellency, the dowager queen herself, has sent you a message and I was ordered by your minister to deliver it to you immediately.” Shaking in fear he lifted the note with his hand towards his emperor.

Khivar pushed the woman next to him away and got out of his bed. He walked over to the servant still sprawled before him. The servant was sobbing now, something about having a family. Khivar squatted so he could look into the servant’s eyes. He placed his hand on the servant’s head and watched as the blood started to run out of his eyes.

When it was done, he pried the note from the servant’s dead hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max was filling her shot glass again.

Serena downed it. “God I love tequila.”

Max smirked.

Over the last few months, this had become a regular Saturday night ritual. They had developed a kind of dubious camaraderie. Serena would come in, tell him about her work, after which they would talk and drink. Well, Serena would drink, Max would just talk. As strange as it might seem to others they found they had a lot in common. Besides, Serena was the only person left that wasn’t scared of Max.

Actually they rarely (if ever) talked about anything meaningful. Their conversations leaned more towards the frivolous. Max would enthrall her with adventures of being an alien, some true – some false and Serena would amuse Max with stories of parties and politics in New Orleans, most true. Both of them were very careful to leave out any details that would give too much insight to the other.

Serena knew instantly by Max’s demeanor that this would not be a typical discussion night. “Damn.” She thought. Her senses were already dulled by the tequila.

“So have you ever betrayed your best friend?” Max asked.

“Sure – hasn’t everyone?” She smiled, trying to make light of the situation. She looked over at him and noticed that he was not smiling. His face was hard and determined. He wanted to talk about this and she wasn’t going to sway him. “Are we talking about you or Liz?” He continued to stare. “Fine – yes I have.” She downed another shot.

“So tell me.”

Serena sighed. “I was angry so I kept something of great importance from someone I loved – my husband.”

“What were you mad about?”

Serena rolled her eyes. “Everything and nothing. I don’t know. He couldn’t or wouldn’t trust me, he lied to me about who he was, he hurt me and then he hurt someone I cared about.”

“So what did you keep from him?”

Serena shook her head – determined not to tell him, but she felt the effects of the tequila and she had wanted to confess to someone for such a long time. “A child.” She laughed. “You know what’s so funny about it all. Through it all – I still loved him – hell” she added silently, “I still love him.” She picked up her glass again. She hadn’t talked about this in years.

Max thought about his son and how much he loved him. He hated Tess and blamed her for everything, even him having to give Zan away. He tried to imagine how he would feel if Tess had never even bothered to tell him about Zan.

He silently took a drink. What could he say? He knew she wasn’t telling him the whole story and what she wasn’t telling him was probably much worse.

She watched as he gulped down the tequila. “I thought you didn’t drink?”

Max was still lost in his thoughts and didn’t want to be interrogated about his alcohol consumption. “I want a drink – so I’m having one!”

“Hey – I’m not your momma. I’m not telling you not to. Have a freakin drink if you want one. I was just under the impression that your alien constitution couldn’t handle it.”

He knew he had snapped at her for no reason. “I guess I’m use to Isabel lecturing me about it.”

Serena shrugged. She really didn’t want to continue this discussion anymore. “Look I better go.” She stood up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Khivar opened the folded parchment.

A meeting is needed to discuss the future of our great world and the worlds that surround it. The place should be neutral. You may choose the time but it must be soon. Please send my servant with your answer.

He looked up from to note to the minister standing in front of him. “The servant I just killed – is that the queen’s servant?”

“No, Your Excellency. I am no dolt. That servant was one of ours sent for your amusement.”

Khivar smiled evilly. “Good, good.” He sat at a table and scribbled something. “Please give this to the queen’s servant.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Serena was walking back to the cave when Max caught up with her and her guard.

“Wait!” Max commanded.

The guard turned towards his king as soon as he heard him. “Yes sire.” The guard bowed.

“I will make sure Dr. Baptiste gets put back into her cage.” Max told the guard.

“Yes sire.” The guard continued to stand at attention.

“You can go away now!” Max told the guard gruffly.

She laughed as she watched the guard scurry away. “You know you really are an ass.”

Max didn’t smile. She could tell that he wanted to talk some more. “I know.”

Serena tripped. “Whoa – almost lost my balance on that one.” She teased. “What did you say?”

Max stopped and turned towards her. “I’m not in the mood.”

Exasperated, Serena asked, “What then?”

“How can you betray someone you love?”

Serena knew what he was asking. “Since I can’t believe that Liz betrayed you, I can’t give you the answer you want.”

“It doesn’t matter what you or anyone else believes, I know she did!” Max yelled in her face.

Serena backed away. “Fine – say she did – do you really believe she did it without a reason – a damn good reason!”

“There isn’t a reason that can explain it away!” The anger was rising in Max. Maybe it was being so close to the cave entrance, knowing that Liz was in there – so close.

“You know what? You might be right but it is obviously tearing you up inside. You need to stop avoiding her and find out what that reason is. Maybe you should heal her and then she could just tell you.”

“I already tried.” Max said softly. “It didn’t work.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liz sat in her room writing in a notebook Michael had produced weeks before. She smiled as she remembered the day he had given it to her.

Michael had walked into her new room with his hand behind his back, grinning from ear to ear. “How do you like your new cage?”

She rolled her eyes. “These rooms aren’t so bad.”

“I know but that is what Max calls them so we all eventually started using the term.”

She shrugged. “What are you doing here? I thought you were helping Serena in the lab today.”

“I am but I have a cage warming present for you.” He pulled the notebook from behind his back and handed it to her. “I know it’s not as nice as your journal was but Serena mentioned that it might help to write down your dreams as soon as you wake up from one so I got this for you. You can use it to write mean things about us all too.”

“Oh please – I would never.” She walked over to him to give him an awkward hug.

Michael had pulled away. He had a goofy grin on his face. “I have to get back – you know how your friend gets – she is a slave driver.”

The notebook had never been used to write down her thoughts of the day – just what she endured in the night – but it didn’t seem to be helping. Still she wrote - knowing that since Max could not heal her, this notebook might be her only hope to remember the years she lost.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Your Majesty.” Khivar bowed.

“Khivar.” The queen offered her hand regally.

”So you wish to speak about Antar’s future?”

“I do. I have a proposition for you. I would like to make an exchange.”

Khivar diabolical laugh echoed through the corridors. “What could you possibly have left, my dear queen? Everything of value I have already taken.”

One word was all she needed to utter. “Vilandra.”

Khivar’s smirk seemed to transfer to the queen. “You are willing to give me your daughter? What would I have to give you in return?”

“My grandchild.”

“You know I cannot give him to you.”

The queen stood, readying herself to leave. “The terms are non-negotiable.” Her lady’s in waiting scurried to her side as she turned to leave.

Khivar watched as the queen of his past started to glide away. “Madame!” He called after her.

She stopped and turned her head slightly but did not answer.

“Where shall the exchange take place?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK - I'm back - I hope you all are still with me.

Thanks for your patience during my brain freeze. Hopefully I won't EVER take this long again without a real reason but this part really wouldn't come out the way I wanted it to. I finally decided to stop stressing about it and leave it. Hope it meets with you all's aproval.

Just wanted to say Howdy to the new readers out there. Thanks so much for trying out my story.

Thanks again to everyone for all the awesome FB and all you all who just lurk too.

Well, here we go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Musical thought. . .
The Boy Feels Strange – Melissa Etheridge

And he looks at me in wonder
And he looks at me in fear
Wrestling with his anger
His pride and stony tears
To place me in his life
Will be hard and slow
Does he want it need it
I might never know
The boy feels strange
Oh the boy has changed

Looking from my tower
I can see his fortress strong
Surrounded by his army
Where do I belong
Does he ever find the answers
In the cars as they go by
Does he ever want to ask me why
The boy feels strange
Oh the boy has changed

And he's seen with all the women
Who think that he's a god
And he blesses whom he pleases
Holding fast to the facade
I want to reach out and believe him
Through his miles and miles of pain
But lately when I touch him
The boy feels strange

And he speaks to me of business
When I ask him how he's been
Keeps me at a distance
Never getting under skin
Can he make a new beginning
Does he even want to try
Or will he only let it die
The boy feels strange
Oh the boy feels strange
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part 16

“What the hell are you doing here?” Max barked at Michael as he entered the study.

Michael jumped back. He realized that he hadn’t spent a lot of time (hell any time) with Max lately and when they did it wasn’t exactly cordial but he hadn’t expected Max to start an argument the moment he walked in. Michael decided not to take the bait; instead he dropped the destiny book on the desk in front of Max. “Serena can’t read it.”

“Onuris?”

Michael smirked at the question. Max had spent the last few weeks holed up in his study; he hadn’t even bothered to have meetings with his minions. Michael had had more contact with Onuris then Max – and Michael hated Onuris. “He can’t read it either. He said that the writing is in some kind of ancient language known only to the royalty of Antar.”

Max picked up the book. He had given it to Serena because he thought it might have answers to some of her questions about how the granilith works. “So what does she want now?”

“She has a friend who is a linguist working in Europe.”

Disbelief crossed Max’s eyes as he looked up at Michael from his chair. “And she wants someone to go get this friend?” “The girl has guts; you have to give her that.” He thought to himself as he waited for Michael to answer.

Michael shook his head. “She was very adamant about him not being “abducted” – her word – not mine.” He added, trying not to ignite a fight. “She wants to call him – have him come here.”

Max almost had confidence in Serena but that didn’t mean he was going to trust all humans, most of them still were untrustworthy in his mind. “I don’t think so. I’m not letting her call someone and tell them where we are, that’s suicide.”

Michael was relieved. Ever since Max’s minions had found the key to the granilith Michael had been concerned that one day Serena would tell them that she had figured it all out and they could use the damn machine to go home.

Max opened the book and stared at the words. He hadn’t had a lot of time to study it over the years, not with enemies coming at him at all fronts so it was still gibberish to him. “Let her call him but I want someone watching her. Explain to her that she is to tell her friend someone will pick him up. We can bring him in without him knowing where he is going.”

Michaels shook his head in defeat. Max’s mission was still clearly set in his mind. He would find a way to get them all to Antar or die trying. “Have you found Iz yet?” It was Michael’s last hope. Max would never leave earth without Isabel.

Max shook his head. “No.”

Relief swept over Michael’s face. Not just because his feet were firmly planted on Earth if she was gone but because if he hadn’t found Isabel then Max also hadn’t found Maria and if Maria hadn’t been found then she was safe – at least from Max.

Max watched as Michael’s face eased. Knowing the fear Michael was feeling, he decided to do something completely out of character – he decided to ease Michael’s mind. “I’ve ordered that the human’s aren’t to be harmed. They will be let go as long as Isabel comes.”

Michael nodded his gratitude. He waited for another minute and then turned to leave.

“Michael wait. I want to ask you something.”

He stopped and turned around. “What?”

“Did Liz do it?”

Michael couldn’t decide what startled him more, Max barking at him as soon as he came in or this. “I don’t believe she did willingly.” Michael stood there looking at Max for a long time. Finally convinced that Max wasn’t going to say anything else he decided to add to his assessment. “She has nightmares, Max.”

Max nodded with understanding of what Michael was telling him.

Michael waited for a minute then turned to leave once again.

”I wouldn’t have hurt her.” Max said softly.

Michael paused. He knew they weren’t talking about Liz anymore but Maria. He wanted to say something but decided against it. He walked out the door, closing it behind him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There were nights when Max couldn’t sleep, when he didn’t want to be bothered by planets and aliens, when he just needed to be alone.

Those nights he would walk outside like he use to when he was a kid. He would look at the stars and remember carefree days, when he wasn’t the king, when he didn’t have responsibilities, when he was in love with the purest, most beautiful girl in the world. Tonight was one of those nights.

The problem with tonight though was that he couldn’t think about the carefree days of his past. Tonight the solitude was more of an affliction. He could only focus on the questions that tormented him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aware of the guard behind her, Liz walked around the compound, thinking about her dreams. She had been so happy when Serena had told her that she had convinced Max to let them outside. Liz had missed this, walking under the night stars after waking up from a disturbing dream, and tonight the dream had been more disturbing than usual.

She sat down on a large rock and stared up into the sky. The dreams were wreaking havoc on her mind. She would wake terrified but no closer to any answers. She would write the dreams down, and then go over them dozens of times to no avail; she was still missing over three years of her life.

A shooting star blazed through the sky. Liz knew it wasn’t really a star but she liked the fantasy. She watched the debris burned up and disappeared, wondering if that piece of rubble was part of a distant planet like Antar.

Lost in her thoughts, Liz was startled when she heard Max’s voice.

“What are you doing out here?” He asked gruffly.

“Serena – she said it was alright with you and the guards let me out.” She motioned with her eyes at the guard standing a few yards away.

He raised his head to see a guard watching. At least they weren’t letting the humans out of their site. He nodded.

He remembered telling the guards that the humans could go outside after an argument with Serena. She had caught him while he was drinking and then proceeded to bitch about vitamin D, the need for fresh air and some other shit Max couldn’t remember at that moment. He pledged to himself once again to never have another drink. He looked back at Liz, happy that she could not see the longing on his face. He turned to leave.

Liz stood up. “Max – wait.”

Barley more than a whisper, he almost hadn’t heard her call out. He felt his stomach grumble. Months of avoiding her ended in that moment. He knew he should just walk away but he didn’t, an undeniable force wouldn’t let him leave. “What?”

“I’m sorry.”

When he heard those words, guilt caused his gut to wrench as if someone had just punched him. “Why had she said them?” He thought.

He knew the guilt was just a prequel to the anger. Thinking again “She should have known better.”

“What are you sorry for?” His voice seemed to rise with every word. “For lying, for leaving without a word, or for betraying me!?!”

“All of it – some of it – I don’t know.” Liz signed in exasperation. “I’m sorry for lying to you.”

“And the rest!?!”

She looked up with wide eyes. “I honestly don’t know Max.”

He shut down. “It’s done. It is too late for apologies.” The agitation in his voice was gone and replaced by an eerie tranquility.

She could tell when she was being dismissed. She would not have it. He might have read the journal but he didn’t get it. She was desperate for him to understand. “I did lie about sleeping with Kyle but I didn’t do it to hurt you! I never wanted to hurt you. Please believe me. I loved you.” She looked down and added silently, “I still do.”

For just an infinitesimal space of time, Max was moved by her quiet profession of love, his wall seemed to start to crumble but just as quickly it was refortified. “That is your misfortune then.”

“Max please, “she pleaded “I thought I was doing the right thing! I did it for Earth, for Isabel, for Michael, and even for Tess.” She heard her voice strain as she willed him to understand. I did it for . . .”

He stopped her. He knew what she was going to say and he didn’t want to hear her try to explain it away. “Don’t even try to blame that hell on me!” Enraged, he started to tell her all the things he had wanted to tell her from the beginning. “Did you do it for Alex!?! You realize what happened because of your lie!?! ALEX DIED!”

He waited for that statement to sink in – then continued. “It was Tess but YOU blamed us! We didn’t find out for years that it was Tess! And now I have a son that I can never see! Hell I even killed his mother! NONE OF IT would have happened if you had just told me the truth, if you would have just believed in me!!!"

The anger wasn’t subsiding – he kept going – he couldn’t stop. He wanted to hurt her as much as she had hurt him. "You didn’t do it for me and don’t pretend you did! You did it for HIM – this future version of me. You trusted HIM more then you trusted ME!”

Liz hated him in that moment. Although she knew part of her hate was irrational, she couldn’t help it. She hated him for coming back through time, for asking her to break his heart, for trusting only her to accomplish his dreadful goals and for blaming her for it all. But most of all she hated him for not believing in her now, for not loving her anymore. Liz felt the tears coming. She tried to push them back but couldn’t.

He stopped when he saw that she was crying. He had accomplished his objective. He realized at that moment that he was feeling something more then the reactionary anger he had felt since he had first lain eyes on her again. He felt pain. Pain from betrayal or from hurting her – he didn’t know which. All he knew was that there was feeling there – a precious kind of pain.

He looked at her and could see that she was hurt – she did bring this on herself – she deserved to feel guilty but her tears were so heartbreaking: her lips were so full and soft. "Fuck it!" He couldn’t resist any longer. He knew that he had to heal the pain. He gabbed her, pulled her to him and kissed her. He needed to kiss her. He needed to be one with her. He needed the connection that he once shared with her. He needed to find her and his humanity. She resisted at first but he held on. He held on to her as if both their lives depended on it. He was determined to find the connection, to find the answers and to find himself. He could feel her as she stopped her resistance, as she put her arms around him and kissed him back. She kissed him with the same urgency, as if she was also looking for the connection, but it didn’t come. He stopped and looked at her, tears brimming in both their eyes; they both felt then that the connection was lost forever. They lost everything these years they had been apart, she lost her memory, he lost his humanity, they had lost their hope, their reason for living, but they had lost something much more important, the ability to heal each other and with it their destiny. Would they ever be able to find it again?

Pushing away the tears, he turned and walked away. He wasn’t going to cry, not over her, not ever again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

”Speak up!” The queen ordered. “What happened between my son and the human girl?”

The man literally shook as he answered. “They spoke and – and – he kissed her.”

”And then . . .” the queen prompted.

“Zan walked away from her.”

The queen smiled slyly. “Good.”

Confused but soothed by her demeanor he relaxed.

The queen did not abide by this. “Do not believe you will be spared because I am pleased about these events. I would not have to worry about the human girl at all if you had done your job correctly.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” He bowed low trying to show his contrition.

“Soon, Vilandra’s fate will be known to Zan. When this happens you are to stay on Earth to keep the human girl from harm.”

He bowed again, trying not to show his disappointment of not returning home. “As you wish, my queen.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part 17

“HOLY SHIT MAX! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?!” Michael yelled at the top of his lungs knowing that was the only way Max might hear him over the explosions.

He didn’t look at Michael or even acknowledge his presence. He raised his hand again towards another boulder.

The following explosion rang in Michael’s ear. He waited for the residual sound to dissipate. “You know those explosions brought some kids wanting to see what the hell was going on! Don’t worry though – I killed them for you!”

Max wasn’t amused by Michaels little joke but he didn’t say anything he just raised his hand once more, causing another explosion.

Michael waited again then walked into Max’s path of destruction.

Finally Max spoke. “Get the hell out of my way Michael.”

Michael didn’t move, although he was mentally prepared to deflect another blast if he needed to. “What the hell is your problem!?!”

Max dropped his hand and shrugged. “Nothing – nothing at all.”

“To hell it’s nothing! You’re going to have the FBI, the CIA, the National Guard – hell you name it – they will come running from all the noise and destruction you’re causing!”

Max sat down on a nearby rock. “It doesn’t matter.”

“IT DOESN’T MATTER!?!” Michael was angry and a little dumfounded. “MAYBE NOT TO YOU; BUT WHAT ABOUT TO ME? I DON’T WANT TO END UP BEING STUDIED BY SOME GOVERNMENT AGENT!!!”

Max looked down at the ground. “Then leave.”

Michael couldn’t believe what he was hearing; Max was full of surprises tonight. “Leave? What exactly do you mean leave?”

Max picked up a rock sitting next to him and threw it. “I mean get out of here Michael. I won’t stop you or have you followed – just go. You were right – all of you deserve to be happy. Go find Maria. Marry her – it’s about time anyway – go have the life you’ve always wanted with her.” Of course he thought but didn’t add “At least what’s left of it.”

“What about Liz and Serena – can I take them with me?”

Max nodded. “Sure – take everyone.” He said in all seriousness.

Michael had wished for this moment for a long time but now that it had happened he wasn’t completely happy about it. He could see it in Max’s face, he wasn’t letting him go because he truly believed it was best – Max was letting him go because he had given up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isabel opened the door to the hotel room her and Jesse had lived in for the past few weeks to find two men holding a gun to Jesse’s head.

Her fear caused her to hesitate for just a moment before lifting her hand to blast them into the next dimension. “I’m warning you – let him go!” She ordered.

One of the men put his hand up bringing a shield around the three of them and giving away their non human status. “I am sorry your highness but we have orders.”

Isabel dropped her hand. Were these Max’s men? “I’ll kill him!” She said to herself. “What the hell do you want!?!” She asked them.

The man with the gun answered. “You are to come with us. If you come peaceably we will not hurt this human. If you do not we will have to kill him.”

“Don’t do it.” Jesse warned.

She knew he didn’t want her going back to Max – not after all he had done but she couldn’t see another way out. She signaled her agreement to the men.

One man continued to hold a gun on Jesse while the other walked over to Isabel, grabbed her by the arm, and started to lead her towards the field behind the hotel.

She pulled out of the man’s grasp and took a step towards Jesse. She wanted to kiss him one last time.

The man grabbed her arm again. “He will shoot if you get any closer.”

She turned towards Jesse. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” She smiled slightly through her watered eyes.

Already feeling the guilt of being used as a pawn, Jesse felt the tears flowing down his face. “Don’t go.” He pleaded. “It’s not worth it.”

She ignored him and smiled at him one last time. “I love you Jesse.”

”I love you.” He replied.

He watched as she was led to the field behind the hotel. He thought there must be a car or something there until he saw what looked like a huge vortex form in the field. He looked on in awe while his wife and the man disappeared.

“Where the hell did she go!?! WHERE DID HE TAKE HER!?!” He demanded of the man still holding a gun to his head. Jesse dropped his head at the realization. “You aren’t Max’s men – are you?”

The man didn’t answer. He just lowered his gun and walked away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m not leaving Michael. That’s final.”

Liz was driving him mad. They had been arguing about this for almost an hour. He had warned her about other aliens and the FBI but she continued to be obstinate. “You have to leave. This might be your only chance. You’re not safe here.” He said once again.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Look Liz.” He decided to focus more on Max’s instability. “I don’t know what happened between the two of you tonight but Max isn’t right. Hell – he’s freakin nuts! He has questions about your part in betraying him but he might resolve them – and not to your benefit. He might not want to kill you today but next week – who knows.”

“I know the risks. I can’t leave him. He still needs me and I still love him.”

Michael wasn’t surprised by the confession, she had always been there for Max, always loved Max, but he was surprised by her foolishness. Liz always seemed to know when it was time to give up – for her own safety as well as others – maybe her judgment was clouded because it was Max who she really needed to be afraid of.

Michael decided that maybe it was time to be brutal. “He doesn’t love you, Liz.” He wasn’t sure but something told him he was lying. “He hasn’t for a long time – he won’t protect you and your being here won’t help him! It just might get you killed.”

She knew he wasn’t trying to be mean, he was just trying to protect her but the words still hurt. She looked him in the eyes. “You might be right.” She said sadly. “But I AM staying.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After being told by Michael that she could leave, Serena walked around her room, trying to decide what to do. Liz was staying and Serena understood her reasons but it was Liz’s choice to stay now – she surely didn’t need Serena anymore. But Serena had a feeling that her job there wasn’t done.

She looked at the small collection of items she had acquired during the last few months. She was so close to getting the granilith to work. She knew it and she wanted to see it through but home called her. She missed New Orleans – she missed her freedom – hell – she missed sex. Serena giggled at her last thought.

Serena continued to weigh her options carefully until finally making her decision – she was staying. She opened her door and walked out into the hall to find Michael walking towards the other cages. “Michael STOP!”

Michael turned around and walked towards Serena. “What?” Just then his cell phone rang.

“Michael here.” He answered. He listened to the other side with a confused look on his face. Then handed the phone to Serena, “It’s - - - for - - - you.”

Serena grabbed the phone – just as confused. “Hello?”

Michael watched as Serena talked to the woman on the phone. “What the hell was going on?” He asked himself. “How the hell did someone know to call his cell at that moment to talk to Serena?”

“Thank the Great Goddess, you are alright.” Serena’s confusion changed to understanding, as she heard Cassandra’s voice on the other end.

“I’m fine.” Then Serena’s demeanor changed to exasperation. She knew Cassandra wouldn’t be calling like this if she didn’t have something important (and probably bothersome) to tell Serena. “What is it now?”

“What you can do is done. You must leave.” Cassandra said succinctly.

”I can’t. I’m still needed here. Liz still needs me.”

“The fact that you called her Liz proves that you are no longer needed Sera.” Cassandra became more impassioned. “You must leave. I no longer see you with them. Their destiny is unclear and your safety is no longer assured.”

Serena rolled her eyes the responded adamantly. “I’m staying!”

Cassandra was silent as if she were thinking on what to do. Finally she answered. “If you stay I will have no choice but to tell . . .”

Serena cut her off. “DON’T!”

“I must, Sera, it is for your own good. You cannot be lost.”

Serena knew that chances were she couldn’t change Cassandra’s mind but she decided to try. “Look – I know you won’t like this but someone is coming. I won’t be alone.”

“I know. And you are correct, I do not like it. You know I do not trust him.”

“I know – but I do and so does my loving ex that you DO trust so completely - so please leave it alone.”

“If you get their machine working will you promise to leave?”

Serena knew she had just received a reprieve. “Yes – I will – I promise.”

Cassandra sighed. “Ask the man for his phone. He will give it to you. I will pray to the Great Goddess for your safety.” With that she was gone.

Serena closed the phone.

“Who was that?” Michael asked.

Serena looked up at Michael – she had forgotten that he was there. “No one.”

”How the hell did no one get my phone number?”

Serena shrugged – trying to be dismissive.

Michael wasn’t dissuaded so easily. “Serena.” He demanded.

“Oh – fine – it was a friend of mine. She just knows things – kind of like Liz but – she’s much better at it. She is worried because I am choosing to stay.”

“You are not staying!” Michael said – his voice rising.

“I am.” Serena turned and walked back into her room mumbling, “Why does everyone think they need to tell me how to run my life?”

Michael didn’t know what to say. He had had this conversation with Liz earlier. Liz had dismissed the idea of leaving completely. No matter what he had said he had been unable to change her mind, and he had learned over the last few months that Serena was just as hardheaded (if not more so) than Liz. What could he do? He felt guilty leaving them – he even entertained the idea of staying but he knew he couldn’t. He would come back as soon as he could but for now he had to find Maria and make sure she was alright.

Serena started again. “Look all this isn’t important. I understand that you need to go but you can’t tell anyone they can leave. If you do – Max will be dead in a week. The others are bound to tell anyone who will listen where they have been. I realize that most people will just think they are crazy but even if one believes them – well it won’t be pretty. Let me get the granilith working. Maybe then Max and the other aliens will have a chance.”

Michael didn’t answer but Serena knew he had agreed. “Michael – one more thing.”

“Yeah.”

“I need your phone.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The queen sat in her private residence writing a letter to an old friend who had been exiled to a different part of their world when one of her ladies walked in.

“Mistress.” The lady spoke softly.

The queen lifted her head and looked at her faithful servant. “Yes dear.”

“There is a man here to see you. He says it is extremely urgent.”

“Let him in.”

The lady nodded elegantly and walked out of the room only to return with the man.

“You may go.” The queen said towards the lady.

The lady curtsied and scurried from the room.

The queen paid no attention to the man for a few minutes, then without lifting her head she asked, “Is it done?”

“Yes, your majesty. Your daughter is safely home.”

The queen sat stoically. “She is not to know where she is.”

“Of course not.” The man agreed.

“Good.” The queen picked up another piece of parchment and wrote something on it, then sealed it and handed it to the man. “This is to be delivered to Khivar.” She said with disdain.

“Yes, your highness.” The man bowed low and left the room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for reading and thanks extra bunches for all the feedback!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PART 18

Exhausted, after a sleepless night and a long flight, Jesse walked through the terminal. He reached down into his pocket, checking, once again, that the small slip of paper was still there. He had to find the man whose name was written on it. He was the only one who might know where Maria was – and Maria was the only person that Jesse knew of that could take him to Max.

Once again he regretted allowing Maria to separate from Isabel and him. Just a few weeks after their escape and at Maria’s insistence, they had left her in a small town in Montana where she had explained that she would catch a bus and go stay with a friend – Billy Darden – in New York City.

Both Isabel and Jesse had been leery about it, thinking it was best to stay together, but Maria was, as always, very persuasive. Besides, Isabel had decided that making her stay with them when she didn’t want to was what Max would do – what they were trying to escape.

Now, after months without contact, Jesse was desperate to find her so she could lead him to Max. He had known as soon as the vortex (or whatever the hell it was) had closed that Max hadn’t been the one to take his wife and if Max wasn’t behind it, then Jesse was certain that someone or something – not of this world – was. He also knew without alien powers on his side there was no possibility that he would ever get his wife back.

He still couldn’t believe that the whole reason for their leaving was now their only hope. For years, Isabel had warned him to stay away from Max for his own safety. But now Jesse was choosing to go into the lion’s den – to seek out Max Evans and beg for his help – it was Jesse’s only chance of getting her back and he didn’t care if his brother-in-law tried to kill him in the process.

Seeing the phones to his right, he turned into one of the booths. He picked up the white pages and started flipping through.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max woke up to the morning sun shining in his eyes. Disoriented, he squinted to survey his surroundings. He couldn’t remember how but he had obviously fallen asleep on the desert floor the night before. He stood up realizing that he must have walked quite some distance after leaving Michael, because he had to be two or three miles from the compound.

He was barely into the first mile of his long trek when the memories of the night before started to plague him. The argument with Liz had been brutal and even necessary but it still bothered him.

He remembered the blame he placed on her for Alex’s death, but he knew, even then, that the blame wasn’t hers. She had been too young and too much in love to foresee the ramifications of what “could” happen because of her deceptions. Blaming her was as naive as blaming himself when he couldn’t heal Alex.

He actually started to place the blame on himself for it all, but stopped, the man who came from the future was no more him than Ava was Tess. It might have been who he could have become – but it wasn’t him now, nor had it ever been. He was saddened by the realization that what he had actually turned into was someone much worse. He did blame himself for how he had treated the ones he loved these last few years - but he would make that right.

By now, Michael surely had left and taken everyone with him. Max could distract Khivar and any other enemies long enough for them to disappear and then, when the time was right, Max had decided he would give himself up; he would martyr himself to keep the family safe and the ones he loved would never have to know. That was the only just end for him after all the years of misery he had caused.

His thoughts kept going back to Liz and the kiss. Emotionally he knew he was a mess over that kiss and that it would haunt him for the rest of his short life. On one hand he regretted the kiss more than anything he had ever done but on the other he couldn’t get past the disappointment of not being able to connect with her anymore.

The regret came from a need to push her away so she would be safe. He had not fully reconciled her betrayal with his emotions – his certainty was still present over what he knew she had done but he also had finally admitted to himself that she had to have had a damn good reason.

The feelings that he had thought were lost, but actually just buried deep inside of him, were coming to the surface. He knew and probably had always known that he wanted her, needed her and hell, he even loved her but that wasn’t enough. Too much had happened that didn’t have thing to do with Liz and now he had to fix it.

He was thankful that she was gone, that he would never have a chance to tell her how he really felt. That he would die with her believing that all had been lost between them long ago.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liz spent the day preparing for the fight she would have with Max. He wasn’t going to like her staying and that would eventually bring him to her and she had to be ready.

Michael’s comment about Max not loving her had hurt but she had gotten past it. She understood why Michael had said it; that Michael had only been concerned for her safety and now she even realized that he hadn’t believed what he had told her anymore than she believed it.

Max loved her – and even if he didn’t know it – she did. Not from a supernatural vision or a flash but from her heart. She knew that no matter what he said or did or believed he was capable of doing, he still loved her.

Liz wasn’t ignorant about these feelings. She understood that they hadn’t connected, understood that she could, and Max probably would use that fact as a reason to give up. But she also knew something else, that even if they had not connected on some alien level, they had connected. Their hearts had connected on human level. She had seen it in his eyes and felt it in her soul. The connection was not broken – it couldn’t be – it could be fixed – there was an answer. She knew it and she was determined to find the resolution.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jesse knocked on the door to Billy Darden’s apartment. He hadn’t told Maria what was going on when he called, he had decided that was best told in person.

A man answered the door. “Hi – you must be Jesse.”

Jesse smiled politely and nodded. “And you’re Mr. Darden.”

“Actually – no – that would be my dad. Billy or Bill is fine.” Billy motioned for Jesse to come into the apartment. “Well, come on in. Maria is in the bathroom – you know how women are?” He rolled his eyes jokingly.

Jesse assessed Billy. Despite his scruffy appearance he seemed to be an alright guy. Jesse smiled. “Yeah I know what you mean.” But then the smile disappeared as he added, “Isabel never allows me any time in the bathroom.”

“Have a seat.” Billy motioned towards the second hand couch. “I’ll take your bag into the other room.”

When Billy went to grab Jesse’s bag, Jesse shook his head. “No, that’s ok. I can’t stay long.” He said while pulling his bag out of Billy’s reach.

Billy shrugged. “Suit yourself. Hey – do you want a drink? We have beer, Pepsi and water.”

“Pepsi, please.” Jesse had been dying of thirst so water might have been better but he needed the caffeine to keep him going.

“Sure thing.”

As Billy disappeared around corner Jesse heard Maria’s voice coming from down the hall. “Billy, darling, are they here? I thought I heard Jesse.”

Jesse turned just in time to see a very happy but also very pregnant Maria Deluca emerge from the hallway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Showered and changed, Max leaned back on his bed to rest for a while. He needed it after his long hike through the desert.

He thought about his next move. Both saddened and relieved that he was now alone in this world. It gave him a feeling of freedom. Whatever happened now – good or bad – would only affect him. He picked up the picture Langley had given him months ago of Serena and Liz from his nightstand. He studied it sadly then reached for a box that was under his bed, opened it and added the picture to its contents. It was time to rid himself of all reminders of her.

He stared at the wall for the longest time, lost in his thoughts, until a knock interrupted him.

He got up and opened the door to find Langley.

“Your Majesty.”

Max opened the door wider so Langley could enter his room, then sat back down on his bed. “What?”

“Sir, Dr. Baptiste is requesting an audience with you.”

“Dr. Baptiste is gone.” Max answered slowly, knowing he was not going to like what Langley had to say next.

“No sir, she is not.”

Max jumped up and ran out of the room, leaving Langley only to watch.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max stomped into Serena’s room to find her poring over some papers as usual. He tried to keep calm. “Didn’t Michael tell you that you could leave?”

Serena nodded. “Yeah – he said something to that effect.”

Annoyed at her nonchalant attitude, Max’s voice started rising. “Why the hell not!?!”

Serena shrugged and pointed to the work in front of her. “I’m gonna figure this out first. I figure that if you are going to have a chance in hell of surviving you need me to – plus – Liz needs me.”

Max got pissed. What did she mean Liz needed her? Was Liz still here too? Liz couldn’t here, he wouldn’t allow it. She would get herself killed if she stayed. “You’re out of your mind. You’re not staying and neither is Liz.”

“Yeah – uh huh – sure.” she answered rather sarcastically. “You see, that’s the problem Max – Liz doesn’t want to go. I at least listened to Michael when he came to tell me that we could leave – but from what I understand Liz wouldn’t hear of it. She walked out of the room. Like it or not, she loves you and she will stay with you until you get yourself killed. I’m staying to make sure I don’t lose Liz in the process.”

Max hadn’t planned for this. He had believed they would all run as soon as he agreed to let them go. He didn’t ask why, he didn’t argue, he just walked out of her room, heading towards Liz’s.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dowager queen sat in her private quarters looking out a window at the moons of her beloved home planet. She tried not to think of the treachery she had set into motion, or the wrath her children would eventually aim towards her. She hated that they might not understand, and more than likely would never forgive her actions.

She was the queen – her planet would always come before anything else. It was her duty – her destiny. But she still was a mother – one who loved her children. To know that your children hated you, or would, was a pain second only to losing one.

Lost in her thoughts she hadn’t heard her Lady come to her. “Madame.”

The queen still did not answer.

“Your Majesty.” The younger woman said a bit louder.

The queen was jolted from her thoughts. “Yes?”

“The man that was here to see you yesterday is requesting an audience once again.”

The queen nodded, her emotions torn. She knew what he was coming to tell her. “Let him in on your way out.”

The lady curtsied and walked through the door. Seconds later the man came in and bowed low. “Your Majesty.” The man started. “The exchange has been made. It was successful.”

“And the boy?”

“Safely in the castle.”

The queen nodded and walked over to an old desk. She opened a drawer and pulled out a small package. “Here is your payment.” She said as she handed the man the item.

The man bowed. “Thank you.” Then walked out the door, leaving the queen to think once again on what she had done.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max stormed into the room Liz had been living in over the past few months. “YOU ARE LEAVING!”

Startled, she jumped but quickly recovered; collecting her nerve, knowing this is what she had spent the day preparing for. Calmly she answered his command. “No. I’m not.”

“The hell your not! You ARE leaving!”

“No.” That was all she could seem to say.”

“You can leave on your own or I will get some of my men to help you leave.”

“You can’t.” She managed to squeak out – knowing it wasn’t the greatest of rebuttals.

“I can and I will. You might as well get anything you want to take with you together – you will not be here in the morning.” He stopped there worried about what he might say if he continued. She had believed him – she would leave – she would be safe and that was all that mattered. He turned around and stomped out the door.

As he marched down the hall he realized that he should have called for a guard immediately to make good on his threat, but he didn’t, instead he walked out of the cave into the night air. He hated to admit it to himself but even now, after everything, he still wanted her near him and he didn’t know if he would go through with it if he had to watch as they took her away. He would have Onuris deal with her after he was away from the cave. She wasn’t in any immediate danger.

She watched, stunned, for a few minutes as he disappeared. “How was it so easy for him to deny everything they were to each other?” She asked herself.

Eventually she regained her senses, gathered her wits and ran out the door behind him. She wasn’t going to let this be the end. It couldn’t be.

She couldn’t see him, she had given him too much of a head start. She ran through the halls and climbed out of the cave, where she saw him in the distance. She willed her legs to move faster, following him as he walked through the desert. If she could have thought at that moment she might have laughed at the irony of chasing him.

He heard her as she approached but didn’t stop. He kept walking – faster. “Maybe she would get tired and go back.” He thought. But she didn’t – she just kept coming. Finally he stopped and turned around, letting her catch up with him. He prepared himself for battle but knew deep down he couldn’t win – not this war.

“Max – please – talk to me.” She pleaded.

“Let me be!” His hard determination not to let her effect him, was written on his face.

She whispered. “I can’t. I still love you.”

“You can’t still love me. Do you know who I’ve been – what I’ve done? You can’t love me – no one can!” He knew as soon as the words were out of his mouth that he had said too much – he had told her that he felt guilt and, in that, given her a reason to hold on.

She looked down. She knew what he had done. After hours of interrogation, Michael had finally told her everything. It might even bother her but she just didn’t care. She loved him – that was all that mattered. “But I do.”

His strength was dwindling, but he tried to stand firm. He had to be cruel, to spell it out for her. He had to make her walk away from him forever. He looked directly into her eyes and answered forcefully. “I don’t love you.”

Her eyes were filled with puddles. Seeing that all she needed for the tears to flow freely was to blink, he looked away. He couldn’t stay strong if she started to cry, last night was proof of that.

She could tell that he was lying but she couldn’t stand that he was lying about this. She understood why he had shut himself off from everyone. Yes, he wanted to protect himself from the pain but he also wanted to protect others from his anger, an anger he needed to survive.

His duty had caused him to shut down, to shot off. Trying to save a planet was too hard for any one person, human or alien. He stood stoically while she reached up and touched his face forcing him to look back into her eyes. “Max, I love you. Please let me in.” She pleaded.

He tried to turn his face away from her. Her touch, added with her words of unconditional love, caused Max’s resolve weakened. He had to get away from her. This morning he had been so determined to quit – to put as much distance as possible between him and the ones he loved – to live his life how he decided until the day that he knew would come when Khivar killed him and freed his family from their cosmic burden.

Now, that resolution was fading, because this woman – Liz Parker – the only one who he had loved through it all – and who had unbelievably loved him back. He pulled together, what he thought to be, his last bit of strength to summon an answer for her. “There’s nothing for you – I’m dead.”

She took one step, moving closer to him. She put her head next to his heart. She could hear the thumping telling her that he was still alive. She had to get through; she had to help him find the truth again, she had to convince him that he was still human.

He willed his arms to stay at his sides, not to wrap themselves around her. He didn’t seem to have the control he wanted or needed. He was already a dead man – he knew that, but if he gave in that would be the death of her.

The thought of her death brought about the surge of energy he needed to push her away and motion to a nearby guard to come and take her away. He couldn’t do this – not now – not ever. She might be the love of his life, but he would never again let her know. He would never again risk her life for his cause.

As the guard came up to take her, he turned and walked away from her, thinking it was done, it was forever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn’t forever though. The vows he made to himself were forgotten moments later when he heard the scream from inside the cave.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Musical thought . . .

Here’s the lyrics but it’s just not the same as listening to the song.

Still Loving You
Scorpions

Time, it needs time
To win back your love again
I will be there, I will be there ...
Love, only love
Can bring back your love someday
I will be there, I will be there ...

Fight, baby I fight
To win back your love again
I will be there, I will be there ...
Love, only love
Can break down the walls someday
I will be there, I will be there.

If we'd go again all the way from the start
I would try to change things that killed our love
Your pride has built the wall so strong that I can't get through!
Is there really no chance to start once again?
I'm loving you

Try, baby try
To trust in my love again
I will be there, I will be there ...
Love our love
Just shouldn't be thrown away
I will be there, I will be there ...

If we'd go again all the way from the start
I would try to change things that killed our love
Your pride has built the wall so strong that I can't get through!
Is there really no chance to start once again?

If we'd go again all the way from the start
I would try to change things that killed our love
Yes I hurt your pride and I know what you been through
You should give me a chance, this can't be the end

I'm still loving you ...