Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:40 am
AN: Hey guys, you haven't forgotten this fic yay! lol. Thanks for the feedback and encouragement. I don't know how much this next part will explain, but here goes...
PREVIOUSLY
“How is Liz?” asked Isabel. She liked her brother’s future wife, she had dream walked her a few times when she found out who she was and then actually having spent time with her when they’d had to deal with Khivar and the virus - Isabel had long ago decided that Liz Parker-Evans, was perfect for her brother. As long as Zan didn’t interfere and got around to breaking his connection with Liz, things would be fine.
“Alive,” Zan replied.
“Good. We’re all caught up now. What’s the status on that rat-bag?” demanded Rath.
“Said rat-bag is scheduled to meet with Sean for the drop in an hour and thirty,” Isabel informed.
“Brief us on the op on the way, let’s get this thing done,” responded Zan.
She nodded, opening the doors with her powers for them. That’s what she loved about being with people like her; she could openly use her powers recreationally.
****
9.
Now, no matter where I am
No matter what I do
I see your face appearing
Like an unexpected song
- Sarah Brightman - The unexpected song
The drive to the meeting point had been occupied with Sean D rubbing his hand on her thigh and regaling her with all the disgustingly creative things he would have done to her if not for Khivar. To be honest, Liz would have preferred torture from the devil she knew. She didn’t doubt that if given the opportunity, she could goad Sean to killing her quickly. Khivar was a wild card, an unknown player. He had no appeal whatsoever to her sense of hope.
Sean’s tongue licked her cheek. She flinched away from him staring anywhere but in the car. There was no one in here to help her; psycho A.J. pinned her in on the other side, Tess was driving and Steve? Was in the front passenger seat. Max was in the other car, but even if he’d been in this one, he couldn’t help her. He wasn’t Max Evans anymore, but Kane.
“Aww baby, you’re not afraid of me are you?”, his voice dribbled with mock concern.
This time, Liz angled her head and met his sharp leering eyes. She idly concluded that if given the chance, she would have no problem putting a bullet through his head.
“If I told you I wasn’t, you’d know I’d be lying,” she replied.
“You bet I would.” His fingers reached out for some part of her face, she flinched away before he made contact her expression conveying her extreme revulsion. Sean merely laughed. “Don’t worry; I won’t taint you any further. Even though I’d love to.”
“Khivar’s orders?” she couldn’t help but ask.
“Part of the deal,” he enigmatically replied.
“What are you getting for me?” she asked curious to know as much as possible about her new bad guy.
“Christmas has come early for me, I’ll say that. Now, let’s get back to my fantasy of torture huh?”.
Liz leaned back into her seat and stared straight ahead. The wish that her father couldn’t hear everything Sean was now gruesomely describing to her was futile. The virtually undetectable transmitter planted on her right breast was communicating everything to them. If it was found on her person - which according to their tech guy was almost impossible - she was as good as dead.
At least that death would be quick, she mused, and it’s the best out of a bad bunch of ways to die options.
By the time they arrived at the drop point, the tactical team would be in place ready to…well do whatever they had to.
Although Liz was confident they knew what they were doing, she had a gut feeling that things were going to go wrong.
Or maybe, it was just because she was scared.
****
Both groups pulled up at the same time, cars coming to a halt a safe distance away from each other.
Michael activated his earpiece. “Base Ops, this is Eagle 1. The vultures have arrived.”
“Copy, Eagle 1. Proceed as planned; let’s get this show on the road.”
Michael would be more than glad to put the adrenaline pulsating within his vessels to physical use, but he had to maintain position, like the rest of his team. For now, using Alex’s newly improved rad-comm- x-ray binoculars, he watched Sean, A.J, Steve and Tess emerge from one car. They all appeared not to be packing, but he knew better. All of them were loaded.
The other car unloaded, he verified Max, but Liz hadn’t made her appearance yet. He guessed that as the bonus, she was under their protection, Sean D’s bargaining chip with Khivar if he decided to screw him.
Liz Parker’s sudden involvement in the operation was a pain in the ass, in Michael’s opinion. He had Jeff Parker monitoring his team’s every move, not to mention her crazy chick friend of hers had threatened to hunt him down even if he was CIA and wring out his balls if he didn’t do his best to get her friend out safe.
It was a tense minute, before the rest of Khivar’s team unloaded from the second car, which included Khivar himself.
“Doug, got his image?” Michael asked.
“Affirmative, the sucker is caught on candid. Uploading it to Alex.”
“Got it,” Alex confirmed a few seconds later. “Starting scan now.”
“Good”, Michael responded. They now had a face to the name and would run it through all known databases. Khivar might be in line of a long list of aliases this guy had, because there was no way, someone who did business with Sean D, was invisible. He had to have popped up somewhere else. These guys were underground filth dressed up in fancy suits.
****
“Isabel, do you know what your bro is up to right now?”, Zan asked staring at the image of his dupe on screen.
“I told you, he doesn’t tell me. I don’t ask,” she replied.
“You should have ‘cuz he’s here,” Lonnie supplied.
“What?!”. Isabel abandoned her lap top and crossed over to the surveillance screen they had set up. “Damn it Max!”.
“Khivar must know,” said Zan.
“Tess is there, they must have planned this,” added Rath.
“Get the diamonds and kill my dupe at the same time,” Zan mused. It was a good plan. A damn good one at that.
“You need to find out what op is going down there, who’s in charge and get some control,” he ordered Isabel.
“On it,” she nodded and walking away from them, flipped on her cell and went to work on her laptop.
He knew she would be, her brother’s life as well as the future welfare of two worlds was at stake.
“Plan still sticks?” asked Rath.
Heads turned towards him, soldiers waiting for orders from their leader.
“Keep Max safe, take out Tess along with Khivar,” Zan told them. “If there’s another team out there from the human side, they’re as good as dead unless Iz can get them to back off. We’ll use Ava on the survivors. Get ready.”
And with that, he left them in search of a private place. He needed time, no matter how minimal to control the jittery feeling coursing through his nervous system. It had been driving him crazy ever since they’d arrived at the meet point. He didn’t have time to delve too deep into its significance; he focused on pushing it aside and getting his head back in the game.
****
The two groups advanced on each other to the central meeting point.
“All teams on alert. No screw ups, no twitchy fingers,” Michael warned, even though he had hand picked his team, “this gets done fast. The Dove is priority one.”
A series of ‘copy’s’ echoed through his comm. link. Every one knew what was at stake here. They all knew or had worked with Max, they’d have his back and they all wanted to bring Sean D down.
****
“Yo Zan.”
Rath’s call drew him back to the hive of activity.
“What?”.
“The connection with you and Liz, it’s intense right?”.
“Right.”
What did Liz have to do with anything right now?
“Does it get stronger with proximity?” he asked.
“Bro, you know it does,” Zan answered more than irritated by his Second’s irrelevant questioning.
“Just wondering why you ain’t feeling her now.”
Irritation vanished and daunting clarity emerged. “What?”.
Rath glanced at him and then pointed to the screen, his tone grim. “She’s here.”
Not willing to believe that his luck could be that bad, Zan sought the surveillance screen for proof. It was there, in living colour.
He bit back the slew of curse words that threatened to spill out. Max had a firm grip on her arm and was leading her to Khivar.
“This is a problem.”
“It’s fucking big problem. What the hell is going on Duke?” asked Rath.
“Max is on a black ops mission to bring in Sean D,” Isabel explained. “Looks like two black op departments just crossed paths,” she added wryly.
“Did you tell them to stand down?” Zan asked. “They can’t handle this.”
“They think they can. They don’t know Khivar’s an alien,” she responded.
“They will soon,” he told her grimly, “he’s not going to let them all live. This is going to get very messy.”
“I’ll see what more I can do on my end,” Isabel offered.
Zan ran tense fingers through his hair as he turned back to study the screen. Things had suddenly escalated to a critical point none of them expected. “Turn up the audio on this.”
Khivar really had this plan tight, but how did he manage to get Liz? He wondered. And how could his dupe just hand her over to him? Didn’t he feel that desperate need to protect her? To cherish her? Even if he didn’t remember their past lives, their chemistry always took care of that.
“Ah, Elizabeth,” Khivar’s voice sounded loud and clear.
Zan didn’t even notice the energy jolt he sent into the earth as he watched his enemy reach out for his Queen. “I’m going to kill him.”
****
“How nice to see you again.”
Liz frantically searched her memory for recognition but found none. She didn’t know who this guy was, but he seemed to know her. There was something bout him that made her blood run cold, she didn’t want him anywhere near her, so she stayed very still and very silent in his iron clad grip. He tilted her chin up and somehow forced her to raise her eyes to meet his. He stared into them, stripping her of any sense of security, then he smiled and still holding on to her, stepped back.
“Ava did a good job. You don’t remember a thing do you?”.
“I have a feeling if you were involved, I wouldn’t want to remember,” she retorted.
The words came out unvested, as usual, talking made her feel less likely to scream or cry.
“Hate to break up the reunion, but I’ve got places to go,” interrupted Sean.
Khivar didn’t even look at him; his eyes were still fixed on her. “This won’t take too long.”
She was relieved when his attention shifted to Max, she could finally breathe. “And you, enjoying your human life, working for its government instead of fighting for your own.”
Guns that had been tucked away were now pointed at Max.
“What’s he talking about Kane?”, asked Sean with lethal calm.
“Not Kane,” Khivar corrected with obvious pleasure, “Special Agent Max Evans, black ops CIA”.
****
“Eagle 1 to Base Ops, he’s been made, we’ve got to extract him.”
“Not yet-”
“Sir, we don’t get him out of there now, they’ll blow his head off.”
“Agent-”
“Michael is that you?” interrupted a familiar voice.
“Isabel?”, he asked surprised.
What was she doing interrupting a secure channel?
“Listen. I don’t have much time; you have to trust me on this. You’re about to see some strange things, Sean D and his buds are as good as dead, just have your men protect Max and Liz, when the time comes okay?”
“Isabel-”
“Michael. I will explain everything, but do what I say now. Max’s life is at stake and Liz is- you don’t know how important she is. We need her alive.”
This was Isabel, Max’s sister. She was family to him. Family who had a desk job somewhere safe. Or so he had thought.
“Who do you work for?” he asked.
“The same people you do. Do you trust me?”.
“You’re Max’s sister.”
“Then do this.”
She wasn’t asking him to do something he wouldn’t do in the first place.
“Okay.”
****
“You’re fucking CIA?!”, Sean boomed. “You’re dead.”
Max knew didn’t doubt that he could die, but it wasn’t on his list of things to do especially with Liz here. He had to get her- get them both out of this mess and he had to do it fast, but had no idea how.
“You really should have stricter screening controls Sean,” chided Khivar. “Tess?”.
Tess, diamonds in hand, walked over the divide and joined Khivar.
“Fuck!”, supplied A.J. at the obvious betrayal.
“She works for me,” Khivar proudly told them.
Max was somewhat relieved when the guns previously trained on him, rounded on Khivar and his crew. Instead of panicking or responding alike, Khivar motioned his hands in a placating motion.
“Relax,” he signalled for the two cases of cash, already given the green by Sean, to be handed over. “I’m not about to screw you Sean, Tess was planted for other reasons.”
Max had a sinking feeling that he was the reason, but wanted it verified. “What reasons?” he asked.
Tess smiled at him, her eyes a colder blue than usual. “To screw you and kill you. But then, we stumbled across your Queen and couldn’t pass it up. I’ve fucked you, then you’ve fucked- or maybe raped her if it wasn’t consensual- the chemistry, you probably couldn’t help yourself. Then to top it off, you hand her over to your enemy.”
The world was spinning around and not making a whole lot of sense to him. Why would they think Liz was a Queen? And chemistry? Was he that obvious?!
“You don’t remember me,” Khivar picked up from Tess, “You don’t remember Antar, your planet or why you should be hating me right now, which is fine with me. Because when you do remember,” he jerked Liz flush against him. Max instinctively advanced on him, but backed down at the selection of guns aimed his way.
“See, still you want to protect her, but don’t even know why. Am I right?”.
His clenched jaw wouldn’t permit him to speak.
“You will,” nodded Khivar knowledgeably. “I won’t be there when you do, but I can just imagine the regret, the guilt and anguish will eat you alive.”
Liz wanted to turn and run, to kick and scream when his arms came around her waist and his eyes and hands slithered all over her body, but she couldn’t. She literally couldn’t command her muscles to move. There was something about his eyes, in the way Khivar looked at her that pulled at her memory.
“You are worth the wait and the frustration,” he told her. “You’ll definitely breed well.”
The thought of his hands and mouth greedily reaching for her, fired up her blood. She moved towards, not away from him. Her eyes narrowed to slits. “Anyone who refers to me breeding, like a horse, needs to go back to the middle ages. I will never breed with you.”
To her revulsion, he was turned on by her anger; she could see it in his eyes. That and something else. It only lasted for a few seconds, but she had seen it. His eyes; cornea, pupil, iris- all turned a mesmerizing and shimmering black.
Then the memory came- not a memory per se, but retrieved knowledge. Breaking out of his grasp, she stepped away from him. “You’re an alien.”
The words sounded strange but familiar, as if she had uttered them before in another place, another time but they’d been as true then as they were now.
Khivar was an alien.
“So are you, so is he and, so is she,” he confirmed.
Liz surveyed his crew and knew. “So are they.”
The bolt was brilliantly blinding and caused her to jump back. The source was multiple- three to be exact. Their entrance demanded a pause of other worldly silence and then all hell broke loose.
****
Michael couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but it had been verified. There was a person who looked like Max, one who looked like him and another who looked like Isabel exchanging…energy bolts with Khivar and his men.
What the hell was going on? Clones? Some new experimental weapons?
He didn’t know and was determined to get answers from Isabel once this thing was over. It was chaos, but one thing was clear, who the good and bad guys were.
“All teams move in and stay out of the way of those bolts. Do not deviate from the mission. I repeat, do not deviate from the mission,” ordered Michael as he led his team into action.
****
Bullets were whizzing past, energy bolts found targets or were deflected. Liz felt like she was in a war zone. She’d gotten free of Khivar during the momentary confusion and had somehow managed to shield herself behind one of the cars, but the madness was reaching her there too.
She nearly screamed when someone crouched down next to her.
“Max!”
There were two of him now, her mind reminded her. One was…it had to be Zan.
“We need to get out of here.”
He seemed calm and controlled. She supposed he was used to this.
“Like soon,” she agreed.
She watched as he raised his head and scanned the area before crouching back down to her.
“We’ve got to move fast. Whatever happens, just follow my lead. The goal is the warehouse behind Sean D’s cars okay?”.
No it was okay, none of it was okay, but there was nothing she could about it except survive.
“Okay.”
“On the count of three. One, two, three!”.
Liz had expected him to let go of her hand, but at the count of two he had grabbed a hold of it and at three, pulled her with him. She ignored the noise all around her, her one focus was on the building which offered shelter and safety.
Which was why she had no idea whose camp the bullet that pierced her abdomen came from. She felt its impact, but didn’t stop running. She pressed her hand against the wound and kept up with Max until they paused behind a car.
“You okay?” he asked her.
“Yeah.”
He looked at her, and then did a double-take at her hand covering her stomach.
“It’s just a scratch,” she lied.
Praying that he would buy the sincerity she forced into her eyes.
He held her gaze for a breathless moment before turning his focus back to assessing their chances. When she was sure that he wouldn’t look down at her, Liz eased her hand away, the wound was staining her shirt in dark red and it didn’t seem to be stopping. She covered it back up with her hand.
“You ready?” Max asked.
She looked up relieved to see that he wasn’t looking at her. “Yeah,” she replied.
He crouched down next to her. “Just like before, on the count of three.”
“Got it.”
“One, two…”
****
Zan saw Max escape with Liz into the warehouse. His relief at her safety was short-lived when he saw Khivar and Nicholas follow them. His dupe was powerless against them; Liz was wounded and didn’t have her memory back. She couldn’t access her powers.
Damn it, he hadn’t gone through all of this just to have her die due to some fluke.
“Rath!”.
His second didn’t even have to ask for an explanation. He just nodded. “I’ll cover you. Go keep her safe!”.
****
TBC
PREVIOUSLY
“How is Liz?” asked Isabel. She liked her brother’s future wife, she had dream walked her a few times when she found out who she was and then actually having spent time with her when they’d had to deal with Khivar and the virus - Isabel had long ago decided that Liz Parker-Evans, was perfect for her brother. As long as Zan didn’t interfere and got around to breaking his connection with Liz, things would be fine.
“Alive,” Zan replied.
“Good. We’re all caught up now. What’s the status on that rat-bag?” demanded Rath.
“Said rat-bag is scheduled to meet with Sean for the drop in an hour and thirty,” Isabel informed.
“Brief us on the op on the way, let’s get this thing done,” responded Zan.
She nodded, opening the doors with her powers for them. That’s what she loved about being with people like her; she could openly use her powers recreationally.
****
9.
Now, no matter where I am
No matter what I do
I see your face appearing
Like an unexpected song
- Sarah Brightman - The unexpected song
The drive to the meeting point had been occupied with Sean D rubbing his hand on her thigh and regaling her with all the disgustingly creative things he would have done to her if not for Khivar. To be honest, Liz would have preferred torture from the devil she knew. She didn’t doubt that if given the opportunity, she could goad Sean to killing her quickly. Khivar was a wild card, an unknown player. He had no appeal whatsoever to her sense of hope.
Sean’s tongue licked her cheek. She flinched away from him staring anywhere but in the car. There was no one in here to help her; psycho A.J. pinned her in on the other side, Tess was driving and Steve? Was in the front passenger seat. Max was in the other car, but even if he’d been in this one, he couldn’t help her. He wasn’t Max Evans anymore, but Kane.
“Aww baby, you’re not afraid of me are you?”, his voice dribbled with mock concern.
This time, Liz angled her head and met his sharp leering eyes. She idly concluded that if given the chance, she would have no problem putting a bullet through his head.
“If I told you I wasn’t, you’d know I’d be lying,” she replied.
“You bet I would.” His fingers reached out for some part of her face, she flinched away before he made contact her expression conveying her extreme revulsion. Sean merely laughed. “Don’t worry; I won’t taint you any further. Even though I’d love to.”
“Khivar’s orders?” she couldn’t help but ask.
“Part of the deal,” he enigmatically replied.
“What are you getting for me?” she asked curious to know as much as possible about her new bad guy.
“Christmas has come early for me, I’ll say that. Now, let’s get back to my fantasy of torture huh?”.
Liz leaned back into her seat and stared straight ahead. The wish that her father couldn’t hear everything Sean was now gruesomely describing to her was futile. The virtually undetectable transmitter planted on her right breast was communicating everything to them. If it was found on her person - which according to their tech guy was almost impossible - she was as good as dead.
At least that death would be quick, she mused, and it’s the best out of a bad bunch of ways to die options.
By the time they arrived at the drop point, the tactical team would be in place ready to…well do whatever they had to.
Although Liz was confident they knew what they were doing, she had a gut feeling that things were going to go wrong.
Or maybe, it was just because she was scared.
****
Both groups pulled up at the same time, cars coming to a halt a safe distance away from each other.
Michael activated his earpiece. “Base Ops, this is Eagle 1. The vultures have arrived.”
“Copy, Eagle 1. Proceed as planned; let’s get this show on the road.”
Michael would be more than glad to put the adrenaline pulsating within his vessels to physical use, but he had to maintain position, like the rest of his team. For now, using Alex’s newly improved rad-comm- x-ray binoculars, he watched Sean, A.J, Steve and Tess emerge from one car. They all appeared not to be packing, but he knew better. All of them were loaded.
The other car unloaded, he verified Max, but Liz hadn’t made her appearance yet. He guessed that as the bonus, she was under their protection, Sean D’s bargaining chip with Khivar if he decided to screw him.
Liz Parker’s sudden involvement in the operation was a pain in the ass, in Michael’s opinion. He had Jeff Parker monitoring his team’s every move, not to mention her crazy chick friend of hers had threatened to hunt him down even if he was CIA and wring out his balls if he didn’t do his best to get her friend out safe.
It was a tense minute, before the rest of Khivar’s team unloaded from the second car, which included Khivar himself.
“Doug, got his image?” Michael asked.
“Affirmative, the sucker is caught on candid. Uploading it to Alex.”
“Got it,” Alex confirmed a few seconds later. “Starting scan now.”
“Good”, Michael responded. They now had a face to the name and would run it through all known databases. Khivar might be in line of a long list of aliases this guy had, because there was no way, someone who did business with Sean D, was invisible. He had to have popped up somewhere else. These guys were underground filth dressed up in fancy suits.
****
“Isabel, do you know what your bro is up to right now?”, Zan asked staring at the image of his dupe on screen.
“I told you, he doesn’t tell me. I don’t ask,” she replied.
“You should have ‘cuz he’s here,” Lonnie supplied.
“What?!”. Isabel abandoned her lap top and crossed over to the surveillance screen they had set up. “Damn it Max!”.
“Khivar must know,” said Zan.
“Tess is there, they must have planned this,” added Rath.
“Get the diamonds and kill my dupe at the same time,” Zan mused. It was a good plan. A damn good one at that.
“You need to find out what op is going down there, who’s in charge and get some control,” he ordered Isabel.
“On it,” she nodded and walking away from them, flipped on her cell and went to work on her laptop.
He knew she would be, her brother’s life as well as the future welfare of two worlds was at stake.
“Plan still sticks?” asked Rath.
Heads turned towards him, soldiers waiting for orders from their leader.
“Keep Max safe, take out Tess along with Khivar,” Zan told them. “If there’s another team out there from the human side, they’re as good as dead unless Iz can get them to back off. We’ll use Ava on the survivors. Get ready.”
And with that, he left them in search of a private place. He needed time, no matter how minimal to control the jittery feeling coursing through his nervous system. It had been driving him crazy ever since they’d arrived at the meet point. He didn’t have time to delve too deep into its significance; he focused on pushing it aside and getting his head back in the game.
****
The two groups advanced on each other to the central meeting point.
“All teams on alert. No screw ups, no twitchy fingers,” Michael warned, even though he had hand picked his team, “this gets done fast. The Dove is priority one.”
A series of ‘copy’s’ echoed through his comm. link. Every one knew what was at stake here. They all knew or had worked with Max, they’d have his back and they all wanted to bring Sean D down.
****
“Yo Zan.”
Rath’s call drew him back to the hive of activity.
“What?”.
“The connection with you and Liz, it’s intense right?”.
“Right.”
What did Liz have to do with anything right now?
“Does it get stronger with proximity?” he asked.
“Bro, you know it does,” Zan answered more than irritated by his Second’s irrelevant questioning.
“Just wondering why you ain’t feeling her now.”
Irritation vanished and daunting clarity emerged. “What?”.
Rath glanced at him and then pointed to the screen, his tone grim. “She’s here.”
Not willing to believe that his luck could be that bad, Zan sought the surveillance screen for proof. It was there, in living colour.
He bit back the slew of curse words that threatened to spill out. Max had a firm grip on her arm and was leading her to Khivar.
“This is a problem.”
“It’s fucking big problem. What the hell is going on Duke?” asked Rath.
“Max is on a black ops mission to bring in Sean D,” Isabel explained. “Looks like two black op departments just crossed paths,” she added wryly.
“Did you tell them to stand down?” Zan asked. “They can’t handle this.”
“They think they can. They don’t know Khivar’s an alien,” she responded.
“They will soon,” he told her grimly, “he’s not going to let them all live. This is going to get very messy.”
“I’ll see what more I can do on my end,” Isabel offered.
Zan ran tense fingers through his hair as he turned back to study the screen. Things had suddenly escalated to a critical point none of them expected. “Turn up the audio on this.”
Khivar really had this plan tight, but how did he manage to get Liz? He wondered. And how could his dupe just hand her over to him? Didn’t he feel that desperate need to protect her? To cherish her? Even if he didn’t remember their past lives, their chemistry always took care of that.
“Ah, Elizabeth,” Khivar’s voice sounded loud and clear.
Zan didn’t even notice the energy jolt he sent into the earth as he watched his enemy reach out for his Queen. “I’m going to kill him.”
****
“How nice to see you again.”
Liz frantically searched her memory for recognition but found none. She didn’t know who this guy was, but he seemed to know her. There was something bout him that made her blood run cold, she didn’t want him anywhere near her, so she stayed very still and very silent in his iron clad grip. He tilted her chin up and somehow forced her to raise her eyes to meet his. He stared into them, stripping her of any sense of security, then he smiled and still holding on to her, stepped back.
“Ava did a good job. You don’t remember a thing do you?”.
“I have a feeling if you were involved, I wouldn’t want to remember,” she retorted.
The words came out unvested, as usual, talking made her feel less likely to scream or cry.
“Hate to break up the reunion, but I’ve got places to go,” interrupted Sean.
Khivar didn’t even look at him; his eyes were still fixed on her. “This won’t take too long.”
She was relieved when his attention shifted to Max, she could finally breathe. “And you, enjoying your human life, working for its government instead of fighting for your own.”
Guns that had been tucked away were now pointed at Max.
“What’s he talking about Kane?”, asked Sean with lethal calm.
“Not Kane,” Khivar corrected with obvious pleasure, “Special Agent Max Evans, black ops CIA”.
****
“Eagle 1 to Base Ops, he’s been made, we’ve got to extract him.”
“Not yet-”
“Sir, we don’t get him out of there now, they’ll blow his head off.”
“Agent-”
“Michael is that you?” interrupted a familiar voice.
“Isabel?”, he asked surprised.
What was she doing interrupting a secure channel?
“Listen. I don’t have much time; you have to trust me on this. You’re about to see some strange things, Sean D and his buds are as good as dead, just have your men protect Max and Liz, when the time comes okay?”
“Isabel-”
“Michael. I will explain everything, but do what I say now. Max’s life is at stake and Liz is- you don’t know how important she is. We need her alive.”
This was Isabel, Max’s sister. She was family to him. Family who had a desk job somewhere safe. Or so he had thought.
“Who do you work for?” he asked.
“The same people you do. Do you trust me?”.
“You’re Max’s sister.”
“Then do this.”
She wasn’t asking him to do something he wouldn’t do in the first place.
“Okay.”
****
“You’re fucking CIA?!”, Sean boomed. “You’re dead.”
Max knew didn’t doubt that he could die, but it wasn’t on his list of things to do especially with Liz here. He had to get her- get them both out of this mess and he had to do it fast, but had no idea how.
“You really should have stricter screening controls Sean,” chided Khivar. “Tess?”.
Tess, diamonds in hand, walked over the divide and joined Khivar.
“Fuck!”, supplied A.J. at the obvious betrayal.
“She works for me,” Khivar proudly told them.
Max was somewhat relieved when the guns previously trained on him, rounded on Khivar and his crew. Instead of panicking or responding alike, Khivar motioned his hands in a placating motion.
“Relax,” he signalled for the two cases of cash, already given the green by Sean, to be handed over. “I’m not about to screw you Sean, Tess was planted for other reasons.”
Max had a sinking feeling that he was the reason, but wanted it verified. “What reasons?” he asked.
Tess smiled at him, her eyes a colder blue than usual. “To screw you and kill you. But then, we stumbled across your Queen and couldn’t pass it up. I’ve fucked you, then you’ve fucked- or maybe raped her if it wasn’t consensual- the chemistry, you probably couldn’t help yourself. Then to top it off, you hand her over to your enemy.”
The world was spinning around and not making a whole lot of sense to him. Why would they think Liz was a Queen? And chemistry? Was he that obvious?!
“You don’t remember me,” Khivar picked up from Tess, “You don’t remember Antar, your planet or why you should be hating me right now, which is fine with me. Because when you do remember,” he jerked Liz flush against him. Max instinctively advanced on him, but backed down at the selection of guns aimed his way.
“See, still you want to protect her, but don’t even know why. Am I right?”.
His clenched jaw wouldn’t permit him to speak.
“You will,” nodded Khivar knowledgeably. “I won’t be there when you do, but I can just imagine the regret, the guilt and anguish will eat you alive.”
Liz wanted to turn and run, to kick and scream when his arms came around her waist and his eyes and hands slithered all over her body, but she couldn’t. She literally couldn’t command her muscles to move. There was something about his eyes, in the way Khivar looked at her that pulled at her memory.
“You are worth the wait and the frustration,” he told her. “You’ll definitely breed well.”
The thought of his hands and mouth greedily reaching for her, fired up her blood. She moved towards, not away from him. Her eyes narrowed to slits. “Anyone who refers to me breeding, like a horse, needs to go back to the middle ages. I will never breed with you.”
To her revulsion, he was turned on by her anger; she could see it in his eyes. That and something else. It only lasted for a few seconds, but she had seen it. His eyes; cornea, pupil, iris- all turned a mesmerizing and shimmering black.
Then the memory came- not a memory per se, but retrieved knowledge. Breaking out of his grasp, she stepped away from him. “You’re an alien.”
The words sounded strange but familiar, as if she had uttered them before in another place, another time but they’d been as true then as they were now.
Khivar was an alien.
“So are you, so is he and, so is she,” he confirmed.
Liz surveyed his crew and knew. “So are they.”
The bolt was brilliantly blinding and caused her to jump back. The source was multiple- three to be exact. Their entrance demanded a pause of other worldly silence and then all hell broke loose.
****
Michael couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but it had been verified. There was a person who looked like Max, one who looked like him and another who looked like Isabel exchanging…energy bolts with Khivar and his men.
What the hell was going on? Clones? Some new experimental weapons?
He didn’t know and was determined to get answers from Isabel once this thing was over. It was chaos, but one thing was clear, who the good and bad guys were.
“All teams move in and stay out of the way of those bolts. Do not deviate from the mission. I repeat, do not deviate from the mission,” ordered Michael as he led his team into action.
****
Bullets were whizzing past, energy bolts found targets or were deflected. Liz felt like she was in a war zone. She’d gotten free of Khivar during the momentary confusion and had somehow managed to shield herself behind one of the cars, but the madness was reaching her there too.
She nearly screamed when someone crouched down next to her.
“Max!”
There were two of him now, her mind reminded her. One was…it had to be Zan.
“We need to get out of here.”
He seemed calm and controlled. She supposed he was used to this.
“Like soon,” she agreed.
She watched as he raised his head and scanned the area before crouching back down to her.
“We’ve got to move fast. Whatever happens, just follow my lead. The goal is the warehouse behind Sean D’s cars okay?”.
No it was okay, none of it was okay, but there was nothing she could about it except survive.
“Okay.”
“On the count of three. One, two, three!”.
Liz had expected him to let go of her hand, but at the count of two he had grabbed a hold of it and at three, pulled her with him. She ignored the noise all around her, her one focus was on the building which offered shelter and safety.
Which was why she had no idea whose camp the bullet that pierced her abdomen came from. She felt its impact, but didn’t stop running. She pressed her hand against the wound and kept up with Max until they paused behind a car.
“You okay?” he asked her.
“Yeah.”
He looked at her, and then did a double-take at her hand covering her stomach.
“It’s just a scratch,” she lied.
Praying that he would buy the sincerity she forced into her eyes.
He held her gaze for a breathless moment before turning his focus back to assessing their chances. When she was sure that he wouldn’t look down at her, Liz eased her hand away, the wound was staining her shirt in dark red and it didn’t seem to be stopping. She covered it back up with her hand.
“You ready?” Max asked.
She looked up relieved to see that he wasn’t looking at her. “Yeah,” she replied.
He crouched down next to her. “Just like before, on the count of three.”
“Got it.”
“One, two…”
****
Zan saw Max escape with Liz into the warehouse. His relief at her safety was short-lived when he saw Khivar and Nicholas follow them. His dupe was powerless against them; Liz was wounded and didn’t have her memory back. She couldn’t access her powers.
Damn it, he hadn’t gone through all of this just to have her die due to some fluke.
“Rath!”.
His second didn’t even have to ask for an explanation. He just nodded. “I’ll cover you. Go keep her safe!”.
****
TBC
