Hi all.
This part contains mostly backstory. I hope it isn't too confusing, or too boring. Again, I re-read and changed a bit of it to coincide with the changes I made in earlier installments. Hope it doesn't put you to sleep.
Dead Souls - Joy Division/Trent Reznor
Someone take these dreams away
That point me to another day
A duel of personalities
That stretch all true reality
They keep calling me
Keep on calling me
They keep calling me
Keep on calling me
When figures from the past stand tall
And mocking voices ring the hall
Imperialistic house of prayer
Conquistadores who took their share
They keep calling me
Keep on calling me
They keep calling me
Keep on calling me
Calling me, calling me
Calling me, calling me
They keep calling me
Keep on calling me
They keep calling me
Keep on calling me
Part Twenty
Antar
*~Max~*
A cool hand on his cheek startled him.
He scrambled away from it.
He could see nothing in the murk of the cell, and had lost all sense of time. How long had he been in here since the last time they had dragged him out and beaten him? He couldn’t be sure, but it felt like days.
“Who’s there?” he asked, trying to make out any shape in the darkness.
"I'm sorry for what they did to you," a soft voice said.
“You,” he said, recognizing her voice.
"Don't be frightened. I won't hurt you," she said.
"You said you'd come back," he said in accusation.
"I couldn't come. Suspicions were raised. I have to be very careful," she said. “Even now, I am putting you at risk. I came as soon as I could. I can help you.”
"Tell me who you are," he said in a weary voice.
"My name is Seeraynah. I am the last of the Zensad clan. My clan was appointed to protect you and the Granolith while you were alive on Antar," she said, as he felt energy surrounding his battered body. Though her hands did not touch his face, he felt comforting warmth spread through him.
“Khivar believes that I have renounced my lineage, because I am the last,” she whispered.
The aches eased considerably, and she took her hands away.
“I cannot heal you completely. They will know. But that will take away the pain for awhile,” she said.
“What do you want from me?” he asked.
For a moment, there was silence, and he started to think she was no longer there.
Then she spoke.
"There are things I need to tell you, and I am just going to speak of them, because time is short. Then I will leave you. You will have questions, and they will be answered, but for now just listen," she whispered.
He didn't have the strength to argue with her.
"As you know, you are heir to the Granolith," she said. "There is much that has been told to you that are half-truths, and some complete lies. I will tell you what I know to be the truth."
"This conflict between the House of Khivar and the Antarians has been going on for as long as anyone can remember," she said.
"It is you that they need to relinquish the Granolith," she said. “You are the Zenshai, the Chosen One.”
“No, I’m not,” he said. “I...I don’t even know what a Zenshai is. I don’t know anything about the Granolith. I couldn’t control it, and it almost killed me getting here.”
She sighed.
“Perhaps that is because you were never trained in this incarnation. It takes great control and will to harness the power of the Granolith,” she said.
“No, something was definitely...wrong,” he said.
“You are the Zenshai, Max. You have to be. If you weren’t, the Granolith would never have brought you here,” she said. "It wouldn't have let you anywhere near it if you meant to use it and you weren't the one."
“It is the reason Khivar wants you,” she continued.
He listened dismayed as he realized the truth of why Tess needed him and not Michael and Isabel.
“In your previous life here on Antar, you were Zan. You had full control of the Granolith from the moment your father bequeathed the seal to you, and it was only you that it would respond to," she said. "They needed you to give up the control of the Granolith to Khivar, for it was only your family, the chosen keepers, who have the ability to bequeath it to another. It has been in the care of your family for thousands of years."
He listened with a heavy heart. He'd never wanted anything but a normal life, but with each revelation of what had happened in his former life, he realized that he would never want this existence if given a choice. It made his life on Earth seem even more bittersweet.
“I don’t know what to believe anymore,” he said.
“Read me and you will see,” she said.
“Read you?” he asked, confused.
He felt her fingers on his wrist, and the manacle opened. Then his hand was lifted to the smoothness of her temple.
“Although Khivar would wish it was not so, you have been equipped with your Antarian abilities,” she said. “The other was stronger, but you have it too. Concentrate.”
Max felt a jolt of power infusing his body, and then he felt her. He sensed no ill will from her toward him, instead a sense of desperation and...hope. A hope tied to him, to his very existence.
“You see?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said in a low voice. She tugged his hand from her temple and snapped the manacle back on his wrist.
“I’m sorry I have to put it back on for now, but it isn’t the right moment. That will come soon,” she said.
“For now, let me tell you what I know,” she said. “There is much to tell you and so little time.”
She was quiet for a moment, and he waited.
“Everything began with a betrayal, from someone you least expected it from,” she said.
"Vilondra, your sister, turned on your family, betrayed them for Khivar. Lonnie is much like Vilondra was at her death. But Vilondra was not murdered by Khivar as you were told," she paused.
"Then who killed her?" he asked.
"You did," she said.
Max felt his whole body stiffen in shock.
"That can’t be," he said, unable to grasp what he'd just been told.
All he could think about was Isabel. That just couldn't be true. It was impossible. The very thought that he could have done something like that was inconceivable to him. He had and always would protect her and Michael with his life. She was his sister.
"You murdered her and then took your own life. They had trapped you, and Vilondra was demanding that you pass the seal to Khivar. You made sure that the seal could not be passed on," she said.
"The planet was in chaos, your parents dead. It was not they that ordered you to be recreated, as Tess had told you," she said.
"Khivar had killed Rath, your second in command, and Ava, your wife in an ambush on the royal compound. Everything had been in chaos since the King and Queen had been assassinated two moons earlier. You had full control of the Granolith from the moment your father perished. With his last breaths he said the rites and passed the seal on to you, and it was only you that it would respond to. You and Vilondra were in hiding with hundreds of your people, in an underground chamber, deep in the mountains."
“It was the first rest you'd had in since. But it was then that you found out the depth of Vilondra's betrayal. You'd been so caught up in the battle with Khivar and distraught over the death of your childhood friend Ava, to whom you'd been betrothed. Vilondra knew you were distracted, and was quietly feeding him information. She tried to ambush you but you were quicker, a trained warrior. When you cornered her, she admitted that she'd told Khivar where the two of you were, and that he was coming," she said.
"It is not known by us why you did not unleash the Granolith to set things right. All we know is that you didn't. Instead, you sent the Granolith out into the Universe through the power of the seal, out of reach of Khivar," she said. "You bade your people farewell before he arrived. You us to run. You ordered me to leave with them."
"Vilondra never thought you would have the courage to kill her. She was your sister after all. But she died at your hands before Khivar could reach her. In fact, you took your own life in his presence,” she said.
There was a pause in the darkness.
"I felt it when you died," she said. "We all felt it. We knew what you'd done, and it showed great courage, just as I can sense the same bravery in you now."
"I'm not brave," he muttered. He was anything but brave. He'd been monumentally stupid.
"You're wrong. I don't know of many of our people that would have willingly come with Tess, knowing that it could mean your death. That, my King, is brave," she said. "You are preventing Khivar from wreaking havoc on our planet and our galaxy. There's no telling what he will do if he gets his hands on the Granolith."
"He's been waiting a long time for this. He was enraged when you took your own life before he could gain possession, for never had the Granolith been left without an heir. Without one, it was useless," she said.
"I don't understand...what if an Antarian King and Queen were childless? What then?" Max asked.
"Then a descendant by blood would have been chosen," she said. "It has never been an issue. The Granolith always provides, one way or another, even in this case, ironically."
"Khivar's scientists had long tracked the Granolith’s bio-energy to Earth. It was determined that though you had given it the energy, the Granolith had chosen its destination. It was inconceivable that you would choose a little-known planet like Earth. It was doubtful you even knew it existed. There had to be a reason for it. It was pinpointed to the planet, to a desert, to an uninhabited cave sealed deep within walls of rock. Though it sat almost dormant, they knew they could not take it, for its energy acted as a sentry, protecting it from evil hands. If anyone tried to take possession of it, or to move it without the implicit assent from the heir, they would be instantly eliminated by its energy," she said.
It was all becoming so clear. Tess knew where the Granolith was, but couldn't touch it. That was why they needed him.
"Khivar's scientists had a solution, taking your essence from your bodies and creating it within a new being, a human essence that was adaptable to that planet. It was the only way. Newborn shape-shifters don't have control of their abilities. It was too much of a risk to send developing Antarians to Earth. The planet was too primitive, too dangerous," she said. "The people of Earth did not even have evidence at the time that other life existed in the Universe."
"It was never your parents that wished you reborn, as you were told. They were dead before Khivar found you. And if they had, they would never have done such a thing,” she said. "All Antarians defer to the wisdom of the Granolith. If It had been left without an heir, it was for a reason."
“Khivar did not believe in that. He believed in his own greed and hunger for power. His scientists found that combination of your essences with a being already living had disastrous results," she said in a dark tone.
"Khivar didn't dare entrust the power of the seal to any of his people, yet he was a coward. He wouldn't risk injury to himself. So he enlisted his scientists to find a way to give his son the power of the seal. But in the end they wasted precious essence on the boy, and he died a horrible death because of it. It was determined that a humanoid Skin would not hold the essence long enough to mature and gain control of the Granolith. But it was found that there were no adverse effects when it was combined with unborn human DNA," she said.
"Khivar's men had experimented with genetic combinations. The first experiment was considered a failure. You were part of that first set. Tess lied to you. She was not part of the first set. Personality analyses were conducted, and you, Isabel, Michael and Ava were deemed defective. You because you were too much like your former self, Isabel and Michael because their human characteristics would pose a threat to their objective. If this were to be successful, the new group was to be predisposed to develop the traits they felt would facilitate what Khivar needed from them. The new beings were more aggressive, had more primitive behavior. Rath, Tess and Vilondra were to be sent to keep Zan in line. There was no unit in reality. You were not necessarily stronger without the others, though Vilondra was to be protected," she said, the distaste evident in her tone. “It wasn’t safe to keep any of you here, with the Loyalists still roaming the planet, and the Granolith was on Earth, so the logical choice was to send them there, as much as it pained him that Vilondra would not be in his presence.”
"Khivar still wants Vilondra, Lonnie, even now. He's taken up with her again," she said in disgust.
"Rath was to be a ruthless warrior that would protect the life of Zan with his own, or kill him should the need arise. Tess was to be the bearer of Zan’s child. And Vilondra was to be the informant. They had covered all the possible outcomes should anything go wrong, " she continued.
The thought of sleeping with Tess or her bearing his children made him nauseous. He cursed himself once again for not acting on his instinct in not trusting her.
"Zan was a good leader, not what they told you at all. He was especially attuned to the Granolith, more than many of the Zenshai's before him. But all tests indicated that you, part of the first set, were going to be difficult to sway. Khivar needed to create a monster, so to speak. One that was strong, but one that would bend to his will. With the last of the essence, a second group was made and genetically modified with aggressive traits. The second Zan was considered a success. You were backup, insurance against anything that might happen to the chosen one," she said.
So he was never meant to be here at all. Tess hadn't been lying about that.
“It was obvious that someone had to be sent with the pods to protect them and to make sure that they fulfilled their purpose. Unfortunately, the technology that was being developed to adapt the Skins to Earth’s atmosphere was progressing, but not anywhere near perfected. Ed, and another named Kal were Antarian defectors, shape-shifters, not of my clan, but like me nonetheless. It was a natural choice to send them along with you, for they were mature shape-shifters and could survive the Earth's environment. A psychological imperative was planted within both - an imperative to protect the "Kings," she said.
"I kind of figured that out with Ed," Max said.
"Perceptive," she answered. "See? You knew more than you thought you did."
"But not enough," Max muttered. "Go on."
She paused before continuing.
"There were spies amongst the Skins, loyal to Rath as he had lived before. Through them, two Loyalist Antarian shape-shifters managed to be assigned to the group of four being sent to protect the pods,” she said. "They were also implanted with the imperative."
"So they're still on Earth somewhere," Max commented.
Seeraynah fell silent for a moment.
"The two sets were sent to Earth. From what we've pieced together, somewhere close to Earth, the Loyalists were exposed and a fight ensued between the two groups of protectors. It caused the ship to crash. In the crash, things went terribly wrong. There was a capture," she said quietly.
"Both of the Loyalist protectors died at the hands of human experimentation," she continued. "One of them was my mate.”
He heard the pain in her voice with this revelation.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Don’t be. He was doing his duty,” she said. “I can’t fault him for that, nor blame you. It was what we are trained to do.”
It occurred to him for the first time how much these people had sacrificed for his family, yet still they remained loyal, even to one considered defective.
She paused and then continued.
“A human man helped the two loyal to Khivar to escape. One of them, now known as Kal Langley, was wounded in the escape. He took refuge with humans that had lived on the land for thousands of years and eventually fled altogether for the western coast. He betrayed Khivar as he had betrayed his own people in the first place, to live his own life," she said.
“It was Ed who was considered to be the commander of the operation. It was he that secreted the one set of pods to the chamber where the Granolith lay dormant, and set out to the East Coast with the other four. Ava was sent with the second group, and Tess was left with yours. Her pod was damaged, and Ed could not take the chance in bringing it across country. He decided to gamble on Ava. It didn't work."
"Ed left you alone in the chamber to develop. You were not, after all, the preferred group, just a backup. The pods were self-sufficient. The others needed training, to be shaped to bend to Khivar's will," she said. "When he came back at the time you were supposed to have emerged from the pods, he realized that the they had underestimated your development, and you were already hatched and gone."
"Only Tess remained, and Ed took her with him. Her damaged pod caused her to develop in inside of it for a longer period of time. She did not break out, but continued to mature inside of it. He thought you, Isabel and Michael to be of no consequence. He left you to fend for yourselves after finding that you and Isabel had been adopted by a human family, and Michael placed in human care by their government," she said. "You were all implanted with a primitive instinct that told you that you were different. But Ed underestimated all of you."
"What about Kal Langley?" Max asked. "He never came for us either."
"Kal wants no part of the Skins’ war against the Antarians these days. Ed didn't even know he was alive. Even now, Khivar doesn't know. He assumed Kal perished because he did not make himself known to them. It hasn't even occurred to him that Kal would defect. The transmissions of conversations received from the ship before it crashed gave Khivar no reason to believe that Kal had been anything but loyal until the end. But it was Kal that has sent information through the resistance, because he wants this to end. He lived forty Earth years among humans, and adapted to their ways, and grew to love their way of life. He stayed away from the desert, save one trip before you emerged, to take care of someone who was getting too nosey," she said.
"He pinned his hopes on staying out of what was to come. He buried his abilities, using them only in the beginning to establish himself among the humans. You see, he wants to be human, or as close to it as is possible, being what he is. Yet he was still bound to the will of the Zenshai, much as the Ed would have been bound to you and the duplicate Zan in New York City, had he lived," she said.
“Kal came back to Roswell only the one time, under the guise of working with a what you call a film production company. He looked for your pods then, but the search was fruitless. It’s probably good that he didn’t find you back then, or you’d most surely be dead. After that, he returned to Los Angeles and hadn’t been back to Roswell since,” she said.
"The dermis adaptation technology was improved shortly after the ship crashed, and a battalion of Khivar’s people were sent to Earth, setting themselves up in a town in Arizona called Copper Summit. It was only years later that they realized that there was a flaw in those skins as well," she continued.
"One of them, who named herself Whitaker, had been sent to infiltrate the government, to make sure that no human interference impeded the Granolith’s return," she said.
"As technology and industry built over time, the pollution started to dry and erode their skin. They had grown others, but they were compromised by one of Rath's followers a few years ago. They were damaged, but the people living there had no choice but to use them. They will not last much longer than a year on Earth. The Skins had not matured enough. Unless Khivar removes them from Earth, they will inevitably perish there," she said.
"Ed had taken Tess to the others in New York, and took her under his tutelage. The primary group was raised to be ruthless, on the battleground of that city’s streets. They survived by their instincts, and were given nothing. But there was another flaw aside from Ava in the primary group that was yet to be discovered. Zan," she said.
"Flaw? He was flawed?" Max asked.
"Yes. Zan insinuated himself as the leader of the group. He had the seal, but his ego overshadowed everything. Ed was enraged by his arrogance, yet was bound by the ingrained protective instinct he had within him. Tess, Lonnie and Rath were ready to take their just reward that they had been promised their entire lives. A deal had been struck. If they cooperated, they would be allowed to live in luxury under Khivar’s rule. They cared not for the people who inhabited Antar, and Lonnie longed to return to Khivar. She had been raised with the belief that she was meant for him ," she said.
"Khivar too was impatient for Lonnie's return. Ed and Tess decided that Zan might become a risk to their plans, and made their return to the desert in Earth year 2000 for the first time since they’d left, and made themselves known to all of you, the defective three. They could not afford to leave any loose ends, nor could they take any chances. They started to feed you the lies you were told, should the time come when they needed you to return to Antar," she said.
"Ed had a weakness as well: an infatuation with Whitaker. He saw her often before his death. Tess had started to teach you the history they’d created of how you came to be on Earth. If Zan cooperated, you would be left to live the rest of your natural life hiding from what you were, hiding from humans. If he didn’t, they would set their alternate plan in motion, either to ensure that Tess bore your child, or, in the worst case, to bring you here to relinquish your control of the Granolith," she said.
"What they had not counted on was the one you called Michael. The killing of his human caretaker had attracted the attention of the human government. An agent was sent to the desert to monitor you. Ed was considered to be careless. Khivar ordered his elimination. It was easy work for Whitaker to take care of him, now that the Royal Four were considered to be self-sufficient with the development of their powers," she continued.
"Tess was left in control, as she was thought to be the most cooperative of the three. She was also armed with the knowledge she needed to finish what had been started so long ago. She was pressed to seduce you, to bear a child, since Zan wasn't receptive to her, nor did he want Ava. It was thought that you would bequeath the Granolith to it, and the child would be brought back here, to Antar, where Khivar and the others could bend it to their will," she said.
"But you were having none of Tess. Mind-warps were not as effective on you, because of the seal. To warp you effectively, your state of mind would have had to be severely compromised by a traumatic event, something that would throw your balance off far enough for her to gain a hold on your consciousness. You were not at all what she expected. And she hadn't counted on your feelings for the human girl, the one named Liz," she said.
"I know what she did to Liz's parents," he said bitterly.
She sighed sadly, pressing on.
"Regardless, she failed to make you believe that the two of you needed to be together, and Khivar was in a dilemma. During Earth year 2001, it was agreed a summit would take place during the wane of the sun, and Khivar’s worst fear was realized," she said.
"Zan halted everything they’d worked a lifetime for. He decided that he would be the one to call the shots. That he was the one with the power. Ava stuck at his side, for she was loyal to him. He knew that the seal he carried gave him power. When the time of the first summit came, he refused to go, arrogantly believing that he could do everything on his own terms," she said.
"The summit was imperative. Zan was to relinquish control of the Granolith to Khivar so that he might use it against the leaders of the other three planets in our galaxy. But thanks to Lonnie, Khivar knew that now Zan couldn't be trusted to do as commanded,” she said. "It was decided that Zan needed to be eliminated."
"Rath and Lonnie murdered Zan, pushing him to his death under a large vehicle on the streets of New York City. He had sealed his fate when he refused to be part of the summit. Rath and Lonnie agreed to go to the summit. They got rid of Ava for good measure. There was no need for her. She had the weakness, much like the Roswell set did. She was too human."
Max felt oddly sad for the Ava that was supposed to be with them. He supposed he might have even liked her, if she was anything like he suspected she was. He shuddered to think what his dupe must have been like, if Tess, Lonnie and Rath were any indication.
"It was then decided that you would go in his stead. They counted on manipulating you, and your emotions," she said. "The problem was, Tess could not seem to manipulate her way into your heart, as hard as she tried. By then, she knew a child was out of the question. She wanted to eliminate Michael and Isabel, to take you forcefully back to Antar, but Khivar was smarter. He knew that they could be used as leverage against you."
"The summit was set. Things were progressing as planned. You couldn’t have known what was to happen. They had set you up right from the beginning. Your work at the extra-terrestrial center was one of the many diversions Tess allowed you to have. We have found out that Tess knew that you had that journal all along. She planted the suspicion of you in Michael’s mind, and sat back and let him do the rest. She planned it all, to back you into a corner," she said. "Whitaker tipped off the FBI and Pierce."
"So she knew the FBI would be there," Max said, furious.
"Yes; moreover she counted on you getting captured. She wanted to make sure you had no other option but to leave, now that the FBI knew what you were. The Battle at Copper Summit was the beginning of the end. The human agents Topolsky and Pierce had the knowledge they needed to prove that our kind still lived among humans. When she got you out, you would have thought you had no other option but to leave," she said.
"Tess was well aware of your attachment to Isabel and Michael and she used it. They gambled with your human emotions and they won,” she said.
“As it stands now, if you do not relinquish control of the Granolith to Khivar, it is a given that they will kill Isabel and Michael. They are of no consequence to him. They were left behind only because they needed the Granolith here, and they needed you to be completely in the dark if their plan would work. It was imperative that you come of your own free will, without knowing the truth. It was too dangerous for them otherwise. They couldn’t take the chance that you would use the Granolith against them. They had to be completely sure that you were incapacitated. Now, all he needs to do is to give word to the remaining Skins on Earth, and Isabel and Michael will be executed. It was the leverage he needed,” she said.
“Why didn’t anyone come to protect us?” he asked. "After all that time..."
“The Loyalist resistance is not many in number, and we don’t have the technology we would have needed to travel to Earth. Many of them are living in poverty, and it was considered a great feat that my mate and his companion were able to infiltrate Khivar’s security to travel with your pods. They were our last hope, and when they perished, so did the morale of many in the resistance. We had given up,” she said.
"You have to understand that many Antarians, even those who still consider themselves loyal to your family, felt that the genetic re-creations were considered something like a sacrilege, as you would call it on Earth, to the Granolith. They do not believe that you are the true King, because your rebirth was not an act of the Granolith, but the machinations of Khivar. They know of the cloning, and they do not believe that your existence is going to help our people in any way. In fact, most of them feel that it will bring the downfall of Antar,” she said.
“I have done all I could over the years. Khivar thinks that I am loyal to him. It is the only reason I am still alive. I have played turncoat to my people for longer than I care to admit. But it was the only way I could fight," she said.
"I had almost given up hope that the Granolith could be saved from coming under the control of Khivar, because even the defected Antarians did not have access to any information on your whereabouts or the whereabouts of the other set. It was considered too much of a security risk and Khivar had everything riding on this," she said.
“It was only recently that we received intelligence, and we got it from the last person we expected it from. A communicator, long dormant since my mate's death, suddenly became active again in Earth year 2001. It was Kal that contacted us. He followed the reports of the conspiracy theorists, and abductees, much like you did at the UFO Center. When Zan was killed, there was activity through that network, and a rise in abductions. It was nothing concrete, nothing even you would have noticed, but Kal had been watching them for years. It made him nervous and he started to investigate, and had found out about the failed summit. It led him to Brody, and then to you," she said.
"I never saw him," Max said.
"He wouldn't have let you," she answered. "He didn't want you to know of his existence."
"Things were getting intense, and I suspect he was afraid he would lose everything he worked for on Earth. He made a deal with the resistance. Information would be exchanged under the condition that Khivar was never to know he was alive,” she said.
“He’d heard quite a bit through his contacts, it turns out. It was then we found out what had happened in New York, and that Tess was with you. Kal knew that their plan would be to take you back here," she said.
“Why didn’t you warn us?” he asked, angry.
“Because we did not have the power to protect you from here, and Tess would have known if you were contacted. She’d been in your head, Max. If we had contacted you, it would have started a war on Earth the likes you have never seen, and we could have done nothing to stop it. For the moment, Michael and Isabel are safe. Here, you will have your chance,” she said.
“You will have to make your decision to fight or to relinquish the Granolith to Khivar. Should you choose to fight, you will have help. But there is no guarantee we will succeed. You will have to think about a successor in case the worst happens, either Isabel or Michael. But even if we fail, you will still have access to the Granolith, for a short time, because it will be expected that you will transfer the power of the Granolith to Khivar. Khivar’s men on Earth will have Isabel and Michael within their grasp. They will most definitely have some way to make you do what they want. You will have to make a choice between Isabel and Michael. If we fail, and you are forced to bequeath the Granolith to one of them, the other will surely die,” she said. “But the alternative is death to everyone and everything you’ve ever loved.”
“I can’t choose one over the other!” he protested. "My only reason for going along with Tess was to protect them!"
“It may never come to that,” Seeraynah said. “You just need to be prepared for the worst. If all goes well you will not have to make that choice. We’ve done everything we can to insure that it doesn’t happen, but we can’t foresee everything.”
“What about you? You seem to know more about the Granolith than any of us,” he said.
“No!” she said, sounding offended. “Protectors are forbidden from taking possession of the Granolith. It is for the Zenshai’s own protection, a safeguard against mutiny. It has never been done. Once, a millennia ago, a Zenshai tried to pass the seal to a Zensad, and the Zensad perished.”
He remained silent, his heart agonizing over the possibility of the decision he might be forced to make. How could he choose between the two people he was closest to in the world?
"Isabel is not like Vilondra," he said in a quiet voice.
"I know that," she answered. "No living being is what they are due purely to genetics. Environment, experience, and heredity are also factors. I know Tess told you that you are some sort of defective, Max. But you are merely not the one that they felt would bend to their wishes. Just as Isabel is not a traitor the Vilondra was. The others...well Khivar made sure that their environment would only magnify the traits that were programmed into their genetic makeup," she said.
"It worked," he said in a bitter voice. "I don't see how I could have loved someone like Tess, or Ava, or whatever I should be calling her now. I can't look at her without wanting her dead."
"That is understandable," she answered in sympathy.
"But you have to remember, she is also not as she was on Antar. She was your dearest childhood friend. The two of you were betrothed in a marriage arranged by your families. You were so fond of her...when she died, it broke your heart," she said.
"I can't even imagine loving her now," he said, in distaste.
"She was your confidante, someone who you felt you could trust with your deepest secrets. But it was not a lover's connection. Eventually you would have been expected to have children together to produce an heir to the Granolith, and the both of you would have, but you were still so young then. True love is just as rare here as it is on Earth, Max. Many never find it, but when they do, it is a powerful thing. When true love happens for an Antarian, a powerful bond forms and it is the most wondrous thing you will ever experience," she said quietly.
"You had that, with your mate, didn't you?" he asked. That kind of love was something he'd always yearned for, and knew he would never have.
"Yes. I will be bound to him forever, as he is to me. He is gone now, but I can still feel his essence bonded with mine, and when my own time comes, I will see him again. That I know, and I take comfort in it," she said.
It was quiet for a few seconds.
“I have faith in you Max. I always had faith in you as Zan, and I have faith you, as you are now. I know you’ll do the right thing. I’ll come to you tomorrow,” she said.
He sensed it when she left. He didn’t know how she was getting in and out of the cell, but it wasn’t through the door.
He was tired. Too tired.
He knew Khivar meant to eventually destroy him. But what none of them understood was that love was infinitely more powerful than greed. It made the weak strong. It made the timid brave, and it made the hopeless believe that in the end, they would prevail. And for Michael and Isabel, he would. He had no other choice.
Still awake? Holy hairballs Batman! It's a miracle! I think it's only going to be two more parts until Max comes back to NY, but there's plenty of story there too before he meets up with Liz. See you Wednesday.
Serendipity(Every Path Leads..) (AU, ML / Mature) (Complete)
Moderators: Itzstacie, Forum Moderators
I'm just going to be honest. I suck at feedback, so I just want to thank you all for sticking with me, and this story. I wasn't sure how the backstory was going to go over, so needless to say I am glad that it at least appears plausible to you guys.
Hope you enjoy this installment, posted in two parts due to length.
Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot - Sting
When you're down and they're counting
When your secrets all found out
When your troubles take to mounting
When the map you have leads you to doubt
When there's no information
And the compass turns to nowhere that you know well
Let your soul be your pilot
Let your soul guide you
He'll guide you well
When the doctors failed to heal you
When no medicine chest can make you well
When no counsel leads to comfort
When there are no more lies they can tell
No more useless information
And the compass spins
The compass spins between heaven and hell
Let your soul be your pilot
Let your soul guide you
He'll guide you well
And your eyes turn towards the window pane
To the lights upon the hill
The distance seems so strange to you now
The dark room seems so still
Let your pain be my sorrow
Let your tears be my tears too
Let your courage be my model
That the north you find will be true
When there's no more useless information
And the compass turns to nowhere
That you know well
Let your soul be your pilot
Let your soul guide you
Let your soul guide you
Let your soul guide you
Upon your way
Part Twenty One
Antar
*~Max~*
He could sense that another day had passed, though he could see nothing but darkness in the cell.
He knew that if he chose to do what Seeraynah asked, then they had to be successful. Anything else was not an option. If he lost Michael and Isabel, then there was nothing left for him at all.
Although they had been distant before he left Earth, he had always known that both Michael and Isabel had loved him.
*******
**Max! Max! Wake up!**
He had been so enmeshed in his nightmare that he hadn't heard her right away. For months, he had been having the same dream over and over again...
"Sweetie, you might feel better if you talk about it. Come on, what could be so bad that you can't tell Mommy?" Diane Evans asked, looking at Phillip before turning her eyes back to Max with compassion.
He looked at her with a hopeful wariness. He knew she loved he and Isabel, but would she still love him if she knew the truth?
"It's ok Max, tell me," she prompted in a gentle voice.
He shook his head sadly.
"You can't tell me? Well can you show me?" she asked.
He looked into her eyes and saw all of the love she had shown him since she'd adopted him two years ago. His father nodded his head.
Taking a deep breath, he lifted his hand to the pitcher filled with orange juice on the table. Isabel sat across from him with wide eyes, not saying a word.
He touched the glass pitcher, concentrating, watching as the orange liquid turned white and opaque.
Diane screamed and jumped away from the table, and his eyes flew to Isabel's, but she no longer looked like his sister. Her eyes had gone completely black, her skin gray, all of her hair gone. He could see the fear in those eyes as they stared at their parents. It was then that Max noticed his own skin had turned.
They were monsters. It had to be true, because that was what his mother was screaming.
"Get out!" she screamed terrified as Phillip pulled her back from the table.
Max tried to reassure her, but his mouth no longer worked as it used to, his words coming out garbled.
"Get out!" Diane screamed again.
"You're monsters," Phillip whispered, terror painting his features. "You lied to us. You're monsters!"
********
He hadn't even realized he was sobbing, until he felt small arms slide around his neck.
"Wake up, Max," she whispered.
He opened his eyes to see his sister's face next to his, concern etching her young features, and it took him a moment to assimilate.
He wondered if he would ever feel like this house was his home. They had been here for a year, and it still felt alien to him.
"They'd hate us if they ever knew what we really were," he said.
"I saw it. I saw your nightmare. It was only a dream Max," she said quietly. "They would never do that to us. They love us. Don't you know that?"
"We can't ever tell them," Max whispered. "We can't tell anyone. If anything ever happened to you or Michael, I don't know what I would do..."
"Nothing's going to happen Max. I promise you, the three of us will be together always...you, me and Michael," she said.
"But I don't think Mommy and Dad would hate us. They love us," she said.
"We don't know that for sure," he said, wiping his tear-stained cheeks.
"Do you have that dream a lot?" she asked.
"Yeah," he whispered.
"Want me to stay for awhile?" Isabel asked, and Max nodded.
"Ok," she said, and settled in next to him.
After a time, Max fell into sleep again.
The dream started out the same, only this time, Isabel didn't turn into a monster, and neither did he, and his parents watched what he could do and they embraced them instead of running from them.
When he woke the next morning, he knew Isabel had "fixed" his dream. If only real life could work out the way she imagined it would.
He never had that same dream again, and he'd always remembered what she'd done that night.
Despite the fact that they'd been at odds before he left with Tess, he knew that she'd loved him. There were times as they grew up when she would just sit with he and Michael at the window when he couldn't sleep. By that time, Michael had taken to slipping into his window to sleep on the floor. He had been shuffled from family to family be social services, and the only thing he could count on was Max's floor. For hours in the middle of the night, she would point to the sky and pick a star, describing how she imagined their world to be, creating vibrant and beautiful places and stories in whispered tones.
He remembered Michael's wistful expressions as a young boy, masking his feelings had already become a way of life for him. Things might have been so different if he hadn't ran and hid in the desert the night the Evans had found he and Isabel. He hated that Michael wasn't with them. But Michael had always been wary of people.
Michael only dared to show his emotions around he and Isabel, and lately he had become more closed off. His looked too wise for his eleven years. Max suspected that Michael hadn't told them how bad it really was in the foster homes.
Isabel smiled as she gazed up at the stars, describing how she imagined their families to be. Michael's eyes took on a faraway look, and grew misty, and at that moment, Max realized how much he loved the two of them.
From the moment Michael had walked into school his first day, he'd been fiercely protective of he and Isabel.
There were many times when Max had inadvertently stepped in the way of some bully, and Michael would step in between, ready to fight the bigger boys. He had become known around school as a loner and someone not to mess with.
Max knew that people thought it strange that he and Isabel were so close. On the surface, the three seemed as different as people could be from each other. He hadn't really cared.
Their secret kept them close, binding them together as only being different could.
*********
Max knew that either one of them would have done anything for him, and that they wanted to protect him, just as he wanted to protect them now.
This place was nothing like the world Isabel had dreamed up for them. In some way, he was glad Michael had been spared this, for it had been the only thing he'd been hanging on to for most of his life; the dream of his true home and a family.
*********
He waited for her, praying that he would not have to make a decision that would surely kill what remained of his heart.
He knew that the Granolith would reject them, just as it had slowly rejected him from the moment he touched it.
Despite Seeraynah's protests, he knew it. None of them were fit to harness the power of the Granolith. If they weren't successful, then he would wind up doing much as the previous Zan had done, to end his life to prevent the Granolith from falling into Khivar's hands.
It was best not to dwell on the possibility of failure. But something kept teasing at the back of his mind, an idea, one that on the surface seemed impossible, but it still tugged at his brain.
Would it work, and did he have the courage to chance it?
*******
She had come to him, as she’d promised, and asked for his decision.
He knew everything was riding on this. He had to try, but he feared what it would cost him.
The resistance would infiltrate the compound and release him, and Seeraynah would bring him to the Granolith. From there, he was on his own.
If they were captured, he would have to make the hardest decision in his life, and he had no idea what that decision would be.
But now it was the waiting that was killing him, with nothing to do but think about it.
**********
A loud explosion rocked the cell two hours later, and voices shouted down the corridor, carrying through the smoke and the faint light, which shone through the blasted door.
It momentarily disoriented him, after being in the dark for such long periods of time.
“Max!” a voice shouted, and a silhouetted figure appeared in the doorway.
He stood in readiness, and she stepped through the smoke.
She was everything and nothing that he had expected.
He was still for a few seconds, taking in the appearance of his savior.
Physically, she was similar to Larek in form, but there were distinct differences. Her eyes were set further into her head almost simian in appearance, her skin luminescent. Where Larek had no hair, hers fell in a cascade of auburn waves down her back. Her delicate arms tapered down to long fingers, which held a weapon of the like he had never seen. A cassock adorned her slim frame, shimmering in the colors that represented Khivar’s rule.
She sensed his stare, and must have realized her appearance.
She disappeared within a bright flash of light, and a moment later it faded to reveal the form of a redheaded human woman.
With lightning movements she was at his side, and the band was removed from his wrist.
“Come, now! There isn’t much time!” she said, motioning to him, and this spurred him into action.
He fell in behind her as she paused at the door, to make sure that the corridor was secured. He could hear explosions, muffled by distance. He squinted, trying to allow his eyes to adjust to the light.
She jerked her head and moved out into the hall, pressed against the wall, waiting for something. He followed suit as she waited, motionless.
A moment later, a louder explosion shook the floor, and her weapon was aimed at the source. Two of Khivar’s guards rushed into the hall and she opened fire on them, taking them down.
“Follow me,” she said, and rushed to the end of the corridor. He struggled to keep up with her, weakened by the lack of nourishment and the tortures inflicted on him during his incarceration.
“What if I am too weak to do this?” he whispered suddenly.
“Weakness is not an option. You’ll find the strength. Everything depends on it,” she said.
She moved again, hugging the wall of the corridor. They ran into another band of soldiers caught off guard. She took advantage of their distraction and they quickly fell under the power of the energy blasts from her weapon.
He soon lost all sense of direction as they wound through the maze of corridors. To him their turns seemed random, but he trusted that she knew where she was going.
Twice they passed small groups of rebels who shouted out the quadrants considered to be unsecured, and they quickly changed direction.
Finally she stopped at an enormous door, and she seemed to take a deep breath.
“Two of your people lost their lives to get this code. Keep your fingers crossed that it still works,” she said.
Her agile long fingers typed in a code on a keypad with symbols he didn’t understand, and the door hissed open.
Immediately he knew they’d walked into a trap. Guards appeared on either side, surrounding them.
In front of him, the Granolith pulsed, aware of his presence.
“Seeraynah,” Khivar said, stepping from behind the Granolith, his cruel preternatural eyes visible first. Lonnie moved alongside of him, her arm threaded through his. She was dressed in Antarian finery, silk in appearance, though in colors he had never seen on earth. Luminescent jewels were clipped into her short hair. She looked nothing like she had appeared on Earth, her beauty marred by her cruel smile and cold eyes.
Seeraynah mumbled what must have been an Antarian curse, and glanced at Max, before turning a hard face to Khivar.
“I’d know your scent anywhere. I see my sources were right. I didn’t want to believe it of you,” Khivar continued, moving to step before her, towering over her in height. Lonnie smirked beside him, stroking his arm.
Seeraynah glared up at him, unafraid.
Max looked at her in admiration. Even now, she looked at Khivar with disgust, daring him to make a move. In that moment he realized that her loyalty was unflagging, that she would stand by him until the end. She believed in him and in the inherent wisdom of the Granolith, and would give her life for it.
“Believe it,” she said, unwavering. "It feels good to finally say it aloud."
Khivar shook his head and turned his attention to Max.
“A fool to the end, aren’t you Zan?” he asked. “This could have been easy. We would have left the defects alone if you’d cooperated.”
“Why would you have thought any differently?” Tess said, emerging from the shadows. “I told you what he was like. He thinks he's doing the honorable thing.”
“Now, now my dear,” Khivar chuckled. “Giving him one last chance did no harm, did it? But yes, I concede you were quite right.”
“No matter. I will make sure that he suffers before he is put out of his misery. A little payback for all the time you had to spend in his presence on Earth,” Khivar said.
“Nothin’ could be enough payoff for that,” Lonnie said, rolling her eyes. “A few hours around him made me wanna puke.”
“Try years of it,” Tess said, glaring at him.
Khivar stroked Lonnie’s cheek and smiled.
“We’ll make it up to Tess, my love,” he said, glancing at Tess.
“This will be a start,” she retorted.
Max felt bile rising in his throat watching his sister’s look-alike casting hungry eyes on the monster before him. Whatever Vilondra had been in another life, he thanked every star in the Universe that Isabel was nothing like her.
Khivar studied him for a moment, and Max felt as if his eyes were burning into his soul.
“The Resistance will fail. I think you know that. You will give up control of the Granolith to me,” he said. “I’ve been very patient, don’t you think?”
“I won’t,” Max in steady defiance.
Khivar smiled, stepping closer to him.
“Would you like to see what my men can do to your sister and your friend if you don’t cooperate?” he asked.
“Bring it in,” he said over his shoulder and Lonnie chuckled.
Another panel in the wall to the right slid open silently, and a metal table was wheeled into the room, a metallic cloth covering a shapeless lump.
Max felt a sense of foreboding steal over him as he watched the table being pushed across the floor. He wasn’t sure what the shiny blanket was hiding from view, but he knew he wasn’t going to like it.
The guard stopped near Khivar and looked at him expectant, awaiting his order.
Khivar gently removed Lonnie’s hand from his arm, moving to stand next to the table.
“I will give you one offer. If you turn the Granolith over to me, I will not harm your sister or Michael. Of course, you will die, but they will remain ignorant of any of this, and will live their natural lives out on Earth,” he said.
“That’s what Tess promised me, and now you’re threatening to kill them if I don’t cooperate. Why should I believe you?” Max asked.
Khivar shrugged.
"It's simple. They mean nothing to me either way. I don't care whether they live, or they die. But if you do not turn the Granolith over to me, I can makes things very messy,” he said, turning to the table.
He ripped off the covering.
Max’s immediate reaction was to avert his eyes from the horror that lay there.
“No stomach for gore, my friend?” Khivar said with a grin.
Max slowly turned his eyes back to the mess on the table. Blood and entrails lay everywhere, but the face was plainly visible. The wet mess that lay before him had once been Rath. His eyes were frozen forever, a mixture of surprise and horror.
Max turned his eyes toward Lonnie.
“He was your brother,” he said, feeling his body trembling.
“Correction friend, he was my husband,” she answered. “And not a good one in either life. He was a good fuck, but that was it. Maybe your uptight sister thought of him like a brother, but that was her mistake. She missed out on a good lay.”
“He died while I on top of 'im. The fucker had no idea what hit him,” she said with a cold smile. Khivar grinned and stroked her fingers.
“He served his purpose, and we eliminated him, just as we’ll eliminate your sister and Michael if you don’t cooperate,” Khivar said.
“Look,” he continued, motioning to a large disc on the wall.
Max felt terror seize his heart as an image flickered on its surface.
He heard Isabel’s scream of fear, as one of the guards grabbed her throat, holding a vicious serrated weapon to her throat.
The screen flickered, showing Michael this time, shackled by bonds of alien energy to the wall of the pod chamber. Max caught the flash of the inhibiting bracelet on his wrist. They were powerless, much like he was. Michael cried out in rage as he saw the weapon pressed to Isabel’s throat, struggling against his bonds.
“NO!” Max cried.
“Make up your mind. I’ll give you my word that I will let them go if you give me control of the Granolith. You don’t have much of a choice,” he said.
Continued in next post.....
Hope you enjoy this installment, posted in two parts due to length.
Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot - Sting
When you're down and they're counting
When your secrets all found out
When your troubles take to mounting
When the map you have leads you to doubt
When there's no information
And the compass turns to nowhere that you know well
Let your soul be your pilot
Let your soul guide you
He'll guide you well
When the doctors failed to heal you
When no medicine chest can make you well
When no counsel leads to comfort
When there are no more lies they can tell
No more useless information
And the compass spins
The compass spins between heaven and hell
Let your soul be your pilot
Let your soul guide you
He'll guide you well
And your eyes turn towards the window pane
To the lights upon the hill
The distance seems so strange to you now
The dark room seems so still
Let your pain be my sorrow
Let your tears be my tears too
Let your courage be my model
That the north you find will be true
When there's no more useless information
And the compass turns to nowhere
That you know well
Let your soul be your pilot
Let your soul guide you
Let your soul guide you
Let your soul guide you
Upon your way
Part Twenty One
Antar
*~Max~*
He could sense that another day had passed, though he could see nothing but darkness in the cell.
He knew that if he chose to do what Seeraynah asked, then they had to be successful. Anything else was not an option. If he lost Michael and Isabel, then there was nothing left for him at all.
Although they had been distant before he left Earth, he had always known that both Michael and Isabel had loved him.
*******
**Max! Max! Wake up!**
He had been so enmeshed in his nightmare that he hadn't heard her right away. For months, he had been having the same dream over and over again...
"Sweetie, you might feel better if you talk about it. Come on, what could be so bad that you can't tell Mommy?" Diane Evans asked, looking at Phillip before turning her eyes back to Max with compassion.
He looked at her with a hopeful wariness. He knew she loved he and Isabel, but would she still love him if she knew the truth?
"It's ok Max, tell me," she prompted in a gentle voice.
He shook his head sadly.
"You can't tell me? Well can you show me?" she asked.
He looked into her eyes and saw all of the love she had shown him since she'd adopted him two years ago. His father nodded his head.
Taking a deep breath, he lifted his hand to the pitcher filled with orange juice on the table. Isabel sat across from him with wide eyes, not saying a word.
He touched the glass pitcher, concentrating, watching as the orange liquid turned white and opaque.
Diane screamed and jumped away from the table, and his eyes flew to Isabel's, but she no longer looked like his sister. Her eyes had gone completely black, her skin gray, all of her hair gone. He could see the fear in those eyes as they stared at their parents. It was then that Max noticed his own skin had turned.
They were monsters. It had to be true, because that was what his mother was screaming.
"Get out!" she screamed terrified as Phillip pulled her back from the table.
Max tried to reassure her, but his mouth no longer worked as it used to, his words coming out garbled.
"Get out!" Diane screamed again.
"You're monsters," Phillip whispered, terror painting his features. "You lied to us. You're monsters!"
********
He hadn't even realized he was sobbing, until he felt small arms slide around his neck.
"Wake up, Max," she whispered.
He opened his eyes to see his sister's face next to his, concern etching her young features, and it took him a moment to assimilate.
He wondered if he would ever feel like this house was his home. They had been here for a year, and it still felt alien to him.
"They'd hate us if they ever knew what we really were," he said.
"I saw it. I saw your nightmare. It was only a dream Max," she said quietly. "They would never do that to us. They love us. Don't you know that?"
"We can't ever tell them," Max whispered. "We can't tell anyone. If anything ever happened to you or Michael, I don't know what I would do..."
"Nothing's going to happen Max. I promise you, the three of us will be together always...you, me and Michael," she said.
"But I don't think Mommy and Dad would hate us. They love us," she said.
"We don't know that for sure," he said, wiping his tear-stained cheeks.
"Do you have that dream a lot?" she asked.
"Yeah," he whispered.
"Want me to stay for awhile?" Isabel asked, and Max nodded.
"Ok," she said, and settled in next to him.
After a time, Max fell into sleep again.
The dream started out the same, only this time, Isabel didn't turn into a monster, and neither did he, and his parents watched what he could do and they embraced them instead of running from them.
When he woke the next morning, he knew Isabel had "fixed" his dream. If only real life could work out the way she imagined it would.
He never had that same dream again, and he'd always remembered what she'd done that night.
Despite the fact that they'd been at odds before he left with Tess, he knew that she'd loved him. There were times as they grew up when she would just sit with he and Michael at the window when he couldn't sleep. By that time, Michael had taken to slipping into his window to sleep on the floor. He had been shuffled from family to family be social services, and the only thing he could count on was Max's floor. For hours in the middle of the night, she would point to the sky and pick a star, describing how she imagined their world to be, creating vibrant and beautiful places and stories in whispered tones.
He remembered Michael's wistful expressions as a young boy, masking his feelings had already become a way of life for him. Things might have been so different if he hadn't ran and hid in the desert the night the Evans had found he and Isabel. He hated that Michael wasn't with them. But Michael had always been wary of people.
Michael only dared to show his emotions around he and Isabel, and lately he had become more closed off. His looked too wise for his eleven years. Max suspected that Michael hadn't told them how bad it really was in the foster homes.
Isabel smiled as she gazed up at the stars, describing how she imagined their families to be. Michael's eyes took on a faraway look, and grew misty, and at that moment, Max realized how much he loved the two of them.
From the moment Michael had walked into school his first day, he'd been fiercely protective of he and Isabel.
There were many times when Max had inadvertently stepped in the way of some bully, and Michael would step in between, ready to fight the bigger boys. He had become known around school as a loner and someone not to mess with.
Max knew that people thought it strange that he and Isabel were so close. On the surface, the three seemed as different as people could be from each other. He hadn't really cared.
Their secret kept them close, binding them together as only being different could.
*********
Max knew that either one of them would have done anything for him, and that they wanted to protect him, just as he wanted to protect them now.
This place was nothing like the world Isabel had dreamed up for them. In some way, he was glad Michael had been spared this, for it had been the only thing he'd been hanging on to for most of his life; the dream of his true home and a family.
*********
He waited for her, praying that he would not have to make a decision that would surely kill what remained of his heart.
He knew that the Granolith would reject them, just as it had slowly rejected him from the moment he touched it.
Despite Seeraynah's protests, he knew it. None of them were fit to harness the power of the Granolith. If they weren't successful, then he would wind up doing much as the previous Zan had done, to end his life to prevent the Granolith from falling into Khivar's hands.
It was best not to dwell on the possibility of failure. But something kept teasing at the back of his mind, an idea, one that on the surface seemed impossible, but it still tugged at his brain.
Would it work, and did he have the courage to chance it?
*******
She had come to him, as she’d promised, and asked for his decision.
He knew everything was riding on this. He had to try, but he feared what it would cost him.
The resistance would infiltrate the compound and release him, and Seeraynah would bring him to the Granolith. From there, he was on his own.
If they were captured, he would have to make the hardest decision in his life, and he had no idea what that decision would be.
But now it was the waiting that was killing him, with nothing to do but think about it.
**********
A loud explosion rocked the cell two hours later, and voices shouted down the corridor, carrying through the smoke and the faint light, which shone through the blasted door.
It momentarily disoriented him, after being in the dark for such long periods of time.
“Max!” a voice shouted, and a silhouetted figure appeared in the doorway.
He stood in readiness, and she stepped through the smoke.
She was everything and nothing that he had expected.
He was still for a few seconds, taking in the appearance of his savior.
Physically, she was similar to Larek in form, but there were distinct differences. Her eyes were set further into her head almost simian in appearance, her skin luminescent. Where Larek had no hair, hers fell in a cascade of auburn waves down her back. Her delicate arms tapered down to long fingers, which held a weapon of the like he had never seen. A cassock adorned her slim frame, shimmering in the colors that represented Khivar’s rule.
She sensed his stare, and must have realized her appearance.
She disappeared within a bright flash of light, and a moment later it faded to reveal the form of a redheaded human woman.
With lightning movements she was at his side, and the band was removed from his wrist.
“Come, now! There isn’t much time!” she said, motioning to him, and this spurred him into action.
He fell in behind her as she paused at the door, to make sure that the corridor was secured. He could hear explosions, muffled by distance. He squinted, trying to allow his eyes to adjust to the light.
She jerked her head and moved out into the hall, pressed against the wall, waiting for something. He followed suit as she waited, motionless.
A moment later, a louder explosion shook the floor, and her weapon was aimed at the source. Two of Khivar’s guards rushed into the hall and she opened fire on them, taking them down.
“Follow me,” she said, and rushed to the end of the corridor. He struggled to keep up with her, weakened by the lack of nourishment and the tortures inflicted on him during his incarceration.
“What if I am too weak to do this?” he whispered suddenly.
“Weakness is not an option. You’ll find the strength. Everything depends on it,” she said.
She moved again, hugging the wall of the corridor. They ran into another band of soldiers caught off guard. She took advantage of their distraction and they quickly fell under the power of the energy blasts from her weapon.
He soon lost all sense of direction as they wound through the maze of corridors. To him their turns seemed random, but he trusted that she knew where she was going.
Twice they passed small groups of rebels who shouted out the quadrants considered to be unsecured, and they quickly changed direction.
Finally she stopped at an enormous door, and she seemed to take a deep breath.
“Two of your people lost their lives to get this code. Keep your fingers crossed that it still works,” she said.
Her agile long fingers typed in a code on a keypad with symbols he didn’t understand, and the door hissed open.
Immediately he knew they’d walked into a trap. Guards appeared on either side, surrounding them.
In front of him, the Granolith pulsed, aware of his presence.
“Seeraynah,” Khivar said, stepping from behind the Granolith, his cruel preternatural eyes visible first. Lonnie moved alongside of him, her arm threaded through his. She was dressed in Antarian finery, silk in appearance, though in colors he had never seen on earth. Luminescent jewels were clipped into her short hair. She looked nothing like she had appeared on Earth, her beauty marred by her cruel smile and cold eyes.
Seeraynah mumbled what must have been an Antarian curse, and glanced at Max, before turning a hard face to Khivar.
“I’d know your scent anywhere. I see my sources were right. I didn’t want to believe it of you,” Khivar continued, moving to step before her, towering over her in height. Lonnie smirked beside him, stroking his arm.
Seeraynah glared up at him, unafraid.
Max looked at her in admiration. Even now, she looked at Khivar with disgust, daring him to make a move. In that moment he realized that her loyalty was unflagging, that she would stand by him until the end. She believed in him and in the inherent wisdom of the Granolith, and would give her life for it.
“Believe it,” she said, unwavering. "It feels good to finally say it aloud."
Khivar shook his head and turned his attention to Max.
“A fool to the end, aren’t you Zan?” he asked. “This could have been easy. We would have left the defects alone if you’d cooperated.”
“Why would you have thought any differently?” Tess said, emerging from the shadows. “I told you what he was like. He thinks he's doing the honorable thing.”
“Now, now my dear,” Khivar chuckled. “Giving him one last chance did no harm, did it? But yes, I concede you were quite right.”
“No matter. I will make sure that he suffers before he is put out of his misery. A little payback for all the time you had to spend in his presence on Earth,” Khivar said.
“Nothin’ could be enough payoff for that,” Lonnie said, rolling her eyes. “A few hours around him made me wanna puke.”
“Try years of it,” Tess said, glaring at him.
Khivar stroked Lonnie’s cheek and smiled.
“We’ll make it up to Tess, my love,” he said, glancing at Tess.
“This will be a start,” she retorted.
Max felt bile rising in his throat watching his sister’s look-alike casting hungry eyes on the monster before him. Whatever Vilondra had been in another life, he thanked every star in the Universe that Isabel was nothing like her.
Khivar studied him for a moment, and Max felt as if his eyes were burning into his soul.
“The Resistance will fail. I think you know that. You will give up control of the Granolith to me,” he said. “I’ve been very patient, don’t you think?”
“I won’t,” Max in steady defiance.
Khivar smiled, stepping closer to him.
“Would you like to see what my men can do to your sister and your friend if you don’t cooperate?” he asked.
“Bring it in,” he said over his shoulder and Lonnie chuckled.
Another panel in the wall to the right slid open silently, and a metal table was wheeled into the room, a metallic cloth covering a shapeless lump.
Max felt a sense of foreboding steal over him as he watched the table being pushed across the floor. He wasn’t sure what the shiny blanket was hiding from view, but he knew he wasn’t going to like it.
The guard stopped near Khivar and looked at him expectant, awaiting his order.
Khivar gently removed Lonnie’s hand from his arm, moving to stand next to the table.
“I will give you one offer. If you turn the Granolith over to me, I will not harm your sister or Michael. Of course, you will die, but they will remain ignorant of any of this, and will live their natural lives out on Earth,” he said.
“That’s what Tess promised me, and now you’re threatening to kill them if I don’t cooperate. Why should I believe you?” Max asked.
Khivar shrugged.
"It's simple. They mean nothing to me either way. I don't care whether they live, or they die. But if you do not turn the Granolith over to me, I can makes things very messy,” he said, turning to the table.
He ripped off the covering.
Max’s immediate reaction was to avert his eyes from the horror that lay there.
“No stomach for gore, my friend?” Khivar said with a grin.
Max slowly turned his eyes back to the mess on the table. Blood and entrails lay everywhere, but the face was plainly visible. The wet mess that lay before him had once been Rath. His eyes were frozen forever, a mixture of surprise and horror.
Max turned his eyes toward Lonnie.
“He was your brother,” he said, feeling his body trembling.
“Correction friend, he was my husband,” she answered. “And not a good one in either life. He was a good fuck, but that was it. Maybe your uptight sister thought of him like a brother, but that was her mistake. She missed out on a good lay.”
“He died while I on top of 'im. The fucker had no idea what hit him,” she said with a cold smile. Khivar grinned and stroked her fingers.
“He served his purpose, and we eliminated him, just as we’ll eliminate your sister and Michael if you don’t cooperate,” Khivar said.
“Look,” he continued, motioning to a large disc on the wall.
Max felt terror seize his heart as an image flickered on its surface.
He heard Isabel’s scream of fear, as one of the guards grabbed her throat, holding a vicious serrated weapon to her throat.
The screen flickered, showing Michael this time, shackled by bonds of alien energy to the wall of the pod chamber. Max caught the flash of the inhibiting bracelet on his wrist. They were powerless, much like he was. Michael cried out in rage as he saw the weapon pressed to Isabel’s throat, struggling against his bonds.
“NO!” Max cried.
“Make up your mind. I’ll give you my word that I will let them go if you give me control of the Granolith. You don’t have much of a choice,” he said.
Continued in next post.....
Max knew Khivar was right. He didn’t have much of a choice. He didn’t know if he could not harness the Granolith’s power long enough to save even one of them. But he didn't have to take Khivar at his word, and he could at least give them a fighting chance, a warrior, someone who might be capable of keeping them alive, who knew what they were, and how to help them. He prayed he was making the right decision, for if it was wrong, there would be three lives on his head and he would die in vain.
"Seeraynah goes to Earth first," Max said, turning toward her. “She will be their protector after I’m gone.”
“What?!” Seeraynah gasped.
“Don’t do this Max,” she said in a low voice. “Not after everything we’ve worked for!”
“I command it, Seeraynah,” he said, seeing the look of dismay on her face. “If you truly believe I’m your King, you’ll do it.”
“I agree to your terms,” he said with determination, turning to face Khivar. "Provided Seeraynah arrives unharmed to Earth. If she and the others are alive I will give you the Granolith."
“He won’t keep his word! You have to know that Max!” Seeraynah said angrily, glancing at Khivar.
Khivar was thoughtful for a moment, and then smiled.
“If that is what it will take, then fine, so be it,” Khivar answered. “The Granolith remains here. Use an alternate means of transporting her. You know what to do, I’m sure.”
“Max please! You’re making a mistake,” Seeraynah argued.
“You’ll be safe on Earth,” he said, glancing at her.
“Protect them", he said, as she was dragged to the Granolith.
"Leave her with me," Max said to the guards, and they retreated after a nod if assent from Khivar. Max held her arm as he walked over to the Granolith, ignoring her pleas, and ran his hand over the hidden drawer in its base.
He didn't dare tell Seeraynah what he planned. Instead, he lied.
“Seeraynah, I’m not brave. I can’t do this,” he said in a low voice. “I can’t choose. But I can make sure that you are all protected before I give up the Granolith.”
He knew it was a lie, but he had no choice. If everything went as he thought it would, she would understand. If not, she'd be dead.
“You can't do that Max,” she protested angrily. “You’re supposed to be the bearer. You’re supposed to protect the Granolith, not give it away to the enemy! You are the Zenshai.”
“No, I’m not. The people of Antar were right. I am an abomination,” he said.
“Don’t do this. You don’t know what it will mean...” she pleaded.
“I’m sorry,” he said, looking away.
He retrieved the appropriate crystal and slid it into the base.
The Granolith began to hum louder, glowing brightly.
Almost instantly, he felt the drain on his body, stronger this time. He could feel his muscles trembling as his power was sucked from it.
With inhuman effort, he concentrated on making the crystal work. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake or for his body to give out before his task was complete. Everything depended on it, for the Granolith would not be transporting with her, instead she would travel via wormhole. One error could cost Seeraynah her life, and in turn would take everything he cared about with it.
When he opened his eyes, a turbulent wormhole had appeared near her.
“Don’t ever tell them that I was still alive,” he said. “They don’t have to know any of it.”
She shook her head in protest.
“Please,” he mouthed.
She stilled and looked at him with tear-filled eyes.
The light around the wormhole grew still brighter. He watched as Seeraynah’s body seemed to implode upon itself, disappearing within the wormhole.
He sank to the floor exhausted from his effort.
“I do nothing until I see that she’s arrived safely and is with Isabel and Michael,” he gasped.
Khivar nodded.
“Take him back to his cell,” he ordered the guard. “And round up any stray members of the rebel band.”
The guard dragged him off the floor and yanked him roughly toward the door.
“How could you do that?” he heard Tess say. "How could you agree to keep them alive?"
“I told you, they mean nothing to me. The Granolith is what matters. He would never choose between Rath or Vilondra. He doesn't even remember what he was.”
You’ve made a mistake,” she grated, and he the voices faded as he was dragged away.
*****
He was placed in a temporary cell with thinner walls and harsh lighting with another bracelet snapped on his wrist. They were taking no chances. Outside he heard the guards grumbling over the escape of a few rebels.
He faded in and out of consciousness for days, exhausted by the energy the Granolith continued to draw from him to propel Seeraynah’s journey through the wormhole, even as he lay in the cell.
How he wished he could call on its power from his cell. It would have been the answer to everything. But for him, the power rested only within the crystals. He could not command it without them, though he suspected he should have been able to. Without them, there was nothing he could do.
For a week, he remained in the cell with no word of Seeraynah’s arrival. His only assurance that her journey continued was the draw on his life force. It had given him nothing but time to think about all that had happened.
During that time, he felt Tess trying to gain entrance to his mind. He had to be vigilant in keeping her out, for she was tuned to any sign of weakness, but somehow he kept her at bay.
In his former life, he had been brave. In this one, he was naïve and weak. So many mistakes were made, but he knew that handing the Granolith to Khivar would be another. But he wouldn’t trade either Isabel or Michael’s to save one or the others, even if it were possible, which he was fairly sure it wasn't.
Giving Khivar the Granolith would not have changed much in this world. His people were already enslaved. He was not worthy of its power, being human. His system couldn't take the magnitude of the energy the Granolith infused it with. He could sense that on the basest level. His tenuous hold on it was barely enough. He would never have the control to be the protector he was meant to be. His genes did not carry enough of his Antarian roots. But the thought consequences for those he loved and Earth was terrifying.
He supposed he had thought he was doing the right thing in his former life, aiding it in sending itself off to Earth without an heir. He couldn’t have known the lengths Khivar would go to gain control over it. But that was the problem wasn’t it? There were so many things that had happened that he couldn’t have known.
For days he'd been listening to the cries of the captured rebel Antarians in nearby cells crying out in pain as they were interrogated and tortured.
What had started out as many voices had dwindled down to a few as the days passed, and he could only presume that they were dying at the hands of the guards.
He'd heard the name Zan fall from their lips as if it were an expletive. Seeraynah had been right. It seemed as if they did no longer welcomed his reincarnation.
Could he really blame them? He was no leader, no King. He couldn't even remember his previous life, and yet it was expected that he protect the Granolith. Their disappointment would be complete, for he could not truly wield the Granolith after all.
On the fifth day, he had an unwelcome visitor.
The cell door slid open, and he watched Tess step into the cell. His entire body stiffened, and he turned his head away.
"Pondering your miserable existence?" Tess said, and he stiffened, hearing the sarcasm lacing her voice.
"What are you doing here Tess?" he asked.
"Too bad you can't heal those bruises," she said, ignoring his question. "Your looks were your only redeeming feature."
"I don't really care what you think of how I look," he muttered.
"Have you looked in a mirror lately? You look like a derelict," she said. "I wonder what Liz Parker would think if she could see you now."
"Leave her out of this," he grated. "What do you care what she would think? You made sure that she’d hate me. So what's your point?"
"I don't have one. I just enjoy watching you get all pissed off when I mention her," she said, with a cruel chuckle.
"Just leave me alone, Tess," he said in a defeated tone. "You got what you wanted, didn't you?"
"Not quite everything, but that will be remedied soon enough," she said, amused. "If it were up to me, you'd already be dead."
What had turned her into something like this? He couldn't remember his other life, but he must have loved her in some way. Had the scientists corrupted the dupes so badly that they'd lost all sense of emotion?
"What happened to you Tess? You weren't like this...not before," he said.
"Seeraynah told you," she said with a nod, and an amused look.
"Would it have made it easier for you if you thought Ava was always evil?" she said, stepping forward and crouching down to look him in the eyes.
"It doesn't matter who Ava was. Whatever she was doesn't exist any more," he said bitterly.
"Well then, you're smarter than I gave you credit for," she snorted.
He saw the venom in her eyes as she looked at him in disdain, and he knew he had to ask the question that had been bothering him since he'd been captured.
"Why do you hate me so much?" he asked, meeting her icy blue gaze. "Really Tess. Is it because you think I am weak, some reject that you got stuck with? Is that really the truth?"
She stood and looked down at him.
"You don't get it, do you? You never got it. What is it you think I am going to gain now? Certainly not a title of Queen," she said. "Lonnie will get that. I'll be able to live in relative comfort, but I could have had so much more. We could have had so much more," she said.
"You could have ruled the galaxy. You could have ruled the Universe," she hissed.
"So, you're not even loyal to Khivar," he said disgusted. You have no loyalties to anyone."
"I'm loyal to myself," she said. "If I don't take care of me, who will? Certainly not you," she sneered.
"Things could have been different. We would have been there for you," Max said, shaking his head.
"Until Khivar came for us, or the FBI found us," she said. "If weren't such a pathetic boy, you could be ruling over all of this now."
"Not at the expense of my sister's life, or Michael's," he answered softly. "I never wanted to rule anything. I don't even remember what I was in that other life."
"And there's your answer Max," she grated. "You're weak, second best. If Zan hadn't become such a monster, I would have enjoyed killing you myself. You could have had everything, if you'd only grown a set of balls and turned off your emotions. Even in your former life, you killed your sister for the sake of the Granolith."
"She'd betrayed me," Max reminded her. "I did it for my people, not for my own gain. And Isabel isn't like that, like her."
"So what?" she scoffed. "It's a small trade off for the power you could have wielded. I knew that you wouldn’t have done it. You're too caught up in your own human foibles and emotions, and it is that which brought your downfall," she said.
"You were an embarrassment, fawning over Liz Parker, sitting in that restaurant for hours, watching her. It was beneath you...she was beneath you," she said in disgust.
Realization dawned on him as he saw the flash in her eyes.
"You were jealous," he said with incredulous.
"Get over yourself, Max," she said in a harsh tone that belied her indifference.
"You were, weren't you? You were jealous of a human girl, because the even the 'defective' Zan didn't care about you," he said.
"You didn't know me at all. You thought you could make me stop feeling things, stop protecting Isabel and Michael. You thought you could make me stop caring about Liz," he said.
"Caring? Or dare I say "love"?" she laughed in derision. "What do you know about love? You don't even know Liz. You barely ever said a word to her. How could you love someone you don't know?"
A wistful smile appeared on his face.
"Maybe I know a little bit more about love because I could never have it," he said. "Being what I am, I saw things other people didn't. That tends to happen when you're forced to disappear, to make yourself invisible. I know what love is. Maybe I don't know what it's like to be loved like that, but I know I can...I could have loved, if I had ever been given half the chance."
Her face hardened, but that didn't stop him from saying what he needed to say.
"You want to know what made Liz different than you, why I couldn't feel anything for you? I'll tell you," he said.
"She was smart and funny, and sweet and passionate and compassionate all at the same time. She was beautiful without having to flaunt it. She doesn't know she was beautiful, but she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I loved that she blushed when someone gave her a compliment. I loved that she had ideals and dreams, and wasn't afraid to go after them. I loved that she had a normal life, where mine could never be normal. I loved that she didn't have a malicious bone in her body. I loved that she was and will never be anything like you," he said challenging her with his eyes.
"Shut up!" she growled.
A smirk flitted across his lips.
"You always tried to pound it into me that I was more than her, that my destiny was greater, more important. But the truth is Tess, she had her own destiny, and so did her family. You messed with that, and somewhere along the line you're going to have to pay for it. It may not be me that will make you pay, but you will. And all because you were jealous, because you couldn’t be half the person she is," he said.
"I'm going to enjoy watching you die, Max Evans," she hissed, backing toward the door.
"I might die for my mistakes, but I did one thing right," he fired back. "I never fell for you."
*****
When they came for him, he didn’t struggle. There was nothing to struggle for anymore.
He’d already known that Seeraynah had completed her journey. He felt the cease of the Granolith’s draw on his energy, leaving him lethargic and weak, his life force almost completely tapped.
They brought him back to the chamber where Khivar waited, seated next to Lonnie.
He was shoved roughly before them, and caught a glimpse of Tess in the shadows near the Granolith from the corner of his eye.
“Seeraynah has arrived on Earth. The time has come,” he said.
Max nodded. He could feel the hatred emanating from Tess in waves, but he didn't acknowledge her, keeping his eyes trained elsewhere. He felt her trying to insinuate herself in his head, just as she'd been trying since Seeraynah had left. It was imperative that she not know what he had planned.
"I want to see them, to know that they're all right before I begin," Max said, lifting his chin.
Lonnie bit back a smile as she looked at Khivar.
"Very well," Khivar said, motioning to the large mirrored screen on the wall.
"Show him," Lonnie said with a chuckle.
The screen flickered. There was movement, and once again he saw the faces of his sister and his closest friend in the world. But this time, he could see that they’d been beaten. Michael’s eye was swollen shut, his lip cracked and bloody.
Isabel was barely standing, swaying, her skin unnaturally pale. The guard slapped her, bringing her to consciousness, only the grip of the guard’s hand on her arm keeping her standing.
“Michael?” she said in a slurred voice.
“I’m here Isabel,” Michael grated, looking at her.
Off-screen, there was a disturbance. Seeraynah came into view with a rough shove. He watched Michael’s eyes narrow in suspicion.
“Michael, Isabel...it’s going to be all right,” Seeraynah said. "I've been sent here to you both."
“Who are you?” Michael asked.
For a horrifying moment, Max thought she was going to tell them everything… that she would tell them that he still lived.
“A friend,” she said, turning to glare at the screen.
“What did you do to them?” Max asked, furious.
“They’re alive, aren’t they?” Khivar said in feigned boredom.
Max glowered at them, trying to temper the rage that was coursing through his body.
“Don’t worry my friend, you have given them key to their survival, don’t you?” Khivar asked.
“She’s standing right there,” he said, motioning to Seeraynah’s image on the screen.
“I want them released, now," Max said. "I can't concentrate when I see a weapon pressed to my sister's throat."
Max watched as Khivar pulled a communicator from his robe and spoke into it.
Max knew that Isabel and Michael were hearing the native language of Khivar's people, and most likely would not understand it. He had the advantage of the translating disk attached to his neck.
He listened as Khivar instructed the guards to leave.
The guard appeared to be surprised by the command, judging by the tone of his voice, but he followed Khivar's directive, releasing Isabel. Michael caught her the instant before she would have hit the floor, his own weakened condition forcing them both to the rock floor.
Max felt a short-lived sense of relief seeing the guards step back. But his most difficult task still lay before him, and before it was over, there was a chance that one or both of the two people he was closest to would be dead.
Seeraynah's mouth tightened into a thin line.
"What's going on?" Michael asked, looking up at her, cradling Isabel's lolling head against his chest.
"This will all be over momentarily," she said in a flat voice. "I told you; was sent here for you, to protect you."
"By who?" Michael asked, confused.
"It's not important," she said in a hard voice. "Just stay where you are. It will all be over soon enough."
"Are you satisfied now, Max?" Tess said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're precious defective sister and your reject second in command are secure. Now get on with it!"
Max took a last look at the screen, knowing that this would might be the last time he'd ever see their faces, and then walked to the Granolith.
The closer he got to it, the more he was uncertain of what the outcome would be. The energy flowing from it was uncooperative, fighting his proximity. He had never been more certain that he was not fit to be its keeper. The slim hold he had on the Granolith was slipping.
He reached into the base and pulled out the transferal crystal, feeling the heat of it burning his skin. The Granolith was rejecting him, a little more each time he called on the power of its crystals. The stone that should have been cool seared long blistering welts into his skin.
A flash appeared in his mind, and it took him a few seconds to recognize what he was seeing. Cells. Abnormal human cells, and it confirmed what he suspected all along. His DNA was causing the Granolith to reject him. The cells were too human in structure.
His heart fell as he realized what the Granolith was telling him, what he’d really known all along. None of them were fit to inherit the Granolith, to be the Zenshai. This wasn't meant, just as his people believed. A flash of Khivar's cruel face, followed by Lonnie's and then Tess's burned his mind.
He struggled against its immense power, thinking he would rather die than choose Khivar or Tess to reign with the Granolith. Everything in his head told him that it should have been Isabel or Michael. That was what Seeraynah had told him. He shouldn't have had to choose one of them, knowing the other would perish. But his heart was telling him something different. It was working on pure instinct.
He couldn't give the Granolith to Khivar. It wasn't an option. But what if he was wrong?
Wasn't the Granolith meant to be used for good? It couldn't come down to this. Not this way. The images passed before his eyes again, intense white-hot pain searing inside of his head.
He gritted his teeth against the combined pain of his burning skin and the agony in his head. He was no longer feeling as if he had any control of the Granolith. It was drawing him toward it, forcing him to make a decision, one that could cost them all everything if he was wrong.
See you Sunday.
"Seeraynah goes to Earth first," Max said, turning toward her. “She will be their protector after I’m gone.”
“What?!” Seeraynah gasped.
“Don’t do this Max,” she said in a low voice. “Not after everything we’ve worked for!”
“I command it, Seeraynah,” he said, seeing the look of dismay on her face. “If you truly believe I’m your King, you’ll do it.”
“I agree to your terms,” he said with determination, turning to face Khivar. "Provided Seeraynah arrives unharmed to Earth. If she and the others are alive I will give you the Granolith."
“He won’t keep his word! You have to know that Max!” Seeraynah said angrily, glancing at Khivar.
Khivar was thoughtful for a moment, and then smiled.
“If that is what it will take, then fine, so be it,” Khivar answered. “The Granolith remains here. Use an alternate means of transporting her. You know what to do, I’m sure.”
“Max please! You’re making a mistake,” Seeraynah argued.
“You’ll be safe on Earth,” he said, glancing at her.
“Protect them", he said, as she was dragged to the Granolith.
"Leave her with me," Max said to the guards, and they retreated after a nod if assent from Khivar. Max held her arm as he walked over to the Granolith, ignoring her pleas, and ran his hand over the hidden drawer in its base.
He didn't dare tell Seeraynah what he planned. Instead, he lied.
“Seeraynah, I’m not brave. I can’t do this,” he said in a low voice. “I can’t choose. But I can make sure that you are all protected before I give up the Granolith.”
He knew it was a lie, but he had no choice. If everything went as he thought it would, she would understand. If not, she'd be dead.
“You can't do that Max,” she protested angrily. “You’re supposed to be the bearer. You’re supposed to protect the Granolith, not give it away to the enemy! You are the Zenshai.”
“No, I’m not. The people of Antar were right. I am an abomination,” he said.
“Don’t do this. You don’t know what it will mean...” she pleaded.
“I’m sorry,” he said, looking away.
He retrieved the appropriate crystal and slid it into the base.
The Granolith began to hum louder, glowing brightly.
Almost instantly, he felt the drain on his body, stronger this time. He could feel his muscles trembling as his power was sucked from it.
With inhuman effort, he concentrated on making the crystal work. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake or for his body to give out before his task was complete. Everything depended on it, for the Granolith would not be transporting with her, instead she would travel via wormhole. One error could cost Seeraynah her life, and in turn would take everything he cared about with it.
When he opened his eyes, a turbulent wormhole had appeared near her.
“Don’t ever tell them that I was still alive,” he said. “They don’t have to know any of it.”
She shook her head in protest.
“Please,” he mouthed.
She stilled and looked at him with tear-filled eyes.
The light around the wormhole grew still brighter. He watched as Seeraynah’s body seemed to implode upon itself, disappearing within the wormhole.
He sank to the floor exhausted from his effort.
“I do nothing until I see that she’s arrived safely and is with Isabel and Michael,” he gasped.
Khivar nodded.
“Take him back to his cell,” he ordered the guard. “And round up any stray members of the rebel band.”
The guard dragged him off the floor and yanked him roughly toward the door.
“How could you do that?” he heard Tess say. "How could you agree to keep them alive?"
“I told you, they mean nothing to me. The Granolith is what matters. He would never choose between Rath or Vilondra. He doesn't even remember what he was.”
You’ve made a mistake,” she grated, and he the voices faded as he was dragged away.
*****
He was placed in a temporary cell with thinner walls and harsh lighting with another bracelet snapped on his wrist. They were taking no chances. Outside he heard the guards grumbling over the escape of a few rebels.
He faded in and out of consciousness for days, exhausted by the energy the Granolith continued to draw from him to propel Seeraynah’s journey through the wormhole, even as he lay in the cell.
How he wished he could call on its power from his cell. It would have been the answer to everything. But for him, the power rested only within the crystals. He could not command it without them, though he suspected he should have been able to. Without them, there was nothing he could do.
For a week, he remained in the cell with no word of Seeraynah’s arrival. His only assurance that her journey continued was the draw on his life force. It had given him nothing but time to think about all that had happened.
During that time, he felt Tess trying to gain entrance to his mind. He had to be vigilant in keeping her out, for she was tuned to any sign of weakness, but somehow he kept her at bay.
In his former life, he had been brave. In this one, he was naïve and weak. So many mistakes were made, but he knew that handing the Granolith to Khivar would be another. But he wouldn’t trade either Isabel or Michael’s to save one or the others, even if it were possible, which he was fairly sure it wasn't.
Giving Khivar the Granolith would not have changed much in this world. His people were already enslaved. He was not worthy of its power, being human. His system couldn't take the magnitude of the energy the Granolith infused it with. He could sense that on the basest level. His tenuous hold on it was barely enough. He would never have the control to be the protector he was meant to be. His genes did not carry enough of his Antarian roots. But the thought consequences for those he loved and Earth was terrifying.
He supposed he had thought he was doing the right thing in his former life, aiding it in sending itself off to Earth without an heir. He couldn’t have known the lengths Khivar would go to gain control over it. But that was the problem wasn’t it? There were so many things that had happened that he couldn’t have known.
For days he'd been listening to the cries of the captured rebel Antarians in nearby cells crying out in pain as they were interrogated and tortured.
What had started out as many voices had dwindled down to a few as the days passed, and he could only presume that they were dying at the hands of the guards.
He'd heard the name Zan fall from their lips as if it were an expletive. Seeraynah had been right. It seemed as if they did no longer welcomed his reincarnation.
Could he really blame them? He was no leader, no King. He couldn't even remember his previous life, and yet it was expected that he protect the Granolith. Their disappointment would be complete, for he could not truly wield the Granolith after all.
On the fifth day, he had an unwelcome visitor.
The cell door slid open, and he watched Tess step into the cell. His entire body stiffened, and he turned his head away.
"Pondering your miserable existence?" Tess said, and he stiffened, hearing the sarcasm lacing her voice.
"What are you doing here Tess?" he asked.
"Too bad you can't heal those bruises," she said, ignoring his question. "Your looks were your only redeeming feature."
"I don't really care what you think of how I look," he muttered.
"Have you looked in a mirror lately? You look like a derelict," she said. "I wonder what Liz Parker would think if she could see you now."
"Leave her out of this," he grated. "What do you care what she would think? You made sure that she’d hate me. So what's your point?"
"I don't have one. I just enjoy watching you get all pissed off when I mention her," she said, with a cruel chuckle.
"Just leave me alone, Tess," he said in a defeated tone. "You got what you wanted, didn't you?"
"Not quite everything, but that will be remedied soon enough," she said, amused. "If it were up to me, you'd already be dead."
What had turned her into something like this? He couldn't remember his other life, but he must have loved her in some way. Had the scientists corrupted the dupes so badly that they'd lost all sense of emotion?
"What happened to you Tess? You weren't like this...not before," he said.
"Seeraynah told you," she said with a nod, and an amused look.
"Would it have made it easier for you if you thought Ava was always evil?" she said, stepping forward and crouching down to look him in the eyes.
"It doesn't matter who Ava was. Whatever she was doesn't exist any more," he said bitterly.
"Well then, you're smarter than I gave you credit for," she snorted.
He saw the venom in her eyes as she looked at him in disdain, and he knew he had to ask the question that had been bothering him since he'd been captured.
"Why do you hate me so much?" he asked, meeting her icy blue gaze. "Really Tess. Is it because you think I am weak, some reject that you got stuck with? Is that really the truth?"
She stood and looked down at him.
"You don't get it, do you? You never got it. What is it you think I am going to gain now? Certainly not a title of Queen," she said. "Lonnie will get that. I'll be able to live in relative comfort, but I could have had so much more. We could have had so much more," she said.
"You could have ruled the galaxy. You could have ruled the Universe," she hissed.
"So, you're not even loyal to Khivar," he said disgusted. You have no loyalties to anyone."
"I'm loyal to myself," she said. "If I don't take care of me, who will? Certainly not you," she sneered.
"Things could have been different. We would have been there for you," Max said, shaking his head.
"Until Khivar came for us, or the FBI found us," she said. "If weren't such a pathetic boy, you could be ruling over all of this now."
"Not at the expense of my sister's life, or Michael's," he answered softly. "I never wanted to rule anything. I don't even remember what I was in that other life."
"And there's your answer Max," she grated. "You're weak, second best. If Zan hadn't become such a monster, I would have enjoyed killing you myself. You could have had everything, if you'd only grown a set of balls and turned off your emotions. Even in your former life, you killed your sister for the sake of the Granolith."
"She'd betrayed me," Max reminded her. "I did it for my people, not for my own gain. And Isabel isn't like that, like her."
"So what?" she scoffed. "It's a small trade off for the power you could have wielded. I knew that you wouldn’t have done it. You're too caught up in your own human foibles and emotions, and it is that which brought your downfall," she said.
"You were an embarrassment, fawning over Liz Parker, sitting in that restaurant for hours, watching her. It was beneath you...she was beneath you," she said in disgust.
Realization dawned on him as he saw the flash in her eyes.
"You were jealous," he said with incredulous.
"Get over yourself, Max," she said in a harsh tone that belied her indifference.
"You were, weren't you? You were jealous of a human girl, because the even the 'defective' Zan didn't care about you," he said.
"You didn't know me at all. You thought you could make me stop feeling things, stop protecting Isabel and Michael. You thought you could make me stop caring about Liz," he said.
"Caring? Or dare I say "love"?" she laughed in derision. "What do you know about love? You don't even know Liz. You barely ever said a word to her. How could you love someone you don't know?"
A wistful smile appeared on his face.
"Maybe I know a little bit more about love because I could never have it," he said. "Being what I am, I saw things other people didn't. That tends to happen when you're forced to disappear, to make yourself invisible. I know what love is. Maybe I don't know what it's like to be loved like that, but I know I can...I could have loved, if I had ever been given half the chance."
Her face hardened, but that didn't stop him from saying what he needed to say.
"You want to know what made Liz different than you, why I couldn't feel anything for you? I'll tell you," he said.
"She was smart and funny, and sweet and passionate and compassionate all at the same time. She was beautiful without having to flaunt it. She doesn't know she was beautiful, but she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I loved that she blushed when someone gave her a compliment. I loved that she had ideals and dreams, and wasn't afraid to go after them. I loved that she had a normal life, where mine could never be normal. I loved that she didn't have a malicious bone in her body. I loved that she was and will never be anything like you," he said challenging her with his eyes.
"Shut up!" she growled.
A smirk flitted across his lips.
"You always tried to pound it into me that I was more than her, that my destiny was greater, more important. But the truth is Tess, she had her own destiny, and so did her family. You messed with that, and somewhere along the line you're going to have to pay for it. It may not be me that will make you pay, but you will. And all because you were jealous, because you couldn’t be half the person she is," he said.
"I'm going to enjoy watching you die, Max Evans," she hissed, backing toward the door.
"I might die for my mistakes, but I did one thing right," he fired back. "I never fell for you."
*****
When they came for him, he didn’t struggle. There was nothing to struggle for anymore.
He’d already known that Seeraynah had completed her journey. He felt the cease of the Granolith’s draw on his energy, leaving him lethargic and weak, his life force almost completely tapped.
They brought him back to the chamber where Khivar waited, seated next to Lonnie.
He was shoved roughly before them, and caught a glimpse of Tess in the shadows near the Granolith from the corner of his eye.
“Seeraynah has arrived on Earth. The time has come,” he said.
Max nodded. He could feel the hatred emanating from Tess in waves, but he didn't acknowledge her, keeping his eyes trained elsewhere. He felt her trying to insinuate herself in his head, just as she'd been trying since Seeraynah had left. It was imperative that she not know what he had planned.
"I want to see them, to know that they're all right before I begin," Max said, lifting his chin.
Lonnie bit back a smile as she looked at Khivar.
"Very well," Khivar said, motioning to the large mirrored screen on the wall.
"Show him," Lonnie said with a chuckle.
The screen flickered. There was movement, and once again he saw the faces of his sister and his closest friend in the world. But this time, he could see that they’d been beaten. Michael’s eye was swollen shut, his lip cracked and bloody.
Isabel was barely standing, swaying, her skin unnaturally pale. The guard slapped her, bringing her to consciousness, only the grip of the guard’s hand on her arm keeping her standing.
“Michael?” she said in a slurred voice.
“I’m here Isabel,” Michael grated, looking at her.
Off-screen, there was a disturbance. Seeraynah came into view with a rough shove. He watched Michael’s eyes narrow in suspicion.
“Michael, Isabel...it’s going to be all right,” Seeraynah said. "I've been sent here to you both."
“Who are you?” Michael asked.
For a horrifying moment, Max thought she was going to tell them everything… that she would tell them that he still lived.
“A friend,” she said, turning to glare at the screen.
“What did you do to them?” Max asked, furious.
“They’re alive, aren’t they?” Khivar said in feigned boredom.
Max glowered at them, trying to temper the rage that was coursing through his body.
“Don’t worry my friend, you have given them key to their survival, don’t you?” Khivar asked.
“She’s standing right there,” he said, motioning to Seeraynah’s image on the screen.
“I want them released, now," Max said. "I can't concentrate when I see a weapon pressed to my sister's throat."
Max watched as Khivar pulled a communicator from his robe and spoke into it.
Max knew that Isabel and Michael were hearing the native language of Khivar's people, and most likely would not understand it. He had the advantage of the translating disk attached to his neck.
He listened as Khivar instructed the guards to leave.
The guard appeared to be surprised by the command, judging by the tone of his voice, but he followed Khivar's directive, releasing Isabel. Michael caught her the instant before she would have hit the floor, his own weakened condition forcing them both to the rock floor.
Max felt a short-lived sense of relief seeing the guards step back. But his most difficult task still lay before him, and before it was over, there was a chance that one or both of the two people he was closest to would be dead.
Seeraynah's mouth tightened into a thin line.
"What's going on?" Michael asked, looking up at her, cradling Isabel's lolling head against his chest.
"This will all be over momentarily," she said in a flat voice. "I told you; was sent here for you, to protect you."
"By who?" Michael asked, confused.
"It's not important," she said in a hard voice. "Just stay where you are. It will all be over soon enough."
"Are you satisfied now, Max?" Tess said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're precious defective sister and your reject second in command are secure. Now get on with it!"
Max took a last look at the screen, knowing that this would might be the last time he'd ever see their faces, and then walked to the Granolith.
The closer he got to it, the more he was uncertain of what the outcome would be. The energy flowing from it was uncooperative, fighting his proximity. He had never been more certain that he was not fit to be its keeper. The slim hold he had on the Granolith was slipping.
He reached into the base and pulled out the transferal crystal, feeling the heat of it burning his skin. The Granolith was rejecting him, a little more each time he called on the power of its crystals. The stone that should have been cool seared long blistering welts into his skin.
A flash appeared in his mind, and it took him a few seconds to recognize what he was seeing. Cells. Abnormal human cells, and it confirmed what he suspected all along. His DNA was causing the Granolith to reject him. The cells were too human in structure.
His heart fell as he realized what the Granolith was telling him, what he’d really known all along. None of them were fit to inherit the Granolith, to be the Zenshai. This wasn't meant, just as his people believed. A flash of Khivar's cruel face, followed by Lonnie's and then Tess's burned his mind.
He struggled against its immense power, thinking he would rather die than choose Khivar or Tess to reign with the Granolith. Everything in his head told him that it should have been Isabel or Michael. That was what Seeraynah had told him. He shouldn't have had to choose one of them, knowing the other would perish. But his heart was telling him something different. It was working on pure instinct.
He couldn't give the Granolith to Khivar. It wasn't an option. But what if he was wrong?
Wasn't the Granolith meant to be used for good? It couldn't come down to this. Not this way. The images passed before his eyes again, intense white-hot pain searing inside of his head.
He gritted his teeth against the combined pain of his burning skin and the agony in his head. He was no longer feeling as if he had any control of the Granolith. It was drawing him toward it, forcing him to make a decision, one that could cost them all everything if he was wrong.
See you Sunday.
Part 22
Sorry this is late. Don't ask, it's been one of those days. 
I've been over and over this part, and I am just going to go with it even though I'm not happy with it. After this, we're back in NYC, but not quite at the point we meet Liz again.
Without further ado.....
Book of My Life - Sting
Let me watch by the fire and remember my days
And it may be a trick of the firelight
But the flickering pages that trouble my sight
Is a book I’m afraid to write
It's the book of my days, it's the book of my life
And it's cut like a fruit on the blade of a knife
And it's all there to see as the section reveals
There's some sorrow in every life
If it reads like a puzzle, a wandering maze
Then I won't understand 'til the end of my days
I’m still forced to remember,
Remember the words of my life
There are promises broken and promises kept
Angry words that were spoken, when I should have wept
There's a chapter of secrets, and words to confess
If I lose everything that I possess
There's a chapter on loss and a ghost who won't die
There's a chapter on love where the ink's never dry
There are sentences served in a prison I built out of lies.
Though the pages are numbered
I can't see where they lead
For the end is a mystery no one can read
In the book of my life
There's a chapter on fathers a chapter on sons
There are pages of conflicts that nobody won
And the battles you lost and your bitter defeat,
There's a page where we fail to meet
There are tales of good fortune that couldn't be planned
There's a chapter on god that I don't understand
There's a promise of heaven and hell but I’m damned if I see
Though the pages are numbered
I can't see where they lead
For the end is a mystery no one can read
In the book of my life
Now the daylight's returning
And if one sentence is true
And all these pages are burning
And all that's left is you
Though the pages are numbered
I can't see where they lead
For the end is a mystery no one can read
In the book of my life
Part Twenty-Two
Antar
*~Max~*
From the corner of his eye, he saw Tess backing away from him toward the door as an unnatural glow began to surround him.
The power was pulsing through him, drawing on his life force in a way it hadn't done previously, and he knew it would be his last chance. This was the last time he would connect with it, for if he tried again, he would die.
Khivar's eyes met his, eyes blazing bright emerald.
Behind him, the screen caught Max's eye again, locking on Seeraynah.
A series of flashes snapped through his mind, like an old time moving picture, choppy, confusing. A voice whispered in antarian, and Max understood.
He saw a Zensad, corrupted by greed, seducing the Zenshai for the power of the seal. That Zenshai had been desperate to have her. He gave up the seal for her, but when she received it, the energy destroyed her. The Zenshai fell ill soon after, and died shortly after bequeathing the seal to his son. It was the first and only time a Zenshai had put another being before duty to the Granolith.
And then he saw Seeraynah being infused with the power of the Granolith, her very being illuminated with its light and serenity.
It should be her. Everything in his heart screamed that she was the one. She knew the rites. She knew that the Granolith was not meant to be used for gain. She’d sacrificed her mate for the good of her people. She’d let herself appear as a traitor them, for the greater good. It was supposed to be her.
But she’d said it was forbidden to give the Granolith to her as a protector. She said she'd die if he tried. But hadn't he just seen the truth of what had happened between that Zenshai and his Zensad?
Could he take the chance?
He was sure he was being tested.
His heart cried out that Seeraynah was the one. She had to be. She had to be the one that would carry the legacy of the Granolith.
But what if he was wrong?
Isabel and Michael would die either way. He couldn't give the Granolith to either one of them. He knew in his heart that it would not take to them any more than it had taken to him. If he tried he would be directly responsible for one of their deaths.
But if Seeraynah had the power, maybe she could protect them.
There was no time to think. If he didn't choose now, it would all be over.
Max slid the crystal into the Granolith’s base.
From his fingertips, searing heat spread around the room, surrounding him with a preternatural glow.
The energy circled the room in a spiral, around Khivar and Lonnie, before gathering greater strength.
Max stared at the image of Seeraynah on the screen, whispering the Antarian chant that seemed to come from somewhere deep in his mind, giving the seal and the responsibility to Seeraynah.
Energy pooled within the shadow of the monolith, and gathered form, encircling the room, circling his body before rejecting it, moving on.
Khivar's expectant grin turned into a mask of rage.
“What have you done!” Khivar roared in rage.
In an instant, Max saw pressed against the wall, pinned by his throat, Lonnie glowering at him with murder in her eyes.
"Take it back!" she said. "Take it back and give it Khivar, or I swear I'll rip your fuckin' throat out!"
Lonnie was roughly pulled away as Khivar threw him from the wall to the floor
Feeling the power coming full circle moving to meet the seal ingrained in his DNA, Max braced himself for it.
"Kill them all!" Khivar screamed at the screen as he advanced on Max. "Kill them all now!"
The light seemed to disappear through Max's head, and then his hands rose from his sides, palms forward, and the energy rose to the ceiling, bursting through it as if it were a paper bag, rising to the night sky.
The energy flowing around Max balled into deadly orbs of electricity, gathering momentum before striking out at Lonnie and Khivar. But their power, even combined, was no match for the power that was being channeled through space, rocketing toward an unsuspecting Antarian shape-shifter on Earth. As the energy hit the two of them it instantly incinerated them, their shrieks of agony rising in pitch and then fading, their bodies burned to dust.
A ragged cry of agony drew his eyes once again to the screen.
The guards had their hands on Michael’s temples, destroying Michael's mind, and Max knew that within seconds there would be no hope.
"MICHAEL!" Isabel cried, struggling against the guard holding her.
Max could feel the energy drawing closer to Seeraynah at an unfathomable speed. It was in the Earth's atmosphere now.
But it was too late. The guard snapped Michael's neck with ease. Max roared in anguish as he watched the chamber on the other side of the screen begin to shake. The guard that was holding Isabel captive loosened his grip on her as the chamber began to tremble, and a burst of light filled the screen.
Isabel cried out as the ceiling started to cave in. Dust momentarily obliterated everything on the screen, and when it cleared, Max saw Isabel lying lifeless on the chamber floor, Seeraynah crouched beside her.
She raised her head slowly in shock as the chamber was lit with a luminescent purple light circling around the chamber before rushing at her with lightning speed.
Through the haze of energy surrounding him, he watched helplessly as it enveloped her. She clawed at the sides of her head screaming in agony.
With another burst of light on the screen, it then went dark.
He felt a moment of panic, thinking that he'd made yet another mistake. He had failed the test by giving her the power of the Granolith.
In that instant, the little bit of energy that was still within him pulled away and winking out, and he dropped to his knees, spent, struggling to fill his lungs with air, palms pressed to the floor.
He no longer felt the Granolith’s power, or the connection to it.
Whatever he had done was completed.
He could see the pulsing flash of the Granolith brightening the walls in front of him.
But there was someone he still had yet to deal with. She had been ignored by the energy because she had hidden herself, remaining still.
At the periphery of his vision, he saw Tess emerge from an alcove in the wall, moving toward him.
“You stupid son of a bitch!” she grated.
A loud crashing against the chamber door momentarily caught her attention.
“They’re coming for you,” she said, turning toward the door. "The Skins. Khivar's men."
“They’ll kill you, that is, if I don’t first,” she said, pacing before him.
“Go to hell, Tess,” he gasped with a smile, knowing that he’d lost everything, and now there was nothing to hold him here.
“You've ruined everything!” she shouted, losing control, grabbing his shirt, pushing him back to the floor.
She paced for a moment, her blond curls bouncing in agitation, a furious growl escaping her throat. He watched her, knowing his death would shortly be at hand. But amidst the pain of the loss of his friend and sister, he could take one small comfort with him. Tess hadn't won.
After every devious thing she'd done, to them and to Liz, who hadn't even known he'd cared about her, Tess would not have what she wanted most.
She stood above him, her face a mask of murderous rage.
"Everything...everything I worked for is ruined," she spat. "It's time you get what's been coming to you all along."
Her eyes closed, her face crumpling into a grimace. He knew what was coming next.
A wind rose in the room, pushing her hair behind her as her power gathered strength.
Her eyes snapped opened in a glare of hatred as she stared at him, lifting her hand toward him, where he knelt on the floor.
Sparks of electric light snapped from her fingertips, traveling toward the walls, conducting its energy.
"You've gotten in my way for the last time Max," she hissed, releasing a bolt of searing energy in his direction.
He screamed as the deadly energy collided with his body, racing along his nerve endings toward his head, before exiting through his skin, burning it as it went.
His hands flew to his face, his skin feeling as if it were on fire.
A malicious chuckle fell from her lips.
"That's only the beginning. You have no idea what pain is," she said.
The chamber door started to rattle under the weight of the guards pushing against it, but she wasn't done with him yet.
She released another bolt of energy toward the door, melting it within the jamb.
"We don't want anyone interrupting, now do we?" she asked, hitting him with another jolt of energy that knocked him to the floor in agony. He clutched his stomach, a pained grunt falling from his lips.
"I'll let them scrape you off the walls when I'm done," she hissed.
With surprising speed, his foot shot out and took her legs out from under her, knocking her to the floor.
He stood slowly, slightly hunched, but resolute. She wasn’t going to take him down without a fight.
“Nice one,” she said as she knocked him to the floor with a burst of her power as she stood.
His chest felt as if it were in flames, making it hard for him to breathe, but he lifted his head and glared at her.
"I guess I underestimated you, in a lot of ways," she said, scowling as she kicked him in the chest, sending him flat on his back.
His insides felt as if they were melting, and he groaned as he tried to raise himself up with his hands. His body wouldn't be able to take much more of an assault from her without his own energy to protect him.
"I didn't think you'd have the balls to take a chance with Isabel and Michael's lives, but I’ve got to hand it to you..." she continued, throwing another ball of energy at him. He rolled over with a grunt, pain radiating through every cell in his body, his forehead touching the floor.
"...I didn't see that one coming. That's just so unlike you ," she said, in a saccharine voice as she jolted him once again.
He rose to his hands and knees attempting to stand.
"But now that I think about it, I know you would never willingly allow anything to happen to those two idiots. You thought you could give them protection without responsibility? Well it all backfired on you didn't it?" she asked. "They're dead, and it's your fault!"
The pounding on the door continued, growing louder. He could hear the muffled shouts outside, eager for blood.
“What’s the matter Tess? Can’t fight fair? You’ve got to kick a guy when he’s down?” he panted.
"You’re pathetic,” Tess said. "The one satisfaction I will get out of all of this is watching you die...slowly."
She raised her hand once more, intending to finish what she'd started.
He knew he’d never get up fast enough. This was it.
He braced himself, waiting for the inevitable, when the Granolith suddenly exploded to life, washing the room with brilliant color.
A tremendous burst of power raged from it, alien fire raging all around him. She screamed as it launched her back against the chamber wall with bone-shattering force.
She fell to the floor with a jarring thud. With a shriek of rage, she was off the floor in an instant, running toward him.
Her eyes blazed with loathing, meeting his, and then she was once again inside his mind, white-hot bursts of pain travelling along the neurons of his brain as she tried to destroy him from the inside out.
Her fingers dug into the skin of his forearms, and then he lost sight of her face for a moment as the energy enveloped him. He felt himself sucked into the Granolith's walls.
It was different this time. The Granolith was not powered by his energy, but by something...someone else.
Seeraynah.
Seeraynah lived.
Her hands were still on him, gripping, clawing, and a howl of pain reverberated through the walls of the Granolith.
Through watering eyes he tried to focus on the chamber outside. His eyes blurred, and he blinked rapidly.
"Noo!!" Tess shouted, and he looked down to see her half immersed in the walls of the Granolith. His eyes widened as he watched the air inside of the walls scalding her face, while it left his own skin untouched.
Her eyes focused on his, terrible in their viciousness, and he felt her invading his mind. She screamed as the energy continued to sear her skin, but she held on to his arms. With a great flash of light, the energy ripped her hands from his arms, and the Granolith expelled her from its walls.
With a roar, she slammed her hands against the clear barrier separating them. Her face drew close to the glass-like shield, her skin blackened badly on the right side of her face, the left side an angry red.
"This isn't over Max," she said, with a low cruel laugh. "Not by a long shot."
She backed away from the Granolith slowly.
"I'll find a way to make you suffer, if I have to cross the Universe to do it," she screamed.
The low-pitched pulse of the Granolith rose to a high keening whine as its energy built in intensity.
How ironic that she would make the trip for nothing.
He slumped to the cold stone of the floor beneath his feet. His body was failing quickly, and he was sure he would not make it to whatever destination it was heading toward alive.
Courage is what makes a great King.
It was then he thought of those who meant everything to him.
The madness of utter despair threatened to overpower him as he thought of the pain his existence had caused to so many, both on this world and on Earth. The only two people who had ever really known him were dead. He had inadvertently inflicted pain on Liz Parker, a girl who barely knew who he was, who he had dared to love only in silence. Tess would come for him. He could never return to Roswell again. Perhaps his death would repay the horrors committed against his people.
He heard Seeraynah's voice echo in his head.
You must hide the Granolith until I can come for it. It is taking all of my energy to bring it back to Earth. Hide it. Protect it.
I failed, he said. Seeraynah I I'm not going to survive this, and I’m not sure I want to anymore. Let me go.
You will survive the journey. You didn't fail anyone Max, she said in a gentle voice. You did what you could...and you saved the Granolith from falling into the wrong hands.
It wasn't enough, he answered.
It has to be enough, she said. Maybe your physiology kept you from being the true heir to the Granolith, but your physiology has nothing to do with your courage. I know what it took for you to make that decision, Max.
I'm dying Seeraynah, he said softly.
A suffocating weariness stole over him, but his honor fought against it, his imperative to do what was needed.
Tess is going to come after me. You know they have the means to track the Granolith. If I survive, I'll hide the Granolith like you've asked me to, but you'd better be quick in getting it.
Rest Max, she said. Conserve your strength.
For what seemed like an eternity, he knew nothing but blackness, and he gave himself to it, at first welcoming it. But then he felt her invading his head.
This time, he was defenseless. This time, the seal couldn't protect him.
The face of the girl he despised more than anyone he had every known appeared in his mind, untouched by the burns he'd last seen her with. Her blond curls bounced against her shoulders, her eyes glinting with loathing, a cruel smile on her lips.
" Your people hate you for what you've done. The only people on Earth that ever cared about you wouldn't be able to stand to look at you if they knew what you did," she whispered. "But you don't have to worry about Michael and Isabel. They're dead now."
"Shut up," he whispered in a tortured voice.
"I'll never shut up Max. I'll always be here to remind you that you failed, and you were never good enough to be King," she said.
Her presence grew in intensity until it threatened to drive him mad, and then he knew nothing more.
He was startled out of consciousness by what seemed to be the world caving in around him. The ground seemed to rumble from some unknown force.
A stench his hit nose and he gagged from its intensity. Urine, garbage, the smell of things long since rotted.
He choked back the bile that had risen in his throat and became aware of stinging pain on the left side of his face, pressed against a cold damp surface.
He slowly opened his eyes and blinked, adjusting to the murkiness that surrounded him. Only the soft light of the Granolith allowed him to see anything at all.
Again came the thunderous rumble and he struggled to his feet in panic.
Where was he? What was this place? For a frightening moment, he'd thought that the Granolith had brought him back to Antar.
A cruel female laugh seemed to echo around him with more intensity than the rumble that shook the ground, and he put his hands to his ears to block it out.
And just as suddenly as it began, it was gone.
He took his hands from his ears with caution, and tried to calm his breathing. Every part of his body was in agony. Looking at his arms, he could see where Tess's energy had seared his skin. But the superficial burns were not the worst of it. He could feel that the internal damage was worse.
He'd been unconscious for most of the journey and had not felt the twisted agonizing pain he was now experiencing in his midsection.
But he had to put that aside to deal with the Granolith. He had to secure the Granolith.
He didn't sense any living things near, except for small animals scurrying in the dark, uninterested in his appearance.
He tried to get his bearings in the murk, ignoring the pain that made his face seem as if it were on fire.
It appeared he was in a tunnel of some sort.
Though he was emotionally and physically exhausted, he knew he had to secure the Granolith before anyone happened upon it. But where to put it?
For the next hour, he pored over the tunnel carefully, examining the walls. Randomly, the Granolith glowed brighter, flashing its color against the walls as he tried to figure out a way to conceal it.
There was nowhere, nowhere to hide it.
Despite his pain and exhaustion, he punched the wall in frustration.
With that, the Granolith glowed brighter. He saw the reflection of its light on the damp walls, and he stopped turning toward it.
He thought for a moment, keeping his hand on the wall, and then slid it to the left, walking alongside it. As he moved further away, the light dimmed.
He stopped again and took a few steps backward, keeping his hand on the wall. The light again grew brighter.
It was trying to tell him something. He felt it infuse his body with alien adrenaline, the energy to move the molecules of concrete, creating a hole in the wall. It was not his own.
At that moment, he was too tired, and it never occurred to him that it was giving him energy, or that it would allow itself to be moved by someone other than the Zenshai.
At that moment, nothing mattered but completing his obligation. He used most of his remaining energy to create a small chamber within the rock, and then sank to the floor in exhaustion.
How long he slept, he did not know, but when he woke, he felt drained more than he'd thought could be possible. He had a feeling that it was only the alien part of his DNA that was keeping him alive. But he still had work to do. His face ached and stung, but he dared not touch it. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that he had to hide it away until Seeraynah could come to get it.
Now was the moment he had sacrificed so much for.
His eyes closed in weariness as he sealed the wall, rebuilding the rock that would hide it.
He frowned as he felt the last of the borrowed energy drained from his body, and he staggered away from it, falling to the floor.
He had performed his last act as King and former Keeper. Now that his duty was finally over, he prayed for oblivion.
Momentarily tormented by images of his sister's tears in the Quarry that last night on Earth, superimposed against the taunting picture of Tess' face, he felt tears form trailing down his cheek.
He thought of Liz's tears as she stood alone in the cemetery after she lost her parents.
His thoughts would not let him rest.
His mind alternated between coherence and confusion, but one thought remained...whatever happened from here on out, that the Granolith was safe.
He felt his breath grow shallow in his lungs as he stared up at the damp concrete ceiling above him.
A smiling face appeared in his mind's eye. The shy smile of a girl he'd barely dared to dream of in the time since he'd left Earth. A smile flitted across his face as he remembered that embrace and the small kiss she'd placed on his cheek that day so long ago. It felt like rose petals of the softest velvet brushing his cheek. Perhaps if things had been different, perhaps in another lifetime... That secret wish had been his daydream for as long as he could remember.
But he wouldn't be having that dream for much longer. His body was shutting down. He could feel his heart slowing.
He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
See you Wednesday.
******
I've been over and over this part, and I am just going to go with it even though I'm not happy with it. After this, we're back in NYC, but not quite at the point we meet Liz again.
Without further ado.....
Book of My Life - Sting
Let me watch by the fire and remember my days
And it may be a trick of the firelight
But the flickering pages that trouble my sight
Is a book I’m afraid to write
It's the book of my days, it's the book of my life
And it's cut like a fruit on the blade of a knife
And it's all there to see as the section reveals
There's some sorrow in every life
If it reads like a puzzle, a wandering maze
Then I won't understand 'til the end of my days
I’m still forced to remember,
Remember the words of my life
There are promises broken and promises kept
Angry words that were spoken, when I should have wept
There's a chapter of secrets, and words to confess
If I lose everything that I possess
There's a chapter on loss and a ghost who won't die
There's a chapter on love where the ink's never dry
There are sentences served in a prison I built out of lies.
Though the pages are numbered
I can't see where they lead
For the end is a mystery no one can read
In the book of my life
There's a chapter on fathers a chapter on sons
There are pages of conflicts that nobody won
And the battles you lost and your bitter defeat,
There's a page where we fail to meet
There are tales of good fortune that couldn't be planned
There's a chapter on god that I don't understand
There's a promise of heaven and hell but I’m damned if I see
Though the pages are numbered
I can't see where they lead
For the end is a mystery no one can read
In the book of my life
Now the daylight's returning
And if one sentence is true
And all these pages are burning
And all that's left is you
Though the pages are numbered
I can't see where they lead
For the end is a mystery no one can read
In the book of my life
Part Twenty-Two
Antar
*~Max~*
From the corner of his eye, he saw Tess backing away from him toward the door as an unnatural glow began to surround him.
The power was pulsing through him, drawing on his life force in a way it hadn't done previously, and he knew it would be his last chance. This was the last time he would connect with it, for if he tried again, he would die.
Khivar's eyes met his, eyes blazing bright emerald.
Behind him, the screen caught Max's eye again, locking on Seeraynah.
A series of flashes snapped through his mind, like an old time moving picture, choppy, confusing. A voice whispered in antarian, and Max understood.
He saw a Zensad, corrupted by greed, seducing the Zenshai for the power of the seal. That Zenshai had been desperate to have her. He gave up the seal for her, but when she received it, the energy destroyed her. The Zenshai fell ill soon after, and died shortly after bequeathing the seal to his son. It was the first and only time a Zenshai had put another being before duty to the Granolith.
And then he saw Seeraynah being infused with the power of the Granolith, her very being illuminated with its light and serenity.
It should be her. Everything in his heart screamed that she was the one. She knew the rites. She knew that the Granolith was not meant to be used for gain. She’d sacrificed her mate for the good of her people. She’d let herself appear as a traitor them, for the greater good. It was supposed to be her.
But she’d said it was forbidden to give the Granolith to her as a protector. She said she'd die if he tried. But hadn't he just seen the truth of what had happened between that Zenshai and his Zensad?
Could he take the chance?
He was sure he was being tested.
His heart cried out that Seeraynah was the one. She had to be. She had to be the one that would carry the legacy of the Granolith.
But what if he was wrong?
Isabel and Michael would die either way. He couldn't give the Granolith to either one of them. He knew in his heart that it would not take to them any more than it had taken to him. If he tried he would be directly responsible for one of their deaths.
But if Seeraynah had the power, maybe she could protect them.
There was no time to think. If he didn't choose now, it would all be over.
Max slid the crystal into the Granolith’s base.
From his fingertips, searing heat spread around the room, surrounding him with a preternatural glow.
The energy circled the room in a spiral, around Khivar and Lonnie, before gathering greater strength.
Max stared at the image of Seeraynah on the screen, whispering the Antarian chant that seemed to come from somewhere deep in his mind, giving the seal and the responsibility to Seeraynah.
Energy pooled within the shadow of the monolith, and gathered form, encircling the room, circling his body before rejecting it, moving on.
Khivar's expectant grin turned into a mask of rage.
“What have you done!” Khivar roared in rage.
In an instant, Max saw pressed against the wall, pinned by his throat, Lonnie glowering at him with murder in her eyes.
"Take it back!" she said. "Take it back and give it Khivar, or I swear I'll rip your fuckin' throat out!"
Lonnie was roughly pulled away as Khivar threw him from the wall to the floor
Feeling the power coming full circle moving to meet the seal ingrained in his DNA, Max braced himself for it.
"Kill them all!" Khivar screamed at the screen as he advanced on Max. "Kill them all now!"
The light seemed to disappear through Max's head, and then his hands rose from his sides, palms forward, and the energy rose to the ceiling, bursting through it as if it were a paper bag, rising to the night sky.
The energy flowing around Max balled into deadly orbs of electricity, gathering momentum before striking out at Lonnie and Khivar. But their power, even combined, was no match for the power that was being channeled through space, rocketing toward an unsuspecting Antarian shape-shifter on Earth. As the energy hit the two of them it instantly incinerated them, their shrieks of agony rising in pitch and then fading, their bodies burned to dust.
A ragged cry of agony drew his eyes once again to the screen.
The guards had their hands on Michael’s temples, destroying Michael's mind, and Max knew that within seconds there would be no hope.
"MICHAEL!" Isabel cried, struggling against the guard holding her.
Max could feel the energy drawing closer to Seeraynah at an unfathomable speed. It was in the Earth's atmosphere now.
But it was too late. The guard snapped Michael's neck with ease. Max roared in anguish as he watched the chamber on the other side of the screen begin to shake. The guard that was holding Isabel captive loosened his grip on her as the chamber began to tremble, and a burst of light filled the screen.
Isabel cried out as the ceiling started to cave in. Dust momentarily obliterated everything on the screen, and when it cleared, Max saw Isabel lying lifeless on the chamber floor, Seeraynah crouched beside her.
She raised her head slowly in shock as the chamber was lit with a luminescent purple light circling around the chamber before rushing at her with lightning speed.
Through the haze of energy surrounding him, he watched helplessly as it enveloped her. She clawed at the sides of her head screaming in agony.
With another burst of light on the screen, it then went dark.
He felt a moment of panic, thinking that he'd made yet another mistake. He had failed the test by giving her the power of the Granolith.
In that instant, the little bit of energy that was still within him pulled away and winking out, and he dropped to his knees, spent, struggling to fill his lungs with air, palms pressed to the floor.
He no longer felt the Granolith’s power, or the connection to it.
Whatever he had done was completed.
He could see the pulsing flash of the Granolith brightening the walls in front of him.
But there was someone he still had yet to deal with. She had been ignored by the energy because she had hidden herself, remaining still.
At the periphery of his vision, he saw Tess emerge from an alcove in the wall, moving toward him.
“You stupid son of a bitch!” she grated.
A loud crashing against the chamber door momentarily caught her attention.
“They’re coming for you,” she said, turning toward the door. "The Skins. Khivar's men."
“They’ll kill you, that is, if I don’t first,” she said, pacing before him.
“Go to hell, Tess,” he gasped with a smile, knowing that he’d lost everything, and now there was nothing to hold him here.
“You've ruined everything!” she shouted, losing control, grabbing his shirt, pushing him back to the floor.
She paced for a moment, her blond curls bouncing in agitation, a furious growl escaping her throat. He watched her, knowing his death would shortly be at hand. But amidst the pain of the loss of his friend and sister, he could take one small comfort with him. Tess hadn't won.
After every devious thing she'd done, to them and to Liz, who hadn't even known he'd cared about her, Tess would not have what she wanted most.
She stood above him, her face a mask of murderous rage.
"Everything...everything I worked for is ruined," she spat. "It's time you get what's been coming to you all along."
Her eyes closed, her face crumpling into a grimace. He knew what was coming next.
A wind rose in the room, pushing her hair behind her as her power gathered strength.
Her eyes snapped opened in a glare of hatred as she stared at him, lifting her hand toward him, where he knelt on the floor.
Sparks of electric light snapped from her fingertips, traveling toward the walls, conducting its energy.
"You've gotten in my way for the last time Max," she hissed, releasing a bolt of searing energy in his direction.
He screamed as the deadly energy collided with his body, racing along his nerve endings toward his head, before exiting through his skin, burning it as it went.
His hands flew to his face, his skin feeling as if it were on fire.
A malicious chuckle fell from her lips.
"That's only the beginning. You have no idea what pain is," she said.
The chamber door started to rattle under the weight of the guards pushing against it, but she wasn't done with him yet.
She released another bolt of energy toward the door, melting it within the jamb.
"We don't want anyone interrupting, now do we?" she asked, hitting him with another jolt of energy that knocked him to the floor in agony. He clutched his stomach, a pained grunt falling from his lips.
"I'll let them scrape you off the walls when I'm done," she hissed.
With surprising speed, his foot shot out and took her legs out from under her, knocking her to the floor.
He stood slowly, slightly hunched, but resolute. She wasn’t going to take him down without a fight.
“Nice one,” she said as she knocked him to the floor with a burst of her power as she stood.
His chest felt as if it were in flames, making it hard for him to breathe, but he lifted his head and glared at her.
"I guess I underestimated you, in a lot of ways," she said, scowling as she kicked him in the chest, sending him flat on his back.
His insides felt as if they were melting, and he groaned as he tried to raise himself up with his hands. His body wouldn't be able to take much more of an assault from her without his own energy to protect him.
"I didn't think you'd have the balls to take a chance with Isabel and Michael's lives, but I’ve got to hand it to you..." she continued, throwing another ball of energy at him. He rolled over with a grunt, pain radiating through every cell in his body, his forehead touching the floor.
"...I didn't see that one coming. That's just so unlike you ," she said, in a saccharine voice as she jolted him once again.
He rose to his hands and knees attempting to stand.
"But now that I think about it, I know you would never willingly allow anything to happen to those two idiots. You thought you could give them protection without responsibility? Well it all backfired on you didn't it?" she asked. "They're dead, and it's your fault!"
The pounding on the door continued, growing louder. He could hear the muffled shouts outside, eager for blood.
“What’s the matter Tess? Can’t fight fair? You’ve got to kick a guy when he’s down?” he panted.
"You’re pathetic,” Tess said. "The one satisfaction I will get out of all of this is watching you die...slowly."
She raised her hand once more, intending to finish what she'd started.
He knew he’d never get up fast enough. This was it.
He braced himself, waiting for the inevitable, when the Granolith suddenly exploded to life, washing the room with brilliant color.
A tremendous burst of power raged from it, alien fire raging all around him. She screamed as it launched her back against the chamber wall with bone-shattering force.
She fell to the floor with a jarring thud. With a shriek of rage, she was off the floor in an instant, running toward him.
Her eyes blazed with loathing, meeting his, and then she was once again inside his mind, white-hot bursts of pain travelling along the neurons of his brain as she tried to destroy him from the inside out.
Her fingers dug into the skin of his forearms, and then he lost sight of her face for a moment as the energy enveloped him. He felt himself sucked into the Granolith's walls.
It was different this time. The Granolith was not powered by his energy, but by something...someone else.
Seeraynah.
Seeraynah lived.
Her hands were still on him, gripping, clawing, and a howl of pain reverberated through the walls of the Granolith.
Through watering eyes he tried to focus on the chamber outside. His eyes blurred, and he blinked rapidly.
"Noo!!" Tess shouted, and he looked down to see her half immersed in the walls of the Granolith. His eyes widened as he watched the air inside of the walls scalding her face, while it left his own skin untouched.
Her eyes focused on his, terrible in their viciousness, and he felt her invading his mind. She screamed as the energy continued to sear her skin, but she held on to his arms. With a great flash of light, the energy ripped her hands from his arms, and the Granolith expelled her from its walls.
With a roar, she slammed her hands against the clear barrier separating them. Her face drew close to the glass-like shield, her skin blackened badly on the right side of her face, the left side an angry red.
"This isn't over Max," she said, with a low cruel laugh. "Not by a long shot."
She backed away from the Granolith slowly.
"I'll find a way to make you suffer, if I have to cross the Universe to do it," she screamed.
The low-pitched pulse of the Granolith rose to a high keening whine as its energy built in intensity.
How ironic that she would make the trip for nothing.
He slumped to the cold stone of the floor beneath his feet. His body was failing quickly, and he was sure he would not make it to whatever destination it was heading toward alive.
Courage is what makes a great King.
It was then he thought of those who meant everything to him.
The madness of utter despair threatened to overpower him as he thought of the pain his existence had caused to so many, both on this world and on Earth. The only two people who had ever really known him were dead. He had inadvertently inflicted pain on Liz Parker, a girl who barely knew who he was, who he had dared to love only in silence. Tess would come for him. He could never return to Roswell again. Perhaps his death would repay the horrors committed against his people.
He heard Seeraynah's voice echo in his head.
You must hide the Granolith until I can come for it. It is taking all of my energy to bring it back to Earth. Hide it. Protect it.
I failed, he said. Seeraynah I I'm not going to survive this, and I’m not sure I want to anymore. Let me go.
You will survive the journey. You didn't fail anyone Max, she said in a gentle voice. You did what you could...and you saved the Granolith from falling into the wrong hands.
It wasn't enough, he answered.
It has to be enough, she said. Maybe your physiology kept you from being the true heir to the Granolith, but your physiology has nothing to do with your courage. I know what it took for you to make that decision, Max.
I'm dying Seeraynah, he said softly.
A suffocating weariness stole over him, but his honor fought against it, his imperative to do what was needed.
Tess is going to come after me. You know they have the means to track the Granolith. If I survive, I'll hide the Granolith like you've asked me to, but you'd better be quick in getting it.
Rest Max, she said. Conserve your strength.
For what seemed like an eternity, he knew nothing but blackness, and he gave himself to it, at first welcoming it. But then he felt her invading his head.
This time, he was defenseless. This time, the seal couldn't protect him.
The face of the girl he despised more than anyone he had every known appeared in his mind, untouched by the burns he'd last seen her with. Her blond curls bounced against her shoulders, her eyes glinting with loathing, a cruel smile on her lips.
" Your people hate you for what you've done. The only people on Earth that ever cared about you wouldn't be able to stand to look at you if they knew what you did," she whispered. "But you don't have to worry about Michael and Isabel. They're dead now."
"Shut up," he whispered in a tortured voice.
"I'll never shut up Max. I'll always be here to remind you that you failed, and you were never good enough to be King," she said.
Her presence grew in intensity until it threatened to drive him mad, and then he knew nothing more.
He was startled out of consciousness by what seemed to be the world caving in around him. The ground seemed to rumble from some unknown force.
A stench his hit nose and he gagged from its intensity. Urine, garbage, the smell of things long since rotted.
He choked back the bile that had risen in his throat and became aware of stinging pain on the left side of his face, pressed against a cold damp surface.
He slowly opened his eyes and blinked, adjusting to the murkiness that surrounded him. Only the soft light of the Granolith allowed him to see anything at all.
Again came the thunderous rumble and he struggled to his feet in panic.
Where was he? What was this place? For a frightening moment, he'd thought that the Granolith had brought him back to Antar.
A cruel female laugh seemed to echo around him with more intensity than the rumble that shook the ground, and he put his hands to his ears to block it out.
And just as suddenly as it began, it was gone.
He took his hands from his ears with caution, and tried to calm his breathing. Every part of his body was in agony. Looking at his arms, he could see where Tess's energy had seared his skin. But the superficial burns were not the worst of it. He could feel that the internal damage was worse.
He'd been unconscious for most of the journey and had not felt the twisted agonizing pain he was now experiencing in his midsection.
But he had to put that aside to deal with the Granolith. He had to secure the Granolith.
He didn't sense any living things near, except for small animals scurrying in the dark, uninterested in his appearance.
He tried to get his bearings in the murk, ignoring the pain that made his face seem as if it were on fire.
It appeared he was in a tunnel of some sort.
Though he was emotionally and physically exhausted, he knew he had to secure the Granolith before anyone happened upon it. But where to put it?
For the next hour, he pored over the tunnel carefully, examining the walls. Randomly, the Granolith glowed brighter, flashing its color against the walls as he tried to figure out a way to conceal it.
There was nowhere, nowhere to hide it.
Despite his pain and exhaustion, he punched the wall in frustration.
With that, the Granolith glowed brighter. He saw the reflection of its light on the damp walls, and he stopped turning toward it.
He thought for a moment, keeping his hand on the wall, and then slid it to the left, walking alongside it. As he moved further away, the light dimmed.
He stopped again and took a few steps backward, keeping his hand on the wall. The light again grew brighter.
It was trying to tell him something. He felt it infuse his body with alien adrenaline, the energy to move the molecules of concrete, creating a hole in the wall. It was not his own.
At that moment, he was too tired, and it never occurred to him that it was giving him energy, or that it would allow itself to be moved by someone other than the Zenshai.
At that moment, nothing mattered but completing his obligation. He used most of his remaining energy to create a small chamber within the rock, and then sank to the floor in exhaustion.
How long he slept, he did not know, but when he woke, he felt drained more than he'd thought could be possible. He had a feeling that it was only the alien part of his DNA that was keeping him alive. But he still had work to do. His face ached and stung, but he dared not touch it. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that he had to hide it away until Seeraynah could come to get it.
Now was the moment he had sacrificed so much for.
His eyes closed in weariness as he sealed the wall, rebuilding the rock that would hide it.
He frowned as he felt the last of the borrowed energy drained from his body, and he staggered away from it, falling to the floor.
He had performed his last act as King and former Keeper. Now that his duty was finally over, he prayed for oblivion.
Momentarily tormented by images of his sister's tears in the Quarry that last night on Earth, superimposed against the taunting picture of Tess' face, he felt tears form trailing down his cheek.
He thought of Liz's tears as she stood alone in the cemetery after she lost her parents.
His thoughts would not let him rest.
His mind alternated between coherence and confusion, but one thought remained...whatever happened from here on out, that the Granolith was safe.
He felt his breath grow shallow in his lungs as he stared up at the damp concrete ceiling above him.
A smiling face appeared in his mind's eye. The shy smile of a girl he'd barely dared to dream of in the time since he'd left Earth. A smile flitted across his face as he remembered that embrace and the small kiss she'd placed on his cheek that day so long ago. It felt like rose petals of the softest velvet brushing his cheek. Perhaps if things had been different, perhaps in another lifetime... That secret wish had been his daydream for as long as he could remember.
But he wouldn't be having that dream for much longer. His body was shutting down. He could feel his heart slowing.
He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
See you Wednesday.
******
Last edited by Majesty on Wed Nov 12, 2003 7:39 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Part 23
Hey everyone,
I know this is going to seem a little disjointed, but the way I wrote the rest of this story, the reader learns the answers to certain questions as Max and Liz do.
Those questions will be answered as we go along. Posted in two parts due to length.
Clocks - ColdPlay
The lights go out and I can't be saved
Tides that I tried to swim against
Have brought me down upon my knees
Oh I beg, I beg and I plead
Singing
Come out of the things unsaid
Shoot an apple off my head
And a trouble that can't be named
A tiger's waiting to be tamed
Singing
You are
You are
Confusion that never stops
The closing walls and the ticking clocks
Gonna come back and take you home
I could not stop, that you now know
Singing come out upon my seas
Cursed missed opportunities
Am I a part of the cure
Or am I part of the disease
Singing
You are
You are
And nothing else compares
And nothing else compares
And nothing else compares
And nothing else compares
You are, you are
Home, home where I wanted to go
Home, home where I wanted to go
Home, home where I wanted to go (You are)
Home, home where I wanted to go (You are)
Part Twenty Three
Earth
*~Max~*
Her words filtered through the haze of his fever.
"It doesn't matter anyway. I'm going to take care of you...”
Was it a figment of his imagination, the chemical machinations of his brain, meant to bring peace in death?
It had to be, because he’d run away from her. It wasn't possible.
Perhaps that was all he had left to hold on to, dreams, for everyone whose lives he touched were wither dead, or altered in some horrible way.
Michael and Isabel were dead.
Liz's parents were dead, and she was left without a family. But he'd done something right, hadn't he?
Before he’d healed her on that subway platform, he hadn’t remembered much of how he'd come to be in the city. And as he remembered, he'd wished he could forget.
He was sure he would have gone mad, if not for the angelic face spotted in the crowd two weeks ago, a face that had been so familiar to him, yet from where he did not know.
*********
He remembered waking to a rumbling that shook everything around him.
He did not know where he was, or how he'd gotten there.
He must have been there for days, vaguely aware of the scurrying of rodents around him, penetrating the nightmares that would not release their hold on him.
He had awakened confused and scared. The first thing that drew him out of his nightmarish sleep was the cold. It was so cold and his limbs felt like ice.
He shivered violently and opened his eyes to a dark and frightening world.
Even lifting his head took a monumental effort.
He lay there for a long time, freezing and forlorn before the cold overpowered his desire to remain where he was, and he finally sat up, feeling the world spin around him.
He was weak, weaker than he should have been.
He couldn't remember how he'd got here, or where he was from. Memories tugged at the fringes of his mind, but they remained elusive, out of reach.
Disjointed fragments of another world crackled through his brain like a slide show, confusing, frightening. Names for the faces in his head would not come. He couldn't piece them together, but he sensed that soon he would.
Something was nagging at the back of his addled mind, that there was someone, something he had to find, but he could not remember what or who it was.
It was some time later that he stood, with every joint and muscle screaming in protest.
Looking around, he realized he was in a tunnel, it's damp walls punctuated with orange florescent lights.
Realizing that he could no longer stay where he was, he began to follow the lights. For what seemed like a lifetime he walked on, and then began to realize that it was a long-forgotten part of a subway system.
His muscles warmed slightly and the stiffness abated a bit, for which he was thankful.
He paused cautiously, when he spied a ladder that led up to a metal grill above him. Through the air holes, he could see it was night in the world above.
Steeling his courage, he climbed the ladder and listened, hearing the sound of engines and horns in the distance, echoing a hollow song into the blackness below.
He heard no footsteps and after a moment, he used his waning energy to aid him in moving the heavy grill, exposing him to the night beyond.
Pushing against it with all of his strength, he managed to move it aside. He popped his head out of the tunnel with caution, not knowing what to expect. He saw cars moving at the end of the street, but the block itself was deserted.
It was cold. He thought it was cold in the tunnel, but that hadn't prepared him for the arctic blast of air tht buffeted his body. His breath puffed from his mouth in small gray tendrils of fog.
He climbed out of the hole and started to replace the cover.
"Hey! You! What are you doing over there!" a voice shouted, and his head snapped toward it.
A police officer stood on a set of stairs a short distance away. He started to walk down the steps toward him.
Enemy. Instinct told him that his capture would have serious consequences, for he was different.
He didn't wait for the man to get any closer, and took off down the street at a full run.
"Hey! You! Wait!" he heard behind him, along with the sound of the slap of shoes on the pavement. He didn't turn his head, but kept running.
From what he'd seen of the physique of the police officer, even in his weakened state he knew he had a chance of out-running him.
He reached the end of the block and turned automatically toward the bright lights to his left, and saw a chance to lose himself in the pedestrians walking a bit further ahead.
Without slowing up, he launched himself in that direction, hearing the cop's shouts behind him.
The frigid air rushed passed his body as he launched himself around pedestrians, seeking to lose himself in the crowd.
More lights. Lights he recognized from somewhere. Television.
Another piece of memory snapped into place.
Times Square. He was in New York City. He'd never been here before, but he'd seen it.
He glanced behind him and didn't see the police officer, but knew that he had to hide himself.
Taking a chance, he swerved to his right, where a large group of people was moving into a door-less building. He was herded onto an escalator that seemed to go on forever. Music pounded from speakers mounted alongside the escalator as blue strobe lights made everything appear to move in stop motion.
He looked up, and spotted blond curly hair two steps above him, and felt panic taking hold, tightening his chest, recognizing them on some level.
Her head turned to look his way met his eyes, which widened in fear at the cold smile that didn't reach her own gaze.
"You didn't think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?" she shouted over the music, laughing.
The glare of the strobes distorted her face.
"No," he whispered, trying to step back. He hit a body behind him, and a hand shoved him. He didn't know why yet, but he knew she represented danger.
"Watch where you're goin’ man," a voice growled, and his head turned to see the irritated face of a young man.
He turned forward again, and she was gone.
The music seemed to grow even louder as he reached the top of the escalator, and to his left he saw a bar and pool tables. Everything was metallic. Futuristic. It reminded him of something, some horrible place that was dancing at the edge of his memory, and he had to fight the sudden fear that threatened to paralyze him.
He looked around at the revelers, feeling panic well in his heart. He did not know whom he could and couldn't trust. The enemy could be anywhere.
"I hate you Max, and I will find a way to make you suffer, if I have to cross the Universe to do it!!!"
An evil laugh echoed through his head.
His heart raced with fear. The voice was so familiar, and yet not.
"You thought you could give them protection without responsibility? Well it all backfired on you didn't it? They're dead, and it's your fault!"
He covered his ears and moaned, seeing a few patrons looking at him strangely.
He looked around frantically for an escape, seeing a red sign toward the back of the room.
He ran toward it, pushing the bar on the door, staggering into the dim stairwell. The door slammed behind him, dulling the pumping bass pounding in the club.
He could hear the sound of his own frantic breathing echoing against the cement walls.
“Max,” a voice whispered viciously.
He looked around frantically, looking for its source. A shadowy figure stood at the bottom of the stairwell, eyes glittering in the dim.
“Leave me alone,” he whimpered, sliding down the wall.
"No can do," she said in a flat voice. "I always follow through on my promises."
Fear.
It raced through his veins.
It seemed almost irrational, because he couldn't even remember why he was afraid of her. But something primal, instinctive, told him that she meant danger.
Her laughter echoed against the walls, and in his head.
He covered his ears and whimpered as it grew louder and louder, until he felt it would drive him mad,
and then everything went black.
******
He didn’t know how long he lay slumped in the stairwell, but a harsh foot in his side brought him back from unconsciousness.
He was dragged roughly to his feet, and thrown through the door.
The crowd had thinned out, and the music was playing at a lower volume.
“I am so sick of you fuckers squatting in here!” a burly bald man shouted at him.
He pushed him toward the escalator, giving him a final shove.
“Get the fuck outta here, and don’t let me catch you in here again! You’re lucky I’m not calling the cops! You won’t be so lucky next time!” the man growled.
Max felt as if his legs were going to give out beneath him, and he gripped the rubber railing on the escalator and stepped carefully onto it.
He hadn’t realized how immense the moving staircase was, but the two-story journey to the bottom made his stomach churn, and for a moment he thought he was going to be sick. He swayed and closed his eyes, gripping the railing as if his life depended on it. He opened them only when he felt his foot hit the cement at the bottom.
He glanced back to see the man glaring angrily at him, and he turned to the entrance, moving cautiously outside. It was almost dawn, and the gray light washed over the city, dulling the bright lights he’d seen the night before. It had grown colder, if that was possible, and he shivered against the bitter bite of the air.
The ceaseless blaring of the horns had abated with the dwindling early morning traffic, and at this hour there were less pedestrians than there had been when he walked into the club earlier.
He looked around cautiously for the uniformed man he’d seen, but he was nowhere in sight.
He looked around, realizing he had nowhere to go. He didn’t remember where home was. He didn’t even remember how he’d gotten here.
Little snippets of images snapped in his mind, knowledge that he used to have, fragmented now. He knew this was New York, but he didn't know where he lived. He knew the blond girl meant him harm, but he didn't know why. Her face was familiar, but he didn't know from where.
He folded his arms over each other, rubbing his upper arms to keep warm. It had been cold last night, the adrenaline-induced fear as he ran from the police officer allowing him to ignore it, but now he again felt its bite.
What had happened to him? Occasional flashes of faces burst into his brain, some he remembered, some not.
The blond girl with eyes the color of arctic ice, glaring at him with a murderous countenance. Another girl with long blond hair...his sister Isabel, now dead to him, along with Michael, the only friend he had ever known. A painful memory crashed through his hazed mind.
He watched. He’d seen them die. He’d been helpless as a large guard had snapped Michael’s neck.
He'd seen the rock ceiling collapse upon his sister.
Gone. Both gone.
The girl. The hateful girl had something to do with it, but he didn’t know why.
Why was she tormenting him?
He felt despair wash over him, suffocating him.
A tingling in his fingers drew his eyes to his hands.
At his fingertips, green preternatural energy crackled and sputtered.
Horrified, he shoved his hands in his pockets.
Different. He was different.
He turned left and started to walk but had only gone a few steps before his feet faltered, his eyes catching his reflection in the large pane-glass window of a shop.
His eyes widened as he looked at his reflection.
His hair hung in limp tendrils around his face and neck, and he had a growth of hair around his mouth and on his jaw. But it was not that which gave him pause.
The eyes that stared back at him were sunken in the face they occupied. They looked haunted, in them the reflection of witnessing unspeakable horror. His gauntness could not be hidden even beneath the facial hair.
A filthy long sleeved shirt and t-shirt, a pair of jeans that seemed to hang off of his hips and a battered pair of boots completed his wardrobe.
He looked like he felt...like he had been to hell. But the images in his head didn’t make sense yet, still a kaleidoscope of confusion.
He swayed as another wave of nausea rose in his stomach, and he braced his hand against the glass to keep from falling down as another wave of images assaulted his brain.
He crumpled to the sidewalk, his head leaning against the brick.
In desperation, he tried to remain conscious, but felt the world sway on its edge, and passed out.
**************
When he woke again, he was lying on a cot.
He immediately tried to rise in panic, and found himself getting dizzy, his head again falling to the pillow.
“S’ok sweetie, don’t try to get up. I’m not gonna hurt you,” a scratchy female voice said.
He squinted, trying to see the owner of the voice, and a plump figure came into focus sitting at a desk a short distance away.
“You passed out in front of my store,” she said.
A strawberry blond bob haircut framed her face, but it was her eyes that were remarkable, a mix of deep violet and blue.
She had kind eyes. He saw that immediately. At the moment, they were filled with concern.
“I have to go,” he said, trying again to get up off of the cot.
“Just lay there for awhile. I ain’t gonna call the cops. Get your bearings and I’ll give you something to eat and you can be on your way,” she said kindly. She leaned against the desk, crossing her arms over her ample chest. She looked to be in her early forties.
He let out a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to find the strength to sit up.
The room was quiet for a moment before she spoke again.
“Not that it’s any of my business, but you look pretty bad. You jonesin’ on the crank?” she asked.
He opened his eyes, trying to decide what to say. What could he say? That he didn’t remember?
The easiest answer was a lie.
Finally, he nodded.
“That shit will kill you,” she said, her sympathetic tone belying her words.
“I’m not gonna preach to you, don’t worry,” she said. "The name's Jeanine."
“You hungry?” she asked, and as she did, he realized that he was. Starving in fact.
“Yes,” he said hoarsely.
“Want some soup? I wouldn’t suggest anything else judging by the way you look,” she said with a knowing tone.
“I should really go,” he said.
“Stay here, and I’ll go up front and get you something,” she said, rising from her chair.
He watched her leave and then slowly sat up, rubbing his face with his hands.
His hands.
He looked at them quickly in panic.
Had she seen? Did she know?
He realized that he wouldn’t be sitting here if she had. He would have been locked up somewhere, because he was an alien.
He was an alien, and his sister and Michael had been too.
They’d had to hide. From the government. From everyone.
But where had they hidden? Where had he lived? He couldn’t remember. He supposed it didn’t matter now. They were dead, and he was now alone.
“You make me sick, Max,” a voice whispered, and his head snapped up to see the blond leaning casually against the desk.
He blinked rapidly, hoping she would disappear.
“It won’t do you any good. You can’t get rid of me,” she said. “You’re never going to get rid of me.”
He couldn’t remember her name yet, or where he’d known her from, but the very sound of her voice struck fear and rage in his heart.
“Stop playing with me,” he said aloud. “What do you want from me?”
“I don’t want anything. Except maybe...oh, your head. You are going to pay Max. I warned you...”
"Pay for what?" he exclaimed in confusion.
“You don’t remember any of it, do you?” she asked in disgust. “You remember Isabel and Michael, but you don’t remember what happened.”
“Just leave me alone!” he hissed.
“Oh, this is going to be more fun than I imagined,” she chuckled.
“Who are you talking to?” Jeanine asked, coming back into the room, and his head snapped toward the door, and then back to the desk. She was gone.
“No....no one,” he stammered.
She looked at him strangely and then nodded.
“Sometimes after a bad trip, people have strange things happen to them. Like they hear things that aren’t there,” she said in understanding.
It took him a moment to realize she was talking about drugs.
“Yeah,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I guess so.”
"You don't look like a bad kid," she said, studying him with her kindly eyes. "It's not too late to turn your life around, you know. All you need to do is ask for help."
If only he knew what kind of help he needed. How do you ask for help in removing a psychotic girl's voice from your head? They would think he was crazy. But he knew it was real, that she was real. And she was dangerous.
"What date is today?" he asked suddenly.
"It's the first of December," she said.
"And the year?" he asked.
She looked at him with a furrowed brow.
"2007..." she said slowly.
A flash of something raced through his mind. A sign, one that had been familiar somehow. There was no location listed on the sign, but he'd seen it before. He knew it.
"Road Closed – Blasting June 1 – 2, 2005."
2005.
It was now December 2007. Where had that year and a half gone? Where had he been? What had he been doing?
"What's your name?" the woman asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Max," he said slowly.
"You got a last name?" she asked, looking at him.
He lowered his eyes and didn't answer, not because he didn't want to tell her, but because he couldn't remember.
"You got a home to go to?" she prompted.
He shrugged.
"So you're living on the streets," she said with a sigh.
"S'alright. Nothin' I ain't heard before," she said.
“You’re going to be all right, kid. Here, eat this,” she said, handing him a bowl.
“When you’re finished, we can talk. I have a few numbers I can give you. They’ll help you if you want it,” she said.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her that there wasn’t anyone who could help him, especially since she’d been so kind, and so he merely nodded.
**********
Continued in next post.
I know this is going to seem a little disjointed, but the way I wrote the rest of this story, the reader learns the answers to certain questions as Max and Liz do.
Those questions will be answered as we go along. Posted in two parts due to length.
Clocks - ColdPlay
The lights go out and I can't be saved
Tides that I tried to swim against
Have brought me down upon my knees
Oh I beg, I beg and I plead
Singing
Come out of the things unsaid
Shoot an apple off my head
And a trouble that can't be named
A tiger's waiting to be tamed
Singing
You are
You are
Confusion that never stops
The closing walls and the ticking clocks
Gonna come back and take you home
I could not stop, that you now know
Singing come out upon my seas
Cursed missed opportunities
Am I a part of the cure
Or am I part of the disease
Singing
You are
You are
And nothing else compares
And nothing else compares
And nothing else compares
And nothing else compares
You are, you are
Home, home where I wanted to go
Home, home where I wanted to go
Home, home where I wanted to go (You are)
Home, home where I wanted to go (You are)
Part Twenty Three
Earth
*~Max~*
Her words filtered through the haze of his fever.
"It doesn't matter anyway. I'm going to take care of you...”
Was it a figment of his imagination, the chemical machinations of his brain, meant to bring peace in death?
It had to be, because he’d run away from her. It wasn't possible.
Perhaps that was all he had left to hold on to, dreams, for everyone whose lives he touched were wither dead, or altered in some horrible way.
Michael and Isabel were dead.
Liz's parents were dead, and she was left without a family. But he'd done something right, hadn't he?
Before he’d healed her on that subway platform, he hadn’t remembered much of how he'd come to be in the city. And as he remembered, he'd wished he could forget.
He was sure he would have gone mad, if not for the angelic face spotted in the crowd two weeks ago, a face that had been so familiar to him, yet from where he did not know.
*********
He remembered waking to a rumbling that shook everything around him.
He did not know where he was, or how he'd gotten there.
He must have been there for days, vaguely aware of the scurrying of rodents around him, penetrating the nightmares that would not release their hold on him.
He had awakened confused and scared. The first thing that drew him out of his nightmarish sleep was the cold. It was so cold and his limbs felt like ice.
He shivered violently and opened his eyes to a dark and frightening world.
Even lifting his head took a monumental effort.
He lay there for a long time, freezing and forlorn before the cold overpowered his desire to remain where he was, and he finally sat up, feeling the world spin around him.
He was weak, weaker than he should have been.
He couldn't remember how he'd got here, or where he was from. Memories tugged at the fringes of his mind, but they remained elusive, out of reach.
Disjointed fragments of another world crackled through his brain like a slide show, confusing, frightening. Names for the faces in his head would not come. He couldn't piece them together, but he sensed that soon he would.
Something was nagging at the back of his addled mind, that there was someone, something he had to find, but he could not remember what or who it was.
It was some time later that he stood, with every joint and muscle screaming in protest.
Looking around, he realized he was in a tunnel, it's damp walls punctuated with orange florescent lights.
Realizing that he could no longer stay where he was, he began to follow the lights. For what seemed like a lifetime he walked on, and then began to realize that it was a long-forgotten part of a subway system.
His muscles warmed slightly and the stiffness abated a bit, for which he was thankful.
He paused cautiously, when he spied a ladder that led up to a metal grill above him. Through the air holes, he could see it was night in the world above.
Steeling his courage, he climbed the ladder and listened, hearing the sound of engines and horns in the distance, echoing a hollow song into the blackness below.
He heard no footsteps and after a moment, he used his waning energy to aid him in moving the heavy grill, exposing him to the night beyond.
Pushing against it with all of his strength, he managed to move it aside. He popped his head out of the tunnel with caution, not knowing what to expect. He saw cars moving at the end of the street, but the block itself was deserted.
It was cold. He thought it was cold in the tunnel, but that hadn't prepared him for the arctic blast of air tht buffeted his body. His breath puffed from his mouth in small gray tendrils of fog.
He climbed out of the hole and started to replace the cover.
"Hey! You! What are you doing over there!" a voice shouted, and his head snapped toward it.
A police officer stood on a set of stairs a short distance away. He started to walk down the steps toward him.
Enemy. Instinct told him that his capture would have serious consequences, for he was different.
He didn't wait for the man to get any closer, and took off down the street at a full run.
"Hey! You! Wait!" he heard behind him, along with the sound of the slap of shoes on the pavement. He didn't turn his head, but kept running.
From what he'd seen of the physique of the police officer, even in his weakened state he knew he had a chance of out-running him.
He reached the end of the block and turned automatically toward the bright lights to his left, and saw a chance to lose himself in the pedestrians walking a bit further ahead.
Without slowing up, he launched himself in that direction, hearing the cop's shouts behind him.
The frigid air rushed passed his body as he launched himself around pedestrians, seeking to lose himself in the crowd.
More lights. Lights he recognized from somewhere. Television.
Another piece of memory snapped into place.
Times Square. He was in New York City. He'd never been here before, but he'd seen it.
He glanced behind him and didn't see the police officer, but knew that he had to hide himself.
Taking a chance, he swerved to his right, where a large group of people was moving into a door-less building. He was herded onto an escalator that seemed to go on forever. Music pounded from speakers mounted alongside the escalator as blue strobe lights made everything appear to move in stop motion.
He looked up, and spotted blond curly hair two steps above him, and felt panic taking hold, tightening his chest, recognizing them on some level.
Her head turned to look his way met his eyes, which widened in fear at the cold smile that didn't reach her own gaze.
"You didn't think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?" she shouted over the music, laughing.
The glare of the strobes distorted her face.
"No," he whispered, trying to step back. He hit a body behind him, and a hand shoved him. He didn't know why yet, but he knew she represented danger.
"Watch where you're goin’ man," a voice growled, and his head turned to see the irritated face of a young man.
He turned forward again, and she was gone.
The music seemed to grow even louder as he reached the top of the escalator, and to his left he saw a bar and pool tables. Everything was metallic. Futuristic. It reminded him of something, some horrible place that was dancing at the edge of his memory, and he had to fight the sudden fear that threatened to paralyze him.
He looked around at the revelers, feeling panic well in his heart. He did not know whom he could and couldn't trust. The enemy could be anywhere.
"I hate you Max, and I will find a way to make you suffer, if I have to cross the Universe to do it!!!"
An evil laugh echoed through his head.
His heart raced with fear. The voice was so familiar, and yet not.
"You thought you could give them protection without responsibility? Well it all backfired on you didn't it? They're dead, and it's your fault!"
He covered his ears and moaned, seeing a few patrons looking at him strangely.
He looked around frantically for an escape, seeing a red sign toward the back of the room.
He ran toward it, pushing the bar on the door, staggering into the dim stairwell. The door slammed behind him, dulling the pumping bass pounding in the club.
He could hear the sound of his own frantic breathing echoing against the cement walls.
“Max,” a voice whispered viciously.
He looked around frantically, looking for its source. A shadowy figure stood at the bottom of the stairwell, eyes glittering in the dim.
“Leave me alone,” he whimpered, sliding down the wall.
"No can do," she said in a flat voice. "I always follow through on my promises."
Fear.
It raced through his veins.
It seemed almost irrational, because he couldn't even remember why he was afraid of her. But something primal, instinctive, told him that she meant danger.
Her laughter echoed against the walls, and in his head.
He covered his ears and whimpered as it grew louder and louder, until he felt it would drive him mad,
and then everything went black.
******
He didn’t know how long he lay slumped in the stairwell, but a harsh foot in his side brought him back from unconsciousness.
He was dragged roughly to his feet, and thrown through the door.
The crowd had thinned out, and the music was playing at a lower volume.
“I am so sick of you fuckers squatting in here!” a burly bald man shouted at him.
He pushed him toward the escalator, giving him a final shove.
“Get the fuck outta here, and don’t let me catch you in here again! You’re lucky I’m not calling the cops! You won’t be so lucky next time!” the man growled.
Max felt as if his legs were going to give out beneath him, and he gripped the rubber railing on the escalator and stepped carefully onto it.
He hadn’t realized how immense the moving staircase was, but the two-story journey to the bottom made his stomach churn, and for a moment he thought he was going to be sick. He swayed and closed his eyes, gripping the railing as if his life depended on it. He opened them only when he felt his foot hit the cement at the bottom.
He glanced back to see the man glaring angrily at him, and he turned to the entrance, moving cautiously outside. It was almost dawn, and the gray light washed over the city, dulling the bright lights he’d seen the night before. It had grown colder, if that was possible, and he shivered against the bitter bite of the air.
The ceaseless blaring of the horns had abated with the dwindling early morning traffic, and at this hour there were less pedestrians than there had been when he walked into the club earlier.
He looked around cautiously for the uniformed man he’d seen, but he was nowhere in sight.
He looked around, realizing he had nowhere to go. He didn’t remember where home was. He didn’t even remember how he’d gotten here.
Little snippets of images snapped in his mind, knowledge that he used to have, fragmented now. He knew this was New York, but he didn't know where he lived. He knew the blond girl meant him harm, but he didn't know why. Her face was familiar, but he didn't know from where.
He folded his arms over each other, rubbing his upper arms to keep warm. It had been cold last night, the adrenaline-induced fear as he ran from the police officer allowing him to ignore it, but now he again felt its bite.
What had happened to him? Occasional flashes of faces burst into his brain, some he remembered, some not.
The blond girl with eyes the color of arctic ice, glaring at him with a murderous countenance. Another girl with long blond hair...his sister Isabel, now dead to him, along with Michael, the only friend he had ever known. A painful memory crashed through his hazed mind.
He watched. He’d seen them die. He’d been helpless as a large guard had snapped Michael’s neck.
He'd seen the rock ceiling collapse upon his sister.
Gone. Both gone.
The girl. The hateful girl had something to do with it, but he didn’t know why.
Why was she tormenting him?
He felt despair wash over him, suffocating him.
A tingling in his fingers drew his eyes to his hands.
At his fingertips, green preternatural energy crackled and sputtered.
Horrified, he shoved his hands in his pockets.
Different. He was different.
He turned left and started to walk but had only gone a few steps before his feet faltered, his eyes catching his reflection in the large pane-glass window of a shop.
His eyes widened as he looked at his reflection.
His hair hung in limp tendrils around his face and neck, and he had a growth of hair around his mouth and on his jaw. But it was not that which gave him pause.
The eyes that stared back at him were sunken in the face they occupied. They looked haunted, in them the reflection of witnessing unspeakable horror. His gauntness could not be hidden even beneath the facial hair.
A filthy long sleeved shirt and t-shirt, a pair of jeans that seemed to hang off of his hips and a battered pair of boots completed his wardrobe.
He looked like he felt...like he had been to hell. But the images in his head didn’t make sense yet, still a kaleidoscope of confusion.
He swayed as another wave of nausea rose in his stomach, and he braced his hand against the glass to keep from falling down as another wave of images assaulted his brain.
He crumpled to the sidewalk, his head leaning against the brick.
In desperation, he tried to remain conscious, but felt the world sway on its edge, and passed out.
**************
When he woke again, he was lying on a cot.
He immediately tried to rise in panic, and found himself getting dizzy, his head again falling to the pillow.
“S’ok sweetie, don’t try to get up. I’m not gonna hurt you,” a scratchy female voice said.
He squinted, trying to see the owner of the voice, and a plump figure came into focus sitting at a desk a short distance away.
“You passed out in front of my store,” she said.
A strawberry blond bob haircut framed her face, but it was her eyes that were remarkable, a mix of deep violet and blue.
She had kind eyes. He saw that immediately. At the moment, they were filled with concern.
“I have to go,” he said, trying again to get up off of the cot.
“Just lay there for awhile. I ain’t gonna call the cops. Get your bearings and I’ll give you something to eat and you can be on your way,” she said kindly. She leaned against the desk, crossing her arms over her ample chest. She looked to be in her early forties.
He let out a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to find the strength to sit up.
The room was quiet for a moment before she spoke again.
“Not that it’s any of my business, but you look pretty bad. You jonesin’ on the crank?” she asked.
He opened his eyes, trying to decide what to say. What could he say? That he didn’t remember?
The easiest answer was a lie.
Finally, he nodded.
“That shit will kill you,” she said, her sympathetic tone belying her words.
“I’m not gonna preach to you, don’t worry,” she said. "The name's Jeanine."
“You hungry?” she asked, and as she did, he realized that he was. Starving in fact.
“Yes,” he said hoarsely.
“Want some soup? I wouldn’t suggest anything else judging by the way you look,” she said with a knowing tone.
“I should really go,” he said.
“Stay here, and I’ll go up front and get you something,” she said, rising from her chair.
He watched her leave and then slowly sat up, rubbing his face with his hands.
His hands.
He looked at them quickly in panic.
Had she seen? Did she know?
He realized that he wouldn’t be sitting here if she had. He would have been locked up somewhere, because he was an alien.
He was an alien, and his sister and Michael had been too.
They’d had to hide. From the government. From everyone.
But where had they hidden? Where had he lived? He couldn’t remember. He supposed it didn’t matter now. They were dead, and he was now alone.
“You make me sick, Max,” a voice whispered, and his head snapped up to see the blond leaning casually against the desk.
He blinked rapidly, hoping she would disappear.
“It won’t do you any good. You can’t get rid of me,” she said. “You’re never going to get rid of me.”
He couldn’t remember her name yet, or where he’d known her from, but the very sound of her voice struck fear and rage in his heart.
“Stop playing with me,” he said aloud. “What do you want from me?”
“I don’t want anything. Except maybe...oh, your head. You are going to pay Max. I warned you...”
"Pay for what?" he exclaimed in confusion.
“You don’t remember any of it, do you?” she asked in disgust. “You remember Isabel and Michael, but you don’t remember what happened.”
“Just leave me alone!” he hissed.
“Oh, this is going to be more fun than I imagined,” she chuckled.
“Who are you talking to?” Jeanine asked, coming back into the room, and his head snapped toward the door, and then back to the desk. She was gone.
“No....no one,” he stammered.
She looked at him strangely and then nodded.
“Sometimes after a bad trip, people have strange things happen to them. Like they hear things that aren’t there,” she said in understanding.
It took him a moment to realize she was talking about drugs.
“Yeah,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I guess so.”
"You don't look like a bad kid," she said, studying him with her kindly eyes. "It's not too late to turn your life around, you know. All you need to do is ask for help."
If only he knew what kind of help he needed. How do you ask for help in removing a psychotic girl's voice from your head? They would think he was crazy. But he knew it was real, that she was real. And she was dangerous.
"What date is today?" he asked suddenly.
"It's the first of December," she said.
"And the year?" he asked.
She looked at him with a furrowed brow.
"2007..." she said slowly.
A flash of something raced through his mind. A sign, one that had been familiar somehow. There was no location listed on the sign, but he'd seen it before. He knew it.
"Road Closed – Blasting June 1 – 2, 2005."
2005.
It was now December 2007. Where had that year and a half gone? Where had he been? What had he been doing?
"What's your name?" the woman asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Max," he said slowly.
"You got a last name?" she asked, looking at him.
He lowered his eyes and didn't answer, not because he didn't want to tell her, but because he couldn't remember.
"You got a home to go to?" she prompted.
He shrugged.
"So you're living on the streets," she said with a sigh.
"S'alright. Nothin' I ain't heard before," she said.
“You’re going to be all right, kid. Here, eat this,” she said, handing him a bowl.
“When you’re finished, we can talk. I have a few numbers I can give you. They’ll help you if you want it,” she said.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her that there wasn’t anyone who could help him, especially since she’d been so kind, and so he merely nodded.
**********
Continued in next post.
Last edited by Majesty on Wed Nov 12, 2003 9:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
23 cont'd.
cont'd.....
A few hours later, he found himself wandering the streets with nowhere to go. The woman had been kind to him, giving him a little money when she'd found out he'd had none. She'd made him promise not to spend it on drugs, and he agreed without argument, feeling it was easier to let her think that drugs were the reason he was in the situation he found himself in.
After he had eaten, she took him to the front of the store.
He walked toward the front of the store with her, noticing that it was a vintage shop, filled with every possible item from clothes to jewelry.
"I don't know why, but I've got a feeling about you, kid," she said, sizing him up.
"I live upstairs in an apartment with my husband. What say I let you clean up a bit? Hmm? I can give you some clothes and a coat. You can't go back out there like that. You'll catch your death," she said.
She picked out a trench coat, two flannel shirts, and a thermal shirt, and handed them to him, and beckoned for him to follow her upstairs, after temporarily locking the door to the store.
She showed him the bathroom pointing out her husband's shaving cream and a tube of toothpaste, and gave him a towel and an unused military-issued grooming kit she'd picked up downstairs, and left him alone to go back down to open the store.
He closed the door, and got a clear look at himself in the vanity mirror.
Looking at his reflection, he could see why she would have assumed his problem was due to drugs.
His skin was pasty white, his hair matted and dirty.
He was grateful to be able to wash some of the grime away from his body, and for a clean warm shirt. There was nothing he could do about his jeans, but just the clean shirts were more than he could have hoped for.
He wet his hair down and washed it as well as he could in the sink, and brushed his teeth with the brush from the grooming kit.
Finally, he took the razor from the kit, and shaved the hair from his face.
The result was a marked improvement, and he felt almost...human.
Carefully closing the apartment door behind him, he walked back downstairs to the store.
Jeanine was behind the counter, ringing up a few purchases for a teenaged boy. He waited at the back of the store until the boy left, and then cautiously approached the counter.
She noticed his approach and smiled with approval.
"Much better," she said, nodding.
"Thank you," he said to her. "I don't have money to pay you..."
She waved him off.
"Don’t worry about it," she said. "It's nothing. I'd give you a place to stay, but my husband..."
"No, no you've done more than enough," he said. "I don't know how I can repay you."
"I can't tell you what to do, but think about going home. Even if you don't, come back and see me, let me know how you're doing," she said.
"I will," he said, nodding.
"Take this, and get yourself something to eat. It's not much..." she said, holding out some folded bills.
"No, I cant..." he protested shaking his head.
"Don't argue," she said coming around the counter and shoving it into his hand.
He moved to give her the grooming kit back and she shook her head.
"Keep it. Good luck Max," she said, with a grin.
"Thank you," he answered, with a small smile.
He gave her a quick wave and left the store.
Clothed in the thermal and two shirts and the trench, he was more than warm.
"Drugs, now that's funny," a voice said beside him.
He didn't even turn his head. He knew who it was.
"I told you to leave me alone," he mumbled as he walked, getting a strange look from a pedestrian.
"Better than explaining the truth, isn't it, Max? You won't want to know what really happened. But I'll tell you in my own time. And you'll wish I hadn't," she said with satisfaction.
"What are you?" he asked.
"What, you think I'm a ghost? Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm very real," she said. "Or I will be real to you soon enough."
"I'm going to come for you, Max. I'm going to kill you, or drive you mad, whatever comes first. You can bet on it," she said.
He shook his head side to side repeatedly as he walked, his hands shoved into his pockets.
"Now...where should I start?" she asked, putting her finger to her cheek,
His fingers tingled.
The energy. Some part of his mind screamed that this part of him, the alien part was his bad half. He needed to hide it.
He felt his hands growing warm in his pockets, and then quickly heated to burning temperature. With a cry, he pulled them out of his pockets to again see the energy that sparked there.
"Stop it!" he said, panicked.
"What's the matter Max?" she asked with feigned innocence, appearing in front of him on the sidewalk.
The energy seemed to travel up his arm and into his chest. It felt like acid under his skin, and he clutched at his shirts, frantically trying to claw at his skin.
The early morning crowd parted in alarm at the apparently delusional transient clawing at his clothes.
One moment he was in agony, and the next, it was gone.
He stood gasping, seeing the strangers standing away, staring with guarded looks.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, hurrying away from them. He ducked into an alley, and slumped against the wall, sliding to the pavement.
"That energy is building in your body," she said, and he raised his head to see her crouched before him.
"You're going to have to let it out sooner or later, or it will burn you alive," she laughed.
"Shut up," he whispered miserably.
He remembered now. This girl was an alien, like him. And she was evil. He didn't want to be anything like that, like her.
Ever.
***********
He spent his first night tucked into a stairwell, clutching the trench coat around his shivering form, fending off her incessant whispers and threats. He could feel the energy racing through his body, through his veins.
Trying to ignore her, again he tried to recall where he'd been, and what had happened to him.
He closed his eyes, and her voice faded slightly.
Disjointed images were all he could raise.
He caught glimpses of the blond girl and an older man.
His sister and Michael, in a chamber, with their pods, the place they were born.
And an orb, made of a metal he'd never seen before.
"That's right Max," the girl whispered. "You remember that, don't you?"
He remembered it, but none of it made sense.
The energy fired to life in his veins, more vibrant and present.
He tried to piece together the fragmented memories, but it only frustrated him further.
Concentrating on blanking his mind out, he finally fell into a troubled sleep.
*******
He woke the next morning feeling stiff and frozen, with the girl's incessant threats ringing in his head. He felt addled, as if she was eating at his mind, and maybe she was.
His thoughts were muddied, twisted.
"You shouldn't sleep Max," she giggled.
"You leave your head wide open for me to play in," she said, sitting on the railing at the top of the stairwell, swinging her feet.
"Go away," he slurred.
She jumped down into the stairwell, bringing herself to eye level with him.
"Let the energy loose Max. It's residual. Release it. Be free," she whispered.
"No," he said, shaking his head. Though he couldn't think too clearly, he knew that if she wanted him to do it, then that was the last thing he would do.
Her face hardened, her eyes as cold as stone.
"Fine, be that way," she said.
A searing pain shot through his head and he fell to his knees with a cry, clutching at his temples.
She stood over him, her hands on her hips, her face expressionless.
"You'll learn soon enough. You'll be wishing you were dead when I get through with you," she said.
Was this what the remainder of his existence was to be like? To be tortured by a girl he knew he hated on the basest of levels, but didn't know why that was so?
Getting to his feet slowly, he again started to walk down the street. He reached into his pocket for the money Jeanine had given him.
He needed to eat.
He spotted a fast food restaurant up ahead, and walked toward it. His mind had fallen strangely quiet, and he didn't like it one bit.
He pulled the door to the restaurant open and walked in, moving to stand at the end of the line.
It moved quickly, his uneasiness growing as he kept an eye on the sidewalk outside, stepping up when the line moved.
Finally he reached the front of the line, seeing the cashier turned away from him, talking to one of the cooks.
Her blond curls were tied back under the hat she wore. It looked familiar, too familiar...
The girl turned toward him.
"Can I help you?" she said with a smirk, and he stumbled backward.
"Come on Max," she said with a sneer, "Have it your way!"
He turned and ran out of the door and down the sidewalk as her laughter rang through his head. He felt the energy rise again in his body, seeming to burn his insides, but he couldn't control the havoc it was wreaking on his body.
Panicked, he spotted a stairwell for the subway, and started down them at a run.
Her laughter echoed louder and louder in his head, threatening to drive him mad.
He reached the bottom of the steps and was roughly jostled by the people who were coming out of the turnstiles.
Desperately, he looked around, afraid that he would see the blond face in the crowd.
He jumped the turnstile and ran into the terminal amidst the exiting pedestrians.
Her laughter seemed to jump from his head, echoing against the concrete walls of the platform.
He scanned the faces in the crowd, ready to bolt if he caught site of the cold blue eyes he'd seen in his nightmares.
And then he saw her.
The world seemed to freeze for a moment as his eyes fell upon the face of an angel. An angel his heart knew, but his mind could not remember.
He didn't even notice as the laughter cut off in his head, as the voice whispered in disgust.
"It can't be..."
He stood frozen as he watched her swipe a card and step through the turnstile. The energy that had been ravaging his body calmed as he watched her approach, weaving her way in between people.
She wasn't looking his way, intent on making her way through the crowd to make the train. She passed within feet of him, and as if hypnotized, he followed her through the crowd.
Keeping a safe distance behind to remain unnoticed, he ran to the adjacent car and boarded the train.
The doors closed behind him, and he moved to the door that separated his car from the one she had just gotten in to.
A man stood from his seat and offered it to her as the train jerked into motion, and she smiled at him gratefully and sat down.
The smile didn't quite reach her eyes, where sadness lingered, shadowing their chestnut depths. There was something so achingly familiar about her...
He braced himself against the assault of images that fired into his mind. A younger version of this girl, laughing in the hallways with a boy wearing a varsity jacket. At a table outdoors sitting with a blond girl...her name was Maria, laughing as her animated friend waved her hands around alternating her attention between a tall, slim dark-haired boy and the beauty that sat beside him.
Liz...
Her name was Liz.
See you all on Sunday.
A few hours later, he found himself wandering the streets with nowhere to go. The woman had been kind to him, giving him a little money when she'd found out he'd had none. She'd made him promise not to spend it on drugs, and he agreed without argument, feeling it was easier to let her think that drugs were the reason he was in the situation he found himself in.
After he had eaten, she took him to the front of the store.
He walked toward the front of the store with her, noticing that it was a vintage shop, filled with every possible item from clothes to jewelry.
"I don't know why, but I've got a feeling about you, kid," she said, sizing him up.
"I live upstairs in an apartment with my husband. What say I let you clean up a bit? Hmm? I can give you some clothes and a coat. You can't go back out there like that. You'll catch your death," she said.
She picked out a trench coat, two flannel shirts, and a thermal shirt, and handed them to him, and beckoned for him to follow her upstairs, after temporarily locking the door to the store.
She showed him the bathroom pointing out her husband's shaving cream and a tube of toothpaste, and gave him a towel and an unused military-issued grooming kit she'd picked up downstairs, and left him alone to go back down to open the store.
He closed the door, and got a clear look at himself in the vanity mirror.
Looking at his reflection, he could see why she would have assumed his problem was due to drugs.
His skin was pasty white, his hair matted and dirty.
He was grateful to be able to wash some of the grime away from his body, and for a clean warm shirt. There was nothing he could do about his jeans, but just the clean shirts were more than he could have hoped for.
He wet his hair down and washed it as well as he could in the sink, and brushed his teeth with the brush from the grooming kit.
Finally, he took the razor from the kit, and shaved the hair from his face.
The result was a marked improvement, and he felt almost...human.
Carefully closing the apartment door behind him, he walked back downstairs to the store.
Jeanine was behind the counter, ringing up a few purchases for a teenaged boy. He waited at the back of the store until the boy left, and then cautiously approached the counter.
She noticed his approach and smiled with approval.
"Much better," she said, nodding.
"Thank you," he said to her. "I don't have money to pay you..."
She waved him off.
"Don’t worry about it," she said. "It's nothing. I'd give you a place to stay, but my husband..."
"No, no you've done more than enough," he said. "I don't know how I can repay you."
"I can't tell you what to do, but think about going home. Even if you don't, come back and see me, let me know how you're doing," she said.
"I will," he said, nodding.
"Take this, and get yourself something to eat. It's not much..." she said, holding out some folded bills.
"No, I cant..." he protested shaking his head.
"Don't argue," she said coming around the counter and shoving it into his hand.
He moved to give her the grooming kit back and she shook her head.
"Keep it. Good luck Max," she said, with a grin.
"Thank you," he answered, with a small smile.
He gave her a quick wave and left the store.
Clothed in the thermal and two shirts and the trench, he was more than warm.
"Drugs, now that's funny," a voice said beside him.
He didn't even turn his head. He knew who it was.
"I told you to leave me alone," he mumbled as he walked, getting a strange look from a pedestrian.
"Better than explaining the truth, isn't it, Max? You won't want to know what really happened. But I'll tell you in my own time. And you'll wish I hadn't," she said with satisfaction.
"What are you?" he asked.
"What, you think I'm a ghost? Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm very real," she said. "Or I will be real to you soon enough."
"I'm going to come for you, Max. I'm going to kill you, or drive you mad, whatever comes first. You can bet on it," she said.
He shook his head side to side repeatedly as he walked, his hands shoved into his pockets.
"Now...where should I start?" she asked, putting her finger to her cheek,
His fingers tingled.
The energy. Some part of his mind screamed that this part of him, the alien part was his bad half. He needed to hide it.
He felt his hands growing warm in his pockets, and then quickly heated to burning temperature. With a cry, he pulled them out of his pockets to again see the energy that sparked there.
"Stop it!" he said, panicked.
"What's the matter Max?" she asked with feigned innocence, appearing in front of him on the sidewalk.
The energy seemed to travel up his arm and into his chest. It felt like acid under his skin, and he clutched at his shirts, frantically trying to claw at his skin.
The early morning crowd parted in alarm at the apparently delusional transient clawing at his clothes.
One moment he was in agony, and the next, it was gone.
He stood gasping, seeing the strangers standing away, staring with guarded looks.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, hurrying away from them. He ducked into an alley, and slumped against the wall, sliding to the pavement.
"That energy is building in your body," she said, and he raised his head to see her crouched before him.
"You're going to have to let it out sooner or later, or it will burn you alive," she laughed.
"Shut up," he whispered miserably.
He remembered now. This girl was an alien, like him. And she was evil. He didn't want to be anything like that, like her.
Ever.
***********
He spent his first night tucked into a stairwell, clutching the trench coat around his shivering form, fending off her incessant whispers and threats. He could feel the energy racing through his body, through his veins.
Trying to ignore her, again he tried to recall where he'd been, and what had happened to him.
He closed his eyes, and her voice faded slightly.
Disjointed images were all he could raise.
He caught glimpses of the blond girl and an older man.
His sister and Michael, in a chamber, with their pods, the place they were born.
And an orb, made of a metal he'd never seen before.
"That's right Max," the girl whispered. "You remember that, don't you?"
He remembered it, but none of it made sense.
The energy fired to life in his veins, more vibrant and present.
He tried to piece together the fragmented memories, but it only frustrated him further.
Concentrating on blanking his mind out, he finally fell into a troubled sleep.
*******
He woke the next morning feeling stiff and frozen, with the girl's incessant threats ringing in his head. He felt addled, as if she was eating at his mind, and maybe she was.
His thoughts were muddied, twisted.
"You shouldn't sleep Max," she giggled.
"You leave your head wide open for me to play in," she said, sitting on the railing at the top of the stairwell, swinging her feet.
"Go away," he slurred.
She jumped down into the stairwell, bringing herself to eye level with him.
"Let the energy loose Max. It's residual. Release it. Be free," she whispered.
"No," he said, shaking his head. Though he couldn't think too clearly, he knew that if she wanted him to do it, then that was the last thing he would do.
Her face hardened, her eyes as cold as stone.
"Fine, be that way," she said.
A searing pain shot through his head and he fell to his knees with a cry, clutching at his temples.
She stood over him, her hands on her hips, her face expressionless.
"You'll learn soon enough. You'll be wishing you were dead when I get through with you," she said.
Was this what the remainder of his existence was to be like? To be tortured by a girl he knew he hated on the basest of levels, but didn't know why that was so?
Getting to his feet slowly, he again started to walk down the street. He reached into his pocket for the money Jeanine had given him.
He needed to eat.
He spotted a fast food restaurant up ahead, and walked toward it. His mind had fallen strangely quiet, and he didn't like it one bit.
He pulled the door to the restaurant open and walked in, moving to stand at the end of the line.
It moved quickly, his uneasiness growing as he kept an eye on the sidewalk outside, stepping up when the line moved.
Finally he reached the front of the line, seeing the cashier turned away from him, talking to one of the cooks.
Her blond curls were tied back under the hat she wore. It looked familiar, too familiar...
The girl turned toward him.
"Can I help you?" she said with a smirk, and he stumbled backward.
"Come on Max," she said with a sneer, "Have it your way!"
He turned and ran out of the door and down the sidewalk as her laughter rang through his head. He felt the energy rise again in his body, seeming to burn his insides, but he couldn't control the havoc it was wreaking on his body.
Panicked, he spotted a stairwell for the subway, and started down them at a run.
Her laughter echoed louder and louder in his head, threatening to drive him mad.
He reached the bottom of the steps and was roughly jostled by the people who were coming out of the turnstiles.
Desperately, he looked around, afraid that he would see the blond face in the crowd.
He jumped the turnstile and ran into the terminal amidst the exiting pedestrians.
Her laughter seemed to jump from his head, echoing against the concrete walls of the platform.
He scanned the faces in the crowd, ready to bolt if he caught site of the cold blue eyes he'd seen in his nightmares.
And then he saw her.
The world seemed to freeze for a moment as his eyes fell upon the face of an angel. An angel his heart knew, but his mind could not remember.
He didn't even notice as the laughter cut off in his head, as the voice whispered in disgust.
"It can't be..."
He stood frozen as he watched her swipe a card and step through the turnstile. The energy that had been ravaging his body calmed as he watched her approach, weaving her way in between people.
She wasn't looking his way, intent on making her way through the crowd to make the train. She passed within feet of him, and as if hypnotized, he followed her through the crowd.
Keeping a safe distance behind to remain unnoticed, he ran to the adjacent car and boarded the train.
The doors closed behind him, and he moved to the door that separated his car from the one she had just gotten in to.
A man stood from his seat and offered it to her as the train jerked into motion, and she smiled at him gratefully and sat down.
The smile didn't quite reach her eyes, where sadness lingered, shadowing their chestnut depths. There was something so achingly familiar about her...
He braced himself against the assault of images that fired into his mind. A younger version of this girl, laughing in the hallways with a boy wearing a varsity jacket. At a table outdoors sitting with a blond girl...her name was Maria, laughing as her animated friend waved her hands around alternating her attention between a tall, slim dark-haired boy and the beauty that sat beside him.
Liz...
Her name was Liz.
See you all on Sunday.
MamaDee - Er...well.....I'm going to be honest, there are still some doozy parts coming up. This whole story has a pretty dark tone to it. One of the reasons I feel that Serendipity sort of needed to end where it does, and I am writing a companion piece is because I want the two to be separate entities. The companion epilogue fic will be much more, how do I say it? Warm and fuzzy I guess?
As I said, this whole saga, both pieces, come with Dreamer insurance. I know a lot of readers hate when Max and Liz are apart for most of a story and then are only together at the end, so I am appending this story with that second piece.
So, this is another one of those doozy parts. But fear not, Wednesday is a good day in Serendipity Land.
Posted in two parts due to length.
I'll Be Seeing You - Billie Holiday
I'll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day through.
In that small cafe;
The park across the way;
The children's carousel;
The chestnut trees;
The wishin' well.
I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day;
In every thing that's light and gay.
I'll always think of you that way.
I'll find you
In the morning sun
And when the night is new.
I'll be looking at the moon,
But I'll be seeing you.
I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day;
In every thing that's light and gay.
I'll always think of you that way.
I'll find you
In the morning sun
And when the night is new.
I'll be looking at the moon,
But I'll be seeing you.
Part Twenty-Four
December – 2007
*~Max~*
Liz...
Her name was Liz.
Another image of the girl kissing the boy in the varsity jacket, Kyle, and taking his hand, as they walked toward his car, and the lonely despair that had smothered him as he watched them go.
That image faded, and another filled his mind, one where he sat at a lab table, working with her on a science experiment.
He watched her in fascination, infatuated with the way she tucked her hair behind her ear as she worked, a small frown of concentration creasing her brow. Absently, she chewed on the end of her pen, working out the problem in her mind. She must have felt his eyes on her, because she lifted her eyes and met his with a sweet smile, and he turned away, feeling the heat rising in his cheeks at being caught...
He'd gone to school with her. He knew her.
No, he didn’t know her, really, but he'd been in love with her.
She looked different now. Her appearance hadn't changed much, but her soft laughing eyes had been replaced with melancholy ones, as if she'd known great sadness.
He felt the ghostly presence of longing, longing to know her secrets, so achingly familiar.
Her head turned toward his car, and he ducked back away from the window, afraid she would see him.
It had always been that way. He'd never had the nerve to get closer to her, to really speak to her, because of what he was.
He remembered that now.
"You ruined her life, Max," a toneless voice said next to him, and he turned to see the blond girl once again at his side, looking through the glass.
"She looks that way because of you, and she doesn't even know it," the girl chuckled.
His heart tightened as that voice rang through his mind. It couldn't be true. He would never hurt her.
"We only hurt the ones we love Max," she goaded.
"You're wrong Tess," he said, the words out of his mouth before he thought of them.
He remembered her name.
"Ooh. Starting to remember me now?" she mocked. "I'm flattered."
Ignoring her, he again peeked through the glass. She was busy pulling something out of her bag; headphones.
She put them on and closed her eyes, a soft smile appearing on her lips.
She was beautiful. It was as if his soul knew her, had always known her.
He watched her unobserved as the train made it's way downtown, stopping intermittently to take new passengers on and let those that reached their destination off.
He'd barely noticed captivated by the girl who sat in the next car, unaware of his presence.
Just watching her calmed his muddled thoughts and the fear in his heart.
For a few moments, he forgot everything. He forgot that he had no one or nowhere else in the world to go to. He forgot that he couldn't remember anything of importance before he'd stumbled out onto the streets from the depths below. He forgot what he was, that he was different.
In those few moments, his whole world became the diminutive girl sitting only a few feet away, on the other side of that metal door. Couldn’t they all see it? Why didn’t they see how special she was?
The train jolted to a stop, and her eyes snapped open. She grabbed her things and stood as the door swooshed open.
He was so engrossed in watching her move that he almost didn't make it out the door before it closed.
Hanging back, he followed her through the turnstile and up the stairs. She turned left, and he paused at the top of the staircase, waiting for her to gain some distance on him.
Finally, he started forward again, keeping his head down. He needn't have worried. She never turned back.
He followed her a few blocks, and ducked into a doorway as he watched her climb a staircase fiddling with keys.
She went inside the glass-paned door, and he stood, feeling suddenly cold without her in his sight.
"Stay away from her Max," Tess growled, her voice echoing a warning through his brain. "I'm giving you a friendly warning. You'll be sorry."
Ignoring her, looking up at the building, he wondered which was her apartment. He didn't have to wait long to see the flash of silky chocolate hair and a small hand pulling the curtains shut.
With a small smile, he sat down on the stairs adjacent to her apartment building. For the first time since he'd become conscious, he felt peace, and he knew it had everything to do with being near her.
*****************
That first night after he'd seen her, he'd sat outside across the street, just watching over her building.
His memory might be jumbled, but as he sat there looking at Liz Parker's window, so many memories of her became so clear. It was as if a block had been released, and a small flood washed through his consciousness.
Abruptly, the memories were cut off when he caught sight of a figure walking down the deserted street. It was late, and the light had long since gone out in the window into the apartment he'd been watching all evening. He recognized Maria Deluca long before she reached the steps to the building across the street and slipped out of sight next to the steps he had been sitting on.
Even years later, she and Liz must have remained close. He again felt the sense of mourning for Michael and Isabel, and seeing that Maria was still obviously close to Liz only made it more poignant.
******************
He'd established a routine over the next two weeks, following her as she left the building.
He hadn't dared to approach her.
The energy in his body was slowly killing him, but he knew that if he let it go Tess would have complete control over his mind. Ironically, the energy that was slowly eating him alive was the only thing that was saving him from the full force of her wrath.
It was mutating his insides, and the pain at night would get so bad that he would pass into unconsciousness.
It was only the thought of her, of seeing her once more that made him fight it.
Each day he would follow her as she went about her daily routine.
How he'd longed to approach her. But what would be the point? He'd be dead soon enough, and something in Tess' words, that he had somehow had something to do with the sadness that lived in Liz's eyes, rang true. Why couldn’t he remember?
"Don't torture yourself Max," Tess said, amused one night as he took shelter in the stairwell across the street. "You'll find out soon enough, when I'm ready for you to know..."
She was his constant tormenter, always with him, making herself known when she felt like it.
No one else could see her, he knew. He tried to keep quiet when he was around other people, despite her goading. He knew he looked insane as it was. It was fear of her and what she was capable of that kept him from making himself known to Liz, but it wasn't enough to keep him completely away.
Every morning, ten minutes before she was due to leave the apartment he would walk to the subway entrance, losing himself in the crowd that waited below on the platform. He followed her to the hospital she worked in, waiting around outside or in the coffee shop across the street for her reemergence. He watched her shop for Christmas presents. He waited outside as she shopped in the neighborhood grocery.
He would wait patiently across the street when she'd stop into a Starbucks on her way to work.
The days were bearable.
It was the nights that he hated. Earlier in the evening wasn't so bad. The light was usually on in the apartment, and he'd found out that she lived with Maria, her friend from high school, who worked all sorts of crazy hours. He could sit on the stairs for hours watching the window, waiting for a glimpse of the girl he knew he'd loved for almost a lifetime; a lifetime he couldn't recall.
But it was the late evening hours that were the worst, after the light in the window went off, when he was in pain and he felt most alone. It was also when Tess was at her strongest.
Her power over him was growing exponentially as the days passed. She appeared more often, taunting him. He tried to ignore her, but when he did, she inflicted pain on him, turning his body on himself.
For two weeks he endured it. He would have endured anything just to be able to look upon Liz, even for a little while. Even though she didn’t even know he was there.
But the cold weather and the alien energy housed in his body were taking their toll on him. He made the money Jeanine gave him last, using it only as a last resort when he absolutely needed to eat.
But by the night of December 15th, he knew his time was growing short. He had weeks, maybe days. He could no longer eat. The last time he'd tried the day before, he'd become violently ill.
He wondered what he would do when he became too weak to follow Liz. He would die alone, of that he was sure, with only Tess' vile threats for company.
Maybe it was the thought that he wouldn’t have much time left, but the night of the 15th made him bold.
This night, he'd thought about approaching her, just once. Just to say hello. Just to hear her voice.
Tess could sense his thoughts.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," she said in a foreboding tone. "You almost made that mistake once, and she paid for it."
"What are you going to do to me Tess? Kill me? I'm dying anyway," he said wearily.
“I thought torturing you myself was the best it was going to get, but this is so much better,” she said with an incredulous chuckle. “What do you suppose she’ll think if you were to approach her? Do you have any idea what you look like?”
“The energy’s eating you alive. You know what it is, don’t you? The residual energy of the Granolith. Do you remember the Granolith, Max? It rejected you, and now it’s killing you,” she giggled. "But it won't happen before I get to you. I told you I'm coming for you Max. It's only a matter of time."
“I know you know what I said was true...about Liz Parker. You brought on the greatest pain in her young life, just because you wouldn’t let her go. I warned you Max,” she continued.
“Will you be able to look her in the face knowing the horrible truth of what happened?” she asked, glaring at him.
“I think it’s time you saw what your infatuation with Liz Parker did to her,” she chuckled.
A myriad of images flashed through his mind, of his ritual visits to the restaurant her parents owned.
The Crashdown.
Liz was in an aqua uniform with glittered antennae. He would watch her as she worked, ordering a meal as his excuse to be there. She had been the one person who could make him forget what he was while she was near, a balm to his lonely soul. Just watching her had been enough, at least until...
"Do you remember this Max?" Tess asked.
That very same restaurant was enveloped on flames, lighting the main street with a malevolent orange glow as Tess stood with other onlookers, a satisfied smile on her face.
Another image appeared in his head, of Liz standing alone in a cemetery, quietly sobbing, mourning the death of her parents. He had been there that day, watching from a distance...
The images that followed, Tess’ memories forced into his head were like a nightmare he wished he could wake from, but he knew it was the truth.
He had ruined Liz’s life.
They left him as quickly as they had come, but would be burned onto his brain for eternity, leaving him sobbing in despair. Tess had killed Liz's parents. She had set the fire, and she did it to drive Liz away from Roswell, and from Max...for good.
"You're lying," he said.
“Sorry Max. Wish I was,” Tess whispered in seductive derision. “But it's your own fault. You didn't get with the program. If you’d been smart enough to let it go, you could have stopped it. But then you were never smart...”
Her laughter grew to deafening proportions and he covered his ears, knowing it was futile. He couldn’t stop it, or make the revelations that had just been unveiled untrue. Liz's parents had died because of him.
His quiet sob echoed hollowly out over the deserted street.
*******
Continued in the next post.
As I said, this whole saga, both pieces, come with Dreamer insurance. I know a lot of readers hate when Max and Liz are apart for most of a story and then are only together at the end, so I am appending this story with that second piece.
So, this is another one of those doozy parts. But fear not, Wednesday is a good day in Serendipity Land.
Posted in two parts due to length.
I'll Be Seeing You - Billie Holiday
I'll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day through.
In that small cafe;
The park across the way;
The children's carousel;
The chestnut trees;
The wishin' well.
I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day;
In every thing that's light and gay.
I'll always think of you that way.
I'll find you
In the morning sun
And when the night is new.
I'll be looking at the moon,
But I'll be seeing you.
I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day;
In every thing that's light and gay.
I'll always think of you that way.
I'll find you
In the morning sun
And when the night is new.
I'll be looking at the moon,
But I'll be seeing you.
Part Twenty-Four
December – 2007
*~Max~*
Liz...
Her name was Liz.
Another image of the girl kissing the boy in the varsity jacket, Kyle, and taking his hand, as they walked toward his car, and the lonely despair that had smothered him as he watched them go.
That image faded, and another filled his mind, one where he sat at a lab table, working with her on a science experiment.
He watched her in fascination, infatuated with the way she tucked her hair behind her ear as she worked, a small frown of concentration creasing her brow. Absently, she chewed on the end of her pen, working out the problem in her mind. She must have felt his eyes on her, because she lifted her eyes and met his with a sweet smile, and he turned away, feeling the heat rising in his cheeks at being caught...
He'd gone to school with her. He knew her.
No, he didn’t know her, really, but he'd been in love with her.
She looked different now. Her appearance hadn't changed much, but her soft laughing eyes had been replaced with melancholy ones, as if she'd known great sadness.
He felt the ghostly presence of longing, longing to know her secrets, so achingly familiar.
Her head turned toward his car, and he ducked back away from the window, afraid she would see him.
It had always been that way. He'd never had the nerve to get closer to her, to really speak to her, because of what he was.
He remembered that now.
"You ruined her life, Max," a toneless voice said next to him, and he turned to see the blond girl once again at his side, looking through the glass.
"She looks that way because of you, and she doesn't even know it," the girl chuckled.
His heart tightened as that voice rang through his mind. It couldn't be true. He would never hurt her.
"We only hurt the ones we love Max," she goaded.
"You're wrong Tess," he said, the words out of his mouth before he thought of them.
He remembered her name.
"Ooh. Starting to remember me now?" she mocked. "I'm flattered."
Ignoring her, he again peeked through the glass. She was busy pulling something out of her bag; headphones.
She put them on and closed her eyes, a soft smile appearing on her lips.
She was beautiful. It was as if his soul knew her, had always known her.
He watched her unobserved as the train made it's way downtown, stopping intermittently to take new passengers on and let those that reached their destination off.
He'd barely noticed captivated by the girl who sat in the next car, unaware of his presence.
Just watching her calmed his muddled thoughts and the fear in his heart.
For a few moments, he forgot everything. He forgot that he had no one or nowhere else in the world to go to. He forgot that he couldn't remember anything of importance before he'd stumbled out onto the streets from the depths below. He forgot what he was, that he was different.
In those few moments, his whole world became the diminutive girl sitting only a few feet away, on the other side of that metal door. Couldn’t they all see it? Why didn’t they see how special she was?
The train jolted to a stop, and her eyes snapped open. She grabbed her things and stood as the door swooshed open.
He was so engrossed in watching her move that he almost didn't make it out the door before it closed.
Hanging back, he followed her through the turnstile and up the stairs. She turned left, and he paused at the top of the staircase, waiting for her to gain some distance on him.
Finally, he started forward again, keeping his head down. He needn't have worried. She never turned back.
He followed her a few blocks, and ducked into a doorway as he watched her climb a staircase fiddling with keys.
She went inside the glass-paned door, and he stood, feeling suddenly cold without her in his sight.
"Stay away from her Max," Tess growled, her voice echoing a warning through his brain. "I'm giving you a friendly warning. You'll be sorry."
Ignoring her, looking up at the building, he wondered which was her apartment. He didn't have to wait long to see the flash of silky chocolate hair and a small hand pulling the curtains shut.
With a small smile, he sat down on the stairs adjacent to her apartment building. For the first time since he'd become conscious, he felt peace, and he knew it had everything to do with being near her.
*****************
That first night after he'd seen her, he'd sat outside across the street, just watching over her building.
His memory might be jumbled, but as he sat there looking at Liz Parker's window, so many memories of her became so clear. It was as if a block had been released, and a small flood washed through his consciousness.
Abruptly, the memories were cut off when he caught sight of a figure walking down the deserted street. It was late, and the light had long since gone out in the window into the apartment he'd been watching all evening. He recognized Maria Deluca long before she reached the steps to the building across the street and slipped out of sight next to the steps he had been sitting on.
Even years later, she and Liz must have remained close. He again felt the sense of mourning for Michael and Isabel, and seeing that Maria was still obviously close to Liz only made it more poignant.
******************
He'd established a routine over the next two weeks, following her as she left the building.
He hadn't dared to approach her.
The energy in his body was slowly killing him, but he knew that if he let it go Tess would have complete control over his mind. Ironically, the energy that was slowly eating him alive was the only thing that was saving him from the full force of her wrath.
It was mutating his insides, and the pain at night would get so bad that he would pass into unconsciousness.
It was only the thought of her, of seeing her once more that made him fight it.
Each day he would follow her as she went about her daily routine.
How he'd longed to approach her. But what would be the point? He'd be dead soon enough, and something in Tess' words, that he had somehow had something to do with the sadness that lived in Liz's eyes, rang true. Why couldn’t he remember?
"Don't torture yourself Max," Tess said, amused one night as he took shelter in the stairwell across the street. "You'll find out soon enough, when I'm ready for you to know..."
She was his constant tormenter, always with him, making herself known when she felt like it.
No one else could see her, he knew. He tried to keep quiet when he was around other people, despite her goading. He knew he looked insane as it was. It was fear of her and what she was capable of that kept him from making himself known to Liz, but it wasn't enough to keep him completely away.
Every morning, ten minutes before she was due to leave the apartment he would walk to the subway entrance, losing himself in the crowd that waited below on the platform. He followed her to the hospital she worked in, waiting around outside or in the coffee shop across the street for her reemergence. He watched her shop for Christmas presents. He waited outside as she shopped in the neighborhood grocery.
He would wait patiently across the street when she'd stop into a Starbucks on her way to work.
The days were bearable.
It was the nights that he hated. Earlier in the evening wasn't so bad. The light was usually on in the apartment, and he'd found out that she lived with Maria, her friend from high school, who worked all sorts of crazy hours. He could sit on the stairs for hours watching the window, waiting for a glimpse of the girl he knew he'd loved for almost a lifetime; a lifetime he couldn't recall.
But it was the late evening hours that were the worst, after the light in the window went off, when he was in pain and he felt most alone. It was also when Tess was at her strongest.
Her power over him was growing exponentially as the days passed. She appeared more often, taunting him. He tried to ignore her, but when he did, she inflicted pain on him, turning his body on himself.
For two weeks he endured it. He would have endured anything just to be able to look upon Liz, even for a little while. Even though she didn’t even know he was there.
But the cold weather and the alien energy housed in his body were taking their toll on him. He made the money Jeanine gave him last, using it only as a last resort when he absolutely needed to eat.
But by the night of December 15th, he knew his time was growing short. He had weeks, maybe days. He could no longer eat. The last time he'd tried the day before, he'd become violently ill.
He wondered what he would do when he became too weak to follow Liz. He would die alone, of that he was sure, with only Tess' vile threats for company.
Maybe it was the thought that he wouldn’t have much time left, but the night of the 15th made him bold.
This night, he'd thought about approaching her, just once. Just to say hello. Just to hear her voice.
Tess could sense his thoughts.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," she said in a foreboding tone. "You almost made that mistake once, and she paid for it."
"What are you going to do to me Tess? Kill me? I'm dying anyway," he said wearily.
“I thought torturing you myself was the best it was going to get, but this is so much better,” she said with an incredulous chuckle. “What do you suppose she’ll think if you were to approach her? Do you have any idea what you look like?”
“The energy’s eating you alive. You know what it is, don’t you? The residual energy of the Granolith. Do you remember the Granolith, Max? It rejected you, and now it’s killing you,” she giggled. "But it won't happen before I get to you. I told you I'm coming for you Max. It's only a matter of time."
“I know you know what I said was true...about Liz Parker. You brought on the greatest pain in her young life, just because you wouldn’t let her go. I warned you Max,” she continued.
“Will you be able to look her in the face knowing the horrible truth of what happened?” she asked, glaring at him.
“I think it’s time you saw what your infatuation with Liz Parker did to her,” she chuckled.
A myriad of images flashed through his mind, of his ritual visits to the restaurant her parents owned.
The Crashdown.
Liz was in an aqua uniform with glittered antennae. He would watch her as she worked, ordering a meal as his excuse to be there. She had been the one person who could make him forget what he was while she was near, a balm to his lonely soul. Just watching her had been enough, at least until...
"Do you remember this Max?" Tess asked.
That very same restaurant was enveloped on flames, lighting the main street with a malevolent orange glow as Tess stood with other onlookers, a satisfied smile on her face.
Another image appeared in his head, of Liz standing alone in a cemetery, quietly sobbing, mourning the death of her parents. He had been there that day, watching from a distance...
The images that followed, Tess’ memories forced into his head were like a nightmare he wished he could wake from, but he knew it was the truth.
He had ruined Liz’s life.
They left him as quickly as they had come, but would be burned onto his brain for eternity, leaving him sobbing in despair. Tess had killed Liz's parents. She had set the fire, and she did it to drive Liz away from Roswell, and from Max...for good.
"You're lying," he said.
“Sorry Max. Wish I was,” Tess whispered in seductive derision. “But it's your own fault. You didn't get with the program. If you’d been smart enough to let it go, you could have stopped it. But then you were never smart...”
Her laughter grew to deafening proportions and he covered his ears, knowing it was futile. He couldn’t stop it, or make the revelations that had just been unveiled untrue. Liz's parents had died because of him.
His quiet sob echoed hollowly out over the deserted street.
*******
Continued in the next post.
Last edited by Majesty on Sun Nov 16, 2003 12:59 am, edited 3 times in total.
Crouched behind the stairwell he watched Liz leave her apartment building on the morning of December 16th. He knew that this would be one of the last days he would be able to watch her, as he was growing too weak. Soon he would have to find a quiet place lie down, where no one would find him until he was dust.
It was bitterly cold, but he didn’t feel it. An unnatural heat had taken over his body, making his temperature spike to a level that would have killed a normal human being. He felt the flush of fever on his cheeks, and his vision wavered slightly as he lagged behind her.
This time he waited for her to leave the apartment, and didn't go on ahead to the platform.
He trailed her to the entrance to the subway, trying to memorize the shape of her figure through her heavy winter coat, the sheen of her hair in the morning light. It would be this that would see him through to his last breath when he could no longer move.
Tess had not made an appearance, leaving him to languish in his despair in knowing the truth. And knowing it, he knew that she was right. He could never look her in the eyes knowing what he now knew.
He’d bought subway tokens with some of the money Jeanine had given him, and he used one of them now, after watching her go through the turnstile.
He walked through, momentarily losing her in the crowd before finding her dark shining hair among the crowd.
She looked particularly mournful today, and he now knew why. It was Christmas time, near the time when her life had been torn apart, never to be the same.
He took great care in watching her from the adjacent subway car on the ride uptown. In all probability he would not make this trip again, so he had to make the most of this one.
Too soon, she’d reached her destination and had gotten off the train.
He knew her routine well, lagging behind until she stopped into the coffee shop, buying her hot drink that would take her through the morning hours at work.
He’d never had the nerve to enter the building, afraid that she might somehow recognize him, and today would be no exception. He settled on a bench in the small park nearby for his daily vigil, waiting for her to finish her workday for the few more minutes he could look upon her face.
How many times had he done something so similar as a boy? Some things never changed, he thought wryly with a sad smile.
The hours seemed to fly by, and he found himself wishing that they wouldn’t for he wouldn’t have many more opportunities like this, and he wanted it to last.
Too soon the five o’clock hour rolled around and she came out of the automatic doors.
His heart soared and tightened painfully all at the same time, for though it always made his heart sing to see her, he was sad that this would be the last time.
He stood slowly and kept a distance from her, but this time not for his own fear of being recognized, but because he was finding it harder and harder to keep pace with her in his condition.
It had almost been too late. He had almost been too late. Almost.
He’d gone down the stairs as usual, looking for an inconspicuous place to blend in until the train pulled in.
He’d seen the argument break out near her, two men fighting, and one of them rushing at her.
He didn’t think he’d ever forget her eyes widening in surprise as the knife was driven into her stomach.
The men took off, but they weren’t his concern now.
In that instant, everything in his world became focused on Liz, as she slid down the column.
He didn’t think. He reacted.
Pushing through the people he was at her side in an instant, acting on instinct, putting his hands on her, feeling the warm gush of blood.
It was bad. Mortal.
He could feel her fading fast.
He had to bring her back.
"Open your eyes,” he said in desperation.
She wasn’t coming around.
“You're going to be all right, just open your eyes, and look at me. You have to look at me," pleaded urgently.
His world became crystal clear when they opened and focusing on him. Those soft beautiful eyes were looking at him.
She was just as breathtaking up close as he had remembered, even more so.
His eyes filled with tears, for this was the moment he’d hung on for. This was why he hadn’t died yet, why he had held onto the killing energy. That which was killing him would be his absolution.
"Are you an angel?" she asked.
Those words tore at his heart, for they were the very same words the little girl had uttered in the cancer ward in Las Cruces, and yet they were the furthest from the truth.
"No," he said hoarsely. "Look at me. Everything is going to be all right."
His hands filled with the electric energy, weaving tissue and blood vessels, rebuilding what the knife had torn apart.
As he healed her, he felt the full damage that the energy had wrought on his own body, and a gasp escaped his lips.
It had become harder to breathe as the energy poured from his body into hers. But he would not fail; not this time.
Her emotions washed over him, painful in their intensity, memories of her childhood, of her friends and family and the closeness that had been such an important part of her life.
But it wasn’t those memories that tore at his heart.
It was the realization that she had noticed him all along, all those years ago. That she, beautiful Liz Parker had harbored feelings for him, and he hadn’t even known it.
He saw the way she looked at him when he wasn’t watching, the dreams she’d had where she’d had the courage to speak to him, so much like his own.
He felt her uncertainty of the one time she’d flung caution to the wind, on graduation day. He could recall it now, seeing it through her eyes, another lost piece of the puzzle that had been his life since he’d crawled out of the tunnel.
And seeing it through her eyes was amazing, because in her eyes, he was perfection: handsome, smart, gentle and mysterious.
To her, he was everything he knew he was not.
The images faded as the energy abated, but he couldn’t stop staring at her in wonder, feeling the tears falling freely now.
Fate was cruel.
But in the next instant he was dragged roughly from her.
She couldn’t know. It would ruin everything.
In panic, he turned and ran, his body fueled by pure adrenaline.
He flew up the stairs and out into the cold night.
He heard the angry shouts of the police behind him, but he kept running, the bitter air burning his lungs until he thought they would explode.
He ran until he couldn’t anymore, leaving the uniformed men far behind.
He had one destination left. There was one thing left he had to do. He had to make sure.
He made his way back to the manhole from which he'd crawled out of and pulled the cover off, climbing down.
He found his way back on instinct. As soon as he looked at the broken wall, he knew. It was gone.
Tess had made him remember everything the night before. It was only then that he remembered how and why he'd wound up here.
But his mission was complete. One way or another, it was gone, and there was nothing more he could do about it. He'd held up his end of the deal.
"You think this is over, Max?" Tess said. "It's far from over. You think you've won, but I'm just warming up. You don't have the energy to protect you any longer."
A flashlight shone from the far end of the tunnel in his direction, and he froze.
"Who's there?" an irritated male voice called. He didn't wait for the man to start toward him.
He ran until he reached the ladder, climbing up again, feeling his energy waning further. He dropped the heavy metal cover back over the hole, and staggered away from it.
He continued to walk until he couldn't anymore, finally dropping in an exhausted heap in an abandoned building downtown.
Now that the adrenaline wore off he could feel his body was reacting painfully to the release of the energy. He could feel his muscles contracting in spasms, his bones aching as they never had before.
“Did you think saving her was going to make any difference?” Tess asked in contempt.
He raised his head and opened his eyes and saw her standing a short distance away.
“You couldn’t have stopped me, even if you’d tried,” he said in a toneless voice, dropping his head back to the filthy floor.
She laughed.
“You always were an idiot when it came to Liz Parker,” she said. “But once again, it worked in my favor. Without the energy, you have nothing. You were right to hold onto it. It was killing you, but it had its merits. It was the only thing that kept me from killing you. Oh you would have died anyway, but it wouldn’t have been by my hand. I would have had to settle for mere torments. But now that it’s gone, there’s nothing to shield you. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
“You’ve been a thorn in my side for so long, Max. Do you know what it was like up there since you’d screwed everything up? This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. You should have played along. None of this would have happened,” she said.
“I saved her. That’s all that matters,” he said, curling into a fetal position.
“Do you really think that she’d say that it made up for everything? Do you think that she’d understand what your little obsession cost her? She didn’t even know that you existed, but the very fact that you breathe the air on this Earth ripped her life apart, and she doesn’t even know it,” she laughed.
“I can’t change any of that. I can’t take back the things that happened. But I gave her a second chance,” he said.
“It would ever be enough to make up for what she lost,” Tess hissed. “Never.”
“I have to admit, I’ll enjoy making you suffer for the short time you have left. I’ll eventually kill her too, but I might wait awhile. Knowing that you destroyed the only human you ever cared about will be a memory I will have with me long after you’re dust,” she said. “I can see it in her eyes just as clearly as you can.”
“I didn’t destroy her,” he said angrily.
“Yes...you did, because you didn’t listen to me. What you are destroyed her. She would hate you for eternity if she knew. Of course, she’d hate me too, but that’s not even a concern for me. You and your pathetic human emotions ruined not only you, but everyone you loved,” she said, with satisfaction.
“You got what you wanted. Why don’t you just leave me alone? I’m going to die,” he whispered.
“Oh no, it isn’t going to be that easy, Max. You're not quite ready for that yet,” she hissed.
“I want to be there when you turn to dust, and I’m going to make sure that it’s painful,” she grated.
She began to send him flashes, images of all the memories he wished he could forget.
*******
For days he wandered the streets, feeling his body slowly shutting down, plagued by the manipulations Tess created in his mind.
There were times when he was lucid, ebbs in the hallucinations that tortured him, but they were short-lived.
She was everywhere he looked, taunting him, bringing physical pain to every cell in his body, while driving him insane with the images of Isabel and Michael’s deaths.
He didn’t remember how he’d gotten to the store.
He remembered running from her once again, seeing her turn the corner in front of him, laughing at him, taunting him.
The next thing he could recall was hitting the floor, and seeing Jeanine’s worried face hovering over him.
“Max honey, are you all right?” she said, crouching next to him. She put her hand to his head, and cursed under her breath.
“You’re burning up,” she said, starting to stand. "Let me take you upstairs."
“No!” he said, trying to rise.
She pushed him back to the floor.
“Don’t try to get up,” she said. "You need help."
He shook his head, thinking quickly.
“I’m off the drugs. It’s a reaction. This has happened before. I slept it off the last time. I...I just need a place to rest for a little while. There...are people looking for me. They’ll know to check the hospitals. They’ll kill me if they find me. Please, I just need to rest,” he said, his eyes begging her to understand.
“What’s going on?” a man asked, stepping up behind her.
She was quiet for a moment, and turned toward him.
“Help me bring him in the back, to the cot,” she said.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” the man started to say. “You shouldn’t interfere.”
“He has no place to go,” she said softly.
It seemed like this was enough explanation for the man, and he helped her to lift Max, carrying him to the back.
He was unconscious before they’d laid him on the cot.
He’d only meant to rest until it was safe, and then leave to find his resting place, but he was so tired...
That night he slipped in and out of coherence, waking at times to find Jeanine checking his temperature with a concerned look.
At times he felt cool water flowing down his throat.
Jeanine’s voice penetrated his tortured dreams, filled with Tess and aliens, none of it making sense.
“It seems like his fever’s gone down, but he doesn’t look good.”.
“We’ll wait until tomorrow...”
****
A gentle hand was shaking him, rousing him out of his coma-like state.
“Max, wake up...”
His eyes cracked open, seeing Jeanine’s face above him. Tess was gone, for the moment.
“Honey, I wanted to respect your wishes,” she said, "but you need help, and my husband...."
“No,” he croaked, “no doctor.”
“Max, this isn't just drugs,” she said. "I've never seen a reaction to any drug like the one you're having."
He struggled to a sitting position, feeling the world sway around him.
“Have to go,” he mumbled.
“You aren’t in any shape to go anywhere,” she argued, trying to make him lie down.
“Please,” he said fiercely. “I know what I’m doing. There’s nothing that you can do for me. I have to go.”
He stood on shaky legs and held the wall for support.
“Max, let me help you,” she said in a calming voice.
He smiled at her wistfully.
“You already have,” he whispered. “Thank you, but I have to go.”
He saw the indecision in her eyes, but didn’t wait for her to react.
He walked toward the front of the store, hearing her footsteps behind him.
“Max wait,” she said.
He turned to face her, pausing.
“Thank you Jeanine. I will never forget your kindness, ” he said in a gentle voice.
Her eyes searched his as she sighed.
“Please be careful,” she said.
“Nothing can hurt me now,” he said vaguely with a sad smile.
“Goodbye Jeanine,” he said softly, turning and walking out of the door.
“Max, please...wait!” she called after him.
*****
He paused for an instant outside, knowing that time was growing short and that he had to find a place to hide, so that he could pass in peace, undetected.
The setting sun cast a glow over the street, and he glanced up at the sign over the door to the shop and smiled reading its name.
Second Chances.
He’d gotten his, the one chance to try to make up for all that he had caused. It was the one thing he’d done right, and he would face oblivion with that one comfort.
“But I’m not done with you yet Max,” Tess said, beside him. “I thought I'd misjudged you, that I wouldn’t be able to get to you to finish what I started. But I'm close now, so close.”
He’d thought she was gone, but now he felt her dark presence stronger than it had ever been in his psyche, crowding his brain without the energy holding her back.
“You don’t have much more time...you know it and I know it, but I plan to make the most of it,” she said, smiling cruelly.
He started to stumble away from the shop, knowing that once she started whatever it was she was going to do, there would be no mercy.
He grabbed his head as he turned a corner, feeling as if his brain were being ripped apart.
“How does that feel Max?” she whispered in his ear.
His body wrenched in agony.
The pain became a living thing in his head. He made it halfway down the street before collapsing against a dumpster. His head slammed against the rusty metal, and he felt the sickening lurch of nausea in his stomach, and the world began to spin.
He held onto it, praying for the strength to keep going, knowing he didn’t have it.
Holding onto the dumpster for support, he stumbled and fell to his knees, falling to the ground behind it, unconscious.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d lain there, when he heard footsteps. He didn’t have enough energy to open his eyes, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to.
“I’m here Max,” Tess said in his ear. “I made it just in time for the party. The ride was unpleasant, let me tell you. The wormhole wasn’t perfected. That prick Khivar’s scientists have their brains shoved up their asses..”
He felt a cold hand on his throat.
“Do you know what I could do to you now?” she asked.
“I could kill you with my bare hands if I wanted to. But I think I’ll wait, just for a little longer. This really won’t be a fair fight. Do you know who I just saw standing in the middle of Times Square? Liz Parker!” she said.
“She’s so close. I could use my powers right now to push her under the wheels of a cab, and you couldn’t do a damned thing about it,” she said. “What do you think about that?”
“Step away from him,” another female voice said. “I suggest you leave now.”
The voice was so familiar. Too familiar.
Tess laughed, and he heard the scrape of heels as she stood.
“You,” she said in a mocking tone.
“Do you really think you can stop me from killing him?” she asked. “I can do it right now. You might be able to kill me, but I’ll take him with me, I swear. You have no claim to him. He isn’t the Zenshai.”
“I'll kill you without a second thought,” the other woman said. “You’re right. The sad reality of this is that he’s no longer the Zenshai. He’s expendable.”
“Yet you protected him with the energy,” Tess hissed.
“You’re lucky you’re not already dead,” the woman retorted. “It is only by the will of the Granolith that you still live. It has decided that Max Evans deserves the chance at retribution for the grievances you have committed.”
“Retribution?” Tess laughed. “Look at him! Do you honestly think he could do anything to me in his condition?”
There was a moment of silence.
“It has been pondered on and decided that a choice will be offered to you. You can take it and possibly live, or ignore it and die,” the woman said.
“And what choice would that be?” Tess retorted. “I can’t go back to Antar. If I’m going to die in this alley, I’ll take him with me.”
“You have already committed crimes against Max. For those alone you should stand trial. He will either survive the night or he will die. The outcome is not known. It hinges on another. You are to leave tonight. You will travel to a location called Milington, Maryland. You will be accompanied by a being of my choosing. You will withdraw your influence on Max's mind and give him a fair opportunity of recovery. You are not to approach or harm him...for now,” the woman said.
“If he dies tonight, then you will be transported back to Antar, where you will face trial. If he lives, he will be restored, and will face you in a fair battle, with any resources he chooses to use. You will be allowed the same. If you want him dead, you will do it fairly this time. Should you win and Max dies at your hands, you are free to do as you wish,” she said.
“The other...it’s Liz Parker, isn’t it?” Tess asked, furious.
“That is none of your affair,” the woman responded.
“I should have killed her when I had the chance,” Tess growled. Fine, I accept your terms. But if I best him, I demand her head as my prize,” Tess said.
There was a moment of silence.
“If you best Max, then we will not interfere,” the woman said.
“Fine,” Tess said. “Either way, he’ll be dead within a matter of days.”
Max registered the fading footsteps, and then he lost consciousness.
***********
It was some time later that he heard Liz’s voice.
But it couldn’t be Liz.
Tess had promised to let go of his mind, but that didn’t mean she could be trusted. She’d fooled him before. The vision before him had to be Tess. She was playing with him again.
He cowered from her, and then tried to run, but he was too weak, and fell once more into blackness.
She would kill him. She’d said so, and what better way to do it than under the pretense of Liz Parker coming to save him?
He’d tried to get away, but he was too weak. He had always been too weak.
Once again, the images Tess had given him the night before flickered through his mind, more vivid, more real than they had been the night before.
It all came rushing back to him again, flooding his mind with images, stories of his past that had been just out of reach in his mind, until Tess revealed the horrible truth of it all. From the moment he'd risen from the bowels of the city he could not remember much of his life on Earth, but now it was all so clear.
He’d done what he was asked. He’d hidden the Granolith until its new heir could come to claim it. He would be long gone before that happened. The Zenshai needed to recoup the energy lost in transporting the Granolith back to Earth with him.
He wished he could push it all back to some dark place in his mind. He would much rather die in peace oblivious to the failures and mistakes that were his own.
But she wouldn’t have any of that.
She was there again, in his head, taunting him as she always had, as she always would. It was her game. She enjoyed it, because she knew his weaknesses, the biggest one, of course, Liz.
She'd known all along, and she'd played him for a fool.
But she couldn’t take one thing from him. He’d saved Liz. After everything, he’d done one thing right. If he died tonight, and it seemed likely he would, she would be safe. Tess would be taken back to Antar for her trial. Finally, he could rest.
*******
Until Wednesday....
It was bitterly cold, but he didn’t feel it. An unnatural heat had taken over his body, making his temperature spike to a level that would have killed a normal human being. He felt the flush of fever on his cheeks, and his vision wavered slightly as he lagged behind her.
This time he waited for her to leave the apartment, and didn't go on ahead to the platform.
He trailed her to the entrance to the subway, trying to memorize the shape of her figure through her heavy winter coat, the sheen of her hair in the morning light. It would be this that would see him through to his last breath when he could no longer move.
Tess had not made an appearance, leaving him to languish in his despair in knowing the truth. And knowing it, he knew that she was right. He could never look her in the eyes knowing what he now knew.
He’d bought subway tokens with some of the money Jeanine had given him, and he used one of them now, after watching her go through the turnstile.
He walked through, momentarily losing her in the crowd before finding her dark shining hair among the crowd.
She looked particularly mournful today, and he now knew why. It was Christmas time, near the time when her life had been torn apart, never to be the same.
He took great care in watching her from the adjacent subway car on the ride uptown. In all probability he would not make this trip again, so he had to make the most of this one.
Too soon, she’d reached her destination and had gotten off the train.
He knew her routine well, lagging behind until she stopped into the coffee shop, buying her hot drink that would take her through the morning hours at work.
He’d never had the nerve to enter the building, afraid that she might somehow recognize him, and today would be no exception. He settled on a bench in the small park nearby for his daily vigil, waiting for her to finish her workday for the few more minutes he could look upon her face.
How many times had he done something so similar as a boy? Some things never changed, he thought wryly with a sad smile.
The hours seemed to fly by, and he found himself wishing that they wouldn’t for he wouldn’t have many more opportunities like this, and he wanted it to last.
Too soon the five o’clock hour rolled around and she came out of the automatic doors.
His heart soared and tightened painfully all at the same time, for though it always made his heart sing to see her, he was sad that this would be the last time.
He stood slowly and kept a distance from her, but this time not for his own fear of being recognized, but because he was finding it harder and harder to keep pace with her in his condition.
It had almost been too late. He had almost been too late. Almost.
He’d gone down the stairs as usual, looking for an inconspicuous place to blend in until the train pulled in.
He’d seen the argument break out near her, two men fighting, and one of them rushing at her.
He didn’t think he’d ever forget her eyes widening in surprise as the knife was driven into her stomach.
The men took off, but they weren’t his concern now.
In that instant, everything in his world became focused on Liz, as she slid down the column.
He didn’t think. He reacted.
Pushing through the people he was at her side in an instant, acting on instinct, putting his hands on her, feeling the warm gush of blood.
It was bad. Mortal.
He could feel her fading fast.
He had to bring her back.
"Open your eyes,” he said in desperation.
She wasn’t coming around.
“You're going to be all right, just open your eyes, and look at me. You have to look at me," pleaded urgently.
His world became crystal clear when they opened and focusing on him. Those soft beautiful eyes were looking at him.
She was just as breathtaking up close as he had remembered, even more so.
His eyes filled with tears, for this was the moment he’d hung on for. This was why he hadn’t died yet, why he had held onto the killing energy. That which was killing him would be his absolution.
"Are you an angel?" she asked.
Those words tore at his heart, for they were the very same words the little girl had uttered in the cancer ward in Las Cruces, and yet they were the furthest from the truth.
"No," he said hoarsely. "Look at me. Everything is going to be all right."
His hands filled with the electric energy, weaving tissue and blood vessels, rebuilding what the knife had torn apart.
As he healed her, he felt the full damage that the energy had wrought on his own body, and a gasp escaped his lips.
It had become harder to breathe as the energy poured from his body into hers. But he would not fail; not this time.
Her emotions washed over him, painful in their intensity, memories of her childhood, of her friends and family and the closeness that had been such an important part of her life.
But it wasn’t those memories that tore at his heart.
It was the realization that she had noticed him all along, all those years ago. That she, beautiful Liz Parker had harbored feelings for him, and he hadn’t even known it.
He saw the way she looked at him when he wasn’t watching, the dreams she’d had where she’d had the courage to speak to him, so much like his own.
He felt her uncertainty of the one time she’d flung caution to the wind, on graduation day. He could recall it now, seeing it through her eyes, another lost piece of the puzzle that had been his life since he’d crawled out of the tunnel.
And seeing it through her eyes was amazing, because in her eyes, he was perfection: handsome, smart, gentle and mysterious.
To her, he was everything he knew he was not.
The images faded as the energy abated, but he couldn’t stop staring at her in wonder, feeling the tears falling freely now.
Fate was cruel.
But in the next instant he was dragged roughly from her.
She couldn’t know. It would ruin everything.
In panic, he turned and ran, his body fueled by pure adrenaline.
He flew up the stairs and out into the cold night.
He heard the angry shouts of the police behind him, but he kept running, the bitter air burning his lungs until he thought they would explode.
He ran until he couldn’t anymore, leaving the uniformed men far behind.
He had one destination left. There was one thing left he had to do. He had to make sure.
He made his way back to the manhole from which he'd crawled out of and pulled the cover off, climbing down.
He found his way back on instinct. As soon as he looked at the broken wall, he knew. It was gone.
Tess had made him remember everything the night before. It was only then that he remembered how and why he'd wound up here.
But his mission was complete. One way or another, it was gone, and there was nothing more he could do about it. He'd held up his end of the deal.
"You think this is over, Max?" Tess said. "It's far from over. You think you've won, but I'm just warming up. You don't have the energy to protect you any longer."
A flashlight shone from the far end of the tunnel in his direction, and he froze.
"Who's there?" an irritated male voice called. He didn't wait for the man to start toward him.
He ran until he reached the ladder, climbing up again, feeling his energy waning further. He dropped the heavy metal cover back over the hole, and staggered away from it.
He continued to walk until he couldn't anymore, finally dropping in an exhausted heap in an abandoned building downtown.
Now that the adrenaline wore off he could feel his body was reacting painfully to the release of the energy. He could feel his muscles contracting in spasms, his bones aching as they never had before.
“Did you think saving her was going to make any difference?” Tess asked in contempt.
He raised his head and opened his eyes and saw her standing a short distance away.
“You couldn’t have stopped me, even if you’d tried,” he said in a toneless voice, dropping his head back to the filthy floor.
She laughed.
“You always were an idiot when it came to Liz Parker,” she said. “But once again, it worked in my favor. Without the energy, you have nothing. You were right to hold onto it. It was killing you, but it had its merits. It was the only thing that kept me from killing you. Oh you would have died anyway, but it wouldn’t have been by my hand. I would have had to settle for mere torments. But now that it’s gone, there’s nothing to shield you. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
“You’ve been a thorn in my side for so long, Max. Do you know what it was like up there since you’d screwed everything up? This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. You should have played along. None of this would have happened,” she said.
“I saved her. That’s all that matters,” he said, curling into a fetal position.
“Do you really think that she’d say that it made up for everything? Do you think that she’d understand what your little obsession cost her? She didn’t even know that you existed, but the very fact that you breathe the air on this Earth ripped her life apart, and she doesn’t even know it,” she laughed.
“I can’t change any of that. I can’t take back the things that happened. But I gave her a second chance,” he said.
“It would ever be enough to make up for what she lost,” Tess hissed. “Never.”
“I have to admit, I’ll enjoy making you suffer for the short time you have left. I’ll eventually kill her too, but I might wait awhile. Knowing that you destroyed the only human you ever cared about will be a memory I will have with me long after you’re dust,” she said. “I can see it in her eyes just as clearly as you can.”
“I didn’t destroy her,” he said angrily.
“Yes...you did, because you didn’t listen to me. What you are destroyed her. She would hate you for eternity if she knew. Of course, she’d hate me too, but that’s not even a concern for me. You and your pathetic human emotions ruined not only you, but everyone you loved,” she said, with satisfaction.
“You got what you wanted. Why don’t you just leave me alone? I’m going to die,” he whispered.
“Oh no, it isn’t going to be that easy, Max. You're not quite ready for that yet,” she hissed.
“I want to be there when you turn to dust, and I’m going to make sure that it’s painful,” she grated.
She began to send him flashes, images of all the memories he wished he could forget.
*******
For days he wandered the streets, feeling his body slowly shutting down, plagued by the manipulations Tess created in his mind.
There were times when he was lucid, ebbs in the hallucinations that tortured him, but they were short-lived.
She was everywhere he looked, taunting him, bringing physical pain to every cell in his body, while driving him insane with the images of Isabel and Michael’s deaths.
He didn’t remember how he’d gotten to the store.
He remembered running from her once again, seeing her turn the corner in front of him, laughing at him, taunting him.
The next thing he could recall was hitting the floor, and seeing Jeanine’s worried face hovering over him.
“Max honey, are you all right?” she said, crouching next to him. She put her hand to his head, and cursed under her breath.
“You’re burning up,” she said, starting to stand. "Let me take you upstairs."
“No!” he said, trying to rise.
She pushed him back to the floor.
“Don’t try to get up,” she said. "You need help."
He shook his head, thinking quickly.
“I’m off the drugs. It’s a reaction. This has happened before. I slept it off the last time. I...I just need a place to rest for a little while. There...are people looking for me. They’ll know to check the hospitals. They’ll kill me if they find me. Please, I just need to rest,” he said, his eyes begging her to understand.
“What’s going on?” a man asked, stepping up behind her.
She was quiet for a moment, and turned toward him.
“Help me bring him in the back, to the cot,” she said.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” the man started to say. “You shouldn’t interfere.”
“He has no place to go,” she said softly.
It seemed like this was enough explanation for the man, and he helped her to lift Max, carrying him to the back.
He was unconscious before they’d laid him on the cot.
He’d only meant to rest until it was safe, and then leave to find his resting place, but he was so tired...
That night he slipped in and out of coherence, waking at times to find Jeanine checking his temperature with a concerned look.
At times he felt cool water flowing down his throat.
Jeanine’s voice penetrated his tortured dreams, filled with Tess and aliens, none of it making sense.
“It seems like his fever’s gone down, but he doesn’t look good.”.
“We’ll wait until tomorrow...”
****
A gentle hand was shaking him, rousing him out of his coma-like state.
“Max, wake up...”
His eyes cracked open, seeing Jeanine’s face above him. Tess was gone, for the moment.
“Honey, I wanted to respect your wishes,” she said, "but you need help, and my husband...."
“No,” he croaked, “no doctor.”
“Max, this isn't just drugs,” she said. "I've never seen a reaction to any drug like the one you're having."
He struggled to a sitting position, feeling the world sway around him.
“Have to go,” he mumbled.
“You aren’t in any shape to go anywhere,” she argued, trying to make him lie down.
“Please,” he said fiercely. “I know what I’m doing. There’s nothing that you can do for me. I have to go.”
He stood on shaky legs and held the wall for support.
“Max, let me help you,” she said in a calming voice.
He smiled at her wistfully.
“You already have,” he whispered. “Thank you, but I have to go.”
He saw the indecision in her eyes, but didn’t wait for her to react.
He walked toward the front of the store, hearing her footsteps behind him.
“Max wait,” she said.
He turned to face her, pausing.
“Thank you Jeanine. I will never forget your kindness, ” he said in a gentle voice.
Her eyes searched his as she sighed.
“Please be careful,” she said.
“Nothing can hurt me now,” he said vaguely with a sad smile.
“Goodbye Jeanine,” he said softly, turning and walking out of the door.
“Max, please...wait!” she called after him.
*****
He paused for an instant outside, knowing that time was growing short and that he had to find a place to hide, so that he could pass in peace, undetected.
The setting sun cast a glow over the street, and he glanced up at the sign over the door to the shop and smiled reading its name.
Second Chances.
He’d gotten his, the one chance to try to make up for all that he had caused. It was the one thing he’d done right, and he would face oblivion with that one comfort.
“But I’m not done with you yet Max,” Tess said, beside him. “I thought I'd misjudged you, that I wouldn’t be able to get to you to finish what I started. But I'm close now, so close.”
He’d thought she was gone, but now he felt her dark presence stronger than it had ever been in his psyche, crowding his brain without the energy holding her back.
“You don’t have much more time...you know it and I know it, but I plan to make the most of it,” she said, smiling cruelly.
He started to stumble away from the shop, knowing that once she started whatever it was she was going to do, there would be no mercy.
He grabbed his head as he turned a corner, feeling as if his brain were being ripped apart.
“How does that feel Max?” she whispered in his ear.
His body wrenched in agony.
The pain became a living thing in his head. He made it halfway down the street before collapsing against a dumpster. His head slammed against the rusty metal, and he felt the sickening lurch of nausea in his stomach, and the world began to spin.
He held onto it, praying for the strength to keep going, knowing he didn’t have it.
Holding onto the dumpster for support, he stumbled and fell to his knees, falling to the ground behind it, unconscious.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d lain there, when he heard footsteps. He didn’t have enough energy to open his eyes, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to.
“I’m here Max,” Tess said in his ear. “I made it just in time for the party. The ride was unpleasant, let me tell you. The wormhole wasn’t perfected. That prick Khivar’s scientists have their brains shoved up their asses..”
He felt a cold hand on his throat.
“Do you know what I could do to you now?” she asked.
“I could kill you with my bare hands if I wanted to. But I think I’ll wait, just for a little longer. This really won’t be a fair fight. Do you know who I just saw standing in the middle of Times Square? Liz Parker!” she said.
“She’s so close. I could use my powers right now to push her under the wheels of a cab, and you couldn’t do a damned thing about it,” she said. “What do you think about that?”
“Step away from him,” another female voice said. “I suggest you leave now.”
The voice was so familiar. Too familiar.
Tess laughed, and he heard the scrape of heels as she stood.
“You,” she said in a mocking tone.
“Do you really think you can stop me from killing him?” she asked. “I can do it right now. You might be able to kill me, but I’ll take him with me, I swear. You have no claim to him. He isn’t the Zenshai.”
“I'll kill you without a second thought,” the other woman said. “You’re right. The sad reality of this is that he’s no longer the Zenshai. He’s expendable.”
“Yet you protected him with the energy,” Tess hissed.
“You’re lucky you’re not already dead,” the woman retorted. “It is only by the will of the Granolith that you still live. It has decided that Max Evans deserves the chance at retribution for the grievances you have committed.”
“Retribution?” Tess laughed. “Look at him! Do you honestly think he could do anything to me in his condition?”
There was a moment of silence.
“It has been pondered on and decided that a choice will be offered to you. You can take it and possibly live, or ignore it and die,” the woman said.
“And what choice would that be?” Tess retorted. “I can’t go back to Antar. If I’m going to die in this alley, I’ll take him with me.”
“You have already committed crimes against Max. For those alone you should stand trial. He will either survive the night or he will die. The outcome is not known. It hinges on another. You are to leave tonight. You will travel to a location called Milington, Maryland. You will be accompanied by a being of my choosing. You will withdraw your influence on Max's mind and give him a fair opportunity of recovery. You are not to approach or harm him...for now,” the woman said.
“If he dies tonight, then you will be transported back to Antar, where you will face trial. If he lives, he will be restored, and will face you in a fair battle, with any resources he chooses to use. You will be allowed the same. If you want him dead, you will do it fairly this time. Should you win and Max dies at your hands, you are free to do as you wish,” she said.
“The other...it’s Liz Parker, isn’t it?” Tess asked, furious.
“That is none of your affair,” the woman responded.
“I should have killed her when I had the chance,” Tess growled. Fine, I accept your terms. But if I best him, I demand her head as my prize,” Tess said.
There was a moment of silence.
“If you best Max, then we will not interfere,” the woman said.
“Fine,” Tess said. “Either way, he’ll be dead within a matter of days.”
Max registered the fading footsteps, and then he lost consciousness.
***********
It was some time later that he heard Liz’s voice.
But it couldn’t be Liz.
Tess had promised to let go of his mind, but that didn’t mean she could be trusted. She’d fooled him before. The vision before him had to be Tess. She was playing with him again.
He cowered from her, and then tried to run, but he was too weak, and fell once more into blackness.
She would kill him. She’d said so, and what better way to do it than under the pretense of Liz Parker coming to save him?
He’d tried to get away, but he was too weak. He had always been too weak.
Once again, the images Tess had given him the night before flickered through his mind, more vivid, more real than they had been the night before.
It all came rushing back to him again, flooding his mind with images, stories of his past that had been just out of reach in his mind, until Tess revealed the horrible truth of it all. From the moment he'd risen from the bowels of the city he could not remember much of his life on Earth, but now it was all so clear.
He’d done what he was asked. He’d hidden the Granolith until its new heir could come to claim it. He would be long gone before that happened. The Zenshai needed to recoup the energy lost in transporting the Granolith back to Earth with him.
He wished he could push it all back to some dark place in his mind. He would much rather die in peace oblivious to the failures and mistakes that were his own.
But she wouldn’t have any of that.
She was there again, in his head, taunting him as she always had, as she always would. It was her game. She enjoyed it, because she knew his weaknesses, the biggest one, of course, Liz.
She'd known all along, and she'd played him for a fool.
But she couldn’t take one thing from him. He’d saved Liz. After everything, he’d done one thing right. If he died tonight, and it seemed likely he would, she would be safe. Tess would be taken back to Antar for her trial. Finally, he could rest.
*******
Until Wednesday....
Part 25
Yes, I'm a little late with the update. No, don't ask, you just really don't want to know....
I know I said it before, but I can't thank you all enough for taking the time to leave me feedback both via PM and this thread. I suck at feedback on my own stories, so l'll just say that just the fact that some of you, who are wonderful authors yourselves, are reading this just floors me. Really.
nitpick Max's ability to heal Liz will be explained in the coming chapters. There is a reason for it. I think the answers come in Chapter 30, but don't quote me on that. They will come though.
Thank you J and Scottie for commenting on the lyrics. I have spent way too much time going through my CD collection to find the ones that seemed to fit each chapter.
Oh, and Scottie I like my avi too. It reminds me of the time before I knew too much about the whole Roswell saga. I think I enjoyed it more back then.
I hear JB is filming in the "city". Not sure how to comment on that one, so I just won't. I'll wind up getting myself into trouble.
Loving Max + Not Liking JB = Long-ass Writer's Block.
MamaDee see the note at the end of the installment for a further note.
Heal – Heather Nova
Fall for me, my southern cross, my star
Shine for me when love has gone too far
I’ve got you belly-deep in me.
Just a little breath on the water is all we need
Just a little strength in our hearts -
Enough to heal,
Enough to heal.
Dig me out, can’t leave this love for dead
Hand to mouth we’re picking up the thread
I’ve got you belly-deep in me.
Just a little breath on the water now is all we need
Just a little strength in our hearts,
Enough to heal,
Enough to heal.
And the sea glistens,
And the waves pull us in
There’s something rising up and up.
Just a little breath on the water now,
Just a little strength in our hearts,
Enough to heal,
Enough to heal.
Part Twenty-Five
December – 2007
*~Liz~*
It had been two hours, and if anything, he seemed to be getting worse.
She sat beside him, smoothing the hair from his forehead, alternately cooling his burning skin with a dampened cloth, and covering him when he shivered.
She glanced at the clock.
1 a.m.
A few hours, but it felt like an eternity.
She took his hand once again as a low moan escaped his throat. She stroked the top of his hand in an effort to comfort him, feeling more helpless than she had in a long time.
Her heart hurt now that it had once again been awakened from its cold sleep; awakened by the man who had saved her life.
His reverent whisper was unexpected, and it drew her eyes to him.
“Liz...” he whispered with a small smile, and she gasped as his fingers clenched violently around hers, his entire body arching off the bed violently.
“Max!” she cried, climbing onto the bed to lean over him. His hand clenched hers in a painful grip, but she barely felt it as her eyes roamed over his face, frantic.
His whole body clenched, his muscles seizing as she watched him struggle to catch his breath. A gurgling choke broke from his lips, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
He gasped, trying to draw air into his lungs.
“What am I supposed to do?” she cried to no one.
“Breathe Max, breathe,” she said with a sob, wiping the blood from his mouth.
“Please, you have to breathe,” she said, tears running down her cheeks. “You can’t die. Please, please don’t die. You can’t leave!”
Her eyes widened as his body tensed.
A strangled sob escaped her throat as his eyes opened, unseeing, and she heard the quiet hiss of his breath leaving his body as his fingers relaxed around her hand and dropped to the bed.
“No....” she said again, raising trembling fingers to stroke his cheeks.
“Breathe,” she sobbed. “Please don’t die.”
Her lips trembled as tears streamed down her cheeks. She’d failed again. She hadn’t been able to save Justin or her parents, and now she couldn’t save Max either, the person who had given her life back.
“Don’t do this!" she said in a fierce plea. "Please...there are so many things I have to say to you. So many times I could have and I didn’t. I didn’t even get to say thank you."
His face was serene, his eyes honey-braised eyes staring at her. A quiet whimper escaped her lips as she looked into them.
She laid her head on his chest, feeling the faltering heartbeat so unlike the strong cadence she remembered so clearly feeling when she’d embraced him that last day of high school.
She lifted her head, wanting what she’d dreamed of for years, the feel of his lips against hers.
She moved higher on his chest until her face was directly above his.
“Don't leave,” she whispered in a trembling sob, lowering her head, her lips grazing his, her hand flat against his chest, bracing her against his body.
His lips were so soft, so warm.
She laid her cheek against his, feeling her tears wetting his skin.
She sobbed again, her free hand moving to his cheek, cupping it as her lips pressed against his once more.
She felt her body filled with a strange humming, similar to what she’d felt earlier in the alley, but much more intense.
She’d barely had time to register it, and the green flash of light that burned from her fingers, before she was assaulted with images.
The small boy clutched the hand of the little girl next to him as they gazed at each other frightened at the approaching lights in the darkness.
They looked away from each other as the light blinded them.
*******
The big yellow bus was taking them away from the Evans to a strange new place filled with children. Again he clutched the little girl’s hand. She seemed excited but he was afraid. Afraid of what they would think of him. Afraid of what would happen.
The girl dragged him off the bus, and he faltered looking around, catching sight of a small group of children, a boy and two little girls. They were playing together.
But once he caught sight of the little girl with the chocolate mane of hair that seemed to be made of silk, he forgot the other two children.
She was looking at herself.
And when she looked up at him and smiled, he felt his heart jump.
*******
The boy grew up watching the girl from afar, longing to speak to her, aching to know her heart. She saw herself as he saw her, falling in love with her a little more each year. She felt the same heartbreak he felt the morning he had seen her with Kyle at her locker.
She saw that evening in the park that had always remained in her memory, but this time she saw it through his eyes. She literally felt his heavy aching to take her in his arms as he found her sitting alone on the bench crying.
How he’d wanted to comfort her, to make it all go away. And he’d tried.
She felt his fear as he crept into the hospital. But his task overcame that fear as he stepped into Grandma Claudia’s room, intending to undo the damage that had been wrought on her body.
She felt his helplessness as he fled the hospital and his feeling of failure that he couldn’t make it better. He couldn’t stop what was happening to her, and he’d almost killed himself trying.
She felt his heart swell as he listened to her speech at graduation, his pride for a girl he would never be able to reveal his love to.
But why?
She felt swell of his heart as she embraced him later, and experienced the touch of her lips on his cheek as he had felt them. She felt the rush of his blood as he breathed deeply, taking in the scent of wildflowers, the shampoo she’d always used to use.
She felt his torment, the battle within himself as he stood in the cemetery watching her at her parents’ gravesites, aching to approach her, until he felt a hand on his arm and he turned to find Tess behind him. He resented the blond girl for reminding him of what he was.
******
The energy rose to a fevered pitch in her body, searing her blood as she felt it flow from her lips and her fingers pressed to his cheek and his chest.
She knew she should be afraid, but somehow she wasn’t. Somehow she knew it was right, it was meant.
His chest rose beneath her, taking a deep having breath.
She tore her lips from his as she felt the unsteady rise and fall of his chest. Her eyes flew to his eyes, half-closed, gazing at her with a mix of fear and confusion, sparks of green electricity playing about his lips before fading away.
She scrambled off of him, giving him room.
“Breathe Max,” she whispered.
His lips drew in slow, deep droughts of air, filling his lungs and she covered her mouth to suppress a sob as her eyes blurred with new tears.
He was breathing.
He was alive.
“How?” he whispered, before his eyes fell closed once more.
**********
She hovered over him for a few frantic moments until his breathing evened out. She whispered his name, but received no answer.
She was afraid, elated, confused and overwhelmed all at once.
She had no idea what had just happened or what to make of it.
Her emotions were in shambles, having witnessed how he’d felt about her all of these years through his eyes.
She was humbled that he had not only saved her life, but that he had tried to save her grandmother’s because he’d cared that deeply about her.
He was dead a few moments ago. She was certain of it. Yet he lay breathing quietly on her bed now. She’d done that. She didn’t know how she’d done it, but that energy came from her body, not his.
All of it was confusing, leaving her with even more questions than she’d had before, but at the moment none of it mattered.
He hadn’t regained consciousness, but as she reached over to feel his forehead, it was cool. The fever had broken.
She wanted to scream in pure elation. She wanted to do something, anything. She held her hand over her mouth, covering her smile.
She sat beside him for a long while, just touching his skin, his hair, reassuring herself that he was alive, that the fever didn’t come back.
She had anticipated this to be another heartbreaking Christmas, but someone had sent her this gift, the gift of this man that had breathed life into her frozen heart as his hands healed her body.
It was truly a gift of a miracle, and suddenly she knew what could only make this Christmas better. To give Max something back after all he’d given her.
********
Did his family know where he was? Did they even know he was alive?
And where was Tess?
The thought that he may have done something to her flitted through her head and was quickly dismissed. That simply was not Max. He’d healed her, and he hadn’t even known her. Somehow she knew that it was something he was just not capable of.
The idea grew in her head and she was more certain than ever of what she needed to do.
She went to her desk and turned on the computer, clicking on her dial-up connection.
A few moments later she had what she was looking for.
Staring at the number she’d just written down, she felt a moment of uncertainty. Was she doing the right thing?
But realizing how she would feel if her parents were alive and no one had told her, she knew what she had to do.
She dialed the number.
“Hello?” a quiet voice answered.
“Um...hi, I was wondering if I could speak to Isabel Evans please,” she said.
“Speaking,” she answered. “Who’s calling?”
“Oh, hey Isabel. I don’t know if you remember me, but my name is Liz Parker...”
“Of course I remember you, Liz,” she said, sounding a bit confused.
“Yeah, well I’m sorry for calling so late...” she stalled. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m calling you.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but yeah I’m a little surprised. Is everything all right? Are you back in Roswell?” she asked.
“No, actually I’m in New York,” she said, wondering if it was such a good idea to ask for Isabel after all.
"I was actually looking for your mom and dad," Liz said.
"They're living in Albuquerque,” Isabel said, sounding even more confused.
“They won't be here in Santa Fe until Christmas Eve. Please tell me you don't need a lawyer," Isabel joked.
"Not exactly," Liz said.
"What is it?" Isabel asked.
“I'm not sure where to begin," Liz said.
“Go ahead,” Isabel said.
“It’s about Max,” Liz said.
“What about Max?” Isabel said in a sharp voice. “Didn’t anyone tell you what happened?”
“Yes, but I...” Liz began and faltered.
Dead silence reigned for a moment.
“Liz?” Isabel said sharply.
Isabel had suddenly grown very cold, and Liz was starting to wonder if she'd made a mistake in calling without knowing why Max had cut himself off.
“Um it’s nothing. I saw someone and it looked so much like him, and I started to think of your family. I know what it must be like at the holidays for your parents, and I...God, I don’t know why I called,” she stammered.
“You saw someone who looked like Max?” Isabel asked.
Liz thought frantically for a response.
“Liz?” Isabel barked. “Where in New York are you calling from? If you give me your number, I can have my parents give you a call back.”
“Um...I’m in New York City. But, you know what? This can wait until after the holidays,” she said.
“No,” Isabel snapped coldly, quickly recovering. “I’m sure they’d be happy to call you back.”
“It’s ok,” Liz said quickly. “I’ll call after the holidays. Have a Merry Christmas, Isabel.”
“Liz-“
She hung up the phone quickly, the nagging feeling that she’d done something wrong lingering.
She hoped she hadn’t made a mistake.
************
*~Max~*
Max slowly became aware of a heavy weight on his right arm.
His eyes cracked open to see a white ceiling above him, and felt the unaccustomed warmth surrounding him.
He blinked, trying to establish if this was a dream or a hallucination.
His mouth was dry. It felt like sandpaper. He squinted against the light reflecting off the ceiling above him.
He heard a noise beside him, and the weight shifted on his arm.
He turned his head and his eyes widened slightly and then he blinked again.
A cascade of silky hair fell over his arm, and small fingers were entwined with his.
He watched as the head shifted once more, revealing a face.
The night before all came rushing back to him. The energy. He’d tainted her with it. When she kissed him, he had felt her life force mingling with his, along with the energy in her body that had been latent inside of her since he’d healed her.
She'd brought him back.
How had she found him?
He had a sneaking suspicion. He knew that voice in the alley, though he'd heard it only once.
But one thing stood out in his head. Maryland. He had to go to Maryland.
He pulled at his hand and moved away slowly, trying to untangle his fingers from hers.
His movement stirred her sleep and she lifted her head, wincing against the light.
He pulled his hand from hers, scrambling to the side other side of the bed.
He moved off the bed, his eyes already on the door.
She jumped up and blocked the doorway.
“Don’t,” she pleaded, “please, don’t leave.”
His eyes caught hers with a wild stare, expecting the worst. But he didn’t see fear. He didn’t see disgust. Instead all he saw was confusion and the soft compassion that had once been present in her eyes before she’d left for school and her life had been torn apart.
“Stay Max, please. I’m not afraid of you,” she said.
His heart beat thundered in panic as she looked at him imploring him to remain.
“Please,” she said. “I have so much to say to you...to tell you. I have so much to ask you.”
She reached out and took his hand in a gentle gesture, stepping closer.
“I know you don’t have anywhere to go. Stay with me...for a little while at least,” she pleaded
His eyes searched hers.
She had questions, and maybe it was time he answered some of them. It had been long enough.
He nodded.
His errand could wait a few more hours.
He would answer what he could without putting her in danger, and then he would be gone.
**********
He sat at the table in silence, watching her move around the kitchen, making coffee.
He glanced around the apartment wistfully. Comfortable overstuffed furniture decorated the living room, covered in warm beige slipcovers. In the corner of the room stood a small Christmas tree, under which sat a pile of gaily wrapped presents.
He’d never cared much for Christmas, but the sight of that normal little tree decorated with loving care, made him want to weep.
He blinked back tears as his eyes continued around the room, noting the photographs and keepsakes placed with care on small tables and on the walls.
“Was the hot water ok?” she asked, bringing his attention back to the kitchen.
He looked at her in confusion.
“Sometimes we have a problem with the hot water,” she said in way of explanation. “The showers around here are usually quick ones.”
“No it was fine,” he said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
This was all too surreal. Last night he was sure it would be his last, yet here he sat in Liz Parker’s kitchen, and she was smiling at him. And the most unbelievable thing was, she wasn’t afraid. He could see the curiosity in her eyes, mixed with something else he could not name, but there was no fear in her gaze.
She set a cup of coffee in front of him and sat down across from him.
“I have so many questions I don’t even know where to begin,” she said.
He nodded, and lowered his head. He didn’t exactly know where to start either.
“You saved my life Max, and I don’t know how to even begin to thank you for that,” she said in a low voice, and he looked up to meet her eyes, surprised to find them filled with tears.
She smiled at him, and he averted his eyes.
“How isn’t really so important right now. It really doesn’t matter all that much,” she said. “But... last night, you were dying. I knew it. You’d stopped breathing and something happened...”
“I’m sorry,” he choked. “I never wanted you to know it was me that healed you.”
“Why?” she asked, taking his hand.
His heart twisted painfully and he swallowed hard.
“Because, I’ve put you in danger. I...felt you last night. I changed you somehow when I healed you, and I don’t know what that means, or what it could mean for you,” he said, keeping his eyes trained on the table.
“I feel fine, Max. There’s nothing wrong with me,” she said.
“For now,” he said. “Liz, there’s so much you don’t know...”
“Then tell me. Tell me so I understand it all. Tell me everything, Max. I...I saw things last night, when I touched you. Why were you so afraid in high school?” she asked.
His jaw tightened as he tried to reign in his emotions.
“I can’t...I just...I can’t tell you,” he said. He couldn’t involve her. He couldn’t put her in danger.
“Then tell me why you risked everything on that subway platform,” she said, her eyes meeting his.
He told her the only thing that he could.
“It was you,” he said simply.
He watched her blink back tears and she smiled at him, squeezing his hand.
“Max,” she began. “There’s something I have to tell you. Something I saw last night...”
A key in the front door interrupted her and her eyes widened.
“Oh no,” she said. “Maria...”
The door opened and Maria dragged herself into the apartment, shoving the door closed behind her.
“Oh thank God you made coffee,” she moaned, throwing her bag on the couch.
She hadn’t seen them, facing away from the kitchen, and walking toward her room. Liz motioned for Max to get up, pointing at her room, frantic.
“Alex makes the worst coffee, and you know how I am in the morning,” she said. “I need a decent cup of coffee.”
Max had almost made it out of the kitchen when she turned around, seeing Liz with a man in the kitchen.
“Oh...my...God...” she said, “Liz, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize you had...”
And then the shriek erupted.
Max flinched as the ear-piercing cry rang through the apartment.
“Maria!” Liz said, running over to her. “It’s all right, I can explain...”
Maria stood with her finger pointed at Max, her mouth moving, but nothing coming from it.
“Dead,” she finally sputtered. “He’s dead! He’s supposed to be dead! Max Evans is dead!”
“He’s not dead,” Liz said in a calming voice. “Maria, Max is him. He’s my angel. He healed me in the subway station.”
Maria shook her head frantically.
“Uh uh,” she said. “That just doesn’t happen. People don’t come back to life and then heal other people!”
“Maria, come inside with me,” she said taking her arm.
She glanced at Max as she pulled Maria into the room.
“Don’t go anywhere,” she pleaded. “It’s going to be fine, I promise. Just give me a minute.”
“But he’s dead!” he heard Maria say, the last word muffled as the door closed behind them
******
"Maria! Stop it!" Liz hissed.
"Stop it? Stop it?" she squeaked. "Liz, there's a dead man standing in my kitchen. A dead man I went to high school with, the one that used to like...stalk you."
Liz stood back and put her hands on her hips.
"Maria, he's quite alive and he's not going to hurt anyone. And by the way, how convenient the description changes from 'he likes you', to 'stalker'," she said.
"Oh come on, Liz!" Maria said. "How can you expect me not to freak out! The man standing out on our kitchen died in a car fire years ago! They identified him by his teeth for God sake! Kyle’s father found the bodies. So what's he doing standing out there in our kitchen? And how did he get here?"
"I don't know, Maria. I don't know how he's alive. I don't know anything. I was just about to try to talk to him when you came in and freaked out. I found him last night. He was really sick, so I brought him back here," Liz said.
"Ghosts don't get sick," Maria muttered.
"He's not a ghost!" Liz exclaimed.
"How are you so sure?" Maria asked.
"Because...he almost died last night, Maria," she said.
"Oh...again?" Maria asked with an innocent look.
Liz sighed and stared at her friend.
"Maria, do you trust me?" she asked.
"Of course I trust you. You're my best friend," Maria said.
"Then trust me when I tell you that Max wouldn't hurt anyone. I'm more sure of that than I am of anything," she said.
"He saved my life last week. I need to talk to him. I need to have some answers, and there are things that I need to say to him. Do you understand that?" she asked softly.
Maria paused, and then saw the look of hope in her friend's eyes, something she hadn't seen in so long.
She took a deep breath and nodded.
"Ok Liz," she said, dropping onto her bed. "I'll just hole my ass up in here for awhile."
"But you call me if he starts pulling anything funny," she said fiercely, jabbing her finger at her. "And I don't want to see any walking through walls crap, I'm telling you right now."
"Maria, he's not a ghost!" she insisted again.
"Then what is he?" Maria asked.
Liz paused.
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out," she said softly.
******
So I said it would be a good day in Serendipity Land, but it's not Tess Will Die Day. Sorry
I'm starting to worry that I made Max go through too much, and no matter how I write the showdown between Max and Tess, it's still bound to fall short. Oy.
I will be away for the weekend and will try to post the next part on Sunday, but I can't promise anything. It depends on what time I get home.
I know I said it before, but I can't thank you all enough for taking the time to leave me feedback both via PM and this thread. I suck at feedback on my own stories, so l'll just say that just the fact that some of you, who are wonderful authors yourselves, are reading this just floors me. Really.
nitpick Max's ability to heal Liz will be explained in the coming chapters. There is a reason for it. I think the answers come in Chapter 30, but don't quote me on that. They will come though.
Thank you J and Scottie for commenting on the lyrics. I have spent way too much time going through my CD collection to find the ones that seemed to fit each chapter.
Oh, and Scottie I like my avi too.
It reminds me of the time before I knew too much about the whole Roswell saga. I think I enjoyed it more back then. I hear JB is filming in the "city". Not sure how to comment on that one, so I just won't. I'll wind up getting myself into trouble.
Loving Max + Not Liking JB = Long-ass Writer's Block. MamaDee see the note at the end of the installment for a further note.
Heal – Heather Nova
Fall for me, my southern cross, my star
Shine for me when love has gone too far
I’ve got you belly-deep in me.
Just a little breath on the water is all we need
Just a little strength in our hearts -
Enough to heal,
Enough to heal.
Dig me out, can’t leave this love for dead
Hand to mouth we’re picking up the thread
I’ve got you belly-deep in me.
Just a little breath on the water now is all we need
Just a little strength in our hearts,
Enough to heal,
Enough to heal.
And the sea glistens,
And the waves pull us in
There’s something rising up and up.
Just a little breath on the water now,
Just a little strength in our hearts,
Enough to heal,
Enough to heal.
Part Twenty-Five
December – 2007
*~Liz~*
It had been two hours, and if anything, he seemed to be getting worse.
She sat beside him, smoothing the hair from his forehead, alternately cooling his burning skin with a dampened cloth, and covering him when he shivered.
She glanced at the clock.
1 a.m.
A few hours, but it felt like an eternity.
She took his hand once again as a low moan escaped his throat. She stroked the top of his hand in an effort to comfort him, feeling more helpless than she had in a long time.
Her heart hurt now that it had once again been awakened from its cold sleep; awakened by the man who had saved her life.
His reverent whisper was unexpected, and it drew her eyes to him.
“Liz...” he whispered with a small smile, and she gasped as his fingers clenched violently around hers, his entire body arching off the bed violently.
“Max!” she cried, climbing onto the bed to lean over him. His hand clenched hers in a painful grip, but she barely felt it as her eyes roamed over his face, frantic.
His whole body clenched, his muscles seizing as she watched him struggle to catch his breath. A gurgling choke broke from his lips, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
He gasped, trying to draw air into his lungs.
“What am I supposed to do?” she cried to no one.
“Breathe Max, breathe,” she said with a sob, wiping the blood from his mouth.
“Please, you have to breathe,” she said, tears running down her cheeks. “You can’t die. Please, please don’t die. You can’t leave!”
Her eyes widened as his body tensed.
A strangled sob escaped her throat as his eyes opened, unseeing, and she heard the quiet hiss of his breath leaving his body as his fingers relaxed around her hand and dropped to the bed.
“No....” she said again, raising trembling fingers to stroke his cheeks.
“Breathe,” she sobbed. “Please don’t die.”
Her lips trembled as tears streamed down her cheeks. She’d failed again. She hadn’t been able to save Justin or her parents, and now she couldn’t save Max either, the person who had given her life back.
“Don’t do this!" she said in a fierce plea. "Please...there are so many things I have to say to you. So many times I could have and I didn’t. I didn’t even get to say thank you."
His face was serene, his eyes honey-braised eyes staring at her. A quiet whimper escaped her lips as she looked into them.
She laid her head on his chest, feeling the faltering heartbeat so unlike the strong cadence she remembered so clearly feeling when she’d embraced him that last day of high school.
She lifted her head, wanting what she’d dreamed of for years, the feel of his lips against hers.
She moved higher on his chest until her face was directly above his.
“Don't leave,” she whispered in a trembling sob, lowering her head, her lips grazing his, her hand flat against his chest, bracing her against his body.
His lips were so soft, so warm.
She laid her cheek against his, feeling her tears wetting his skin.
She sobbed again, her free hand moving to his cheek, cupping it as her lips pressed against his once more.
She felt her body filled with a strange humming, similar to what she’d felt earlier in the alley, but much more intense.
She’d barely had time to register it, and the green flash of light that burned from her fingers, before she was assaulted with images.
The small boy clutched the hand of the little girl next to him as they gazed at each other frightened at the approaching lights in the darkness.
They looked away from each other as the light blinded them.
*******
The big yellow bus was taking them away from the Evans to a strange new place filled with children. Again he clutched the little girl’s hand. She seemed excited but he was afraid. Afraid of what they would think of him. Afraid of what would happen.
The girl dragged him off the bus, and he faltered looking around, catching sight of a small group of children, a boy and two little girls. They were playing together.
But once he caught sight of the little girl with the chocolate mane of hair that seemed to be made of silk, he forgot the other two children.
She was looking at herself.
And when she looked up at him and smiled, he felt his heart jump.
*******
The boy grew up watching the girl from afar, longing to speak to her, aching to know her heart. She saw herself as he saw her, falling in love with her a little more each year. She felt the same heartbreak he felt the morning he had seen her with Kyle at her locker.
She saw that evening in the park that had always remained in her memory, but this time she saw it through his eyes. She literally felt his heavy aching to take her in his arms as he found her sitting alone on the bench crying.
How he’d wanted to comfort her, to make it all go away. And he’d tried.
She felt his fear as he crept into the hospital. But his task overcame that fear as he stepped into Grandma Claudia’s room, intending to undo the damage that had been wrought on her body.
She felt his helplessness as he fled the hospital and his feeling of failure that he couldn’t make it better. He couldn’t stop what was happening to her, and he’d almost killed himself trying.
She felt his heart swell as he listened to her speech at graduation, his pride for a girl he would never be able to reveal his love to.
But why?
She felt swell of his heart as she embraced him later, and experienced the touch of her lips on his cheek as he had felt them. She felt the rush of his blood as he breathed deeply, taking in the scent of wildflowers, the shampoo she’d always used to use.
She felt his torment, the battle within himself as he stood in the cemetery watching her at her parents’ gravesites, aching to approach her, until he felt a hand on his arm and he turned to find Tess behind him. He resented the blond girl for reminding him of what he was.
******
The energy rose to a fevered pitch in her body, searing her blood as she felt it flow from her lips and her fingers pressed to his cheek and his chest.
She knew she should be afraid, but somehow she wasn’t. Somehow she knew it was right, it was meant.
His chest rose beneath her, taking a deep having breath.
She tore her lips from his as she felt the unsteady rise and fall of his chest. Her eyes flew to his eyes, half-closed, gazing at her with a mix of fear and confusion, sparks of green electricity playing about his lips before fading away.
She scrambled off of him, giving him room.
“Breathe Max,” she whispered.
His lips drew in slow, deep droughts of air, filling his lungs and she covered her mouth to suppress a sob as her eyes blurred with new tears.
He was breathing.
He was alive.
“How?” he whispered, before his eyes fell closed once more.
**********
She hovered over him for a few frantic moments until his breathing evened out. She whispered his name, but received no answer.
She was afraid, elated, confused and overwhelmed all at once.
She had no idea what had just happened or what to make of it.
Her emotions were in shambles, having witnessed how he’d felt about her all of these years through his eyes.
She was humbled that he had not only saved her life, but that he had tried to save her grandmother’s because he’d cared that deeply about her.
He was dead a few moments ago. She was certain of it. Yet he lay breathing quietly on her bed now. She’d done that. She didn’t know how she’d done it, but that energy came from her body, not his.
All of it was confusing, leaving her with even more questions than she’d had before, but at the moment none of it mattered.
He hadn’t regained consciousness, but as she reached over to feel his forehead, it was cool. The fever had broken.
She wanted to scream in pure elation. She wanted to do something, anything. She held her hand over her mouth, covering her smile.
She sat beside him for a long while, just touching his skin, his hair, reassuring herself that he was alive, that the fever didn’t come back.
She had anticipated this to be another heartbreaking Christmas, but someone had sent her this gift, the gift of this man that had breathed life into her frozen heart as his hands healed her body.
It was truly a gift of a miracle, and suddenly she knew what could only make this Christmas better. To give Max something back after all he’d given her.
********
Did his family know where he was? Did they even know he was alive?
And where was Tess?
The thought that he may have done something to her flitted through her head and was quickly dismissed. That simply was not Max. He’d healed her, and he hadn’t even known her. Somehow she knew that it was something he was just not capable of.
The idea grew in her head and she was more certain than ever of what she needed to do.
She went to her desk and turned on the computer, clicking on her dial-up connection.
A few moments later she had what she was looking for.
Staring at the number she’d just written down, she felt a moment of uncertainty. Was she doing the right thing?
But realizing how she would feel if her parents were alive and no one had told her, she knew what she had to do.
She dialed the number.
“Hello?” a quiet voice answered.
“Um...hi, I was wondering if I could speak to Isabel Evans please,” she said.
“Speaking,” she answered. “Who’s calling?”
“Oh, hey Isabel. I don’t know if you remember me, but my name is Liz Parker...”
“Of course I remember you, Liz,” she said, sounding a bit confused.
“Yeah, well I’m sorry for calling so late...” she stalled. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m calling you.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but yeah I’m a little surprised. Is everything all right? Are you back in Roswell?” she asked.
“No, actually I’m in New York,” she said, wondering if it was such a good idea to ask for Isabel after all.
"I was actually looking for your mom and dad," Liz said.
"They're living in Albuquerque,” Isabel said, sounding even more confused.
“They won't be here in Santa Fe until Christmas Eve. Please tell me you don't need a lawyer," Isabel joked.
"Not exactly," Liz said.
"What is it?" Isabel asked.
“I'm not sure where to begin," Liz said.
“Go ahead,” Isabel said.
“It’s about Max,” Liz said.
“What about Max?” Isabel said in a sharp voice. “Didn’t anyone tell you what happened?”
“Yes, but I...” Liz began and faltered.
Dead silence reigned for a moment.
“Liz?” Isabel said sharply.
Isabel had suddenly grown very cold, and Liz was starting to wonder if she'd made a mistake in calling without knowing why Max had cut himself off.
“Um it’s nothing. I saw someone and it looked so much like him, and I started to think of your family. I know what it must be like at the holidays for your parents, and I...God, I don’t know why I called,” she stammered.
“You saw someone who looked like Max?” Isabel asked.
Liz thought frantically for a response.
“Liz?” Isabel barked. “Where in New York are you calling from? If you give me your number, I can have my parents give you a call back.”
“Um...I’m in New York City. But, you know what? This can wait until after the holidays,” she said.
“No,” Isabel snapped coldly, quickly recovering. “I’m sure they’d be happy to call you back.”
“It’s ok,” Liz said quickly. “I’ll call after the holidays. Have a Merry Christmas, Isabel.”
“Liz-“
She hung up the phone quickly, the nagging feeling that she’d done something wrong lingering.
She hoped she hadn’t made a mistake.
************
*~Max~*
Max slowly became aware of a heavy weight on his right arm.
His eyes cracked open to see a white ceiling above him, and felt the unaccustomed warmth surrounding him.
He blinked, trying to establish if this was a dream or a hallucination.
His mouth was dry. It felt like sandpaper. He squinted against the light reflecting off the ceiling above him.
He heard a noise beside him, and the weight shifted on his arm.
He turned his head and his eyes widened slightly and then he blinked again.
A cascade of silky hair fell over his arm, and small fingers were entwined with his.
He watched as the head shifted once more, revealing a face.
The night before all came rushing back to him. The energy. He’d tainted her with it. When she kissed him, he had felt her life force mingling with his, along with the energy in her body that had been latent inside of her since he’d healed her.
She'd brought him back.
How had she found him?
He had a sneaking suspicion. He knew that voice in the alley, though he'd heard it only once.
But one thing stood out in his head. Maryland. He had to go to Maryland.
He pulled at his hand and moved away slowly, trying to untangle his fingers from hers.
His movement stirred her sleep and she lifted her head, wincing against the light.
He pulled his hand from hers, scrambling to the side other side of the bed.
He moved off the bed, his eyes already on the door.
She jumped up and blocked the doorway.
“Don’t,” she pleaded, “please, don’t leave.”
His eyes caught hers with a wild stare, expecting the worst. But he didn’t see fear. He didn’t see disgust. Instead all he saw was confusion and the soft compassion that had once been present in her eyes before she’d left for school and her life had been torn apart.
“Stay Max, please. I’m not afraid of you,” she said.
His heart beat thundered in panic as she looked at him imploring him to remain.
“Please,” she said. “I have so much to say to you...to tell you. I have so much to ask you.”
She reached out and took his hand in a gentle gesture, stepping closer.
“I know you don’t have anywhere to go. Stay with me...for a little while at least,” she pleaded
His eyes searched hers.
She had questions, and maybe it was time he answered some of them. It had been long enough.
He nodded.
His errand could wait a few more hours.
He would answer what he could without putting her in danger, and then he would be gone.
**********
He sat at the table in silence, watching her move around the kitchen, making coffee.
He glanced around the apartment wistfully. Comfortable overstuffed furniture decorated the living room, covered in warm beige slipcovers. In the corner of the room stood a small Christmas tree, under which sat a pile of gaily wrapped presents.
He’d never cared much for Christmas, but the sight of that normal little tree decorated with loving care, made him want to weep.
He blinked back tears as his eyes continued around the room, noting the photographs and keepsakes placed with care on small tables and on the walls.
“Was the hot water ok?” she asked, bringing his attention back to the kitchen.
He looked at her in confusion.
“Sometimes we have a problem with the hot water,” she said in way of explanation. “The showers around here are usually quick ones.”
“No it was fine,” he said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
This was all too surreal. Last night he was sure it would be his last, yet here he sat in Liz Parker’s kitchen, and she was smiling at him. And the most unbelievable thing was, she wasn’t afraid. He could see the curiosity in her eyes, mixed with something else he could not name, but there was no fear in her gaze.
She set a cup of coffee in front of him and sat down across from him.
“I have so many questions I don’t even know where to begin,” she said.
He nodded, and lowered his head. He didn’t exactly know where to start either.
“You saved my life Max, and I don’t know how to even begin to thank you for that,” she said in a low voice, and he looked up to meet her eyes, surprised to find them filled with tears.
She smiled at him, and he averted his eyes.
“How isn’t really so important right now. It really doesn’t matter all that much,” she said. “But... last night, you were dying. I knew it. You’d stopped breathing and something happened...”
“I’m sorry,” he choked. “I never wanted you to know it was me that healed you.”
“Why?” she asked, taking his hand.
His heart twisted painfully and he swallowed hard.
“Because, I’ve put you in danger. I...felt you last night. I changed you somehow when I healed you, and I don’t know what that means, or what it could mean for you,” he said, keeping his eyes trained on the table.
“I feel fine, Max. There’s nothing wrong with me,” she said.
“For now,” he said. “Liz, there’s so much you don’t know...”
“Then tell me. Tell me so I understand it all. Tell me everything, Max. I...I saw things last night, when I touched you. Why were you so afraid in high school?” she asked.
His jaw tightened as he tried to reign in his emotions.
“I can’t...I just...I can’t tell you,” he said. He couldn’t involve her. He couldn’t put her in danger.
“Then tell me why you risked everything on that subway platform,” she said, her eyes meeting his.
He told her the only thing that he could.
“It was you,” he said simply.
He watched her blink back tears and she smiled at him, squeezing his hand.
“Max,” she began. “There’s something I have to tell you. Something I saw last night...”
A key in the front door interrupted her and her eyes widened.
“Oh no,” she said. “Maria...”
The door opened and Maria dragged herself into the apartment, shoving the door closed behind her.
“Oh thank God you made coffee,” she moaned, throwing her bag on the couch.
She hadn’t seen them, facing away from the kitchen, and walking toward her room. Liz motioned for Max to get up, pointing at her room, frantic.
“Alex makes the worst coffee, and you know how I am in the morning,” she said. “I need a decent cup of coffee.”
Max had almost made it out of the kitchen when she turned around, seeing Liz with a man in the kitchen.
“Oh...my...God...” she said, “Liz, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize you had...”
And then the shriek erupted.
Max flinched as the ear-piercing cry rang through the apartment.
“Maria!” Liz said, running over to her. “It’s all right, I can explain...”
Maria stood with her finger pointed at Max, her mouth moving, but nothing coming from it.
“Dead,” she finally sputtered. “He’s dead! He’s supposed to be dead! Max Evans is dead!”
“He’s not dead,” Liz said in a calming voice. “Maria, Max is him. He’s my angel. He healed me in the subway station.”
Maria shook her head frantically.
“Uh uh,” she said. “That just doesn’t happen. People don’t come back to life and then heal other people!”
“Maria, come inside with me,” she said taking her arm.
She glanced at Max as she pulled Maria into the room.
“Don’t go anywhere,” she pleaded. “It’s going to be fine, I promise. Just give me a minute.”
“But he’s dead!” he heard Maria say, the last word muffled as the door closed behind them
******
"Maria! Stop it!" Liz hissed.
"Stop it? Stop it?" she squeaked. "Liz, there's a dead man standing in my kitchen. A dead man I went to high school with, the one that used to like...stalk you."
Liz stood back and put her hands on her hips.
"Maria, he's quite alive and he's not going to hurt anyone. And by the way, how convenient the description changes from 'he likes you', to 'stalker'," she said.
"Oh come on, Liz!" Maria said. "How can you expect me not to freak out! The man standing out on our kitchen died in a car fire years ago! They identified him by his teeth for God sake! Kyle’s father found the bodies. So what's he doing standing out there in our kitchen? And how did he get here?"
"I don't know, Maria. I don't know how he's alive. I don't know anything. I was just about to try to talk to him when you came in and freaked out. I found him last night. He was really sick, so I brought him back here," Liz said.
"Ghosts don't get sick," Maria muttered.
"He's not a ghost!" Liz exclaimed.
"How are you so sure?" Maria asked.
"Because...he almost died last night, Maria," she said.
"Oh...again?" Maria asked with an innocent look.
Liz sighed and stared at her friend.
"Maria, do you trust me?" she asked.
"Of course I trust you. You're my best friend," Maria said.
"Then trust me when I tell you that Max wouldn't hurt anyone. I'm more sure of that than I am of anything," she said.
"He saved my life last week. I need to talk to him. I need to have some answers, and there are things that I need to say to him. Do you understand that?" she asked softly.
Maria paused, and then saw the look of hope in her friend's eyes, something she hadn't seen in so long.
She took a deep breath and nodded.
"Ok Liz," she said, dropping onto her bed. "I'll just hole my ass up in here for awhile."
"But you call me if he starts pulling anything funny," she said fiercely, jabbing her finger at her. "And I don't want to see any walking through walls crap, I'm telling you right now."
"Maria, he's not a ghost!" she insisted again.
"Then what is he?" Maria asked.
Liz paused.
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out," she said softly.
******
So I said it would be a good day in Serendipity Land, but it's not Tess Will Die Day. Sorry
I'm starting to worry that I made Max go through too much, and no matter how I write the showdown between Max and Tess, it's still bound to fall short. Oy.
I will be away for the weekend and will try to post the next part on Sunday, but I can't promise anything. It depends on what time I get home.
Last edited by Majesty on Wed Nov 19, 2003 10:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Actually, it was Pierce and Topolsky. They'd manipulated their bodies to fit the descriptions of Max and Tess.extingman wrote:Majesty,
BTW, that was Zan and Ava in the Jeep wasn't it?
I probably should go back and clarify that. Glad you're enjoying the story.Scottie - The trip was um...interesting, LOL. Good fun and I needed to get away, so it's all good.
Pathos - I seriously can't believe you're even reading this. I've been reading "To Have and to Hold" and "Demanding Heaven's Gate" and they are just amazing stories. I am hanging my head in shame because I've been a bad feedbacker. I really don't have the words to express how much I have enjoyed them, and anything I might say just won't do either of them justice. You're an amazing and talented writer. Your Serena and Zan just bring me to tears. It's such a sad situation for her. And Max and his longing for Liz, even though he knows he can't be with her, it makes my heart ache. I guess I should probably put this on your thread, hmm?
Real Love - David Gray
The dawn in all its majesty
Is stealing me away
The dawn in all its honesty
Is turning me to clay
And through the bars of iron rain
Way beyond and back again
I hear the voice of Eden cry
Lift me up I'm walking on high
It's real love
Real love
This world in all its clarity
Is glorious, is fake
This world in all its vanity
Is more than I can take
And down the road the iron wheels
Chain my heart to how it feels
I hear the voice of Eden cry
Lift me up I'm walking on high
It's real love
Real love
Real love
Real love
And something in the heart of me
Is telling me it's time
To meet the eye of destiny
And leave it all behind
And through my bones an iron rage
Paints my soul upon the page
I hear the voice of Eden cry
Lift me up to walk on high
Make me wanna lay down and die
It's real love
Real love
Real love
Real love
The dawn in all its majesty
Is stealing me away
Part Twenty-Six
December – 2007
*~Max~*
Max heard the muffled voices behind Maria's door as he sat at the kitchen table, feeling a sense of uneasiness permeating his body.
He'd made a huge mistake in staying.
He still wasn't quite sure how Liz had found him, or how she had brought him back last night, but it scared him. He didn't know what would happen to her, or if the energy that had lain in her body for almost a week had changed her.
She wanted answers, but he wasn't sure he could give them to her. Telling her what he was would be putting her at risk. Tess was still out there somewhere, and his enemy's followers still lived.
He wasn't sure what she'd seen from him the night before, and now that Maria had seen him and knew he was alive, there was the chance that she might tell someone in Roswell, someone like Kyle Valenti, and then he would tell the Sheriff....
Panic started to edge his thoughts. He had to get out of here. He had to go away from this city, as far away as he could. Who would believe that he was still alive anyway? What could they say? That Max Evans had miraculously come back from the dead to heal a stab wound inflicted on Liz Parker on a subway platform? He cringed when he thought that it might get back to his parents.
If he left now, he might have a chance.
He stood, ready to flee, when the bedroom door opened, and Liz stepped out.
She faltered as she saw him, and realized what he was about to do. She shut the door behind her.
"You were going to leave, weren't you?" she asked, leaning against the wall.
"It's better if I just go," he said, not meeting her eyes. "I know that you have questions, but...there are some things that are just better left unanswered."
"I don't agree," she said, stepping closer. "Max, you risked everything because of me. I don't know who or what you are, but I do know that doing what you did could have cost you your life. So forgive me if knowing what you are, and maybe risking a little security to know the truth...to know you...doesn't seem to be that big of a risk to me. I should be dead."
He closed his eyes and sighed. He wished he’d left earlier. He wished she’d never known it was him that had saved her. But he could never take back what he’d done. Even if he could have, it wouldn’t have been an option. When he looked into her eyes, he knew he’d done the right thing.
When he opened his eyes, she was looking up at him, in a way he’d never seen before, or maybe she had and he just hadn’t noticed back then. Maybe he couldn’t, because if he had, her life might have been ruined further than it already had. Isabel and Michael had been right back then. He hadn’t wanted to believe them, but when he thought of what could have happened if he acted on his feelings, it terrified him.
“Max, sit with me,” she said.
She took his hand and led him to the couch, pulling him down to sit beside her.
"Talk to me," she whispered.
"Tell me what happened in Roswell. Tell me why you're sitting here with me, when your family thinks you're dead," she said.
A lump formed in her throat at the mention of his family. It was better that his mother and father thought he was dead. It was safer that way.
"And Tess...what happened to her?" she asked.
He visibly flinched at the mention of Tess' name. He couldn't tell Liz. How could he look her in the eyes and tell her that Tess had ripped Liz's family from her, because of him?
He moved away from her toward the other end of the couch.
"Max?" she said.
He didn't answer her.
"Ok, I won't ask about Tess," she said. "But what about Isabel?"
"Isabel was like me too," he said, swallowing hard.
Liz sighed.
"I understand that maybe you had a good reason to let your parents think you're dead. But you just said that Isabel is like you. Why would you keep it from her?" she asked.
"Isabel is dead," Max said in a flat voice.
"What?" Liz said confused. "No....Max she's not dead."
"She's dead, Liz. I watched her die," he choked out.
"She's not, Max. I spoke to her last night," she said.
He looked up at her, afraid to believe what she was saying, but more afraid of the alternative.
"What?" he asked. A myriad of emotions flooded his brain at once. Fear, at first, that someone was posing as his sister. His mind tentatively reached out, and for a moment he felt nothing, but then it was there, a tiny spark in his mind. He felt her, the faintest of impressions on his psyche, and he pulled back from it, before she sensed him. She was alive, out there. His sister was alive. When he’d awakened in the tunnel, he’d been so confused, and then Tess’s torture had left him feeling more hopeless. He’d been convinced that she was dead. He’d seen Michael killed with his own eyes, and seeing the ceiling cave in, it had been inconceivable that she might have lived, but now....
"I called her last night. She's alive, Max. She's living in Santa Fe. I was going to tell her about you, the miracle..." she said.
He felt as if he couldn't breathe. All this time, it hadn't even occurred to him to reach out. He'd been so confused and he just assumed....
"You called her?" he said in a strangled voice. "You spoke to her?"
She nodded.
"I asked for your parents. I didn’t tell her,” she added quickly. "She sounded sort of funny when she found out it was me on the phone, and I didn't even think that there might be a reason you didn't contact her, to let her know...I'm sorry," she said.
Isabel would know something was up. If it were anyone else, it wouldn’t have mattered. But it was Liz calling her, Liz mentioning his name.
He stood up, his emotions in turmoil. The elation he felt that his sister was alive, mixed with the terror he felt that she would suspect he was here and alive. If she knew, she wouldn't stop until she found him, and if Tess found out she was alive...
He hadn't thought things through. He'd been so confused when he'd awakened in the tunnel. He'd been sure the energy that he was carrying was going to kill him, if Tess didn't first. Last night had changed everything.
Liz had somehow brought him back, and now he had to think about what he was going to do. He hadn't worried about much when he knew he was going to die, but now...now he had everyone else to think about. If Isabel found him, there was no way she was going to let him leave again, and Tess would kill her just for spite. Then everything he'd done would have been for nothing. He couldn't take the chance. He couldn't watch his sister die again.
"I have to go," he said urgently, walking into the room to grab his coat.
"No Max, wait!" Liz said, getting up to follow him.
He put the coat on, and pushed past her.
"Max, you can't leave like this," she said, pulling on his sleeve.
He turned toward her and pulled his arm away, searching her eyes, pleading with her to understand.
"Trust me when I tell you that it's better for me to go," he said. "Please, if Isabel contacts you, tell her you needed some legal advice from my parents. Tell her anything, just don’t tell her I was here. I’m sorry...."
"Max!" she yelled frantically, as he opened the door and took off down the stairs at a run.
*******
*~Liz~*
She couldn't just let him go. She bounded down the stairs after him, bursting through the front door to the building.
She scanned the street, and saw him running down the sidewalk.
"Max please! Come back!" she yelled. She launched herself after him, but he was too fast. By the time she reached the corner he'd disappeared.
"Dammit!" she cursed under her breath.
********
Liz came back as the sun was setting, disheartened. She'd been all over the city, and hadn't been able to find him. He could have been anywhere. With nine million people in a 30 square mile radius, someone who wanted get lost, stayed lost.
She'd been to Times Square, uptown and downtown, with no luck.
Tired and cold, she trudged up the stairs to the apartment.
Maria looked up from her writing at the kitchen table as she came in the door.
"Any luck?" she asked anxiously, and Liz shook her head.
She walked into the kitchen, took her coat and scarf off and slumped into the chair.
"So tell me what happened," Maria said, pushing her notebook aside. "You ran out of here this morning without explaining anything."
"I don't know what happened. I mean, I made a mistake, and I think I messed up really badly. I don't think I'll ever see him again," Liz moaned.
Maria rested her chin on her hand.
"Start from the beginning," Maria said.
Liz told her about the letter, and how she'd found Max in the alley, bringing him back to the apartment. She told her how he'd died, and about the energy that had come from her body that revived him.
"After I was sure he was breathing, I was just so...I don't know how to explain it. Happy I guess. I didn't even think about the fact that maybe he didn't want his family to know he was alive. I just thought I was doing the right thing in calling them. I mean, whatever happened, whatever reason he had for doing that, they still have to love him, right? Kyle said they were devastated. I couldn't find a listed number for the Evans, but I found Isabel's in Santa Fe. I called her, but it was only after she picked up the phone and got all weird that I realized that I should have asked him first. I didn't even think about it, Maria," she said.
"So...?" Maria prompted.
"I didn’t tell her. Well, I only said that I’d seen someone that reminded me of him, and she got all weird. So I just said that I would try her parents back after the holidays. She was really pushy about finding out where I live," she said.
"I see she hasn't changed much," Maria muttered.
"Well, if it were me and she called me, I would be a little weirded out too. It was so stupid of me. I should have thought it through before I called," Liz lamented, angry with herself.
"Our number's unlisted, thank God," Maria said with a sigh.
"So much of this doesn't make sense," Liz said. "Max thought Isabel was dead, and Isabel and the rest of the world thought he was killed in that jeep accident with Tess, and I'm still not really sure that he wasn't. I mean, I don't see how he could have been standing here if he had. But, something's off..."
She rubbed her eyes.
"Then there's this whole thing with the letter. I have no idea who this "S" person is, or what he or she has to do with this whole thing. But I never would have found him without that letter," Liz said.
"Let me see it?" Maria said, and Liz went into her bag and handed it to her.
Maria read it with a frown. Finally she looked up from it.
"Whatever Max is, he's obviously got gifts that the government wants," she said, pondering the words she just read. "This letter is so cryptic though. What's with the Alice in Wonderland references?"
Liz dug into her bag again.
"This was wrapped inside of the letter," Liz said, showing Maria the crystal.
Maria took it, turning it over in her hands.
"I've never seen anything like this," Maria said. "My mom probably had every geode, rock, gem and crystal in her store, but none of them were like this. Look at how it glows!"
Liz nodded.
"So this "S" person must have had a pretty good idea that you would take care of Max," Maria said.
"I guess," Liz said. "So does that mean that it's someone from Roswell? I mean it would have to be. Who else would know that I even knew Max? And who besides you and maybe Alex knew that I had that crush on him?"
"He's special Maria," she said. "Last night, when I thought he was dead, and I touched him, and that energy came from somewhere inside of me, I felt things from him."
"Felt things?" Maria asked, confused.
"I felt how he felt about me all those years. I know it sounds crazy, but I saw me through his eyes. Maria it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever felt in my life. I didn't think anyone could ever feel that way about me, but that was exactly how I felt back in high school when I looked at him," she said, tears filling her eyes.
"I saw the night that he and Isabel were found in the desert," she said. "He was so afraid. They both were."
"Yeah, I almost forgot they were adopted," Maria said.
Liz nodded.
"They didn't know how to speak, Maria. I could sense his feelings, but it was like they were newborns," she answered.
"So...what, you think they were locked up somewhere or something, and they escaped?" Maria asked.
"I don't know. I don't think it's that simple. They're different. I don't know exactly how or why, but they're different from us. I felt it," She said. "I didn't tell Max that I knew about Isabel. He told me on his own. He told me she was dead, that he'd seen her die."
"The whole thing just doesn't make sense," she said, disconsolate. "The only thing I'm sure of is that I felt something Maria. I felt something in my heart that I haven't felt in such a long time, since before Justin and my parents, and it was because of him. When he healed me, he gave me another chance. I never took that chance with him back in Roswell because..." she trailed off.
"Because you were afraid," Maria finished.
"Yeah," she said. "I've got to find him again."
"Liz, what if he's right? What if he's changed you somehow?" Maria asked, with worry in her eyes.
"I don't think he did," Liz said. "I don't feel any different. And I don't know...that energy wasn't a part of me. I can't explain it, but I didn't feel it inside me. It was almost as if he'd left it there when he healed me, and took it back last night."
"So what now?" Maria asked.
Liz was about to answer when she heard voices in the hall.
"Kyle," they both said simultaneously.
"God I forgot all about it," Liz said, turning toward the door.
Alex walked through first, and then Kyle. Liz stood up and immediately sat back down, because they weren't alone.
"Where is he?" a female voice demanded, and Liz stiffened as Isabel pushed her way into the apartment.
"Surprise," Kyle said wryly. "Look who happened to be on the same flight?"
"Where is he?" Isabel demanded again. Liz heard a shuffling in the hall and turned to see Michael Guerin at the door.
She took in his walking cane and his stilted gate and wondered what had happened to him.
"Who?" Kyle asked in exasperation. "Who the hell are you looking for, and why would you think that Liz would know where they are? You two grilled me the whole way here about Liz, but you won't even say why you were looking for her!"
Isabel didn't answer, glaring at Liz.
“Isabel, what are you doing here?” she asked, warily.
“Tell us where he is,” Michael said coldly.
"Who?" Alex asked, confused.
“Liz, this is too strange for words,” Maria said, looking like she was going to start to freak out.
"Maria, don't," Liz warned, turning toward her, pleading with her not to say another word. There was no need to involve Kyle and Alex in this. Maria was involved by default. She walked in and found Max. She was sure Isabel wouldn't appreciate then letting Kyle and Alex in on their secret.
"What the hell is going on here?" Alex said, exasperated.
“I’m sorry I called so late last night, but I've been thinking about my parents, and-”
"Liz. Just tell us the truth and we’ll get out of your hair," Michael said, moving into the room, leaning heavily on his cane.
Isabel advanced on her quickly.
"If anything happens to him, I swear..." Isabel spat.
"Back off!" Maria said, furious, pushing Isabel away from Liz.
"Who the hell do you think you are busting into our home and threatening anyone? You really have a pair! Look, maybe Liz shouldn't have called. But what kind of freak gets on a plane over a phone call anyway?” Maria seethed.
"That wasn’t why she called!" Isabel hissed, furiously, glaring at Liz. "Don't think I'm that stupid! If it had been anyone else but Liz..."
Liz raised her chin, hoping her fear wasn't showing in her eyes.
Maria stepped up close, until she was inches away from Isabel's face.
"We know what your deal is Isabel, do you get my drift?" Maria asked, and Isabel looked quickly toward Michael, who had visibly paled.
"Now, I suggest you get your arctic ass out of my apartment before I do something about it," she said in a low voice.
"And take King Gimp with you," she added, motioning to Michael.
"Fuck you!" Michael muttered indignantly.
"You wish," Maria said dryly rolling her eyes.
Isabel stared murderously at Maria for a long moment before turning away.
"Let's go Michael," she said, walking out the door without looking back.
Michael glared at Liz, and walked out, leaving the door wide open.
Liz went over and shut the door, feeling her heard pounding in her chest.
"What the hell was that? Are we in the Twilight Zone?" Alex asked, shaking his head.
"Try sitting on the same plane with them for four hours," Kyle snapped. "Isabel planted her ass next to me and asked where I was going. Once I said I was visiting you, that was the end of it. She told me that she wanted to stop to say hello to you. Then she started asking all these questions about you."
"I'm sorry Liz, I didn't think it would be a big deal for them to stop by. I had no idea it was going to come to that," he said.
"No, it's my fault. I did call her last night. It was stupid, but I was just thinking about the Evans and they lost Max too, and with the holidays and all.... I have no idea why she’d come all the way out here over a phone call,” Liz said.
"It is kinda weird," Kyle said with a frown. “So Maria, what exactly is her deal? They left pretty quickly after you said that. And who was the guy they're asking about?”
“I don't know about the guy she thinks we know,” Maria said, shrugging. "But I did hear something pretty weird about her and Michael."
Liz looked at her with wide startled eyes, pleading with her to keep quiet. Maria winked at her.
“I gotta hear this,” Kyle said, rubbing his hands together with glee.
“Yeah well, I heard that she and Michael, you know...like, did the nasty, and Michael gave her a pretty bad STD,” she said quickly, making it up on the fly.
"Maria!” Liz said, shooting her a look.
“What?” she said, giving her a smug smile, “is that so surprising? She deserved it, and God knows it didn’t surprise me that Michael Guerin might have one.”
"I can't believe she came all the way out here," Alex said, shaking his head, "and with Michael, no less. Maybe you should have heard her out.”
Alex was looking at her with a frown, and Liz knew that she had to tell them something close to the truth.
"Look, she thinks I know where Max is," Liz said, looking at the floor.
"Um...Max is dead," Alex said, half-confused.
Liz nodded.
"I sort of told her that I saw someone who reminded me of him, and that's what prompted me to call," she said, hating to lie, but knowing she had no other choice. "I know how hard the holidays are when you've lost someone."
"I never dreamed that she'd come out here over a phone call,” Liz said.
"That just doesn't sound right," Alex said. "They identified his body, didn't they Kyle?"
"Tess’s too,” Kyle said, nodding. “My Dad looked at them himself," Kyle said. “The uh...what was left, you know, their faces...it was enough to tell.”
Alex turned to Liz.
"So why would she assume because you saw someone who reminded you of him, that Max was out here and alive?" he asked.
"People do strange things when they're grieving," Liz said quietly, giving him a meaningful look reminding him of when he and Maria had come to Boston after her parents' death. That silenced him.
"Oh who the hell cares why they were here? They’re gone now. Look, I am not going to let Isabel Evans' psychotic episode ruin one more minute of our time, m'kay?" Maria said, looping her arm through Kyle's.
"You did bring the gossip, didn't you? My mother won't tell me a damned thing on the phone," she said.
"Well, there is this little thing I heard about Pam Troy," he said, with a devilish grin.
She dragged him toward the kitchen table.
"Will a beer wrestle that info out of you?" she asked, with a laugh.
"It might," he said with a wink.
Liz let out a deep breath she didn't know she'd been holding and turned to find Alex looking at her concerned.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"Fine," she nodded. She just wished she could make her heart believe that.
"You sure?" he asked.
"You didn't tell Kyle, did you?" she asked in a low voice. “You know, about the subway?”
"No," he said, shaking his head.
"Good," she answered, feeling relieved, until she saw the look of suspicion on Alex’s face.
“There isn’t anything you want to tell me, is there?” he asked.
“No,” Liz said, shaking her head. “I just don’t feel like explaining any of it again. I think you’re right, and I’m trying to do what you said...you know, taking it for what it is and moving on.”
Alex looked like he was going to say something else, and then Kyle interrupted them from the kitchen.
"So," Kyle said sitting at the table. "What are we going to do tonight?"
*********
I'll either be posting next on Wednesday or Thursday. It's going to be a busy couple of days.