Roswell Fanatics

Dream_walker - I got my S1 DVDs from Amazon. But I also saw them at FYE.


Part Twenty One

Maria waited anxiously back stage. Soon she’d be under the lights. Soon all of those adoring fans would be calling her name. Nervous energy coursed through her body and she forced herself to talk deep, calming breaths.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the house announcer began. A wave of cheers erupted from the crowd and Maria felt her heart pound in her chest. “Tonight, appearing for one night only…”

The anticipation was killing her.

“Appearing for one night only…”

Yes, yes, get on with it!

“Appearing for one night only…”

Maria’s brow furrowed. Something wasn’t right. She peeked around the curtain and found that she couldn’t see into the crowd. Everything around her was starting to become fuzzy, blurred, like someone had smudged pencil marks with their fingers.

“Appearing for one-“

With a scream, Maria was suddenly awake and holding her throbbing head in her hands. The ache between her temples was nearly unbearable. Frightened, she looked across the expanse of the car and saw that Michael was out cold. When had they stopped moving? Why were they beside the road? Fear ripped through her as she reached to rouse her lover.

*****

“Maria, take the baby so I can make dinner,” Michael said, holding out the smallest of the Guerin tots.

Maria had her back to him and didn’t respond to his request.

“Maria,” he repeated.

Still no movement.

“Sweetie, take him so I can get us something to eat.” When he still received no answer, he drew the baby back onto his lap. Something was amiss.

Then Maria turned, her hazel eyes an unusual shade of blue. “Adam has betrayed you,” she said, her words careful.

Michael laughed. “What are you talking about? Who’s Adam?”

“You know who Adam is. He led you here, down this deserted road, to your doom.”

Michael’s happy feeling started to dissipate. What doom? As he stared into his wife’s face, any happiness he’d felt earlier was replaced with terror as he watched her pretty features transform into those of an alien – an alien with blond hair and blue eyes. An alien who had abducted his Isabel.

“He must pay,” the alien said.

Michael jerked awake, his heart throbbing painfully in his chest. In his head, he heard a strange warning – cover your tracks, destroy the evidence.

“Thank God!” Maria spouted, her hands gripping the front of his shirt. “I didn’t think I’d ever get you awake!”

Michael sat up quickly and glanced in every direction, the events of the day coming back to him in a flood. “Where’re Max and Liz?”

“I don’t know!” Maria answered frantically. “I’m guessing they kept going.”

Michael quickly started the car, then shoved it into drive. The vehicle lurched and Maria had to put a hand on the dash to steady herself.

“Are you okay?” she asked, frightened. “I mean, to drive?”

“They’re in trouble,” he said, glancing at his mirrors to see if they were being followed. “Adam’s a traitor.”

******

Max and Liz ran away from the cabin, towards the cover of the trees. When they were about a hundred feet away from the building, however, Max stopped in his tracks and turned around.

“What are you doing?” Liz asked breathlessly.

“Destroying what’s left,” he answered, raising his hand and sending a burst of energy toward the shack. Within moments, the structure erupted in flames. “Let’s go.”

Max grabbed Liz’s hand and they raced through the trees, stumbling every now and then on a fallen branch. They shared a similar fear – that Carter hadn’t been bluffing, that Isabel was now dead. There was only one way to find out – get to her and see for themselves.

“How far?” Max asked, tugging Liz behind him.

“A ways,” she answered, trying to keep up with his aerobic sprint through the brush. “Max, how did he know Tess?”

“I don’t know,” he answered without an indication he was to say more. He didn’t want to talk about that now. It didn’t matter – all that mattered was finding his sister.

As they ran, Liz couldn’t help but dwell on the feeling she’d gotten when Max had blasted Carter. It was like she could feel all of Max's energy – all of his life force – racing through her veins. It had been thrilling and terrifying all at once. She didn’t understand it. Maybe this is what Isabel had meant about Liz being the one to “unlock his power.” There were so many questions, so much confusion.

After what seemed like an eternity, Liz caught sight of Isabel’s white shirt on the ground ahead.

“Max! There!” she cried.

Max ran harder and Liz wasn’t sure if her shorter legs could handle the extra push. But she kept up with him and soon they were both standing breathlessly over Isabel’s body. Max’s hopes sank as he looked at the shell of what had once been one of the strongest women he’d ever known. His heart ached to see her so beaten and bloody…so lifeless. With a quick glance, he noticed that Adam lay a short distance away, motionless.

Liz felt the sting of tears in her eyes. She needed to come clean. “Max, I…” she began.

He glanced at her silently.

“I think I may have blasted her.”

His eyebrows rose sharply. His Liz? She blasted Isabel?

“I didn’t mean to…uh…I meant to hit him.” She pointed a finger in Adam’s direction.

Max squeezed her hand in understanding, then dropped it so he could stoop down by Isabel.

“Is she…” Liz began fearfully.

Max studied his sister’s face. She seemed lifeless, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. He touched her hair, felt the dried blood embedded in it. Closing his eyes, he placed his hand on her forehead and concentrated. Come back to me, Isabel.

Liz waited fearfully, though her eyes were wide with wonder. It would never cease to amaze her that Max could heal someone with just one touch. He’d done it so many times with her as a witness – more than once she’d been his patient. Now she watched as the color slowly returned to Isabel’s face and her breathing became more prominent. The bruises and abrasions on her beautiful skin vanished gradually until they were gone entirely.

Max sat back on the damp ground, his body drained of energy. As he fell, Isabel rose, her eyes wide and coherent.

“Oh, Max!” she cried, throwing her arms around his weary shoulders.

He grimaced, but gladly returned her embrace. Liz felt tears trickle down her cheeks.

Suddenly Isabel pushed away from her brother. “We have to go!” she said, looking over her shoulders. “Carter’s out here and –“

“No,” Max said tiredly. “He’s gone.”

Isabel stopped short. “Gone?”

Max nodded. “Yeah. I –“ He glanced at Liz and gave her a weak smile. “Liz and I disposed of him.”

Liz beamed as Isabel looked at her incredulously. “It’s true, then…”

“What’s true?” Max asked, his brow furrowed. Some of his strength was starting to come back to him.

Isabel met his eyes for a long moment, memories of her mother and Alex filling her mind. She needed to digest what she’d been told before she relayed it to Max. “Later,” she said. “Let’s go home.”

Liz reached down to help Max to his feet. “What about Adam?” she asked.

All three of them turned to look at the fallen alien. Max thought about what Carter had said about Adam’s kind – he hadn’t known he was a pawn in this whole mess. It wasn’t fair to punish him.

“We can’t leave him here,” Max decided aloud. “We need to see if he’s still alive. And if he is –“

“I’m gonna kick his ass!”

Max, Liz and Isabel turned to see Michael and Maria quickly approaching them. Michael’s face was red with anger, Maria’s twisted in a grimace as she ran in uncomfortable boots.

Max stepped up to shield Adam’s body from Michael. “Slow down, Michael. You don’t know the whole story.”

“I know enough!” Michael shouted, trying to push past Max. “I know he led us here – to our deaths!”

“Michael,” Liz said, stepping between Max and Michael. “No one here is dying. No one.”

His dark eyes settled on hers, then he realized that he had been so angry at Adam that he’d looked straight past Isabel. Showing emotion was never an easy thing for Michael Guerin, but this time he had no choice – his cry of relief and sudden tears were uncontrollable. Roughly, he grabbed Isabel and pulled her body to his, squeezing her tightly. Isabel laughed lightly and tried to breathe in the midst of his vice-grip.

Maria snorted. “Sheesh…he’s never that happy to see me…”

Liz laughed lightly and patted her friend on the arm.

Isabel pulled away from Michael and took his face between her hands. “I’m okay,” she said, choking back contagious tears.

“I thought I’d lost you,” he choked out quietly.

She shook her head and gave him a gentle smile. “You haven’t. I’m right here.”

He nodded in response and felt a new wave of tears when she kissed him on the forehead. Eventually, the fact that he’d totally blown his reputation as a bad ass settled in and he pushed away from her, wiping his cheeks.

“I mean,” he said, sniffing. “I would hate to think I’d have to foot all of that rent by myself.”

Isabel laughed and slung her arm around his waist. When she turned, she saw that Max was crouching by Adam’s body.

“He’s still alive,” Max called, then turned his gaze to Michael. “And you’ll not kill him. Understand, Michael?”

Michael put his arm around Isabel’s shoulders. “I make no promises. Just fix him so we can head home, okay? This place gives me the creeps.”

tbc

Epilogue

“So Max gets to be Superman again, is that it?” Michael said.

They were gathered in Michael and Isabel’s living room and Isabel had just finished relaying the information she’d received from her mother regarding Liz’s connection to Max. Liz seemed somewhat awed that she’d been “chosen” to be the catalyst to unleash Max’s powers, while Max seemed rather nauseated by the thought. Michael, on the other hand, was more than a little irritated.

“I don’t know if we can take her words literally,” Isabel said slowly, measuring her words. She knew how Michael got when he was feeling defensive.

“Isabel, how do we even know what you’re remembering is correct?” Max asked.

She shrugged. “I guess we don’t.”

“And how do we know that this whole visit by your mother wasn’t just some hallucination from your head wound?” Michael asked, his tone clipped.

Isabel shook her head. “We don’t know that either, I guess.”

As Liz listened to them argue, she thought about Max destroying Carter. Even though she’d never witnessed Max killing anyone, she couldn’t really get over the ease with which Carter went down. True, he’d been lacking in physical powers, but she had still expected more of a struggle than he’d put up. On top of it, there was the fact that Liz had felt Max’s energy racing through her body – and it had been a force to be reckoned with. Liz believed every word of what Isabel had told them about her mother’s message.

“And what do we do with him?” Michael gestured toward the French doors that led to the apartment’s balcony. Outside, Maria and Adam were watching through the windows. Adam had been banished while the others talked, Maria sent to babysit him.

“We do nothing with him,” Max said, trying to maintain some control over Michael’s temper.

“How can we do nothing with him, Maxwell? He betrayed us!”

Liz’s eyes narrowed. “Michael, just how did you know about Adam? I mean, Carter told me and Max, but you already knew when you met us in the woods.”

Michael thought for a moment. He wasn’t really sure how he knew about their new friend. It was almost as though he’d awakened and the thought was already there in his mind. How it got there, he wasn’t sure…

“Maybe Carter told Michael as well,” Isabel said quietly, drawing all eyes to her. She still seemed pale, sort of fragile.

Max frowned. Carter’s last “fuck you” to all of them was to turn them against Adam and perhaps against themselves. “You could be right, Iz,” he agreed. “That’s why I think for now we don’t do anything about him. I think we need to be on our guard, in case anyone else tries to manipulate him.”

“I say that’s why we kick him onto the street,” Michael snapped.

“No,” Isabel disagreed, shaking her head. “I think that he was put in our path…” She looked away, unable to meet her friends’ eyes as she spoke her theory. “I think Alex put him in our path for a reason. I think we’re supposed to look out for him.”

Max gave her a gentle smile. “Then we will, Iz. We’ll find out as much about his race as we can and we’ll try to help him.”

Michael threw his hands into the air. “That’s great. That’s just fucking great.”

Out on the balcony, Adam watched the display warily. He knew they were talking about him. “I don’t think your boyfriend likes me,” he said to Maria.

“Of course he does,” she laughed, knowing her words were untrue. “Michael treats everyone he likes that way.”

He looked at her incredulously. “Even I’m not falling for that one.”

She snorted a laugh and took a sip of her soda. “So, tell me about yourself, Adam McKinney. I feel like we’ve barely met. Where were you born?”

“Here.”

Maria scrunched up her face. “I thought you were an alien.”

“I am. But I was born on earth.”

“Oh.” Maria scratched her head. Somehow she’d always thought that all aliens were born elsewhere. Didn’t his birth on this planet make him an earthling and not an alien? The thought made her head hurt. “So, when was that? Nineteen, twenty years ago?”

Adam looked away momentarily. “Uh…I think eighty one…”

“You were born in eighty one?”

“No. I was born eighty one years ago.”

It was Maria’s turn to be incredulous. Her mouth dropped open and she stared at him for an eternity while he uncomfortably sipped his drink. He looked no more than twenty one, but was actually sixty years older than that – and still gullible.

“What powers do you have?” she asked him finally.

“I’m an alien without powers,” Adam said sheepishly. “Funny, I thought I had them…”

“Well, don’t feel bad, dude. I’m the only human around here without powers, it seems. We can be outcasts together.”

He laughed at her and in that moment Maria knew that they were going to be friends.

Later that evening, after Liz had taken Adam back to his apartment, Max sat on the edge of Isabel’s bed and watched her move tiredly around her bedroom preparing for bed.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked her gently.

She nodded and sat down at the head of the bed, her hairbrush in one hand. Her expression was downcast and Max didn’t need super powers to see that she was reeling emotionally from her experience. He reached out and took her hand in his.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” he told her.

She only gave a little shrug and nodded her agreement to appease him.

“I’m serious, Isabel. You found someone you thought was a good person and followed your heart. There’s no crime in that.”

She drew in a weary breath and looked down at her brush. Reaching over, Max lifted her chin so that she would meet his eyes.

“Some day, you’ll find someone,” he told her, offering her a loving smile. “You’re bright, you’re pretty – who wouldn’t want to be with you, Isabel?”

She worked her mouth. “How am I ever going to know if someone is just using me to get to you or one of the others?” she asked. “How will I ever know if someone is being sincere?”

“I guess you can’t know until you try,” he told her honestly. “I wish I could tell you there was some secret to seeing into peoples’ souls, but there’s not. But that doesn’t mean that you should give up. There’s someone out there who is going to love you like you deserve to be loved. Don’t give up on that.”

One corner of Isabel’s mouth turned up into a playful smirk. Never did she think she’d be taking romantic advice from her brother. Almost as though he shared the same thought, Max’s ears turned red and he laughed in embarrassment.

“I know what you’re trying to say,” she said, letting him off the hook. “And I appreciate it, Max, I really do. But I just need time.”

He squeezed her hand and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “You take all of the time you need, Iz. Whoever is out there will be willing to wait for you.”

As he started to leave her room, he turned around and took one last glance at his sister. Her wounds were deep this time, but he knew in his heart that she would recover eventually. Isabel was a strong woman – she wouldn’t let this keep her down.

At home, Max found Liz lying on their bed and staring tiredly up at the ceiling. She was still wearing the same clothes she’d been wearing all day – she was filthy. Grinning, he swooped in and gathered her up into his arms. She let out a shriek of laughter and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“What are you doing?” she laughed as he walked them down the hallway.

“Unleashing my phenomenal cosmic powers,” he joked as he kicked in the bathroom door. He gave her a kiss and she groaned. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m too tired to unleash anything,” she confessed.

He shrugged. “Yeah, me, too. Wishful thinking. But we’re both dirty, so let’s just get into a nice hot tub.”

They lay in the warm water for a seeming eternity, the healing effects of the bath salts soothing their aching muscles. Max cradled Liz against his chest and warmed the water every now and then with a little puff of his powers.

“Do you worry about what might happen to us?” she asked sleepily against his chest.

“What do you mean?”

“If all of the things Isabel mentioned come true, do you worry that some day we won’t be us anymore? That we’ll be different people somehow?”

Max drew in a long breath, pondering that question. He had to admit that he didn’t really want to be a master of the universe. But if that was a result of being with Liz, then he would more than readily accept it.

“I think that we’ll always be the same people underneath,” he answered. “We’re always going to love one another.”

Liz smiled against his damp skin. Then her mind drifted back over his fantasy, the one she’d seen when she’d broken him from Carter’s spell. “Max?”

“Hmm?” he answered sleepily.

“I saw your fantasy.”

Max’s eyes opened a little wider and he glanced down at the top of her head in surprise. She lifted her head and met his gaze.

“I know why you want to go back to that time and place, and I think that you’ve forgotten something,” she said.

“What have I forgotten?” he asked curiously.

“That everything that has happened between us - be it mistakes or accidents or acts of bad judgment – everything has brought us here, to this moment. To change any of it might change what we are now and I don’t want that.” She rolled over onto her stomach so that she was lying against him. “I want this, I want now. I want you, Max.”

Max gave her an appreciative smile and kissed her for a long time. When he pulled away from her, he brushed her hair away from her face. “If Carter had been able to mindwarp you, what would your fantasy have been? What is it that you want more than anything?”

Liz smiled. “Maybe that’s why he couldn’t mindwarp me, Max.”

Max raised his eyebrows questioningly.

“I have no fantasies. I’ve got everything I want right here.”

THE END

* * * * * * * * * * *

Hey, there everyone! I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who took the time to read this and the one before it! Sorry about the confusion as to who Liz was feeling in the last part - wrote that when I was really tired I think most of your questions were answered in this last part, so I didn't answer any fb individually. But I do appreciate you all taking the time to read and leave comments - I know it takes time to do so and I am grateful

What happens now? Perhaps a sequel to this one in the future. There are certainly possibilities For now, I'm going to continue working on my depressing GZ story

Take care, all
~ Karen