What more will they learn about their powers, you ask? Well...they discover that they might be able to 'share' all of their powers afterall. In other words, all eight of them might be able to mindwarp, blast, dreamwalk, create lightning, manipulate fire...just imagine the possibilities! 
sylus27 - I don't want to say too much about the dupes' fate because it would ruin it for you. Let me just say...the dupes might just be too dangerous to be much of a help against Kivar. However...that doesn't mean that their story is complete.
nibbles2 - LOL! No, Kyle doesn't ever change his shoes. He's a typical guy with one favorite pair of tennis shoes that won't be replaced until they fall apart at the seams.
RhondaAnn - Brilliant observations! Yes, the gang was seeing Serena's memories and yes, their long trip down 'memory lane' helped the dupes find them. Oops.
ultimatepickupline - Thanks! I'm glad you liked the longer chapter. The next fic has longer chapters like that...although I haven't written in any major cliffhangers on that one yet. I'll have to work on that I guess.
Timelord31 - I tried not to make you resort to daily PMs for a new chapter.
I was almost successful...I hope this chapter was worth the wait!Jennifer24 and tequathisy - Sorry for the wicked ending! It was a little bit fun though, right?
A/N: Thanks for all the compliments on that last chapter! I promise, that cliffhanger wasn't meant to torture my readers.
I just had to have a bit of fun before the end...yes, you read that right...this fic is almost complete. *sniff* But on a sunnier note; this is definitely not the end of the series. I've already got 16 chapters of the third installment written so I hope you guys stick around for the rest. Enjoy!Disclaimer: The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended.
Chapter 31: Lines Have Been Drawn
FBI Director, Peter Adams, was barking orders into a walkie-talkie. His days as a field agent were long gone but there was no way he was going to ride the sidelines on this one. Currently, he was flying down the highway in a black SUV, working feverishly to mobilize the rest of his team. He had already dispatched agents to the Roswell crew’s location in the hopes that they would be able to prevent the impending attack.
His team had been completely blindsided when they listened to the audio footage of Liz’s vision. They realized immediately that the imposters were going to give them the slip and launch an attack on the Roswell group. Adams didn’t waste one moment questioning the validity of Liz’s vision. He immediately dispatched his entire team to Orlando, Florida. Even the agents on ‘imposter duty’ were sent out to the sunny state armed and ready.
The bug planted on Kyle hadn’t failed the FBI yet. Thank God he hadn't bought new shoes! Barely 12 hours after Liz's vision, Adams found himself reeling over all he had learned. At this point, the Roswell crew knew about the FBI’s involvement in their lives, they knew that the FBI was on their side and they had somehow even managed to read Serena’s memories via Liz’s vision. Amazingly, Serena had been completely unaware of the incident, so apparently the kids didn’t actually go into her mind directly. Today would be a day for the history books; Adams just knew it.
Urgent messages started flooding the SUV. The vehicle was equipped to be a mobile base of operations. The entire thing was outfitted with the latest in communication technology. Adams’ driver didn’t even bat an eye when the gadgets in the SUV lit up like a Christmas tree.
“We have visual confirmation! The eagle has landed. I repeat…the eagle has landed!” Harrison barked, referring to the sudden arrival of the dupes.
“You know your orders! Everybody move!” Adams yelled into his walkie-talkie.
*******************************************************
On one side of the park was a large group of armed FBI agents. On the other side, Courtney crept up and watched from the shadows. Directly between the two newcomers, less than a yard away from the distracted podsquad, the evil trio leered triumphantly.
“Not a threat? I’d say that’s an understatement, wouldn’t you Isabel?” Rath sneered.
Dozens of FBI agents started pouring into park, not caring whether they were seen or not. Harrison and Serena were at the head of the pack, clad in full riot gear, weapons ready. The entire team surged forward, hoping they still had time to prevent Liz’s prophetic vision from taking place.
“Rath!” Isabel gasped. Rath grabbed her and motioned for Lonnie and Tess to begin their attack.
The two women wasted no time. They immediately fired off blasts in all directions. They knew that they had to do as much damage as possible before the Royal Eight had time to join their powers. With Isabel separated from the others, there was no way they could join now anyway.
At that very moment, it seemed like the scene started to unfold in slow motion. FBI agents were flooding the scene. The royal soldiers joined the fight and started blasting at Tess and Lonnie with as much power as they could muster. The dupes were blocking the blasts of their attackers with larger ones of their own. Alex was blindly rushing forward to help Isabel.
Max threw his hands out and struggled to shield the rest of the group with one hand while blasting at Tess with the other. He desperately wanted to blast Rath right out of his shoes but he was too afraid he’d hit Isabel in the process. Fire shot from his outstretched hand as he focused his fury on Tess.
Liz was too preoccupied with feigning off Lonnie’s advances to add her power to Max’s shield. He was getting stronger and she knew his shield would hold without her help. For now, she adopted a defensive stance next to Michael and Maria and unleashed a torrent of blasts at the evil trio. Things were so crazy; she didn’t even notice that she was shooting out crackling bolts of lightning between each blast…just like Michael and Maria.
Rath had Isabel by the hair, twisting her neck violently. She lashed out, flailing her arms and kicking at him with as much strength as she could muster. After a very well placed kick to the groin, Rath leaned over in pain but never released his hold on Isabel. He gave her a mild electric shock to the back to stop her kicking. He smirked as he thought about how stunned her friends would be when he teleported her directly to his ship while they were too busy fighting for their pathetic lives to notice. Unfortunately for him, this smug plan was overlooking one crucial detail. Alex Whitman.
Alex charged at Rath, growling in disbelief. No one hurts his Isabel…no one. If he had known how to blast, Alex might have killed Rath on the spot. Instead, he lashed out at Michael's vile look-a-like with a quick punch directly to the windpipe. Rath dropped to one knee, gasping for air. As soon as he lost his hold on Isabel, she grabbed Alex’s hand and they ran over to join the others. They abruptly vanished from sight as they ran. Max blinked in surprise, panicking at their disappearance. Seconds later, they reappeared and Max dropped his shield to let them back in.
In the split second the shield was down, Tess landed a searing blast to Ava’s leg. Kyle turned on her in fury. His hands were balled up in fists, flames rising up his arms, engulfing his biceps. His face was a terrifying mask of fury. Then, in an instant, he just disappeared. Tess looked around in confusion for a moment, not believing her eyes. Seconds later, she stumbled forward as a massive ball of fire hit her from behind. Kyle reappeared at Ava’s side as Tess dropped to the ground, trying to put out her flaming shirt.
The FBI agents watched the chaos unfold with frantic disbelief. They couldn’t get anywhere near the battle because Max’s shield and the violent blasts of colored light forced them to keep their distance. They didn’t know how to proceed at this point. The Director and the President had authorized them to use deadly force against the imposters if necessary but…the Roswell crew hadn’t. If the Royals saw the move as threatening, it could mean deadly consequences for the agents on the field. Soon, the choice would be taken out of their hands.
While Liz rushed over to heal Ava, Michael and Maria continued furiously blasting through Max’s shield. It was very obvious that the dupes’ powers had grown exponentially after their training on Antar. Fortunately, Michael and Maria were both furious enough to match the dupes’ powers blow for blow. Max’s shield was taking such a beating from both the inside and the outside that he couldn’t hold it up any longer.
As Max’s shield fell, the FBI agents closed in and the dupes started firing directly at all of the unprotected people before them. Liz was so busy tending to the injured; she didn’t notice Lonnie carefully aiming a blast straight for her. Suddenly, a massive weight slammed into her side and knocked her to the ground. When she looked up, the man she knew as ‘Professor Harrison’ was standing protectively in front of her, pointing his rifle directly at Lonnie.
“You can try to shoot me young lady, but I promise you that my finger will pull this trigger before I go down.” He threatened, fixing Lonnie with a challenging look.
Max heard Liz yelp in pain and turned to see an FBI agent standing over her. His concentration was interrupted just long enough for Rath to hit him with a massive bolt of lightning. The violent energy leapt from Max’s body over to Alex and Isabel as well. All three of them dropped where they stood, hair singed, fingernails blackened.
Serena saw the three fall in complete horror. They were obviously stunned. Defenseless. She reacted on sheer instinct. She rushed forward, gun drawn, and stood defensively in front of the wounded group. She knew her gun was no match for the firepower the aliens possessed but she couldn’t stand idly by while that imposter killed three innocent people. Rath fixed Serena with a cold smile and prepared to unleash a fatal blast. Max raised a smoking hand and created a small, flickering shield around Serena. She was trying to protect them and he couldn’t allow her to die as she had in Liz’s vision.
Michael and Maria stood back to back and called down a wall of lightning to surround their wounded group. The barrier blocked out the evil trio’s blasts, but most of the royal soldiers were now trapped outside the shield as well. Michael let out a string of curses that would’ve shocked even him in any other situation. He was going to get those soldiers killed if he didn’t think of something soon.
Maria squinted her eyes and started panting as she focused on something unseen outside the lightning barrier. “I think I’ve got a shield around the soldiers!” She yelled to Michael. Sure enough, they could just barely make out a faint purple flicker outside the tangle of lightning surrounding them.
“I can’t tell if I’m shielding the dupes or the soldiers!” Maria said in alarm. “I can picture the shield around the soldiers in my mind but I don’t know if what I’m seeing is real or just wishful thinking…”
“Which one of you is in charge?” Harrison yelled over the chaos. He was still hovering over Liz, although they had both now moved over to where Max, Alex and Isabel lay.
Jim Valenti stepped forward, his service revolver drawn. “Mind telling us why you’re asking?” He challenged. The other parents stepped forward as well, as though they could protect the kids with their bare hands. Judging by the conviction in their eyes, at this very moment, they probably could.
“I have men ready to take down those imposters as soon as I give the word. I am asking you, point blank, is there any reason I should delay that call?” Harrison said in a rush.
Michael and Maria sustained their lightning shield while considering Harrison’s offer nervously. This man was asking for permission to kill someone? How could they agree to something like that? On the other hand, how could they say no when the trio had the power to kill every royal soldier outside the shield?
“When you say ‘take down’, if you mean temporarily incapacitate them…then go for it.” Maria said hesitantly.
Ava was helping Liz tend to the wounded when she heard the exchange between Harrison and Maria. She looked up in alarm. “Drop your shield Maria! If you’re shielding the dupes, the Feds won’t be able to get anywhere near them!”
As Maria nervously lowered her arm and released her hold on the purple shield, Harrison barked orders into his walkie-talkie. There was so much static from the lightning barrier that he wasn’t sure his instructions were even being heard. A moment later, it was obvious that the electromagnetic disturbance from the massive shield had likely fried the agent’s electronic equipment.
“If I fire off a flare, will it penetrate this shield or will it just bounce back at us?” Harrison asked Michael in a rush.
Michael frowned. “I have no idea. Hang on…”
Michael and Maria shifted slightly and above them, an opening appeared in the dense tangle of lightning. Maria looked to Harrison and cautioned, “I hope you’re aim is good…”
Harrison raised the flare gun and pulled the trigger. Liz propped herself up from her position near Max and created another shield around the group in case Harrison’s flare bounced back at them. A tiny ‘pop’ could be heard above the loud crackling of the lightning shield. Seconds later, the deafening sound of gunfire confirmed that his flare had been seen and his orders had been carried out. Suddenly, there was silence on the other side of the shield. Harrison called out to the rest of the agents, telling them to stand their ground and keep their weapons ready. After a tense moment, Michael and Maria dropped their shield to survey the damage.
The evil trio lay bleeding from several painful looking gunshot wounds. The agents stood their ground, weapons trained on the enemy. Liz eyed the surrounding agents nervously as she prepared to finish healing her friends. There was no point in hiding her powers now but it was still scary to display them so openly with FBI agents on the scene.
Michael and Maria approached the royal soldiers surrounding Rath and his crew. It broke their hearts to see that a few of the soldiers had been fatally wounded in the short battle. Maria felt a temporary rush of relief when she saw that none of the soldiers had been injured by the gunfire but the feeling quickly vanished when she realized they had died protecting her and her friends instead. Michael instantly thought it was his entire fault for trapping them outside the lightning barrier. Kaden stood at attention as his Commanders approached.
“What are your plans for these three Sir?” Kaden asked stiffly. Underneath his tough exterior, he was in pain. He had lost friends today. His sadness was so raw; most of the podsquad could feel it as though it was their own.
“Kivar doesn’t take failure well I assume, right? He’d be really pissed off at these guys right about now I bet…” Maria mused with an angry glint in her eyes.
“They attacked in broad daylight in the middle of a public park. If we let them stay, you know they'll attack again and next time, innocent bystanders could get caught in the crossfire." Kyle chimed in. Ava limped over and looked down at the dupes with distaste.
“Kivar doesn’t know the meaning of mercy. It might be a death sentence…” She added.
“Or, maybe it will send a message that we’re not going down without a fight this time.” Isabel said as she approached with Alex. Liz and Ava had managed to heal all but their singed hair.
Max and Liz trudged up in exhaustion. “Kivar might let them live so that he can use them as royal figureheads for a bit longer…” Liz pointed out.
“He’ll probably cover the whole incident up and keep them around for appearances. He’ll never let them forget they failed though. Their days are numbered no matter what we do.” Max added bitterly.
The answer was obvious. The evil trio would be sent back to the palace, wounded and empty-handed. The Royal Eight would join their powers as they had done the last time they faced off against the dupes and create a vortex to send the trio back to Antar. The FBI agents watched in complete fascination as the gang proceeded with their plan. Agent Harrison, the resident physicist, marveled at the spectacle occurring before his very eyes.
As the light from the vortex faded, they could still hear Rath screaming, "Nooooo!" His cries were reduced to a numb silence as the vortex disappeared from sight.
No one seemed to know what to do next. The park was destroyed. It looked like a bomb had fallen right in the middle of the picnic area and the surrounding trees were on fire. Much to everyone's dismay, it looked like the motel next door was quickly being consumed by the blaze as well. The entire Roswell crew eyed the surrounding FBI agents with concern. There was just no way they could 'fix' this now.
The brunette agent from Liz’s vision approached them carefully. “I understand that you probably don’t trust us yet, and for good reason I suspect, but you really can’t stay here. In this park I mean…we have to get a clean up crew in here to survey the damage. We have arranged a place for you to stay…not a military base of course, but a private ranch in the Rocky Mountains. We could take you there right now if you’re ready.”
Max nearly had a panic attack on the spot. The FBI was trying to trick them somehow. He was sure of it. They had taken him once but there was no way he was willingly going to let them take him again. Liz could feel Max’s fear but she wasn’t so sure that this was a trick. The brunette woman from her vision had tried to protect her friends, just as she had foreseen. They had to make a decision quickly and this was not the time to react out of blind fear.
“Answer one question first and then we’ll think about it.” Liz began. “Do you still think we’re brave? After everything you saw here today, after you watched us deliver the dupes to our greatest enemy…do you honestly still admire our bravery?”
Serena was shocked to hear Liz quote a passage from her journal. They must have seen it during their walk through her memories. She wasn’t angry of course. To be honest, Serena had felt honored they had chosen her of all people from Liz’s vision to connect with. Sure, this question was out of left field, but Serena knew exactly why Liz was asking.
“There’s not a doubt in my mind that you are good people. You can tell a lot about a person by the choices they make in impossible situations. You couldn’t let those imposters go free, but you didn’t want to kill them in cold-blood, while they lay defenseless either. To answer your question, yes, I do still think you guys are brave.” Seeing the doubtful looks on a few of the Roswell faces, Serena looked at each one in turn and explained further.
“Max shielded more than a dozen people while leaving himself exposed, hoping to find a way to get his sister away from that guy impersonating Michael. Liz dashed from one wounded person to the next, dodging blasts the entire time, risking her own life to heal others. Kyle had a chance to kill Tess but he didn’t…even though he easily could have. Michael’s impersonator seems to be the strongest one of that bunch, yet Alex faced him head on to help Isabel anyway. I saw the pain on Michael’s face when he realized that your guardians were trapped outside that shield, completely unprotected. It broke his heart! Last but not least, when given the chance to let someone else take out the imposters, Maria asked that they only be incapacitated…not killed. We still have a lot of questions about where you come from and why you’re here, but there isn’t one agent out here that questions whether or not you’re good people.” Serena said with conviction.
**********************************************************
From the woods at the edge of the park, Courtney watched in fascination as the Royal Eight prepared to make a new alliance with the FBI. It was an odd turn of events that she never could have predicted. She had known for weeks that the FBI was following both the royals and the dupes but she never imagined that they would choose sides.
She had shown up at the park today, intending to subtly tip the scales in the Royals’ favor. She wasn’t there out of loyalty or friendship. She had simply showed up because she thought the Royals were at an unfair disadvantage. When she saw the FBI come storming into the park though, her whole plan changed. The Royals didn’t need help at all. Actually, they had held their own quite well, much to her surprise. And now, it appeared that they were going to come out of this grizzly situation with new allies.
Courtney tried to gauge her choices now. On one hand, she could reveal herself as the leader of the Eros resistance, forging an even greater alliance with the Royal Eight and these Earthlings. On the other hand, she didn’t know if these kids were really capable of forcing Kivar off the throne. She had no way of knowing if the royals would even be willing to fight for people they had never seen in this lifetime. Worse yet, even if they did fulfill their destiny and succeed against Kivar, would they be the rulers the Alpha system so desperately needed? Or would they just make everything worse?
Courtney shrunk back into the shadows and made her decision. There would be no alliance between the Eros resistance and the Royals…not yet. She had to think about the needs of her people. Her people needed two things desperately. They needed Kivar off the throne and they needed the right people to take his place. Courtney just didn’t know if the royals had changed enough in this lifetime to be the rulers her people so desperately needed. So instead, she crept back to her car and vowed to watch and wait.
Coming in Chapter 32: "The Dawn of a New Era." The gang finally discovers the identity of the brunette woman from Liz's vision. What will become of the pod squad now that their secrets have been exposed in the worst possible way? Stay tuned...
