Roswell Fanatics

Title: Alone

Author: EmmyAwards

Disclaimer: The usual, ya know? I don?t own these characters yadda yadda. I wish I owned Jason Behr though!

Summary: After Alex?s death Liz is captured by the FBI and taken to Manticore where she meets a friend and must find her way back to Roswell in order to help save the people who left her alone.

Timeline: Roswell - After Its Too Late And Its Too Bad
Dark Angel - Beginning of Season Two.

Author?s Note: Crossover with James Cameron?s Dark Angel. Very sorry about the copious amount of song lyrics I have? but I am obsessed with music? addicted to Roswell yes, but obsessed with music and I just feel that my story NEEDS a soundtrack *laughs*

Theme Song: Alone by Emily Chai Kym (that's moi if you can't guess) Download a rough version of the song from http://emmy.will.id.au

I feel so alone
Have to make this journey
Don't know where to turn
What direction to head in
My heart feels so numb
Am I really living
Being sucked in a hole
Just barely existing

And I just feel so alone tonight
Can you hold me near
Can you hold me tight
And I just want to find someone
Who will be there
Who'll be around
So I don't feel so alone tonight

I remember your smile
How it lit up your face
It calmed all my fears
Helped me face the day
When I needed a friend
You were always there
Never failing to show
Just how much you care

And I just feel so alone tonight
Can you hold me near
Can you hold me tight
And I just want to find someone
Who will be there
Who'll be around
So I don't feel so alone tonight

I know that things haven't been easy anymore
Destiny just keeps on interrupting
But I don't regret a minute of loving you
Its better to have had then have nothing at all

And I just feel so alone tonight
Can you hold me near
Can you hold me tight
And I just want to find someone
Who will be there
Who'll be around
So I don't feel so alone tonight

Feedback: First story ever written and I suck at writing, but some feedback would be appreciated.


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Song For Part One: Broken by Angela Ammons

You, you?re everything I know
I?m happy when I?m sad
Through all the times we shared
Never felt alone
Now, I still can smell your skin
I still can taste your kiss
And that I?ll always miss
And everything you?ve ever been

Now I?m broken without you
I?m broken
Broken without you
I?m broken
Broken without you

I cannot fall asleep
Lying in my bed
Spinning in my head
Thinking how you used to be

Now I?m broken without you
I?m broken
Broken without you
I?m broken
Broken without you

I?m sick of crying it?s all I do
Been counting days to just get through
I?m trying to be strong but it?s just no use

I?m broken over you
Broken without you
I?m broken
Broken without you

You, you?re everything I know
I still can taste your kiss
And that I?ll always miss
Everything you?ve ever been
And I?m broken
Without you


**********


Part One

Liz climbed up the ladder to her balcony and opened her window. The familiar smell of scented candles wafted through the air and she climbed inside. Unpacking the belongings she had packed earlier to go to Sweden she reached for the loose brick in the wall and retrieved her journal. She knew that before she told anyone else what she had discovered, she needed to straighten out her thoughts which were swirling through her head like a giant whirlpool, threatening to pull her under.

May 2nd,
I?m Liz Parker, and I always knew deep down inside that I was right about Alex. Alex didn?t die in an accident, and he didn?t commit suicide, I mean the thought of him doing that is just ridiculous, Alex is just not that sort of person. He was murdered. I knew it, and no one else believed me. No one does believe me, but now, now I may have proof. This picture here was taken on his trip, except that this building was torn down in 1994. 1994? Alex would have been ten. This means that Alex didn?t go to Sweden. The only problem is, if Alex never went to Sweden then where did he go?

I can?t help feel that this is all my fault. All of it. Because Alex was supposed to be there in Phoenix at my wedding, and now he?s not. And? I saw Max kiss Tess at the prom. I know I told him that it was ok, but deep down my heart was breaking? I mean I know it?s meant to be, she?s his destiny after all, but it hit home to me. I?m going to be alone. And I don?t mean just alone in that I?ll never get married, and that I?ll never love another person in my life, but I mean that I?m really, truly alone. Because I believed that Alex was killed by an alien, there is this huge rift between us humans, and the aliens, so Michael, Tess, Isabel and Max aren?t speaking to me, and now Maria isn?t speaking to me either. I?ve lost everyone just because I?m doing what I believe is right. It hurts, and I want so badly to just go back to the way it used to be, but it can?t. Alex is dead, and I owe it to him to find out what really happened.

Anyway I?m going to go to Maria?s house now, maybe if I show her this proof, she?ll finally believe me, and maybe I won?t be so alone anymore.

Liz put a copy of the photo in her journal and put another into her purse, leaving her journal on her bed she climbed out of her window and stepped out into the night. Walking towards Maria?s she passed the Evans? house and glanced at it. The lights were all off and she guessed that Max was happily dreaming in his sleep. Was he dreaming about her? she wondered before shaking the thought out of her head. No, he hates you now remember? she corrected herself. She sighed and tore her eyes from the house only to see a dark shadow on the pavement as it grabbed her from behind. Liz felt a sharp pinprick on the back of her neck, the last thing she saw was her mobile phone falling out of her purse as the darkness enveloped her.


**********

Title: Alone

Author: EmmyAwards

Theme Song: Alone by Emily Chai Kym
(Lyrics are on the first post)

Feedback: First story ever written and I suck at writing, but some feedback would be appreciated.


**********


Part Two

“Welcome to the Crashdown, what can I get for you?” Maria asked the customers before her. Kyle flashed her a concerned smile as the other guys with him looked up and down at the small uniform she wore. She scowled inwardly; she wasn’t ready to deal with all this crap this morning. She was tired, having been unable to sleep after her fight with Liz, feeling like she had lost her two best friends in the whole wide world, infact she really had. She missed Alex beyond belief, and she had no idea what was going on with Liz anymore. The only ray of sunshine in her darkness was that she and Michael had made up this morning before their shifts had started… well… made out would probably be a more suitable term to use, she grinned.

“Maria? Maria?” she snapped out of her daydream to find Jeff Parker calling to her from the door leading to the backroom. Excusing herself from her customers, she made her way over to him.

“Maria have you seen Liz at all this morning?” he asked her. She froze, remembering that Michael had told her what happened between Max and Liz, and that she had gone to Sweden, saying she would tell her parents she was in Florida.

“I erm… no I haven’t Mr Parker, not since yesterday after school.” He glanced at her worriedly.

“Liz left us a note saying that she’d gone to your house late last night and that she’d stay over there.” Maria looked at him in surprise, she hadn’t heard from her at all last night.

“No… I didn’t see her, but my mom could have let her in if I was fast asleep, and maybe she just left in the morning before I saw her. Have you tried calling her cell?”

“Yeah” he ran his hand through his hair tiredly, “no answer”.

“I’m sure she’ll turn up Mr Parker. I’ll keep my eye out ok?” he smiled wearily at her.

“Thanks Maria.”

Maria walked out of the back and headed towards Kyle’s table shaking her head. Great she thought angrily, Liz HAD to rope me into this, I am not covering for her while she’s in Sweden. She could feel her mood evaporate and it wasn’t even lunch hour yet. It was going to be a long day.


**********

Title: Alone

Author: EmmyAwards

Theme Song: Alone by Emily Chai Kym
(Lyrics on First Post)

Feedback: First story ever written and I suck at writing, but some feedback would be appreciated.


**********


Song For Part Three: Goodbye To You by Michelle Branch

Of all the things I believed in
I just wanna get it over with
Tears form behind my eyes
But I do not cry
I'm counting the days that go by
I've been searching deep down in my soul
Words that I'm hearing are starting to get old
Feels like I'm starting all over again
The last three years were just pretend

CHORUS

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything I thought that I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that I tried to hold onto

I still get lost in your eyes
And it seems that I can't live a day without you
Closing my eyes as you chase my thoughts away
To a place where I am blinded by the light
But its not right

CHORUS

And it hurts to want everything and nothing at the same time
I want what's yours and I want what's mine
I want you but I'm not giving in this time

CHORUS

And when the stars fall I will lie awake
You're my shooting star.


**********


Part Three

“Max?” he heard his mom’s voice through the fog of sleep. “Max” she said shaking him gently.

“I’m awake, I’m awake… what is this mom?” he groaned rolling over to face his mother.

“Have you heard from Liz?” she asked. He shifted, and sat up running his hands through his hair.

“No I haven’t, why?”

“Jeff Parker just called. He and Nancy are worried sick, they haven’t heard from Liz all day. All they know is that she left them a note this morning saying that she was going to Maria’s and that she’d be back in a little while.” Max looked surprised; I thought she was going to Sweden? He thought harshly. And she left yesterday so how could she have left a note this morning, he’d seen her with her packed bags, and remembered the last thing she had said to him before driving off in the taxi.

“Somebody killed Alex and covered up his death. Why don’t you see that Max? WAKE UP.”

“Mom?” he asked as she moved off his bed. “Did Liz’s parents find any of her stuff gone?” She looked at him confused for a moment and then replied.

“No honey, they checked that. All of her stuff is there” and with that sentence, Max knew that something was not right.

Fully awake now he tossed off his covers and headed to the bathroom, showered and then knocked on his sister’s door.

“Mom?” she called out as he entered the room, she glared at him as she recognised him, and Max swore that the room temperature had just dropped a few degrees. “Max. Go Away. I’m not speaking to you” she spat out, turning over to face the window. He moved towards her bed.

“Isabel, I know you’re mad at me right now, but this is not the right time. Something has happened to Liz.”

“You said she was in Sweden Max” she said still not facing him. He pulled her arm, making her face him.

“I was wrong. I don’t think she left, and I think something must have happened to her.”


**********

Title: Alone

Author: EmmyAwards

Theme Song: Alone by Emily Chai Kym
(Lyrics on First Post)

Feedback: First story ever written and I suck at writing, but some feedback would be appreciated.


**********

Song For Part Four: Born To Try - Delta Goodrem

Doin everything that I believe in
Going by the rules that I've been taught
More understanding of what's around me
And protected from the walls of love
All that you see is me
And all I truly believe.

CHORUS

That I was born to try, I've learned to love
Be understanding and believe in life
But you gotta make choices, be wrong or right
Sometimes you've got to sacrifice the things you like
But I was born to try

No point in talking what you should have been
And regretting the things that went on
Life's full of mistakes, destinies and fates
Remove the clouds, look at the bigger picture
And all that you see is me and all I truly believe

CHORUS

All that you see is me and all I truly believe
All that you see is me and all I truly believe

CHORUS

But you've gotta make choices, be wrong or right
Sometimes you've got to sacrifice the things you like
But I was born to try.


**********


Part Four

“So tell me why we’re going up to Liz’s room again Max?” Michael said with a hint of annoyance.

“Isn’t this an invasion of privacy?” Isabel commented as she hauled herself over the balcony.

“Her window isn’t even open Max” Michael pointed out. Max pointed his hand at it and it slid up.

“It is now” he said climbing in. He waited for them to get in before he surveyed the room, trying to ignore the flashes of seeing Kyle and Liz in bed together.

“Maria does anything look out of place to you?” he asked her not finding anything different. She surveyed the room before shaking her head.

“No… oh wait isn’t that her journal?” she said pointing to the hard covered book lying on the bed. Michael moved towards it before Max put his hand on his chest.

“Michael, no. This isn’t time to be prying through Liz’s personal thoughts. Michael waved his hand off his chest.

“Maxwell, this is the perfect time to go through her personal thoughts. If Liz is as predictable as I think she is, she would have written exactly what she was doing in there. Max looked thoughtful… Michael had a point. He looked to Maria as though seeking her permission and she too nodded her head.

“Ok but let Maria read it seeing she’s her best friend” he said as he took the journal and placed it into her hands. She turned to the last page and a photo fell out.

“What’s this?” Isabel said picking it up. She teared up as she saw the photo of Leanna and Alex smiling happily in front of a glass building.

“Oh my gosh” Maria gasped putting her hand to her mouth. The others looked at her, and Max moved forward to grab the journal, but she moved away. “Listen to this” she said. “This picture here was taken on his trip, except that this building was torn down in 1994. 1994? Alex would have been ten. This means that Alex didn’t go to Sweden.” The room became instantly quiet, and they stood there frozen.

“What… what else does it say Maria?” Isabel said hesitantly. Maria snapped out of her daze and looked down at the book again.

“I, oh…” she began as Max stood behind her and looked at the words on the page over his shoulder.

“Phoenix? What does she mean by us all going to Phoenix? We’ve never been there before” he asked her questioningly.

“I… oh my gosh…” she said as she began sobbing. Michael put his arm around her and sat down with her on the edge of the bed. He rubbed small circles on her back as she cried against his shoulder, making it hard for the pod squad to hear what she choked out. “Alex… was… supposed… to… be… at… Liz’s… wedding!” she said before sobbing harder. The aliens looked at her in confusion.

“What? Maria what are you talking about?” Isabel asked firmly. Maria said nothing for a minute as she tried to calm her sobs down and then wiping her eyes she said.

“Max came to see Liz from fourteen years in the future and told her that she had to help him make present Max fall out of love with her or it would mean the end of the world.”

“What? That’s preposterous! How do you know it wasn’t a skin or something?” Isabel exclaimed, pacing the floor.

“Because Liz said he could tell the future, that he told her about… about Max serenading her” she said looking at Max. He felt a blush rise to his cheeks as he remembered how corny he was that night. A fat lot of good that did me he thought.

“Max? That’s so corny” Michael said smirking. Maria punched his arm.

“I thought it was cute… anyway she tried doing a lot of things but nothing was working so in the end she asked Kyle to help her.”

“Wait, so Liz slept with Kyle just to make Max fall out of love with her? For what?” Isabel asked. Maria shook her head.

“No. They set it up so Max saw them in bed together. But nothing actually happened. Liz did it because if she didn’t it would mean the end of the world. She said that you and Michael had died.” Nothing actually happened the words echoed through Max’s brain. He had been so hurt when he saw them together, yet deep down a part of him knew it hadn’t been true, even when she had constantly denied that it wasn’t. Now he knew why and it floored him that she was willing to give up so much for them and he had treated her like dirt. Michael and Isabel too, were stunned at this revelation that Liz Parker, who they had been so furious at for hurting Max, had done it… to save them. Both of them felt their respect and gratitude for Liz rise up a few hundred percent.

“Maria what does this have to do with Phoenix?” Isabel repeated.

“Oh… yeah… Future Max told Liz that they got married when they were 19. They eloped, and got married in Vegas at the Elvis Chapel. You, Michael, Alex and I met them halfway and we all went to some dive outside of Phoenix to celebrate.” Max sat down sharply on the bed, Isabel moving towards him to put her arm around him. Yes she was still pissed at him for trying to control her life, but right now there were more important issues to deal with. We got married… so that vision I had when we were in Vegas… it was real… Feeling dazed Max read the rest of the entry before speaking.

“She was going to go to your house Maria… it says so here. We have to find her, she thinks that she’s all alone and I won’t let her. Not after everything she’s done for us” he said adamantly, as Isabel and Michael nodded their heads in agreement. They all stood for a moment before they heard the doorknob twist, causing them to hold their breaths.

“Liz? Hey Liz you left your phone outside Evans’ house man…” he said before noticing the group of people gathered in Liz’s room… nope… they are not Liz he thought to himself.

“Liz’s phone?” Max said moving towards Kyle with an outstretched hand. Kyle flung his hand forward, palm outstretched.

“Uh uh buddy, you ain’t going near this thing.” He said before finding the phone grabbed out of his hands by Maria.

“Kyle, Liz is missing, we think something bad happened to her.”

“Oh shit. What happened?” He said crossing his arms over his chest. Max ignored him and held his hand out to Maria but she refused to hand him the phone.

“Lets see who was the last person she called” Maria began pressing the buttons on Liz’s cell. “She called her private line?” she said in confusion. Max moved over to the answering machine and pressed the button to listen to the messages.

“You have 1 new message…” it began,

“Mmph!” came a muffled noise from Liz.

“Relax Miss Parker, everything is going to be just fine…”

“OMG!” cried Maria flinging herself into Michael’s arms. Max felt his heart shuddering and his world collapsing. Someone had taken Liz.


**********

Title: Alone

Author: EmmyAwards

Theme Song: Alone by Emily Chai Kym
(Lyrics are on the first post)

Feedback: First story ever written and I suck at writing, but some feedback would be appreciated.


**********


Song For Part Five: Happiness by Abra Moore

I didn't know it could feel like this
I didn't know the hurt
And I try to explain to myself
But I can't find no word

So I lie about it
And I tell 'em I'm feeling fine
And I'll cry about it
Hoping tomorrow will change my mind

Happiness has come to this
And God, it's such a heavy burden to bear

I didn't know it could be like this
I didn't know it could go so far
And I try to reveal the part of me
But you can't find no scar

And I lie about it
And I tell 'em I'm feeling fine
And I cry about it
Hoping tomorrow will change my mind

Happiness has come to this
And God, it's such a heavy burden to bear.


**********


Part Five

Liz groaned as she felt the last of the drugs leave her system. Slowly the room came into focus, not that it helped much as she found she was in a pitch black room.

“M…M… Max…” she whispered softly. She wished that she could reach out to him through their connection, but she remembered that the connection had broken after she had left him in the taxi to go to the airport.

“Liz if you go our friendship is over” Max said

“I guess it’s the price I have to pay” she replied getting into the taxi.

She had felt the sudden breakage of it, leaving her feeling hollow and empty. It was funny how she had lived her whole life without it before Max healed her, and now she felt like she couldn’t live without it. She heard the door being unlocked and she steeled herself for the worse… was it the Skins? It couldn’t be Nasedo as he had died that night in Max’s room. Another shapeshifter perhaps? Or the FBI?

“Good morning Liz” the voice said entering into the room. The lights flooded the once dark room making Liz cower from the sudden harshness.

“Where… Where am I?” she asked suddenly understanding just how scared Max must have been when he was in the White Room. Funnily enough, the room she was in wasn’t white, it was just plain old gray brick.

“You’re somewhere where no one can find you” the voice said again. Liz finally had the courage to look at her captor and was surprised to find a woman. She had white blond hair, brown eyes and a malicious demeanor.

“Who are you?” she demanded. The woman approached Liz and cupped her hand roughly under her chin to peer at her.

“My name is Renfro.”

“I want to go home.” Liz demanded. Renfro laughed a deep throaty laugh.

“You are home. I have great plans for you. I know exactly why the Special Unit took you and I plan to use that to my advantage.” She turned and addressed someone standing by the door. Liz peeked and saw a young girl about her age and height. Her long hair was tied in a long braid down her back and she wore military fatigues.

“X5-648, show Miss Parker to her new room and make sure she settles in. You will be responsible for her and should any trouble arise you will report to me. Is that understood?” the girl clicked her heels together and saluted.

“Yes Madam” she said as Renfro walked out, leaving Liz alone with the military girl. “Bitch” she heard the girl mutter.

“You hate her too?” Liz asked her. The girl looked at her and held her hand out to her, helping her off the cold concrete floor.

“How can you not?” she said “my goal in life is to someday shove a stick of dynamite up her butt and watch her skyrocket…” Liz snorted.

“So what’s your designation?” the girl asked Liz as they walked along the drab corridors.

“Designation? Oh you mean my name? Its Liz. What’s yours?” She said, feeling like she could possibly trust this girl. Of course not with the huge ‘Aliens Are Among Us’ conspiracy, but maybe they could plot different ways of bringing about Madam Bitch’s downfall.

“My designation, if you didn’t hear before, is X5-648. But between my unit, and you now of course, my name is Serena.” Liz’s eyes flew open at the mention of the name.

“Serena said… she’s gonna be a friend of yours someday” explained Future Max.

Liz knew that this was the friend Future Max had told her about. Funny how she had still met her even though she had changed the timeline. She wondered how she would have met Serena had they continued on the original timeline. Would she still have ended up in… where was she?

“So um what is this place all about.” Liz asked Serena as she pushed open a door to see a row of beds lining the walls. Liz almost laughed at the sight which reminded her of the old book series Madeline she loved as a child.

In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines,
Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.

“Well…” Serena began, sitting down on one of the beds. “Manticore is a secret government agency whose goal is to create the ultimate soldier. Genetically enhanced killing machines to be exact.” Liz shudder at the thought. She would hate to meet one of these things knowing how scary they sounded. “Anyway, they did this by mixing human DNA with animal DNA, dogs, cats the likes. The first bunches were failures and it was only when the fifth generation was created that they finally had success. Those fifth generation are known as X5” Liz looked at her. X5? Didn’t she say her designation was X5-648?

“So… you’re one of these soldiers?” Liz asked hesitantly. The girl turned lifted the hair off her neck. Liz noticed a small tattoo on her neck, almost like a barcode. “Is… is that a barcode?”

“Yeah that is my designation. I’m one of these soliders, one of the younger ones actually.” Liz processed the information in her brain. She wasn’t scared of Serena, she knew from Future Max that this was going to be her friend, I mean after all she befriended aliens, why not genetically enhanced killing machines?

“So you said you have animal DNA mixed with your human DNA. What sort of animal DNA and is that really possible?” Liz asked, the scientist in her getting the better of her.

Serena looked at her “um all the X5s have Cat DNA, but me and two of my sisters sometimes feel like we have Shark DNA cos we don’t sleep much. What are you some kind of science geek?” Liz blushed.

“Yeah kinda.” Serena smiled at her sensing that she had caught Liz’s interest.

“So what do you want to know?”


**********

Title: Alone

Author: EmmyAwards

Theme Song: Alone by Emily Chai Kym
(Lyrics are on the first post)

Feedback: First story ever written and I suck at writing, but some feedback would be appreciated.


**********


Part Six

They’d been sitting there for a whole hour after the revelation that Liz had been kidnapped. Quiet hiccuping could be heard from Maria where she had her face against Michael’s chest, trying to calm her tears. Isabelle sat with Kyle by the window, patiently explaining everything they had discovered, and had told him about Liz’s sacrifice to save the world.

“So that’s why she asked me to do that. And here I thought that Evans had done something to really piss her off.” He said looking at Max. Max was sitting on the bed staring at the journal he held in his hands, a look of utter devastation on his face.

She didn’t sleep with Kyle, she did it to save the world, save us, and I didn’t believe what I knew in my heart and I…I betrayed her, with Tess… I slept with Tess… Oh gosh… The thoughts running through his head like a broken record. Tears were streaming down his cheeks but he failed to notice them, failed to notice how his hands had started to bleed from the constant digging of his fingernails against his palm. Isabelle and Kyle however noticed as they looked at him, both unsure of just how badly he was taking it, whether he would fall apart if a single word was uttered. They were then surprised when Max slowly raised his eyes to meet with Kyle’s and Kyle say the tears in his eyes, the pain he felt for treating Liz the way he did, and for just a second, Kyle Valenti actually felt sorry for Max Evans. Just a second anyway.

“Kyle” Max voice cracked as he finally broke his silence. Kyle looked at him questioningly. Was he going to be yelled at? Killed by some alien boyfriend on the rampage? “Thank… thankyou for helping Liz even without knowing why she did it.” What the hell? Max Evans is thanking me for pretending to sleep with Liz Parker and breaking his heart? Woah, I never thought I’d see the day… Realising that he should say something he just grunted and nodded his head.

“I… I knew it and yet I still treated her badly…” he began. Isabelle sat beside him and held him close.

“It wasn’t just you Max, we all treated her like dirt.” Max shook his head.

“No… I betrayed her. I… I slept with Tess last night.”

“WHAT?!” screeched Maria. Raising up from her position to stand accusingly before Max. A look of fury and disbelief on her face. He hung his head in shame, knowing that he was going to get a full taste of crazy on the warpath, and knowing that he deserved every second of it, and more so.

“So what? All the lines you fed Liz were pieces of crap? Oh Liz is my soul mate, I’ve never felt like this before, I love Liz… oh let’s sleep with Tess!” she said sarcastically clapping her hands together. Max felt his cheeks burning, everything she said was true. He was barely listening to Maria telling him off, his own heart and mind doing it far better than she ever could. Michael saw this grabbed Maria, spinning her around to face him.

“Enough Maria. Can’t you see he’s hurting as it is?” she wrenched herself free from his grasp.

“Oh and Liz isn’t? She gave up everything for him. She gave up love and happiness for him, and not only did he treat her like scum, he slept with scum too!”

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… it was a mistake… I’m so sorry…” Max choked out as he sobbed into his hands, his outer body shaking as his inner body began to disintegrate. Isabelle hugged him closer, whispering words of comfort to him.

“What are we going to say to Liz’s parents? We can’t exactly tell them that Liz was kidnapped by some government agency or some aliens hell bent on revenge?” Kyle asked. “I mean we owe it to them and to Liz to tell them the truth don’t we?” Michael held up his hand

“We can’t tell anyone, and I mean what if we put her parents in danger, do you think Liz will be really happy about that?” he objected.

“Ok so what we don’t tell her parents. What do we tell them then?”

“Why do we have to tell them anything? Look as far as they know, we have no idea where Liz is. Like them we thought she was going to Maria’s, but obviously she didn’t show. She was upset about Alex, she could have just run off or something for all they know.” Michael said, obviously having made his mind up. They all reluctantly agreed to his suggestion, and decided to leave Liz’s room before her parents caught them in there.

“We’ll find her Max” Isabelle said to him softly as she put her arm around him. She could feel him shutting down and closing himself off from the world.

“How can you be so sure?” Max asked brokenly, a lone tear falling from his amber eyes.

“Because we have to. And when we do, we can all line up and take turns to make the biggest apology known to man or alien kind.”


**********

Title: Alone

Author: EmmyAwards

Theme Song: Alone by Emily Chai Kym
(Lyrics are on the first post)

Feedback: First story ever written and I suck at writing, but some feedback would be appreciated.


**********


Song For Part Seven: This Road by Ginny Owens

A million miles away from anything familiar
A thousand places that I'd rather be
So I choke back the tears and try to find the bright side
Though I find it hard to see though all my suffering
In my heart I know your plan is so much bigger
But this small part is all that I can see
And I beleive you haven't left me here to wander
Still I can't help but ponder where you're leading me

CHORUS
And I ask why this road
Why this way
And this load
Tell me how far must I go
Till I see ...till I know
Why this road

A million miles away from anything familiar
What was it like to be so far from home
Though you came in love
The world misunderstood you
There must have been some days when you felt so alone
But you endured, because there was joy before you
Joy that came because you sacrificed
Since you gave yourself just to spend forever with me
Surely I can trust you'll lead me through my darkest times
When I ask why

CHORUS

From here I can't see
Why you'd choose this path for me
But I don't have to understand to believe
That you know why, this road
Why this way
And this load
You know how far I must go
Till I see
Till I know
Why this road.


**********


Part Seven

“What can you do that’s different?” Liz asked the girl who looked smaller than herself. It was hard to believe that this girl, who looked no older than her, could take out and kill a few dozen men without breaking a sweat.

“Well I can move faster, hear better, see better, react better than any normal human being” she said as she disappeared front in front of her and appeared behind her in the blink of an eye. “I don’t need much sleep; I can hold my breath for prolonged periods. I’m smarter, more agile; heal quicker… that sort of thing”

“It sounds peachy… no downsides to that besides the obvious killing” Serena shook her head.

“Manticore stuffed things up. Got the wires crossed in my brain somehow. I have a chemical imbalance. I get seizures, all of us do. We can also suffer from progeria, my sister Brin suffered from it at one stage.”

“That’s where the body starts to rapidly age right?” Liz asked and received a nod in reply. She opened her mouth to ask another question when she saw Serena stiffen and stand to her feet ready to greet someone. She turned and saw Renfro leisurely stroll in.

“Settling in fast Liz?” she inquired. Liz glared at her and made no movement to answer her. It seemed that she wasn’t waiting for an answer as she motioned to two orderlies who entered the room and began to grasp Liz by the arms. She struggled futilely and looked to Serena with a look of distress. Serena stared straight at Renfro and Liz realised she could not help her, transgenic or not. When Renfro turned her back on Serena to walk out the door, Serena shot Liz a look, clearly apologetic. It was the last thing she saw as she was hauled out of the room and down the corridors to what looked like an examination room.

“Good morning, ready for your medical exam?” A Doctor muffled from behind his surgical mask. He began to run x-rays and numerous scans, taking blood and skin samples and many other medical tests that Liz had never seen or heard of. The tests dragged on and on and Liz thought to herself one night as she lay in her bunk that it would never end. God please let Max and the others find me. Don’t let them leave me here alone, she prayed.

Every day was the same for her. Wake up for inspection, march off to the cafeteria to eat with the transgenics, watch them train, go for tests, go to lunch, more tests, dinner, more tests and then lights out. She didn’t see Renfro until two weeks later.

“Well Liz, it seems that you are a completely normal human being. Your cells are normal, your skeletal structure is normal, everything about you is completely normal.” Renfro said surveying the chart of results she held in her hand.

“Could that be because… oh I don’t know… I am normal?” Liz responded sarcastically. All that time she had been poked, and prodded more times than she could count she kept thinking that she had been extremely lucky that all they had done was conduct numerous tests on her, almost like going to a doctor’s surgery, and had not done anything to her such as what Max had experienced at the hands of Agent Pierce.

“Funny” Renfro replied “But that my dear was just the easy part. Now we want to know exactly what you know about these aliens. I read all about the shooting in the Crashdown and I know that Special Agent Pierce had one of the aliens in his possession; in fact I have all his research from it. It helps doesn’t it, being related to someone like that” she said nonchalantly.

“You’re related to Agent Pierce?” Liz said stunned by this revelation more than any of Renfro’s revelations about her normalcy.

“Well yes of course, his my younger brother” she said. “I’m going to come for you tomorrow morning Liz, and you will tell me everything you know. I have many ways of extracting the knowledge from you, and they are not pleasant let me assure you. With that Liz was taken back to the dorm room where Serena was waiting.

“Liz? Are you okay?” she asked softly as she crouched down towards the girl.

“I… I don’t know. Serena what is she going to do to me?” Liz asked. She saw fear and panic run through Serena’s eyes before she slipped a mask over it. The fact that someone supposedly as tough as Serena was scared was not a good sign, and it made her insides freeze up.

“Its… it’s not good. The torture they’ve put us through before is excruciating to be brutally honest. Some of my siblings have died from it.”

Liz’s heart stuck in her throat. “I can’t tell her anything Serena, how am I going to stop her from knowing?” Scared as she was for herself she was also worried about giving away any secrets that may lead to the people in Roswell, even if they had abandoned her. Serena looked thoughtful for a moment before saying slowly.

“Well… there is a technique that we were taught which would make us forget information…” Liz grabbed her hand.

“Tell me! But… will I be able to remember it all later?”

“Well only if somebody jogs your memory. You could tell me everything that you want and then I can tell it back to you later when it’s safe. Once you start remembering a bit, you pretty much remember everything else.” Liz thought. Can I trust her? What if she’s working for Renfro? But Future Max did say she’d be my friend someday, and I trust Max, from whatever timeline, even if he did break my heart.

“Ok well. You already know why I’m here I assume” Liz said as Serena nodded her head. “It’s true. Aliens do exist.” She said as she began to tell Serena everything that had happened to her life since that fateful day in September last year. Serena listened in silence, only butting in occasionally. She seemed to believe Liz’s story, after all if she was a human/animal hybrid, why shouldn’t there be human/alien hybrids too?

“So Renfro wants this information from you to try and track down your friends and possibly make transgenics with other worldly DNA in them too I’m guessing.” Serena said. She motioned to Liz and the two of them sat on the cold concrete floor with their legs crossed beneath them. Taking Liz’s hands in her own she began. “Ok to make yourself forget, you need to flood your brain with random pieces of junk data. Like strings of numbers, or the alphabet or something.” Liz concentrated on following her instructions, so that by the next morning she was completely exhausted and the only thing she knew about her past was that her name was Liz Parker.

“Good morning Liz, ready to start?” Renfro said breezily as she walked into the door room. The two orderlies appeared behind Renfro to drag Liz out through the corridor to another room. She was strapped down and a laser was placed in front of her eye. It was turned on and Liz screamed at the intense pain that shot through her. “Now Liz, tell me everything you know about aliens.” Renfro began.

“I… I don’t know anything.” Liz said as the pain continued. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10… she chanted in her head as she continued to scream.


**********

Title: Alone

Author: EmmyAwards

Theme Song: Alone by Emily Chai Kym
(Lyrics are on the first post)

Feedback: First story ever written and I suck at writing, but some feedback would be appreciated.


**********


Song For Part Eight: Taking Chances by Abra Moore

I’m taking chances, I wear my heart on my sleeve
I wonder slide, slide under the big sky
Who’s gonna take care of me
I’m not sure if I really want to
I’m not sure what it all means
I just want somebody to talk to, to talk to me

I’m taking chances and I’m talking carelessly
And I am walking backwards into the future
This world is getting too deep
I’m not sure if I really want to
I’m not sure what this all means
I just want somebody to hold on, to hold me

I keep fallin, I keep fallin
And I keep fallin and I keep tumbling under the deep, deep
All I can do now is give up the whole thing
I’m not sure if I really want to
And I’m not sure what this all means, anymore
I’m taking chances, I’m taking chances


**********


Part Eight

“Max? Pst… Max! Get out of bed you lazy bum” came a voice from the darkness. Max groaned and try to shut out the irritating voice going through his head. What kind of nightmare is this that Maria and Isabelle are both here to annoy me to death? He pondered when the quilt from his head was pulled off to reveal two pissed off females.

“Maria? Isabelle?” he greated dejectedly. Since the day of revelations as he had come to know it, his sister had practically dragged a catatonic Max home and somehow got him to bed. Since then he had taken up refuge between the warm sheets, alternating between crying and staring blankly at the ceiling. He knew his family were extremely worried about him. Isabelle had explained to them that he was unable to handle Liz’s disappearance which they understood. Although there was a lot of things about their son they didn’t know, his love for Liz was something that the whole of Roswell had known about. They tried to get him to eat, and eventually he did, only because they threatened to take him to a hospital to be put on a drip. It had gone on for two weeks until this little encounter of the Maria kind.

“Max get out of bed. Don’t you care about Liz at all? Or are you still too busy bed hopping with the blonde bimbo?” she said scathingly. Max sat up immediately.

“Of course I care about her. I love her Maria!” he yelled frustrated. He finally looked at her and saw the tired bags under her red rimmed eyes, the way her hair was tied back in a limp ponytail and how her usual unique style of dress was even more unique than usual, to the point that she was wearing a tracksuit. He finally realised that he wasn’t the only one suffering, and he flashed her an apologetic look.

“I’m sorry Maria. Of course yes, I love her more than anything in the world” he said softer this time.

“Then why aren’t you out there looking for her? Look, we’ve all been busy grieving and dealing with this by getting dragged down into some bog. But that’s not what we should be doing. It’s not what Liz would want. She’d want us to hurry the hell up and find her and that’s just what I plan to do!” she said a look of determination now reflecting in her eyes. He nodded in agreement and got out of bed, stretching his unused muscles.

“Let me just take a shower” he said pulling clothes out of his drawers. As he left the room he heard Isabelle mutter.

“How did you do that? You have GOT to teach me how to get him to listen to me!”

Showered and with more energy than he had in a long time, he found himself surrounded by the same people he hadn’t seen in over two weeks in Michael’s apartment.

“So where do we start looking?” Michael asked as he bit into a slice of Tabasco laden pizza.

“My dad has been gathering all the info he can from Sheriff Hanson on Liz’s disappearance. I’ve brought it all here.” Kyle said placing a folder on the coffee table.

“Well we could start with that I suppose?” Maria asked turning to Max hopefully. Max gave her a weak smile. I doubt we will find anything useful in there if she’s been taken… They all sat down and began to sort through the papers which were mainly about Alex’s death, how she had begun asking questions about it and how she was supposed to be going to Maria’s house. As Max suspected nothing at all useful.

“This is hopeless!” cried Maria as tears threatened to fall from her eyes. She stood up and moved towards the kitchen to get a bottle of Snapple and a hug from Michael.

“Maybe we should drive around? She could have gone to a town nearby here?” Kyle piped up. As they had no other leads and they were all getting restless just sitting here, feeling a need to be actively looking, they all agreed. Max headed towards to the bathroom to relieve himself as his cell phone rang. Michael moved to answer it.

“Yeah?”

“Michael is that you? Where’s Max?” a female voice came through the line.

“Tess? He’s in the bathroom. What do you want?” He asked holding his arm out to keep Maria from prying the phone out of his hands and verbally attacking the alien over the phone.

“Michael let me at her!” she hissed. He shook his head praying to someone out there that Maria wouldn’t kill him later.

“Oh I just wanted to see what he was up to and if he wanted to get together…” she replied as Max walked into the room to see Michael holding his cell.

“Liz?” he asked hopefully. His face fell as Maria stepped towards him and answered.

“No its your beloved Tess” she said emphasising the words. He groaned inwardly and held out his hand to Michael who gave him the phone.

“Hi Tess. Yeah I’m fine. Oh sorry I can’t… yeah I’m going to see some colleges with Michael, Maria and Isabelle. Yeah I’ll see you soon. Bye.” He said hanging up as soon as he could.

“Gee how nice of you to use ME as an excuse when you won’t even let me go to college” Isabelle said snidely.

“Look Isabelle” he said turning to face her. “I was wrong. Wrong about a lot of things. And I tried to control things… and because of that I lost Liz. I lost the thing that meant more than anything else in the world to me. And I don’t want to make that mistake again. So I’m sorry. I want you to be happy and I want for you to decide what you want. But know this Isabelle. I love you and I need you. I know I was incredibly selfish to try and order you to stay here, but I realise I wasn’t doing it just because of the whole alien thing, I was doing it because I can’t bear to lose you too, to be apart from you. Especially after losing Alex, and now more so after losing Liz. You’re my home.” His little speech had caused tears to fall down the cheeks of the once Ice Princess.

“Oh Max…” was all she said as she envelope him.

“I love you too Max. I never realised you felt that way… you could have found a better way to say it you know” she said lightly punching him, but smiling so he knew she wasn’t offended. “We’ll work something out.”

They headed to the jeep and Michael, not trusting the emotional Evans ability to drive, started the engine.

“Where to?” he inquired.

“Just drive” Max ordered. “She’s got to be somewhere.”


**********

Title: Alone

Author: EmmyAwards

Theme Song: Alone by Emily Chai Kym
(Lyrics are on the first post, Song can be downloaded from this http://emmy.will.id.au.

Feedback: First story ever written and I suck at writing, but some feedback would be appreciated.


**********


Song For Part Nine A: Someone Searching by Ginny Owens

Face lost in the crowd
Feet wandering empty streets
Voice crying out loud
Heart aching with every beat

Someone searching
Searching for someone
Everywhere and endlessly
Wishing, waiting
Could there be someone?
Searching for
Someone searching

Soul battered and bruised
Pride wounded and left for dead
Ears deaf to good news
Eyes tear-drenched and sleepless red

Oh I hear the cry
And I know the pain
Can it be denied?
That everyone has been
And will be someone searching

Love standing alone
Hands scarred by the nails of hate
Hope suffering long
Faith urging it's not too late

Someone searching
Searching for someone
Everywhere and endlessly
Loving, longing
Always there's someone
Searching for someone
Someone searching


**********


Part Nine

Pain. Scream. Silence. Pain. Scream. Silence. The thought went over and over in her head like a mantra or some really annoying song you just can’t get rid of.

“Tell us what you know?”

“Who are the aliens?”

“What can they do?”

“Tell us.”

“Tell us.”

“Tell us.”

“I don’t know!”

Liz woke up from her nightmare or did it actually happen? She didn’t know anymore, nothing seemed to make sense. Pain and confusion ruled her world, making her look forward to the darkness which often claimed her as the pain became too intense. She still couldn’t remember anything about herself, only her name and the only thing that kept her from falling into the hole of insanity was Serena. A singular light that shone like a beacon to let her know that there was light at the end of all the pain. That there was a good reason she was doing this. Something to do with aliens according to the questions that Renfro constantly threw at her. Aliens, Crashdown, a shooting… all things she didn’t remember.

“Serena?” Liz whispered to Serena one night. She turned over in the darkness to face the transgenic.

“Yeah?” she said brushing back long dark curls to display two deep brown eyes.

“Are they ever going to stop torturing me?” She asked.

“I don’t know. I hope so, sooner rather than later” she said truthfully.

“I’m so sick and tired of this. I don’t know how much more I can take” she said dejectedly. “I wish… I wish that they’d stop. I wish they’d stop looking. I just want to be left alone. Why can’t they just leave me alone?” she said, her voice rising in distress.

“Shh…” Serena reminded her. Yet her face reflected only sympathy for her. Liz knew that she too had experienced what she was currently going through.

“I wish Renfro would stop. I wish she and all Manticore would go to hell and just leave me alone.”

“Believe me I share your opinion.”

“Have you ever tried to escape?” Liz asked curiously. Serena’s eyes clouded over and she was silent for a minute before responding.

“Once. Twelve people escaped that night. They couldn’t take me, I was too young. They left me here all alone, my brother Zack, Max, Brin, Tinga, Ben, Jondy, all of them. Left me here with Lydecker and the nomalies. Left me here to die most probably.” She said bitterly.

“I’m so sorry” was all Liz could say.

“Will you… will you leave me here too when your friends come to get you?” Serena asked.

“No never. If I go, you’re coming with me. After everything you’ve done for me, how could I not help you? These friends you say I have, they are leaving with the both of us or none of us at all.” God Liz prayed Please don’t let them forget me, please don’t let them leave me here. Please let these friends I can’t remember, remember me…


**********


Song For Part Nine B: What Makes You Stay - Deana Carter

I'm in a place
I never thought I'd be
Don't have the strength
To fight anymore
Or a reason not to leave
So tell me why I still keep holding on
To something I just cannot see

What makes you stay
When your world falls apart
What makes you try one more time
When it's not in your heart
At the end of your rope
When you can't find any hope
You still look at her and say
I just can't walk away
Tell me what makes you stay

I'm not afraid
Of living alone
I was alone before he came
I've been in love
Many times before
But this time's not the same
I've always been the first to say goodbye
Now it's the last thing I can do

What makes you stay
When your world falls apart
What makes you try one more time
When it's not in your heart
At the end of your rope
When you can't find any hope
You still look at her and say
I just can't walk away
Tell me what makes you stay

When it goes this deep
And feels this strong
I can't convince myself
That this love is wrong

What makes you stay
When your world falls apart
What makes you try one more time
When it's not in your heart
At the end of your rope
When you can't find any hope
You still look at her and say
I just can't walk away
Tell me what makes you stay


**********


“It’s not working!” cried Isabelle in frustration as her eyes snapped open and she banged the table. “DAMNIT!” she swore. Maria, Kyle and the pod squad were all in Michael’s apartment, as they had done every single day for the past month since Liz had disappeared. The whole town had been abuzz with gossip about how Liz had run away from home because she couldn’t handle Alex’s death, or how she had gotten pregnant to Kyle and had run away in shame. The gossip had brought the group closer together than every before, Michael and Maria were getting along and even Max and Kyle had struck up an unusual friendship.

Max sighed. So far their search had been futile. At the first whisper of a sighting they had driven out to the location, only to find that she had the wrong skin tone, the wrong hair colour, the wrong eyes, whatever it was, it just wasn’t their Liz. A map hung on the wall of Michael’s apartment, covered in little pins to indicate the towns they had gone to search for her. They were unable to dreamwalk her, unable to find any trace of where she had gone. It was like she had dropped off the face of the planet. It was eating them all alive he knew. They had all lost weight and had huge bags under their eyes. Kyle and Isabelle had started drifting away from all their social groups, not caring whether or not they retained their social status and Max had gone from living to simply existing, a ghost of his former self. Only Tess seemed relatively unchanged, although she tried her hardest to help comfort everyone, particularly him. Since their night together she had tried to wiggle her way into his life, but now that Liz was missing, and he knew the truth, Tess could put on a strip tease right in front of him and he wouldn’t react.

“What about Max?” Michael said abruptly. Max looked at him in confusion.

“What do you mean me?” Isabelle suddenly remembered a situation not so different from this one.

Ava walked towards them, grabbing a chair and then seating it on the ground.

“Liz can do it.”

“What?” she exclaimed turning to face her, “what are you talking about?”

“Max brought you back from the dead, you’ve been changed.”

“What do you mean by changed?”

“Look” Ava said seating Liz down, “there ain’t enough time to explain. You just gotta trust me here. If Max brought you back… you’re different now”


“He’s right Max” she said finally. “When you were in New York Liz managed to contact you, perhaps you can contact her.” She held out her hand to him. “Take my hand Max” and he complied.

Max found himself standing in a darkened room where he could see a line of beds backed up against the wall. He searched for Liz and found her huddled on one of the beds whispering quietly to another figure.

“I’m so sick and tired of this. I don’t know how much more I can take” she said dejectedly. “I wish… I wish that they’d stop. I wish they’d stop looking. I just want to be left alone. Why can’t they just leave me alone?” Max was floored. She hadn’t been taken? She’d run away? She knew we’re looking for her and she wants us to stop? She wants to be alone? He moved towards her to try and talk but he suddenly found himself back in Michael’s lounge room with five concerned faces staring back at him.

“Well” Michael demanded impatiently.

“She… she did run away… she doesn’t want us to find her… she wants us to leave her alone…” he said, the reality of the situation hitting him, he felt himself get light headed and was thankful that he wasn’t standing up for fear of passing out.

“What? No it can’t be true Max” Maria spoke up, tears beginning to pool in her eyes. They slowly and painstakingly got out the details from Max, and by the end of it they were all completely stunned.

“At least…” Michael finally said. “At least you know she’s ok now. You can move on” Max looked at him incredulously Move ON? How can you move on when you feel like part of your soul is gone, when it’s like your limbs have been torn off? Isabelle felt him begin to shut down again and she put her hand on his shoulder.

“It’s really late we should go home. Max? Let’s go home Max.”


**********

Title: Alone

Author: EmmyAwards

Theme Song: Alone by Emily Chai Kym
(Lyrics are on the first post, Song can be downloaded from this http://emmy.will.id.au.

Feedback: First story ever written and I suck at writing, but some feedback would be appreciated.


**********


Song For Part Ten: All You Wanted by Michelle Branch

I wanted to be like you
I wanted everything
So I tried to be like you
And I got swept away

I didn't know that it was so cold and
You needed someone to show you the way
So I took your hand and we figured out that
When the tide comes I'd take you away

CHORUS

If you want to
I can save you
I can take you away from here
So lonely inside
So busy out there
And all you wanted was somebody who cares

I'm sinking slowly
So hurry hold me
Your hand is all I have to keep me hanging on
Please can you tell me
So I can finally see
Where you go when you're gone

CHORUS

All you wanted was somebody who cares
If you need me you'll know I'll be there

CHORUS

Please can you tell me
So I can finally see
Where you go when you're gone.


**********


Part Ten

“Psst… Liz… are you awake?” Hissed Serena as she sat on the edge of her bed. Liz turned and groaned as pain coursed through her body, glad that Renfro had finally given up on torturing her and realising that she wouldn’t say anything. It had only taken lifetimes of pain… and well… two months. During those two months she had endured the torture dealt out by the people of Manticore, and endured her own inner torture, not knowing who she was, or the dealings that had her here in the first place. She knew vaguely that she had been brought here against her will and that unlike Serena; she had lived a life outside of the grey brick walls and outside of the unbelievably high electric fences.

“Yeah” she replied softly sitting up slowly.

“Renfro’s coming down the hall, she wants to see you.” Serena said with wide eyes. Liz could tell that Serena was worried for her. Since she had arrived at Manticore, the two of them had developed a fast friendship. Liz knew everything there was to know about the girl, and in turn, Serena knew everything about her life, everything that she no longer knew. For the first month she had been here she had prayed every night that someone would save her, that the friends Serena said she had would find her just as they had found this Max when he was captured. It didn’t matter that she knew they were far away, having being told by Serena that they were located in Gillette, Wyoming, approximately nineteen hours drive from Roswell, New Mexico. But as the second month passed by, she knew that she was going to be alone, that they weren’t coming to get her.

“Liz” Renfro began “seeing you refuse to tell us anything we have decided to conduct a few experiments ourselves. Of course you know that Manticore’s goal is to design the ultimate solider. Just imagine the potential of an alien hybrid!” Liz froze.

“What… what are you talking about?”

“Why I mean you dear, you’re going to be our test subject. You see, when you’re friend was captured by the FBI they conducted numerous tests on him, and they also managed to get a sample of his sperm. We were able to successfully fertilize some of your eggs that we removed and we implanted them in your uterus. I just got the results back from the lab and you my dear are pregnant. So congratulations Liz” she emphasised, “you’re going to be a mother.”

Serena slipped back into the room after Madam Bitch had walked out to find Liz sobbing on the bed.

“Liz? Liz what did she do to you? What did she say? Did she hurt you?” She asked worriedly, gently stroking the brown mass of hair that made its way down Liz’s back. Liz shook her head.

“I’m… pregnant. I’m pregnant with that Max’s child” she said before breaking down again. Serena’s mind reeled remembering what happened to the mothers of all the Manticore children. They were terminated. She had no doubt about it that once Liz gave birth that she too would be eliminated and she couldn’t bear that. It reminded her of what her own mother must have gone through, and Liz was her best friend, she made a silent vow that she would get Liz out of Manticore and back home, even if it killed her.

“It’s gonna be okay Liz. I promise you on my life that we are going to get you out of here before your child is born” she said determinedly. Liz nodded, her sobs tapering off. She hugged Liz tight and Liz was grateful for a friend in this cold hell to keep her sane. Serena held Liz as she cried herself to sleep. Moving off the bed to let her rest, she began plotting an escape. The gates had been lengthened after the first and last escape from Manticore. Snipers surrounded the perimeter, and there was still the problem of the X7 clones in the bushes. Hive minds… Bat in their cocktail she remembered. She looked up to realise she had wondered to a corridor which she hadn’t visited in many months, and just in time as she almost collided with another X5.

“Watch where you’re going soldier!” Came the deep voice. Realising who it was she addressed him.

“I’m sorry 494. I was busy thinking. I could ask you the same question; you seemed to be in as much of a daze as me.” He flashed her a small smile.

“Ah you can tell. Renfro has us pairing up since the genetics lab is gone.”

“Pairing up?”

“You know, making babies? Copulating?” She flushed red at the thought, desperately hoping that she wouldn’t be assigned to one of the other X5 males in the compound.

“Do you know who I am assigned to?” She asked worriedly. It would be difficult enough to make an escape with one pregnant female, but two?

“No idea. Renfro will inform you eventually. Not all of us are to be paired up immediately. But I’ve been assigned to X5-452, the traitor” he said with disgust. 452? Maxie! She thought wondrously.

“She was recaptured?” She asked. He nodded his head.

“Yeah I hope I’m not going to catch some disease that she got on the outside; I mean its bad enough I’ve been assigned to a traitor like her. Serena nodded half in agreement. She had felt utterly betrayed by her unit as they had left her behind, too little or not.

“Yes indeed. Where can I see the traitor? I need to make her feel welcome” she said spitting out the last word. Better to make him think you really do hate her, rather than let him know that you don’t know what to think. He pointed to the door he had just exited, handing her the key. She slowly walked to the door turning the key, she was more nervous than she had ever been. Just behind the door lay someone from her past, someone who had left her to fend for herself against the evils of Manticore.

“Alec is that you haven’t I made it clear to you already…” she said as she looked up to see Serena. She gasped as she slowly took in the appearance of the girl.

“Who are you?” Maxie asked. Serena stood silently looking at the sister she had once known. Gone was the buzz cut hair, and instead was a girl with straight long black hair and bee stung lips. The only thing that was unchanged was the deep brown eyes that were staring back at her rather angrily at the moment. Oops better say something.

“I’m someone you knew, once upon a time” Serena said cryptically. “I just had to see for myself if you had really come back to Manticore.”

“It wasn’t my choice, believe me. I was captured”

“Of course. I hadn’t expected you to come back to do something heroic like save those soldiers you left behind.” She responded sarcastically. How could I be so stupid to think they’d come rescue me after all these years? Maxie looked at her in surprise.

“Who are you? Do you know where Zack is?” Serena’s heart started racing. Zack was here? Her CO, her big brother?

“Zack is here?” Serena asked incredulously. Maxie nodded a tear slipping from her eye.

“He… he gave his life for me. He shot himself so I could have his heart…” she said beginning to drop her tough girl façade and sobbing. Serena’s anger faded and she went to put her arms around her sister. Maxie immediately tensed.

“Shh… it’s ok big sister. It’s me, Serena.” Maxie’s head shot up in surprise, her eyes filling with more tears.

“S… Serena? I… Oh gosh, you’re still alive… I’m so sorry. We didn’t want to leave you behind. We thought you had died!” she said snuggling her head into Serena’s chest. Serena sat there stunned. They didn’t leave me behind because they didn’t care; they left me behind cos they thought I’d died…


**********