Rating:Not sure what it rates
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, I don't own a thing so don't blame me for it
. Any resemblance to characters, real or imagined is purely an accident. In other words, I made it up so don’t be mad. Summary: Takes place in a different future, one of the many possibilities that opened when Liz changed things. Nothing after End of the World took place.
Author's note: You have no idea how sorry I am that it took so long for me to get this chapter out. I have been working in it since I started classes again, but it just wouldn’t work the way that I wanted it to. I don’t think it will take me anywhere near as long to get future chapters out. A big thank you to all of you that have stuck with me while I kept you all waiting. I really appreciate that you hung around even though I was gone for such a long time. I tried to get a bit lighter for most of the chapter, and I needed the end to help get the plot where I wanted for the next post. I have already started on it, so it shouldn’t take me too long to get it out. But as always, I ask that you have faith. I hope you enjoy
Chapter 11
Michael continued to bang his head off of the wall. His continuous thumping off the wall caused some of the other patrons to look at him questioningly, trying to assess his mental state. Earning nothing but a scowl in return, most of them turned their attention back to their sandwiches. One patron however, continued to stare at Michael with more than a hint of interest in his behavior. This is my chance. I have always wanted a tough, mysterious boy She thought arrogantly, and sat there waiting for her chance.
Michael had been reflecting on the events of the past few days all morning, and it had not improved his mood. His frustration continued to build as he thought about Max and Liz. They were… well, he wasn’t sure where the hell they were, but he knew they weren’t where they were supposed to be. He hated feeling cooped up when his friends might need him, and here he was stuck in a Subway. His eyes wandered over to the counter where he noticed that Tess was finishing up with her order. Finally he thought irritably. We can get out of here. To anyone looking at him, Michael looked like he was ready to bolt for the door. In fact, this wasn’t far from the truth. He was about five minutes from hopping on his bike and going to look for Max and Liz. The only thing that stopped him was he had NO idea where to look for them. Rapidly, he was reaching the end of his rope because he sitting around at school twiddling his thumbs while Max and Liz were gone. More than that though, he was terrified and deeply hurt. Max had always been like his brother; always there for him. Whether he was letting Michael crash on his floor after Hank beat the crap out of him, or getting his father to have him declared an emancipated minor. Max had always been willing to do anything to help Michael. Now, it appeared that Michael was on the back burner. The most important person in Max’s life for the past year (and if he was honest with himself, since third grade), not himself, nor was it Isabel, it was Liz Parker. Not that Michael didn’t understand why Max did it; and, Michael truly believed that he would do the same for Maria if he thought it would make her happy. However, it didn’t make the matter any less painful to be deserted.
The thing that made the situation all the more unmanageable was that he hadn’t been able to fix it. He felt even worse that he had partially caused things to fall apart so spectacularly that Max felt that only way out was to run away from it. Michael once again thought about another time that he failed his brother; when Max was captured and taken to the White Room. It had taken a lot of time, but when Max was finally to talk to Michael about it; he told him Michael, it wasn’t your fault. In fact, if you where around when I was captured, we would both be in there. The only reason that I am free right now is because you came in and got me. Thank you Michael, I really owe you one. Max had forgiven him for failing to keep him safe, and what did Michael do? He forced the ‘destiny’ crap on Max every chance he got. The only person that could have helped Max through his problems was Liz, and Michael set out to push them apart. Michael was fully aware at the time that Liz gave Max the only comfort he ever had, but he push them apart anyway because HE wanted to go home. And the worst part was, he had done all this while HE was avoiding his destiny. Talk about being selfish, Michael never thought about what Max wanted, he only stopped to think about what HE felt was owed to him not about others. Although he no longer acted that way, he was very ashamed that he had in the first place, Max deserved better from him. Regardless of what anyone else thought, Michael knew this situation was mostly, if not entirely, his fault. His mood continued to darken, and he looked ready to snap at any moment.
Maria had been watching her boyfriend all day, and knew that he was very upset with what happened recently. Over the past hour though, he seemed to be rapidly reaching his breaking point. She knew it wouldn’t be good for anyone if Michael lost his temper, so she set out to make it better. Turning to her friends she started to put her plan into action. “Why don’t you three head back? We will be along in a bit, I need to talk to him.” She was wholly determined to help Michael.
“Yeah, sure Maria. Come find us when you get back, we’ll be in the quad.” Alex replied, deciding it was a good idea to listen to his friend. Grabbing his jacket, Alex held out his other hand for Isabel’s and started walking to the door.
“Good luck Maria.” Tess said honestly, following Alex and Isabel to the door.
“Thanks Tess.” Maria responded and turned around to see Michael being accosted by Pam Troy. She briefly wondered if steam could actually come out of someone’s ears. Surely, if it were possible this scene would cause such a reaction. There was Michael looking decidedly uncomfortable and more than a little angry with the school tramp hanging all over him. Pausing for a second, Maria decided that this wouldn’t be a proper place for a fight with the garbage dweller of West Roswell High. Although, she had to make her position as Michael’s girlfriend, she set off to rescue him. That was until she heard ‘… I could show you things you could never dream of. What do you say?’ and saw Pam’s hand reaching for Michael.
In one fluid motion, Maria intercepted Pam’s hand, spun her away, and then stepped into Michael’s embrace. With Michael’s arms wrapped securely around her, she glared at Pam Troy viciously. The resulting flinch from Pam was more than worth the effort.
Michael was not sure what he was supposed to do. He hadn’t done anything wrong but he felt like he had betrayed Maria some how. “Maria, I…” he started, clearly trying to make sure that she didn’t think that there was something going on between he and Pam. His mood worsened even further when he thought they would have another fight when they just got past the whole Courtney thing. He would have said more, but he was cut off by Maria.
Maria was all ready to tell Pam off; but, Michael’s hesitant voice made her reconsider. She decided that, in this situation, non-verbal communication would work better. Suddenly, Maria spun in Michael’s arms, grabbed him behind the ears and kissed him passionately. Neither of them heard Pam’s angry retort, nor did they notice her stomp off in a huff.
A few minutes later, Michael was still in a daze as the car was heading down the road toward the school. He was not really aware of what was going on around him, so he stared out the window. Maria had accomplished her goal; his previous foul mood was momentarily forgotten. Nothing needed to be said and he enjoyed the rest of the ride back to school in companionable silence with his girlfriend, contently holding her hand.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Alex pulled into an open parking space and put the car into park. Looking over at his girlfriend Alex thought today is shaping up to be quite a nice day, all things considered. His hand sought out Isabel’s after he was finished shifting the gear. Glancing at Tess in the rear-view mirror, he noticed that she was antsy. She glanced at her watch and then noticed that Alex was looking at her in the mirror. Blushing slightly she said “I am going to find Kyle, he should be finished talking with his father by now.” She commented offhandedly, or at least she hoped it was offhandedly. “We will meet you guys in a little bit in the quad.”
“Alright, Tess, have fun.” Isabel replied as Tess got out of the car and walked away. Isabel smiled as she watched Tess hurry away while trying to look like she wasn’t overly anxious to find Kyle. “That is so cute; she never did that when she was off to see Max.” Isabel turned to face Alex and asked “Well, Mr. Whitman shall we?”
Raising her hand to his mouth, he kissed her knuckles before replying. “Yes my dear, lets.” They got out of the car and passed the scaffold over the main doors, where the men were repainting the doors, before finding a table in the quad. Each enjoying the beautiful day and especially not having to hide their feelings for each other any longer.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A little while later, Michael and Maria found their friends sitting at the table and joined them. Both Alex and Isabel noticed that Michael was much more subdued than he had been at Subway and gave Maria a small smile that she quickly returned before Michael could notice anything. When she was finished, Maria went to throw her trash away, leaving Michael happily eating his sandwich. He continued to eat until he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was there so briefly that he thought it could have been someone bumping into him until he noticed Isabel was staring darkly at a piece of paper in his lap. He looked down at the paper and realized it was a note. He decided that this was not going to be a good thing, but he opened it anyway. Michael was stunned at what the note said.
I have always wanted a bad boy. Meet me in the eraser room at the end of lunch. No one has to know what we are up to. I swear I won’t tell a soul, not even Maria. Who knows, maybe I could teach you some things that she would love. I bet you could teach me some things too. Remember, the eraser room after lunch.
I’ll be waiting,
Pam
Michael bit his lip to keep from laughing out loud. Out of all of the things he has had happen to him, he had never once been propositioned in a note! He looked up and made the mistake of locking eyes with Maria who was returning from the trash can. She looked at him quizzically and he burst out laughing. He laughed so hard that tears formed in his eyes.
Maria did not like being laughed at. “What is so funny, spaceboy?” She asked in the tone that every boyfriend and husband knows. The one that says ‘I am royally pissed off and if you don’t want me to take it out on you, give me exactly what I ask for and get out of my way.’ Michael knew he had to answer her, but every time he thought of the note he laughed. As the seconds continued to mount, he appreciated that he was risking an explosion of Mount St. Maria, so he handed her the note, and put his head on the table.
Maria quickly read over the note and didn’t say anything. She crumpled the piece of paper and scanned the crowd for its author. Learn something my eye. All he would learn is how to go garbage diving, and what the sewer smells like. Maria spotted the guilty party standing by the main doors. Since it was fun to mess with her before, Maria thought it might be a good idea to have a bit more fun with Pam. This will turn her positively green Maria thought unsympathetically. Unexpectedly, Maria stood up and climbed onto the table. Michael offered her his hand to help her get down, but she pulled him up instead. For the second time that hour she kissed him with all the emotion that she had, and it felt amazing.
Michael was dimly aware of the fact that he was standing on a table in the middle of the quad; just like he was partially aware that all of the students were all clapping. He heard Alex saying something about young love and how it was grand, and he thought Isabel said something like if she wanted to see her brother make out, she would have walked in on Max and Liz. Someone from another table mentioned something about getting a room, and yet another shouted that someone was already in the eraser room. Michael heard all of this, yet he didn’t. None of it mattered to him. In fact, nothing in the world mattered to him other than Maria. She had his full attention, and nothing could divert that. That is until there was a very long, and very loud high pitched shriek emanating from by the doors to the school. Dazed, it took him minute to register what he was seeing. Over by the main doors stood a giant, bright green, blob. It almost looked like a character from a cheesy B horror film of the 50’s. Next to him Maria, who was still safely tucked into his embrace, mumbled “well, I’ll be dammed. It actually worked.” Then she promptly burst out laughing. The whole situation was just too much for Michael and he followed suit.
Alex noticed the crumpled note lying at Maria’s feet and picked it up. Normally he wouldn’t read it, but something that caused that strong of a reaction from Maria was worth reading. He read the note, looked at “the blob,” as people started calling her, and then uttered a line that went down in the history of best one-liners. “Well…” he started deadpan, “it appears that someone is just green with envy.” Thus inciting even more laughter from the crowd.
Isabel was having a hard time trying to breathe so it was difficult for her to properly restrain her boyfriend. She made a valiant, but ultimately futile effort all the same. “Alex…” she started, gasping for air between words “be…be…be nice. This is… no laughing… matter. This is ser… serious.” She put her head down because she couldn’t stop laughing, and Alex wasn’t helping things. She resigned herself to letting Alex get away with this one and tried to wipe away her tears.
A few minutes later, Kyle and Tess finally found their way to the table. “Hey everyone, I leave you for twenty minutes and Pam Troy turns into Swamp Thing. Why couldn’t that have waited until I was here to see it.” He said with a smirk. Then looking decidedly uneasy he changed the subject. “We need to talk.” Sensing that he was faltering, Tess squeezed his hand in support and Kyle relaxed a bit. “I have some news.” The rest of lunch period he spent explaining what was going on with him over the past few days and what his father had said to him earlier. He left out his almost break-down in the eraser room, and Tess was kind enough not to bring it up either. In the end it was decided that they would meet in the parking lot immediately after school ended and would drive to the pod chamber in two cars. Nothing could be done now except wait the hour that was left.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Things were bad for Max and he knew it. He was all alone and there was no one coming to help him. There would be no rescue this time; no one knew where he was. Not even Max had the slightest idea where he was. Struggling to his feet, he tried to prepare himself to face what was ahead. Not quite sure what to expect, he tried to use his powers to light the room. Nothing happened. He tried again, and still nothing happened. He was just starting to get frustrated when he heard a voice from his past; a voice that he knew and chilled him to his very bones. “That won’t work here, your majesty. You don’t have the required skill.” There was a snapping sound; and, suddenly the lights came on.
Standing at the other end of the chamber were six men, all similarly dressed, but each man uniquely individual. Each man wore black pants, a black shirt, black shoes and a golden sash that ran from their right shoulder down to their left hip and up the back; the uniforms of the Council of KHIVAR. They stood in a semi-circular pattern and the man in the center, the head of the Council spoke again. “We have waited fifty years to end this pathetic little charade. We, the Council of KHIVAR, are the true rulers of Antar now and there will be no rescue for your kind. The battle to restore you is going to end now. We will kill you just like we did the last time. Yes, we will start with you and your queen, who will be joining us shortly I would imagine, and then the rest of the royal family, all seven others. You will not slip through our grasp again. To make sure you don’t, until your precious Ava gets here, we are going to torture you.” With that, the man sent a blast of energy from his hand and struck Max in the side opening a large gash between his ribs and hip. Max fell to the ground and passed out from the pain. His last thoughts before blackness overtook him where that at least Liz wouldn’t become involved in this mess.
.