Unbreakable - A Beautiful Lie (AU M/L ADULT) COMPLETE 5/5/17 + A/N 5/5/19

[L-J-L 76]

Please come back with more????

From:
L-J-L 76

[max and liz believer]

Please come back with more????

From:
L-J-L 76

Hi everyone!

I'm working on the next part. I've just been on antibiotics for a month and it's making me tired and my head foggy, but hopefully my energy will be kicking back soon enough.

I'm half-way through chapter 113, so my aim is to get it to my editor in the next few days.

Thank you for reading!! And for leaving feedback

Love,
Jo

[L-J-L 76]

Hope you feel better soon. And get your energy back soon too.

From:
L-J-L 76

[Natalie36]

take care of yourself first. We;ll be waiting

[mela3]

So sorry to hear you're not feeling well. It can be hard to recover from antibiotics, so get lots of rest and hydration!

[max and liz believer]

Hi everyone!

Sorry about the delay I'm already working on the next chapter (after this) in attempt to prevent that update from becoming postponed.

Thank you so much for reading and leaving feedback!!

Carolyn (keepsmiling7)

Tess was a sick puppy!
That's awful how she was in Liz's head.

Yeah. Tess was a very "sick puppy", as you call it And no one wants a sick puppy walking around in your head, deciding what your mind sees. Especially not a Tess person...

Thank you so much for the feedback!


Eve (begonia9508)

But I am not really convinced that Tess is dead; the beast must have more than one life...

You cannot never really be too sure, can you? But in this case, you can be rather sure that Tess actually is dead.

And now Command is their next Problem, but they are three People together and we don't know if Command is alone or not!

Command is most likely not alone. Unfortunately. You'll find out the rest in this chapter.

Anyway, a few more parts to read with fear in the stomac... and not only for these three but for me too...

I'm afraid you're right about that. It is not going to be any "easier" chapters any time soon...

Thank you so much for the feedback!


Helen (roswelllostcause)

Tess was very sick and crazy alien! So glad that the real Max and Isabel were able to get to Liz in time. But things are about to get worse I fear.

She was not the most sane person, no. But she's gone now. Your gut feeling about things getting worse is probably right...

Thank you so much for the feedback!


SmileeUK

I am so glad to see the real Max & Isabel!!

Right? Much better than Tess' version of them.

I wonder how powerful the Command is. Never under-estimate anyone!!

You'll find out

Thank you so much for the feedback!


Ashley (Morning Dreamgirl)

I really am predictable, aren't I? Reading and re-reading repeatedly. Maybe it's a good thing we don't live next door to one another. You might have me investigated for stalking if we did.

It would be a lovely type of stalking... But it might result in me not having time to actually write anything, so maybe it would be an extremely unproductive solution. That aside, I would love to live next to you! You know that!

Missing you. Knee deep in boxes, applesauce, chicken stock and soup and a fridge with over 130 eggs.

Ah, so that's where you've been hiding. I'm knees high in diet supplements and antibiotics, trying to beat this lyme disease... Stupid things getting in the way of our communication.

Hey! Wanna move next door so you can take some off my hands? I promise to only harass you ten times a week about this story.

I eat a lot of eggs, so I wouldn't mind taking some eggs off your hands And harassing me only ten times a week? That's a great deal!

Thank you, hun, for leaving a note <3


Natalie 36 - Thank you so much for the feedback!

take care of yourself first. We;ll be waiting

Thank you so much! <3


mela3

It worries me that Tess was able to tap into their (Max & Liz) connection.

It shouldn't have been that easy, normally, but Max and Liz were already worn out by the time that Isabel gets mortally wounded. So all of Max's energy goes to heal Isabel, which made the connection vulnerable. Let's hope it's stronger now, since Command is on the rise.

Do they need to remain touching to ensure their bond is unbreakable?

They shouldn't have to. But...who knows?

I feel like we need more investigating and training, but there isn't any more time.

That's exactly it

Thank you so much for the feedback!

So sorry to hear you're not feeling well. It can be hard to recover from antibiotics, so get lots of rest and hydration!

Thank you so much! <3


L-J-L 76 - Thank you

Hope you feel better soon. And get your energy back soon too.

I do feel much better. Thank you so much for your concern



From ONE ONE TWO:

I felt how proud Max was of me for being able to push Tess out of the connection, and my own admiration of what he had gone through seeped from me into him.

My pain was gone. My body felt warm and rejuvenated. The connection was energizing us, producing energy from our intimacy, and I could feel it refueling a large part of the energy Max had just spent - not just from healing me but also from watching me suffer at the hand’s of his betrothed.

Our connection seemed more complete. Even though the bond had suffered an intruder and had been momentarily severed completely, it was like nothing had ever happened.

Compared to when Max healed someone else, healing me wasn’t draining to him. It felt like his body was healing as well in the process, as though our bodies were immersed in energy, fixing us from the inside out.

The kiss slowed, became gentle and thorough. My hands moved over his broad back, his hands crept into the opening between the bottom of my shirt and the top of my pants, to touch bare skin. We were almost crawling into each other, needing the closeness more than ever.

Tess had been a close call. Too close.

Due to our proximity, it was not odd that I immediately felt when Max tensed and his lips abruptly separated from mine. My eyes flung open just in time to see him whip his head Isabel’s direction, who had moved several feet away from us. I realized that she had been keeping watch, giving us space and time, but also protection.

There was a hum in my head from the recently reignited connection and while I could see Isabel’s lips move, I could not hear what she was saying.

But Max could. His wide-opened eyes snapped back to my face, being fully aware of my oblivion to the most recent development, and there was no mistaken the raw fear in his mind as he told me, ”Command is here.”

____________________________________

ONE ONE THREE

I had not forgotten the darkness. It devoured every attempt at light, suffocated it. It felt like it not only absorbed physical light, but also emotional.

The first time I had seen it was at the meeting in Hondo. The meeting that had gone horribly wrong and ended with Max and I being violently separated. The blackness had surrounded him. Like a pitch black cavity around the contours of his body, where no light could survive. Where all hope and happiness were ruthlessly extinguished.

The second - and last - time I had experienced his bottomless darkness had been in the room that had served as my cell while the aliens had held me captive. He had lifted my body off the ground and plastered me against a wall without laying a single finger on me.

It would be impossible to fully describe the magnitude of my fear as I now looked around the corner of that white wall and registered that his blackness had not become any lighter, nor had it diminished. Rather, it had grown, spreading out around him like long tentacles with the appearance similar to thick, black oil.

The fear that struck my heart, that made it beat slower for a moment as the thick ice cold terror rapidly nestled itself into the muscle tissue, was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Originating from the beating center of my body, the cold tumbled and roared along every nerve in my body, moving into every cell, like a horrible, unexpected tsunami.

I only looked for a second before Max pulled me back, but it was enough to experience the blackness inhabited by the most powerful alien to walk my planet. It was enough to spot the entourage of aliens following him.

That second was enough time to see him kill.

Even though there was no way to know if Command had been responsible for the unsuspected man at the other side of the corridor dropping dead in an instant - since Command had been nowhere close to the man - my gut told me the most probable truth.

Command had simply looked at the man and he had died.

My throat constricted and I found myself without air right around the time Max pulled me back.

Max’s eyes caught mine and they told me… nothing. His eyes were blank.

But his mind told me plenty. Remember, he can control your mind, your organs. He can make your lungs stop breathing and your heart stop beating. So yes, he’ll kill you with a look. Easily.

The fear was too much. I swayed. How the hell had the resistance ever believed that they had an inkling of a shot at conquering Command? How had they ever believed that Max and I would conquer him?!

We’re dead, my mind stated as matter-of-factly as if it had been carved into stone.

In the midst of my fear, I felt stupid. How could I had been so stupid to think that we ever had a chance?! How did I ever let anyone talk me into this?

But we can block him, Max told me then, keeping my eyes locked with his. His emotionless, hard eyes. He had gone into survival mode. Into fight mode. We have to.

I looked at Isabel. Isabel, who now seemed more vulnerable than me despite her being an alien while I was a defenseless human being. Obviously it didn’t matter that you were an alien, since the man I had just seen Command kill had been an alien.

Never look the mayor in the eyes, Max told me then and a memory of the red-haired mayor flashed before my inner eye. Max had told me the same thing at the meeting.

My eyes were trained on Isabel, who was scanning her surroundings - perhaps looking for a way out - while my mind asked Max, Why?

Because he can do what Command can do, as long as he has eye contact. Max paused, making me look back at him. His eyes softened with fear, his pupils so large they nearly obliterated the beautiful amber of his irises. And the mayor has a bad streak of cat-like behavior.

I frowned, mumbling my incomprehension to myself rather than through the connection, What?

But Max heard me anyway, already prepared to provide me with a clarification.

He likes to play, like a cat does with its prey. He’ll kill you for his own sinister pleasure, rather than just kill you. He’ll like to torture you first. You saw how Command just killed that man?

Silently, I nodded.

Max’s lips were thin as he pressed them tightly together. That was a good way to die. Quick.

I was so scared by now that I could barely stand. But adrenaline was pumping into my blood so quickly, threatening to beat my heart out of my chest, that I knew my survival instinct would soon be taking over. By now, I had been in enough life and death situations to know how I would react. My body would push my fear to the side in order to survive. In order to clear my mind and enable me to make quick decisions.

Right now, I was longing for it. I felt like if I had to suffer this fear for any longer, I would be engulfed by it and probably die of fear before Command - or the mayor - even had a chance to get to kill me themselves.

You have to focus on me. On our connection.

I looked up at him. Traced the dark shadows across his facial features. Traced the curves of his lips, the darkness of his long eyelashes, the dark stubble across the lower part of his face.

This might be it. This might be the end. My stomach tightened.

I had a horrible feeling that this actually was the end. That we were going to die.

Stop thinking like that, Max basically ordered me. But his tone was soft, his eyes sad.

Everything in me tightened with painful grief when he reached out and gently cradled my face in his warm hands before bending his head down and bringing our lips together.

Vaguely, I was aware of the tears slowly running down my cheeks as the noise from our surroundings dimmed and my sole focus came down to the feel of his lips, the pressure of his kiss, the warmth of his love.

He drank my sniffles, my fear, my increasing feeling of an impending disaster, and I tried to memorize the exact texture and feel of his lips and the warmth of his skin, the way his hands touched me, because it might be the last time.

Slowly, he pulled back and the sounds around us intensified, painfully hauling me back to reality.

He held my eyes for a long second, his thumb brushing familiarly across my cheek, collecting some silent tears, before he turned towards Isabel and in a loud hushed voice ordered, ”You know what to do, Iz.”

A shiver tightened my chest and I looked over at Isabel. There were no tears on her face, but still it looked as if she was crying. She looked torn, her body stiff, telling us without words that she simultaneously wanted to leave while desperately wanting to stay.

In response to Max’s order, she slowly nodded and closed the meager distance between her and us. Her body was warm, just like her brother’s, when she abruptly pulled me into a hug. I imagined that I could feel her heart beat harshly in her chest as our upper bodies pressed together in that tight embrace.

”Look after my brother,” she whispered in my ear. She sounded strong and determined, even when her voice was breaking with roughness.

I was confused. Which is the feeling I transmitted to her when she pulled back with a small smile on her lips. Maybe it was intended to be a smile of encouragement, but all I read on her face was Goodbye.

When she pulled her brother into a similar - albeit longer - hug, a single tear rolled down her cheek. When she let him go, her stance was stoic, her head held high. With flushed cheeks and wet eyes, she took one final look at us before she turned and walked in the opposite direction. Numbly, I watched her step through the bent bars of the gate and disappear into the darkness of the corridor that Tess had prevented me from entering earlier.

I jumped as Max’s fingers carefully linked with mine. His mouth twitched in the beginning of an attempted smile when I looked at him, his eyes more intense than I had ever seen them.

”I love you,” he whispered softly, his voice thick with emotions. ”I’ve always loved you and I will never stop.”

This was the end.

My eyes stung with the overload of unshed salty tears as I whispered back, ”I love you. Forever.”

He pulled on my hand, pulling me into his side and the protective field was switched on, encasing us in a sheltering bubble.

”Let’s kill that bastard,” he mumbled.

My mouth was so dry I could barely swallow, still I made a hopeless attempt before we stepped out into the corridor, right in front of Command and his men.

It was like my heart froze with fear when Command spotted us.

Without a single hand gesture, without a spoken command, his group of alien followers came to an eerily synchronized halt.

The lights flickered above us.

The corridor was wide, about 15 feet, and Command with his escorts completely filled its width.

One of the lights went out. Died without drama. Simply died. Like the man I had just watched Command kill. He was on the floor now. With unblinking eyes and an unmoving body.

I returned my focus to the group of enemies in front of us. At least 20 pairs of empty eyes were staring at us, the owners of those eyes unnaturally still.

When I was eight years old, my parents had taken me to Las Vegas. We had watched flamingos, lions, gone up to the top of the Stratosphere and stuffed our faces at the numerous buffets.

We had also visited Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. I had nightmares for weeks after that. Nightmares about the freakishly real-looking wax dolls coming to life and running after me. About them trying to hurt me.

It was like being back at that museum. With the wax dolls staring at me with their dead eyes.

This time my mom wouldn’t come running into my room and save me from my nightmares by simply waking me up. This time the wax dolls could actually hurt me. Because this wasn’t figments of my imagination. And my mom was dead.

Everything was on pause. I noticed the mayor in that group of silent individuals, but I refrained from looking at him directly. Their faces were like blank slates, but I had a feeling we must have surprised them. They had, after all, been looking for us just as much as we had been looking for them.

Which is why I naturally assumed that there would be a confrontation of the verbal kind. That Command would announce our arrival in some manner, like the evil guys always did in movies. That classic announcement would be followed by a conversation of some kind, where time would drag out so that the good guys (who were not yet in the scene) would have time to catch up and think out a plan to save the main characters.

But Command was nothing like a villain from a movie. Instead of warming us up to the danger we were facing, he figuratively hit the ’Play’-button after only a couple of moments. Without a single word or facial expression, the group of frightening aliens raised their arms and fired at us in unison.

Our protective field took it all. I felt the blasts reverberate through our bodies in strong waves. Like how you could feel low frequency sounds vibrate through every cell of your body. For a long minute, everything was white. Our field of vision was filled with the white energy blasts hitting the shimmering energy wall around us.

Keeping the wall up demanded immense energy and I could feel the connection thrumming between us, working on overload. I had no idea what Max was thinking or feeling, my concentration completely on keeping the protective field up and functioning. Even if I had focused on Max, to get a feeling of what was going on in his mind, I doubted it would work. The connection was completely in tune with protecting us, foregoing keeping the ’phone line’ between our minds active.

A headache was creeping up the back of my head, increasing with every blinding flash of energy. The light was gnawing underneath the back of my eyelids, like stepping into bright sunlight from complete darkness over and over again.

I felt Max’s intention rather than heard it. Our bodies were working like one, the raising of my arm mimicking his movement to a T. The collection of energy pulling from the center of my abdomen was ridiculously familiar by now. I had done it so many times during our practice rounds that it almost felt like second nature. As if I had actually been born an alien and had spent my whole life practicing energy blasts in my spare time, rather than being a human girl watching movies and learning how to ride a bicycle.

Our shots were fired blindly. We couldn’t see anything. All we could do was fire in the direction from where the blasts originated. Our own blasts went through the protective barrier and disappeared into the white light.

It was impossible to hear much else than the loud buzzing, like the sound high voltage electricity lines would make. Maybe I heard a surprise cry or a yell at times, but I might just as well have imagined it.

With every blast fired at us being absorbed by our shimmering protective barrier, and every blast leaving our bodies out into the room, I was growing gradually calmer. Our energy was not waning as it had done previously, even in response to the strain the connection was under right now. We seemed invincible. United and strong.

The number of blasts fired at us seemed to steadily lessen, working to gradually strengthen my confidence.

It was working. It was actually working.

We might have a chance at this.

I almost smiled at the thought, hope infusing my body with warmth. A tickling thought creeped into my mind. I ignored it at first, focusing fully on collecting energy, bundling it up in my hand and releasing it into the corridor, but it soon became impossible to evade.

What if Command was already dead?

I swallowed back the hopeful feeling, worried that it might distract not only me but also Max. But it remained, lurking in the outskirts of my heart.

What if we had already won?

Then, as abruptly as the attack had begun, it stopped. Like turning off a light.

I blinked. And blinked. It took me a couple of seconds to get my pupils to adjust to the decreased amount of light, to be able to see anything else than the reflections of light still dancing across my retina.

I saw him right before Max did. When he did, his gasped Fuck magnified the jump of fear made by my body when I found myself standing merely two feet from an alien.

His large bottomless black eyes were staring emptily into mine and I could see the blood vessels pulsate across his large conical-shaped brain. The groves along the sides of his face were as dark as his eyes, the edges moving rhythmically like the gills of a fish. There was no mouth where his thin lips had previously been. Instead there were two parallell lines going vertically up his chin, with holes going straight into the lower part of his face.

He was no longer hiding behind his human face, but there was no mistaking who was standing motionless in front of us. There was no mistaking the darkness around his body.

The sight of the monster in front of me made me almost pee my pants. I had not expected him to transform. I had not expected anyone to transform, considering what Dresden had said about shapeshifting and physical transformations demanding energy. But of course, Command was not just anyone. He could obviously do whatever he wanted.

And right now he was trying to dig into our connection by staring at us. It could be likened to someone pushing a screwdriver into your brain through your eye. I fell backwards a step, Max’s grip on my hand tightening while I simultaneously saw the shimmering field separating us from Command thicken. Command became less distinct through the condensing field and I felt the pain in my head ebb. Dimly, I heard Max through the connection telling me not to let Command freak me out; that it was all part of his plan to throw off my concentration.

Command’s plan was a simple, but excellent, one. I hated the sight of him, still I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Those empty eyes positioned in that thick reptilian-like skinned face with those flapping breathing holes made me wish I had never been born.

I wouldn’t give up. I would fight until the end. But I would be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that I was scared out of my wits.

My fear was legit; I could feel our strength weakening. Whatever Command was doing by staring at us was slowly tearing us down. I was fully aware that it might be because he was psyching us - or me specifically - out by not looking human, making us lose our concentration and making us feel vulnerable. Effectively, making us lose faith in our own strength and capabilities.

Max was like a pillar of confidence next to me. I could feel it in the warmth brushing against my side, in the grip of his fingers around my hand and in the calmness through the connection. Either he wasn’t afraid or he knew something that I didn’t. Because I could see that we were losing this fight.

Behind Command I could see some fallen men - our blasts had hit some of them - but I spotted the mayor on his feet, staring at us, and he wasn’t alone. In other words; even if we beat Command, we still had more men to fight.

But the lionesses were stepping back to give over the kill to the lion. It was as simple as that.

Command was becoming clearer as the field was thinning. Max’s voice in my head was also becoming clearer, his whispered phrases of encouragement becoming increasingly desperate with every second.

It was all very still and quiet, almost surreal. Command was slowly weakening our protective field and gradually recommenced his attempts at getting into our connection while we were just standing there. No one was moving. The only movement I was aware of was the blinking of my own eyes and Max’s occasional squeezes to my hand.

Max’s order for me to shoot was not consciously obeyed. I felt my arm lift as if it had been possessed, my eyes never leaving Command’s alien face with the gaping holes, while the energy collected in my stretched out hand. But the battery had run out of power. Command had challenged our connection to the brink of demolition.

I managed a weak energy blast, fired straight at Command, only strong enough to sting him. If it had actually hit him. Instead of at least harming him some, I watched it splash against an invisible wall in front of his face, like a big splash of white paint, before it disappeared.

Command had a protective field too. I shouldn’t be surprised.

It happened too quickly after that. Our protective barrier blinked out, leaving us completely vulnerable. Before Max had a chance to reinstate the field, Command turned his head towards Max in an unnaturally quick manner and in that instant a shockwave went through my body and my heart stopped.

My hand brushed along Max’s leg as I fell, automatically trying to stop my fall. But I had no strength to hold on.

My head hit the ground so heavily it should have hurt. But I felt nothing.

That last second extended into forever. My eyelids moved slowly as my eyes blinked. The concrete was cold and rough against my cheek. Max was already next to me, having fallen at the same time. His eyes were wet as they looked into mine, his mouth moving slightly in slow-motion. Maybe he said something. Maybe his mouth was just moving in a last breath.

In that last second I saw something go out in his eyes, like light fading.

Then the last second ran out and, with that, I died.


TBC... (A/N: Yes, I promise! The story doesn't end here. I will be back!)

[begonia9508]

If I think a the title, I guess I have to believe you... otherwise the Story would have been known "Breakable, no!

Sorry but with all the awful things happening to them both... that was the only thought I had! Thanks EVE

[keepsmiling7]

This is really getting creepy!
Eye contact is scary......especially with the Command.
Then wax dolls from the museum chasing her..........
Sure glad it is daytime and I don't have to worry about this trying to go to sleep!
Thanks,
Carolyn

[L-J-L 76]

All I can say is OH MY GOD!!!!!

From:
L-J-L 76

[SmileeUk]

No No No no no no...........,
It is not happening!!! M&L CANNOT be disconnected!!! Don't let Command play with you. You can fight back!!!! <hurray up>