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

[begonia9508]

I should have guessed that it was a mind-wrap, but I am relieved that Isabel and Max could deceive Tess... must have been something carefully
planed from the sister and brother...

But I guess that won't be last time that we will hear from Tess, no?

lol EVE

[Natalie36]

great part. she is one sick puppy

[keepsmiling7]

great part,
Thanks,
Carolyn

[mela3]

Oh thank you, I needed that bright light of hope after all this darkness. Onwards and upwards to fight a new day. I think having Max, Liz and Isabel together will be the winning factor. There is such love between them that the connections will be very powerful.

[Morning Dreamgirl]

Update day!

Cause it was one of the first things I thought when I woke up.

*Sigh*It's Monday.

*Gasp* Update day! Woohoo!

Yay for Monday!"

[max and liz believer]

Ashley (Morning Dreamgirl)

Adulting = not much fun.

Reading Unbreakable = lots of fun!

Hihi

Update day!

Cause it was one of the first things I thought when I woke up.

*Sigh*It's Monday.

*Gasp* Update day! Woohoo!

Yay for Monday!"

I was completely prepared to tell you "No...Sorry...There's no update today", because when you posted that note I had no update and was set on not updating today. But then... Almost exactly two hours after your post, my dear dear editor sends me the next chapter. Edited and ready to be posted. So this is all thanks to her (because I have to admit, I was a bit late at sending her this next part)

Thank you for the feedback and for the enthusiasm


Helen (roswelllostcause)

Please let the pycho Tess be dead! Please please please! Chocolate cake with Tabasco on top?

Let's hope so

Thank you for the feedback!


L-J-L 76

DEATH TO COMMAND, TESS AND ONES WORKING WITH THEM!!!!!!!

You couldn't be more clear And I'm completely with you on that one.

Thank you for the feedback!


Eve (begonia9508)

I should have guessed that it was a mind-wrap

Yeah, you can never be too sure when Tess is around. Let's hope it's the last we've heard from her.

Thank you for the feedback!


Natalie36

she is one sick puppy

Yup

Thank you for the feedback!


Carolyn (keepsmiling7) - Thank you for the feedback!


mela3

Oh thank you, I needed that bright light of hope after all this darkness. Onwards and upwards to fight a new day.

Ugh... Now I feel bad about this next part...

I think having Max, Liz and Isabel together will be the winning factor. There is such love between them that the connections will be very powerful.

I'm really hoping for that as well. They have all the possibilities to become a great - and successful - team.

Thank you for the feedback!


From ONE ONE ZERO:

”We’re gonna stick together as much as possible,” Max told me, his arm warm around my waist, the tips of his fingers pressing comfortingly into my skin. ”We’re stronger together.”

”If we get attacked, we’ll be turned so that our backs are facing each other,” Isabel filled in. ”To keep our backs protected.”

”Only fire blasts to wound, not to kill,” Max said. ”Isabel found a knife earlier. It’s not much, but we’ll pass it between us to slit their throats, conserving energy.”

I shivered at the cold, disconnected way he was discussing slitting someone’s throat.

This is war, he reminded me. They would do it to us, given the chance.

”Where are we going? Do you know?” I asked my alien companions.

”We have our suspicions on a location,” Isabel answered, while Max simultaneously shared a memory image of a map he and Isabel had seen earlier. I could hear faint whispers from their previous conversation, discussing where the majority of the enemies seemed to come from, the routes they were taking.

”Are there any more gates to worry about?” I asked, briefly wondering if we were caught between two gates now or if we had encountered the only ones earlier.

”Not according to the map,” Max replied. ”Not in the direction we’re going.”



”We were in some high security area earlier. And someone triggered the alarm. But you and Tess were on the ’wrong side’,” Isabel made air quotation signs at this, before continuing, ”so it was a good idea for us to run in the direction we did. It just sucked that Tess got a hold of you before the gate closed.”

I nodded. Max was filling my head with the information he and Isabel had gotten their hands on while I had been unconscious, making me feel as prepared as they were.

Which in all honesty was not very prepared at all. But it still felt as if we had a little bit more to go on now than we had before.

Little did I know that I would be face to face with Command in less than two hours.

____________________________________

ONE ONE ONE

A year ago, I had been a small town girl. A normal small town girl, who studied too much and had grandiose dreams of going to Harvard. A small town girl who had yet not figured out what she wanted to do with her life.

My world had been small and I had liked it like that. I had quite enjoyed that the biggest dramas in my life concerned my next exam and whatever life crisis Maria might be experiencing at the time. I had been quite happy about spending my weekends curled up in my bed reading a book or watching a movie.

Outside of school, most of my hours had been filled with working at the family restaurant. I hadn’t minded. Every last cent my parents had given me in wages was put away in my savings account. Because even though I liked my humble and slow-paced life, I wanted to get out of Roswell. I always believed that there was something bigger waiting for me out there. Away from Roswell.

Even in my small town life, I had believed that I was meant for greater things.

Apparently, I had been correct. I was meant for greater things. But it was nothing like I had expected. Nothing that my wildest imagination (and sometimes it was indeed wild) could think up.

But it seemed as if I wasn’t getting out of Roswell. It seemed as if I might just die here. It seemed as if my greater purpose would actually kill me.

Focus, Liz!

The mental order was harsh and annoyed, snapping me back to the surreal nightmare of my reality.

My mind had only wandered for a second, trying to pretend that the blood staining the walls didn’t exist and that the inches thick dust covering some parts of the ground - and which I had to walk through - wasn’t the ashes of aliens.

But worse than the blood and ashes of aliens were the carcasses. Pure aliens turned into ashes, hybrids did not. Hybrids stared at me with their unseeing eyes, their death forcing me to sometimes crawl over their immobile and stiffening bodies.

The closer we got to where Max and Isabel believed Command to be, the more obstructed our path became by an increasing number of fallen warriors.

I felt removed from what was going on around me. I was sinking further inside my own mind, all mental defense blocks going up to shield me from the horrors my eyes were not prepared to see. I knew I would be carrying this around with me forever - if I survived - and something inside of me screamed for me to protect myself from future pain and nightmares.

But the biggest reason why I felt removed from my present reality was Max.

He was acting strange.

He had seemed fine for the first twenty minutes or so - after we had gotten out of our hiding spot and started walking. He had held my hand and kept me close, while he and Isabel had gone through strategies. They had even laughed on occasion - to ease the tension in the air.

Then, Max had started to communicate with me through the bond, while still talking to Isabel. I had witnessed him doing that before, but it still amazed me how he could have two different conversations at the same time.

But his ability to keep a secret conversation with me while strategizing with his sister was not what had made my throat close up. It was not even the knowledge that we were getting closer and closer to the most dangerous alien on Earth.

No, it was that Max was starting to share memories of conversations between him and Tess with me. He had done something similar when Tess had been close, to boil my anger and give me the boost to react, but this was different.

This was intimate.

I was so taken back by his actions that I asked him out loud, ”What are you doing?”, making Isabel stop mid-sentence and look at me with a confused, almost annoyed, expression.

He answered me mentally, You need to know everything about me and Tess.

I frowned. He wasn’t looking at me. While my eyes searched his profile, he kept staring straight ahead.

Why? Tess is gone. You said so yourself. That she wouldn’t survive without the help of a healer. So why do I need to know about her? Before he could answer, I swallowed back the disgust and added, It’s hurting me.

He glanced at me for the fraction of a second and briefly I thought I saw an eye-roll, but I shrugged it off as a trick of the mind.

Don’t be dramatic, Liz, he told me.

I stared at him, my mouth falling open in confused disbelief. It was like meeting the callous version of Max Evans. The popular Max Evans of Roswell High; the public facade. Someone I hadn’t seen since he had yelled at me that we should have sex that day outside of school.

Sharply, I pulled my hand out of his. This time I was certain I hadn’t imagined his eye-roll. This time I even caught his smirk.

I stopped. Isabel slowed her steps, looking back at me over her shoulder. ”Liz?”

The confusion was clear in her voice. But I couldn’t meet her frowning gaze. I could only stare at Max. Max, who was still walking. Not caring that he was leaving me behind, exposed and alone in the middle of a war zone.

Coldness draped over me in an instant, realization hitting me hard.

Shapeshifting.

I took a step back. Isabel stopped and turned towards me more fully, casting occasional glances towards Max, probably wondering why he wasn’t caring.

”Liz, what’s wrong?” she asked. ”You have to keep up. We shouldn’t be separated.”

Who are you? I asked Max.

Someone had taken his shape.

Max laughed. Out loud. Isabel was not in my field of focus, but I thought I saw her briefly smile in accordance with Max.

Don’t be ridiculous, Liz, Max said, dragging my name out in a prolonged hiss. Like a snake. How would I be able to speak with you through the connection if it wasn’t me?

I blinked. The building unease was suffocating. I knew that he was right. I knew that there was no way that he would be able to use the connection if he wasn’t really Max. Sean had become Max, but he had never spoken to me through a connection. Which had exposed him for what he truly was; an imposter.

Which could only mean that it actually was Max, which right now was more horrifying than any alternative. Because that would mean that my Max was different.

Max had stopped walking and was looking at me, a smirk playing in the corners of his mouth with eyes dark and… empty.

I swallowed. What’s wrong? Why are you acting like this?

Stop it, Liz, Max told me, his mental voice sounding amused. We have a job to do. Aliens to kill. Chop chop.

I froze. His last words echoed darkly in my mind. Chop chop.

I looked into his eyes, feeling an unfamiliar type of fear creeping up the inside of my chest, wrapping cold fingers around my heart. Squeezing. Hard.

That’s when everything blinked. For barely a second, the corridor I was in disappeared, Max and Isabel vanished and for the fraction of that second, I thought I saw a dirty blonde girl, her face turned downwards, sitting on the floor in front of me.

Just as soon as it had happened, it was over, and I was back in the corridor, with Max and Isabel staring at me.

”Wh-what?” I stuttered quietly, mostly to myself.

Tightly squeezing my eyes closed for a prolonged second, I tried to figure out what had just happened. Was I hallucinating? Had I finally gone insane?

Max gave his input, reminding me that he could read my mind, ”You’re just tired.”

”Let’s move, Liz,” Isabel pressed testily. She had crossed her arms across her chest, looking ready to tap her foot in impatience.

I quickly scanned my surroundings, verifying that I was exactly where I had been ten seconds ago, and nodded. It was with great reluctance I told them, ”Okay,” and started walking towards the siblings.

Max was right. I was just tired. Exhausted, really. After everything that had happened, I couldn’t really be blamed for seeing things. It could easily make me read into what Max was saying and doing as well. Maybe Tess messing with my mind had left some damage.

The thought made me pause, ice-cold shivers rushing through me, and it prevented me from taking another step. What if she had actually damaged something in my mind? Or even worse, what if she had made some changes to my brain (if that was possible), which would make me start hallucinating?

Don’t worry, babe, Max told me then. She can’t do that.

Gratefully, I looked at his face, being relieved by the fact that what he had just said was more like something that the Max I knew would say. Maybe I had just read into things.

He gave me a small smile. A smile that didn’t sit quite well with me. It was too happy, with a touch of dark intimidation and condescension. My instinct told me to back away. To be honest, my instinct was screaming at me to run, to not trust these people. But that was ridiculous. I forced a small laugh out of me, to shake it off.

This was Max. The love of my life. My soulmate.

And Isabel. His sister. The girl that had helped me heal from the scars left behind from having been held captive by aliens.

I knew these people. They would never hurt me. They protected me.

Max’s eyes were flickering back and forth between mine, signaling that he was reading my mind like an open book, making his smile grow larger and even more frightening.

Goosebumps exploded across my skin.

Run!

”What’s the hold up, Liz?” Isabel sighed, tapping her foot now.

Addressing Max while ignoring Isabel, I told Max frankly, ”You’re acting strange.”

He rolled his eyes.

I blinked.

He had rolled his eyes.

His face turned completely blank, before he said, ”Liz.” He paused, as if he was expecting me to ask him to continue, but I had lost my voice.

After a moment of silence, he continued, ”People die here.” He gestured around us, at the dead bodies, at the blood, at the ashes. Lowering his voice, he spoke slowly - as if to a child, ”Do you want to die?”

I couldn’t tell if it was a question or a threat. I didn’t even find it funny anymore that I had to pose that question to myself.

My throat was dry as I answered, ”Of course not.”

He raised his eyebrows and the tone of his voice stated my stupidity as he said, ”Then let’s move.”

I hesitated. Took a look around. Considered turning on my heel and running in the other direction. Considered making it out of here on my own.

But I knew it wasn’t possible. I wouldn’t survive on my own.

The smile on Max’s face right then let me know that he agreed with me. It let me know that he actually seemed pleased by the fact that I had nowhere to go. That I was trapped - with him.

Right then I knew for certain that it wasn’t Max in front of me. At least, not the Max I had known and fallen in love with. Something had happened. Something terrible. And I had no idea what.

I was certain he was continuously reading my mind, still he didn’t react - not a single emotion on his face - when I straight up refuted his identity.

Instead he put his head to the side and indicated with his finger that I should walk towards him.

Fear was making my heart slam painfully against the inside of my ribs. It was a fear I had not known before. The fear that arose from knowing that even the one you trusted the most, the one whose hands you had laid your life into, had turned on you.

This is why you should be afraid of aliens. Why they cannot be trusted.

How could I have been so stupid?

He had lured me in. A tear spilled down my cheek as I took first one and then a second step towards him and his sister.

I should have listened to Maria.

He had made me fall in love with him. He had made me sacrifice everything for him. He had made me risk my life for him. He had shared my inner emotions and seen my most private thoughts. He had been intimate with me on more levels than what was possible for a human.

My feet felt heavy and my heart was falling apart into small pieces as betrayal seeped into my system like acid. I kept my eyes on his face the whole time, knowing that he was feeling what I was feeling, wanting him to feel what I was feeling. I wanted him to know how much he had hurt me - how much he was hurting me. How he was destroying me.

Judging from the lingering smile on his lips - smiling when I was hurting - I had a feeling that he would not regret what he had done, not even from feeling my pain.

I might as well turn and run into the other direction. Anything seemed better than this.

My world was falling apart. My most basic belief system was not just being rocked, but demolished. This was not merely about being tricked or betrayed, this was marking me as naïve and stupid. I had gone against every natural instinct in my body, against every cautioning about aliens that had ever been made throughout the history of movies and I had still believed that this was special. That this alien was kind. 

I had swallowed it all. Hook, line and sinker. His every story about how misunderstood he was. About how he didn’t feel like he belonged, how he didn’t feel loved. I had fallen for every line about how alone he was and how I was his whole world.

How we would live happily ever after.

I kept walking, my feet heavy and my body stiff. My heart bleeding and my eyes stinging with unshed tears.

I felt like I would explode soon. Anger was building, moving through me like black thick tar, making me clench my fists tighter and tighter, burning me up on the inside.

The anger mixed painfully with the torment in my heart. The anger was the only thing keeping me on my feet. If I let go, gave in to every emotion in my body right then, I would fall. I couldn’t let that happen. I was trying to close off my heart, to wall off the emotions.

I couldn’t lash out on him, couldn’t give in to my anger, and I could see on his face that he knew that as well. He had a dangerous and malicious hold on me.

He could kill me. He could erase my mind (he had done it once already, maybe more times than that - how would I even know for sure?) and take control of my actions. He could make me into the brainless puppet that Sean had tried to make me into. He could steal the right to my own life.

My feet brought me closer to the hybrid siblings, my body constantly alternating between freezing cold and burning up. When I reached them, they turned away from me in unison without a word and started walking, leaving me to trail a few feet behind them. I looked at their backs, traced the color of their hair, the usually familiar shapes of their bodies, the way they walked…

With his eyes no longer on my face, and his back to me, my previously restrained tears started rolling down my flushed and dirtied cheeks, the salt burning into the small wounds on my face.

My breaths were getting increasingly strained as my emotions were becoming less restrained. I was losing control. To stop myself from falling apart, I dug my fingernails into the palms of my hands, biting my bottom lip until I could taste blood.

The insufficient breaths were making my chest burn and bringing me right up to the verge of screaming. With my breath hitching achingly with my deafened grief, Max resumed sending me images of him being intimate with Tess.

It was like being punched in the stomach, robbing me of all air, and there was no longer any way for me to stop it.

The scream started from the core of my being, ripped through my stomach, burned through my chest and shredded up my throat. As it tumbled over my parched lips - its force dilating the small vessels of my eyes - the block in my mind came naturally.

The block that I had never learnt to do, but which previously had successfully and completely torn the alien connection between our minds.

It still worked.

It fell like an iron wall. So forcefully that I could almost feel it. So forcefully that the scream from my lips failed to reach my awareness, separating my mind from my body.

It felt different now. It felt more complete, like a ring around my mind rather than a local wall.

In the fraction of the moment when the block came into place, Max whipped around and snarled, ”Bitch”, eyes black and thunderous, the face of a monster.

And I knew he was going to kill me.

TBC...

[L-J-L 76]

Oh hell no!!!! Please please please please please please please please please tell me that was not Max and Isabel????? Max would never call Liz a bitch and be so mean and cold hearted to Liz. What are the fake Max and Isabel going to do to Liz???? Will Liz run???? Will fake Max and Isabel hurt Liz??? Where are the real Max and Isabel???? Will the real Max and Isabel save Liz???? Will Liz be able to see the real Max and Isabel???? Will Max, Liz and friends survive the war????? Will Liz ever see Maria, her dad and others alive???? Will Max and Liz have a happy ending together????

From:
L-J-L 76

[keepsmiling7]

WOW......I don't know how to react.
It was amazing that Max could talk to Isabel and Liz at the same time through their bond.......
But I don't blame Liz for blocking the intimate imagines of Max with Tess. That was just a sick ploy that Max projected.
Hurry back,
Carolyn

[begonia9508]

OH... MY... GHOD!...

In all my Roswell history and it goes back to 1999, at the beginning of the show, NO Story made me so afraid to read
another update and another part than this one, when you update and this part is the worse one of all of them!

But now, that I have read it again... I guess Liz is mind-warped, even if she didn't notice it and the way things are going, they want her to believe that Max is going to kill her...

I am feeling with Liz so deep and I am wondering how she will go out of it alive...

Thanks EVE

[Roswelllostcause]

What the hell?! I know that there is more going on then it appears. But I have this strange feeling that this might not be Max and Isabel. That this is some trick. Or some how that they are under some kind of mind control! Hurry back!





Helen