The Offer (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 41 - 5 / 21 COMPLETE

Finished Canon/Conventional Couple Fics. These stories pick up from events in the show. All complete stories from the main Canon/CC board will eventually be moved here.

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Misha
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Re: The Offer (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 35.2 - pg. 11 - 12 / 7

Post by Misha »

Hey again!

Because I actually managed to update three days after the last part (yay me!!), please make sure you did read part 35.2 on page 11 (Isabel's part). Thank you all for your time!! And I will answer that feedback soon!


XXXV
David


Cont.


* * *


Maria’s giggles were infectious, Max had to admit, as he couldn’t stop a smile escaping his lips. They were now the two sole habitants of the living room, the fire in the chimney making this a very cozy place. Wrappings were around, a half eaten piece of cake in front of her. She was sitting on the couch, legs beneath her, trying to stifle yet another laugh.

“This is the best book ever,” she said out loud to no one in particular, making Max smile again. Jake’s book about zodiac signs had definitely been a hit with the blonde girl, and though Max himself knew Michael was right about this being illogical, he was intrigued all the same.

Now she was happily reading “Man Sagittarius – Woman Aquarius”, and was having one hell of a time, claiming the book described Michael –and her- to the last personal detail. Max was sitting besides her, trying to see if his best friend was really somewhere between those lines.

Behind them, Kyle, Liz and Michael were playing pool as if the world depended on it.

It was one of those weird facts that Max had always known at the back of his mind –that Michael and Liz were both good pool players- but there had never been a pool table to play on for his wife and best friend to learn the other played. Still, with all the presents open, all the cake eaten, and the lonely pool table at their backs, one thing had led to the other.

Get Kyle into the mix, and the game had escalated from a friendly show off to a full blown war.

Isabel had excused herself to one of the rooms, since she was really tired. Liz had shot Max a questioning look that had said loud and clear, shouldn’t you be doing the same? He had smiled at her concern, and had shook his head no. He wasn’t tired at all. He should be, he knew, because he had barely slept… what? Fifteen, twenty minutes? But now he felt well and alert, if maybe a little sparkly. So instead he had started to watch the game, which had gotten boring really fast.

He wouldn’t have minded watching Liz play any given day, but all three of them would take an absurdly long time to plan their shots that soon Maria’s laugh had lured him away from the battle field. Maria had slightly shifted her posture to let him read as she was reading too, not bothering to ask him what he was doing there or why.

“Hey Girlfriend, you don’t get depressed about Liz, I won’t get depressed about Michael and all your alien crap, deal?" Maria had said once on that long summer from hell, placing a Cherry Coke in front of him. That was how Maria was, the kind of friend who knew when to whack him, and when to give him comfort food. It had lasted for about two seconds, after which he had asked if she had heard about Liz and she had said Michael was an idiot and that he wasn’t returning her calls.

He unconsciously placed his right hand over his left hand, needing to feel the reassurance of his wedding band. He absently smiled at the happy nudge he got from Liz as she was winning the game. By his side, Maria reached for the half piece of cake in front of her.

Behind him, he heard Kyle warning Michael that he had sworn he wouldn’t use his powers. Maria smiled at that as she rolled her eyes, placing the cake back on the table.

“You know, you and I wouldn’t even last three days,” Maria had stated one warm night around the middle of that summer. She had wanted to talk to him so he would please, please, please, explain to her what the hell was wrong with Michael. As they had been stargazing over the jeep, she had said that out of the blue. He could see why: He was too passive and she was too speedy. The combination sort of worked with their respective best friends: she with Liz and him with Michael… but not for them, at least not as a couple. A second later, she had said as an afterthought: Michael and Liz wouldn’t even last three hours… Max had laughed out loud for the first time in two months, Maria following him with a giggling fit. No, logical Liz with impulsive Michael…

“You never told Spaceboy Liz is a pool shark, did you?” Maria quietly asked him, effectively bringing him to the present.

“It’s sort of one of those things that never come up in a conversation…” Max explained as he rubbed his right earlobe and slightly smiled. She smiled as well, and then returned to her book. As she did so, she shifted her legs to settle in a more comfortable way, and then abruptly stopped.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch…” she said as she carefully moved her right leg from beneath her and sort of stood with one knee on the couch, and one foot on the floor. “God, I forgot! I took this from Dave’s office,” she said as she took something out of her right pocket. “I thought maybe one of you guys could get a flash or something out of it.”

In her hand was a plain black pencil. By the size of it, it had probably been used a lot. Its sharp point had jabbed Maria’s leg, making it impossible to ignore any longer.

Behind them, the pool game stopped. No more clock- clock sound as the balls collided against each other. Max didn’t even think about it. He reached for the pencil debating if he should go to wake up Isabel or wait a little longer, and was about to ask Michael’s opinion when he took it from Maria’s hand.

And then everything changed.

Everything.

He was no longer in the hut with Maria standing beside him, and Michael, Kyle and Liz looking expectantly at him. There were no happy birthday decorations or half eaten cake. It wasn’t even winter.

It wasn't even the United States.

Later, he wouldn't be able to recall how exactly he knew all these details, just that he had known. He was in a room with both Jake and Ray, somewhere in a very high apartment building. The floor was polished wood, the living room had very big and expensive-looking black couches. It was night, so the city outside was made of a million dots of light. He was only a ghost in this flash, but he still felt awkward and out of place, having to gain his bearings as if he had just teleported to this place and time. In a sense, he had.

"When you have to give a gift to someone who can have anything, you have to be creative," Jake was telling Ray, as he was unwrapping a set of a dozen black pencils, all looking alike. All looking like the one Max had in his hand. Jake took one and placed it aside, and then started to re-wrap the remaining eleven.

"That's part of 'creative'?" Ray asked, his eyes following Jake's moves.

"He doesn't like the number 12," Jake explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I take it eleven is a safe one then?" Ray said, arching his eyebrows.

"All prime numbers are safe ones..." Jake absently replied, and then added as an afterthought, "Thirty-five is not a prime number... he's not going to like this birthday... Last one he got was thirty-one, and now he has to wait till thirty-seven for another prime—"

Without a warning, not even a sound, the flash changed as Jake stopped touching the pencil. Max was in another room, in another time, in another city. It was Dave who sat writing with the black pencil, the study where he was spotless and impersonal. Cold. That was the word Dave had used when he had talked to Jake a few minutes ago. The place was emotionally cold, but it would have to do for this trip. And it was quiet, so it was good for making notes for his upcoming meeting.

He was writing in Arabic, Max noticed as he moved through the flash to stand by Dave. It was so weird to see someone writing in the opposite direction. Susset would call any minute now with the week’s update about the projects she supervised. By his side, Dave eyed the folder he had received earlier in the day. He made a point of knowing all things unusual noted by his research companies, and this certainly qualified as such. A strange high-energy microwave signal, the second one they had tracked that year. Aliens. Of all the things he had thought he would or could discover in his lifetime, this wasn’t on that list. Who was talking to them? And more importantly, what was being said?

The phone rang, and Dave let go of the pencil. The room shifted, making Max dizzy for a second. He focused again on Dave, this time sitting in a leather seat of a private jet. The black pencil was in his hand, of course, and he was drawing circles around something on a piece of paper.

Roswell, New Mexico.

One of the divisions at his genetics companies had been anonymously hired to research a dress with a bullet hole. It had taken some time –and some money- but he had found out that the dress was from Roswell, New Mexico. Aliens again, Dave thought as he looked out of the window. It wasn’t that he believed there were aliens involved in the dress research, but the town in the middle of the desert certainly reminded him of the microwave signal. Nothing else had been found since the signal had been tracked a month before, and frankly, Dave didn’t think he would get to see it again.

He frowned. Maybe Jake would be interested in this bullet-hole mystery. Dave had read the file because something unusual had been found, but biology was not his strongest subject. He had way more interest in interstellar travelling and communication than some weird genes.

“A drink?” the stewardess asked him, coming from behind. Max looked at her, almost afraid that she was going to look at him, but just as he did so, Dave set the pencil aside to receive his Coke.

This time, Max was almost prepared for the shift. He still felt as if someone had spun him around way too fast, but he was eager to know more. To Max’s surprise, it was a woman who was holding the pencil this time. It was Paris, and it was Christmas, he could tell by the decorations. The very spacious apartment was very well organized and clean. Folded over a coffee table lie the wrapping of gifts that were already set in their rightful places. The woman in front of him was around her 30’s, with dark, red hair in a ponytail, a slim figure and very big, very green eyes. She was wearing sport clothes, and she had been interrupted in the middle of her routine. She was now on the phone, taking notes with the black pencil.

“—Got it. Phoenix, Arizona,” she said, writing it now in neat, small handwriting. “You know Dave, it might just be a scam from the media or the hospital… Christmas is a great time to pull stuff like this…” she said in a practical tone as she continued making notations. Call Ian to see about the records. She was already planning how to get the security tapes that Dave had just requested. Ian would be delighted. A job for Dave meant really good money, and the guy needed it. She kept listening to whatever Dave was saying, and she added, list of everyone involved.

“It might take a few weeks to analyze the videos, though… Assuming there’s something to analyze…” she said, trying to think who was the closest photo analyst to Arizona. She wrote down two names, glancing at her laptop at the other side of the living room.

She abruptly stopped at something Dave had said, and then looked down at her hand and the black pencil. “Oh, yes, you left it here. I’m actually writing with it.” She smiled shaking her head. She was sure that she would have to send the pencil via DHL if it weren’t for the fact that she would meet with Dave in two days. The guy did love his pencils, it would seem. He had so many quirks, and Jake was no better.

She threw the pencil to the couch in favor of her computer, and everything disappeared into darkness.

For one second, Max felt as if he had been left in limbo, with no way out. He started to worry, the darkness feeling too oppressive, when he saw a lamp being turned on in front of him. The flash had changed into a bedroom, more windows showing he was at an apartment in a city, lights bright in the dark sky. Night again… late at night.

Dave was the one turning the light on, the pencil already in his hand as he also fetched a notebook he kept by his bed. God, he hated jetlag. He couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t concentrate; he felt half-sick, half-exhausted because he wasn’t able to properly sleep or eat and, frankly, he generally felt like crap. So he turned to his beloved numbers, and started writing some new security codes, then changed to some obscure math problem, then changed again to the security codes, then again to something he was researching, all in the space of twelve seconds. Anything to get his mind in order and restore his internal clock. He went from one problem to the other, his hand too slow to the speed of his mind, ideas forming and then collapsing as others claimed his attention.

Max’s mind went blank. Trying to follow the sense of Dave’s chaotic mind was useless. He could barely understand the concepts behind Dave’s numbers, let alone analyze them at the speed they were coming and disappearing. He was losing the flash but he willed himself to remain there, something he had never done. It was one thing to concentrate enough to get a flash, and another entirely to cling to the one he already had.

He thought for a second someone was calling his name.

A phone rang, and for one instant Dave’s numbers turned to the mathematical formula of the sound, drawing Max’s mind out of his own thoughts and into Dave’s. The only reason Dave had learned to play the piano was because of the mathematical nature of music. He still felt disoriented in this nine hour jetlag, but the reason behind the call intrigued him. So few people had this number, it had to be important.

He checked the ID and then frowned. A Messenger.

“What’ve you got?” Dave answered a second later, the pencil now motionless in his left hand. Messengers only called in emergencies, and he had very few projects now where any information could be considered an emergency.

“You’ve got the main leads of the Phoenix videotape by now?” the voice anxiously asked. Messengers were distrustful types by nature, but they all sounded anxious when they were talking to him. He absently made a question mark in the notebook, wondering why it was always like that.

“Yes, two days ago,” Dave said, his eyes flashing to a manila folder out of reach on a shelf by the wall. Max followed Dave’s gaze to it, knowing that if he could open it, he would find a picture of Michael and himself walking down the hall at the Phoenix hospital. Now that Dave’s mind was going at normal speed, Max could pick these things up. Before leaving his last location, Dave had shared this information with Ray. By this time, Ray was probably setting up camp in Roswell.

“I think there’s another lead…” the Messenger said, lowering his voice, “a dangerous one.”

A dangerous lead meant one that had the resources to follow the trail back to Dave. All Messengers considered this an emergency situation that had to be reported and needed Dave’s awareness and approval. Though discovery was always a possibility in their line of work, rarely what they knew alone was enough to jeopardize Dave’s business. But now he was dealing with aliens, wasn't he? He had to be better prepared to deal with these situations and the people that came with them.

"Explain," Dave said as he got up from the bed, leaving the notebook aside, and a second later, the pencil as well.

The brightness of the place that took shape instead of the shadowy bedroom made Max automatically squint. It was outdoors, a country club maybe, though this Max deduced because Dave's thoughts were anywhere but in the place he was at. The pencil in his hand drummed anxiously away as Dave waited for someone to pick up the phone.

Jake.

The pencil stilled in his hand as his friend finally answered. They hadn't seen each other for a few months, not since Jake's birthday. He wished he was calling for something else, anything else… Instead, this call felt somehow like a setup. He was setting Jake up for something Dave himself wasn't so sure about. But who else can I ask? Dave thought as they exchanged greetings. This is too important for anyone else to handle. And he’s the only one I can trust to continue if I can’t.

“You know, I have the perfect project for you,” Dave cut to the chase, his calm voice belying the uncertainty he felt. This was the point of no return. Even if Jake said no, he had already at least tried to set him up.

Max couldn’t hear what Jake was answering, but he could feel what Dave felt. Jake was joking on the other side, and Dave wished he wouldn’t. Not now, not when he was telling him half truths and steering him where he wanted.

“Maybe both,” Dave answered to some unheard question, and for the briefest of moments he thought that maybe Jake would know better how to handle the situation. Jake was older than him, and had wonderful people skills. Maybe Jake had what was needed to change things.

“What if I tell you that—” Dave started, his mind following his train of thought. That things aren’t what they look like, and I have stumbled onto something bigger than anything else on this planet?

There was a menace, a dark fear inside Dave’s mind that clouded and wiped this thought as it was barely forming. No, he couldn’t risk Jake any more than he was already. In time, hopefully, Jake would know. “—that camera you’ve been working on on weekends has a lot of potential with this project?” he finished his question.

He was baiting Jake and his friend rose to the occasion. It both pleased him and saddened him. If Jake had said no, what would he do? Did he even have a choice of not convincing his friend?

“No,” Dave laughed, fully into the charade, “I was thinking more along the lines the Russians did when they first developed it.”

The special lens, Max knew. They were talking about the camera in Jake’s lab that took those weird images of Max, Michael and Isabel’s energy. The one that showed them in bright blues and light-blues. The one that could have picked up something from Liz right this morning.

Max… he heard Liz’s whisper coming from somewhere he couldn’t quite pin down, but he didn’t let himself get distracted. Why was Dave afraid of bringing in Jake?

“Well, I am now,” Dave continued in his one sided conversation. “Would you be interested in working with…” he trailed off, searching for the right words… Searching for a way out of this, and not dragging Jake into this abyss. “How do you say it? ‘Gifted’ kids?”

He placed the pencil in front of him, but didn’t let it go. How ironic, it was one of Jake’s presents from two years ago. So many things had changed since then. No, he told himself sternly, if there’s someone who can handle this, it’s Jake. If worst comes to worst, he’ll know what to do. He’ll know how to protect them. He let go of the pencil then as he stood up, eager now to tell his friend exactly how gifted these kids were.

Eagerness filled the room where Max found himself an instant later. Eagerness and purpose. This time Max felt dizzy. From total openness to this enclosed space; from doubt and anxiety to this burst of energy from whoever was there. He blindly searched for something to hold until the room stopped spinning. He grabbed a chair. A tall, black, leather chair, and as he looked down, he had to do a double take.

Maria.

She was standing in front of him, her back to him, as she was retrieving something from a drawer. The desk in front of them was covered with an absurdly huge puzzle. Dave’s office, Max thought, as he watched Maria silently closing the drawer and hiding the pencil in her right pocket.

She was both scared and thrilled. She had gone through all the drawers, had searched for any clue she could, and now all she had left was the trash can. She was proud of herself. Proud of doing whatever she could to help them, but she was also disappointed she hadn’t been able to find more. To know more.

To keep them safe.

The dizziness hadn’t stopped. As he watched Maria looking at the trash can, he felt himself falling, losing the flash altogether, and there was nothing he could do to hold on. He had no energy left. Darkness enveloped him as a buzzing started in his ears.

“Max! Goddamnit, wake up!” Michael’s words rushed into Max’s consciousness almost as fiercely as Michael’s shaking him did, holding him so tight by the shoulders that it hurt. Max automatically reached with his hands to Michael’s so he would stop.

“He’s awake!” came Liz’s relieved voice a second too late as Max touched Michael. All the lamps in the living room brightened for an instant before the bulbs exploded in a shower of sparks and shattered pieces, a telltale sign of Max’s and Michael’s energy colliding in a stressful moment. Everyone jumped except Max who was pinned down to the couch, and Michael who didn’t seem to care.

They both locked into each others eyes for a second, as Michael was making sure that Max was really awake and hopefully okay. He nodded once, and let him go, though through their loosely formed connection Max could feel something along the lines of “God, don’t scare me like that”, and then turning to look at the lamps, Michael felt annoyed.

“Are you all right?” Liz said, taking Michael’s place in front of Max. “You sort of fainted for a minute there…” his wife explained to him as he looked blank. This was not a flash anymore, and the dizziness was almost gone by now. He blinked a couple of times, and then nodded to reassure Liz and the others that he was fine. He turned his attention to his right hand, where he had enclosed the pencil. As he opened his fist, only ashes met his eyes.

“We have to talk,” he said, already sorting out the important facts and trying to tie in the little information they already had on Dave.

“Yes we do,” Isabel’s voice said from behind. She was far from looking rested, and Max just knew she had been dreamwalking. It didn’t take much to figure out who the likely candidates were.

He had a feeling that things were just about to change perspective, but he wasn’t sure if he was going to like that or not.


* * *


Author’s Note: The conversation that Max hears between Jake and Dave was already recalled by Jake on chapter 14, just in case you want to read the whole conversation again and see Jake’s POV.
Last edited by Misha on Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:03 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: The Offer (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 35.3 - pg. 12 - 12 / 10

Post by Misha »

Thank you for coming back to read!

Here's the first part of chapter 36.


XXXVI
The Guards



Things weren't going according to plan.

No one knew that better than Kyle. By this point in his life, he was supposed to be heading to some well renowned university, probably with a sports scholarship, being somewhat the town hero, loved by all chicks, making his dad proud, and having one truly brilliant future ahead.

He wasn't even going to contemplate what his future looked like right this moment. All he knew was that it was so not going according to plan.

Oh, who was he kidding, Kyle thought as he was starting to wash the dishes. For all the high tech, someone had forgotten to put a darned dishwasher in the kitchen. They were cleaning the hut now, night having fallen about two hours ago, questions swarming his mind. He was going to end up contemplating his future all night long, especially with all the drama that flashes and dreamwalks had brought on them.

What was Dave after?

They had discussed that for four hours straight, Maria's birthday party clearly coming to an end when Max had practically collapsed on the couch when he had gotten those freaking flashes. Sooner or later, they all knew, the party would have to end because Max needed one last round of straightening things out before his own interview tomorrow, but no one had expected the end to come on such a dramatic note. Besides, Maria still had to tell how her own interview had gone.

Someone's onto him, Max said, rubbing his eyes as if he had been staring for too long at the computer. Kyle wondered if he was having a headache, and then thought that Max would just wave his hand and make it disappear. Darned handy healing powers. Why couldn't he have inherited those?

Like the Special Unit? Maria had asked. By now they were all taking their seats around the living room, Michael pulling Maria onto his lap, Liz snuggling closer to Max, and Isabel and him taking the larger coach. No snuggling or laps for either of them. Which was just sad…

Like someone dangerous, Max had answered, sitting upright, holding Liz closer. I saw… I saw so many things. Max had locked eyes with Michael, almost as if searching for some kind of answer. It was at times like this that Kyle truly felt human… and so out of the alien vibe. Not so long ago, he would have been more than happy to leave it like that, but now… it was annoying.

What do you mean? You got to see him talking? Got a look around? Michael had chimed in, making Kyle wonder what exactly a flash looked like. He'd never had one.

I saw… several things. Like several flashes. I think I must have seen at least three or four different people holding that pencil. The pencil, by the way, was nothing more than a memory now, the ashes scattered along the rug, Kyle guessed. Would alien powers clean ashes? Kyle idly thought as he kept washing the dishes.

So Max had told them in as much detail as he could recall what he had seen, finally putting a face –or a description, really- to Dave's assistant, Susset; also painting a weirder side to Dave and his numbers; and generally making them feel uneasy about Dave feeling like he was dragging Jake into the alien abyss.

He fears for Jake's safety… Max had trailed off, and Kyle had to give credit to Dave. After all, having three highly powerful beings exploding screens and shattering glass could be described as a dangerous job. But then, if you couldn't trust your best friend to do the job, how could Dave hire some random guy in a white lab coat and thrust him in the room with three very stressed hybrids? Or at least, that's how Kyle had interpreted it.

Finishing with the plates, he went for the glasses, his hands full of soap, and his mind full of doubts. Right on the heels of Max's comment about Jake, Isabel had come clean with her "illicit" dreamwalking. At least Kyle had known about Jake's dreams since she had already told him all about it right before the party had even started, but the fact that she had finally managed to get into Dave's dreams had been unexpected. Why would the guy be sleeping at 4 o'clock?

Isabel's revelation that it had taken her this long to dreamwalk Dave had set uneasily in all their thoughts. Both Max and Michael had been really scared she had risked herself by doing that, but they were equally eager to learn what she had discovered.

They escaped from somewhere, Isabel had said, looking anguished. I don't know what. It might be they were runaways… There was something that really scared Dave when he was a kid. And Jake helped him get away. I think Dave used to worship Jake when they were kids… He cares too much about Jake to bring him to any kind of danger… I don't think he sees us as the danger, but something else... Something else scares him.

The problem with dreams was that it was all speculation. None of them had taken Isabel's words warmly all the same. What did it mean that almighty Dave was afraid of a big, bad wolf? Nothing good, that's what, Kyle knew. And right now, the enemy of my enemy is my friend didn't quite apply. For them, everyone seemed to be the enemy. At least Dave had come pretty much clean with his offer. The FBI wouldn't have been so friendly. Putting the Pod Squad's talents for the highest bid on the market wasn't in their plans either. And all this without even factoring in enemy aliens.

No, by all means they needed to hide. Dave was their safest bet right now.

He received a call about something… a dangerous lead I think. He's afraid of being discovered… Max had said, looking at Michael again, who had nodded. They already knew Dave was very jealous of his privacy. This was a point they could exploit. One of the very few cards they had in their defense. I wouldn't risk threatening Jake, that would backfire on us, but we really are valuable to him. He wouldn't have brought Jake into this project otherwise.

It was a little chilly to see Max and Michael discussing strategy like this. It reminded Kyle of his dad, in a weird way, but it also reminded him that their lives were always in the balance. It was easier for the hybrid trio to adapt to this because they had lived fearing the worst all their lives. But Kyle... Well, he would just have to get used to it.

Maybe he was just cranky because for one afternoon, for a precious few hours, he had been reminded how normal life could be over a pool game. Even if Liz was kicking his butt in said game.

Thinking about how valuable they were -well, if he was going to be honest, how valuable the Pod Squad was, the three humans were just along for the ride- actually melted his crankiness away. If Maria was right, the six of them could be sitting on a small fortune right now. If, by some miracle, they lasted four or five years in this place, they would be financially secure for... well... a very long time. Assuming, of course, that Dave was telling the truth and would respect his side of the deal and actually pay them.

It’s business, Maria had said, shrugging, when Kyle had asked if Dave would actually keep his promise. They didn’t really have much to go on but a somewhat guarded blind faith here, Kyle knew. He wondered what would really happen if they decided to go, and then come back, just to see if Dave would follow them or respect his side of the deal and leave them “unprotected”. An interesting idea, sure, but one that could go horribly wrong.

The bottom line was they were still unsure about what Dave wanted. He’d told them he wanted to pretty much profit from what Jake could learn from them. He’d told Maria they were an opportunity. He’d dreamed that they were tricky to protect when Isabel had entered his subconscious, and he’d half lied to his best friend to get him on board while holding a pencil that would eventually give this information to Max.

Dave’s mind was worried with details about them, both Max and Isabel had agreed, and that at least gave Kyle a little peace of mind to know the guy didn’t have evil thoughts floating around. Weird, sure, but so far it seemed relatively harmless. In the best case scenario, Dave sounded like some twisted guardian who had the right intentions for some dark, unknown reasons. In the worst case scenario, one of these days Kyle was going to wake up to find his three friends had been shipped to some lab and never would hear from them again.

Between those options, he’d let Dave have his dark and unknown reasons if it meant he had the right intentions and was going to see them through. Besides, Kyle reluctantly admitted to himself, whether Dave was guardian or jailer, at least Kyle had felt normal in this place. No lookout in the window. No FBI to speak off. Maybe they had relaxed a little too much, he thought, but he’d missed the feeling.

His fingers illuminated for a second with tiny green sparks, making Kyle stop in his tracks. The dishes were drying now and Kyle had been finishing cleaning the kitchen. Closing his eyes, he knew he had to tell Max about this, and the guy was already pretty stressed out reviewing with the others the last details of their interviews.

If Kyle started to suddenly spark all around this place, maybe the conditions of the deal would change. Normal took on a whole new meaning when it wasn’t just where you were that defined the normalcy of your life, but if you sparked or not.

Kyle took a deep breath. Maybe if Dave was the guardian, then he wouldn’t really care. Maybe. But all the same, things were most definitely not going according to plan.

* * *
Last edited by Misha on Sun Feb 08, 2009 8:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Offer (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 36.1 - pg. 14 - 2 / 5

Post by Misha »

Hi guys!

Thank you so much for coming back to read :) Here's the next part! This chapter has two more parts before I get to Max's interview, so we're getting closer :D


XXXVI
The Guards


cont...

Things weren't going according to plan.

No one knew that better than Kyle. By this point in his life, he was supposed to be heading to some well renowned university, probably with a sports scholarship, being somewhat the town hero, loved by all chicks, making his dad proud, and having one truly brilliant future ahead.

He wasn't even going to contemplate what his future looked like right this moment. All he knew was that it was so not going according to plan.

Oh, who was he kidding, Kyle thought as he was starting to wash the dishes. For all the high tech, someone had forgotten to put a darned dishwasher in the kitchen. They were cleaning the hut now, night having fallen about two hours ago, questions swarming his mind. He was going to end up contemplating his future all night long, especially with all the drama that flashes and dreamwalks had brought on them.

What was Dave after?

They had discussed that for four hours straight, Maria's birthday party clearly coming to an end when Max had practically collapsed on the couch when he had gotten those freaking flashes. Sooner or later, they all knew, the party would have to end because Max needed one last round of straightening things out before his own interview tomorrow, but no one had expected the end to come on such a dramatic note. Besides, Maria still had to tell how her own interview had gone.

Someone's onto him, Max said, rubbing his eyes as if he had been staring for too long at the computer. Kyle wondered if he was having a headache, and then thought that Max would just wave his hand and make it disappear. Darned handy healing powers. Why couldn't he have inherited those?

Like the Special Unit? Maria had asked. By now they were all taking their seats around the living room, Michael pulling Maria onto his lap, Liz snuggling closer to Max, and Isabel and him taking the larger coach. No snuggling or laps for either of them. Which was just sad…

Like someone dangerous, Max had answered, sitting upright, holding Liz closer. I saw… I saw so many things. Max had locked eyes with Michael, almost as if searching for some kind of answer. It was at times like this that Kyle truly felt human… and so out of the alien vibe. Not so long ago, he would have been more than happy to leave it like that, but now… it was annoying.

What do you mean? You got to see him talking? Got a look around? Michael had chimed in, making Kyle wonder what exactly a flash looked like. He'd never had one.

I saw… several things. Like several flashes. I think I must have seen at least three or four different people holding that pencil. The pencil, by the way, was nothing more than a memory now, the ashes scattered along the rug, Kyle guessed. Would alien powers clean ashes? Kyle idly thought as he kept washing the dishes.

So Max had told them in as much detail as he could recall what he had seen, finally putting a face –or a description, really- to Dave's assistant, Susset; also painting a weirder side to Dave and his numbers; and generally making them feel uneasy about Dave feeling like he was dragging Jake into the alien abyss.

He fears for Jake's safety… Max had trailed off, and Kyle had to give credit to Dave. After all, having three highly powerful beings exploding screens and shattering glass could be described as a dangerous job. But then, if you couldn't trust your best friend to do the job, how could Dave hire some random guy in a white lab coat and thrust him in the room with three very stressed hybrids? Or at least, that's how Kyle had interpreted it.

Finishing with the plates, he went for the glasses, his hands full of soap, and his mind full of doubts. Right on the heels of Max's comment about Jake, Isabel had come clean with her "illicit" dreamwalking. At least Kyle had known about Jake's dreams since she had already told him all about it right before the party had even started, but the fact that she had finally managed to get into Dave's dreams had been unexpected. Why would the guy be sleeping at 4 o'clock?

Isabel's revelation that it had taken her this long to dreamwalk Dave had set uneasily in all their thoughts. Both Max and Michael had been really scared she had risked herself by doing that, but they were equally eager to learn what she had discovered.

They escaped from somewhere, Isabel had said, looking anguished. I don't know what. It might be they were runaways… There was something that really scared Dave when he was a kid. And Jake helped him get away. I think Dave used to worship Jake when they were kids… He cares too much about Jake to bring him to any kind of danger… I don't think he sees us as the danger, but something else... Something else scares him.

The problem with dreams was that it was all speculation. None of them had taken Isabel's words warmly all the same. What did it mean that almighty Dave was afraid of a big, bad wolf? Nothing good, that's what, Kyle knew. And right now, the enemy of my enemy is my friend didn't quite apply. For them, everyone seemed to be the enemy. At least Dave had come pretty much clean with his offer. The FBI wouldn't have been so friendly. Putting the Pod Squad's talents for the highest bid on the market wasn't in their plans either. And all this without even factoring in enemy aliens.

No, by all means they needed to hide. Dave was their safest bet right now.

He received a call about something… a dangerous lead I think. He's afraid of being discovered… Max had said, looking at Michael again, who had nodded. They already knew Dave was very jealous of his privacy. This was a point they could exploit. One of the very few cards they had in their defense. I wouldn't risk threatening Jake, that would backfire on us, but we really are valuable to him. He wouldn't have brought Jake into this project otherwise.

It was a little chilly to see Max and Michael discussing strategy like this. It reminded Kyle of his dad, in a weird way, but it also reminded him that their lives were always in the balance. It was easier for the hybrid trio to adapt to this because they had lived fearing the worst all their lives. But Kyle... Well, he would just have to get used to it.

Maybe he was just cranky because for one afternoon, for a precious few hours, he had been reminded how normal life could be over a pool game. Even if Liz was kicking his butt in said game.

Thinking about how valuable they were -well, if he was going to be honest, how valuable the Pod Squad was, the three humans were just along for the ride- actually melted his crankiness away. If Maria was right, the six of them could be sitting on a small fortune right now. If, by some miracle, they lasted four or five years in this place, they would be financially secure for... well... a very long time. Assuming, of course, that Dave was telling the truth and would respect his side of the deal and actually pay them.

It’s business, Maria had said, shrugging, when Kyle had asked if Dave would actually keep his promise. They didn’t really have much to go on but a somewhat guarded blind faith here, Kyle knew. He wondered what would really happen if they decided to go, and then come back, just to see if Dave would follow them or respect his side of the deal and leave them “unprotected”. An interesting idea, sure, but one that could go horribly wrong.

The bottom line was they were still unsure about what Dave wanted. He’d told them he wanted to pretty much profit from what Jake could learn from them. He’d told Maria they were an opportunity. He’d dreamed that they were tricky to protect when Isabel had entered his subconscious, and he’d half lied to his best friend to get him on board while holding a pencil that would eventually give this information to Max.

Dave’s mind was worried with details about them, both Max and Isabel had agreed, and that at least gave Kyle a little peace of mind to know the guy didn’t have evil thoughts floating around. Weird, sure, but so far it seemed relatively harmless. In the best case scenario, Dave sounded like some twisted guardian who had the right intentions for some dark, unknown reasons. In the worst case scenario, one of these days Kyle was going to wake up to find his three friends had been shipped to some lab and never would hear from them again.

Between those options, he’d let Dave have his dark and unknown reasons if it meant he had the right intentions and was going to see them through. Besides, Kyle reluctantly admitted to himself, whether Dave was guardian or jailer, at least Kyle had felt normal in this place. No lookout in the window. No FBI to speak off. Maybe they had relaxed a little too much, he thought, but he’d missed the feeling.

His fingers illuminated for a second with tiny green sparks, making Kyle stop in his tracks. The dishes were drying now and Kyle had been finishing cleaning the kitchen. Closing his eyes, he knew he had to tell Max about this, and the guy was already pretty stressed out reviewing with the others the last details of their interviews.

If Kyle started to suddenly spark all around this place, maybe the conditions of the deal would change. Normal took on a whole new meaning when it wasn’t just where you were that defined the normalcy of your life, but if you sparked or not.

Kyle took a deep breath. Maybe if Dave was the guardian, then he wouldn’t really care. Maybe. But all the same, things were most definitely not going according to plan.


* *


“You should’ve seen the look on his face,” Liz said, the clock on the nightstand displaying 12:03 in red bright numbers. Three minutes into the day Max was going to meet Dave, a thought that Liz wasn’t exactly thrilled with. It wasn’t that she was afraid of what Max could tell Dave, even if he missed some details of the stories they had invented along the week, but she was more nervous about what Dave could tell Max.

“I wish I had known I had displayed my shield,” Max said in a low tone. They were both in bed now, snuggled as close as they could, contemplating the day’s events, starting with their visit to Jake’s lab.

“I thought you had done that on purpose…” Liz thoughtfully said, “you know, we were starting to really argue with Jake, and suddenly your shield was there, between him and us, like you felt the need of separating us. He was so shocked. I think I was too…” Liz trailed off, her mind in those memories.

“Are you sure my energy covered the entire screen?” Max asked her again. It was probably the fourth time in half an hour that she’d had to reassure him that the special lens in Jake’s lab hadn’t captured anything weird from her since Max’s own energy was covering everything in that room. She nodded.

“I know you’re… scared, Max. I feel it from your side. But there are just no words to tell you how… how empty I felt when your connection just vanished. I had to run to that lab and see for myself what was happening to you. It was worth risking anything to know you were okay.”

“It’s not worth risking you,” Max simply said, hugging her while kissing the top of her head. “I don’t know what happened, but next time you feel something like that, you call Michael and Isabel and handle it together, okay?”

How nice of him to include her. In real life, Michael and Isabel would take off while she would have to wait and wait until someone got her some answers. It sucked not to have powers, she sourly thought.

“I’ve been thinking about what Jake told me,” Liz said, changing the subject, not having agreed with Max on what she would do the next time she felt like her soul had been ripped in two. “About the tests he did when we were unconscious…”

Max tensed beside her. Liz even thought he had stopped breathing for a few seconds while he waited for her to continue. “He said he just kept track of our vital signs and took a blood test. Standard EEG and EKG. It would explain why we don’t have any scars. I mean, if they had done other procedures, we would have at least felt sore or something…”

She thought Max was still not breathing.

She couldn’t help that her scientific mind had been pondering in a rather clinical and detached way what could have happened to them in those 72 hours they had been drugged. When they had abandoned the warehouse on Saturday night and gone to the motel, she had taken a long shower, checking every single inch of her body for signs that something had been done to her. But she hadn’t been able to find anything. In fact, when she had woken up in that blue cell, she had felt quite rested and all around well.

As the days had gone by during the week, she had still been looking for the telltale signs of small blue or purple circles of needle marks. She would spend minutes searching the backs of her hands, looking for where the IV must have been inserted, or the insides of her elbows, where blood would have been drawn. If she really, really looked closely at it, she could see the mark on her left arm, faintly. Max’s had disappeared faster than hers, but then again, he had healing powers and on average, the hybrids healed a lot faster than humans did. On the other hand, Maria’s skin was way more sensitive than hers, and her needle mark was more visible, but not startlingly so. One would need to be looking for it to see it. And more importantly, Maria didn’t have any other telltale signs either.

And despite all that, it was hard to believe that Jake had had them for three whole days, and that his curiosity hadn’t taken over. Would Jake really risk the chance that they would have said no to the deal? It sounded like a waste of time. He would have lost the opportunity of a lifetime if he hadn’t studied them in more detail.

“You would… tell me, right?” Max started to ask, a new kind of fear surging through their connection. “I mean… if something… if they… had done something… else… to you?”

One of Max’s greatest fears was that, because of him, she would pay a higher price. She was married to a hybrid after all, and that same cold, clinical, detached scientific mind of hers could see the value of that, that someone would pay closer attention to her. Lately, the odds were even higher since she had developed powers of her own. She couldn’t help that Max was a hybrid, but Max knew that saving her life –his choice to save her life- could mean a very dark future for her.

She turned on her side so she could look at him. “Yes,” she said with conviction. Of course she would tell him. Because if something else had been done to her, then she would need to know what else had been done to him as well. It was as simple as that.

He hugged her again, tighter this time. He didn’t like to think about this, and frankly, neither did she, but they were in this place waiting for something like that to happen. And yet, nothing was happening. Had hardly happened at all.

“You know, all those things we were discussing at the hut, about how Dave was dreaming about how tricky it is to protect us, Jake said the same thing. When you were still sleeping, he said that we should look beyond the obvious. That it wasn’t only what he could learn from you, but that Dave also wanted to protect us.”

“I still can’t believe Isabel dreamwalked him. And Jake.” Max paused for few seconds, waves of anxiety rolling out of him. “I think Jake knows… or at the very least suspects that we may be able to dreamwalk. He asked me this morning, Have you been walking in my dreams, Mr. Evans? I froze in place.”

“You think Jake told Dave and… you know, like Dave could control his dreams like that? In case someone was dreamwalking him…?”

“That’s… a little far fetched,” Max conceded. “Besides, the flashes happened way before this week, and Dave was already stressed over the details of who we were and what to do about us. His concern is genuine. I just wish we could be certain what exactly he would lose if he lost us.”

Liz placed her hand on his chest. Warm. When Max was worried, his temperature tended to get a little higher; even Jake had noticed that. She wished she could clear all his problems away. Under her hand, Max’s heart beat steadily and strong. It was terrifying to know it had once stopped beating… maybe even twice.

“How did they feel? The flashes, I mean,” Liz asked in order to distract her mind from such thoughts. She had felt Max die once, and she was not willing to remember that moment now or any time at all.

“It was weird… seeing all those people. Their minds worked so differently, Jake’s and Dave’s. Like they’re always thinking in parallel lines. Several things at the same time… and so fast. I think Jake keeps a mental count of something going on… I didn’t see much of him though… And there was Susset, so sure Dave was onto nothing. But she believes… she believes in him, I think. She trusts him.”

Max trailed off, still tense. Even after all this time, he wasn’t one hundred percent comfortable talking about his powers. Liz couldn’t blame him, she guessed. It would feel too personal to be talking about your weird alien powers all the time.

“She likes to help people,” Max said out of the blue. “She was thinking these names, things that Dave wanted to be done, so she was thinking who she could give the job to. Who needed it the most… I don’t know, it all happened so fast… Maybe I didn’t get the right impressions…” he trailed off, unsure of his words. Then, all of the sudden, Max’s connection lightened as his thoughts changed. “Except for Maria. I saw her while I held the pencil,” Max smiled. Even if Liz couldn’t directly see his face, she could hear the tone in his voice, feel it through their connection so easily. She smiled with him.

“She was so determined to find something. I had never had such clear picture of her before. She wants to protect Michael so much. And us. All of us. I… I think I understand better what Michael means when he says she sends vibes…” Max said, making Liz laugh out loud.

“What?” Max asked, laughing with her but not really understanding why.

“Maria says exactly the same thing about him. That Michael communicates with vibes.”

They both laughed at that, at how similar the confessions of their two best friends were, and it felt good too. To laugh at one silly comment, forgetting for one moment the weight on their shoulders. Max’s feelings settled in a comfortable manner, as he was thinking some thing or another through. At least he wasn’t as tense as before, and maybe he would manage to get a little sleep after all.

“I don’t know if you know this, Liz. I mean, all of you, Maria, Kyle, Jessie and you, and even if Alex got to know, how important you are to our lives. For the longest time, we were so afraid. Always hiding in our own ways. Always afraid to dream, to hope for a future. Never thinking trust and much less love was meant for us…” Max took the hand that Liz had placed on his chest, holding it gently inside his. “You didn’t run,” he simply stated, and Liz had to privately smile at the image of a screaming, very much running Maria one September night some years ago.

“You guarded our secret with your lives,” Max continued, his voice above a whisper now in their dark room. “I don’t think we’ve ever thanked you enough for that. For proving us wrong, I mean. For making my dreams come true…” Max finished, kissing her forehead.

Liz moved so her lips could meet his, their connection flaring alive with their emotions so open, making her feel all the magic that Max had once said was there when he was thinking about her. When they kissed, memories filled her mind, memories of them both, and how right it felt to be together. Losing herself in their connection, she thought that there was, indeed, nothing great about normal.


* * *
Last edited by Misha on Tue Jul 05, 2011 8:25 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: The Offer (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 36.2 - pg. 14 - 2 / 22

Post by Misha »

Okay guys, it's a short part, but next part will be a whole lot longer, I promise ;)

This entry has been edited for grammar corrections :)


XXXVI
The Guards

cont.




“Are you sure?” Ray asked with a raised eyebrow and a very doubtful face. Not that he was aware of that, of course, it being 2:00 a.m. and his bed calling out to him from the bottom of this underground facility.

Dave stopped with his puzzle.

“Of course I’m sure,” he said, frowning, probably wondering why Ray was asking him in the first place.
The problem in question was the new security system Ray had been working almost all week long. The implementation of the depleted uranium walls, especially in all the entries and vulnerable spots, was supposed to take about three months.

Instead, there had been a delay with the delivery, and then with the installation. And then the kids had arrived and Dave had wanted to speed things up. What the hell had been the problem with their very efficient concrete structures, Ray had no idea, but the fact that Dave was now extending this new security implementation to his other facilities in Europe meant a lot of trouble for a lot of people. And a lot of money too, but most importantly, it also attracted attention to them. It was a lot of depleted uranium, more than enough to make the wrong people curious.

Dave smiled, as if he had suddenly understood something.

“Relax, I don’t mean I want them done next week,” Dave said, as he put the puzzle piece he was holding down. “I realize I gave you an exceptionally short time to finish, but I won’t do that with the other facilities. Just make sure that by the end of this year, all places have the new modifications.”

Dave walked to the counter which Ray was reclining against, his eyes already set on the piece of birthday cake. In fact, Ray was thinking if going for his fourth serving at 2:00 a.m. would be wise or not. He shook his head.

“Are we going to work with radioactive material?” Ray asked out of the blue. He was tired, and had waited for an hour to speak with Dave alone before Jake had excused himself to his own lab. Security matters were never discussed in front of Dave’s oldest friend, a rule Dave had established since Ray had started working with him. It was meant to protect Jake, because what the good doctor didn’t know, he couldn’t tell anybody else either. Ignorance was bliss.

“No,” Dave simply said, slicing the chocolate cake with the spoon. Depleted uranium was commonly used to isolate industrial radiography cameras, and it had unsettled Ray a little to know that he might be in contact with gamma radiation.

Ray looked at Dave with an expectant air. The material had also been used as counterweight in ships and airplanes, but Ray doubted that was the case here. Dave wanted to keep something in, but if not radiation, then what?

Dave took his time chewing his chocolate cake. “It has other… not so common uses,” he said, his eyes lost in some point of the opposite wall. “Don’t worry about it Ray. It’s a measure to give me peace of mind.”

Ray blinked. He had not spent the better part of four days fretting over the schematics and all the trouble of having the new system in place before Dave went away so Dave could have peace of mind.

Well, apparently, he had.

Dave cut another piece of his birthday cake. “I should tell Danielle I have 12 birthdays a year…” he said, contemplating the brown mass. Chocolate over chocolate and more chocolate. Usually, Ray wouldn’t have been able to tolerate that much chocolate in his system, but Danielle had a way with flavors… “You know that woman wants in your pants,” Ray remarked, going for his fourth serving after all.

“That woman wants in any man’s pants, as long as they give her power,” Dave stated without skipping a beat. Ray wondered if Danielle had had her way and had slept with Dave. She certainly wasn’t hard to look at. It wasn’t until she started talking that the illusion was lost. Boy, he knew very few people who could be more vicious than her.

And then again, he knew even fewer people who could be as impervious to such poisonous words as Dave. It wasn’t like the guy didn’t know she was aiming to hurt, it was that he just didn’t care. That was probably why he had hired her in the first place: he hadn’t cared about her looks or the way she thought, he had just cared about the fact that she could cook the most amazing food in the world and she needed a place to hide.

He didn’t know the whole story of how the French Chef had ended up assigned to the Minnesota compound, only that it had to do with a double murder and the mafia. He doubted she regretted the murders, and he imagined it was the mafia, the power that came with it, that had gotten her into that mess to begin with. Even Dave would have trouble arranging her safe passage into a normal life in the open. Danielle probably wanted to become a world famous chef, but for some years she would have to bide her time until Dave had cleared things up for her.

In that respect, Ray was happy to know he didn’t yearn for fame. He was in his element being anonymous, and that was something that suited Dave’s purposes greatly. Dave had first and foremost contacted him because he needed to learn self defense, but he had also been eager to know how good of a strategist Ray was. Eight years later, Ray was still on the job, so he was proud to know he had passed Dave’s high quality standards. The fact that they had a deal and that Ray had a lot to lose if Dave withdrew his protection was no longer the heavy burden it had been at the beginning of their working relationship. Now they were friends.

Dave swallowed his chocolate cake down and casually said, “You know, Ray, Jake came today with a lot of questions. Ideas that he pieced together out of some things you must have told him.”

Ray inwardly cringed. It was one thing to share some musings with the good doc, and a whole other that Jake had turned around and repeated them to Dave, of all people.

“Jake’s worried about not… getting the whole picture,” Ray slowly said. There was no way of denying he had been talking to Jake about Dave, but it was only natural it would happen. Dave had dragged them both into this whole thing with telling them only half of the story.

“What about you? Are you worried you’re not getting the whole picture too?” Dave asked, slowly slicing his cake with the spoon.

“I trust you Dave. I know that the less I know, the safer I’ll be when it comes to your projects.” Dave stopped staring at his cake and turned to look at Ray, eyes slightly wide. Then he chuckled.

“You do get the whole picture,” he said, smiling at his cake as the spoon cut the little piece. “At least when it concerns why I’m keeping some things to myself.”

Things like depleted uranium covering the walls, Ray bet. But then again, if it gave Dave peace of mind, then it should give Ray peace of mind too. Because it meant he was doing something to contribute to the whole picture. And that made Ray feel good.

Besides, it was better than worrying about gamma radiation.
Last edited by Misha on Tue Apr 07, 2009 11:28 am, edited 8 times in total.
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Re: The Offer (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 36.3 - pg. 16 - 3 / 17

Post by Misha »

Hey guys!

I'm actually between connections at Costa Rica's airport... only four more hours until I get home... eight hours of trip down, just four more to go...

Special thanks go to jainga, who was totally and absolutely right, 33 is not a prime number :lol: That mistake is now corrected on chapter 35 8)

Thanks for coming back to read!



XXXVI
The Guards


cont.





The hour read 5:43 a.m.

Wide awake, staring at the ceiling, Max was trying very hard to control his breathing and to stay very still, so Liz wouldn’t be disturbed. He’d been having flashes… more from Dave’s pencil, he knew, fleeting images most of them, but a couple were very clear in his mind. Had Dave been thinking about this some random day? Or were these experiences so embedded in his subconscious, into who he was, that these impressions would be on anything and everything he touched?

It was hard to tell when Max’s heart was beating so fast. He wished some ray of light would cross a window signaling the new day, and that these dream-like images would fade away, being no match for reality. But there was no sun shining down here, no windows to speak of, and what Max had seen wasn’t a dream, but memories that had happened to the man who could very well be olding their future in his hands.

Max closed his eyes and took one last deep breath, letting the fear wear off, trying to focus the pieces together. The last flash was the strongest one, so he concentrated on it first. He idly wondered if it had been like this for Michael and the image of Atherton’s house that had been stored in Michael’s mind for days until he had forced it out through his drawings.

It wouldn’t take Max days, and it wouldn’t take him drawings either. Max just needed a calm mind.

There had been a lot of gunfire. Glass shattering. Screams. Distant screams. And everything had been so big. It was the memory of a child, Max realized, and that frightened him. It was night. They were in a room… Dave, as a child, and his parents. But he wasn’t Dave, he was Da-veed, and Max heard the Arabic name being called by his Mom as she told him to stay away from the door.

Inside the house, she didn’t wear her veil, and she and his father were discussing something that Dave wasn’t paying attention to. He was thinking about his puzzles… in the car… he could go out to the car. His Mom wouldn’t even know he had gone and come.

The light went off in the house, in the entire street. Even at five years old, Dave could sense the feeling of dread coming from his parents, even if he couldn’t name it. All he knew was that there was danger, trouble coming his way. And the three of them stood very still, his father signaling with a finger that Dave would not say a word. From that moment on, Dave would always stay very still when facing danger. In his young mind, the image of his parents standing still merged with the certainty that it was the only way to face it.

The next part was confusing. Max didn’t know if the gunfire had been directed only at their house, at their street, or at the entire town. Dave only had memories of a dark room, gunfire shattering glass… distant screams. But not his parents’ screams, because they were being very quiet. Yet the fear… oh the fear was there, and it got Max’s heart racing again.

Max closed his eyes and let the flash go, picking instead the other one that was clear in his head. It was daylight this time, and Dave was a happy kid. He was playing outside, the morning sun burning everything, the sky without a single cloud. His hazel eyes could better stand the glare from the desert than the clear blue of his Dad’s could, and as Dave ran following his own shadow, other kids ran with him, playing their own game. Dave wasn’t a shy kid by any stretch of the imagination, but because he was the son of a foreigner, kids would usually avoid him. And it hurt his little heart, thinking that maybe the next town would be different.

And this time, it was different. He had been accepted in their games, and his enthusiasm had soared. They were playing they were from different tribes. Now, for a five year old foreigner, Dave couldn’t really understand that there were hundreds of years of bad blood between the Arabic tribes. Truces and alliances ran as deep as old scars along with complicated oaths and loyalties. For little David, it was all a game of pretend, and he was holding one of those black, loud guns every male seemed to be carrying around these places, and pretending to be shooting this or that tribe member because it was fun. He would even pretend he had been hit, just to get up and keep running, his hands holding the imaginary gun while he was voicing the rush of bullets coming out. After all, he had been around a lot of gunfire, so he knew how it sounded.

It was the shadow he noticed first. The long, long shadow that was coming behind him as he was aiming and shooting at another kid. It was his new friends’ silence what he noticed second, that made him pause. He stood very still as he saw the shadow of a man coming closer, dwarfing his own shadow, his little arms falling at his sides a second later. He was so scared.

It was his father’s shadow.

He slowly turned, instinctively knowing he was in trouble, and as he looked up, up, up to his father’s tall figure and found his eyes, he felt something inside his stomach he couldn’t name. It was shame, but it would be years before he knew that.

“David,” he said very seriously, the name coming in its English form “What are you doing?” his voice was barely above a whisper, the wind whipping sand around them. He wasn’t mad, Max knew, Dave’s Dad was disappointed, and it hurt even worse. “You shouldn’t even pretend… David, you can be the smartest kid on the planet, but if you don’t know the value of human life, then you don’t know a thing.”

Max closed his eyes again and tiredly rubbed his face. He felt the weight of those words, still feeling responsible for Alex’s death. Life matters, Tess, the echoes of his own words ringing in his mind. But the point was, Dave held his father’s words very close to his heart. Even if at five he hadn’t been able to understand them, he had stood by the fact that above everything else, it was the value of human life that mattered.

What was that supposed to mean for them, then?

Max got up from the bed, turned the alarm off even if it hadn’t started beeping yet, and headed to the kitchen for a cold glass of water. He wasn’t really tired, but there had been so many conflicted emotions coming from those flashes, that he was now emotionally drained.

Did Dave consider them a danger because they weren’t human? Or was Dave truly worried about them, thinking their lives mattered enough to go through all this trouble to keep them safe?

It couldn’t be just simple gain, Max knew. There were too many conflicting little details for that. If Dave considered them a danger, like the Special Unit blindly believed, then maybe Dave wanted to study them in order to obtain information and ultimately be capable of destroying other aliens, other invaders. Knowing your enemy was basic to winning a war.

Max could understand that. And, in a way, he felt his responsibility to prove to this man that they were telling the truth when it came to wanting a normal life and nothing else. He was no king, much less an invader of any sort, but he also couldn’t deny he was… special. That his abilities were bound to attract the attention of all sorts of men was something he had always known, but at least Dave seemed to want to know him for who he was, and not only for what he was; though without the powers, Max knew he would have never crossed Dave’s radar.

“Hey,” Liz embraced him from behind, “you turned the alarm off,” she said in a soothing voice, probably feeling his turmoil. “Are you all right?”

Was he? He wasn’t sure. Butterflies started dancing in his stomach at the thought that he might give the wrong impression to this man. If Dave was looking for clues that they weren’t trustworthy, Max would have to be very careful with what he said, and how he said it.

“I’m a little anxious,” he admitted a little reluctantly, turning around to return her embrace.

“I know the feeling,” she said, resting her cheek against his chest, her hands slowly caressing his back. It felt wonderful. It renewed his confidence and steadied his nerves, which was precisely what he needed the most right now: a clear head.

“I’ll make pancakes,” Max said, still not letting her go. He wasn’t sure if his stomach was up to the task of eating, but Liz didn’t have to starve because of him.

“You’re going to do great today,” she said with a smile, turning her eyes to meet his, and through their connection Max felt a surge of pride. She was proud of him, and the feeling left him astonished. She believed in him, she had told him so a thousand times over, but it was so much more real when he got to experience it like this.

She tiptoed and lightly kissed him, then turned around and headed for the shower, all the way sending all these happy… waves through the whole apartment. For a moment, Max wasn’t sure if Liz was trying extra hard at making him feel calmed, or if his heightened connection was making him feel her more acutely. He decided he didn’t care, it just felt too good to mess with. By this point in time, he had all but forgotten Dave’s memories. Max had just too much to worry about right now to be thinking about that.

He actually managed half a pancake and almost an entire glass of juice by the time he was ready to go. At 6:37 a.m. Michael met him and Liz in the hallway that divided their apartments with a serious face, and even more serious dark circles below his eyes.

“I don’t like this,” was all he said as Isabel and Kyle joined them. Of course, the downside of being more alert to the waves around him was that Max could feel more than ever how much Michael didn’t like this. But Max couldn’t blame him. After the incident at Jake’s lab, Max didn’t like this either. He just didn’t have a choice.

He nodded once to Michael, acknowledging that he understood, but part of him wondered if everything he was feeling from his friend was concern from their actual situation, or was the man in front of him, his second in command, worried that he couldn’t go where his leader was heading?

He shook his head. That was absurd.

Maria came last to join the Merry Band, as Kyle called them when they were on the road, red book in hand. Max knew Jake’s present had been a hit with the blond girl, but by the way the waves around him changed to annoyance, he doubted Michael approved of it all that much.

“What?” Maria challenged Michael, “it’s not as if we didn’t know Max is going to take hours up there.” She strode right in the middle of them and headed out of the departments area, making them follow her a second later. Leave it to Maria to cut to the chase and just approach it head on.

It was a rather silent trip, all eight minutes of it. He had been reviewing everything there was to review with all of them the night before, so his brain was a little overwhelmed right now. He was certainly not expecting to be making conversation, and part of him was aware that the others were also anxious at how he was going to handle things. Ultimately, all their interviews had gone at least okay, but if this one failed, if for some reason either Max or Dave found fault with the other, then… well, then they were screwed.

“We’ll wait for you at lunch,” Liz said as they reached the Gym, the place where they all had parted for their meetings with Dave. He knew he could ask her to go with him as far as the elevator that would take him aboveground, but he actually wanted to make the short walk on his own. He still had to find some sort of mental balance before the whole thing started.

“Okay,” he quietly said as he bent down to kiss her softly. A reassurance kiss, not a good-bye one, he told himself.

It was a rather awkward moment after that. He nodded at them and took a deep breath, ready to leave. “Be safe,” was all Michael said, making Max stop for a second. He looked at him, and then at his sister, drawing their strength in. Isabel slightly nodded to him, silently telling him that she trusted him.

He finally turned for good and started walking towards Dave’s office.

Butterflies took permanent residence in his stomach as he reached the corner and was finally out of sight of his friends. He was on his own.

He slowed his stride a little, taking another deep breath, closing his eyes just for a second. He could do this, he knew everything he had to know, he had been debriefed and counseled, and all plans and scenarios had been explored. When Max opened his eyes and his stride took speed again, his mind wasn’t really at the compound, and he wasn’t quite Max either.

He was walking down the corridor of the Royal Palace, and he was nervous as hell. It was the first time he would speak to the other four members of the Interplanetary Alliance as Zan the King, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was still too young and too inexperienced to take on his father’s duties.

He was on his own.

The dark blue cape fluttered behind him in the light breeze, as he walked steadily, if a bit fast. He was early to the meeting, he knew, but he just couldn’t take pacing around his Royal Chambers any more. If he went once more through the entire speech and subsequent agenda, he would just implode. He needed to take his mind off things, and maybe a little fresh air would help him with that.

It was a clear morning, as usual, no cloud in the sky. Weather systems had been mastered four generations before he was born, and there was simply no way a cloud could sneak in. He could still make out the distant shape of their smallest moon, right above the horizon, reminding him that the festival at Dimaras Rock was getting closer.

He slightly fidgeted with his gloved hand, catching his thumb inside his fist. The only sound was the rhythmical steps of the guards. Four in front and four behind him, as much a part of his life as his own shadow. His Invisible Guard was surely keeping up too, but shapeshifters were good at staying out of sight. He had inherited a healthy supply of allies from his father, but he also had enemies to be aware of, which made necessary the added precautions of so many guards.

As Zan crossed one of the many high passes that connected all buildings in the Palace, he wondered what it would be like to be like them.

He was born the son of the king, his life already traced and planned before he had taken his first breath. Inside of him, he had the Seal of the King, the undeniable proof of his lineage and the insurance that shapeshifters would not turn on him. Beyond that, every gene in his body had been engineered to ensure he had every advantage, every skill he would need in order to reign.

Genetically manipulation was only allowed to Royalty. And then, the Royal Seal could only be successfully implanted in males, making it a necessity that every king produced a male heir. Antarians in general had nature on their side, allowing for genetic evolution to follow its course, something that technicians in their labs could not compete with. But, the idea of leaving to nature the qualities that their leaders would have was unthinkable. Too much depended on their kings being able to make decisions, right decisions, to risk them having conflicting skills.

But if the Kings bore the responsibility of guiding their kingdoms, it was their Queens who held the responsibility of balancing them. With their gene pool equally strengthened, all noble women were candidates to take the throne once the Crown Prince made his choice, and Zan had nothing less than admiration for how his mother handled things. Someday, he too would find his Queen. His children would be genetically altered, though his sons would inherit a dormant Seal until his time was over, placing a destiny set in stone for them, while his daughters would be free to choose another path. Just like the guards in front of him, they could all choose a different life.

They could start over if they so wanted. Try this lifestyle just to change it later. And the idea intrigued him.

The high white arcs threw long shadows at this early hour, and from this height, all it took was a slight turn of his head to look at his kingdom, the city way below and away from this particular point. If he narrowed his eyes, he could even make out the primary ports, small spaceships taking cargo to the interstellar ships that waited at the space docks, invisible during daylight.

He wasn’t very fond of space travel, one of the many reasons he had wanted to hold the Summit on Antar, and he would definitely push for the Alliance to keep having their meetings on his home planet. Soon enough, a building blocked his view as he kept walking through the Palace, his mind returning to his guards.

Since he had been old enough to be told about his destiny, Zan had paid close attention to his father: the way he walked, the way he talked, even the way he looked at people. Even at a young age, Zan had embraced the concept that his life already had a purpose, that what he would do mattered to an entire planet. He was made aware of his responsibilities every single day of his life, and not once had he thought about giving up his birthright. Everything he did was part of who he was, and given the choice of doing something else, he would have found himself at a loss.

In front of him, the silvery capes of his guards kept rhythm with their movements. These guards who protected him had chosen to do so. They had been chosen from among the best, but ultimately, they were walking right alongside him because at some point they had decided they wanted that.

In a sudden revelation, Zan knew that life without a clear path was unsettling.

He almost faltered at that, his shoulder-length hair slightly disarraying from the movement, but he kept walking, discretely passing a hand over his hair to make sure it was as neatly as it should be. Zan loved the way his life was. He knew his limits, knew his responsibilities, knew what was expected of him, but seeing his guards in front of him now made him wonder, for the first time in his life, that as unsettling as it was, maybe he too had the right to change. To change things. During his father’s reign, much had been accomplished, and things had settled down without any further review. Was he too young to start thinking about changes then?

The butterflies returned to his stomach as he was getting closer to his destination. Was he too young to be present at the Summit? He was barely an adult by Antarian laws, something the other four leaders of the Alliance had not missed.

With a firm stride, Zan tried to put these thoughts aside. The doors to the Summit Chambers were now in view, and he prepared himself for what was coming, because young or not, he was Antar’s new leader, and what he would say would matter. On his shoulders lay the future of his people, including protecting their right to choose their own lives.

Wasn’t it ironic he couldn’t choose his?

The guards stopped and departed to let him in. Only the leaders could enter, and as Zan stopped in front of the doors to be scanned and then allowed inside, he tightened his stomach, reining in his nerves.

He could do this, and he would do it right.

By the time the doors opened, they had morphed back to let Max inside the elevator. As if he were walking right outside a dream, the entire Palace dissolved, the guards too, leaving him disoriented for one second, staring at himself in the inner elevator mirror that was now in front of him.

He blinked.

What the hell had that been?


* * *

AN: There might be a little confusion regarding the depleted uranium. Nasedo tells Isabel, Tess and Michael in the White Room that depleted uranium is a metal composed of heavy atoms which they cannot manipulate.
Last edited by Misha on Sun Apr 26, 2009 7:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: The Offer (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 36.4 - pg. 17 - 4 / 11

Post by Misha »

Okay guys... it's barely a cookie, but know that Max's interview is in the works :mrgreen: I've waited five years to write that! I'll answer feedback this weekend, THANKS!

Meanwhile, let's see what Jake's been up to...



XXXVII
Tell Me A Fable




He had been staring at the screen for a full minute before he realized he had to blink. The cursor was on and off waiting for him to start his report, but Jake had no idea what to write.

The frozen screenshot behind the Word document intrigued him as much as the hybrids’ abilities did, which was not surprising, really. It was a shot of the special lens, one of the many he had been studying all night long, trying to decipher Max’s surge of energy on early Friday morning.

Was Liz different?

Even if Max’s energy had covered the entire room at the time, right on the threshold, for a fraction of a second, Liz had been out of its range, and it was that exact moment that Jake had frozen on his screen. The problem was, he didn’t know what to make of it. The energy around her didn’t look like an average human, but it wasn’t that far gone to be truly unique… The word that came to mind really was, well… unusual.

Compared to Max’s bright hues of blues and blinding whites, Liz’s blues looked tame, but not as lifeless as every other human Jake had ever seen before. So now Jake was trying to comprehend if unusual equaled different, and if so, how much different?

Was this why Max had been attracted to her for such a long time? Maybe Max had sensed something different about her, the non-romantic-all-analytical part of him rationalized. Or maybe being around Max had been subtly altering the energy around her. It would begin to explain how their connection worked, since Max would have made her able to connect to his own energy signature. Liz wasn’t attuned to either Michael or Isabel, so she wasn’t sensitive to all kinds of hybrid energy.

All he needed to prove that was Maria walking into his lab so he could take a snapshot of her own energy… And what about Kyle? What did it take for a human’s “aura” to change? Just being around them? Or was there a sexual aspect implied here? Well, if Jake was around them long enough, he would certainly start to see some changes sooner or later… But if only Maria’s energy was changed and not Kyle’s, then it was probably a more intimate relationship that would cause the energy signature to get a more vivid blue under the lens.

Minimizing the Word document, he stared again at the screenshot. Liz’s face was frozen in worry as she was trying to reach Max. Maybe her emotional state was playing a part in the way her energy looked. Jake’s eyebrows rose. He should write his colleagues on the lens project and ask them to think through a series of experiments with people under different emotional reactions to see if there was a change. It was worth trying.

Before he could open his e-mail and follow up on this idea, his cell phone rang. He absently picked it up while still looking at Liz.

“Did you take my pencil?” Dave’s voice came clear and slightly accusatory. Dave could be so weird about the oddest things, really.

Though to give Dave credit, Jake had taken things from him without even noticing before, a fact that Dave remembered oh too well every time his property was misplaced while Jake had been around.

“Not that I can see right now,” he simply answered, secretly amused that they had been around each other for so long that this kind of phone call was actually normal.

“Call me if you see it,” Dave said in a more resigned tone. It was nice to know that Jake’s gift of so long ago held such meaning to his friend, but listening to the click on the other side signaling the call was over still left him a little perplexed.

Leaving the cell phone beside him, he returned to his previous task, his mind already running with ideas of genetic make-up versus environment and proximity.

It would never cross his mind that it had been Max’s healing that had triggered the change in the first place, a chain of other factors enabling Liz to access abilities of her own in the long term. Not until someone else told him so in the distant future.


* * *
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Re: The Offer (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 37.1 - pg. 6 - 5 / 8

Post by Misha »

(This part has been corrected for grammar mistakes)

Welcome to my new polar readers! 8)

As always, thanks for coming back to read! And so, it begins...



XXXVII
Tell Me A Fable

cont.


* * *



No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

And Max was gripped with a fear that for a second was both his and Zan’s as well. Staring at himself in the mirror that walled the inside of the elevator, the doors still open waiting for him to step inside, the quote he had once read somewhere seemed to jump into his mind in red bold letters. He could not let fear rule his life, and most definitely not rule this moment. This meeting was too important to screw up.

He couldn’t stop staring at himself, frozen in place. His heart was beating so fast, and his eyes were so round, still trying to process what that flash or memory or whatever had been, let alone trying to decide how he felt about it. He had to snap out of it, he told himself, but he was still not moving a muscle.

It was Liz’s worry that did the trick. Through their connection Max could feel her emotions shifting, trying to decide if in the last five minutes something could have had happened to him. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and let it out really slowly. First things first: He had to get to Dave’s office, preferably on time, so he opened his eyes and took a second, not so deep breath.

Entering the elevator, he felt the same tight knot in his stomach that he had felt when he had been visiting the Empire State Building. He knew he was still just a kid, not even twenty yet, and he was about to negotiate life and death matters with a man who was light years ahead in negotiation skills. All thoughts that were doing nothing to calm his nerves, but at least Liz would understand this uneasiness well better than the fear he had experienced just a minute before.

Zan had also been afraid of his first meeting, Max thought, for a second looking closer in the mirror to check if his pupils were normal, and not two gigantic dark marbles that would have made his skin crawl. He looked just fine, if a little paler.

Okay, that was a start.

The elevator doors closed, and Max was automatically lifted up. He still had eight minutes to find some semblance of normalcy so he could act like someone who knew what the hell he was doing. That was step number two.

He decided the only way he was going to manage that was by getting out of the way what he had just experienced, dealing somehow with his own emotions about his past memories, even if time was getting shorter by the second.

Max had had… echoes before, he guessed, of his past life. Like a dream half remembered in the middle of the day. Some things were clearer than others, like the water that had felt jello-like. Others were fragmented, like remembering kissing Ava for the first time at a party, though it was more like a certainty than an actual memory. He couldn’t remember what people looked like or even snatches of his own alien language, but there were ideas, thoughts that he recognized as part of Zan.

And he and Zan weren’t alike.

Zan embraced his destiny. Max was all for free will. But Max couldn’t deny they both had been in a position of leadership that neither could shake off, and both had risen to the occasion, even if their stomachs had been tied in knots. Maybe Zan’s experiences could come in handy, Max thought, trying to see the bright side of getting such a clear insight into the leader of an entire planet.

It was the only guidance he was going to get, anyway.

But this… this whatever that had just happened had been so real. For one moment, Max hadn’t even been aware of himself, of his own life. That was what scared him the most, that he hadn’t been in control, just sucked into this memory of an alien being on another planet and in another time.

But it wasn’t me.

Max whispered, still looking at himself, half expecting to see his reflection talking back. He was more than glad when nothing happened, but reluctantly acknowledged that the butterflies in his stomach hadn’t gone anywhere either.

He was not Zan, he repeated to himself, and whatever that memory had been, it was just that, a memory, a very real one, but something that meant nothing to his life right now.

Ironically, if this had happened when he had been going to the Summit, maybe it would have made him feel better… He probably would have wanted to grasp at it and have as many memories as he could too, but he wasn’t going to go there. Dave wanted the facts of his life as it was now, and he was expecting to meet Max, not Zan. Which was great because it was Max who was going to walk out of the elevator and no one else.

As the doors opened, for one instant Max feared that more memories would seize him during his meeting, but there was nothing he could do about that. Closing his eyes for a second, he concentrated on his connection to Liz. If anything could remind him of who he was, it was this, the feeling of his soul mate, lending him strength in his moment of need.

Nodding once to himself, he finally stepped out of the elevator. It felt so surreal to be walking down this hall, when barely a week before he had dreaded it so much. Granted, things hadn’t taken a turn for the worse, but saying they had turned for the better would be stretching it. A lot. Things had just stayed… stuck. They still weren’t sure what Dave wanted and had made little progress in getting to know the people around them.

In fact, Kyle had started to sparkle, Isabel was torn between contacting Jessie or leaving him in the dark, Jake had almost caught his wife on that special lens of his, and now Max was having hallucinations of his alien past. And those were only the highlights.

Maybe he should just let Zan take over and return when it was all calm and nice. It would be the first time his alien side would be doing him a favor.

The hall came to an end, and Dave’s living room with the black couches came into view, the same one where they had sit and made the deal the first time they had come. The door to the outside world seemed to mirror his situation right now: On his right was freedom; on his left, where he could barely make out Dave’s office door, was safety. Too bad he wanted both, but apparently could only get one at the expense of the other. Maybe now was the time to bargain for it.

Maybe.

With a final deep breath, Max finally pushed the door open, the carpeted floor in the room silencing any movement. He had heard the others describing the room, but now that he was in it, things looked sharper than his imagination could have ever come up with.

The enormous puzzle was half through on the black desk, making Max think that he could put it together with a wave of his hand. Well, maybe more like a few waves, considering the size of it, but he doubted Dave would settle for that. The room had a cold feel to it, as most of its colors were either dark blues or black, the white light coming from the ceiling giving it no warmth. He had the distinctive feeling that this place held power. Just like the Summit room where Zan was headed, important decisions were made here.

It only took him a second to find the man who had pretty much summoned him here. Dave’s silhouette was a sharp contrast against the window, a snowstorm blanketing everything in white outside. Standing still, Dave looked completely at ease in his own skin, a fact that Max could not entirely claim after what had just happened with Zan’s memories a few minutes before.

The room smelled of chocolate, giving Max a false sense of security and comfort that completely clashed with his worries and fears. He was barely inside the room, still holding the door open, not really knowing what to do. He felt out of place here, just like he had felt at the Summit in New York City, a clueless kid who had no idea what to do.

Butterflies seemed to multiply by the thousands in his stomach.

“You know, I’ve been thinking…” Dave casually said without turning from the window, “Are you an alien, Max?”

Max just knew he had heard it wrong. He swallowed, standing still, trying to see what exactly was Dave aiming for. Seconds ticked by. Dave turned around then, probably wondering why Max was so quiet, the mug in his hand the source of the chocolate smell.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt about… that,” Max said, slightly narrowing his eyes, knowing there was more to this question than met the eye.

Dave gestured with a hand for Max to sit as he himself headed for his own seat. Max let go of the door as he focused his eyes on the black leather chair, finally moving to sit opposite Dave. Behind him, the door silently closed.

Dave slightly smiled more to himself than to Max as he contemplated his puzzle for a second. Then he locked eyes with Max, all seriousness returning. “What I want to know is, biology aside, do you consider yourself an alien?”

No. Yes. I don’t know. Max froze. What was he supposed to answer? What was the right answer here? What was Dave expecting him to answer? Yet what really scared him in that moment was that he didn’t really have an answer for that. He just didn’t know.

He just didn’t know at all.

Taking his silence for confusion, Dave elaborated on his question: “I have a book that says you’re the king of an entire planet, and sixteen files from the FBI that say you’re an invader and a killer. Both say that you’re an alien in this world, that’s the only thing they actually agree on. But I still have to hear your side. Are you an alien, Max?”

Dave placed his mug on the desk, hazel eyes searching for a reaction, Max guessed, so he made himself looked stern, in control, and though he actually lowered his eyes, he finally came to an answer. His answer. Too bad he didn’t have time to stop and see if it was the right answer, or the one Dave was expecting.

“Biology aside,” Max answered slowly, “no. I’ve lived a human life all my existence. I grew up like one, I have a family, I went to school. I even—” he stopped himself short. I even fell in love with a human girl he had been about to say, and though that was no secret, he suddenly felt vulnerable. His eyes met Dave’s, and for a moment Max was able to stop the butterflies and just think straight. Why was this question important to the man sitting in front of him?

“I know what the book is supposed to say, but I don’t really remember being a king. I know so little about Antar I’m not fit to be its representative, let alone its leader. And I know what the FBI thinks about me,” Max said, his voice involuntarily getting darker, “I know what they want to hear, and that’s why we kept running. They would never see us in any other light.”

“No, they won’t,” Dave said with a heavy sigh, like this topic held a certain burden Max could not discern. Loosely closing his arms on the dark desk, Dave leaned forward and slightly frowned. “You were caught right in the middle of both sides with no idea what was coming at you, uh?”

Max silently nodded twice. He looked at the puzzle again, the desert storm about to swallow the oasis, making him think that it was the perfect picture to illustrate how his life had been back then: His life had seemed so uncomplicated and calm, up until the moment he had saved Liz, and the storm had descended on them.

“I didn’t even believe there was a ‘them’,” Max said quietly, white memories half succeeding at invading the black surface of the desk. “And even afterwards… I still thought I could keep my life. That I could keep them all safe.” Max paused, feeling like he could see all the events, small and large, that had ended with him in this place. His eyes locked with Dave’s again. “And now you’re in the picture, and right or wrong I’m the one responsible for their lives, for the outcome of our deal. Yet I seem to find myself in a rather dark place, with no clear answers.”

“You’re still in the middle of unknown parts,” Dave thoughtfully said, a comment that made the butterflies return. If Max was still in the middle, what more was coming at him, then? “It’s not easy being in the middle,” Dave said, still with a somewhat lost look, leaning back into his seat, his mug steaming on the desk. “You have to grow up too fast, and see things long before you should.”

The very things you want to know about, Max thought. His past was his only token, the only thing he could bait Dave with. It was only a matter of not stumbling with what the others had said. The problem was that revisiting the past was not something easy to do, even when you were skipping parts. Max took on a faraway look and fixed his eyes on a point somewhere behind Dave’s left, where the snow was effortlessly blanketing everything outside the window.

“You’re right, I’ve seen things I wish I hadn’t… and being here, all week long, I’ve been thinking about them a whole lot more… I remember… I remember escaping from the Special Unit. I remember getting out of a freezing river and barely being able to stand up, let alone run. But Liz was there, urging me on, telling me to keep going… And I have this… clear moment in my mind, where I just looked at her face and I thought she was the most beautiful woman on Earth. And all I wanted to do right then was to stop, and sit, and wait for them to catch me while she was running away. Because if they had me back, then they wouldn’t be looking for her... never looking for her again.”

It had been so long since he had thought about that night, about that particular moment. It was almost ironic that now he could draw strength from it, but that was exactly what he did. He focused on Dave again.

“And part of me has been feeling exactly like that for the past seven days. Every time I wake up and I look at her still sleeping, still beautiful, I wonder if maybe I should just sit and wait while she goes into a life that wouldn’t mean running out of cold rivers. If I should convince you to let her go while I stay here.

“But I don’t… I don’t know if you would even allow that. I don’t know what you really want. I need to know what’s going on. I need to know I made the right choice.”

It was a rather fortuitous thing that Max couldn’t read minds, because he wouldn’t have liked Dave’s answer right then: I honestly don’t know.


* * *

AN: The phrase "No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear" is by Edmund Burke.
Last edited by Misha on Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Offer (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 37.2 - pg. 10 - 7 / 7 AN 8/4

Post by Misha »

I've been trying to post this all day, so I better do it now that I can before anything else happens :shock: I'll answer feedback as soon as I can (I can't believe I actually registered on a Polar Board... I mean... no...) but special thanks go to Michelle in Yonkers for her wonderful and fast work on this chapter! :mrgreen:




XXXVII
Tell me a Fable

cont.


It was one of the most interesting birthdays Dave could recall.

He had made a promise, years ago, that his birthday had to be something meaningful. That he would fill his mind with new experiences at least for this one time in the year, even if they were small and maybe insignificant. Of course he had been penniless and barely 8 years old, not knowing he would get to experience anything he desired that money could buy before 10 years had gone by, but he had kept his promise to himself that his birthday had to mean something because he knew it sounded like something his parents would have approved of.

He liked to believe to this day that his parents would actually have approved of it. And he always took this time off to make sure he did something different each year, something unique. What a waste the world was if one didn’t get to see it. What a waste the universe had seemed to be until the man in front of him had walked into his domains.

And as vast as his own realm was, it would never compare to being the leader of an entire planet. And boy, he did not envy Max that burden.

I need to know I made the right choice, Max’s question lingered in the room. The funny thing was, Dave also wished he could know if he had made the right choice, himself. He was in the rather dangerous middle between these kids’ past and future, and the people involved in both. Even if he had chosen to be in that position, he had done it knowing only half of the story and without proof of what he was really getting himself into.

He had to be very careful now, though. Max’s serious statement about Liz could not be taken lightly. Above all else, it was the safety of others what Max valued the most.

“You did,” he answered Max without the slightest tremor, “if for nothing else than the fact that you’re well and alive. That’s more than the FBI would have given you by this point, eight days after your arrival here. But I hope in the long run you’ll see it was the right decision for more than just that.”

Honestly, Dave didn't know if this was the right decision or not. It didn’t mean he had to tell Max that, though. That things could go terribly wrong was a possibility Dave took seriously when it came to these kids, and he acknowledged –at least to himself- that whatever the outcome of their deal, he had no idea how Max and the others would see it in the distant future, once they were looking back to these days.

Max looked at him with eyes that were not really young, but that rather had seen way too many things and experienced even more. Dave knew he was talking to the leader side of him, not the 19-year-old side.

Studying Max from the opposite side of the table, Dave could tell that the younger man was nervous, but trying really hard to remain in control. He was not at ease in this room, still too unsure of what answers he would give, fearful he would say the wrong thing.

“I’ve placed you in a rather awkward place,” Dave said, reaching for his mug. “As much as you have to gain, you also have too much to lose. I’ve never meant harm to you, though, even if you had decided to leave. I hope you know that much.”

Max slightly frowned at that. “I’ve never doubted that,” he quietly said, making a small pause as his eyes diverted to some random point at his right. “I’ve known how much you value us for days now…” he continued, his eyes returning to meet Dave’s. “Every single detail about our lives you’ve taken into consideration means you’ve spent time, money and resources on us. And you’re not a man who would spend any of those things lightly, or on something you didn’t care about very much.”

Dave’s hand froze in midway, the steam coming from the mug lightly dissipating right below his line of sight. “You’ve been paying attention.”

Max nodded. “The rooms, to begin with. You went through a lot of trouble to make us think they were our things. That you knew where we used to be, what used to surround us. But it wasn’t only that... The beds were soft; the floor, the walls were carpeted; the light wasn’t harsh. You wanted us to feel… comfortable. It wasn’t all about ‘this can happen to you’, because then you would have built bare white rooms.”

Max looked at the puzzle then, his eyes not staying still, but rather slightly moving from place to place as if he were trying to put his thoughts in order. Maybe even waiting for Dave to stop him. But he had no intention of doing that. He would let Max talk as much as he wanted because this was the only insight into this kid’s mind he could get. Hell, Dave didn’t even want to move in case he would scare him off.

In a real way, Dave was getting more a sense of how Max’s mind worked by looking at how he had arrived at these conclusions. If Max hadn’t felt they were safe here, he wouldn’t have stayed, but why had he felt safe in the first place?

“It was in the details,” Max softly spoke, meeting Dave’s eyes again, his resolution back it would seem. “The golden bag where you placed Liz’s engagement ring when you gave it back, that night at the warehouse. The way you let Maria finish her drink when we were let out of the rooms, or even the table that was translucent so we could see you weren’t hiding anything once we sat down to talk to you.”

He paused for a moment, taking some air and almost imperceptibly biting his lower lip for a second, a nervous trait he had probably picked up from Liz. It was in the details, indeed, that Max was giving away his anxiety, but overall he was holding his own.

“The way you took your time to tell your story,” he continued, his eyes slightly going out of focus as he remembered, “to tell us how you had discovered us… me… Even the way you were dressed, all in black, yet so casual. But I think what really got me thinking was that you were alone facing all six of us. We were powerless, yes, but we could have done something, and you knew it.”

Dave took a sip while steadily looking at Max. A brief silence descended as he put the mug back. That Max had been paying attention wasn’t surprising, but the details he had picked up were. Although many things had been planned and done to make them choose to stay, some others were part of a list of… requirements, to put it in some way, that he had had to agree when he had offered to take these kids under his wing.

“I’m glad fear for your safety has never been an issue,” he sincerely said, “and I knew enough about you to know I wasn’t in any danger.”

Placing his forearm on the table, Max leaned forward slightly, his eyes locked with Dave’s. “You trusted us,” he said and Dave nodded once, “but it’s the fact that you need our trust back that… unsettles me.”

A cold shiver ran through Dave’s spine, even though he remained perfectly still. Gaining Max’s trust was vital to his future plans, and how he gained it was the center of everything he had planned right to this moment. If Max chose to never trust him, would they achieve a truce then? And would a truce be enough?

Maybe he should tell him.

Could he tell him though? Wouldn’t it go against his own plans, let alone what he had agreed upon with the other side?

“The fact that you couldn’t wait any longer and told Ray to act a week ago,” Max continued, oblivious to the internal struggle Dave was going through, “to bring us here one way or another, your plan of taking us together and unaware notwithstanding.” Max’s words cut through his inner indecision. Ray, Dave thought, knowing he was the only source of information for this. Why had Ray talked about that with them? “You couldn’t wait any longer, and I can only guess why.”

“You’ve noticed quite a lot,” Dave said, still debating how much to disclose. Truce was preferable than to have Max on the run, but he wasn’t aiming for truce. Too much depended on his plans working right the way he had planned them. They were flexible, but not this flexible. As long as Dave didn’t know exactly how Max would react, he couldn’t tell him the truth.

The truth behind a deal made on a plane on its way to Japan, where quite suddenly the future of these kids had been placed in his hands.

Max somberly chuckled at Dave’s words, though. “I’ve been accused of passively watching for a long time.”

“You balance Michael well,” Dave said, completely avoiding explaining why he had told Ray to act a week ago. Not only had the FBI been dangerously closing in, but Dave had gotten the final approval to make his move. Two years he had been waiting for that approval, patiently watching in the shadows, forbidden to set foot in Roswell, New Mexico. He had never said he wouldn’t send others though, the loop he had found to still keep an eye on the kids a mere technicality, regardless of the deal that could or could not come to pass back then.

The actual deal had been done during the weeks the kids had graduated, and therefore Dave hadn’t been able to anticipate what was going to happen. Not even to do some damage control at the time. What a disaster it would all have turned out to be if Max hadn’t provided a distraction for the others to escape, and thank God Michael had come back for him.

But Tess… Tess had come back and blown up an Air Force base, of all things that could go wrong… Not to mention losing Max’s son in the process, a point Dave was still not sure how to bring up.

“You think I should act more?” Max asked, slightly narrowing his eyes, genuinely interested in Dave’s judgment, it would seem.

“I think you’re learning to take more risks. Being on the run must have taught you a lot of things, not the least of which was how to act fast. We all need balances though, that’s why Michael and you work well together. He makes you look at things from different angles you’d never consider without him.”

“The extremes of the same coin…” Max said, thoughtful. “Just like you and Jake,” he added, with a nonchalant tone.

Dave smiled at that. It was Max’s way of gaining an understanding of what kind of relationship was shared by the two people who had the most power over his future.

“Jake brings perspective to things, yes. I value his insight as much as mine. Sometimes even more,” and sometimes I just keep it all from him, a small voice said at the back of his mind. He wasn’t proud of that, but he didn’t regret it. It was in Jake’s best interest to remain in the dark, no matter how much Dave wanted his insight in all of this matter.

“The other thing I’ve noticed is…” Max said, placing his left arm over his right on the table, crossing them as he leaned forward some more, “that you didn’t let Jake know about us, not us,” he emphasized as Dave frowned. Where was Max going with this? “And I think that’s because you didn’t want him to have expectations, like Ray did. Ray doubted we wouldn’t hurt you in our first meeting, but Jake… Jake was so eager to meet us. So you let us start from scratch. I sometimes think that maybe you want us to trust him more than you want us to trust you.”

Dave slightly smiled at that. “It is easier to trust Jake. He has great social skills. Though you’re not that far from what I intended. The truth is, you and I have a business relationship, Max, but Jake will be your doctor, and that requires a whole other kind of trust. You’re right, I do want you to trust him more. It’s only practical. He really is a great person, though, and very skilled at what he does.”

Maybe too skilled, Jake would have said, the past they had both left behind decades ago still haunting him. But what had led Max to believe this? What could Jake have possibly told him?

Or worse yet: Did Max have some special ability that would allow him this kind of information?

“And you assigned us to him because we’re too valuable for anyone else to handle…” Max trailed off, his eyes again in the puzzle. “We really are too valuable,” he concluded, more to himself than to Dave. Lifting his eyes to meet Dave’s, his voice took on a more serious tone as he asked him the only thing Dave really couldn’t answer:

“What I don’t really know is, what are we too valuable for?”

At least not truthfully answer for the next eight years.


* * *
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Re: The Offer (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 37.3 - pg. 13 - 9/7 AN 10/23

Post by Misha »

Hey guys!

The good news is that I'm bringing a new part (yay!) The other good news is that November is finishing, which means NaNoWriMo is finishing, and my 50,000 word novel is almost done as well!! (yay!) This is good because I'll be able to write for Unknown very soon :wink:

This part wouldn't be what it is without the help of Timelord31, xmag and Michelle in Yonkers. Thank you guys for your time!!

Thank you all for your patience! And your nudges!! Here's the end part of Chapter 37!



XVII
Tell Me A Fable

cont.



Are you an alien?

Dave’s first question echoed in Max’s mind as he saw Dave considering what they were valuable for. It was as if time itself had stopped, the room being so silent one could almost feel its weight.

Technically speaking, he actually was half-human. Except that, when he really thought about it, half-human sounded… wrong. His thoughts weren’t half human, for starters, nor had his upbringing been, and most definitely not his entire biology either. He was almost human, in any case. Even his powers were courtesy of his human side.

He really didn’t like the distinction, he decided, because half-human also meant he was half-alien, and aside from some blurry memories and slightly different biology, there was nothing alien about him.

At least that had been the case until that weird flashback this morning. There was more to his alien half now than ever before. It wasn’t only how he had relived some part of his past life; it was as if somehow he now knew things, especially about meetings, and leadership, and dealing with powerful people.

Max didn't really understand what exactly he was feeling. He was not in some vision of Antar right now, neither did he think of himself as Zan, the king of an entire planet who wholeheartedly believed the people at the Summit Room would eat him alive. Yet Max knew that Zan had been worried about being too young and too inexperienced; Max knew Zan had had no choice but to suck it up and do his best, and that no matter what his best was, he would still be lacking. He knew Zan feared he would never live up to his father's example, a king who had brought peace and progress in a time of incredible turmoil. Yet Zan was also eager for the challenge, eager to make things happen.

Eager to lead.

But all of this was as if Max had read about Zan in a book, and only some chapters and pages here and there. Granted, an incredibly detailed and multisensory book, which came complete with an instant background, smells, sights, and butterflies in his stomach, but it still didn't feel like Max's own memories. It was something other, something outside, but all the same real.

Ever since he’d awoken yesterday from that deep sleep he’d fallen into at Jake's office, everything had looked sharper. He had been collecting all these details since last Saturday, trying to guess Dave’s secret purpose, but it hadn’t been until right now that he had started to see connections. Not clearly, but he was confident enough they were there to bring them up.

He wondered if that was what Dave did. Did he sense connections and then just put them out there to watch his opponent make sense of things he didn’t truly know? Was that how he got his answers, by letting others think he already knew?

By the long pause Dave was making, maybe the answer was yes, and Dave didn’t like it turned back upon him.

“Do you know what Mersenne Primes are?” Dave asked, turning to look at the odd assembly of numbers on the other wall. Max turned to look at them as well, and now that he was looking at them, he sensed there was some symmetry about them. That there was a pattern, just right out of his reach. Max actually narrowed his eyes, frowning in slight concentration.

The feeling was gone a second later.

“No,” he said, turning to look at Dave.

“They are very rare prime numbers,” Dave said as he stood up, taking his mug with him. He walked to his right, were the dark wooded cupboard was, partially giving his back to Max. “It’s sort of a math… thing. There are only 43 known numbers that fit the description of a Mersenne Prime, and you actually need a vast computer network to find them. People all over the world dedicate time and money to find the next one, even if they are only useful for a handful of applications. They are not really that valuable, just rare,” Dave emphasized the last word as he leaned down to open one of the cupboard doors. It was a mini-fridge like the one in Jake’s office.

Max froze at the way Dave had said that last part. He had absolutely no idea what those prime numbers were –a math thing, indeed— but he did understand the part about being hunted by too many people.

“When I first heard about you,” Dave said, mostly to the fridge as he searched for something inside, “I had all kinds of ideas as to why you were here.” He found what he was looking for, and took it out of the fridge. It looked like a soda can in size and shape, but it was all dark blue, and not metallic. “Maybe you were explorers, or tourists. Maybe you were stranded. Maybe you were invading, or trading or another hundred things that would explain your presence in our planet.”

Dave walked towards the desk, but instead of going to his chair, he went to Max. Handing him the mysterious object, he went on, “Two years and a small fortune later, I haven’t quite figured you out.”

Max looked down at the container he now had in his hands as Dave casually leaned back on the desk. It was cold and hard, and after a moment Max figured he could open it like an eyeglass case, right by the middle. Inside, it was like one of those gun cases in the movies, filled with some sort of gray foam that was molded exactly to the small vial it contained.

Max glanced at Dave, silenty asking if he should take it out. Dave nodded once, and Max took the small, glass vial in his hand. It looked like a vaccine vial, white liquid inside. The white label only read in black, bold letters “MC – 2001”

“Meta-Chem, on the other hand,” he said, as Max stared at the container, “lost no time on figuring at least some things out.”

The butterflies returned to Max’s stomach with a vengeance. This came for Meta-Chem? Nothing good had ever come from that place.

"They did extensive research on Michael for the months he was there. This is one of the results," Dave explained, as Max had the sudden urge to drop it. It felt wrong, so wrong to know that this was the result of someone spying on Michael, something that eventually resulted in his friend Monk's death.

"What does it do?" Max barely said, afraid his voice would betray him. He put the vial inside the case, and then left it on the desk.

"It accelerates healing," Dave said, placing his hands on his trousers' pockets, casually crossing his legs at the ankle. "Meta-Chem was looking for ways to regenerate tissue, and reverse the aging process. All of you have the extraordinary ability of healing really fast, even without meaning to. And that ability is hidden in your genes. Who knows, maybe with a couple of months and some samples from you, they might have actually found what they were looking for."

Coldness filled Max's being at remembering that Meta-Chem had indeed achieved the reversing aging process. It had led to his death a few minutes after.

“Is that what you want? Accelerated healing?” Max boldly asked. Maybe Dave did want to be healed, or to stop aging, or something completely weird or difficult that Max might not be able to do. What would Dave do if it came to that?

“I already have that,” Dave said, taking the case back into his hands. “You didn’t wonder why you felt so rested when you woke up a week ago? Why Liz, Maria or Kyle didn’t have the telltales of IV marks in their arms? This drug will be in full production a year from now. I’ll close the deal tomorrow night in Berlin. Before 18 months have gone by, I’ll be able to meet Maria’s pricey tag for your stay, and then some more.”

Dave turned to look at Max, and Max had the sudden urge to stand. He didn’t like being seated while Dave looked down, but there was no way that action wouldn’t be awkward. So he remained seated. And very tense. Liz had been right about being suspicious.

“I already have my profit from following you around. You and those you’ve crossed paths with, as a matter of fact. And I won’t deny that part of me still wants that. I want how they could manage to find something as useful as this out of a few drops of blood and strands of hair. What I don’t want is the whole secrecy and tip-toeing around you.”

Max swallowed hard at that. What would have Meta-Chem done to him if the circumstances had been different? And what about what Jake had said about when he’d been in the white room? That there had been others coming to get him when Pierce had been interrogating him?

“So you think if you’re up front with us… you’ll get more benefits.” It wasn’t really a question. If whatever was in that vial had been obtained from an unaware and unwilling “subject”, the things Dave could hope to get from a willing hybrid definitely escalated to the nth degree.

“I don’t want to risk people dying in an explosion because you feel threatened,” Dave corrected, now walking back to the cupboard. Had he just referred to Tess? “You didn’t agree for Jake to make discoveries. That’s only what he and I are hoping for.”

It made sense, Max conceded. How many things were hidden in his half-alien, half-human biology? If Liz were proposing this to him, he would gladly give her blood samples every day, and lay down inside one of those MRI machines for as long as she needed. But the fact remained that it wasn’t Liz, but two men whose intentions he was still trying to trust. Besides, he could deal with disappointing Liz, but what would happen if he disappointed these men?

“What if what you want is something I cannot give you?” Max asked, watching Dave putting the vial in the fridge again. “What would you do then?”

Dave stood up, this time holding a Coke, and closed the fridge. “Hmm,” he said, frowning. “Interesting question.” He left the Coke beside his chocolate on the cupboard and leaned on the smooth, dark wood. Max thought it odd that Dave would have both a hot drink and a cold beverage out at the same time.

Almost as if sensing Max’s thoughts, Dave took his chocolate back in his hands leaving the Coke unopened, and expectantly turned to look at Max. “What do you think I want? Honestly,” he finally asked.

Honestly? Max really didn’t know. He turned to look at the puzzle, little mountains of pieces scattered all around, all bearing the same shades of blue or yellow, depending on whether they were going to be sky or sand.

“There’s something wrong about all of this,” Max simply stated. Dave stopped drinking, though he left the mug at his lips, intently watching Max, as if this was the last thing he was expecting to hear. “You came out of nowhere, promising safety in exchange for lab sessions. But I keep waiting for you to come up and say ‘and I also want this’, so next thing we know we’ll be forced to do things we won’t or can’t do, and you won’t take no for an answer,” Max said, his eyes glued to the closest pile of pieces. “That’s what I honestly think we’ve agreed to.”

He turned to look at Dave, who had put the mug on the cupboard, thoughtful.

“Meta-Chem almost killed me once trying to get what you have in that vial,” Max continued, his heart faintly throbbing in his ears. These weren’t happy memories, and he feared this conversation would lead him to a not so happy future either. “They killed Michael’s friend because they thought he could heal him. And the truth is, I can’t afford you having the wrong expectations about what we’re willing to do for our safety…”

Even if it comes down to blowing up an Air Force base, Max silently added. For some reason, that single thought gave Max a brief glimpse of what Dave might have been thinking all along: That ultimately, Max could quite literally blow the whole place up. Strangely, the idea made him feel more confident.

“It seems to me that, right or wrong, we’re stuck with each other,” Dave said, turning to look at the numbers on the wall briefly. “You’re looking for some sort of insurance,” he said, sounding more as if he was talking to himself than to Max. A half smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes showed up. “You’ve already pointed out how much I tried for Jake to have a clean slate with you, how much I want you to trust him. What you may not realize is… I’m giving you my best friend as a token, Max. You’re risking your life in trusting me, I’m risking his.”

They locked eyes in that moment. It wasn’t that Max was surprised, but the intensity with which Dave had said my best friend rang genuine in Max’s ears. In a more practical sense, Jake had been appointed as their doctor because he was skilled, sociable, and maybe Dave’s most valuable possession. Is that how valuable we are? Max wondered.

“Jake is very protective of you,” Dave said, slightly chuckling. “You wouldn’t believe how much he argues with me about you all. I think you will come to see with time that he’s your best insurance in this place. He’ll never let anything remotely inappropriate happen to any of you.”

This actually made sense. Jake had seemed to be so angry at Dave at times. Max had even told Liz that it seemed as if they were caught between Dave and Jake. But why would Jake argue with Dave if they both wanted the same?

Max turned to look at the fridge. Would Dave really settle for a drug that induced accelerate healing if he couldn’t learn anything else in the appropriate way?

“So I want to know everything there is to know about you, even if Jake and I differ on how to approach matters. I tend to think you’re stronger than you think you are, even if I’m not making things any easier for you,” Dave said, taking a more serious stance. “Maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe I’m expecting something that will never be. Maybe after today you’ll regret having accepted my offer, or I’ll regret offering it in the first place.”

Max barely nodded, his thoughts still on Dave and Jake’s arguing. He and Michael argued all the time, it didn’t mean they didn’t want the same thing, just that they wanted to get it in very different ways.

“So if we leave… You won’t be really losing that much…” Max slowly said.

All pieces put together, if Dave was being honest, then he’d already gotten what he wanted, and was only hoping for more. At least as far as Max and company were willing to give him more.

Dave slightly narrowed his eyes, and Max got the feeling Dave hadn’t liked that approach all that much. After a short pause, he put his mug back on the cupboard.

“I guess I’ll just lose the opportunity,” he reluctantly agreed, maybe thinking about the millions he would never make at their expense. As if an afterthought had suddenly hit him, he slightly smiled. “On the bright side, we wouldn’t be stuck with each other anymore. I wouldn’t worry about Jake down there with you three, and you wouldn’t worry that my offer is too good to be true.”

Dave reached for the Coke now, instead of his mug, and quite deftly threw it at Max for him to catch. Max did, surprised. He wasn’t exactly thirsty, but he was eager for the sugar. “I still would like to hear your story though. It seems like every time I talk to any of you, this fable gets more complex and intriguing…”

But fables come with lessons, Max thought as he opened the Coke, and I still don’t know if the lesson here is to trust this man will respect this deal or not.

For the sake of everyone involved in this, Max fervently hoped Dave would.


* * *

Author's Note: If you want the whole thing about Mersenne Primes, you can find it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersenne_prime
Last edited by Misha on Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"There's addiction, and there's Roswell!"
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Re: The Offer (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 37.4 - pg. 16 - 11/26

Post by Misha »

So sorry for the long delay, but at least the muse is back with a vengeance :mrgreen: And real life is supposed to settle down into a comfortable routine from now on, yay to the end of projects!!!

Thanks to ken_r for his knowledge in weapons!You're the bestest! :D

To answer some very appreciated feedback:

PML, Dave is looking for several things, actually... And thanks for the congrats on the NaNo! Maybe we can do it together this year :)

nibbles2, awn... I love the concept of prime numbers, and Mersenne primes just were like a nice, rare thing to add... but they are hard to understand in the wiki article, I guess. The point though, was that, if something rare without real value is searched by so many, something both rare and valuable is way more desirable and search after. But maybe that part got stuck in Dave's mind :roll:

Timelord31, it really was a hard chapter to get out... I think I'll do better with this one :) And thanks!!

xmag, you bring valid points: everyone seems to want either power or money, or power through money. What could possibly be in the balance for Dave to do this?

cjsl8ne, Dave can certainly gain a lot of money in patents alone. And I have a feeling he will :lol:

Coccy, A personal reason is a plausible way to explain Dave's motives :shock: Though now you know there's someone lurking in the shadows, maybe with an agenda of its own...

zaneri, thank you for joining! If I had known it was going to take this long to write it, though...

squishypunk, I'm bribing my muse anyway I can, I swear! At least Unknown has made some progress as well :)

thetvgeneral, don't worry about beta duties. You just get well soon!


::back to write the next part of ch. 38::



XXXVIII
Fire



The weight of the gun felt strangely comfortable in Kyle’s hand. It shouldn’t have surprised him, really, since he’d been shooting since he was six. In fact, many of his fondest memories with his father revolved around guns, hunting, and fishing. Yet holding a gun inside this place was somewhat… surreal.

“This is the most likely gun that you will face,” Ray was saying now, presenting them a menacing looking Glock 23, the standard FBI handgun, “and therefore it’s the first one you’ll learn in detail.”

Both Michael and Isabel looked intently at the guns placed on the steel table in front of them, fear slightly showing in their eyes. They’d been dodging bullets since sophomore year, and both of them had been shot at least once, so Kyle understood why they would feel… apprehensive. Liz didn’t look any less anxious. Just like Kyle, it had been a bullet that had sucked Liz into the alien abyss, and the sight of guns still stirred some unwanted memories regarding being shot. But overall, it was the sight of Ray showing a gun to them – even an unloaded one - that had them all on edge.

“How good are you exactly with the…” Ray asked Michael and Isabel, a hand waving in the air as he tried to get the right word out, “…moving-things-with-your-mind thing?” he finished, slightly blushing.

It did sort of sound stupid when you were talking about powers for real, and Kyle would invariably joke about his emerging abilities every time the subject came up. He couldn’t handle talking about them without the aid of some comic relief. It was just too scary to deal with it or something. Ray, on the other hand, seemed just as uncomfortable as Michael and Isabel looked. They weren’t open about their powers either, much less with their jailer.

“We can disarm an agent… if we are close enough…” Isabel finally said, losing the carefully veiled fear and standing like the ice princess she’d once been in high school.

“How close?” Ray asked, looking interested now.

“A few feet… maybe ten?” Isabel said, turning to look at Michael, who just kept looking at Ray. Michael was not liking where this was going, and Kyle understood why: This was too close to revealing their limits for his liking.

“So, you usually disarm the agents when you are facing them?” Ray said, a bit skeptically.

No, they blow out cars when we’re facing them, Kyle privately thought, looking at the gun in his hand. He’d never been personally shot by an agent, nor had he seen this gun up close and personal, but the danger it represented was not lost on him.

“We’re usually not close enough,” Michael said, raising an eyebrow. Tension was beginning to radiate from his former second-in-command persona, and Kyle wondered about the wisdom of having guns and Michael in the same room.

“We look for other ways to distract them,” Isabel said, not elaborating further. The problem was, no one elaborated further, and it was clear that Ray was expecting just that. He turned to look at Kyle, who froze with the gun in his hand.

“So you wait for their distraction and you just… run?” Ray asked, flicking his eyes between the three humans of the group.

It was kind of a sad realization, Kyle knew, to see that their place in the group was usually reduced to the ones that had to be protected and secured, but against guns and trained agents, well… alien powers always won, and alien powers were exactly what Maria, Liz and himself were lacking. At least lacking in enough substance to be of any value in Liz’s and Kyle’s case.

Liz and Maria both tried to object, probably thinking that they did help to plan out the distractions from time to time, but when it came down to it, to the actions behind those plans… They really just ran. The three of them only nodded yes.

“Okay…” Ray said, looking down at the Glock, thinking things over. “Let me rephrase then: This is the most likely gun you’ll find yourselves with once they disarm the agents. In case you cannot run, that is.”

Maria and Michael glared at him in such a similar way, Kyle got goosebumps. Michael was thoroughly hating the idea of Maria learning to shoot, and Maria was thoroughly hating the idea of being reminded that, even with this training, she would probably end up running anyway.

“So,” Ray continued, ignoring the glares, “the first thing you need to know about guns is to always assume they’re loaded until you’ve personally checked them. The second thing…”

Ray went on and on about the safety rules that Kyle had memorized eons ago when he had barely been taller than the table itself. It was kind of boring, really, to have to go through all the theory. Judging by the lack of ammunition in sight, they were probably not going to shoot anytime soon either.

Gosh, he was itchy for something to do, even if only loading and unloading guns. Glocks could shoot up to 13 rounds, something he always kept in mind when he was running from the damn Unit. It was a good gun for beginners, he thought, as he saw Maria and Liz hefting one. It was light weight and it had mild recoil, which was more like a slap to the palm of one's hand.

Speaking of recoil, he wondered how Max was doing right now. Even if it had been an unexpected distraction, being here with Ray on their very first lesson about learning to defend themselves had taken the edge off their fretting about Max. Not only for Liz, but for Michael and Isabel as well.

It wasn’t that Kyle and Maria weren’t conscious of the fact that, if things went wrong with Max, they were going to be out of this place in less than four hours, but they weren’t as connected to Max as the other three.

Michael took the gun, and aimed at the empty wall. Ray corrected Michael’s hold of the gun, telling him to not let his wrist move in recoil when he shot. Maria looked with interest, and picked up her own gun. There was something inherently comical about seeing both Michael and Maria learning to shoot. Those two had so much fire-power one way or another, that it was somehow overkill.

He wondered how Max would feel about learning to shoot. In so many ways, Max was such a pacifist that Kyle could not comprehend how Michael didn’t implode out of sheer frustration. Of the three hybrids, Isabel was the most balanced when it came to thinking and acting, but she could be awfully insecure about her own decisions, too. Still, Kyle didn’t complain about Max’s way of thinking. So far, they were still alive and unscratched, and in Kyle’s book that constituted good leadership.

On the other hand, Kyle knew he should demand more from this club. Like stability and safety. Which was probably what Max was trying to get right this moment, and Kyle didn’t envy one single aspect of that. Being the followers was easier, he decided, as he took aim at the same wall Michael and Maria were imaginary shooting at right now.

It somehow felt wrong. Holding guns was no longer one of his favorite activities, it would seem.

When his world had been turned upside-down and he had unexpectedly found Buddhism and its teachings, Kyle had reconsidered so many aspects of life it was almost laughable. That good, ol’ Kyle Valenti, sports star and sheriff’s son, a small town boy when it came to it, could actually seek and find meaning in life within a philosophy that was so opposite to what he had done and thought, was incredible. It was nothing short of a miracle, really.

But he had changed. His spiritual journey had taken his mind to places he could not have imagined, and at no other point in his life had he truly felt himself unique as when Max had suddenly asked him how the whole rebirth thing was supposed to happen. Nothing could have been more surreal than an alien asking about Buddhism.

It had been a question Kyle had not seen coming when he had been driving their first car after the van had died two towns before. Liz was the only one riding with them, and she had fallen asleep. Max had looked anxious, nervous even, sitting in silence, fidgeting. Kyle had been lost in his own thoughts, following Michael, Maria and Isabel in the car in front of them. It had been the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere, and Max had somehow concluded there was no moment like the present to start talking about the meaning of life and spiritual guidance.

In retrospect, it hadn’t quite exactly been that. How are you supposed to learn from your past life if you can’t remember it? he had quietly asked at some point, which inevitably needed an explanation about karma and the soul not being a permanent self. But really, Max had been thinking about his former past life and what exactly was he to make of the fragmented, vague memories of an alien king. All Kyle had been able to tell him was, that wasn’t you.

At least not his present self. It wasn’t hard for Kyle to understand Max’s concern about reincarnation. After all, Max could be the same existence that once had been Zan, but Buddhism taught it wasn’t the same unchangeable soul per se, though it would certainly carry the same karma. Max had frowned at that, muttering something along the lines of I don’t even know what kind of leader I was, let alone what kind of karma I’m bringing with me.

The problem was Max thought of himself as the same person: He was Zan. Therefore, where did that leave Max? Max didn’t really say it, but Kyle sensed that Max was scared of finding one day that Max Evans, as a whole, didn’t exist. And as much as Kyle had tried to explain that rebirth according to Buddhism was nothing like that, the fact was that Max and Michael and Isabel had been bioengineered to be exactly that. Max was Zan, at least in the eyes of some distant civilization up there in the stars.

It doesn’t matter, Max had finally said, in a rather curt way to end their discussion. Technically speaking, it didn’t matter what they concluded because one way or another, philosophy was never wrong. But in reality, it mattered to Max to define in his mind who he truly was. And having memories of a far away planet was not helping him any to choose between who he wanted to be versus who he thought he was supposed to be.

Max had never raised the subject again, and Kyle had never seen Isabel or Michael even hinting at something like that, but Kyle still wondered… What consequences would come from whoever they chose to be? Did they even have a choice?

“These are the schematics for the Glock,” Ray was saying as he showed them elaborate drawings of how the pistol worked. How each part attached to the other and the gun function as a whole. Kyle lowered his gun and paid attention to the here and now.

“While you three learn to handle the guns,” Ray said, making Kyle wonder if Ray knew that he didn’t need any more training, just pure practice when it came to guns, “you two with Max will learn how to disable them from the inside.”

Michael and Isabel looked blank at that. Actually, all five of them looked blank at that. Ray continued explaining without even looking up, probably already anticipating he wouldn’t make much sense in the beginning.

“Handguns are not all that complicated when you break them into the basics. So if you concentrate enough with those powers of yours, you can melt, hammer, disintegrate or whatever it is you can do to key components. That way, your attacker thinks he has control, when in reality you have—”

“Disabled the weapon from the inside…,” Michael said, looking rather interested in the whole thing.

“We would need to be rather close to it,” Isabel said, frowning.

Michael looked intently from the gun in his hand to the schematics in the table. Back and forth, back and forth. Finally, he looked up to Ray. “Show me. What would I have to do?”

“That depends…” Ray said, “What can you actually do?”

“Melt, hammer, disintegrate,” Michael said arching one eyebrow with a smirk. “That pretty much covers it.”

“In that case,” Ray smiled approvingly, “we’ll start here…”

Maybe it was because of where his thoughts had been, but as Ray started to show Michael what could be the convenient key points to disable, Kyle got the sudden impression Michael had embraced his past life wholly, and Kyle was now looking not at a human-alien hybrid, but at a Michael-Rath hybrid. He wasn’t sure if he liked that or not.

That thought led him to another: What would a Max-Zan hybrid be like? It doesn’t matter, Max’s words echoed again in his mind. And no matter how much Kyle wanted to believe that, the truth was, Kyle didn’t know a thing about Zan. Max he was willing to follow, but Zan? Suddenly, it mattered a whole lot who Max believed himself to be. Interestingly enough, in that moment Kyle realized it had always mattered who all of them believed themselves to be. Humans? Aliens? Royalty? Because each of those choices meant very different things. Very different priorities.

Yet the question remained: Did they even have a choice?


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Last edited by Misha on Sat Apr 10, 2010 6:34 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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