Sol Aeternum Amor (CC ML / Teen) 1/1 - 06/02/2012

[PML]

Title- Aeternum Amor

Author- PML

Disclaimer- Roswell is not mine. It is owned by Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, and Fox. This is for entertainment only and no infringement is intended.

Category- CC- ML

Rating- Mature

Summary- This is the second of my End of the World 2012 challenge stories. There is for a challenge put up at Roswell Heaven, and the requirements are simple. How do our wonderful heroes deal with the end of the world, be it a hoax or real. In the case of this story, if you have read the first of the series, Diem Perfectum, you will know that it is a very real and catastrophic ending indeed.

That story covered how Isabel dealt with the crisis; this one will deal with Max and Liz. How will our dear Dreamer’s deal with the coming end of all things?

--
Max-

Max held the phone tightly as he talked with his sister. She was now working at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. It had been set up with some help from Brody Davis, his old friend and a man sometimes possessed by an even older friend, Larek.

Brody had been one of those who had helped them to return to a normal life. His help had been due in part to help a friend, but it had been Sydney that had made him put his money and already tattered reputation on the line for Max.

But it had been Larek who had wanted Isabel to go to the Keck Observatory. There were some irregularities that Antaran Observatories had noticed, and Larek had been curious if Earth had seen them.

Max said softly into the phone, “Well? Is it as bad as we feared?”

Isabel’s voice was calm. “Two days, Max. The world ends in two days.”

Max shook his head and looked over into the other room where Liz was still sleeping. He kept his voice level and low so as not to wake her, “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I don’t know if all the teams are going to be shut down, but the Professor has shut us down. Admin was told it was for the holidays. That, that the automation can take care of the needed observations.”

Max closed his eyes, he could almost hear the tears sliding down his sister’s face. “But how? I know there are some irregularities, that is why we sent you there.”

“The level of Phantom Energy is simply higher than we ever thought possible. Max. Galaxies have been disappearing, the next step will be the stars. That will start sometime tomorrow. One by one the stars will appear to go out. And then, then it will affect the sun and the rest of the planets. But Max, at each step the process accelerates. By the 22nd of December there will be nothing left. I will even cause the weak and strong nuclear forces to break.”

“Maybe if we had the Granolith….”

Isabel’s sarcastic laughter rang into his ears, “Finding religion at the end of things? That old relic wouldn’t save us. It was just a ship, remember? The one that Tess took to Antar? No, we are quite doomed. And so is Antar.” There was a pause. “Or is it? Have you heard anything from Larek.”

Max wearily sighed, “Yes. He bade me good bye. And told me to spend my last days as well as I could. Brody and Sydney send their love.”

“I see.” Another pause, “I, I need to get going Max. I just want you to know I love you. Give my love to Liz too. I, I will call you both tomorrow, okay?”

“I love you to, Isabel. Isn’t there any way you can come out here early? Surely you can catch an earlier flight?”

“I will talk to you later, okay?” Click.

Max stared at the phone. He sighed softly, More bad news.

He looked outside, the sky beginning to lighten with the coming dawn. The last perfect day. Looking out there you would never believe that the world was about to end.

There was, of course, all those talking about the Mayan Doomsday, but few really believed in it. But whether by some odd intuition or simple chance, the world really was going to end somewhere between the 21st and the 22nd of December.

He felt Liz grab hold of him from behind. She hugged him close and said, “What did Isabel say.”

“You already know.”

“It is over.”

Max turned around and pulled Liz closer, “I wish there were something we can do. I hate feeling helpless like this!”

Liz reached up and wiped a tear from his cheek, “Maybe there is. I have been thinking.”

Max kissed her. “Anything my love.”

“Maybe if we go back in time…”

Max kissed her. For a brief moment the problems faded, but they did need to come up for air. “No Granolith.”

Liz smiled up at him, “Not in the conventional sense. But one is there. We just need to find it.”

Max sighed and let her go. “Even if we could somehow find it, and I have no clue what you mean by that by the way. What good would it do? The problem didn’t originate from here. It didn’t come from Antar. The universe itself is broken. All we could do is warn ourselves that we are doomed. What good is that going to do?”

Liz grabbed his hand, “I have a plan.”

“You always do. So tell me what it is.” Max was tempted to simply kiss her again. Or better yet pick heer up and carry her back to bed. Michael wouldn’t be expecting them at his house for hours. Plenty of time for a little romp with his wife.

Liz caught his drifting eyes. “Mmm. I like the way you are thinking. Just hear me out first.”

Max growled softly, “But I don’t wanna wait.”

Liz giggled. “Coming from the most patient man on Earth.”

“Okay. But can you hurry. The world is about to end. I want maximum cuddle time.”

Liz just stopped and looked at him. “I don’t want it to end Max. I don’t want it to end and I will do everything in my power to stop it.”

Max felt the mood evaporate. He looked at his beautiful wife and said, “I agree. I just don’t see what we can do.”

Liz looked up at him, “Time Max. We need more time. Whatever this is, it didn’t happen in the last time line. Future Max came back from fourteen years.”

Max sighed. Future Max. That whole incident, remembering all the fallout and that horrible junior year of High School…. How he wished it had never happened.

Liz continued, “Something must have changed. Some temporal variable or who knows, maybe his trip itself destabilized time. I don’t know. But I think, I think that he left a connection to the Granolith where he visited me. And I think if we can get a flash of it, we can connect to it.”

“And then what?”

Liz smiled sadly, “And then you are up. I am great at planning. But you Max, you are great at improvising. I will think up some options, but in the end, it will be your skills that we will need. Your talents, not mine that will save the world.”

“Or fail.”

Liz smiled, “Let’s go to our room first. And I will give you a reason not to fail.”

Max smiled and he picked her up. She wrapped herself around him and began sliding her hands down his back.

He carried her to the bedroom and for a while there were no worries. Just he and Liz together in a seemingly endless series of timeless moments.

--
Liz

Liz looked over at Max as he slept. She slipped out to take a quick shower.

In truth she had already seen them on her old balcony at the Crashdown. Had seen them connect with the Granolith from Future Max’s time. And felt as they were sucked into the void.

She hadn’t seen anything after that. But that was their only hope. And right now she was grasping at straws. She loved Max and didn’t want her life with him to end. Sure she wasn’t doing what she had expected herself to be doing when she was growing up. But she was happy.

Being happy and in love was better than any fame or notoriety she might have gained as a scientist.

She was brushing her teeth when a sleepy Max entered the bath room. He smiled at her and at her shaken head walked directly into the shower.

They had had their play time. Now it was time to work.

Within an hour they were in front of the Crashdown. She stared through the front door. She could see her father working. She wanted nothing more than to go in there and talk to them. To pull both of her parents to her and tell her how much she loved them.

But it would take too much time. They would all be meeting at Michael’s in a few hours anyway. Surely they would be finished with this by then.

Or they would be stranded somewhere within the chaos of the time stream. She couldn’t see that far.

Max put his hand on her shoulder, “We have time. Go in there.”

Liz wiped a tear and shook her head, “I don’t know if I would be able to do it, Max. This, this will be dangerous.”

Max sighed softly. He then laughed, “This will be like old times. Come on. Time for us to break into your old room.”

It had been strange when she had visted the other day. Her room still had her old bed and quite a bit of her furniture. But it also had an exercise bike and a tread mill.

Her room was now the exercise room. Life was so strange. At least they had kept her balcony mostly the same. The candles and lights were gone, but the chairs remained.

Liz accepted a lift to the bottom of the ladder, which she climbed. She watched as Max somehow climbed the wall before he too got to the ladder.

Her Max was so very strong. She smiled and pulled herself up the balcony.

She looked around again, remembering it as it had been. Where had he appeared? It had been on the balcony, she knew that much. She reached back into her mind and remembered how the balcony had been so very long ago.

“Do you remember, love?”

She opened her eyes, “There. It had to be there.” She walked over to the spot.

Max followed, “Now what?”

“We generate a flash of his arrival. He will be connected to his Granolith. During the flash we will effectively BE him, and I believe you should be able to use your Seal to access it.”

Max laughed softly, “And then it’s my turn?”

Liz smiled up at him. “Hold me and think of your love of me. I will do the same. That should cover for the emotional component on our end.”

“What about him? You know flashes have to have emotion from both ends.”

Liz looked up at him, running her hand along his chin, “Max. He had just left me. Michael had recently died, Isabel not that much earlier. How would you have felt if you had to abandon me to that world?”

Max nodded. And closed his eyes.

Liz took one last look at Max and closed her eyes and focused….

--

The flash came suddenly, drawn out by the extreme emotions. Max and Liz didn’t focus on what they saw there. Max did as Liz had asked and reached for the Granolith.

He was successful and he traveled.

Liz did not let go. Never again would she ever let him go anywhere she could not follow. Not once in their running from the Feds had they separated. Not even when it would have made either of them safer.

They were One until death. So they had sworn. And they planned to keep that vow.

But unlike Future Max, they didn’t have a guide crystal. The Granolith didn’t have orders to send them to any particular place or frame of reference. And so they were stuck.

Trapped between Eternity and the Now.

They pushed against it, struggling not just to escape, but also to warn those in the past. To allow them time to think of a solution, or to devise an escape.

In this they utterly failed.

But they did touch mankind. Perhaps it had always been part of the species. That need for more than just the release from physical desire. That desire for something more. For someone who would be there for them always, someone who would love them for who they were.

Yes, it likely had existed in some manner or form. But Liz and Max fanned the flames. They touched the entirety of mankind in their quest, causing great joy and heartbreak, both peace and violence.

For their love had become eternal, woven into the very fabric of time. And they lurked there, never able to reach beyond the development of man, and never able to go beyond the end of time. Always pressing against the barrier that separated them from the Eternal Now.

Forever and always they struggle to save the world, if only to allow their love to continue.

If they have not succeeded, they have yet to fail.

So it goes, even now. And will until the end of time.