Finally the last normal part to the story. Just the Epilogue left. Thanks to everyone following along.
begonia9508- thanks.
keepsmiling7- thanks.
mary mary- thanks. And don't worry. Edward doesnt get off easy in this story. Not at all.
valentinebaby- thanks. Not an easy choice for Maria.
Disclaimer- Roswell is not mine and no infringement is intended.
Across the Far Horizon part 69
Tess
Tess stared at her father, careful to control her expression. What did he think now, at the moment of his total defeat…..
Edward Harding was laughing. He did take in Tess and the tied up Liz Parker.
Tess wasn’t really sure what she was supposed to do. Had her father truly lost the last bit of his sanity? Or was he simply trying to decompress.
He had never really told her why he wanted to come to Azenar.
Finding that out was one of her more important tasks….
So Tess set about setting up camp with the limited equipment she had.
Liz glared up at her in worried desperation. They had had to ad lib part of their plan, and Liz was vulnerable at the moment.
Tess hadn’t expected to find springing this trap to be as tricky. But they really would only have one chance.
Liz would have to wait.
Edward walked up to Tess, blue eyes bright and smiling. “Tess, my dear, grabbing the girl was brilliant. Now they will have to be careful with what magic they use to hunt us.”
Praise. Real praise from her father.
Something she hadn’t had in years. Something she had yearned for.
For just a moment her heart fluttered and she remembered those good years. Back before she had gone to Worlds End. Before she had come to realize what a monster her father was.
Before she knew fathers were not supposed to try to impregnate their daughters.
Their relationship had been growing rocky as no matter how often they tried, Tess simply could not carry a child to term. No matter what dark magic he used, no matter that Tess wasn’t pure human, nothing mattered.
The prohibition of Scion Azen pairings held.
From twelve days after her first menses until her seventeenth birthday she had held several sickly sparks of life that had never lasted past the second month. And he had grown progressively angry with each failure. He began to hurt her.
Badly.
Bad enough that it would have killed a human. Or Dryad. Or even a pure Azen.
But Tess was a Scion. Moreover she was a Heart-Shaper of immense skill. She’d been able to heal and repair any damage done to her.
Physical damage anyway. The sick and twisted emotional scars lingered.
Even now they lingered. Even now Tess realized that she loved her father. He was a complete and utter monster. A being that needed killing more than anything she had ever known.
And yet she loved him. She could feel herself preen with his praise. It had been years. Years since he had said such nice things to her.
Not since she had seduced Max.
She glanced thoughtfully over at Liz.
Liz looked up, a touch of terror filling her eyes. An acknowledgement that this farce could become very real.
That Tess still had one final choice. One final fateful decision.
Edward softly stroked Tess’s cheek. “I am so sorry for the last few years. I promise to make them up to you.”
Tess glowered at him, “Not tonight father. You will get nothing from me.”
“I will let you have control. Let you ride me like you used to when you were younger. I miss seeing your young lithe body move above me.”
“You certainly haven’t acted like that lately.” Tess glared at her father.
“That wasn’t sex dear. I merely was trying to show….” He looked away.
“Dominance. Power. Why do you think I came back to you. The others, well they have some level of power. More than you do at the moment. But they don’t have a conception of how to use it. They simply don’t understand.” She glowered at her father sternly, “But I have a better feel for what I can do now. Don’t even think of trying that again. Or you will be most sorry.”
Edward nodded. “Yes. I can see that. Things have changed. You have changed. Yes, I promise.”
Tess looked over at Liz and smiled nastily at her, “Besides, we have a captive. Take your hunger out on her. Just remember she’s human. I can fix most of what you break, but if you kill her she’ll still be dead.”
“She’ll be warded.”
Tess looked down on her former friend. “Yes. But her powers are stripped at the moment.” Tess laughed wickedly, “Do you have any clue how they have looked at me lately.”
“Tess?” Edward said, a trace of wonder mixed with surprised satisfaction.
“Hurt her father,” Tess hissed. “I want her torn and screaming.” Tess giggled, surprised at how evil it sounded to her own ears. “I know you need her babies for your plan. I can fix her. I can make her swell
with my brothers and sisters. But right now I just want to hear her scream in pain and despair!”
Edward took her in his arms and gave her a passionate kiss. He backed away, “I promise I will find someone for you. Someone like this piece you have given me.” He wiped a tear from his eye with one hand, the other loosening his belt. “My beautiful daughter. All grown up.”
Tess backed away a little to give her father room.
Liz looked frantic now and struggled at her bonds.
Edward began chanting some dark spell, and Liz was coated with dark fire, her clothes falling away to ash. And it burned her but did not consume her flesh.
And she screamed.
Tess activated the trap at the moment her father entered what he thought was Liz. He pushed himself as hard and far as he could on his first thrust. And further on the second.
By the third he noticed the difference perhaps. For lining the vagina that he slid in and out of was neither blood or normal vaginal fluids.
It was a digestion enzyme. The warmth he was feeling was the enzyme eating away at his dick.
By the fourth stroke he knew something was wrong.
But it was much too late. Already at every place they touched, the hair that ‘Liz’s’ body had was boring into Edwards skin. Her pubic hair reached up and ate his scrotum before bonding itself to the rest of his body.
Two well polished glands dropped and rolled away.
A shivering Liz collected them and put them into a bag. “You were really giving me a scare there, Tess. I was becoming frightened you would join him.”
Tess looked down at her father slowly being consumed in front of her. “Part of me wanted to. Particularly when he said that I had done a good job.” She shivered, “He was such a monster. And he shaped me, Liz. I will need help. More than I ever thought to try to not become like him.”
“Yeah, well we will be there for you. If I had only known…..”
Tess looked over at her friend, “I should have told you. At least some of it. It was my pride and shame….. They nearly destroyed me.”
Liz nodded, her eyes fixed on the transformation before her.
Liz as a wizard was an expert in transformation and changing things. But even she had not believed it possible to change Edward into a tree.
Tess had simply expected Yelena to help them kill her father. To find a way to punish him.
This was so much more. “So what is happening now do you think?”
Liz cocked her head and studied the scene. “Well the lower half of the body is being converted into the root system. You can see the hairs slowly pulling in the legs of both of the Changeling and your father. And I think… I think his dick has probably dissolved by now as well. We rigged it up so that the enzymes wouldn’t effect the blood vessels, so he’s basically bleeding out into what would have been the cervix. Its mixing with all the blood I took from you and Cirelle. And that touch of sap from Yelena. That will change the consistency of his blood to closer to sap. But close enough to blood to not stop his heart.”
Tess nodded slowly. “But why? I mean he is going to be a tree now, right.”
Liz shook her head, “Almost. His heart will still beat. His brain will still function, although very slowly. Yelena said that the tree she chose is a very long lived breed. He will have a long time to think. And to feel. If I did my work right, his nerves should still work just fine. Just slow. I almost think this is too much. Even for him.”
“Almost.”
“Yeah. Almost.”
Tess heard a loud crack as part of the combined torsos moved upright and began to coat with bark. “We should get back.”
“Yep.”
They stood there and watched as Tess’s father became a small sized tree. The only tree in the forest to feel cold in the winter. Or too feel the bite of the bugs that fed on it. Or any of the number of small torments that happened upon a tree in a forest.
It is there still yet. Thousands of years later. For the gifts and promises once given have not yet been taken away.
And Edward is Azen and ageless. So too the tree. Forever aware of the passage of time and unable to do anything.
Forever.
Across the Far Horizon (CC ALL, Mature) Epilogue - 01/01/11
Moderators: Anniepoo98, Rowedog, ISLANDGIRL5, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, FSU/MSW-94, Hunter, Island Breeze, Forum Moderators
Re: Across the Far Horizon (CC ALL, Mature) Part 69- 12/31/10
Well and here it is. The very last part. Thanks again to all those who have followed this crazy and slightly longer than planned ride.
Happy New Year to you all.
Mt. Gazer- Thanks.
Natalie36- Thanks.
Begonia9508- Thanks.
keepsmiling7- Thanks.
mary mary- Thanks
valentinebaby- Thanks.
Disclaimer- Roswell is not mine and no infringement is intended
Across the Far Horizon Epilogue
Max
Max gazed upon the glorious Azenar nighttime sky. For whatever reason the stars seemed brighter, and the nearby nebulae softly lit the sky with a color seen no where else.
Everything seemed so right here. The air, the water…. It all tasted sweeter.
It brought back so many of the old memories too. Fond memories. He had loved this world, had loved the grand City….. Now in ruins.
The Azen had built to last, but one thousand years was still a long time. Abandoned the buildings had slowly decayed. Many of the stone buildings still stood, just bits of them gone. But the streets were gone, over grown.
It did not look like the City had been taken by war. Or that some sudden catastrophe had befallen them. Simply that all the people had left.
Or died.
Max looked over to where Liz and Maria quietly sat talking.
Both of them had changed on this expedition. In good ways. He hoped he had grown as well.
Liz looked over at him a smiled.
Max smiled back.
It was good to be in love again. To have her again.
Maria looked over at him as well and said something softly to Liz.
Liz giggled softly in return.
Maria waved and nodded at him. It was that moment that would always stick with him. The moment he believed she made her choice.
A choice as fateful as Bethanar’s to side with Aric and kill Max so very long ago. The moment when the Azen were reborn.
Liz missed it. Her focus was on him, not her friend.
But Maria tilted her head to the side and said ‘Yes.’ And Max felt the world shift on its axis. And for just a moment Maria’s green eyes had a bright purple tinge.
The moment passed.
But Maria had changed. It was subtle. If you hadn’t seen it before you might never truly know what you were seeing. There was a slight sheen to her. As if the light were clinging to her just a little more than usual.
Maria was Azen. Max could feel the change in the girl from more than twenty feet away.
This was why he had been called. Not for himself, but for her. He had been there when they had fallen. So to was he here when they were redeemed.
Or given a second chance anyway. If she had truly taken up the Azen banner, then she had a lot of work ahead of her.
Liz walked over to him and stared him in the eyes. “I missed it didn’t I? The changed. She already made the choice.”
“Yes.”
Liz patted him on the shoulder and gave him a kiss, “Be easy on her. It was not an easy thing to do.”
“I will.” Max walked over to where Maria stood.
She nodded and started walking down a path back to the shore.
Max caught up to her easily, but they didn’t talk until they were at the beach. Max asked her, “Why are we here?”
Maria smiled up at him and pointed at the glimmering of the onset of dawn. “We are here to greet the day, Max. To finalize my choice and begin working on a new covenant.”
Max looked at her, “Shouldn’t Michael be with you? Shouldn’t he be here?”
Maria shook her head. “No more than Liz should be here with you. I already talked with Michael about this. He didn’t care. He really didn’t. As long as we are together, as long as we can raise a family. He truly would be happy with any of my choices.” Her grin split wide open, “But the idea of me as a Scion simply made him laugh.”
“That was a choice?”
Maria nodded, “But I would have been the last. And we would have faded before the end of the next millennia. Nothing more than legends and myths. Just like the Azen.”
“Only, you are stopping the fall of the Azen.”
“In a sense. It will never be what it was. I certainly don’t plan on weaponizing my children. No, if there are more Scions they will be different.” She shook her head, “I need your help Max. I will need Alex too, but he is Wizard’s Council and while I want to be there friends. Want them to be close to us, we can not be totally the same.”
“But Liz….”
“Max, seriously it will not be a problem. Not for generations. I am too weak, and the Wizard’s Council is still growing. Once both our groups seriously become entrenched, that’s when the problems will start. But right now? We have too much to learn from each other.”
“Okay, and what do you need me to do?”
“Help me rebuild. It is going to take a lifetime Max. But in the end I want to reclaim all of this, reclaim this world. And teach a group of people who can go out and help the other worlds. I want to make Azenar a place of healing and learning much the same way that Parliament wants to make the Verge into a center of Finance and Industry.”
He looked over at Maria, her hair slowly turning golden under the lightening sky. “This won’t be easy. And I want a family. I am not going to give that up for this.”
Maria flatly said, “Neither am I. They promised I would have my family no matter what. Well I am keeping them to their promises. I will do my best to make the world a better place.”
Max nodded, “Why are we doing this again?”
Maria smiled and grasped his hand, “Our children, Max. We are doing this for your children and for mine. And for all the other people out there who will need help some day. Someone has to build the institutions that can hold back the night. It might as well be us.” She turned to face the rising sun. “Now hold on, the insanity is about to begin.”
Max turned to face the rising of the sun.
And a brand new day.
Happy New Year to you all.
Mt. Gazer- Thanks.
Natalie36- Thanks.
Begonia9508- Thanks.
keepsmiling7- Thanks.
mary mary- Thanks
valentinebaby- Thanks.
Disclaimer- Roswell is not mine and no infringement is intended
Across the Far Horizon Epilogue
Max
Max gazed upon the glorious Azenar nighttime sky. For whatever reason the stars seemed brighter, and the nearby nebulae softly lit the sky with a color seen no where else.
Everything seemed so right here. The air, the water…. It all tasted sweeter.
It brought back so many of the old memories too. Fond memories. He had loved this world, had loved the grand City….. Now in ruins.
The Azen had built to last, but one thousand years was still a long time. Abandoned the buildings had slowly decayed. Many of the stone buildings still stood, just bits of them gone. But the streets were gone, over grown.
It did not look like the City had been taken by war. Or that some sudden catastrophe had befallen them. Simply that all the people had left.
Or died.
Max looked over to where Liz and Maria quietly sat talking.
Both of them had changed on this expedition. In good ways. He hoped he had grown as well.
Liz looked over at him a smiled.
Max smiled back.
It was good to be in love again. To have her again.
Maria looked over at him as well and said something softly to Liz.
Liz giggled softly in return.
Maria waved and nodded at him. It was that moment that would always stick with him. The moment he believed she made her choice.
A choice as fateful as Bethanar’s to side with Aric and kill Max so very long ago. The moment when the Azen were reborn.
Liz missed it. Her focus was on him, not her friend.
But Maria tilted her head to the side and said ‘Yes.’ And Max felt the world shift on its axis. And for just a moment Maria’s green eyes had a bright purple tinge.
The moment passed.
But Maria had changed. It was subtle. If you hadn’t seen it before you might never truly know what you were seeing. There was a slight sheen to her. As if the light were clinging to her just a little more than usual.
Maria was Azen. Max could feel the change in the girl from more than twenty feet away.
This was why he had been called. Not for himself, but for her. He had been there when they had fallen. So to was he here when they were redeemed.
Or given a second chance anyway. If she had truly taken up the Azen banner, then she had a lot of work ahead of her.
Liz walked over to him and stared him in the eyes. “I missed it didn’t I? The changed. She already made the choice.”
“Yes.”
Liz patted him on the shoulder and gave him a kiss, “Be easy on her. It was not an easy thing to do.”
“I will.” Max walked over to where Maria stood.
She nodded and started walking down a path back to the shore.
Max caught up to her easily, but they didn’t talk until they were at the beach. Max asked her, “Why are we here?”
Maria smiled up at him and pointed at the glimmering of the onset of dawn. “We are here to greet the day, Max. To finalize my choice and begin working on a new covenant.”
Max looked at her, “Shouldn’t Michael be with you? Shouldn’t he be here?”
Maria shook her head. “No more than Liz should be here with you. I already talked with Michael about this. He didn’t care. He really didn’t. As long as we are together, as long as we can raise a family. He truly would be happy with any of my choices.” Her grin split wide open, “But the idea of me as a Scion simply made him laugh.”
“That was a choice?”
Maria nodded, “But I would have been the last. And we would have faded before the end of the next millennia. Nothing more than legends and myths. Just like the Azen.”
“Only, you are stopping the fall of the Azen.”
“In a sense. It will never be what it was. I certainly don’t plan on weaponizing my children. No, if there are more Scions they will be different.” She shook her head, “I need your help Max. I will need Alex too, but he is Wizard’s Council and while I want to be there friends. Want them to be close to us, we can not be totally the same.”
“But Liz….”
“Max, seriously it will not be a problem. Not for generations. I am too weak, and the Wizard’s Council is still growing. Once both our groups seriously become entrenched, that’s when the problems will start. But right now? We have too much to learn from each other.”
“Okay, and what do you need me to do?”
“Help me rebuild. It is going to take a lifetime Max. But in the end I want to reclaim all of this, reclaim this world. And teach a group of people who can go out and help the other worlds. I want to make Azenar a place of healing and learning much the same way that Parliament wants to make the Verge into a center of Finance and Industry.”
He looked over at Maria, her hair slowly turning golden under the lightening sky. “This won’t be easy. And I want a family. I am not going to give that up for this.”
Maria flatly said, “Neither am I. They promised I would have my family no matter what. Well I am keeping them to their promises. I will do my best to make the world a better place.”
Max nodded, “Why are we doing this again?”
Maria smiled and grasped his hand, “Our children, Max. We are doing this for your children and for mine. And for all the other people out there who will need help some day. Someone has to build the institutions that can hold back the night. It might as well be us.” She turned to face the rising sun. “Now hold on, the insanity is about to begin.”
Max turned to face the rising of the sun.
And a brand new day.