Some lines – oh, who the hell am I trying to fool? Nearly all lines - taken from “Max in the City”. Some lines taken from the Pilot.
The times are going to be a little weird for a while – basically, what’s going on with Max in NYC will be set several minutes before the scenes in Roswell with Liz and the rest of the gang. Eventually, though, they will converge (hee hee nice tribute to an absent Caelan there, huh?) for everyone’s favorite scene, the scaffolding scene!
I’m going to try to make this a very, very long chapter so that hopefully we can FINALLY get out of the episodes and get on to the challenge bit. Sorry it’s been taking so long! And sorry I waited so long to update, but hey, it’s a big job here, people!
You guys love me, don’t even try to deny it.
Oh my God … I forgot to thank my readers!!! Let me do that now …
First of all, Lurkers, THANK YOU! I HOPE YOU ENJOY.
L-J-L 76 – Thank you very much!
Earth2Mama – there you go! Hope you enjoy.
Luzser1800 – thank you! And thanks for updating ‘Scripted’ today … that was a sad one.
Spray – Love ya, doll. Thank you so much.
Maya – Thanks! And hey, I read your update! You’re so cool …
Ladyjr15 – Yeah, that’s what I was going for … well, not the Lonnie aspect, but as much of the Ice Princess as you can get. Thank you so much.
Scottie – Thank you!
Dreamerfrvrp3 – thanks for the constant nagging
Kitten – Welcome! Bienvenue! Tu parles francais? Je parles tres bien francais … Merci pour tes mots gentils. A bientot!
Lorastar –
Tess. pth.
Amen!
Katydid – Thanks! I always wanted to delve deeper into that, too.
Beautiful86 – Thanks so much! And welcome! You’re too kind. And I can’t take most of the credit, Zanssoulmate08 came up with the challenge. I’m just writing the darn thing. I hope you enjoy this part, too.
Zanssoulmate08 – You have no idea how much that means to me, since you’re the one who came up with the challenge in the first place. Thank you with all my heart.
DreamerMaxBehrian – Thanks, dude! Yeah I liked that little play on words, too! Yes, the title is important, but that will come out much, much later. Enjoy!
Datgirl88 – thanks again!
Lillian – thank you!
This chapter is dedicated to
Dreamerfrvrp3; if it weren’t for her constant nagging, I’d probably be more than half way done with ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves’ right now, and have almost forgotten that this story existed at all (sorry, Zanssoulmate08!).
Chapter Six – Things Aren’t Always What They Seem
Friday, November 24, 2000 – the day after Thanksgiving, 12:14am Eastern Standard Time
True to the fashion of politics, even intergalactic politics, the summit was late getting started. This trip was getting stranger and stranger for Max, and for about the umptieth time, he thought that it had been a mistake in leaving Roswell at all. But he was here now, about to walk into the summit, and he couldn’t just leave when he’d come this far. At least he’d managed to exert some authority by pulling the “I’m the King” card on Rath in an effort to get him to be civil to Tess, who was quickly becoming the only person he truly trusted in this time zone.
Or any other, his mind told him in a coded reminder of his fight with Michael and Isabel.
Max walked into the room where the summit was about to begin, with Lonnie, Tess and Rath following behind him. At first he thought his homesickness was causing his eyes to play tricks on him, but no, it really was …
“Brody?”
“Actually, my name is Larek.” Yes, Max could see it now – his mannerisms, the way he carried himself, the way his voice fluctuated when he spoke; it was all different. Brody really had been abducted. If the situation wasn’t so serious, Max might have smiled at its absurdity. “Are you Zan?”
“They tell me that used to be my name. But my name is Max. Max Evans.”
A woman he’d never seen before spoke up harshly from where she sat at a long table. “If he doesn’t even know who he is, how can he sit in conference with us?”
Brody answered her firmly. “He sits with us because the emissary certified him,” he said as if this settled everything. “Kathana, Sero, Hanar and I will represent each of our worlds. Max will speak for his.”
“Actually,” a pre-pubescent voice that reminded Max acutely of nails on chalkboard spoke up from behind him. Max turned his head and laid eyes on a runt of a person whom he’d hoped he’d seen the last of. “Kivar speaks for his world. And I speak for Kivar.” Nicholas moved his way to the other side of the table, so that he sat directly facing Max. The symbolism of their positions – equal but opposing, as if the others were there to watch a showdown between leaders – was not lost on Max.
“Max,” Nicholas greeted with insincerity before turning his attention to Tess. “Nice to see your genocidal girlfriend again. Killed anyone today?” he asked her directly.
“Day’s not over,” Tess said in a low, clear voice.
“What a charmer,” Nicholas retorted. Tess remembered that she had to keep quiet before she said something that would betray her true intentions to Max. That was the first outward sign of aggression she’d shown, and it felt good after bottling up her rage at Rath and Lonnie for the last few days. But there would be a time and a place for that, and this wasn’t it.
“Can we begin?” Larek intervened with grace, neutrality and diplomacy. Max admired his ability to step in and take control of a conversation which was clearly about to go all kinds of bad. He could pick up some pointers from this guy, he thought as he prepared for the summit to begin in earnest.
~*~*~*~*~
Thursday, November 23, 2000 – Thanksgiving Day, 9:41pm Central Time– the Crashdown
Michael, Isabel and Liz were desperately trying to find a way to warn Max about how dangerous Rath and Lonnie were.
“Where’s the summit being held?” Michael demanded of Ava.
“Some building downtown.”
“You gotta do better than that,” Michael was growing impatient with this chick, and was feeling more than a little angry and betrayed that she’d let Max go off with those two murderous psychos in the first place. If they didn’t mind killing their own Max, whom they’d grown up with all their lives, then they sure as hell wouldn’t think twice about offing his best friend.
“I don’t know anything more,” Ava answered quietly. She didn’t think he really understood exactly how much Rath and Lonnie liked or trusted her. It wasn’t much. Not knowing much about the dynamic of the New Mexico contingent, though, the parallel between herself and her dupe was lost on her.
“Hey, Isabel, um …” Liz spoke shyly, knowing Isabel still didn’t like her and hadn’t forgiven her for sleeping with Kyle. But she had an idea and she had to voice it. “Can’t you dream-walk Max? You know, um, put a warning in his mind. You’ve done it before, you know, when he was in the White Room.”
“That was different. He was drugged. I was only a few miles away. He’s across the country now.” Isabel was nervous and unsure in her ability. She wanted to help Max, she just didn’t think she had the power to do what Liz was asking of her.
“I think we’re out of alternatives,” Michael said with finality in his voice.
~*~*~*~*~
Friday, November 24, 2000 – the day after Thanksgiving, 12:27am Eastern Standard Time
The summit was taking a break so that Max could think about the offer Nicholas had made him – return to Antar safely in exchange for the granilith. Tess sat with him, stroking his ego as much as she could while eliciting from him as much information as was possible without arousing his suspicions.
“Cut a deal with Nicholas?” Max asked incredulously. “I don’t trust him any more than I can throw him.”
“You could throw him pretty far,” Tess remarked.
“Then there’s Lonnie and Rath. It’s hard to believe they have the same DNA of Michael and Isabel.”
“For what it’s worth, I don’t trust them.” She already knew Max didn’t like them, and if she had to guess, he didn’t trust them too much, either. By supporting his already-formed opinions, she would reinforce herself that much more as his only ally, his only friend here.
“And then there’s this whole thing about the granilith,” Max continued.
He kept on opening up to her – this was a very good sign, and Tess took the opportunity to ask him something she’d been wondering about. Trying to sound as casual as possible, she said “Why did you lie to Lonnie and Rath about the granilith, anyway?” The question had been plaguing her since earlier in the evening, but she knew he’d never answer her honestly unless he broached the subject himself.
Max hesitated a moment before answering her, partly because he didn’t know how much to tell her, and partly because he didn’t understand the significance of what there was to tell. “There was something Liz said … just before we left. She told me the granilith could be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands.”
“How does she know that?” Tess couldn’t stop herself from asking. Had Max taken her there? No, they hadn’t been on good enough terms for either of them to feel comfortable with that yet … right?
“She wouldn’t say.”
“But she’s never even seen the granilith.”
Had she? thought Tess.
Did she go find it somehow?
“I know, I know. But I just keep thinking about it … the way she said it … she seemed so sure. I just don’t know what to do.”
Tess paused, realizing Max was telling her everything he knew. And then, she began to seethe under the surface. If Liz didn’t think Max should give away the granilith, he wasn’t going to do it. It didn’t matter that he claimed he didn’t trust her, didn’t love her anymore, needed to get away from Roswell … none of that mattered now that Little Lizzie Parker had opened her big mouth. Max didn’t have to say another word; Tess knew he wasn’t going to trade the granilith in for a ticket home now. Why did that little brat have to go and ruin everything? Tess saw all the work she’d done, all the groundwork she’d laid ever since leaving Roswell, evaporating before her very eyes, and she was livid. How had that little brat come to know anything about the granilith? Sure, the aliens had mentioned it, but briefly and in passing, and Max clearly hadn’t taken her. None of them had taken any of the humans. So how did Liz …
It would have to wait for another time, Tess needed to concentrate on the matter in front of her right now. She needed to calm herself down and try to keep Max’s trust, now that she’d gotten enough of it for him to open up to her as he’d been doing. “Whatever you do, it’ll be the right choice. I’m sure of it.”
“Why?” He looked so lost, so different from the way she remembered him from before.
How pathetic.
“Because despite whatever Nicholas said back there,” ooh, that was a good one! She already knew he hated Nicholas. “I know that you were a great man in that other life. A great king. I know it in my bones.”
Max looked at her for a moment, admiration in his eyes, before he said anything. “All you’ve ever done … is trust me, been there for me whenever I needed you. I’ve never done anything to deserve that kind of loyalty.”
Good boy, she thought. And now for the final kicker … “I think in that other life,” she waited a moment before finishing her thought, “you must have been one great husband.”
Max didn’t know what to say to that – he’d honestly never seriously thought about what he and Tess would have been like as a married couple. He couldn’t even fathom it. So he just smiled at her in appreciation, and turned his thoughts back to what the hell he was going to say when he went back into the summit.
Tess stayed silent, too, but for a very different reason. She needed to come up with a Plan B, and quick.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Thursday, November 23, 2000 – Thanksgiving Day, 9:56pm Central Time– the Crashdown
Isabel was panicking. She’d been trying for fifteen minutes to get through to Max, but nothing was working. He was fully conscious and awake, he was far away, and he was pissed at her anyway – she could feel that much from … she guessed it was a twin thing. She was doing the best that she could, but whether it was intentional or not, he wasn’t letting her in. She cried out in frustration at himself and at her own failure, “Damn it! It’s not working. I can’t reach him.” Her brother was going to die, and it was going to be her fault.
“Yeah, but you gotta try again.” Michael tried to keep her together.
“Won’t do any good,” Isabel said with defeat in her voice. “He’s not hearing me.” He’d put up a wall, and it was impossible to get through.
“Okay, so,” Liz ventured, “um, what’s Plan B?”
Isabel’s next words hung heavily in the air. “There isn’t one.”
The group took a moment to wrap their minds around what that meant, but before they could complete the task, Ava started talking and moving busily. “Liz can do it,” she stated, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
“What?” Isabel was shocked, and Liz wasn’t too far behind her.
“What are you talking about?”
Ava stood to face Liz, to tell her the truths that she needed to hear. Well, some of them, anyway. “Max brought you back from the dead. You’ve been changed.” She sounded like a schoolteacher.
How cornball, she thought quickly.
“What do you mean by ‘changed’?” Liz wasn’t following what Ava meant, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to.
“Look, there ain’t enough time to explain. You just gotta trust me here. If Max brought you back, then … you’re different now.”
Different … that word echoed in Liz’s mind again and again, bringing with it a feeling of dread, of the unknown, and oddly enough, a weird sense of déjà-vu ...
*flashback*
“Liz, I really, really wish that this could be something, you know, more. But it can’t. We’re just …”
“… Different.”
“Yeah.”
*end flashback*
“Liz,” Isabel’s calling her name abruptly jerked Liz out of her memory. “Take my hand.”
Liz looked at where Isabel sat in the booth. These were the first relatively kind words that Isabel had offered her in weeks. The sharp glare was gone from her eyes, too. All Liz could see was desperation clinging to one last hope. She sat down cautiously opposite Isabel, and looked at her outstretched hands. Michael and Ava stood at the end of the table looking over them.
“I don’t know why, but I’m really scared to do this.” Liz was on the verge of tears. “You know, if you can’t contact him, what makes you think I can?”
“I know my brother, and I know that if there is one voice he will hear no matter where he is, no matter what he’s doing, it’s yours.” Isabel looked Liz straight in the eyes as she spoke, and refused to break the contact she held there. It pained her to know that her brother trusted Liz, loved Liz, more than herself or Michael, but now was not the time to be jealous. There was too much at stake. “Take my hand, Liz.”
~*~*~*~*~
Friday, November 24, 2000 – the day after Thanksgiving, 12:57am Eastern Standard Time
Max, Tess, Rath and Lonnie stepped out of the abandoned building where the summit had taken place. The tension followed them like a bomb about to explode.
“What’s up with you, huh?” Rath was livid. “You just threw away our only chance of ever getting home!” He couldn’t believe this guy – he really was just like Zan, and that pissed Rath off to no end.
“Maybe,” Max answered firmly and calmly. One chance to go back to Antar had already come up when they thought it never would, and he was sure another chance would come around sooner or later.
“Hey, who do you think you are, huh?” Rath wasn’t letting anything drop, and he didn’t seem to be as sure of Max of another chance ever coming along. This had been their shot, and because the king couldn’t get over his power trip, he was stuck on this miserable little planet instead of going home and getting the “Makin’ big-time life decisions for Lonnie and me?” Just like Zan … “You think you the man? Is that it?”
“That’s right,” Max turned to face Rath, having had more than enough from Rath. He’d rather take Michael any day of the week and twice on Sunday. “I am the man.”
This statement, and Max’s direct opposition to Rath, seemed to have an effect.
I should have stood up to him days ago, thought Max.
Little did he know of the fate of the last person who had stated those words to a determined Rath.
Just like Zan …
Rath took a step back, knowing Max would take the gesture as a sign of his surrender. “Okay, you the man.” He took a moment to calm down. “Screw Nicholas. Screw ‘em all.”
“Screw ‘em tight,” Lonnie agreed. She and Rath caught each other’s eyes – they both knew what the other was thinking. Now, to put their plan into action. “We’ll find another way home.”
They had to keep Max out on the streets; this was New York City, after all, and any of a thousand things could happen.
“I’m mad hungry,” Rath said, using the best thing that could come to his head. “Let’s go get a slice.”
“Sick of pizza. Chinatown,” Lonnie insisted. From where she was standing, she could see a scaffolding platform resting several floors above street level a few blocks away. It would do perfectly, but it was in the opposite direction of the way back to their lair and usual pizza place. The walk to Chinatown would take them right underneath it.
Rath caught the importance in her tone. “I’m with that.” Max and Tess offered no argument. This was going to be too easy.
Just like Zan …
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Thursday, November 23, 2000 – Thanksgiving Day, 9:59pm Central Time– the Crashdown
Liz slid her fingers into Isabel’s waiting palms. Isabel closed her hands over Liz’s and tightened her grip immediately. They shared one more stare as they silently imparted to the other how important it was that they succeed this time.
Isabel closed her eyes, focusing on sending Liz’s energy, her aura, her anything, to where Max could see or feel it.
Liz followed suit and squeezed her eyes shut. She thought about Max; about how much she loved him; about the danger he was in; about how she needed to warn him; how she needed him; and how, at this moment, he needed her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Friday, November 24, 2000 – the day after Thanksgiving, 12:59am Eastern Standard Time
Even though he wasn’t sure where all he was going, Max ended up leading the group as they started walking down Canal Street. Rath followed behind him, and Max could feel his eyes on the back of his neck. Lonnie and Tess brought up the rear.
From their vantage point behind Max, Rath and Lonnie paused in their tracks suddenly. Rath waited until Tess passed him, then grabbed her from behind, using one hand to cover her mouth and prevent her from screaming. Lonnie looked up and reached out her hand towards the scaffolding above. Max was almost exactly in position; this was their chance to get rid of the only other person who had dared to take her dreams away from her.
Unaware of the danger, Max continued to put one foot in front of the other. Something was happening, he knew it … something big. He couldn’t think of what, though, but his eyes scanned the streets around and in front of him as the hairs on the back of his head stood on end …
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Thursday, November 23, 2000 – Thanksgiving Day, 9:59pm Central Time– the Crashdown
Something was happening, Liz could feel it … something big. Her heart began to pump a little faster, and she squeezed her eyes closed even harder as she ignored the pain in her stomach. She had to be strong for Max. She just hoped she wasn’t too late …
~*~*~*~*~
Friday, November 24, 2000 – the day after Thanksgiving, 12:59am Eastern Standard Time
As though controlled by an unknown force, Max’s feet stopped walking suddenly. His eyes searched the busy intersection ahead of him, left to right.
A large delivery truck made its way down the street, but when it moved out of the way, Max could have sworn he saw a familiar figure, a familiar face. He focused his vision, through the traffic of the cars and the smoke, steam and grime of the city. He couldn’t believe his eyes. It couldn’t be …
~*~*~*~*~
Thursday, November 23, 2000 – Thanksgiving Day, 10:00pm Central Time– the Crashdown
Liz could swear that she was standing on a busy New York street. A ghost truck passed in front of her, but when it passed she could see …
~*~*~*~*~
Friday, November 24, 2000 – the day after Thanksgiving, 1:00am Eastern Standard Time
Max could see Liz’s lips moving, her arms flailing about frantically. She was trying to tell him something …
~*~*~*~*~
Lonnie focused all her energy on releasing the scaffolding from the hooks that kept it suspended mid-air. Almost there …
~*~*~*~*~
Liz could see that she’d at least gotten Max’s attention. She could see the scaffolding above him shaking, coming loose, and she knew exactly what was causing it. She just needed to get Max to come just a little bit closer to her.
Come on, Max, she quietly screamed.
Come forward, move forward, get away from them! Come to me, Max …
~*~*~*~*~
Max could feel her, could feel the walls he’d been building against her for the last six weeks crumbling under the urgency written all over her features and through the connection they’d forged over a year ago. He’d tried so hard to keep her out lately, it had become second nature to him, and the physical distance between them the last few days had only made it easier. But now, he could feel her there, as close as ever before. He could feel her fear, and all he wanted to do was go to her and take her in his arms, and let her know that it was all going to be okay.
Without even noticing it, Max took one, then two, then three steps closer to her …
~*~*~*~*~
Lonnie felt her success as the ropes broke. She lowered her eyes to watch her victory just in time to realize that Max had moved out of the danger zone …
~*~*~*~*~
He was coming towards her, he was out of the way of the scaffolding. Liz held his gaze, seeing in it things she’d only dreamed she’d see again. She didn’t want to look away. She kept staring deep into his eyes until …
~*~*~*~*~
CRASH!!!
Max tore his eyes from Liz’s to look at the crumbled metal marring the sidewalk where he’d been standing mere seconds before. It was only then he remembered that he hadn’t been alone. But Liz …
“Liz?” He turned back around, but she was gone. Maybe she’d never been there at all. Rath and Lonnie and Tess had definitely been there, though, and now they were …
… nowhere to be seen. He searched the entire area, called out Tess’ name a couple of times, but there was no sign of any of them.
He could think of only one place they might have gone to, and he wasn’t even sure he could make it back there by himself. Still, he had to try.
He flipped open his cell phone, which he’d retrieved from the Jeep in the car park after he’d called Isabel. As he hurried up Centre Street, Max dialed a number that he hadn’t called in a long, long time.
~*~*~*~*~
Rath and Lonnie didn’t know what happened – one moment, they were on Canal Street, and the next thing they knew, they were bound and lying on the floor of their darkened lair. They both tried to use their powers to free themselves, but it didn’t work.
“Yo, babe, you okay?” Rath questioned.
“Yeah, you?”
“Yeah. How we get back here? Did we get him?”
“Nah, the bastard moved out of the way. I dunno how –”
Lonnie was interrupted as a figure holding a candle approached them.
“You! You’s da one who brought us here?” Rath couldn’t believe his eyes.
“That’s right,” came an eerily cool voice from in front of them. A single candle provided the only light by which they could see their captor’s features. “And right now, we play by
my rules …”
~*~*~*~*~
Isabel could feel something happening, but she couldn’t get close enough to figure out what it was. It danced there, just beyond her reach. Maybe if she just tried a little harder …
Suddenly she felt Liz pulling her hands out of their joined grasp. Before Isabel could react, she heard Liz’s ear-piercing scream echoing through the nearly empty café …
~~~~
TBC