Disclaimer: I don't own Roswell or any rights to the series, thus I earn absolutely nothing from this fic but a chance to escape from everyday life. Jason Katims is the genius who owns everything. I will occasionally use lines from episodes or lyrics/quotes from other sources, but in those cases I will either credit directly where they are in the chapter or in my author's note.
Pairings: M/L, Mi/M, Mi/I, I/A
Rating: Mature
Summary: Nasedo abducts Liz in an effort to draw Pierce away from Max and the others. His plan backfires, however, when Max follows him and Pierce captures Liz instead. Based on a challenge by FrenchDreamer.
A/N: This is my first time writing for the Roswell fandom, so no doubt everything is going to be a little sketchy. I have a wonderful beta and a wonderful story idea to work with, though, so all I ask is that if you read you tell me how to improve. This fic is in the alien abyss because while it may end CC (which I haven't decided definitely), no couple will be consistently... consistent... except for Max and Liz. Definitely not for the faint of heart CCers.
Chapter One
“Don't draw attention to us. Just stay focused, Liz. It's the only way we're gonna make it through this.”
The pain in her side screamed in protest as she ran. Liz shut her eyes for a moment in an effort to block out the clatter her footsteps made on the floor. She was being too loud, too frantic, too obvious. She wasn’t sure if she was running from the FBI or from the man who seemed intent on using her as bait.
“What’s wrong, Liz? Are you getting tired of our game?” Liz whimpered at the taunting voice that sounded so much like Max’s. Her head turned wildly as she searched for an escape route. With renewed determination she started down the nearest pathway, trying to keep her gaze on the floor instead of the mirrors. It would be so much easier if she didn’t have to look at his face.
“You're smart. I knew you were the one I could get through to. They don't know I'm here. If they did...”
More footsteps joined the fray. They were almost inaudible, spreading out until Liz feared they were trying to surround here. The trap she’d felt closing around her was becoming harder to escape with every passing second.
“What is he looking for?”
“Max Evans...and anyone he thinks is involved with him. All 6 of your names are on that list.”
A bitter clarity consumed her. The FBI might not be aware of their rogue unit, but they might be disinclined to stop them if the were ever to learn the truth. Nasedo and whatever other aliens had survived the crash gave them no reason to take pause, no reason to show compassion. She could feel Max drawing close to her, could feel his all-consuming panic. Soon he would find her, and when he did the special unit would take all three of them for further observation. There would be no mercy for Max. He was very quickly entering the hell that Topolski had warned her of.
And it was all her fault.
“Don't trust anyone.”
She should have known the moment Nasedo approached her that it wasn’t Max, should have somehow realized from the strange cadences in his walk and speech that he wasn’t Max at all. Instead she’d let herself be fooled. And that, in her mind, was the crux of the matter: she had wanted to believe that she was the first person Max would come to with this information; that nothing Tess could say would change his desire to be with her. Even if it was more likely for him to be by himself or talking with Michael and Isabel, she’d needed to believe that he thought of her as his confidant. She had allowed herself to be selfish, so happy that he was choosing to be with her that she ignored the warning signs telling her that something was wrong. By the time she’d understood her mistake, she’d already damaged things irreversibly. Nasedo might have confessed his part in everything, but she had no illusions about where the blame laid.
She was the one that had led Max straight into a death trap.
Suddenly the full power of her connection to Max flared to life. She had to resist the urge to fall to the floor and sob in relief. “Liz! Can you feel me?” His voice, the voice that was finally his again, called out to her.
“Max, I’m just around the corner! I think you just need to turn right-” A shaggy head of dark hair came into view and stopped less than a foot away from her. It wasn’t until she glanced down at the mirror she was holding onto for dear life that she understood why. Liz bit back a frustrated scream. It was so typical, so damn tragically fitting, that now that Max had finally come to her rescue they were separated by a maze they couldn’t begin to unravel.
He was trying to say something. She saw that he was focusing on the glass, trying to melt or dissolve it. His face was contorted with effort, the muscles of his back and forearms clenched. Whatever he was doing was taking too long. Liz attempted to assure him, knowing her voice might be muffled through the mirror but he would feel her all the same. He peered up at her, apology and fear marring his face. There was nothing he could do, she realized with a start. She’d just found him, but already their chances were better as individuals.
It was then that she spied his protector, still using Max’s body and face like a mask, running straight towards them. “Max, look out!”
His head swiveled behind them, but before he had the chance to turn around he and the imposter were both barreling through the glass and straight at her. She didn’t have time to jump back.
“I've learned things, seen things...that no one would believe. Sometimes I don't even believe them myself.”
Wetness seeped from her head and matted her hair. Pinpricks of light danced before her eyes as she struggled to gain her bearings. Small pieces of glass wedged themselves in one of her wayward elbow joints. Her last thought before passing out was that she wasn’t sure if the feelings of shock and revulsion belonged to Max or herself.
-
The resignation in her eyes tore him in two. For a moment she looked much less than her sixteen years. Her defenses were quickly erected, though, and she was soon trying to say something, important from the desperation in her eyes. As the first tear spilled down her face, she brushed it away furiously and sent waves of reassurance through their connection. He resisted the urge to smash through the glass, knowing that he might hurt Liz in the process. She urged him to run; the smallest of smiles graced her face as she told him that she trusted him to find the way back to her. Max Evans took a moment to wonder how anyone could be so brave.
It happened before he had time to blink. Liz was shouting and pointing, gesturing to him to run, but before he could turn away a solid body propelled him through the glass. Max and his captor collided with Liz. All three of them fell to the ground, but it was Liz who took the brunt of the fall. For a moment, there was complete silence. The muscular body on top of him didn’t terrify him nearly as much as the stillness of Liz’s frail frame lying brokenly under him. ‘Oh, God, what have I done?’
He tried to roll over, but the weight pressing down on him kept him in place. Tears flooded his eyes as he caught sight of the pooled blood behind her head. The guilt he had been fending off since they realized she was missing hit him fully. He had done this to her. He had sought out Tess instead of staying near her and making sure she was safe; he had been unable to command an object even Michael could have altered.
A hand clamped onto his arm and roughly pulled him off of Liz, causing a small, hysterical sigh of relief to escape his mouth. It must be the sheriff putting him under arrest; he would go to jail and Isabel would be furious and Liz might never forgive him for putting her through all of this, but she would be safe, and that, he knew, was all that really mattered.
“Hurry up, hurry up,” the man holding him urged. Max’s feet, which he had absently allowed to carry him forward, stopped abruptly. The person in front of him turned around and Max felt his stomach drop as he faced a carbon copy of himself.
“Stop where you are! Put your hands in the air!” The sudden yell echoed off the walls, eerily loud. The footsteps he heard, however, were bearing away from them.
“Liz!” Max yelled, the sound torn involuntarily from his throat. His heart constricted while he waited for her husky, frightened response to reach him.
It didn’t.
“She’ll be unconscious. When she wakes up and they realize she doesn’t know anything they’ll let her go, but we have to get out now.” Max wrenched free from Nasedo’s grip and began searching frantically for a path back to Liz. It didn’t matter if he had to break every mirror in this fucking maze; he was getting her away from those monsters that had Nasedo looking panicked.
“Liz! Liz! Where are you?”
Nasedo’s hand lit up eerily. Apparently, he’d decided to help after all. Max didn’t bother to brush away the relieved tears wetting his face; there was no time for that, no time for anything until Liz was okay. He didn’t turn around in time to dodge the bolt of energy that hit him squarely in the back.
-
Liz could feel consciousness just beyond her reach. There was a sharp, throbbing pain emanating from the back of her head, and a less painful but just as insistent aching in her right arm. If she tried, maybe….
No. The darkness veiling her mind was falling too quickly. Her connection to Max, which had grown so much over the last few weeks, seemed to be momentarily broken. Instead of the panic she’d endured moments before falling she felt a strange sense of calm. He must be gone. He must be somewhere safe. She was glad. Pierce wasn’t going to hurt her, Nacedo had said, and Max’s safety was more important anyway.
Arms encircled her waist, pulling her into a sitting position. Someone was whispering soothing words in her ear, stroking her hair. The gesture was out of place and the voice and hands didn’t belong to Max, but Liz was too tired to fight. Exhaustion greater than her physical pain had been slowly pulling her under for days. Now it seemed to wrap around her, sapping the last bit of aggression and adrenaline from her veins. She made no effort to fight the other person.
Even half-asleep, Liz understood that it wasn’t a fight she could win.
-
Nasedo wove through the thinning crowd quickly, grunting under the added weight of his charge. Protecting these new additions was proving to be a suicide mission.
“You!” His head shot up at the exclamation. He allowed a knowing smirk to pass over his features before fixing Tess with an appraising gaze. The other two were nowhere to be seen.
“Tessa, now’s not the time. Where are the others?”
“Right here!” Michael called, running up to them at full speed until he caught sight of his friend’s unconscious body. His footsteps faltered. Nasedo saw Tess glance worriedly at him when his face turned a pale shade of grey. “Holy shit. What happened to Max?”
Nasedo impatiently beckoned for Michael’s help. He mumbled something incoherent, irritation obvious in his tone. He barely held a tired sigh at bay as Isabel came to a halt in front of them and immediately began crying. He’d had years to wean Tess off of human emotions, but these hybrids seemed more human than alien. It certainly wasn’t making his job any easier.
“No time for that now. We need to get him out of here.” Michael started at Nasedo’s voice, and immediately moved to help him shoulder Max’s weight. Their progress was slow, but they managed to get him to the jeep without attracting too many stares. “Get him in the back seat,” Nasedo directed. Michael hissed at the insistent burning in his arms, trying his hardest not to dump his best friend like a sack of potatoes the first chance he got. When they had Max settled in the back, Isabel immediately climbed in after him, stroking his bangs from his forehead and clutching him fearfully to her chest.
“What happened to him? Why hasn’t he woken up?”
“One of Pierce’s men managed to knock him unconscious before Liz and I found him,” Nasedo explained, his voice and expression neutral. Tess stared at the guarded wariness she saw flitting behind his eyes. “There’s no lasting damage. He’s just sleeping because it’s easier for him to heal himself when he’s exerting less energy.”
Michael narrowed his eyes, suddenly taking in the party around him. “Speaking of Liz, what happened to her? And why did you take her in the first place?”
Nasedo shot him a reproving glare and jerked his head at the jeep. “Get in, we don’t have time for this at the moment. And in answer to your question, the human girl is fine. She’s trying to intercept Valenti and clean up the mess that Alex and Maria made when they went to him.” Michael started the engine and jammed the turn signal into place. Tess climbed into the backseat with Isabel and shot a cautious look at Max. His face was still ashen, and he didn’t seem to be healing himself at all.
“Nasedo, are you sure that he’s okay? Should we try to heal him?” She inquired softly. Nasedo looked at her sharply.
“When your abilities are needed I’ll be more than happy to tell you. He’s just worn out at the moment. Obviously the three of you haven’t worked very hard at building up your endurance.”
Michael hopped into the front seat without comment, clenching his jaw in an effort to stop the angry words trying to tumble out of his mouth. When he did speak, his voice trembled with rage. “Why haven’t you tried to find us before now? And why go through Tess when you finally decide to make an appearance?”
“I hardly think that you would have reacted well to a stranger asking you to welcome them with open arms. I do know something about you,” Nasedo retorted mildly. Michael merely gripped the steering wheel more tightly and stared at the highway.
“I don’t like leaving Liz behind,” he finally said.
“She’ll be okay. The sheriff just wanted to make sure she was safe. And we can trust Liz,” Isabel said. Her voice was still heavy with unshed tears, and when Michael turned around to face her he saw the doubt lingering in her eyes.
“Yes, you can trust Liz. It’s not as if she’s been fooled by an imposter,” Nasedo sneered. His back stiffened involuntarily at the heated glare that Michael sent him. For a moment, he believed that the hybrid might be able to cause him bodily harm. It was an irrational fear and he quickly let himself relax again, hoping that Michael hadn’t sensed his momentary trepidation.
“I trust Liz more than I trust either of you,” Michael spat out. The unspoken response his words received almost made him drive the jeep off the road.
He wasn’t sure how he knew that Tess was suddenly on the brink of tears or why he trusted that they were genuine tears, but the sensation sent an uncomfortable shiver down his back. After risking another glance back, he saw her trying to school her expression into the same placid mask she’d been wearing since the first time they met. A stab of guilt ripped through his chest. This, more than the dreams about Isabel that he couldn’t get out of his head and the drama with Maria, or the problems between Max and Liz, made him uneasy. He had never felt his loyalties so completely divided between Isabel and Max and another person. It didn’t help that somewhere along the way he’d come to feel a strange protective streak when it came to Liz.
Isabel looked between her companions uneasily. Nacedo was as stoic as ever, Michael seemed ready to jump out of his skin at the slightest provocation, and Tess, usually so talkative and forceful, had taken to staring out the window her body turned away from all of them. Isabel cleared her throat and leaned forward to talk to Michael.
“Michael, we’re still three hours outside of Roswell. Do you want me to call Alex and Maria to let them know we’re on our way home?” He nodded, his eyes still on the road. She took her cell phone from her purse without further comment, looking worriedly at her younger brother once more. With the very air radiating hostility, Max couldn’t wake up and make peace soon enough.
-
“I’m going to get some food from the back room. Do you want anything?” Alex asked. Maria shook her head. She reached across the table to grab his hand and smiled at him affectionately.
“Thanks for taking such good care of me.”
“Hey, you and Liz are my girls. The least I can do is make sure that the one who hasn’t been abducted by a crazed alien is comfortable,” he joked weakly. She looked down at her hands. “Hey, Ria…you know I’m just kidding. I’m sure that Liz is fine. She’s a tough cookie, and she can take care of herself,” Alex comforted, coming to sit beside her.
“Yeah, well with all of the alien madness I’m not sure that James Bond would be safe in Roswell,” she replied, sighing heavily. “I just want Lizzie back here with me. Forget about Michael or Max or their stupid destinies, my best friend is all that matters right now.” At the feel of Alex’s concerned gaze on her, she turned to face him. A bitter smile played across her lips. “Michael has feelings for Isabel, apparently. Oh, and our relationship has gone from dysfunctional to out-and-out stupid in his book.”
“They’re all going through a really rough time right now. I’m sure he didn’t mean it,” Alex supplied.
Maria snorted, “Yeah, that’s what he said, too. I just don’t know if I believe it anymore. If Max is capable of cheating on Liz, why should I believe that Michael and Isabel aren’t falling in love right before my eyes?”
“Because they’re still the same people that they always were. We can’t just abandon them now that they’re going through a bit of an identity crisis,” Alex argued gently.
Maria gazed at him, the corners of her mouth turned down and her eyes veined with red. “I’m not sure that they are the same people we’ve known for the past nine months. This whole year has been surreal to say the least. Now suddenly their protector is kidnapping Liz, and they’re being even more secretive than ever. I don’t know that they really care about our opinion one way or the other,” she said, the familiar indignation at being left out of the loop creeping up. She pushed aside the nagging insecurity it stemmed from, instead focusing all of her attention on feeding the momentary spurt of aggression.
Alex looked down, his eyes momentarily darkening. “Yeah, I guess,” he finally said. “Are you sure that you don’t want that sundae?” Maria shook her head briskly, guilt churning in her stomach as she saw Alex walk away with slumped shoulders.
“Queen Amidala or not, I will kick some serious ass if Isabel Evans messes with him,” she muttered. Maria glanced at the clock hanging on the alien-themed wall and frowned. Her friends and Tess had been gone for a long time now…too long. They had received a quick call from Isabel earlier that evening saying that they would be home in a few hours with Max and Liz, but they had yet to materialize. It was getting from flat-tire lateness to alien crisis tardiness. Despite the fact that they were on the outs right now and what she’d told Alex, the thought of Michael virtually unprotected in the middle of nowhere was still enough to make her heart stop beating for a minute.
Alex came out balancing to large bowls of ice cream, looking sheepishly at the ground when Maria arched her eyebrows. “You looked like you could use some cheering up.”
“Alex Whitman, if I didn’t know any better I’d think you and Liz were conspiring to make me gain twenty pounds before finals.”
His eyes widened, “Are we really that obvious?” They shared a small laugh. A car engine rumbled in the distance. They stilled as it approached the Crashdown, both of them exhaling in relief when they saw the familiar faces coming toward them.
“Wait, where is Liz?” Maria asked, frowning.
“I don’t-”
Alex’s reply was cut off by the rage-filled cry that suddenly resounded throughout the street.
-
The first emotion Max remembered experiencing was displacement. He had climbed out of his pod and waited for Michael and Isabel to join him before heading outside, knowing instinctively that he was supposed to guide them. When they stumbled out of the cave on wobbly legs, the desert around them harsh and unforgiving, his previous curiosity was abruptly replaced by fear. The pounding in his head, the churning of his stomach, he understood with absolute certainty that something was horribly wrong. Terror overwhelmed him as he watched his sister wailing uncontrollably, tears streaming down her pale features. It took him hours to realize that her whimpers were joined by his own erratic sobs.
Isabel changed when the Evans found them. Her face lit up with hope the moment a tall woman stepped out of the car and embraced them; her tears dried where they fell. His sister whispered feelings that sounded like ‘safe’ and ‘loved’ into Max’s mind, but he was too busy searching for Michael to really pay attention. He could feel her regret at Michael’s absence, but for her it was muted by the joy of the woman tenderly wrapping a blanket around her shoulders. A motherly touch and Isabel was willing to forget the horror of that night.
Max, however, couldn’t forget the chasm of loneliness that grew inside of him with each passing minute without Michael, without answers, without home; he had cried for the next forty-eight hours straight and every night after that for months on end.
The woman who had found them was his sole source of comfort. Warm hands smoothed tears from his cheeks and slender arms wrapped around him when he cried, never demanding anything of him or pulling away before he was ready. When her husband came with her, ready to bring them home, Max had only felt a trace of his original nervousness. A toy house and the promise of safety eventually soothed his fears.
Eating, walking, the very language in which his parents spoke to him felt foreign, but there was a comfort in the routine, so he followed it faithfully. The emotions so violently let loose before became almost effortless to contain. And every time his older sister looked at him in fear or indecision, he vowed that he would take care of her and banish all her fears and uncertainties, even if it meant never again acknowledging any of his own. Even if it meant losing Michael.
They had found Michael, though. Isabel was overjoyed, and Max felt a crushing relief. Why had he been so afraid of failing his brother and sister? He’d never been able to answer that question in the years since the three of them had found each other again. Their reunion with Michael, however, was always overshadowed in Max’s mind by what followed next.
Liz. He’d known her name, somehow, without even hearing it. The kind, inquisitive smile she gave him when she felt his eyes on her face had made his heart jump into his throat. Without reason, without reservation, he had fallen hopelessly in love with her. Max had allowed himself to follow her every move, to memorize every one of her facial expressions and hand gestures. He had learned to be content with that because it was all he had. All he could ever have.
Staring at Liz Parker from a distance was his one escape from the nightmares still pushed to the back of his mind. And every time her eyes met his, if only for a brief second, it felt like he was home.
He let Michael and Isabel tell him that he was crazy because he knew that, logically speaking, he was most likely more than a little unbalanced. In his mind, though, nothing could compare to the moments he spent fantasizing about telling her the truth and her accepting it completely. Nothing could compare with the illusion that she could care about someone so alien to everything she loved.
Then one day, through no fault of her own, her very life had been threatened. His heart nearly stopped at Michael’s warnings and his hands shook as he leaned over her, but no fear could keep him from saving her; she was, in his mind, more worthy of a second chance than anyone he knew. And that one simple action, a few million molecules rearranged and a haphazard bond formed, had altered his life forever. Liz Parker became a raw and harrowingly three-dimensional person who occupied even more of his waking hours than his dreams. She fought both for him and with him, always trying to convince him that she wasn’t that far out of reach after all. She lit him on fire with a single word. He had fought, fought so hard to save her from what he was sure would destroy her, even as all his wildest dreams came true before his eyes. It hadn’t worked, and her refusal to be turned away made him love her even more.
Even with everything going on, even with Tess, he still felt more accepted and loved around her than around anyone else. The fact that she neither loved him in spite of his alien half or because of it, but instead loved all of him equally made his heart sing. In the midst of all of the insanity, a simple touch to his hand or her body leaning into his was the only thing that anchored him. What no one seemed to understand was that Liz Parker drove his fear of everything away with the simple, unspoken promise of all they could become. She kept all of the shame and helplessness he felt at bay.
And it was because of this, because of the sudden clenching of his gut and ringing in his ears, that he knew upon waking that she was gone.
BUT... I actually sat down and counted the story ideas running around in my head (not including one-shots I think I got up to eighteen or nineteen) and devised a posting/writing system. So hopefully it'll be a matter of weeks instead of months between updates from now on.
And that we Cliffhangers totally have to stick together. Your reviews here and on ff.net have been such a great encouragement to me. Thank you!