This is the place where fics that have not been updated in the past three months will be moved until the author asks a mod to move them back to an active board.
Thanks for the comments begonia9508, keepsmiling7, and Natalie36.
I know, updating has become a bit slow, but after the 25th my SCJP exam will be over and I'll be able to write much longer chapters. Here's the next chapter.
Chapter 9
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Liz woke up, taking her surroundings in. She was in the pod chamber, with it's rock door closed. She looked down at her watch and saw "03:56" blinking on it. She felt his warm hands surrounding her in a loving embrace. Just then, the memories of the night came onto her. Oh, my god! What was I thinking? We didn't use protection. What if I get pregnant? She thought, fear washing over her. She felt Max stirring and softly called out to him.
"Max?"
"Mmmm... Liz..." He groaned.
"Max, do you realize what we've done? Oh, my god! I could be pregnant! How could you do that?"
"Liz-" He begins with a shocked expression, but she cut him off.
"I know, I know. I wanted you to do it. But you... you could've hit me on the head with a hard object or something to get my mind out of the gutter!"
"Liz, calm down and stop rambling! You're not getting pregnant. Let's just say that I have the ability to prevent the release of certain substances." He grinned sheepishly.
"Oh, Max! I love you so much." She jumped into his arms, pressing her lips onto his.
"Uh, Liz..." Max broke away slowly. "I think we better put our clothes back on." He smiled as her face blushed furiously, suddenly feeling self concsious.
As they were attempting to get dressed, Liz's phone rang and she quickly answered it.
"Hey, it's me, chica. I'm waiting out here for you and Loverboy. Come out. I'm getting impatient!" Maria's loud voice blared out of the earpiece.
"Oh, okay Maria. We'll be out quick." She hung up.
"Max, we gotta dress up quickly. Maria's waiting outside. She's gonna think something's wrong."
"What? What's she doing here. It's still early, isn't it?"
"Doesn't matter. Let's get dressed and go meet her outside!" They quickly dressed up, and went outside, Max opening the rock lid that serves as a door. Max waved his hand over the silver hand print and the rock door closed once again.
Maria was sitting on the hood of her Jetta, looking at them as they walked towards her. The rumpled clothes didn't go missed by the ever alert Hurricane DeLuca.
"You two look like you've just done it." She looked at both of them. Seeing the looks on their faces, she started screaming "OH MY GOD! YOU TWO DID IT!"
"Maria, calm down and shut up! It's like you want everyone in town to know what me and Max have been doing!" Liz retorted hotly.
"Oh my god, oh my god!" Maria rambled on.
Max looked at them with a confused expression. "What?" Maria glared at him. "You stay away from her! Who the hell knows what's gonna happen now that she's done it with an alien, huh?"
"Maria! Shut up! What the hell are you blabbing about? Nothing's gonna happen to me, okay? Sniff your cedar oil or something and calm down for god's sake! Okay, so the first thing we need to do before going home is think of what we're going to do with Tess and Nasedo's bodies." Liz rambled.
"I think their bodies are pretty safe in the pods. I have locked the chamber so that only we can open it. Even other aliens can't." Max said, calmly. "So, now let's get going."
"So, Tess really is dead now, huh?" Maria inquired.
"Yeah, she is." Max said, and Liz watched as his features suddenly became gloomy.
"Max, don't even think of blaming yourself for her death. You're not responsible." Liz said firmly, taking his hand in hers, and giving Maria a death glare.
"Oh, sorry." Maria whispered slowly, realizing her mistake.
Together, they got into Maria's car, and Maria drove them back to Roswell, Max lying his head on Liz's lap, still not quite ready to handle the information that he killed someone.
==========
That evening, a sporty Pontiac Trans-Am noisily came to a halt outside the Crashdown. Ava climbed out of the car.
"Right. This is it. Their local hang-out. I'm going to check it out." Ava said, preparing to go inside.
"Wait up, I'm comin' wit ya." Zan tried to come out of the car as well, but Ava quickly prevented him from coming out.
"You have to stay inside, Zan. They don't know about us. Just think what's going to happen when a Max look-alike goes into their local spot."
"Owkay, I go'it. But give a shout if ya need a han'."
"Sure, Zan. Now wait inside until I come." She threw a sweet smile his way and strolled to the door, pulling it open.
A/N : I was hoping to start writing longer parts, but after I wrote this much, I couldn't stop myself from posting it.
I'll post more soon.
I have also added a banner to the front. (Thanks, Tanya!)
Chapter 10
==========
Ava opened the door and casually walked inside. She plopped herself down at a booth and watched as Maria bounced upto her with an order pad. They sure do look pretty friendly. She thought.
"Welcome to the Crashdown. I'm Maria and I'll be your waitress." Maria gave the menu to Ava with a smile. "Do you have any type of food in mind?" She piqued.
Just as Ava was about to reply, Kyle walked in through the CrashDown doors.
"Woah, cool ride. Who's is it?" He asked, looking at the Trans-Am parked outside.
"Oh, it's ours." Ava replied, looking at Kyle. And as soon as she made eye contact with him, all hell broke loose in her mind. It was like someone else was trying to gain control of her mind. She tried to block it, and it resulted in a head splitting pain. Unable to bear it, she clutched her head and fell onto the floor, screaming.
"What the...?" Kyle, Maria and Liz rushed to her, all customers' eyes on them.
Suddenly, she calmed down, beads of sweat evident on her face.
"Are you okay, Miss?" Liz asked gently.
"Yeah, I think I'm alright. Sorry."
"No, it's okay."
"Can I have a coffee, please? With cream and sugar."
"Sure, one coffee coming right up." Liz went to bring Ava's coffee.
Meanwhile, Zan watched as Ava was clutching her head in obvious pain. He quickly brought his hand upto the back of his shirt collar and transformed it into a hood which he pulled over his head. He then brought his hand over his face and darkened his skin and lengthened his hair so it fell over his eyes and quickly got out of the car, headed for the CrashDown.
Ava sat stricken at a booth waiting for Liz to bring her coffee as a hooded stranger, whom she quickly recognized as Zan came and sat next to her.
"You owkay, Aves? Wha' happen'?"
"I'm not really sure, Zan. But I think I'm okay for now. We'll talk about it later. You better get back in. Liz might see you."
Just then, Liz came over to the booth with Ava's coffee.
"Here you go, Miss. Are you feeling better?" Liz asked nicely. "Oh, I'm fine now. It was just a bad headache."
Liz frowned. To her, it looked much worse than "just a bad headache". "A'ight then, I'll go back to the car. Owkay?" Zan said to Ava and left. Liz froze, hearing his voice. That unmistakeable voice belonged to only one person she knew and it was a voice that she never missed. She looked at Maria and Kyle and they hadn't noticed anything like that. She thought it was probably her imagination running wild due to her activities with Max and shook it off.
6 Months Later
==============
Things had changed rapidly. The gandarium problem which almost destroyed all life on earth had been solved with help from everyone including Larek, who was an alien who had tried to contact them by possessing the body of Brody Davis, Max's boss at the UFO center, and Laurie Dupree was safe in her own house. The only thing that went wrong was Grant Sorenson who was possessed by the gandarium queen had died.
They had yet to find the shapeshifter Kyle had seen. With Nasedo and Tess dead, they had no way of finding out, and that was bothering Max more than anything. He wanted everyone, and most of all Liz, to be safe. As time went on, there was no news of the shapeshifter and they got absorbed in other things.
Of course, another thing they discussed was Kyle's latent powers. A real eye opener to those was what happened to Isabel when she tried to dreamwalk Kyle on a bored night. He had felt her presence in the dream and had mustered all his energy to throw her out of the dream, and she had been having a headache for several hours. And Kyle had been so scared that Isabel would zap him or something and had stayed away from Isabel for a few days. And now it was confirmed that Kyle could ward off mind powers like mindwarping and dreamwalking, and also protect other people from such influences using his amber shield. What they couldn't fathom was how did Kyle get that power? The only explanation they could come across was the fact that Max had somehow changed Kyle when he healed him, but that theory could only be thrown out of the window seeing as Liz never showed any powers. Besides, Liz was the person healed first.
Whatever the reason Kyle got his powers wasn't what got everyone's interest. The fact that Kyle could do something that would be very important to them in the coming times and that none of the aliens could do it was what got everyone (at least the aliens) excited as they trained Kyle to use his mind powers. It was also somewhat of a training for Isabel as she was the one who had to try to invade Kyle's mind so that he could block an invasion on his mind. Isabel had been reluctant at the beginning, remembering what had happened to her the first time she tried to dreamwalk him after he got his powers showing. But after Kyle had assured her that he wouldn't give out that much of a force and also after Isabel's threats of what was going to happen to him if he did, she had agreed and it had turned out beneficial for both of them. Now Isabel could enter anyone's mind even while they were awake, though it left her drained of her energy for a little while.
And most importantly, and most surprisingly, Kyle and Max had come to an understanding and they had become rather good friends. He had admitted that it felt good to help Liz to throw him off, and that he truly sorry about what happened. Obviously, Kyle hadn't known the reason as Liz never told him.
Then there was the problem of why Liz was deceived by the far-fetched time travel story and why she couldn't detect a shapeshifter. The first time Liz was kidnapped by a shapeshifter pretending to be Max, she had detected the imposter half way through. Luckily, the answer came one day as they sat on her balcony, kissing and cuddling. As she lay back giggling while Max happily placed kisses on her thighs and legs and all the way down to her cute little toes, she was hit with a flash.
FLASH
//"NO! You're not Max! Max would never want me to do this. NO, I WON'T BELIEVE YOU!"
//"Liz, I know it's hard to believe, but you have to trust me. Can't you recognize me?" Nasedo's image briefly appears instead of Max. His eyes squint in concentration.
END FLASH
Liz suddenly jerked as she recovered from the flash and ended kicking Max squarely in the jaw, making him fall flat on his back, caught unawares.
"Ow!" He winced.
"Oh, my god! Max, I'm so sorry." She apologized as she helped him up.
"What happened?"
"I-I got a flash."
"A flash?"
"Yeah, a memory flash. And I think Tess wasn't the only one who could mindwarp."
"Huh?"
"Nasedo could too. I just realized. He was warping me into believing that he was Max, even though I could see through him. Oh, Max, I'm so sorry. Everytime I think about it, I feel like I've failed you." She burst into tears. Max quickly pulled her into his arms and gently rocked her while pressing kisses on her head. This whole "Future" incident had become a touchy subject for Liz. She always felt guilty for being deceived into hurting him.
"Shh, Liz... You haven't failed me. I know you never will. I love you." Max soothed her.
"I love you too, Max."
A/N : Thanks for your comments people.
I'm having some time issues.
I'm writing the 11th chapter currently, and I thought I'd let you guys have the little bit I've written so far. I'm posting this very small part as it reveals one important point.
Chapter 11 - A
==========
At the sound of his alarm clock, Max woke up cursing. He had been having the best dream ever in which he made love to Liz over and over again. Sad that it had to end, he got up reluctantly and headed to the bathroom to get ready for the upcoming day.
Once ready, he waited for Isabel to come out. Which of course took time.
"Jeez, Izzy, why does it take you so long to get ready?" Max complained when they were in the Jeep.
"It takes time to put on my make-up, Max. Stop whining."
"Make-up? Aren't you using your powers to do that?" Max retorted.
"Yes, I do. But I can't just put on make-up and come. What? I have to try several times before I get it to my satisfaction. And I can't go looking the same every day!" Isabel said hotly.
"Well, you do look the same everyday." Max shrugged.
"Urgh! Can't you just drop it and continue being patient like you used to?" Realization dawns on her. "Oh my god, Max! I didn't mean to cut your morning time with Liz!" She grinned sheepishly.
Max almost crashed into a nearby tree as she said that.
"Woah! Keep that up and you'll never see Liz."
"Shut up, Iz." How much he wanted to be angry, he couldn't. After that night at the pod chamber, he usually kept grinning in the morning like the cat that ate the canary. He was so happy in anticipation to see Liz.
When he got down from the Jeep at the school, Liz was waiting for him with a sweet smile on her face. She's so beautiful. I just can't believe that she loves me. Max thought as he glided over to her and they kissed passionately.
==========
Zan and Ava were cruising around in the stolen Trans-Am that they now consider theirs. Of course, the authorities can no longer identify this vehicle as Zan has changed the License plate, engine identification numbers and forged fake license documents.
"Zan, I've realized why I've been having these major headaches." Ava said to Zan slowly.
"Huh? Why?"
"I think... I think Tess is living within me."
"WHAT?" Zan screamed.
"Tess isn't dead. She is part of me now. She's... Her essence is in my head. That's how I got her memories. She's trying to take control of me at times. I'm involuntarily fighting back and it's draining me out."
"Holy crap. How do we get 'er outta ya head?"
"I don't really know, but I think we should go to the other set before Tess gains control of my body. I can hold on for a pretty long time, but if she gains control, things are going to be pretty bad."
"Why d'ja think they'd help us?"
"Going through Tess' memories, I can safely say they'll wanna help us. And we need to warn them about Rath and Lonnie anyway."
Thanks for the comments, Natalie36 and uw51. Here's the rest of the chapter.
==========
After a seemingly ordinary day, Max was resting in bed when he heard a rapping sound on his window. He crept out of bed wondering who it would be. The person that came into his room wasn't one he expected at all. Shocked to see a punk version of himself, he raised his hand to blast the unknown person he assumed to be a shapeshifter.
"Woah, man! Easy dere! I'm not here ta kill ya or 'nethin' like dat." Zan said as he raised a green shield identical to Max's.
Max was taken aback slightly, but he made sure that he didn't drop his guard.
"Who the hell are you? And why don't you shift to some other form? Talking to myself isn't something I like to do very much."
"I couldn' change ma'self even if ma life depended on i' ya know. Let me explain." Zan began explaining about the duplicate set in New York and about their protector named Dermon who was now a hollywood movie producer under the name Kalvin Langley.
"A movie producer? Why is that? How can being a movie producer help you guys?" Max asked.
"Well, the tin' is, we ha' kinda decided dat we're gonna live here on Eart. At leas' me an' Ava have. Kal has decided da same, so he's gone off ta... uh... enjoy life."
"So, you guys aren't much different from us then."
"In livin' on Eart sense, yeah. But unlike you guys, we ain't got money. We live in dem sewers, yo. Rath wants ta change 1 buck notes to 100s, but I had ta stop 'im coz cops on a fake money printing case is da last tin' we need."
"Yeah, I understand."
"So, we have ta... um steal what we need." Zan said. Max quickly realized that though he said it quite casually, deep down he didn't really like what he had to do.
"So, why're you here?"
"Well... Um... We only gotta know where you guys were when yer Ava, uh, Tess died."
"How did you know her or know the fact that she died?" Max asked, stunned that his dupe knew so much about them.
"When Tess died, sometin' started happenin' ta Ava. She er... started changin' back ta her Antarian form. She... she almos' died ya know. She says 'er lungs were changin' too. She couldn' breath. I tried ta heal her, and luckily dat damn change stopped. But she ain't lookin' like what she used ta be. She looks diff'rent. Like another woman. Even sounds diff'ren'. She has some theories or some shit about how it happened, but dat's not da main tin'."
"What is?"
"Dere's a lotsa tin's I gotta tell ya, but here's where we're really gonna need yer help. Tess ain't dead."
"WHAT?" Max almost jumped.
"Honey, are you okay in there? Are you on the phone?" Diane's voice came from outside the door.
"Yeah, mom. I'm okay." Max replied quickly, and went and locked the door with his powers. His poor human mother sure wasn't ready at all to see a punk variant of her son sitting next to him.
"What do you mean she isn't dead? We stuck her body back into her pod which I myself stretched to hold her body."
"Her body migh' be dead, but 'er essence, or um... soul... is in Ava. The thin' is, she's tryin' ta take control of Ava's body and it's almos' killin'er, man. I really don' wan' 'netin' ta happen ta her."
A/N : Thanks for the comments, guys. Though this story might not be that good (this is my first try at writing a fanfic anyway), I really appreciate you guys for reading it and leaving your comments. I'm working on a long chapter 12 and it may take like 2 weeks. Sorry for being late, but I'll try my best to make it nice and worthwhile.
A sneak peek :
Chapter 12
==========
It took some time for Max to quite absorb all the new information that was being pumped his way. And it didn't help
even a tiny bit to know that the person who was giving the information was a duplicate of himself. But as everything started
to make sense, he felt a certain feeling of fear return to him.
"So, can't you kill Tess in any way?" He finally asked Zan.
"Are ya thinkin' I'd kill Ava? No chance, buddy." Zan replied hotly, suddenly enraged.
"Hey, hey, calm down. I wasn't meaning that."
"Oh, then dere's no way ta get rid o' Tess. Or that's wha' Ava thinks. And I'm not takin' any goddamned risks by
tryinna kill Tess."
"If killing Tess is going to kill Ava, then what can we do here? I'm sorry if I sound so pessimistic, but I really
don't see how we can help. We've never faced anything like this."
"We haven' eider. All I'm sugges'in' is dat we get together and try ta make somethin' outta this situation. And
that's not all."
"Why do I sense there's more bad news?"
"Um sorry ta say, but I reckon dat's coz there is more bad news."
"Shit. Okay then, go on I guess."
"Well, once Ava started gett'n' Tess' memories, she got dat Tess been workin' against ya lot."
"I know. That's why she was killed, though I had no intention of attacking her until she attacked Liz. We caught her
mindwarping us when we had a hunch she was upto no good. Wait... if Ava's got her memories, then she's gotta know what's been
going on. Ah! That guy who looked like Michael must have been one of you."
"Woah, wait... wait... Yeah, ya're right. Dat's Rath. He and Lonnie had bin plottin'gainst ya, together with Tess. Here's what's happened from da start. Tess has got ta know dat we exist, when da shapeshifter you call Nasedo had accidentally revealed dat he knew about udder hybrids, clones to be exact. Dunno why you guys weren't supposed ta know about us in da first place, but somehow Nasedo had no damn intentions of tellin'er about us. Anyway, once she knew, she brought us, a'leas' Rath and Lonnie who were da best ta use according to Nasedo, inta her big plan. That brings me ta anudder point. I hope ya made things righ' wit ya girl. Da whole future Max thing was part o' Tess' big plan too."
"Shit. She really was a bitch wasn't she?" Max replied, taking in everything.
begonia9508 : I think the Granilith should be able to help.
keepsmiling7 : Yup, Ava definitely was better than Tess. We'll see how it goes.
Timelord31 : Thanks.
Here's the full chapter 12.
Chapter 12
==========
It took some time for Max to quite absorb all the new information that was being pumped his way. And it didn't help even a tiny bit to know that the person who was giving the information was a duplicate of himself. But as everything started to make sense, he felt a certain feeling of fear return to him.
"So, can't you kill Tess in any way?" He finally asked Zan.
"Are ya thinkin' I'd kill Ava? No chance, buddy." Zan replied hotly, suddenly enraged.
"Hey, hey, calm down. I wasn't meaning that."
"Oh, then dere's no way ta get rid o' Tess. Or that's wha' Ava thinks. And I'm not takin' any goddamned risks by tryinna kill Tess."
"If killing Tess is going to kill Ava, then what can we do here? I'm sorry if I sound so pessimistic, but I really don't see how we can help. We've never faced anything like this."
"We haven' eider. All I'm sugges'in' is dat we get together and try ta make somethin' outta this situation. And that's not all."
"Why do I sense there's more bad news?"
"Um sorry ta say, but I reckon dat's coz there is more bad news."
"Shit. Okay then, go on I guess."
"Well, once Ava started gett'n' Tess' memories, she got dat Tess been workin' against ya lot."
"I know. That's why she was killed, though I had no intention of attacking her until she attacked Liz. We caught her mindwarping us when we had a hunch she was upto no good. Wait... if Ava's got her memories, then she's gotta know what's been going on. Ah! That guy who looked like Michael must have been one of you."
"Woah, wait... wait... Yeah, ya're right. Dat's Rath. He and Lonnie had bin plottin'gainst ya, together with Tess. Here's what's happened from da start. Tess has got ta know dat we exist, when da shapeshifter you call Nasedo had accidentally revealed dat he knew about udder hybrids, clones to be exact. Dunno why you guys weren't supposed ta know about us in da first place, but somehow Nasedo had no damn intentions of tellin'er about us. Anyway, once she knew, she brought us, a'leas' Rath and Lonnie who were da best ta use according to Nasedo, inta her big plan. That brings me ta anudder point. I hope ya made things righ' wit ya girl. Da whole future Max thing was part o' Tess' big plan too."
"Shit. She really was a bitch wasn't she?" Max replied, taking in everything.
"Yeah, she wuz, and quite a shitty one at dat."
Zan suddenly winced. "Hey, what's happening?" Max inquired.
"I dunno, but I feel like Ava's in trouble. Shit. I can't sense 'er anymore. It's like she's... Holy fuck! Dat bitch has got control of Aves! I gotta get ta her before she does some shitty thing." He quickly jumped out of the window.
"I'm coming with you." Max said as Zan got into the Trans-Am parked outside. He ran and got into the passenger side. Within seconds, the car was speeding off to the CrashDown.
==========
Meanwhile, at the CrashDown, Ava was sitting at a booth, sipping a Blood of Alien smoothie. Maria and Liz were talking in the back room.
"That girl is just... just... urgh! Something doesn't feel right about her. It's really suspicious, the way she's been here for several days for pretty long times." Maria ranted.
"Yeah, I get it, Maria. I also kinda felt like she was spying on us. Do you think we should tell Max?"
They watched as the last customer except Ava left. It was nearing closing time, and Maria and Liz went to tell her that they were about to close.
"Uh, miss, we're gonna close now, so if you please-" Liz began, but she was quickly interrupted by Ava.
"Wait... You have to listen to me." She began in a panicked voice. "You may not like to hear this, but someone's gotta know what happened really."
"Huh? Who are you?" Maria asked her.
"I'm Tess. I'm not dead. At least my essence is not."
On hearing the words, Liz's eyes gleamed with a menacing blue light and she moved forward to grab Tess' neck.
"Liiiz!" Maria yelled as she tried to restrain Liz from strangling Tess, but moved back quickly with a loud "OWWW!" as Liz's hands glowed blue and Maria's palms got burnt.
Maria gasped. "What the...?" Her mouth hung agape as Liz sent a bolt of energy at Tess, knocking her out.
"I've gotta get her to the pod chamber. Maria, I need your car."
"No way, I'm coming with you."
==========
The Trans-Am with Zan behind the wheel quickly came to a stop at the CrashDown just as the Jetta sped away. Max could feel Liz's emotions in turmoil.
"There, follow that Jetta." He told Zan.
"Huh?"
"Follow that car! I'm sure Ava's in it."
"How da hell do ya know?"
"Just do it!"
==========
In the Jetta, Liz looked at Maria's burned hands. "Oh, god, Maria! I'm so sorry. I'll get Max to heal to it soon."
"Don't sweat it. It doesn't hurt much. But how the hell did you do that?" Maria asked while sniffing her vial of cypress oil.
"I'm not really sure."
"And who is that?" She looked at the back seat where Ava's body lay. "She claims to be Tess, but she could be anyone."
"She isn't Tess, but Tess is possessing her or something."
"How do you know that, Liz?"
"I don't know, alright? I just know it."
"Ohmigod, you're becoming like Kyle. I guess that being-healed-by-an-alien theory is right after all."
"I guess so."
"So, why're we coming over here?" Maria questioned as they came to a stop near the rocks that housed the pod chamber.
"I'm trying to help whoever that Tess is possessing. Then, I'm gonna call Max. He needs to know."
"I'm already here, Liz" came Max's voice.
"Max!" Liz ran to him and threw herself into his arms. She looked up and pulled him down for a short yet tender kiss. She parted, and was shocked out of her wits to see another punk-looking Max behind her Max.
"Max? Who's that?" She asked, with wide eyes.
"Allow me ta introduce maself. David Marshal, also known as Zan, human/antarian hybrid." Zan said, outstretching his hand towards Liz.
"Liz Parker" she said, shaking his hand, and turned to Max for a better explanation, mouth still hanging open.
"I'll explain later, Liz. Come on, we got to try to get Tess off of Ava." Max smiled at Liz and took her hand to lead her back into the pod chamber.
"Hey girlfriend, care to help me out here?" Maria came running out, showing her burn marks as she heard Max's voice. But her hands fell limply to her sides when she saw Zan.
"Zan, get to Ava. I'll come in." Max said to Zan who nodded and ran to Ava.
"How did she get burnt?" Max asked Liz.
"More things to explain, I guess." Liz grinned sheepishly.
"Hey! Damsel in distress here! You two can make goo goo eyes later!" Maria yelled. Max chuckled and started healing Maria's burns.
TBC
I promise I'm gonna give a new chapter before next Wednesday.
Hi guys, posting and running. Thanks for the comments.
Chapter 13
==========
Zan walked inside the pod chamber and knelt down next to Ava. She stirred slowly as Zan tried to heal her.
"Zan? Wh-where am I?" She asked through drooping eyelids, trying to get up.
"Shh... you have ta rest." He kissed her softly on the forehead and laid her down once again. Here eyes closed, and she fell into a peaceful slumber. Looking around, Zan noticed that a pod had been broken off the wall that housed them, and enlarged. As Max came in with Liz and Maria, he inquired "Wha's that?", pointing to the huge pod.
"Uh, that's where we put Tess and Nasedo's bodies" Max cringed inwardly as he said the words. However justified it was, they were responsible for two deaths, at least one. And that was no satisfying thought. "We learnt a good lesson after burying Pierce's body in the desert. That's a long story anyway."
"But, den where are the bodies?"
"They kinda got reduced to ashes, I guess."
"Oh."
"Max, who is this guy and why does he look like you, but in punk clothing?" Maria tapped her foot impatiently.
"Well, this is my duplicate, Zan."
"Duplicate? As in a clone or something? This is so weird. True, you guys had some creep factor anyway, but this kinda thing just increases that big time."
"Well, I didn't know that these guys existed until today either."
"These guys?" Liz asked "There're more?"
"Yup, we're da other royal four. Da royal four were sent in two sets." Zan replied.
"So, who's this?" Maria asked, pointing at Ava, who was now dozing peacefully in a corner of the cave.
"Dis is Ava, dupe o' Tess."
"Huh? She looks nothing like Tess." Liz said, surprised.
"Yeah, I know. Dat's coz she mutated or somethin' when Tess died." Zan said, looking at Ava. "Not that I'm complaining abou' dat." He added with a mischievous glint in his eye. But he quickly sobered up as he said "But I'mma worried 'bout what Tess is doin' ta her."
"I still don't get how Tess is doing anything to anybody. She's dead, isn't she?"
"Not really. When Ava spoke to us in the Crash, it wasn't really Ava who spoke. It was Tess. That's what made me get pissed off like that. I recognized her. I kinda sensed her."
"You sensed her? Is this one of your new scary powers, chica?" asked Maria, with a dramatic gasp.
"I guess so."
"What? Liz-" Max began, but Liz interrupted.
"I'm fine, Max. I guess it's nothing bad. Just like Kyle started getting powers, I'm getting some too. It looks like your healing was the reason after all."
"Are you sure you're okay, Liz?"
"Max, Max, Max" Interrupted Maria. "You should be asking me that."
"Huh?"
"I'm the one who got fried after all."
"God, Maria, I'm sorry. Are you going to hold this against me?" Liz whined.
"Maria got burnt coz of you, Liz? What happened?" Max asked, shocked. Liz attacking her best friend? No way, that can't be.
"I didn't try to do anything. I was pissed when I sensed Tess in her, and I attacked her." Liz shuddered as Zan threw her a menacing glare. "Maria tried to hold me back, and I kinda burnt her without thinking." She whispered slowly.
"I think you should head home and rest, Liz" Max said, looking at her with concern.
"No way, Max. I don't know anything about this duplicate business. I wanna know."
"We'll tell Maria and you can ask her. Go home and rest. Please? For me?" Max pleaded. He didn't feel right at all when Liz was tiring herself. Who knows what might happen now because of her powers?
"Oh, okay then." Liz said reluctantly.
"I'll come over to your place soon." Max said and hugged her. She kissed him passionately and turned to leave.
"Wait... How will Maria come?"
"We can drop her on our way back. Zan's got... uh... transport."
"Right then, I'll leave the Jetta over at your place." Liz waved at Maria.
"See you later, chica."
==========
Isabel and Alex were sitting on Isabel's bed in her bedroom. The door was locked by some nice alien magic. They were now together and completely at ease with each other. They went out steadily, and Isabel always volunteered to do what they called "Courtney-watching" (A/N : Will be explained in a later chapter. ) so she could be with Alex. Nasedo's attack on Alex several months ago had made Isabel realize that she could lose him for good, and she definitely didn't want that. She wanted something more. Smiling seductively, she laid back on the bed and rested her feet on his lap. He gently carressed them with his hands and she raised one foot and pinched his nose with her toes. He tickled her sole with his tongue and she giggled. She pulled him down to her and they kissed passionately. She forcefully ripped his shirt open and started kissing all over his chest.
"Awww... That was one of my best shirts." He whispered.
"I'll put it right later." She replied huskily, and continued with her work. She bit his nipples, marking him to be hers. Alex's hands were groping around. He cupped her butt in his hands, and rubbed her butt cheeks. They kissed passionately again. Alex sucked on Isabel's lower lip hard. He could even remember the taste of her favourite lip gloss. Her tongue passed over his teeth and he opened up, allowing her to make love to his mouth.
As they went on, Alex suddenly tensed. Isabel looked up at him, worried. She quickly realized what was wrong. He still was worried about fully giving himself to her. She had pushed him away so much that he feared that she would find him inadequate and would leave him again. But she also knew that she would make sure that his fears were gone. Her lips curled up in a smile as she thought of the perfect plan.
"It's alright, Alex. I'll be ready when you are."
"Okay. Um... I guess I'll go now." He smiled at her.
"Bye." They kissed again and he left.
Zan once again explained the situation of the dupes. This time to Maria. By the end, Maria was fuming.
"Argh! Why can't the ho from hell just leave people alone?"
"Though I'd like to blame her too, I really don't think she really meant to get into me." A voice said softly from a corner. Three necks turned to see Ava waking up. Zan quickly ran to her side.
"Aves, ya owkay?"
"Yeah, I-I think so." She sat up and yawned. "Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop or anything. Just heard you talking when I got up."
"It's alright." said Max. "I'm Max. This is our friend Maria."
"I know." Ava smiled. "Tess knew you, so I do coz of her memories."
"Oh, I forgot about that for a moment."
"It figures. Not a really normal situation, is it? Even from alien perspectives, I guess having to literally share your body with another mind is pretty freaky."
"So, what do you mean by I really don't think she really meant to get into me?" Max inquired, always wanting to finish the task at hand.
"I've thought about this a lot. And also, after this Tess-getting-into-my-head incident, I'm slowly getting some of the knowledge that I had, back on Antar. Based on that, I have some theories on how this happened."
"You remember our lives in our planet?" Max asked. But it was evident that he really doesn't want to know much about it. The last thing I want is for her to say that Tess really loved me back there. He thought. But is it possible? These two seem to be good together, though.
"Yeah, it's like certain memories are fading in. Mostly, it's knowledge. Like what we were taught in our planet, Antar. Things like Antarian science. I'm also beginning to remember bits and pieces of our language. Anyway, from what I know, the two sets of the royal four are connected. It's like a wireless link of some sort. When Tess died, her essence, what you can call the soul, came to me through our connection. That's when I started changing. I think this was supposed to happen when we went back home. So, basically my Antarian DNA, which was dormant while the human DNA was active, started becoming active, pushing back my human DNA. That's why I'm like this now."
"So, this is what you looked like on your planet?" Maria asked. "I thought you guys were three feet tall, green, with four fingers and three eyes or something."
"Pretty good imagination you got there." Ava laughed. "No, as far as I know, the human body structure is almost exactly the same as the major race of Antarians. But shapeshifters are a different matter. They literally have no bone structure as such. But, there is an important difference between Antarians and humans. That is the lungs. The Antarian atmosphere has a lot more Oxygen than the Earth's atmosphere. As a result, Antarian lungs take in like 1/6th the amount of air that human lungs take in. I almost died because of that reason, but luckily Zan here felt my difficulty to breathe and quickly healed me." She gave Zan a warm smile.
Zan smiled back and lowered himself to kiss her. Soon, they were in an intense kiss, neither wanting to let the other go.
"Ahem..." Maria cleared her throat. "Other people here, you know."
"Uh, sorry 'bout dat." Zan said, his eyes still on Ava who was now blushing furiously.
"Good thing you don't look like Tess anymore, you know." said Maria. "No offense, but I would've puked at the sight of a Max look-alike kissing a Tess look-alike."
"I can understand." Ava said softly, her eyes downcast. "I would hate her too, if I were you. She's done some pretty bad things. I'm actually ashamed of the fact that I'm a clone of her. But then again, I'm no saint either. I've lead my life mainly on stealing."
"Well, I really gotta ask this." said Maria. "When Max, Michael and Isabel were kids, they were taken in by humans. Why weren't you guys picked up by social services at least?"
"That would be coz Kal was dere when we came ou' of da pods. He kinda took us over. We lived wit 'im for like four years. Then he go' all involved in da movie business and left us on our'wn. He told us parts o' what caused us ta be sent here before he left. Then only we knew bits o' our lives on Antar. We knew our real names even only den. Before dat, I was David Marshal, Ava was Sandra Langley, Lonnie was Sophie Marshal and Rath was Carlos Langley. We were livin' just like you guys dose days. Ava and Rath were the adopted children of Kal and me and Lonnie were deir cousins whose parents were dead. Dat's what da story was." Zan said, and his eyes closed briefly as he reminisced on those days when their lives weren't as tough as they were now."
"So, Zan, Ava, Lonnie and Rath were our names on Antar?" Max asked.
"Yup. And Lonnie is short for Vilandra. Zan was da king. Ava was his bride. Lonnie was his sister. Rath was his second in command and brother-in-law."
"So, to problems at hand." Maria pointed out. "We have to get Tess out of her, haven't we?"
"Yeah." said Max. "Now that I think of it, why did you two bring her here?"
"No idea, Max. Liz just came here, and of course, I came with her. I think it was just the first place she had in mind."
"Listen, Zan. I think we should think about this tomorrow. It's pretty late and our parents are gonna worry about us. What do you say we meet at like 9 in the morning at the CrashDown, seeing as it's Saturday tomorrow?"
"Uh, okay. Let's go den." They walked outside, and Max placed his hand over the silver handprint to seal it. Then he remembered that he didn't open the door to the chamber when they came in.
"Maria, how did you and Liz get in here? Only Antarian royals can open this door according to what Nasedo said."
"Oh my god. Liz opened it. I don't know how, but I'm sure she did."
They got in the Trans-Am.
"Damn! This back-seat is a nightmare. Why couldn't you two have grabbed a bigger car?" Maria complained to Ava who was squeezed in beside her on the back seat. Ava chuckled lightly.
They drove in silence. As they neared the CrashDown, Max talked to Zan. "Hey, just drop me over here. I gotta check on Liz."
"I'm getting down here as well." said Maria. "No offense, but it really gives me the creeps to be in a car with two aliens whom I don't know well." She shuddered dramatically.
"Uh, okay den." Zan stopped the car. "T'morrow, 9 o' clock den. See ya!" The car swiftly drove away, while Max and Maria climbed the fire escape to Liz's balcony.
==========
Liz woke up to the sound of her window opening. She saw two figures entering her room from her balcony and panicked. But she quickly felt Max's presence and she calmed. A soft smile lit her face as Max came to her. He moved his hand over the candle next to her bed and it lit up, showing Max and Maria's faces clearly. Liz quickly moved into Max's open arms, hugging him tightly.
"How are you feeling?"
"Pretty good actually." She smiled at him.
"Hey, chica. Did you put my mom's car at our place?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Damn. I was kinda hoping you would have it here."
"Oh, I thought you were gonna go with Zan."
"Well, MoonDoggie here decided to pop in here, so I wasn't really upto being alone with two people who could kill me in an instant alone in a car." Maria said in one breath.
Liz giggled.
"Hey, it's not funny!"
"Well, I don't think they would've done anything to you, Maria. Not when they need our help now." Max said, also chuckling.
"Whatever. It's just creepy. Anyway, I guess I'll head over to my place on foot." Maria groaned. "Call me if you need anything. 'Night."
"Good Night, Maria."
As Maria climbed down the fire escape, Liz grabbed Max and pulled him into a heated kiss. After what felt like the finest moments of his life, he pulled back for air.
"Mmhm... You're not getting away that easy." Liz pulled him back.
"Who are you and what have you done to my sweet innocent Liz?" Max deadpanned. "Seriously, Liz. We should talk."
"Oh..." Liz moaned. "It's a long time since we've made love." She pouted.
"Are you trying to get me killed here?" Max replied, quickly stiffening. "Your parents are near and I just am not going to do anything right now. Your father will shoot me in a blink of an eye and then I'll end up in a laboratory or something. Besides, we seriously gotta talk about your new power situation. That's the biggest reason I came here."
"Oh." A hurt look came over her face. "I thought you just came to see me."
"Liz?" Max looked at her, horrified at her quick change of emotions. "Liz, I'm sorry, that's not what I meant." He knelt in front of her and hugged her legs. Looking into her eyes, he saw the laughter bubbling to burst in her eyes and quickly relaxed. Just then, she burst into laughter.
"You should have... *laugh* seen... *giggle* the look on your face."
"Shhh... You're gonna wake your parents. Besides, it's not funny."
"Aww... Poor baby." She bent and kissed his nose noisily.
"Okay, okay." He said, sitting next to her on her bed. "Let's be serious now. You have to be really careful. Did anything weird happen after you got back?"
"No, nothing that I'm aware of. Anyway, you gotta tell me about the dupes. You said you'd tell me everything."
"Oh, okay." He sighed and told her everything that Zan had told him and Maria. "And we have to meet them tomorrow at the CrashDown at 10 in the morning. You wanna come?"
"Oh, yeah. I'm not losing a chance to be with you, now am I?"
"So, Liz, you better be pretty careful. Kyle also had bursts of power at times and he melted things by mistake. Of course it wasn't much of a problem 'coz the Sheriff knows about us. But in your case, your parents would be totally freaked out."
"I know. I guess I have to be extra careful."
"So, as much as I'd love to lay on your rug for the night, my parents won't appreciate that. I guess I have to go."
"Oh, bye, Max." She pulled him in for a sweet kiss. He smiled and went out of the room, out into the balcony, his eyes on her all the way out."
Here's the next chapter. 
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