Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch. 17 1/31/26 p. 18

[max and liz believer]

Hi everyone!

I’m so relieved to see so many familiar users here

I’ve written three chapters since we last ”spoke”, but I’m holding the posts awhile longer. I want to have several chapters in my backpack before I start posting, so I won’t leave you hanging once my busy life starts up again after the Christmas break.

But, I realized something fun. Since my last chapter update, AI has become more easily available to the public so I asked him to generate a photo of my little family in this story. You can tell on Max and Liz’s faces that it’s AI, but it’s still really cool, right?



Love,
Jo

[Stefuh]

Oh my God, how cute!! that's a good use for AI. And yay for the 3 chapters!! Can't wait to read them.

[max and liz believer]

Hi everyone!

The next chapter has been sent off to my editor and while we wait for it to get back to me, I thought it would be sound to give you a recap since it has been years since my last update. I'm reusing the recap I wrote and posted when I updated a couple of years ago, also because of a lengthy absence with some changes to the end.

AI and I worked together to put together my ideas of how the two different types of Antarians look like. The original Antarians (the nicer ones) on the left and the Royals (eg. Command and the Mayor) on the right.

Here we go:

Liz has always been wary of the three beautiful people at school: Max, Isabel and Michael. But Max, especially, has been a person to be suspicious of. There’s just something about him that puts Liz on edge. Jokingly considering them to be vampires, Liz keeps her distance until she is dragged to a Halloween party by her best friend, Maria. Where she accidentally witnesses Max healing Isabel’s wound. Liz is hidden at first, but is discovered as she makes a noise of shock at the sight. But before the trio can determine how much she has seen, Liz passes out. Due to a generous intake of alcohol, Liz has trouble remembering the incident at all and even though Max gets the task of erasing her memory of it, he postpones the task, thinking that Liz won’t remember.

But she does. And he erases her mind.

But then Liz’s mother dies. In what seems to be an accident. A fire at their home. Liz (having been away with her father at a camping event with school) comes home to find their home on fire. She rushes in to save her mother but the lethal smoke gets her instead. She wakes up outside of her house, with Max, who is removing her pain and her wounds.

The secret is out after that. Or at least, pieces of it. She tries to put the rest of the pieces together on her own after that, doing everything in her power to pump Max of information while simultaneously grieving her dead mother.

What she eventually finds out is this: Max, Isabel and Michael are all hybrids, born to human and alien parents. Max and Isabel are twins, their father Philip an alien with the rare ability to heal. He had to find a suitable woman to mother his children in order to make sure that his children would carry on the healing trait.

There is a large alien community on Earth, consisting of both pure aliens and hybrids. The alien community is ruled by a person called Command. He is a descendant of the royal family from Antar, meaning that he has the ability to take on any ability from other aliens, including special abilities such as healing.

This alien community has been utilizing humans for their own agenda. In particular, one type of human. A gaea. Which is a female who can be used as a big battery. In other words, an alien - usually of the alien military - will be assigned a gaea whose life energy can enhance his powers and refuel him whenever his has been emptied (for instance, during war). The gaea trait is passed on to females and Liz happens to be a gaea. So was her mother. Which was also the reason why she died. Her energy was being tapped to the degree that her health was being compromised and her mind was being damaged from all the memory wipes. Since gaeas don’t know there are aliens using them, their memory is wiped after any incidents. The frequent use of Nancy Parker’s life energy meant that she eventually turned mad and was threatening to hurt Liz (read: kill Liz) to prevent Liz from having to live her life at the hands of the aliens, like her mother had been forced to. As a precaution, Nancy was killed. Her death was covered up in the fire.

Being a gaea, Liz has been tested her whole life. Tested to see when she would be “ready” to be used as a gaea. Her upbringing was therefore filled with examinations and memory wipes. Her healer was Max. Her assigned “energy-sucker” was Sean, the son of the military man that had used Nancy Parker as an energy source. Her protector was Alex. Yes, Alex. Also an alien.

When Max healed Liz, he formed a connection. With superficial healings, the healer won’t have to form a connection. But Liz’s burns were too extensive. After the healing, the healer is supposed to break the connection. But in this case, the healing of Liz was so strenuous that Max passed out after the procedure, never breaking the connection. And he does not do so later either. It enables him to protect Liz’s mind from Sean, whose special ability is mind manipulation. And as long as Liz is connected to Max, Sean can’t connect with her, which he is itching to do.

But to connect with a gaea, who you are not supposed to connect with, is synonymous with death in the alien community. Max is caught between wanting to protect Liz from Sean (and secretly loving her) and to break the connection to prevent both of them from risking their lives were the aliens to find out about the connection.

The aliens do find out about it, eventually, though. And Max requests to attend an alien meeting to explain the situation and explain why he and Liz needs to stay connected.

The meeting doesn’t end well. Sean attacks Max, Liz tries to protect Max and is hit with an energy blast. In the chaos that follows, Max and Liz are separated and imprisoned at separate locations. We follow Liz to her prison at the hands of Sean and his father. Where they try to break through the connection and get into Liz’s head. But the connection remains. Even when they try to weaken Max at the same time, to weaken his hold on Liz.

Eventually, Liz is taken to Max as a test. To see what their connection could do if they are put together. Shortly after they have been reunited, Sean and his father pays a visit. Sean brought a gun, because the room they are in has a force field which has inactivated everyone’s alien powers. Foolishly enough, Sean shoots Max during a confrontation. And while Liz falls to her knees to protect and help Max, and Sean and his father approach from behind, the connection answers and protects the couple by turning Sean and his father into dust. Literally.

Max and Liz get help after that and end up with Isabel, Alex, Philip, Nancy and Diane at an abandoned building outside of Roswell. There they find out that there is a rebellion. A rebellion secretly working against Command. A rebellion that very much opposes to seeing humans being used by aliens. A rebellion that believes that Max and Liz’s connection might be the weapon they have been looking for to win in a war against Command.

Max and Liz are trained in battle. Liz mostly so. Maria arrives at one point, having been saved by Michael who took it upon himself to look after Maria and save her once men started to move in on her. She’s not happy in the beginning, but after finding out the truth and slowly warming up to the scary thought that she is surrounded by aliens, Maria is along for the ride.

Their hiding place is attacked. Diane is killed and they flee into underground tunnels. Max is shot with an energy blast during their escape, leaving a gaping wound through his middle. Liz is able to heal him. They are also introduced to Dresden at this point. The leader of the rebellion. A person whose wife took care of Max when he was little and put in an institution to remove a memory of having connected with Liz already as a child. It was this childhood connection which signalled to the rebellion (which Philip Evans is part of) that Max and Liz needed to be protected.

Soon they stand face to face with Command. Who kills them. But as he tries to steal Max’s healing power at the moment of death, the connection strikes back, infecting Command with pure goodness. Because of his pure dark soul, he is destroyed. From the inside out.

Because it seems as if Max and Liz are both parims. Untainted souls of pure goodness. Stemming from the original Antarians. The Antarians that were initially pure energy without a physical body. But they would later realize that if slightly tainted, they could acquire a physical shape, which was desirable. But with that taint, they lost their purity. And the royal families that followed several thousands years later would consist merely of blackness, having almost no goodness left. The Blood War which transpired between the Royals and the Antarians would destroy their own planet, having them seek out escape destinations. Finding Earth, they sent children there to start a new life. It was meant to only be Antarians, but unfortunately some bad eggs ended up on the same journey. They landed on Earth in 1947 and became the ancestors to Max, Isabel, Michael and Alex. But what they would later find out was that Antarians had been on Earth since the early 800s. Those Antarians, however, suffered grave infertility and decided to only watch over the humans and do good until they died. Fortunately, their life spans were greater than that of a human.

Max and Liz finds this out after the battle. When Command is dead and they are employed to fight the darkness within the rest of Command’s men. Unfortunately, Command’s closest man - the Mayor - disappears during the heat of battle and the search for him commences immediately.

Meanwhile, Max and Liz finds out that they were pregnant. That Liz was pregnant when she was killed by Command, killing the child within her. After the battle, she miscarries, which breaks her along with all the pressure from the battle and the terror she has been witnessing.

While recuperating from their ordeal, Liz expresses how much she has missed going to school and the normalcy that comes along with it. Arrangements are made, “lifeguards” are placed to protect Liz while in school and Max and Liz realizes - officially - that they have many allies within the kids their own age. But that there are also those who strongly disapproves of how Liz has entered the alien world and in effect rearranged their whole world.

Before we last left Max and Liz, we had skipped ahead. To 2027, when Max and Liz are 28 and consist of a small family of 3. The Mayor has been missing in action and everything has been calm on Earth (at least when it concerns the aliens). They attend regular meetings - although they have been more infrequent lately - which brings them up to date about the rebellion and eventual sightings of the Mayor. The last chapter I posted described one of those meeting and that is where we are going to pick it up and continue.

I hope you are ready to come along for the ride.

I tried to get as much in the summary as possible, while not being too lengthy. Of course, there are A LOT of details I have left out, so if you’re lost about the details, give me a shout out in the feedback and I’ll answer any questions you might have.

/Jo

[Stefuh]

Thank you for the recap, I needed it!! Can't wait for the new chapter!

[max and liz believer]

Hi!

Never give up on me I do come back, eventually. Took me approximately 5 years and 8 months to get this next update up here, but here I am and you have no idea how grateful I am that some of you are still here. I was actually very much convinced that this place was deserted by now. But here you are. Thank you to all of you who has left a comment. To all of you who have left bumps throughout my years of silence. I've read every post and cherished every word.

And thank you to my editor, my savior, who always got my back and signs up to edit my chapters even though many years have passed <3


FROM FIFTEEN:

But before I could reply, before Max could get up from his seat to take his place next to me and our daughter in silent support, George spoke up. “There’s something else you should know.”

I closed my eyes for a second, willing my body to relax, before opening them to look straight at Willa. Squeezing her hand, I turned us towards George hoping that he had some good news. Maybe something that would support the decision I had just made. Maybe some back up on the fact that going into a war while pregnant was not a good thing.

“We have known of this for some time, but have not wanted to worry you,” George continued and my heart sank.

Of course. This was not going to be good news.

“What is it?” Max asked, rising from his seat.

“The day Willa was born, there were more babies born at the exact same time.”

I didn’t know how to react to that piece of information. Didn’t know which question to ask first.

“On the same day?” Max asked.

“Around the world, a total of eight children - including Willa - were born at 2.47 a.m. on the 10th of November 2022.”

I frowned. Eight children. Hundred of thousands of children were born each day. Surely some of them had to be born at the exact time. That was probably not something out of the ordinary.

“They were all children of gaeas, Antarians and suspected parims. Couples that previously had been experiencing difficulties conceiving.”

Okay. I licked my lips slowly. That piece of information was making this whole thing a lot weirder.

“So…” Isabel spoke up. “This means something, right? It couldn’t only be a coincidence.”

Mr. Evans shook his head. “Right, it can’t be.”

I heard Max’s thought in my head before he said it out loud. An explanation that threatened to break me apart.

“You think the children have a purpose. That they were born for a reason.” I felt the chill go through his body before he finished with, “You think they have a role in the fight against the mayor and his men.”

I put my arm around my daughter. My warm, living, and real daughter. My innocent and defenseless baby girl.

George’s eyes were on Willa as he answered, “Yes.”

____________________________________

SIXTEEN


“But she doesn’t have any powers.” My mouth was dry, my heart beating in my throat. “She doesn’t share our connection. She’s just a child.”

“Mommy,” Willa said quietly, making my eyes instantly shift to her.

“Yes, baby?”

Her hand was warm in mine as she squeezed it tightly. “I want cocoa.”

Tears sprung up in my eyes so suddenly that I couldn’t stop them. Sniffling them back, I nodded, “Of course, honey. Let’s go make you some cocoa.” I looked up at the others around the room and said, “I need some time. We need some time.”

“Of course, Elizabeth,” George said warmly, and that was all the approval I needed.

Even though I was locked up in my mind, drowning in anxious thoughts and fearful emotions, I was highly aware of Willa’s eyes on me the whole time. I was also extremely aware that she was not acting like herself.

Up until today, she had been very much a child. A regular four-year-old. Playing, laughing, throwing tantrums, talking your head off, playing with her dolls, loving the swing set. She was doing normal human stuff.

Like going to bed at the same time every night. Always taking the favorite stuffed animal with her whenever we would travel a long distance by car. Listening to the same song over and over again. Whatever song she liked at the moment, that is. Because that tended to change about once every week. As things do.

She would scrape her knees on the gravel driveway outside of our house and would come crying to her parents for comfort. And like a regular human girl, she would get a bandaid. She would not be healed by her alien father. She was treated like a human. Because she was.

She did not possess any alien abilities. She could not heal the family cat when it had gotten into a fight with the neighbor cat. She could not float herself off the bed. She could not make the lights flicker or turn them on and off. She could not see auras or affect anyone’s emotions.

So why would she have to be pulled into an alien war when she was only alien by genetics?

But today, Willa was acting differently. Today, she was quiet and contemplative. She was watching. Silently. While I was absent-mindedly stirring the cocoa into the milk, she was watching my face the whole time. Her warm small body was standing very close to mine, making my heart bleed with love.

I knew that she was worried. Because she looked exactly like her father when he was worried. But she did not seem scared. Which probably was not an odd thing, come to think of it. Why would she be worried? She did not know what all of this was about.

To her, Max’s family was just her family. It was her uncles and aunts. Her grandfather and great grandfather. We had never really discussed the alien complement in her paternal family. We had not needed to, yet. Max was not accustomed to using alien abilities out in the open, so I was rather certain that Willa had never seen his alien side.

The only thing that might stand out from a regular human family were the meetings. But Willa usually didn’t pay much attention. She would usually play with something in the corner of the room, closing herself off from the boring conversations around her.

Besides, the meetings had been few and far between anyway.

But she had been alert today. Present. Which was making me worry. How much was she really aware of? Had she been more aware than Max and I had assumed?

“Mommy? Can I have the cocoa now?” Willa interrupted my train of thought, alerting me to the fact that I had been spinning her cocoa for a much longer time than required.

I shook my head, attempted a smile smile, and sighed, “Of course, honey.” I handed her the cup. “My mind is somewhere else today.”

She took the cup and gingerly set it down next to her on the table before redirecting large brown eyes to me. Her inquisitive expression had me ask, “Is something wrong?” I hitched my chin towards the cocoa. “You wanted cocoa, right?” Maybe I had misunderstood her request while my mind laid scattered around me.

She nodded silently, then reached over and took my hand. Her hand was soft and warm. “Why are you scared, mommy?”

A short laugh of denial got stuck in my throat, surprised by her direct question. I quickly cleared my throat, “I’m not scared, baby.”

“You were yelling. At Papa and Grandpa.”

I nodded. “Yes. I guess I was.” I inhaled deeply before crouching down in front of her, putting her face at level with my own. “Listen to me, Willa. You and daddy are the most important people in my life. I love you both so so so much.”

She looked at me seriously, eyes not blinking once.

“I found out some horrible things today. Things that I want to protect you and your daddy from. Because those things can be dangerous. That’s why I was angry with Papa and Grandpa. I want us to be safe and have fun.”

I attempted an encouraging smile at her while saying ‘fun’ and she caught on to it, her mouth blossoming into a beautiful smile.

“Right?” I asked, intentionally poking her stomach, tickling her.

She laughed loudly, in that carefree manner typical of young children. Her laugher was contagious and I continued seeking out her most ticklish spots, repeating “Right?”

“No, don’t,” Willa laughed, throwing her arms around me in a warm hug, effectively cutting off my tickling attempts.

Our laughter ebbed like a long slow sigh and we grew quiet in each other arms. I hugged her close, maybe tighter than what was comfortable, and breathed in the smell of her hair.

“What’s going on here?”

We both looked up with smiles at the familiar voice, my heart still skipping a beat at the sight of him. How he was only getting more handsome the older he got.

Unfair.

He was smiling, too, leaning casually against the doorframe.

“Just getting some cocoa,” I replied, watching as Willa picked up the mug from the counter, “Careful, it’s hot.”

I felt his eyes following the movement, heard his love in my thoughts while feeling it resonating through my bones. He was the love of my life. My anchor. My knight in shining armor.

I had watched him grow and mature, shouldering the role of becoming of father. Had watched him grow into a man. He had always been strong, had always been mature for his age due to the things he had to experience when he was just a boy, but there had been a significant change in him when Willa had been born.

In me as well, I guess. Becoming a parent shifted your focus. Suddenly you were responsible for someone’s life and well-being. You were responsible for not only tending to their most basic needs, but to teach them about life. To teach them to talk, walk, ride a bike and brush their teeth.

Becoming a parent had filled us not only with an indescribable unconditional love but also paralyzing fear. I imagine that every parent worried about their children. Every parent was afraid of their children seriously hurting themselves or acquiring some lethal disease. But in addition, we had to try and accept the very real risk of our children being forced to take part in a war of inconceivable circumstances. That an alien society would start dictating rules for our children that would somehow cause them harm.

Since we had annihilated Command, the regulations of the Antarian society had changed. Antarians were no longer allowed to use human beings for their personal gain. For instance, gaeas were now to be left alone. In other words, it was prohibited to use gaeas as batteries.

The rebels’ proposal for a new society - after taking out Command - was essentially to blend in with the humans. They were not to think of themselves as superior. They were not to exert mind control or memory wipes, unless a human being had accidentally stumbled upon some information revealing the alien origin of the Antarian.

The Antarian race should remain concealed from human beings. This was a precaution as the human civilization was not yet deemed ready to face the truth of aliens walking amongst them.

In essence, Antarians and humans would co-exist in peace. Goodness was encouraged, and so alien abilities that could help the human race were supported.

I looked at my handsome alien, in the midst of his final years of medical school, and felt proud of him using his abilities to help human beings, knowing that he would - unbeknownst to his patients - use his powers to remove even the ailments that human science had not yet found a cure for.

We were finally at a place in our life where we felt content. We were both in school, we had our own home, we had a beautiful daughter and everything was falling into place.

Then reality slaps you in the face.

And our daughter decides to join said reality by saying, “Are the bad people coming, Daddy?”

I froze, my eyes landing in horror on Max’s face. Ever the expert at hiding his reactions, there was only a small flicker in his eyes - unmatched by the fear I was getting over the telepathic wireless highway - before he crossed the short distance to Willa and hunched down in front of her. Pushing an errant strand of hair behind her ear, he looked her straight in the eyes and softly asked, “What do you mean?”

“The black men,” Willa clarified.

The cold was spreading throughout my body, and I had to clear my throat before asking, “What black men, honey?”

“All black. Like the man that hurt you and daddy. Made you go to sleep.”

Made you go to sleep.

Her sentenced echoed loudly throughout both of our minds. My mental voice was hesitant and faint as I asked Max, Does she mean when Command killed us? How would she know? We’ve never told her.

I don’t know, he replied slowly, bewildered.

Trying my best to make my voice sound as normal as possible - but the audible creaks breaking through - I asked, “Where did you hear about the black men, Willa?”

Willa dropped her eyes, looking at the cup of cocoa in her small hands, still chubby from the toddler stage, while answering, “They’re in my room.”

Coldness was freezing my heart, pausing my heartbeat, numbing my breathing.

Max carefully removed the cup of cocoa from Willa’s and fished up her gaze from the floor with the gentle press of his index finger under her chin. “There are no black men in your room, sweetheart. Mommy and I wouldn’t let anyone into your room that you don’t know.”

I cleared my throat, kneeling down next to Max, my hands suddenly clammy with cold sweat. “Did you have a dream, maybe? Were the men in your dream?”

Willa looked up at her parents. Large brown eyes slightly squinting in concentration and answered in that nonsensical lightness that only children possessed, “Yes. Yes, in my dream.”

“Was mommy and daddy in your dream as well?” Max pressed on gently. Cautiously.

Willa nodded, worrying her bottom lip, her eyes now scattering around the room. She looked uncomfortable. My heart froze with guilt. I was feeling ashamed for being in that battle years ago. For being around horrible creatures in a frightening place. I was feeling guilty about dying. About my daughter seeing it. But none of that made any sense. Not my feelings of guilt. Not the fact that she had somehow seen our past.

But, however it had happened, it was scaring her. Something I had done in my past was haunting my daughter in the future.

I reached out and brushed my hand down the gentle curve of her soft cheek, pausing to move my thumb back and forth across her skin. Trying to sooth her as much as myself. Wanting to feel the warmth of life from her body, reassure myself that she was still here, that everything was okay.

I had been able to separate the dark world of the alien business from my life. We had a normal human existence. With studying, work, daycare, activities, pets, birthday parties, dentist appointments and managing that financial puzzle. The only alien factor in our lives since we left Roswell was our connection. But it had become second nature to us by now, a part of us. Something we barely actively reflected upon.

To suddenly place Willa in our alien world was terrifying. She didn’t belong there. Her pearlescent laughter, her shiny eyes, her small hands and feet, her careless play, her concern for her pet cat. None of it belonged in the dark alien world with real monsters and torturous activities. A world where little girls were not spared just because they were young.

The need to protect her from that world crashed down over me like a forceful wave, and my old acquaintance - Mr. Panic Attack - came back for a visit. He hadn’t been around since Max and I had moved several years ago.

With the pressure increasing over my chest, two sets of brown eyes moved to my face. Max calmly took my hand in his, squeezing it while telepathically reminding me to, Breathe, while Willa took my other hand and encased it within her two much smaller hands.

“Mommy?” she asked quietly, frightened.

“I’m fine,” I gasped, trying to find both an encouraging smile and oxygen, before adding, “I’m fine.”

I felt the energy simmer between Max and I. Felt him redirect it towards my body, towards my chest. And I felt the warmth from Willa’s hold become warmer, warmer than normal body temperature, and spread up the length of my arm.

The feeling did nothing to ease my troubles breathing. Neither did Max’s discovery of the same novel phenomenon as his feelings, a mixture of surprise, shock, and fear fed into the connection.

Willa was feeding energy into me. Into the connection Max and I shared.

Only a second or two passed before I found my composure and pulled Willa into my side, into a hug. The pressure over my chest exploded into tears as I buried my face into my daughters hair. Willa softened in my arms, folding into my hug naturally, as Max put his arms around Willa and I.

Does this mean that she has abilities now? I asked Max through the connection.

His arms tightened their hold around his small family. Yes. His essence was trembling. Not wanting to know what this meant. By cautious nature, being unable to not think the worst. I have no idea what this means.

How old were you when you started using your abilities?

Max kissed the side of my head. I don’t even remember. My father has had me practice my abilities for as long as I can remember. Solemn regret crept into his thought processes. I think I was 8 when I first attended a session with you.

A chill went through me. A session?

To test your blood for the gaea status.

Anger rushed through me. Nowadays, having acquired the viewpoint of a parent, this infuriated me. They had you attend those sessions when you were only 8, to heal me?

I got a memory flash from him, before he could stop himself. A memory of myself, a small girl at the time, completely paralysed. Catatonic. At the hand of Philip Evans, in order to take my blood.

“Max,” I whispered sadly, his memory of feeling like a monster all those years saturating our connection.

“Max,” the darkness of a man’s voice overrode my whispered version. His name spoken with exhortation and surprise.

Our little family pulled apart, disentangling our small unit. But before we did, we saw the light. The light that encased the three of us. The white, blinding light.

Which had been seen by Max’s father in the doorway.

“Is there something you would like to share, Maxwell?” Mr. Evans asked.

Willa looked up at her grandfather, bounced happily to her feet and announced, “Grandpa! I got cocoa!”

This distracted Mr. Evans for a moment, enabling me a second with Max’s mind. What do we tell them?

His eyes were soft, sad, when he met my worried gaze. I didn’t need the connection to know what he was feeling, his expressive eyes were saying it all. He was mourning Willa’s childhood. Her innocence. The barrier between our daughter and his world had been demolished. There were feelings of fear there. Of what this might mean. And the most pronounced feeling was his desire to keep this a secret. Keep it away from the rest of his family. Because he didn’t trust what they would do with the information. He was afraid that Willa would suddenly become a part of their battle plan were they to find out that her abilities were awakening. The stream of emotions I felt meant his reply was not surprising. Nothing.

And I was not one to object. The last thing I wanted to do was to provide the army of rebellion out there a new weapon to use. They hadn’t been too careful when using Max and I. We had been involved in their plan from a very young age - from the second we were born, really - thus, the risk of them doing the same to Willa was high.

“What do you mean, Philip?” I asked, turning my head to my father-in-law.

Mr. Evans frowned, his eyes telling me as little as possible, as usual, but his stance strongly signalling his disapproval. “I’ve seen that light around you before. Around you and Max. Several times. But is has never included anyone else. Even if other people has been in your proximity. It attaches to the surface around your bodies, no one outside of that.”

“Your point being?” Max asked roughly, getting to his feet, simultaneously handing Willa the cup of cocoa while reaching his other hand out for me to help me to my feet.

His fingers curling around my hand was stable and comfortable. Us against Them. Our family first. And we would lie to whoever necessary in order to protect our family. Especially our children.

“Don’t play coy with me, Max,” Mr. Evans said, the cold disapproval dripping from his voice.

I deeply doubted that we would be able to fool Mr. Evans. Mr. Evans, who was an expert at reading auras and energy fields, who knew Max and his abilities like the back of his hand, who probably had been on guard for the length of Willa’s life - certain that it was only a matter of when and not if she would develop alien properties.

I straightened, feeling the whispers of a lioness brush through my soul, lifted my chin defiantly and said cooly, “Leave Willa out of this.”

Mr. Evans narrowed his eyes at us, seemingly ignoring how Willa was snaking her hand into his much larger hand by his side.

“I needed a moment before,” I said, trying to divert the situation. “I’m assuming that we should get back out there. The meeting is still running..?”

Mr. Evans didn’t blink while he met my eyes and I felt a shiver down my spine. So what if Willa had developed powers? She was off limits! I defiantly jutted my chin out further towards Max’s father, standing my ground, silently.

“Willa, let’s get back out there,” Max said, pulling at the hand interlinked with mine while he bent down slightly to put small pressure between the small shoulder blades of Willa to encourage her forward.

Mr. Evans took a step to the side, blocking the doorway. “Max.”

Max looked up at his father, while I stepped up to Max, closing the distance between our bodies.

“This is serious. If she’s developing abilities you need the help from the community. From us. You have no training in how to train her. How to help her deal with this.”

Irritation was flowing through our connection. Unclear if it was coming from me or Max.

“You leave her at daycare, correct?” Mr. Evans continued. “What if something happens there? What if she sets something on fire? If she starts lifting toys off the floor with only her mind?”

A knot was building in my stomach and I looked up at Max’s profile. At his well-chiseled jaw, tense with stubbornness. He has a point, my increasingly frightened mind whispered to Max. He flinched at my observation.

Mr. Evans noticed. If Mr. Evans had been less of a closed book, he might have donned an expression of triumph. He knew that he was getting through to us. “We have never left our children with humans, before you decided to do it with her. I have been trying to tell you this. Now it’s even more important that you listen to what I’m saying.”

“There are Antarians at the daycare,” Max answered tightly. “You know this. You placed them there yourself. If something were to happen, they would just wipe the staff’s mind anyway.”

The face of one of the women working closely with Willa, who both Willa and I loved, flashed through my mind and my heart sank at the hint of the Antarians wiping her mind.

“Let us help you, Max,” Mr. Evans said and looked to me. “Liz, don’t be stupid.”

My cheeks flushed with indignation and I swallowed dryly, “Nothing has happened. Nothing is different.” I reached down and purposefully disentangled my daughter’s hand from her grandfather’s, shifting her hold over to my hand, “Come on honey, let’s go back into the living room, okay?” I looked up Mr. Evans. “I appreciate your concern, but this is a private family matter and I’m asking you to please let us handle it on our own.”

With that, our little family unit brushed past the hardened alien, and moved back into the living room.

TBC...

[Stefuh]

Wow, I didn't think you would post this soon!!

So, Willa has powers now... I understand that Liz doesn't want her to be part of this Alien thing, and even more part of the future war, she wants to protect her at all cost... but what if she doesn't have a choice? I'm scared for all of them. I hope they'll find a solution to keep her safe. I want Phillip to back away from the situation too but he has a point...

And wow, Willa saying there were people in her room? That was scary!!

Thanks for the update!! I actually read it at work, oops! I couldn't wait!!

[max and liz believer]

Wow, I didn't think you would post this soon!!

So, Willa has powers now... I understand that Liz doesn't want her to be part of this Alien thing, and even more part of the future war, she wants to protect her at all cost... but what if she doesn't have a choice? I'm scared for all of them. I hope they'll find a solution to keep her safe. I want Phillip to back away from the situation too but he has a point...

And wow, Willa saying there were people in her room? That was scary!!

Thanks for the update!! I actually read it at work, oops! I couldn't wait!!

Stefuh, thank you so much for your feedback! Yes, it does seem as if Willa has acquired alien abilities, doesn't it? But there are no actual people in Willa's room. It was a dream… or something similar.

The next chapter is at my editor right now.

/ Jo

[max and liz believer]

Happy Saturday!

We'll get right back into it, shall we?

/ Jo


From SIXTEEN:

“This is serious. If she’s developing abilities you need the help from the community. From us. You have no training in how to train her. How to help her deal with this.”

Irritation was flowing through our connection. Unclear if it was coming from me or Max.

“You leave her at daycare, correct?” Mr. Evans continued. “What if something happens there? What if she sets something on fire? If she starts lifting toys off the floor with only her mind?”

A knot was building in my stomach and I looked up at Max’s profile. At his well-chiseled jaw, tense with stubbornness. He has a point, my increasingly frightened mind whispered to Max. He flinched at my observation.

Mr. Evans noticed. If Mr. Evans had been less of a closed book, he might have donned an expression of triumph. He knew that he was getting through to us. “We have never left our children with humans, before you decided to do it with her. I have been trying to tell you this. Now it’s even more important that you listen to what I’m saying.”

“There are Antarians at the daycare,” Max answered tightly. “You know this. You placed them there yourself. If something were to happen, they would just wipe the staff’s mind anyway.”

The face of one of the women working closely with Willa, who both Willa and I loved, flashed through my mind and my heart sank at the hint of the Antarians wiping her mind.

“Let us help you, Max,” Mr. Evans said and looked to me. “Liz, don’t be stupid.”

My cheeks flushed with indignation and I swallowed dryly, “Nothing has happened. Nothing is different.” I reached down and purposefully disentangled my daughter’s hand from her grandfather’s, shifting her hold over to my hand, “Come on honey, let’s go back into the living room, okay?” I looked up Mr. Evans. “I appreciate your concern, but this is a private family matter and I’m asking you to please let us handle it on our own.”

With that, our little family unit brushed past the hardened alien, and moved back into the living room.

____________________________________

.

SEVENTEEN

Naturally, all eyes were on us as we re-entered the living room and the meeting. The discussion that had been going on in our absence simmered down and died out with a whisper as I took a seat on the sofa, slowly placing Willa next to me, being careful to not jostle the warm cocoa she had in her hand.

I was doing my best trying to act nonchalant. As though I were completely unaware of the looks. As though I hadn’t taken notice of everyone’s auras as I entered the room. As though the different color fields and the discrepancies between them hadn’t provided me with a vast amount of information about how the meeting was going, even having missed a big part of it.

I busied myself with rearranging the skirt of Willa’s dress around her, straightening it out, making sure that she wasn’t spilling any of the hot liquid on herself, blocking my attention to the silence of the room.

It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

“So,” Max said, sitting down next to me, “Any revelations? Any strategies? Any exciting plans?”

The bitterness was clear in his voice. Both Max and I knew that we needed to participate in this. That we needed to take part of this meeting and its discussion if we were ever to have an inkling of a chance to affect its outcome. To have any say at all in our imminent future.

But that truth did not make it any less painful. We had started to settle into the routines of our regular life. We had made ourselves comfortable. Maybe even started to believe, somewhat, that the Mayor might never come back. That he had decided to stay on Antar. That he couldn’t be bothered to start a new war.

I looked up as George Evans started talking, his voice low and somber, “We were debating whether or not we should gather up all the children. To make it easier to protect them. But, we aren’t sure if the Mayor has the information that we have. If he is even aware of there being children born at the same time, with the same origins, and that this…phenomenon… might have a greater purpose-“

“- and if we were to gather the kids up, that might create a focus to something that was not a problem before,” Isabel filled in, “making it interesting.”

I lifted an eyebrow at the crowd. Were was the common sense of this group?

“Seriously? You are considering gathering all the kids? From all around the world? How? Kidnap them? Make up some story to their parents to be able to ‘borrow them’ for awhile? And how are you going to care for a bunch of 4-year-olds after that? Kids from all over the world who speak different languages? How would you comfort them when they are screaming for their parents, when they are crying for their own beds?” I sighed tiredly. “Come on. Really?”

The room was silent again. The faces of the aliens were blank. Only Maria and Isabel had the sense to look abashed.

“This is not simply military strategy, these are kids we’re talking about,” I continued and looked down at my daughter, cupping the cocoa between both of her hands and sipping the chocolate liquid in silence, “No bigger than Willa.”

“How else can we protect them?” Mr. Evans asked from behind us. “Even if the Mayor is not drawing parallels yet, he will be very soon. He will quickly realize that the kids might present a danger. A danger similar to what you and Max represent. Most of the other parents don’t know of this. Most of them don’t have any military training and none have any alien abilities. Those children will be safer with us.”

My body was heating up. I felt like I was talking to a wall. Several walls. Made out of the hardest of bricks. “I get that. But we still can’t go around stealing children. Even if our intentions are good.”

“We could put them at the Institute,” Michael grumbled with a shrug which earned a glare from both Maria and me.

“There has to be another way,” Max spoke up. “How about planting protectors around these families? Like we have? At their daycares, outside of their houses?”

“Perhaps,” George pondered.

“Are you planning to prepare these children? Involve them somehow?” I asked, fearing the answer. I felt Max’s presence acutely, his concern for our own daughter, his concern for us.

George shook his head. “Not at this point. They’re too small.”

I shivered. So their age was the only thing stopping them..?

“But we need to be prepared for the very real risk of the Mayor connecting the dots and if he does, the children are in grave danger,” George continued.

“What would he do with the children?” Maria asked, clearing her throat while she threw worried eyes in my direction. “I mean, would he use them for his own agenda? Use them in the war against the rebellion? Or would he…kill them?”

George looked sad and I put my arm around Willa, pulling her closer into my side. Desperately needing to feel her breathing, needing reassurance that she was alive. “There’s no way to know,” he answered.

“So let’s go after him,” Michael said roughly, giving Willa a long look while folding his arms even tighter against his chest. “Let’s take him out before he has the chance to touch the kids.”

I held my breath as I looked from Michael back to George. I, personally, didn’t want to go after the Mayor, but if that’s what it took to keep him from harming Willa, I would.

Count me in, Max spoke in my mind.

“Maybe…” George said fleetingly.

“We are going to discuss this with Dresden tomorrow,” Mr. Evans added.

“Why isn’t he here?” Alex wondered.

“He is otherwise engaged,” Mr. Evans said cryptically.

I sighed internally. What could be more important than this? He was the leader of the rebellion. It would be logical for him to attend the meeting that handled the matter of firing up the defenses again.

“So it’s back to training again?” I asked, leaning into the warm side of my alien life mate.

Maria snapped her head towards me and frowned, “But she can’t.” Her gaze jumping between Philip and George, she added, “Right? Last time Liz took part in a battle, she was also pregnant. That time, the battle killed the baby. The battle killed her and Max.”

“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” George said, looking at me sympathetically. “We could try and win against the Mayor with the rest of our men, but…”

“You need the connection,” Max finished.

We were back between a rock and a hard place. I could join the battle and risk my unborn baby’s life or I could abstain from joining the battle and indirectly put the life of my very much alive child seated next to me at risk.

This time we might not be as lucky. The Mayor had seen what had happened the last time we had met. When we had turned Command into ashes. The element of surprise was gone.

Last time, Command had been killed because the simultaneous death of Max and I had resulted in a power surge. That was not something we had been able to - or had needed to - repeat since then. To create that surge of energy, did we have to die - again? Or could it be learnt? Controlled?

I looked to Max next to me. He was thinking the same thing. Or maybe I was stealing his thoughts. It was difficult to tell sometimes, with the connection. Our thoughts intermingled and sometimes it was not clear where - or whom - the thought had originated from.

“Yes,” Mr. Evans answered simply.

Max sighed. “So when do we start?”

****

Max carefully lifted the sleeping Willa into the carseat and fastened the seat belt. It was later than we had intended. We needed to drive back home - to Tucson - and we usually wanted to get an earlier start than this.

Managing to close her door without waking the small girl, he got into the driver’s seat, closed his door, and fastened his own seatbelt. He stilled, looking out the windshield.

Silence enveloped us. Our emotions were thrumming through the connection, our souls tired and shaky with uncertainty.

“You’re not training with me,” Max stated quietly.

What?

I looked over at him, and said softly, to not disturb Willa, “What do you mean? There are two parts to this connection. Both parts of the connections need to participate in the training.”

Max shifted in his seat to face me. It was dark outside, discounting the patio light outside the parked car which casted shadows across the side of his face as he looked straight into my eyes. His concern and love for me was swimming all around me, “Remember what happened last time when we went into training?”

I bit my lips tightly together, and he continued before I had a chance to speak, “Because I do. You pushed yourself too hard. I pushed you too hard. Your energy ran into the ground. You even slept more than 24 hours in one go towards the end of the training. You could barely support your own weight during some of the sessions. You were exhausted.”

Feeling judged and weak, I diverted my gaze and stared out the window while folding my arms tightly across my chest to fight off the sudden chill. “There’s no way around this, Max, and you know it. I have to take part in this training. Outside of reading auras, I haven’t practiced any alien abilities in more than…” I paused. How long had it been since the battle? “…ten, eleven years. I can’t go into battle like this. I would be a risk both to myself and to you. To everyone.”

I looked over at him, “The whole reason we are powerful is the connection. Which requires both of us. You can’t train the connection on your own.”

He looked away, looking out into the darkness outside of the parked vehicle. “You’re pregnant, love. Pulling energy from your body to fuel the connection might be pulling energy from the baby. Might pull energy away from a developmental stage.”

I fisted my hands against the top of my thighs and sighed, “I was pregnant the last time too.”

Max swung his head towards me, eyes dark and fiery, “My point exactly.”

I met his eyes straight on, felt the pressure of his concern weigh heavily on my chest. Biting my lip to stop myself from saying something hasty, I forced myself to adopt a calm voice, “Max, honey, it’s not like I want to do this. I don’t want to risk the life of our unborn child. I don’t want to risk it being born with any defects because we have been pulling life force from it. But what choice do we have? We have to do this.” I bit down on my bottom lip hard enough to draw blood and pressed out through clenched teeth, “We don’t have a choice. The other choice we have is doing nothing and jeopardizing Willa’s life.”

Warm tears ran down my cheeks, which I quickly removed in irritation with the back of my hand, before adding, “I want this baby. I don’t know this baby yet, but I already love it. I don’t want any harm to come to him or her, but if I have to choose, I’m choosing the child that we already have. I’m choosing Willa. She’s here. She’s alive. She’s a little person with thoughts and dreams.”

Max reached across the gearshift and took my hand. The heat from his skin almost burnt my ice cold hand. “Honey,” he said quietly. “We shouldn’t have to choose between our children.”

“No, we shouldn’t,” I bit out - a bit too loudly - before glancing to the backseat and lowering my voice, “But it’s obviously not up to us.”

Max looked back at our daughter. At our beautiful perfect daughter. The best of the both of us. Seemingly unaware of what was happening around her (even though we had started to suspect that something extraordinary was going on with her as well). For all she knew, she was part of a perfectly normal and ordinary family. Nothing weird. Certainly nothing dangerous.

Lowering his gaze to the darkness of the floor of the car, he mumbled unseeingly, “I want to figure out if we are able to recreate the power surge. And if we can, how we can build it up and release it on demand. I don’t want you involved in that.”

My love for him prickled my heart. He was the most caring person I would ever meet. How his first instinct always would be to protect me, even if it meant that he had an extra load to shoulder. I was lucky to have him in my life.

He looked up at me, regretfully, and asked through the connection, Even though having me in your life comes with some unwanted complications?

I pulled on our connected hands, to encourage him to lean in closer. Closing the gap between our faces, I brushed my lips against his while whispering, “I would have preferred the ‘No strings attached’-version, but I would do anything to be with you. You’re the love of my life, Max Evans. You and Willa are the most important people to me. I wouldn’t trade you for anything.”

It was true. Sure, finding this type of person and this type of love with a regular guy whose biggest problems were finding the right job or saving up money for that specific car he wanted, would have been preferable. But I don’t think I would find this kind of man or this kind of love without the special circumstances. Max’s background - with its horrible connotations and experiences - had shaped him into the man he was today. That background encompassed learning to heal wounds, having to experience the pain of an injury to be able to heal it, being forced to take part in memory wipes of me when he was himself merely a kid, and the list went on and on. He had endured at least four lifetimes in his short life of 28 trips around the sun.

I knew first hand how much it pained him, how it ripped him apart, to not be able to solve a problem without having to involve someone else. Especially if there was hurt and pain involved for that someone else. He would gladly take on double the pain so that the ones he loved did not have to suffer any.

“Just give me some time, okay?” Max whispered, his voice warmed by my affectionate thoughts being broadcasted through our mental bond. He leaned in and gave me a soft slow kiss, that traveled all the way to my toes. Looking up at me through thick dark eyelashes, he added, “I will figure this out. But I can’t worry about you or the baby at the same time.”

Bringing my hand up to soften my palm against the stubble across his cheek, I nodded and agreed tenderly, “Okay.”

He visibly relaxed. The tension over the connection simmered down and his shoulders lowered from his ears as he echoed my nod. “Okay.”

“We should get going,” I said quietly. “We have about 3 hours to the hotel.”

Max sent a final look back at his sleeping daughter, squeezed my hand shortly before letting go and turned the ignition.

****

His end of the connection was quiet when he slept. If I concentrated, I could track tendrils of blurred thoughts from occasional dreams he was having, but if I didn’t there was only stillness. Even though it was a luxury to be able to be so close to someone else, to basically be inside of their mind, it was also nice to be alone with your thoughts from time to time.

Like when you had to go pee in the middle of the night because you were pregnant.

I looked up at my reflection in the hotel bathroom mirror and traced the small changes in my face. How there was dark circles under my eyes from the lack of sleep. How my cheeks were filling out more with the pregnancy, how there was a zit or two that usually weren’t there. I clearly remember a time when I fretted about my appearance. Around the time when I had first landed my eyes on Max. When I had wanted to be pretty for him. A lot of things had happened after that. Max had seen me at my absolute worst. He had even healed my skin when it had basically been melting off my body from getting burnt when I was trying to save my mom.

I knew from having a firsthand ticket to Max’s mind that none of that mattered. I could spend hours hunched over the toilet bowl throwing up, and he would still see me as the most beautiful person he had ever seen. I would probably never get used to how much he loved me. How he worshipped the ground I walked on. How he was grateful every day that I had chosen to stay with him. Especially in light of his baggage. Which was not the most pleasant, of course.

But it was us against the world. Had been from the start.

I turned off the bathroom light and moved as quietly as I could into the adjoining bedroom. My eyes fell on the double bed where Max was laying on his side, slightly snoring, his arm draped across Willa’s stomach. She was, in classic Willa style, stretched out on her back, her body angled slightly diagonally with both of her arms carelessly spread out to the sides. Her right arm was positioned over Max’s shoulder.

How such a small person could take up so much space in a bed was beyond me. I smiled to myself, wondering how many inches of the bed I would get tonight. This is why it was much better to have Willa sleep in her own bed.

I made my way over to the empty side of the bed, gently pushing on Willa’s left leg to make myself some more room, and squeezed myself into the 11 inches of mattress space that was left. As I laid down beside my daughter, she roused, turning on her side to face me.

I froze, not wanting to wake her, and waited until her breathing evened out, back into sleep. My gaze traveled across her face. Over the flawless skin of a young child, noticing the dark, long and thick eyelashes resting against the top of her cheeks. I observed her relaxed facial muscles. So peaceful. Not a single line of worry on her countenance. As it should be when you were 4.5 years old. Her lips were slightly parted and there was a soft calm sound to her exhales and inhales.

My mind wandered to her revelation that she had seen Max and I die. When she had talked about it, I had the feeling that she had been seeing the dark men - the bad aliens - for awhile now. Had she been tapping into the connection? Or had Max or I unconsciously been sharing images with her? We had never spoken to her about that day. There really was no reason to. It was not something you would tell a small child. There was too much violence, too much darkness. Max and I had never actively discussed if - or when - we would ever tell Willa, but I was more inclined to never tell her than to lay it all out for her. No matter her age.

But now it seemed as if she already knew. What else had she seen?

And how? That was my biggest worry. I needed to know how she was accessing this information. If I couldn’t figure that out, how could I prevent it? There were a lot of things I did not want my young innocent daughter to pick up from the connection, from the stored memories of Max and I. Like how her parents were tortured at the hands of Command and the Sergeant. Or how Sean had not only continuously humiliated and threatened me, but almost raped me.

Additionally, being a mother, I was not particularly happy about Willa possibly being able to access her parents’ lovemaking sessions. I shuddered. That’s not something you want to share with your child.

I reached out and carefully lifted a tendril of her dark hair away from her eye.

She needed to be protected. Her world, as she knew it, should be kept intact. She should not be exposed to horrible grown-up matters.

Both George and Philip had likened the connection to an entity. Not necessarily a sentient entity, but a phenomenon that could react instinctively. Acting in the interest of propagating parims and promoting the survival of Max and I against evil. Couldn’t it sort out what facts or memories are spilling out to someone close to us? Shouldn’t it be able to block certain parts of the connection from eavesdropping?

Sean hadn’t been able to access my mind when I had been connected to Max. Whenever we had been connected, both of our minds had been closed off to any other alien attempt at approaching our minds. How could our daughter get in there? Did she have the same energy stamp as Max and I or something? Because she was made from both of us?

I jumped as I felt Max’s fingers against my hand, his mental voice bemused and sleepy across the connection, Babe, please try to get some sleep. You’re getting yourself worked up. We’ll talk about this in the morning.

I felt stupid for having woken him up. He had a long drive tomorrow and needed to get back to work immediately when we arrived home. He needed his sleep.

It’s okay, Max interrupted my lamentation. This is worrying me too. But we won’t get any answers tonight. We need to ask Willa more questions. Which we can’t do until tomorrow. Try and get some sleep.

I love you, I whispered across the bond, interlacing my fingers with his.

He returned the squeeze. I love you.

Next he curled his arm tighter across his daughter’s body and pulled her closer to himself, leaving more room for me to lie down. I shot him a smile of gratitude and crawled down under the comforter. As soon as I had nestled into my position, his arm bridged Willa and came to rest on my shoulder. My own hand drifted to my lower abdomen, to include the fourth family member in the protective cocoon, before sleep claimed me.


TBC...