Hey y'all! Thanks to
roswellluver, Breathless, and I am a dreamer for leaving fb. As to your questions:
1. No one saw Liz use her powers (everyone but the two men with the gun were on the ground, and those two happened to be a bit busy at the time)
2. I'm gonna explain why Max felt a sense of loss, simply because I'm not sure yet if the characters will realize that it happened. When F. Liz came back, she brought her connection to Max with her. Max's end of the connection was also opened, because the timelines hadn't changed yet, (if you want me to get all technical as to how this happens, well that's just too bad
) As soon as she came back, it opened from his end, so not only was Liz connected to Max, he was connected to her.
This is why Max was able to receive flashes from Liz, because a connection had already been established. After Liz changed everything by not getting shot, his connection to her faded, just like F.Max had done. Liz still retained her connection because she
was Future Liz. Max felt the loss of the connection, knew he was missing something, but didn't know what.
3.
I am a dreamer, you're right, it could be 100 times better or 100 times worse. But, don't lose hope yet about the other couples! You never know... and as the saying goes, "the more things change, the more things stay the same...."
4. No one asked about this yet, but you might wonder about it in the future. Sometimes one of the characters might get a feeling, an impression, or a flash, about the other timeline, like Max did in Las Vegas. The reason for this is that though the other timeline disappeared, because it had existed at one time, echoes of that time can be felt in the present.
Hopefully I answered a few questions and allayed a few fears!
I hope you like this new part! Let me know what you think.
Part 3
Swish shh, Swish shh The mop glided back and forth over the same spot on the floor in a steady rhythmic motion. Back and forth, back and forth, never slowing.
By this time it was almost dark outside, and only the faintest rays of the sun’s light could be seen across the horizon. The tables had been cleaned, the chairs put up, all the plaster had been swept from the floor, and all that was left to do was mop.
Swish shh, Swish shh Liz didn’t ever want to stop mopping. Not that she was generally all that fond of the task, but today she was grateful for it. If she kept herself moving, then maybe she wouldn’t have to think about everything. It was why she had insisted that she lock up, even though her dad was hesitant, worried about whether or not Liz was really all right.
It was almost laughable really. She had insisted that she was fine, perfectly ok, when in reality, nothing would ever be ok again.
She had so many things to deal with already, even after the gunshot. Soon after it had gone off, someone must have called the police, because in strolled Sheriff Valenti. She had wanted to run up to him and hug him, and just ask him to make everything better. At some point along the way, he had become a father figure to the group, someone they always knew was there and could depend on. She had missed him... Oh, she had missed everyone! Suddenly she had felt this great need to go find every single one of their group and just hug them like there was no tomorrow. Because for her, there hadn’t been.
She didn’t though. For one, Maria was busy giving a detailed description of the men that had fought in the Crashdown, and the police officer seemed highly appreciative of her cartoon comparison. Besides, she could run up to Maria later, without making a scene.
Secondly, and most importantly, she realized that this Jim Valenti was not the same man that she had befriended. Unlike last time, he didn’t suspect anything “other worldly” had occurred here, but he was still the potential antagonist to the aliens. He still would go after the truth, should he ever begin to suspect it, with an alarming tenacity that could ruin everything. He still hated the word “alien” with every fiber of his being, and was consumed by it and the fact that his father’s obsession ruined his life. Though he was concerned for her, seeing as she was his son’s girlfriend (and she would have to remedy that soon, she supposed) something was bothering him about what happened. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he sensed, rather than knew, something was amiss.
She had known all of this to be true because she felt it.
She hadn’t even realized that her powers were blocked until they were unblocked. Or that she even still
had powers. When she was unable to feel the emotions of the people in the Crashdown, she had assumed it was because she was in her 16 year old body,
before Max Evans had saved her life and changed her.
Apparently, though, not only did this 16 year old Liz receive all of the memories of the alternate future, she also got her powers.
Wonderful.
Of course, as soon as she had thought that, she changed her mind. It
was wonderful, she thought, and not in a sarcastic way like before. Because it was necessary. Without her powers, she wouldn’t have been able to deflect the gun, and then she probably would have been shot, and it would have been all for naught.
Besides, to be honest, she didn’t want to live without her powers. Yes, it would make things more difficult, but she had grown accustomed to having powers. And, it was all she had left of Max.
Max. It was her love for him, and her desire to keep him and everyone else safe that finally unlocked her powers. It was his name that opened the floodgate, which had been shut after she had come back here in time.
And as soon as it opened, the first person she felt was Max. He had been scared, but not for himself. For her. His first concern was always for her. She felt his love for her, and it amazed her still that he could love her so much, especially since she knew that he believed she would never love him back.
The emotions of other people had slowly filtered in. Maria’s confusion, and worry for her, the gunmen’s sense of panic, and the general hysteria that filled the air. But she had blocked all of these out, and focused only on her connection to Max, which was still there, burning brightly. It had been there before, even when her powers were blocked. It was why she was able to receive the flashes from him, but she didn’t realize at the time what it could mean.
She had been puzzled at Max’s sense of pain and loss as he left the Crashdown. Could he possibly feel what he missed, all that could have developed had it not been for the absence of one bullet wound? She didn’t know, but she knew that it didn’t matter now anyway. What was done was done and it was for the best.
Valenti had finished questioning them, and her dad told them that he was going to close the diner early. Liz had offered to close up, and she felt his surprise and relief when she hugged him tightly before he left the room.
And so, now, she was mopping.
And trying desperately not to let everything come crashing down on her, at least not until she reached the safety of her room.
She suddenly thought of Atlas, the man that was pictured carrying the world on his shoulders, for all of time. She could definitely empathize. She was carrying the weight of the world on her own shoulders right now, and it felt so heavy.
So heavy.
She would have to live with this knowledge, with her memories from what was and what could never be. She had never planned on sticking around past the shooting. She was going to disappear the way Future Max did, into the oblivion. She didn’t care, was looking forward to it actually. Living without all of her friends, living without Max, knowing what she knew, would be too painful.
But apparently, she was stuck here, having to relive her life twice. Living with her other memories, would be difficult, to say the least. It was hard to sort out her memories actually. She had
two memories of yesterday.
One was of war and pain and blood, the smell of burning hair, smoke and death, and a hole being burned in Maria’s chest as Liz screamed and ran towards her, too late.
The other was of school yesterday, the classes she had, the assignments she had been given, and every single trivial conversation she had participated in.
And there was going to be two sets of memories for tomorrow too. One of Liz finding out that Max was an alien, and that he loved her. The other memory had yet to be created.
This was her burden. Knowing what she knew, keeping secrets from her friends. About the future, about her powers, about everything. She was used to keeping secrets, but she almost always had someone to share them with. The 8 of them, Max, Liz, Maria, Michael, Isabel, Alex, Kyle, the Sheriff... they had known a secret, about past lives and certain Czechs, and it had made them stronger. But to be the only one to know something of this magnitude... it would be worse than when she had to keep Future Max a secret. That was only one secret, and honestly, a small part of her had continued to believe that it would one day be out in the open, and she and Max would be together and everything would be perfect, end of the world be damned.
This time, she was barely friends with Max. She didn’t even have his friendship to depend on. And she knew that keeping this many secrets from Maria and Alex would be hard, so much harder than the first time she tried this.
She would be isolated. She would miss how much closer she, Maria, and Alex had become after they had been inducted into the I-know-an-alien club. She would miss Kyle and his Buddhist jokes, and Sheriff Valenti’s quiet support. She would miss Isabel, and even Michael, because she had come to respect and love both of them, and she knew that they had felt the same.
And she would miss Max. More than anything in the entire present, past, or the many different Futures, she would miss Max. She wouldn’t get to have their first date at the Chinese restaurant again. In this time, they would never hang out in the eraser room, he would never climb up onto her balcony, they would never kiss, never get married, never make love. They would never dance to I Shall Believe at their wedding. She would miss his kisses, his touch, and his special smile, the one he saved just for her. She would miss their late night conversations, the things that they shared and had made them laugh, and the way he made her feel safe and protected. She would miss their friendship.
She would miss
Max.
And with that thought, she gave in, succumbing to the pain. She dropped the mop to the floor, and sank to her hands and knees, releasing heart-wrenching sobs that came from the very depths of her soul. She cried for what had been and for what couldn’t be, and what was now. She cried for everyone who had died, and for everyone who now lived. She cried for the things she had experienced and hoped to never experience again. She cried for the Max who had died in her arms, and the Max who lived now and would never be in her arms again. Lastly, she cried for herself, and for everything she has had to and will continue to have to endure.
She remained that way, sobbing on the Crashdown floor, for a very long time.
*~*
I'll have a new part for you on Wednesday...
But it had to be done. Let me know what you think, and feel free to bash the part if you want 
