Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Roswell, so please don’t sue although I wouldn’t object to keeping Colin, Nick, Jason, and Brendan.
Summary: Look at chapter 1 for a more detail summary.
AN: Thanks for reading everyone and hugs for everyone leaving feedback. I’ve been fighting with this chapter for weeks now and it finally came together. We’re finally at the climax of the story, and I don’t think there’s many chapters left before the conclusion. I know that there are still a lot of questions to be answered and starting with this chapter you will find out the answers. Also, I’ve promised several people that I wasn’t killing anyone in this chapter, but from here on out if someone dies then there’s no bringing them back. Enjoy and send all complaints to camsmusesucks@muses.com.
Dedication: A special shout out to Pooh for her ultra cool videos which inspired my muse to get to writing. Thanks girl! Also thanks to Mary for the constant encouragement *cough harassment cough* to get this part done. Another shout out to Lisa for letting bounce ideas off her and letting me know what worked and what didn’t. Also thanks to Ed for the chats and the weird ass dances. LOL Love you guys. *hugs*
AN2: Chapter 8 was so long that it has now been split into two chapters.
Songs: Breathe No More by Evanescence. Here without you by 3 Doors Down. Bring Me to Life by Evanescence.
Chapter 8: Breathe No More
Roswell, New Mexico 2001
Lightning flashed across the sky as rain poured on those unfortunate enough to be standing out there. Thunder could be heard rumbling in the background. Everyone looked on as the two young women continued staring at each other. The younger of the two had chin length black hair and gray eyes. She wore dark blue jeans with combat boots and a white cashmere sweater that was covered by a long black leather jacket. The other woman was a few years older with long black hair and gray eyes, and she wore a long black gown with black heels, a silver bracelet with a moon charm dangled from her right wrist.
“I don’t understand how you ended up with Khivar,” Serena said.
“Well, it’s really simple. My parents died when I was an infant. Khivar raised me and the rest is history. Now, back to the reason why we’re here. I want the location of the granolith and I want it now, otherwise everyone dies a painful death,” the younger version of Serena said matter-of-factly.
Raising an eyebrow in disbelief at her younger self, Serena answered, “You already know my answer, but just in case you don’t, the answer is no. Also, what do you mean my parents are dead?”
“What part of ‘my parents are dead’ did you not understand? They died in a skirmish back on the home world, and Khivar was kind enough to adopt me. Now back to the killing-you-and-your-friends part of this little gathering.”
Max dropped his shield so the others could hear more about what was going on, and hearing the question concerning the granolith he stepped up and looked the young woman in the eyes and replied, “No deal. I already told that to Nicholas when I was at the summit and the answer stays the same.”
“Yeah well, Nicholas is an idiot and you’re dealing with me now. The offer on the table is very simple: you all get to leave here alive and walking on your own two feet, and the granolith is passed into our keeping. See, this is a deal of a lifetime and everyone gets to win,” she tells him.
“The granolith will remain in our possession, and no one is getting hurt here,” Max told her.
“You know I was told that you were a weaker version of your former self, Zan of Antar. Strange how you seem to be nothing like that, but I guess my informant was wrong,” she said while looking pointedly at Nicholas.
Turning back to look at Max, the two stared at each other, willing the other to break eye contact first.
“You know, this is really weird. I mean some weird things have happened in the past two years, but this tops it all. What do we call them, Serena 1 and Serena 2?” Alex asked, breaking the tension.
“Hmm, that might work, but I was thinking old Serena and young Serena,” Kyle told him.
“There’s so many possibilities… I mean, we can call them good Serena or evil Serena,” Alex told him.
“Alex, behave,” Isabel scolded him.
Seeing Isabel scold at Alex, Kyle snorted, “Well, we know who wears the pants in that relationship.”
Tess elbowed Kyle in the side and told him, “Don’t make me zap you with my voodoo powers.”
He rubbed his side trying to look hurt while Alex snickered at him, “How’s that dress feeling right now?”
Tess and Isabel said together, “Behave.”
“I think Alex’s is right. I don’t mean about the names, but how is it possible that two of the same person can exist in one timeline? It goes against the laws of physics that they’re both standing right here without any consequences,” Liz said.
“Nothing is impossible. It’s really quite simple, but I doubt your little primate brain can handle it. Humans,” Khivar sneered.
“Liz Parker is one of the smartest people I know, and she has more intelligence in her little pinkie than you have in your whole brain,” Tess said angrily.
“Well, look at this. The little queen is protecting her husband’s mistress. If only your subjects could see you now. Look at the four of you, so content with your humans and your boring life. It makes me sick that there are people fighting back home for you, but that situation will soon be fixed.”
Before anyone could say anything, the young woman with the chin length hair interrupted, “Excuse me, can we get back to the situation at hand? Yeah, that’s right, all eyes back this way so I can explain what’s going on. Speaking of which, you can call me by my middle name, Josephine, as you seem to be having a problem with the whole name thing. Now, back to why we’re here. It’s plain and simple really. You have something that my father wants and you’re going to give it to him. Give us the location of the granolith and you can all go free without blood being shed,” Josephine told them.
“The granolith will remain in our possession,” Max told her.
Sighing, Josephine said, “Well, I guess you leave me with no choice.”
She looked at Sebastian and gave him a small nod before turning back to face Max. Before anyone could move she pulled out a dagger and sunk it in Max’s chest while at the same time Sebastian raised his hand releasing a blast at Michael. Everyone could only watch in horror as Max and Michael both slummed to the ground.
“No…,” the girls screamed together. Maria ran to check on Michael as Liz and Isabel moved to Max. Serena, still in shock, could only watch as Tess threw up a shield protecting everyone. Quickly snapping out of it, Serena joined Tess and raised her hand to help enforce the shield. Looking at her younger self, she asked in anguish, “How could you do that? I can’t believe you did that. Doesn’t anything matter to you at all?”
“I guess you underestimated my determination to obtain the granolith. Now hand over the granolith and I’ll think about using it to heal your little king there, and if you do it quickly then maybe I’ll heal the second as well,” Josephine told her.
“No.”
“Well that little shield isn’t going to hold up forever, especially when we all throw our energy at it.”
While Serena argued with her younger self, the others were trying to help Michael and Max. Liz and Isabel with Alex’s help were working on Max’s wounds as the sheriff and Kyle were helping Maria trying to wake up Michael.
“Michael, you’re going have to wake up now. We need you to help kick evil alien butt, so wake up. Please don’t leave me, Spaceboy,” Maria sobbed as she squeezed his hand.
“It’s going to be okay Maria, we just have to figure out how to wake him up,” Valenti told her.
Nodding her head, she wiped her tears away and told him, “Maybe you should go see if you can help Liz with Max.”
He stood up and told Kyle, “See if you can reach Michael.”
Kyle nodded as his father went over to check on the situation with Max and the girls. “Well, Michael, you better wake up now because we’re in one hell of a situation. El Presidente is out and right now we could definitely use your help. Plus, if you die on me who am I going to play poker with on Wednesdays? I mean, I can only win so much of Alex’s money before it gets old, so you’re going have to wake up, man.” Not knowing what else to say, he gathered Maria in his arms as the two tried to deal with what was going on.
Sheriff Valenti moved over to where Liz, Isabel, and Alex were working on Max’s wounds. He bent down and nodded his approval of the bandage that had obviously been made out of Alex’s shirt as his shirt was half-missing. “How is he?” he asked Liz.
Pushing a few strands of hair away from her face, she told him, “I’m not sure. We stopped the blood from flowing anymore, but he’s not waking up at all. For all we know he could have lost too much blood and be gradually slipping into a coma. I just don’t know.”
“You ladies and Mr. Whitman did a great job of stopping the blood. Now we need to get out of here, but right now we don’t have much reinforcement. Isabel, can you go check on Michael and see if you can wake him up?”
“Oh god, I hope Michael is doing better than Max. I can’t lose both of them, they’re the only family I have,” Isabel sobbed.
“Hey, we’re all going to live to fight another day, and don’t forget that we’re all family,” Alex told her as he drew her into his arms.
Sniffing she stood up and wiped her tears away. “Let’s go check on Michael. Hopefully I can wake him up, and maybe we can all use our energies to heal Max.”
She turned and walked over to where Michael lay. Alex got up and nodded at the sheriff, and asked Liz, “Are you going to be okay if I go check on Michael with Iz?”
Liz smiled at her friend and nodded that it was okay. Searching her eyes to see if she would be okay he told her, “Yell if you need me.” He walked to over to the others to check on their fallen friend.
With Alex’s eyes no longer on her, Liz stopped smiling and looked back down at Max sadly. She reached out and touched his face gently as if she was afraid that he would disappear if she wasn’t careful. ‘Why did this happen to us? Everything was going okay and now look at us. You could be dying and there’s nothing that I can do. I wish I had some type of powers to heal you as you once healed me.’
Her thoughts were interrupted by Valenti speaking. “It’s going to be okay. I know that you’ve heard that several times, but we’ve been through worse and we got through it. Now I don’t know how much longer Tess will be able to hold up that force shield, so we need a plan and we need it now.”
Liz grabbed hold of Max’s hand and turned back to face Valenti as she resolved to figure out a way to save them all.
***
Meanwhile…
Tess tried to concentrate on holding up the shield, all the while her heart screaming that she had to go check on her friends to see if she could help, but she knew that she was better help to everyone standing right where she was.
Suddenly, a voice whispered seductively in her mind, ‘You’re on the wrong side. You’re a queen of a whole alien race, and look at what you’ve been reduced to. You’ve been replaced by another, rather, a lower being on the food chain, a human. You can do better than this.’
She told the voice, ‘Get out of my mind. You don’t know what you’re talking about.’
The voice answered, ‘You were stronger in the last timeline. You had no scruples about taking what you wanted.’ Images flashed in her mind, images of her with Max, her killing Alex, telling Max of her betrayal, meeting Khivar, giving birth to Max’s son, and finally her death.
She shook her head in denial and screamed in her mind, ‘No, that wasn’t me. You’re lying because I wouldn’t do anything like that, and Alex is my best friend besides Kyle.’
‘Best friends huh? He couldn’t have known what you did to him in the last time line,’ the voice sneered. Images of Alex dead and Kyle carrying him at her command flashed in her mind. ‘Join us and give us the location of the granolith and you will be restored to the life you were accustomed to.’
She yelled at the voice, ‘Go to hell.’
The voice was harsher now as it told her, ‘Fine, then die with the rest of them.’
Pain filled her head as she felt the presence in her mind do damage to her brain cells. She screamed as the pain became unbearable and she passed out as the pain increased. As she passed out the shield that she had been holding up was no more, as it winked out of existence. The others looked in shock at the sight Tess screaming and finally passing out. Kyle and Valenti moved away from the others to check on Tess and they tried to wake her up.
Serena saw Khivar smirking and asked coldly, “What did you do to her? You’re a monster who should be put of his misery once and for all.”
Khivar raised a brow and said politely, “My dear, I assure you that I was doing you a favor by killing her. I mean in the last timeline she betrayed you all, and you wouldn’t want to keep a snake like that in your little circle, now would you? Besides, I think it’s justice that the little bitch died from brain damage when she did the exact same thing to Mr. Whitman there.”
Serena looked at him in disbelief and said angrily, “I find that funny coming from you. You, who slaughter thousands of people just to feed your ego to become king of Antar. How dare you speak of justice after everything that you’ve done? You killed my family and friends with your madness in obtaining the granolith, and then you tried to kill me. Well, I’m here to tell you that I won’t give up until you’re dead and I can dance on your grave.”
“While that may be your fondest wish, it won’t be happening today as you seem to be forgetting that you’re outnumbered. You have no one left to help you except Vilandra there, but she won’t help you. She wouldn’t dare trying to kill the father of her son now would she?” he smirked at her.
Isabel gasped as the words ‘the father of her son’ sunk in. “I don’t have a son or any children. What are you talking about?” she asked him.
He smiled at her and replied, “Why I’m talking about our son that we made together so many years ago. I’m a little disappointed that you could forget the special moment that we created our son. Well, that’s okay we can make new memories, but my dear, how could you forget Sebastian, our son?”
She looked at the younger man beside him and took in the blonde hair, green eyes that he got courtesy of his father and she tried to see if something of who she had been was in him. Sebastian smiled at her and said, “Hello Mother. I’m glad that Father finally decided to tell you who I am, and I hope that you will join us.”
“I don’t understand how this is possible. I don’t understand how you can be my son when you look to be the same age as me,” Isabel said.
Khivar sighed and told her impatiently, “We can discuss all that when you join us and hand over the granolith.”
Shaking her head she told him, “I’m sorry, but the answer is no.”
“No?! What do you mean no? Apparently you don’t understand the situation here anymore than your brother did, but I see that I’m going have to use the same tactics Josephine used on him to persuade you.”
Before anyone could do or say anything, another silver light covered them all and they looked in amazement at the sight of a portal opening up right next to them. A tall man with black hair and purple eyes stepped out of the portal. Serena gasped as she recognized him as her protector. ‘It can’t be possible that it’s Steven coming through a portal. There’s no way for him to get a portal unless a god or goddess opened one for him. This could be another trap,’ she thought to herself.
As if reading her mind, he told her “Pooh bear.” Seeing the confused look on her face, he explained, “I bought you a Pooh bear for your fifth birthday and even when you got older you kept him on your bed. I figured that you would know it was me if I told you that.”
“Steven, it is you! How in the world did you end up here, and I don’t understand how you remember something from another lifetime,” she told him.
“Well let’s just say I had some help in remembering things, but I’m here to get you all out of here.”
Hearing a clapping noise, the two turned to see Khivar sneering at them. “Really, this is touching in all, but you forgot one thing. You’re still outnumbered, and as it looks like no one wants to tell me where the granolith is, I’ll just have to torture the location out of you.” He turned to those behind them and instructed them, “Kill them all except Vilandra. I’m sure I can persuade her to see my way of thinking once we have had some time alone.”
Steven raised his hand and sent enough energy towards them to knock them to the ground. Throwing more energy blasts at them, he shouted to Serena and the others, “You have to go through the portal now. Go, and I will take care of them.”
Everyone nodded as they helped pick up Max, Michael, and Tess and started heading towards the portal. Khivar screamed in rage as he saw them getting away, and he ordered Sebastian and Josephine to take Steven down once and for all. Serena, hearing Khivar’s orders, moved to stand next to her old friend and started throwing what little energy she had left at them.
Isabel stopped as she got to the portal and kissed Alex on the cheek, telling him, “I can’t leave them behind to protect us by themselves. I have to help them.”
“Okay, but be careful Iz, and I’ll see you see,” he ordered her.
Nodding, she pushed him into the portal and hurried to help Steven and Serena. The three combined their powers and threw them at the advancing Skins: Sebastian, Josephine, and Nicholas. The combined power threw their enemies away from them and the three hurried to the closing portal. The portal closed behind them before anyone could stop them from getting through it.
Khivar looked around at all before him and said sarcastically, “Well isn’t this peachy. I want them found now and anymore disappointments will result in some unfortunate deaths. Do I make myself clear?”
All everyone could do was answer in the affirmative as they slowly got up and prepared to head back to base.
TBC
A special shoutout to my partner in crime Mary. Thanks again to Pooh for the inspiration as well. Well we're geting closer and closer that ending. *sigh* I'm writing Chapter 10 now and all of your questions will be answered..from Sebastian's birth to what happened in that last timeline. Song below is "Here without you" by 3 Doors Down.