Behrstars & Timelord31, thanks for the feedback, its nice to know that you like the story.
Lizfan31 – that’s exactly what I was thinking. He seemed like such an under developed character too. I thought they could have done a lot more with him in the story lines. He's going to be getting a full workout in this story! 
Sorry Begonia9508 – wrong on both counts, but all is about to be revealed. 
Hopefully this part is going to answer some questions – where has Nasado been, just who is Serena and why is Cal quite so bitter?
Some dialogue used is taken from the episode Convention.
Part Three – Dead Man Walking
UFO Convention, Day 2
Standing outside of the UFO Centre Max was waiting patiently by Milton, fulfilling his role as fetcher and carrier for their resident celebrity, Jonathan Frakes, whilst enjoying the chance to be out in the fresh air. Milton fussed and flapped around Frakes, posing for the camera, but Max was more interest in the possibility of catching a glimpse of Liz across the road in the Crashdown where she was working as usual.
Max regretted having brushed her off yesterday when she had tried to talk to him about Larry and Jen, and hadn’t had another opportunity to spend any time around her because of work. He always liked to be able to see her at least every day, finding her company soothing, even if they didn’t get a chance to speak. In truth he was struggling since he had told her that they needed to take a step back and slow down their relationship. He knew that he had hurt her, and was unsure how to move things forward past the emotional road block of his own making which stood in their way.
He could see Liz inside the Crashdown moving around, but she did not come outside, and his attention was drawn away from Liz spotting by Milton, and the thrusting of a coat into his arms.
“This is truly an honour, Mr. Frakes. Our collection will be unparalleled.” Milton twittered, indicating the drying cement.
“Really. Who else have you got?“
“Actually, you're our first. Our very own number one, if you know what I mean. But with Stewart and Shatner and Nimoy, there's no question it's going to be big. Really big.”
“Yeah.”
“Here we go.”
“Here we go.”
“Ahh!” Frakes lean down, palms downwards towards the wet cement, and then he was suddenly engulfed up to his elbows.
“Oh, Evans! Evans! Oh, no problem. No problem.”
Max helped to pull Mr Frakes back to his feet by his elbow. Once back safely in a vertical position, Milton once again began to flutter around him, making apologies.
The crowd had laughed good naturedly, and more camera bulbs flashed to capture the moment, but people were beginning to drift away as Milton shepherded Frakes back inside. Max took a couple of minutes to enjoy the sun on his face before he had to return inside to the artificially lit gloom of the museum. To his left a cell phone began ringing playing the X Files tune, and Max caught the gaze of the cell phone owner who seemed to study him for several seconds, before switching off the phone and walking away down the street. Thinking nothing of the encounter, Max looked across to the Crashdown again, before turning to go back inside the UFO centre to finish his shift.
At the sheriff’s station Hubble was once again trying to get information out of Sheriff Valenti about Max Evans, but he was coming up against Jim Valenti Jnr’s hostility towards him. He continued flipping his photographs of murder victims down in front of the sheriff one after another for increased emphasis.
“Thanks for hearing me out, Jimmy. This guy's been leaving carnage all over the southwest for the past 40 years. No reason to believe he's about to stop. Handprints are the only trail he leaves. It only lasts for a day or so, and then it disappears, so I'm always around with a camera.”
“Where'd you get these? “ The pictures were disturbing, but Jim still couldn’t quite get past his sense that Hubble had his own agenda in showing him the victims.
“I know you've been investigating, but you're a weekend enthusiast. It's been full-time for me. One of them's my own work. The girl... “
“Who is she?”
“It's not important. The others I procured. Like I said, I have connections.”
Hubble’s reaction to his question was too quick, his expression suddenly raw. Clearly the picture of the woman had special significance for him.
“Who are they?”
“The victims? They're just people. People with bad luck. In the wrong place at the wrong time. Jimmy...your father may have made a mistake that night....pulled the trigger on the wrong man...but he wasn't crazy. You already know that, don't you? You knew that when I showed up here. It was in your eyes. All your father wanted to do was to help this world out. And they hung him on a cross for it. This isn't just some happy-go-lucky alien we're lookin' at. This is a killer, Jimmy.
If you know something about it, it's our duty to team together now...do something. What about this kid? Max Evans. Does he have something to do with all this? “
Jim hesitated, not sure if he was doing the right thing confiding in Hubble at all. He decided in the end to hedge his bets with a view to investigating what they had discussed after Hubble left, particularly the picture of the young woman. There was something more going on here than Hubble was letting on, and he wanted to understand the full story and the destructive effect that it had had on his own family.
“Maybe.”
Perhaps with some hard facts he might be able to coax reality out of the mind of a lost old man, and find the answers to questions that had coloured his life for more years than he wanted to remember.
Inside the UFO centre, Michael approach Max, his expression frustrated. “Maxwell, you gotta show me the real guys. “
“The real guys?”
“I'm sick and tired of talking to all these frauds. I mean, you're on the inside. Where are the real guys? “
Max knew that Michael had viewed the Convention as a potential source of information about Nasado, but that he had been unsuccessful in finding anything that he deemed useful. In the main, this had relieved Max. If they were going to find out anything about Nasado, Max wasn’t sure that Michael was the best one to find it out first. He wasn’t completely sure that he could trust him to wait to tell the rest of them before heading out on his own and getting into god knows what sort of trouble in the bargain. Hooking him up with the ‘real guys’ was the last thing that he wanted to encourage.
He noticed Everett Hubble again, hanging around one of the exhibits. He couldn’t quite put his finger on his reasoning, but he was the one guy that he wanted Michael to stay away from the most.
“Michael, there are no real guys. It's a freak show.”
But Michael was quicker on the uptake than Max gave him credit, and had noticed the way his friend had turned to Hubble briefly.
“Who's that?”
Max replied a little too quickly, “Nobody.”
“Come on, Max, don't toy with me.” The subject was suddenly dropped when Michael noticed Larry. “Oh...there's the geek from the Crashdown that day.”
“I know. He's been hanging around. I'm sure he's just here for the convention.” That had not been Liz’s opinion, but Max chose not to share that information with Michael. He was too pumped up about Nasado without being given another excuse to over react about the possibly innocent arrival of Larry and Jen.
Ordinarily Max would have discussed the subject in depth with Liz, but with communications between them at the moment being strained, at best, he had been without that support. He missed her quiet, sensible ability to listen to his concerns, and her talent for clear thinking, and logical solutions. But for now he was on his own handling Michael, and had to make decisions based on his own instincts.
“I'm gonna go keep and eye on him, all right?”
Michael headed off, and Max was left looking at Hubble. Hubble made him uncomfortable, and he would have happily left him to his own devices, but Milton had tasked him with trying to persuade Hubble to take part in a discussion group, so he owed it to Milton to at least try.
“Excuse me, Mr. Hubble? About the...the final roundtable on this afternoon.……”
Despite Maria’s suggestion that she could have Larry barred from the Crashdown if he caused her a problem, Liz had been pleasantly surprised when he hadn’t returned. She concluded that he was frightened in case Maria attempted actually bodily harm on him again with some other food or kitchen implement. Instead, Jen had spent so much time there that she was virtually taking root.
In fact, Liz and Jen had unexpectedly sprung up a fledgling friendship, bonding over a problem that was universal to most women. Man issues.
“I love Larry. That's the problem. He proposed a year ago. We bought a van to drive to California to get married. It was only supposed to be a 2 week trip. And then we stopped in here for breakfast that day. And we've been on the road ever since.”
“No marriage license?” Liz asked sympathetically.
“You know how guys get hooked on things? So obsessed with something, they forget about you?”
“Yeah.” Like anonymous forth aliens and losing their ‘balance’.
Maria passed by them with drinks for another table, and snorted her agreement to Jen’s statement. “Like when they need to be a ‘stone wall’.”
Jen didn’t understand Maria’s comment, but Liz understood what she was saying about Michael.
“Larry's been chasing UFOs ever since that day. In the beginning I was kind of into it...but now I'm tired of adventure. I just want to settle down. I really want a normal guy.”
“I can understand that. “
“You got one, too, huh? A unique boyfriend?”
“Unique? Yeah, that's a good word for Max.”
“Max?” Liz looked up, doing a good impression of a rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.
“Ehh, yes, Max. His unique ability is for the on, then off, then on again relationship.” Except they hadn’t quite reach ‘on again’ yet. She deliver that little white lie with a small smile, and Jen seemed to take the comment at face value, not pursuing the subject of Max further.
Over at the UFO Centre, Michael had tailed Larry to the panel discussion group. Elsewhere in the room Serena and Cal had separately tailed Hubble to the same discussion group via the Sheriffs office. Both had witnessed Sheriff Valenti leave his office after the meeting obviously in a hurry.
Michael stood beside Max on the sidelines as various people came forward and recounted tales of alien encounters. Neither were really paying proper attention to the discussion. Max was still ruminating on his stalled relationship with Liz, whilst Michael was more interest in keeping an eye on Larry.
Cal was studying the body language of the two teenagers, and was surprised to find that it was Michael who was paying attention to the room, most specifically to Larry. Max just seemed to be day dreaming. Probably about the lovely Liz, Cal concluded annoyed and feeling like he was wasting his time being in this god-forsaken town at all.
However, Max, Michael and Serena all paid the same attention when Larry came forward to talk to the panel.
“Good afternoon, Lawrence. Do you mind if I call you Larry?”
“No, that would be great. First of all, Mr. Frakes, I just gotta say that...you know how some people say that Clapton is god, you know? But I say you. You are god. I mean, I got...I got goose bumps. “
“Thank you very much.”
“It's gotta be Frakes!”
Serena rolled her eyes heavenward. He was a Trekky, what were the odds?
“Ok, let's go to your encounter.”
Cal straightened up where he stood considering that this could almost be funny if it wasn’t so serious, particularly with Hubble in the room.
“Yeah, right. Ok. Um...it happened right here...right in Roswell, New Mexico. September 17th. I was in the Crashdown Cafe. Now, that's right across the street. So I'm sitting there. 2 guys come in.”
Michael looked to Max, hoping for some hint of what to do, but Max looked blankly back at him, leaving Michael, in Michael’s opinion, with no option other than to take control of the situation. Despite Max’s attempt to pull him back he began moving towards Larry.
From Serena’s point of view, watching Michael moving towards the small man with the big mouth, she was waiting for disaster to happen. She was annoyed with Michael because Max had clearly tried to rein him in and failed. The boy just had not idea about being subtle.
Cal perspective was quite the opposite. He had always liked the former General, considering him to be a man of action, and that trait seemed to still be with him as he put his hand on Larry’s shoulder producing a short burst of power. Cal was contrasting Michael’s action, to Max’s indecision, and as usual, found Max’s actions, or rather lack of action to be wanting.
“Boom! They start having an argument. Boom! A gun is pulled.”
Michael made it look like he had bumped into Larry by accident, and apologised to underline the point before walking away. “Sorry.”
“Oh...no, that's ok. So these 2 guys, they start to...ahh...they start to struggle, ok? Boom! A girl is shot. Boom! A seemingly normal teenage boy...now this teenage boy, Mr. Frakes, is someone who looks just like you and me. Boom! He goes up to the girl and puts his hand over her, uh, wound, and then, boom! She...uh...she's miraculously healed.”
“Ooh! Well, all I can say is, boom! What do you think? “
One of the panel members spoke as Larry began to frantically itch at his skin like he was a lunatic.
“I'm insulted by this ridiculous story. “
“Yeah, well, he is here. He is right here! Ok? Pal? He's right here. Right now! He's in the very audience!“ Larry’s frantic scratching and more frantic jumping about as he argued with the panel was undermining his creditability. Worst still he tried to grab the microphone from Jonathan Frakes.
“That's enough, monkey man!”
“Listen, cool it, Frakes!”
“Security?”
“You and me, Evans. Let's get him.”
Milton and Max moved forward, taking Larry by the arms and dragging him off the small stage.
“Hey, this is the guy right here! This is the guy! He's the one! He's the guy!”
“Well, he may not be the best convention co-ordinator, but I would hardly call him an alien.”
Cal turned away from the whole spectacle with annoyance clear on the face as he walked out. This whole thing was a farce. He had cave paintings to track down, there wasn’t anything useful to be seen at this chimps party.
“You're just like the rest of them, Frakes! There was a bullet...ah...the bullet disappeared! So where's the bullet? The bullet disappeared! It was never found! Where's the bullet? Ahhh...”
Larry was finally silenced as he was dragged out of the side door. But for Serena her anxiety levels were still climbing, particularly as she watched the speculative way that Hubble had been watching Max following Larry’s little dog and pony show.
She was however distracted by the ringing of her cell phone, which she rushed to answer hoping that it might be Cal returning her numerous calls.
Michael was allowing himself to enjoy being just a little bit smug about how successful his interference had been in making Larry look like an idiot. Max might not approve of him taking such direct action, but it had worked rather nicely. He was pulled away from his self-congratulations by the voice of Maria’s mother talking urgently into her phone. He stopped to pay attention because she sounded upset.
“You can't quit now. The Alien Takedown is in an hour!
Ernie, you have nothing to be afraid of. Raging Ray is a...puppy dog. Look, he's not really gonna do anything really rough. I realise you suffered a broken rib last year...fine, 2, I...did you not receive my gift basket?
Look, Ernie, if you don't do this, I'm broke. Ok? I'm out of business, ok? I...I have half my annual revenue tied up in this thing! Hello? Hello? Oh... “ She finished her call with a quiet whimper, as the person on the other end of the line had clearly hung up.
Michael was wondering whether he should go over to speak to her when Maria appear at her side, and took her arm, leading her away from him towards the exit and eventually over to the Crashdown. Outside they passed Larry and Edward Hubble talking.
Their tale of woe was recounted to Liz who listen sympathetically before serving them liquid therapy in the form of two chocolate milkshakes.
“Here you go. Drown your sorrows.”
“Oh, girls, girls, girls...if I'd known real life was gonna be this difficult I never would have signed up. “
Alex joined in the generally down beat mood. He was in the right frame of mind having just been dismissed by Isabel yet again.
“You guys look as good as I feel.”
“Root beer float?”
“No, uh...orange soda on the rocks.”
“Mmm, girl trouble. “
“Oh, it's that obvious? Great. Great. Hey, listen...let me ask you guys a question. As women, do you find that all men are obsessive? “
He received a chorus of “Yes. Absolutely. No question.” From all the women present.
“They find something... “
“Usually something completely inane and useless.”
“Oh, like football.” Liz chipped in, thinking back to her experiences with Kyle.
They all chorused, “ Or UFOs.” Because this was, after all, Roswell.
“Oh, and then they just don't let it go! “
Alex realised that he had opened a can of worms with his seemly innocent question, and he was now faced with a pack of female hyenas circling!
“Until it consumes every waking minute of their day! Sorry. Couldn't help but deeply relate. “ a previously silent Jen joined in with her sisters.
“Yeah, but then they use it as an excuse.”
“Oh, whenever it's convenient for them...”
“To just completely ignore you.”
“Yeah, and it's so clear why they're doing it.”
“Oh, yeah. It's an avoidance thing. “
Alex was beginning to regret ever having asked this question, but the women were now on a roll.
“They hide behind their obsession! “
“Because what they really are is afraid.”
“Deathly afraid.”
“Of commitment.” Liz put his glass of orange down in front of him with enough force to slosh some of the drink out of the glass.
“Ok. I got it. Crystal clear. But...what if, uh, there's a guy whose obsession is a woman? “
“Oh! “
“Oh, yeah, right. “
“Dream on.”
Oestrogen on parade, Alex thought as he threw his hands up in submission, but he was thinking that he knew at least two men who fitted that description. Alex Charles Whitman, and Max Evans.
Milton came rushing in and up to the group looking for Amy.
“Amy! Where are you? The match is almost over!”
“What? Ernie showed up?”
Maria, Amy and Milton left the Crashdown in a hurry to return to the UFO Centre. Their headlong rush came to an abrupt halt by the wrestling ring as a triumphant Raging Ray was leaving. Lying behind him was the prone body of someone wearing the alienator uniform. They were still apparently alive, as their chest was moving up and down with panting breathes, but worryingly, they were not trying to get up.
“Hey, yo. You better call an ambulance, huh? Bang! Ha ha ha ha! “
Amy and Maria climbed into the ring and knelt down by the fallen wrestler. Amy was expecting the worst and hoping that her insurance would cover her if he decided to sue.
“Ernie! Oh, my God! Are you ok?”
And I wish that I could be
Another better part of me
Can’t hear what your thinking
Maybe if I just let go
You’d open up your heart
The person on the floor pulled off their mask to reveal Michael, rather sweaty, but apparently okay and, interestingly, with his hairstyle remarkable undisturbed.
But I can’t read you
I wish I knew what’s going through your mind
“I'm just resting.”
“Oh, you dear, dear, boy! Oh!” Amy embraced him enthusiastically before rushing off.
Can’t touch you, your heart defending I get left behind
I can’t reach you
He struggled to sit up, and Maria sat down beside him at the same time. Michael realised at that moment that he was trouble. She was smiling at him in a way that made her look luminous. Her hazel green eyes were warm, soft and oceans deep and her lips were lusciously, pouting and slightly open….
I wish I knew what’s going through your mind
Can’t touch you, your heart protecting I get left behind
No no no no no
No no no no no
Michael scrambled to gain back some ground. “It was easy money.”
She started to pull his head towards her, and for Michael everything began to go into slow-motion. When their lips meet, everything went in to fast forward and as her lips began to make soft sipping motions against his, he responded.
I like you so much I’m acting stupid
I can’t play the game I’m all intense and alive
Michael’s mind tried to scrabble for control again, using his ‘mud’ method. I’m thinking of mud. Mud cake…mud pie….mud fight…..Maria in a mud fight…Maria foxy boxing….whoa! Down boy. Eventually he jerked his head away from her, and said out loud, “Mud.
“What?”
“I’m thinking of mud.”
I’m losing control of my heart
I’m not supposed to be this nervous
I should play my hand all cool and calm
Maria looked like he had just thrown a bucket of water over her head. She was wondering just how she had managed to let her self be sucker again. Once again Michael and his elusive inner sweet heart had managed to plunge from his status of considerate human, to alien schmuck, and get a perfect score of 10 for the effort. Way to go Michael for spoiling the mood and the moment.
“Why do I even bother.” Maria replied, vocalising her disappointment.
Silently both of them said together, ‘I’m such an idiot.’
I can’t breathe
I’m losing control of my heart
(Daniel Bedingfield – I Can’t Read You)
Max was rooting around in one of the back storerooms, once again brooding about Liz, when Hubble appeared beside him.
“Evans! Milton said you wanted to talk to me about something.”
“Yeah, um, Shatner's a no-show.”
“Oh, sorry to hear that.”
“What do I have to do to convince you to do this panel?”
“Well, son, your tenacity has won me over.”
“Really? “
“I'm no Captain Kirk, but I'll give it my best shot.”
“Great! Thank you.”
“There's only one problem. My slides are back home. I'd go get 'em, but, uh...I busted a hose on my way up. My truck's down at the garage waiting for the part. Thing's so old that, uh, I think they had to order it from Singapore.”
“Then I'll drive you. “
“That's what I thought you'd say. We could talk on the way over...answer your questions.”
Max left the UFO Centre with Hubble and they came out into the street together. Out of habit, he cast a quick look across the road to the Crashdown and was rewarded with Liz looking back at him as she cleared some of the outside tables.
He waved a silent greeting to her, ridiculously pleased just to be able to see her. She seemed to hesitate, then sent a warm smile and wave back before going back into the restaurant. But she couldn’t resist one quick look back over her shoulder to him even as she walked away.
Max understood how unsure she was feeling. He was no better. Neither of them knew how to act a round each other at the moment. But seeing they way she looked back even as she was walking away, left him feeling warm inside. She felt the same way he did, because it was the same for him, one last sight of her was never quite enough until the next time.
He was in a happier place as he climbed into his jeep with Hubble. And decided that he would finish this trip with Hubble as quickly as possible so that he could go over to the Crashdown and hang out before his curfew.
Pulling away from his parking space, the sound of the jeep engine drowned out Michael’s voice as he called out to him, and he drove away unaware that Michael had been trying to catch his attention.
Serena in a different context would have enjoyed the goofy smile on Max’s face from his small exchange with Liz, but in this moment when she was watching one of her charges drive away alone in a vehicle with an alien hunter she didn’t have time for sentimentality. She was running out of options fast and was facing an increasing number of enemies coming out of the woodwork without extra support.
She knew Michael was on the same page as she was from his aggressive interrogation of Larry, and she needed to ensure that the impulsive young General didn’t gallop into a dangerous situation. She knew where Hubble was taking Max, and she knew how to get there before them, and anything after that she was just going to have to make up as she went along.
Approximately 45 minutes later, Serena was moving silent around the dusty interior of the long abandoned Peppers café, remembering back to time when it had been a quiet road side diner, rather than an abandoned wreck. This place was where the events that had set her on the path of her current life had occurred, and the memories of that night still remained painfully focused in her mind.
She walked a path across the cracked linoleum floor, from the window, to the counter and then back again, waiting for the arrival of headlights in the parking lot as the sun slid lower in the sky swallowing the desert landscape in twilight. She knew that she could not be more than 10 minutes a head of the Jeep. That precious time had only be gained by pushing her car to its limits, and by taking several short cuts to reach the diner.
From her first sighting of Everett Hubble at the UFO Centre, she had known that he would lead them all back to this remote place. She considered how much he had changed, and how the past decades had not been kind to him. His life’s tragedies were etched on his aged face, written in the history of a life taken over by the pursuit of an intangible enemy.
She still found it ironic that what had been an ending of a life for him, had be the beginning of a new life for her and that there was a certain sense of symmetry to the whole thing. Serena believed in destiny, but it was a cruel screwed up fate that Hubble had been given.
Making this journey together, completing this meeting would bring them back full circle through the years. Back to the seen of a crime. Back to the scene of their crime. Back to the source of a now old man’s sorrow and the potential birth of his revenge. But it was her purpose to protect the young King and his group to the best of her limited abilities, and this duty would deny him of any revenge. Regrettably this responsibility would pull Humble back into alien chaos that he had so diligently chased and missed over the last 30 years, because if he had not missed Nasado he would surely have been dead long ago.
Emotion rose within her, remorse and empathy with the pain of loss that Hubble still suffered because his family had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She understood the agony of the loss of a child through bitter experience. It would have been easy to allow it all to swamp her, but she had to keep it in the background, and remain focused on her responsibilities.
Headlights briefly illuminated the window of otherwise dark building, and the distinctive noise of a Jeep’s engine interrupted the silence. Serena moved into position behind the filthy window, ready take the steps necessary to fulfil what had become her duty. Her role in the past had always been to remain in the background, protecting. Tonight might be the night that she had to come forward out of the shadows and reveal herself to protect her King.
Through out the journey, Max had continued to listen politely to Hubble as he talked, aware that the conversation seemed to be more of an inner monologue for the older man. He was unsure why Hubble had brought him here and why he had chosen to share this story with him, but there was something about Hubble’s manner which was beginning to worry Max, particularly his apparent belief that Max been at this road side diner before.
With reservations, he pulled the Jeep into the parking lot as Hubble requested, and they both stepped out of the vehicle. Hubble continued his monologue.
“She never did get my surprise. And I never did get hers. Not until I got a copy of the coroner's report. There it was in black ink. 3 months pregnant. A little girl, it said. She was carrying our child. Surprise.”
“I'm sorry.”
“And so am I. Four innocent people lost their lives starting that day. My wife, my baby...that drifter, and, uh...and me.
Dead man walking. That's what I felt all those years. Only thing kept me alive was you.“
“Me? But...but I don't know you. “
Max saw the flash of the metal in Hubble’s hand before he registered that he had just pulled a gun on him.
“I know you. “
“Whoa, mister, you are making a big mistake. “
“I know how you can change your face, your body...you're a shape-shifter because you're always running. You changed yourself into that drifter when you killed my Sheila trying to get our car. What were you running from then? Somebody else find out your little secret? “
“Sir, I know you're upset...but I did not kill your wife. I wouldn't kill anybody. “ Nasado, he thinks I’m Nasado.
“Valenti told me about the healing, about the handprint...just like on Sheila.” Oh Jesus, he knows about Liz. He experienced a flash of fear that Hubble might have some how hurt Liz, but realised as quickly that she had been safe inside the Crashdown when they drove away from Roswell, so as long as Hubble was here with him, he couldn’t possibly harm Liz.
“I am not him. Whoever you think I am, I swear I am not him.” Max tried to keep his body language non threatening, hoping that he might be able to reason with Hubble without having to resort to physical violence. If what he said was true, he had already lost his family because he had encountered an alien. Max wasn’t willing to take more from him if he could help it, but he wouldn’t let him harm Liz or his friends.
“I know who you really are, what you're capable of, and I won't let you kill again.”
“Hey! “ Both Max and Hubble turn to see Michael approaching from behind them. For Max it was an opportunity to try to disarm Hubble without harming him. He succeeded in knocking the gun from his hand, but ended up down in the dirt tussling with the older man to keep him away from the gun.
Behind the filthy glass of the café window Serena stiffened as Max hit the floor and grappled with Hubble. She began a well practised building of energy within her deceptively small body as she moved to the door of the building, ready to join the struggle. But the door was never opened as the arrival of an additional vehicle pulled into the parking lot made her stop, and blend back into the darkness within the building.
Despite Max’s youth, Hubble proved difficult to immobilise physically, and in desperation Max resorted to using his powers to push the gun out of his reach. Though Michael’s appearance had help to distract Hubble, Max’s concern was now divided between his own and Michael’s safety. The gun slide several feet away from them in the dust leaving a channel in the sand to mark its movement across the parking lot.
Hubble’s struggles suddenly increased as though witnessing Max’s alien heritage bolstered his determination. Max wanted to say to him, I’m an alien, but I’m not that alien, as though that might have helped the situation. To Hubble, faced with living with his grief and loss, one alien was as bad as another.
“I knew it was you, you bastard! “
Valenti’s timely arrival allowed Max to scramble to his feet.
“Drop the gun! Drop it! “
“It's him! “
“Drop it!”
”I just saw it! I was right! ” Hubble punctuated his statement by brandishing his gun at Max again.
”You saw what? ”
”His powers! Don't you see who he is? We have to stop him. ” Valenti looked briefly at Max wondering who to believe, noting Michael standing tensely off to the side.
”I don't know what he's talking about.” Max interjected, his voice strained. Wishing that he could retrace his steps and make that statement the truth. Knowing what Nasado had done to this man was making him sick to his stomach.
Serena tried to watch what was happening outside with as impartial an eye as possible. But she couldn’t manage that level of detachment. She was involved in the events that had brought this man to this place again.
Nasado’s attempt to steal two of the pods had made him ruthless enough to kill an innocent woman to try to secure her transport to make his escape even as Cal and Serena had managed to corner him at the diner.
The sharing of power with Cal, and a carefully constructed mind warp had taken care of the small number of witnesses to the fire fight that had gone down between Cal and Nasado. And Nasado’s “smash and grab” as Cal had termed it had been partially thwarted. But at what cost.
A husband widowed, one pod lost and another damaged, and the birth of Cal’s disillusionment with his duty. For her, it had been the beginning of her life of lying to a man who was effectively her commanding officer. And still Nasado had managed to escape.
The expression of grief on Cal’s face when she had presented him with her first of many lies haunted her to this day. Nasado’s betrayal had still been raw within her that day. His selfish pursuit of his own agenda flew in the face of everything that his rank as a Royal Protector represented. But with years to think back on the circumstances, the clues had been their if she had only thought to consider them carefully.
Even in the chaos that had ensued following the death of the Royal Four, the teams who were to travel to earth had been spirited away and well hidden from Khivar’s spies to progress the preparations. For Vilandra’s protector to have been murder whilst he was in hiding, with hindsight, now stank of a plot. And hadn’t it just been convenient that Nasado had been chosen to substitute for his now dead higher-ranking officer.
The crash was caused by the fluke failure of a system which was utilised in most of the vessels in the royal fleet and which had never caused an accident prior to their crash. The death of so many of their colleagues had made her question now how many had died in the crash and how many had been killed in the wreckage from which Nasado had walked away with remarkably few wounds, unlike Cal, herself, or the medical officer Tanic.
In fact, if it had not been for the untimely arrival of the army, would she also have been murdered while she lay unconscious. She had no proof that this had been the fate of some of her comrades, but she understood enough about Nasado’s ambitions through their life together to know that he was ruthless enough to go to extremes for his own benefit.
It had been Nasado’s betrayal of their mission and her trust which had caused the birth of her doubts about Cal’s own priorities regarding the care of the pods. Born into a society in which women were ‘protected’ by being expected to accept roles in society that made them proverbially walk behind their male counterparts meant that challenging the motives of male authority figures like Cal and Nasado was a foreign concept for Serena. But it was a position that she had found herself placed in as events unfolded after the crash.
Cal and Nasado had managed to evade the army and salvage some of the essential equipment, but she and Tanic had been captured and experimented on ruthlessly like they were lab rats. Tragically Tanic wounded and further weakened by the primitive explorations of the army medics had died, and it had been nearly a week before Cal and Nasado had managed to infiltrate the base to retrieve her and the pods.
She had worked with Tanic for many years as his medical technician, and he had been instrumental in her being selected for the mission in the first place. She had been the only female team member and the most junior in rank, so it had been ironic that she had ended up as the primary protector of the pods.
She had grieved for the loss of Tannic and his quiet manner, intelligence and wicked sense of humour for many years following the crash. Another waste of a life to be added to all of the others.
Nasado’s plan to retrieve only the pods and to leave the US Army to deal with Cal and Serena had only come to light through his actions on the day of her escape. But Serena had the self-satisfaction of watching his plans to trap Cal whilst he came to liberate her backfire. Resulting in the incarceration of her beloved husband thanks to some smart moves on Cal’s part. Cal had played Nasado at his own game and won. To her knowledge Nasado had remain in the base for several years until his eventual escape. He had remained at an elusive distance until that night in 1970 when Sheila Hubble was killed.
Even Cal as the only remaining team member who Serena should have been able to trust, had had his own agenda when it came to the pods. He did his job efficiently, and dealt with problems over the years with ingenuity, but his focus was always primarily on the protection of the Queen first, and the needs of the group second. His loyalty to the protection of his beloved Queen Avandra, who had perished amidst the bloodshed that followed the deaths of Zan, Rath and Vilandra, was absolute. He had held the protection of her rebirth in his hands and it had been a responsibility to which he devoted his every waking moment.
He was the Commanding Officer of the mission, and had been Zan’s personal bodyguard when he was alive, so Serena found this focus on only one member of the Royal Four unsettling. Born on the back of the betrayal of Nasado, the one person who she would have previously trusted with her life, she felt she had grounds to trust only herself with the protection of all the pods as a group. This had been the vision of the Queen Mother, Keva, and the primary directive for the development of the children. That they were to grow, train and develop as a group. Not be separated as Cal at one point had suggested, and certainly not for Avandra and Zan to be separated as Cal had specifically ordered before departing to pursue Nasado.
It had been just over a month before he returned, and by then Serena had decided to lie to a man who she had admired for a long time to protect the group from him. Events at the dusty little café that night had blown apart so many lives, and she was still lying to Cal even as she tried to draw him back to his duty when it had been her original lie which had ultimately driven him away.
That hadn’t even been an end to it. The drifter had died years later, destroying Sheriff Valenti’s career and sanity, and here she was again waiting to see what destruction Nasado’s past actions were about to create nearly 30 years later.
”Liar! ”
”Drop it, Hub. ”
”This son of a bitch is gonna die today, and nothing's gonna stop me, so go ahead! Unload every bullet in your chamber. ”
Valenti could have dismissed Hubble as a crazy man, but the resolve in his last out burst was enough to convince that he would kill Max Evans given the chance.
”It only takes one. ”
”Your father couldn't do it...and neither can you. ”
The loud report of Valenti revolver heralded the death of Hubble as he slumped to the ground, face down in the dirt.
Max looked down at the dead man, and then back up at Valenti as he lowered his gun. But the fear that he had been so filled with was suddenly replaced with fury. Fury at Nasado and the waste of so many lives, fury at his own situation and how powerless he felt, fury that all he wanted was to be normal and with Liz, but the craziness of his life denied him this one comfort.
Michael watch the emotions chase across his friend’s usually carefully controlled face, and tried desperately to think of a way to avoid the explosion that was about to occur. They were already too exposed in this situation. If Max was about to lose it, he didn’t want him to make Valenti even more suspicious.
”I didn't know this was gonna happen. I didn't know he was as dangerous as he was. ” Valenti said suddenly, there was genuine remorse in his voice, but this only infuriated Max more. He was sick of being so powerless.
”What did you tell him? Why did he come after me? You're the Sheriff. You're supposed to protect me. But all you've done is go after me! You believe all these crazy things. You're just like Hubble. You want me? Well, here I am! Take me. ”
Michael tried to physically restrain him, ”Max, come on, just relax. ”
”No, no! ” Max shoved Michael away. Michael, his brother, and another person who tried to control him, dictate his feelings to him….
”Son... ”
As suddenly as the fury came, it deflated with that one word. Son. And just who’s son was he. Nasado’s? The thought chilled Max to the bone.
”Would you treat your son this way? ” his voice cracked when he asked the question, a voice within him adding silently, would your father treat you this way.
”Get outta here. The both of you. You were never here. Go on! ”
Michael grabbed the golden opportunity he was presented with without hesitation. He needed to get Max out of here.
”Come on, let's go. The guy was crazy, Max, all right? He didn't know what he was talking about. ” When Max made no attempt to move, Michael physically took his arm and steered him towards the jeep.
He held his hand out for the keys, which Max surrender without comment, climbing into the passenger seat in response to Michael’s nudge towards the door.
Michael drove out of the parking lot, and out onto the highway back in the direction of Roswell, trying to divide his attention between the road and the stony profile of Max as he stared straight a head.
“Where’s everyone else?” Max asked suddenly, looking for reassurance that nothing worse had happened that evening.
“Liz and Maria are working. Isabel and Alex are hanging out at the Crashdown with them. They’re fine.”
Some of the tension seemed to drain out of Max, his rigid stance relaxing slightly as he sighed in relief.
”I don't think he was crazy, Michael. I think the one we've been looking for has killed people. A lot of people.
The handprint pictures that Valenti showed Liz. One of them could have been Hubble’s wife. He came after me because he thought I was Nasado.”
Michael was ready to defend Nasado, but he bit back on the words, deciding that Max had been through enough tonight with out having a further argument about the necessity of tracing Nasado.
“He knew about Liz, and the healing. I thought he might have got to her first.”
“It’s cool Max, they’re safe. Why don’t we head over to the Crashdown now and you can indulge in your favourite hobby of Liz Parker stalking whilst I have something to eat.”
Back at Pepper’s Café Serena has not lingered as Valenti radioed in the event. She didn’t need to see yet another person being loaded into a body bag to know that Nasado’s legacy of death was still continuing.
You're like a child with old eyes,
cynical and sensible, always full of surprises
She made the short walk to where she had hidden her car on shaky legs. Tears of pain and regret sliding slowly down her face. The energy that she had collected together in case she needed to fight to defend Max and Michael was now causing her pain as she fought to contain it within a body that was no longer capable of what she had asked it to do. She reached her car, which was parked beside a still, dark lake just as her control finally slipped.
you travel far and wide
looking for the feeling, lost inside you
With a silent scream, she pointed her hands at the water and released the energy within in as a suddenly beam of pure light, which caused the water rise in the air as a miniature explosive force impacted against it.
She dropped to her hands and knees in the sandy soil, suddenly to weak to stand, her breathing heavy as she tried to provide the oxygen that her over worked body needed to return itself to normal.
They don't understand you, no
until it's too late
with everything they've handed you
on a silver plate
Serena was exhausted physically and emotionally, frightened by just how close a call tonight had been. She gave in to the only emotional outlet that she had left, and broke down into heart breaking sobs.
Many hours later, after the scene of crime officers had finished collecting evidence, the body of Everett Hubble was collected and removed to the county morgue. It now lay on a mortuary slab within a black PVC body bag waiting for when the coroner would start work on it in the morning.
No members of staff where in the department at that time of night to disturb the silence of the darkened room. No one witnessed the spectacle of a light emanating from the body bag, or the zipper being undone from the inside to allow Everett Hubble, still sporting a bullet hole to sit right on the table.
But then of course this was not Everett Hubble, just someone wearing his face. The actual body of Everett Hubble lay in a refrigerator labelled John Doe – strangulation, and had been collected and taken to the morgue several hours before.
Are you hungry for a little more
than what you've had before?
Nasado, wearing the face of Everett Hubble, held his hand by his bullet wound, and concentrated until the bullet buried within his body appeared within his hands with a sickening plopping noise.
Tonight had not been quite as productive as he had hoped. His aim in taking the form of Everett Hubble and driving off with Max Evans had been to try to flush out either one or both of his protectors so that he could identify them and deal with them at a later date. But neither had been in evidence that night. Perhaps this might be easier than he thought. 30 years had pasted since he had last had contact with his former comrades, and a lot could have happen in that time to potentially leave the Royals without protection.
Are you hungry for a taste of life?
Whet your appetite, are you hungry?
He moved over to the refrigerator containing Hubble’s remains, and transferred the body to the slab and the body bag in which he had been lying without any evidence of physical stress despite the man’s dead weight.
The evening, however, had not been a total waste. He had at least managed to rid himself of Everett Hubble once and for all, and using him had allowed him to get close to Max. He had been pleased to see just how limited his abilities appeared to be. The boy King obvious had not been getting in contact with his inner alien, more evidence of the protectors absence.
He had some work still to do at the morgue to make sure that Hubble’s cause of death was accepted to be a gun shot wound at the hands of Sheriff Valenti. He was now happy to cut short his visit to Roswell New Mexico and bring forward his plans. It was time to collect Eva and bring her to meet her husband.
Back at Bitter Lake, Serena’s sobs had slowly subsided, and she had collected herself together enough to now be standing staring out over the lake, giving herself some time to get her emotions back under control before she made the journey home. Crying wasn’t going to help her to survive this situation, but it had at least helped her to even out her emotions. Being over emotional with the tenuous control that she now had over powers that had once come so naturally to her, was a risky proposition. It was peaceful at the lake, but she knew she was stalling returning to Roswell because that was where she had to pick up her responsibilities again, and it felt like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders at the moment.
Now give me this mountainside
cool waters to lie beside
give me these two strong eyes
to see the difference between truth and lies
She squared her shoulder and forced herself to find her car keys in her bag. Bone weary she climbed back into her car and started the engine. The dusty little red Jetta kicked up a small spray of stones, as she turned it away from the peaceful blackness of the waters of Bitter Lake, and towards the direction of her journey back to Roswell.
Ah, give me this feeling when you kiss me baby
every day and every night
That's all I need, yes
Everything else gonna be all right
Are you hungry for a little more
than what you've had before?
Are you hungry for a taste of life?
Whet your appetite, are you hungry?
You're like a sight for sore eyes, lyrical and gentle
border lining sentimental
You're like a dream realised
so why do I keep falling back to sleep,
I'm so serious and deep.
(Kosheen – Hungry)
The good news is that I’m about 75% done with writing the next two parts, so I should be quicker coming back with those, honest!