Roswell Fanatics

HELLLLLOOOOOOEEEEE! I am back from RL! *lil dance* You may not like this part... it's slightly nasty and gross. Don't tell me I didn't warn you. But read it anyway and gimme feedback... because I am all alone... and I am missing the cries of outrage! :P Love ya guys.

PART THIRTY ONE.

“Vilandra,” He whispered again, love deep in his voice. Isabel looked up at him observing his appearance. Deep within his coal black eyes was pure evil, an evil that masqueraded as an air of innocence. In some way he seemed child like as he gazed down on her, his eyes showing pure joy at finding his favourite toy. This innocence mixed with his good looks, his blonde hair and child like eyes declared that this man could be trusted, loved and adored. He appeared as God like as he had perceived himself to be, but there was something deep in her heart that suddenly screamed out. This man was not to be trusted, no matter how much he twisted her soul. No matter how much she could get lost in his eyes and his boyish charm, she still remembered her death at the hands of someone she believed she loved. Deep within Vilandra still felt the pain. She still felt the betrayal as if it had happened only moments ago.

However no matter how much her heart kicked, screamed and leapt she couldn't stop herself from falling into his arms, falling into his embrace instantly relaxing at his touch. It was a touch that seemed almost part of her. Sort of the way she always thought Max and Liz felt when they would lay in each others arms when they were younger. What she observed then was the contentment of two soulmates finally finding one another and at that moment Isabel could feel the exact contentment that she would often see on her brother's face. But this was a false feeling. A feeling that had been made, distorted from something else, twisted from pure hatred.

Now it was boiling in her veins, the overwhelming need to destroy Khivar almost over powering. Vilandra wanted control. She wanted to emerge, to show Khivar she isn't the weakling he perceived her to be. She and Isabel were not weak, submissive or useless and they as one person craved to end his life there and then, as they embraced him. Thin black crackles of electricity ran through their hand as the anger raged inside them, yet they disappeared as Isabel took two deep breaths, pushing Vilandra out.

She needed to remain calm if she was to pull this off.

* * * * * * * *

Khivar could feel the raw energy build within her as Isabel tried to bubble back to the surface. He smiled into Vilandra's hair as she shoved Isabel back into the further recesses of her mind. His Vilandra was still as powerful as the day he murdered her at the steps of her brother's palace. He could still feel her warm blood running through his fingers and could still feel the intense grief he felt when he stabbed her to death.

It was such a primitive death, but was so powerful it tore his heart in two and the moment Vilandra died he howled into the night. But he knew her soul lived on, and now he could feel it mingling with his own, bringing him pure joy. He now felt like a child.

But she needed to be tested. She needed to prove herself to be the true Vilandra, the one he moulded into existence. The one he brought to life. His attention narrowed on the perfect test that stood at the door of the safe house. The rest of the royal four, the changed one and one of Zan's finest Locacks, Serena.

His hand ran up Vilandra's bare back and up to her naked arms. He smoothed his fingers over her silken skin before he grabbed them softly and used his grip to turn her towards those that stood at the door. He smirked slightly as he watched Zan and the others start to charge towards their position, Zan clearly showing his intent on rescue displayed in his scowl. He lowed his head, as his gaze remained on Zan and the group that were swiftly moving towards them, whispering into his beloved ear. “You know what I ask of you. Now prove yourself worthy of a God's love Vilandra.”

Vilandra turned slowly back to him, nodding in agreement before standing on her bare tip toes planting a tender kiss to his white cheek. As she lowered herself flat onto her feet, she registered her brother calling her human name.

“Isabel!” His voice was almost frantic and she turned her head slightly over her shoulder. Once again she turns back to Khivar before she started to back away from him, a sly and devious smile upon her face. Her eyes loose their black colour returning to their human shade and she begins to masquerade as Isabel Evans as she runs towards Zan.

“MAX!”
* * * * * * *

Isabel ran with all her might back towards her brother, hoping in some way it seemed real to Khivar even though she knew in her heart it was. The sheer panic that was nestled in her stomach was driving her away from Khivar, out of the clutches of a man who had once betrayed her. “Max!” she screamed loudly for realism, she just hoped that Khivar would believe every moment of her façade. If he didn't believe she couldn't do what was necessary of her.

When she was just seconds away from her brother she sped up, sprinting towards him, her arms wide open. She crashed into his arms, spinning him around so she faced Khivar, her head landing in his shoulder and her arms tight around his chest as she clung to him.

Neither spoke.

* * * * * * *

Vilandra looked back at Khivar under hooded eyes from the safety of her brothers arms. He could feel excitement boil away inside him as he observed her black nightmarish eyes fall back into place. He smirked. After all this time Zan was still the pathetically romantic and forgiving man that had cost him his life. After many years having known Zan he knew that Vilandra was his weakness. So was the idea of love, a perfect meaningful attachment that would last several life times. That was where the two differed. Zan was in love with the idea of love, endlessly searching for it. Zan was one for democracy, setting up a Royal council and was hell bent on achieving peace for his people. He couldn't hold a grudge, he refused to scheme and didn't do arguments. Zan was honest, kind and gentle. He was forgiving and compassionate.

He was the complete opposite to Khivar.

Khivar didn't believe in a love that would last life times. He understood love but didn't search for it, he moulded the creature he deemed worthy into perfection, making them want him and to do his bidding. Khivar took what he wanted, disposed of all that stood in his path to total autocracy. He didn't believe in peace, he wanted to conquer and enslave. He held grudges for decades, he believed that they should last a life time and through generations. He schemed his way into power, taking the vulnerable Vilandra and twisting her into something he could use, into a soul mate fit for a king. Khivar was deceitful and merciless. He took pleasure in other people's pain, not caring about the feelings and beliefs of others if they didn't match his own.

Now he was revelling in the pleasure of watching the one thing he had always wanted to witness.

As Vilandra stared into Khivar's black pools she smiled. Suddenly a pink shield separated the rest of them from herself and Zan. There were cries of confusion as she did so but she ignored it, her gaze firmly fixed on her lover and her mind set on her task. She was to prove herself to him once and for all. He tried to not show his happiness as he observed Vilandra's hand just hovering above Zan shoulder blade. It hung there for a couple of seconds as she teased Khivar. He held his breath as he just stared at her hand, willing it to crash down onto the back of the former King.

Her hand crashed onto his back, burning him alive as he screamed out loud. Khivar watched as Zan tried to pull away from the grip of his sister, finally giving in as her hold would not be relinquished. His eyes bulged out of his head as his skin started to burn, white blisters appeared on his once tanned skin as Vilandra's hand remained on his shoulder. At closer inspection he could see Zan's skin cracking and then peeling away from his body, showing the bloody muscle that laid underneath it. Blood started to ooze down the remainder of Zan's body and onto the grass, producing a pool of blood.

She ignored the blasts that were being sent from the hands of her former friends, her mind focused on the task of proving herself to her God.

Finally as Zan's screams began to die down she pulled him away so she could look him in the eye. In one quick motion she ripped open his bloody shirt to expose his peeling bloody chest and swung Zan round to face Khivar. There under his right collar bone was the royal seal that burnt brightly. It was his for the taking. Vilandra's hand snaked around on to it making Zan scream even harder. Within seconds Vilandra pulled her hand away, letting Zan drop to the floor as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
* * * * * * *

Isabel felt sick as she watched her brother sink to the ground, blood staining his body, the white of his eyes the only thing visible. He looked like a burnt out corpse that was still breathing painfully slowly and loudly. She almost winced as he coughed, blood bubbling up out of his mouth and he began to shake violently.

“You bitch!” She heard Tess scream as she felt the bombardment of alien blasts hit her shield. She twisted her head round to face them. Her look was cold and remorsefulness and with one flick of the hand she turned Tess, Serena and Kyle into a pile of dust that blew away in the wind.

Her attention came back to Max as she heard him cough out her name, his burnt arm reaching out for help. A help she could not give him. In that instant she wished to end his misery. Her hand twitched by her side. All it would take was the flick of the hand. An alien blast to the stomach.

But that was all that it would take to blow her cover.

So she stood and watched as her brother's life ended before her very eyes. Within what seemed hours but was merely moments, Max said his final word as his back arched in pain and his body finally collapsed into dust that flew out into the air. “LIZ!”

Her head snapped up as she heard Liz's terrified scream. “MAX!” Her small hands were gripped to the door frame as she looked disparately out of it with tears in her eyes. They hung on the spot where she had just seen her beloved Max died painfully at the hands of his sister, a sister he had sworn they could trust. After a moment they turned to Isabel in disgust. Absolute horror and hatred shone out at Isabel for the crime she had committed.

For one moment she felt guilty.

Taking two steps towards Liz she stretched out her hand and brought her to her knees. Liz didn't even flinch as Isabel's finger tips started to crackle with electricity. She just smiled. In one fluid motion she jumped to her feet and slammed her hand down on the black button. Isabel sent a shot flying towards the petite brunette, narrowly missing her as the shutter slammed shut just about protecting her from the blast.

* * * * * *

Liz backed away from the door two steps before turning so her back was flat against the wall. In the pitch black she slid down onto the floor and wrapped her arms around her legs, her head leaning forward to rest on her knees. Taking a deep breath she tried to calm herself.

* * * * * *

Isabel turned from the door back towards him. A small smile played on her lips as she neared him. She moved up close to him, her lips just millimetres from his ear where he could feel her sweet breath brushing over his ear erotically. She turned her head slightly as she lifted her palm to show him the seal that was imprinted in her hand. His fingers twitched as they reached for it. He could feel the power it contained as they almost touched her palm. As he went to touch it her hand snapped shut and she pulled it away out of his reach. “Now now. Don't get too carried away.” She whispered in his ear. “You don't need this... let me have it.”

“Why?” He asked as he turned to face her. Their faces were almost touching as she ran a lone finger down the side of his cheek, her nail scraping along the skin making it bleed. She moved her lips closer to the blue liquid that dripped from the cut. She partially closed her eyes as her tongue lapped it up before speaking.

“Because a God does not need some formality. You are King in your own right Khivar. This here is a little souvenir, a trinket for those who need to prove it.”

Khivar's arm slivered around her waist, pulling her closer. “But the people want to see something that indicates I am their King.” He grabbed her wrist with his other hand and opened her palm. “Which means they need to see that I bare this symbol.” His hand quivered over the Royal seal. He was ready to take what he believed to be his. Yet again her hand snapped shut.

“Not if you have Zan's Queen... and heir.” Khivar's eyes widened. She simply idly played with his collar as she continued. “Yes... she carries the heir. Inside that house is the heir of Antar...” she brought her mouth to his ear again, pressing her body firmly to his. “It's more than a trinket that will prove you are King...”

“But we cannot enter the house...” He paused as he tried to calm his reaction to having his Vilandra this close in so long. Taking a deep breath he continued. “Serena has safe guard the house. We cannot enter it.”

She laughed. “You see... that's what is different about the last time you tried to enter the house... you didn't have me.”

“What makes you so important into getting in?” He asked sounded annoyed at the thought a woman would have more power than he.

She nipped at his ear lightly and pulled away quickly as he gasped. “You see... the difference is... I am the only one hear who knows the way in.” She backed away looked him in the eye as she started to lead him towards the house.

“Azaria... bring five of your best men.” Khivar started to order.

Isabel stopped dead. She turned quickly enraged. “I give you the whore on a plate and you have the NERVE to bring more than one other person with you. Azaria is all you shall need... this woman is no threat and if she causes us problems... the three of us combined shall serve to be enough to contain her.” She returned to his side as he looked unsure and began pressing her body to him again, her hand resting just above his heart.. “Plus.. we don't want everyone to hear us... now do we? I'd think that three of us to pleasure you is enough... and I am sure you wouldn't want to share with all your men... as you have your way with each of us.”

He became light-headed as he thought of the possibilities. The imagines of all three women draped over him was enough to convince him. Vilandra had never been wrong before about what he wanted. So he let her lead him towards the secret entrance of the house, a few miles away.

After an hour Isabel yet again heard Azaria huff in disgust over the fact her Khivar, her God was being led into the unknown. Over the years away from Vilandra Khivar had turned to Azaria for his comfort, for his needs and she hadn't turned him away because over the years she had been jealous of Vilandra. She had everything she ever wanted. On the side lines of Khivars life she had fallen in love with him, seen him as the chosen King who should have had the throne, title and Granolith. She schemed along side with him. She had been there with him as the royal palace became a battlefield. She was there to witness her once best friend, Ava, whimper as she died before her feet.

*****Flashback*****

Azaria ran into the Ava's chamber a large beaming smile across her face, her fingers idly playing with her long blonde plaits. “Ava! Ava!” she cried as she jumped up and down the room like a youngling once again. At the age of 25 she was supposed to act composed and polite yet she just couldn't contain her excitement. “Ava!” she yelled again.

“What?” Ava asked annoyed from the bed covers. It was too early in the day for her to be even thinking about getting up, especially after the party. A small smile spread across her lips as she remembered the party, Zan and their first kiss. Her first kiss with the King of Antar, the mere thought made her giddy with pleasure.

“Ava! Get up!” Azaria practically screamed as she bounced on the bed.

Ava suddenly sat up right flinging the covers over with her arms and grabbed her best friends feet, sending her flying backwards onto the bed. She giggled slightly at the look of pure annoyance on Azaria's face. “So...” Ava started ignoring the look. “What is it that is soooooo important that meant you have had to wake me... the Future Queen of Antar?”

“Well... its...” Azaria started suddenly stopping as she realised what Ava had just declared. “You can't be serious!” she asked gob smacked, a scowl on her face.

“Yes... Zan... Zan kissed me Az. He kissed me... do you know what this means?”

Azaria nodded meekly. “I know. That means you are very likely to be the next Queen of Antar.” Kissing had always been a sacred thing that only took place if their attraction was something more than a physical need, so this meant she was likely to marry Zan.

Ava cocked her head to one side searching her friends face. “Well... aren't you going to say anything?”

“What can I say?” Azaria asked her voice bitter. “You are going against everything I stand for.”

Ava brought her hands to Azaria's “Az... don't do this. We may not have seen eye to eye on everything but... but we haven't let it get in the way of our friendship. Don't let it now.”

“You weren't going to marry the enemy back then.” She snapped in response as she pulled her hands away.

“That's not fair Ria! I haven't gotten angry with you because of your infatuation with Khivar... so why get angry now?”

Azaria jumped off the bed. “It's NOT an infatuation Ava! It's real love! I love Khivar!”

“It's not love! It's not! Love is not one sided!”

“He touched my cheek today Aves! He touched my cheek!” She hovered her small hand over her cheek. “It is love and he loves me in return!”

“He doesn't! He never has!” Ava dragged her hand through her hair with frustration as she stood from her purple silk bed sheets. “He's just using you to get what he wants... a whore. A cheap thrill... and Az I don't want that to be you!”

Azaria's eyes went wide with horror. “How. Dare. YOU!” She shouted. “I wish that one day I shall have my body on your hands for this Ava!” She stood there glaring before running out of the door and down the plain white halls of the palace out onto the balcony of her room.

*Aves cannot be right. She cannot! She's marrying the enemy, trying to manipulate me into siding with her against Khivar... never.* she thought angrily as her hands gripped tightly to the marble rails of the balcony. She calmed slightly as she saw Khivar in the distance by the gate of the royal gardens. His short blonde hair shone in the bright sunlight making him look even more attractive than before. Her heart leapt at just the sight of him. She ran her fingers over her lips as they urged to kiss him. She so wanted to make that final step with him. She wanted to lie in his arms forever as he spoke to her his declarations of love. These were her hopes. These were her dreams, small as they were. To simply love a man and have him love her in return was enough.

A hope, a dream that was dashed the moment she witnessed Vilandra run into Khivar's arms.

*****End of flashback*****

She was also the one that manipulated him into killing his made soul mate and she would do if one final time.

“Is this place any closer?” Azaria whined as she trudged behind.

“It's very soon.” came the reply from a couple of yards away. “If you drag behind it will just take longer... Ah ha! We're here!” Isabel beamed triumphantly as she pointed towards the door way that led to a tunnel. “Once inside this door it will take just two minutes more. If you will just follow me.” She made a grab for Khivar's hand and just as expected it was swiped away. Isabel even remembered Azaria, the narrow minded child who actually fell in love with this man.

“No!” Azaria bit annoyed that he was following Vilandra like a love sick puppy. “I'll lead the way.” She burst through the door way Isabel following smugly. After a couple of minutes they came through into the hallway through a door in the staircase. Azaria stood and marvelled the place. It was as big and grand as she had thought it would be. Fit for a King and his subjects.

*Or was* she thought to herself.

As soon as Isabel came to the door they had just entered, she pressed her hand to the wall just inches away from the frame. She kept her hand firmly on it as she stepped through the door and quickly pulled it away. Soon another steel door sealed off the entrance, slamming shut loudly as she did so. A second later she flung Khivar and Azaria into the room in front, her hand slamming down onto the button by the door that brought a red almost transparent field in the frame.

The next second she was covering her mouth with her hand as she ran up the stairs.

Azaria brought her hand to her split lip as she started to scrabble off of the floor. Her anger spiked as she found blood dripping from her pale lip. She swung around her hand raised in defence. “What do you think you are doing?!”

“Getting revenge for another malevolent wish come true.” Came Tess' angry voice.

PART THIRTY TWO

NOTE: Diand... a substance much like gold.
Azaria grinned as she looked at her former friend. It was finally a pleasure to meet her again, wanting to slit her throat this time around. “It's nice to see you again Ava... such a different place from where we last met... don't you think?” She began to raise her hand her intention to blow the shield into pieces. It looked almost human in design, not of Antarian standards at least and she knew one large blow to it would dissolve it. She had done it before in combat, something she had always excelled in, best in her class making her way up to Khivar's second. It was as simple as taking down the Royal Four decades ago.

Tess cocked her head to the side as she smiled brightly back at the pale beauty. Beneath the hard exterior was the beautiful true friend that Ava had once known. “Yes... It is. Do you remember that day Az? It was such a beautiful day, different to the last few days. The sun shone so brightly it felt like it could blind you... which it did... it blinded you into thinking that this man was more worthy than Zan. Zan the kind hearted giant that even you loved...”

“I did not love him.” Azaria denied as her hand stretching out further.

“Like a brother.” She carried on ignoring the other woman's threat. “But you let the sun blind you into thinking it was okay to kill an innocent man and the rest of his family. I still remember the look in your eye as you watched Zan fall to the ground. I don't think I could ever forget that, no matter what life time I was in.” She lent against the stair way as she stared at Azaria. “I saw grief and guilt Az... I saw it all. You didn't want to kill.”

“Then why did I kill you? If I didn't want to kill... why did I kill you?”

“Because you remembered that moment back in my chamber... then saw the look of hatred and shame on my face. I could see it Az... My best friend had killed my husband and I visibly hated you for it... you turned on me because I was there in your face. You were probably thinking that I couldn't hate you... that we were best friends forever like we used to say that very summer... but the moment I saw my husband, my world, die before my very eyes I snapped. So you did the one thing you vowed to do... killed me because you had nothing else to lose.”

“I killed you because you were in the way. You were useless waste of space Ava.” She retaliated as she walked slowly towards the door, intent on blowing the force field down and kill the traitorous bitch. “You were a traitor... one that needed exterminating.”

“I wasn't useless Az! I was pregnant with the heir of Antar!” Tess screamed her eyes blacking out as Ava took a stand. “I was diand to Khivar... you killed an innocent being because of the fact I didn't not believe you truly loved Khivar! I was different to you and you took it out on an innocent being!” Ava clutched her stomach as she remembered the pure feeling of loss as she felt her baby die before she did herself. “You shot me straight in the stomach so my child would die before me… then slit my throat just to finish me off. You knew that it would kill the one thing I had always wanted as a youngling!” Ava neared the door, her voice in a low whisper. “And for that you SHALL pay.”

Azaria smiled as she saw the flash of pain that the remembrance caused her long time friend. “Not if I kill you first.”

“I wouldn't bother Az.” Serena advised as she came to the door, a black device in her hand.

“What if I do Rena? What are you going to do? Throw that thing at me?” Azaria smirked, rolling her eyes before they rested smugly looking back at her.

“Oh Az... you really didn't listen in electronical defence class back at the academy did you? If you had been bothered with anything other than combat training you would know that this is a trithuim amplification generator. Kinda switches off all alien powers.” Her voice was tainted with disbelief. The seemingly most intelligent one on the course turned out to be the most forgetful.

Max emerged from behind Serena his eyes firmly on Khivar. “Which means you can't harm any of my family... especially Liz… while you enjoy your stay here.”

Khivar moved towards the door, calm and collected. He didn't seem annoyed, angry or irritated. He actually seemed quite content with the state of affairs. He was near his Queen. That was all that mattered. “But it also means you are powerless in turn Zan... Don't you think that unwise with approximately 50 men outside your door? Without me out there to order them to leave... they will stand guard. Neither of us shall leave this place... All you have done by imprisoning me is trap yourself within the confines of my prison.”

Max looked back at Khivar in the same cool way Khivar looked at him. At this moment they were equal; civil to one another. Neither saw hatred in each others gaze because they couldn't see behind the mask each other wore. It reminded Max of the way Ava was sometimes. She would wear a mask as if to try to hide her true feelings to the world. It was her cover. It was the same for Khivar. He wore a mask to shield his feelings of gratefulness to be near his Liz so not to antagonise Zan. He wished to be near his Queen and if this was the way it was to be so be it. “You don't really think that we are that stupid now do you Khivar?” Max asked his mind whirling around in worry. Khivar was right. He had locked them inside a house they already wanted to escape. It had only been a day under lock and key in this place and no matter how big it was it was suffocating him already. He wanted to be back in Roswell with the large open spaces where he could run around for miles without a worry in the world. The great thing about Roswell was the space; you could always escape. Here you couldn't. You had to face every problem constantly.

Khivar kept his mask intact, as he wanted to smirk at the way the pathetic excuse for a King was acting. He could see he was right. King Zan the glorious, selfless leader that the Antarian people adored was nothing but a mere boy who couldn't even hide his emotions from the naked eye. He couldn't even form words to Max's question so he just turned his back to him, walking over to Azaria and placing a hand on her still out stretched arm and pushing it to her side. Their eyes came together and both just stood with their back to those who were at the door.

Max smirked. “You do realise ignoring us won't do anything don't you? It won't prove to us you are an almighty God Khivar... It will just show how stubborn you really are.” There was silence. Serena, Tess and Max looked between each other. They had known this would happen but they were willing to wait it out. No matter how long it took them to make them crack.

“We won't feed you.” Tess declared heartedly, her blackened eyes gone, Ava safely within. “You don't deserve it.” Azaria looked over her shoulder at Tess. “Either of you.”

Yet again they were met with silence.

“So be it Khivar... I have better things to take care of... Like Liz.” He turned to go.

He was stopped by Khivar's voice. “I will speak... But I will only speak to my Queen.” He vouched as he faced Max. “Only her... alone.”

Max didn't even turn back to Khivar. His back telling him all he should need to know. When he spoke the anger in his voice shocked Tess and Serena. “If MY Queen had not instructed to keep you alive... you would be dead now for all the grievances you have committed. You are the reason why she stays here and lies awake at night when she should be resting. It will stay that way until I kill you...” His head swung over his shoulder towards Khivar. “Which I will... whether or not you think otherwise.”

“My Queen shall not allow it. You may think yourself to be the powerful King... but you are not. My Queen will not kill me herself... or allow you to do it.” The belief rang out strongly in his tone. She wouldn’t allow it. He felt that.

Max just smiled. “We shall see...”

* * * * * * *

A couple of days later.
Khivar and Azaria were still in the confines of their cage. They hadn't uttered one word. Muttered one moan of hunger or made a call for the toilet. They didn't answer any questions that they were asked. They didn't even look at their captors. So the Pod Squad had given up knowing full well the one person who would get them to talk was. The one person that they had done this for, the one they wanted to protect. Liz. But no one told her that. They didn't have to. She knew it in her heart she was the one who could get him to speak now that he knew that Vilandra, his last hope and love, was truly gone.

It plagued her mind, even as she sat in the lounge. As she took long baths. As she held Max at night not knowing whether they were together or not. She couldn't even bring herself to talk about it because she knew Khivar would come into the conversation and she didn't know whether she wanted that. She didn't want to bring up the past either. She knew she wanted to be together but she didn't want their past to be brought back. She needed a rest bite, while all was calm to think about it and deal with the pain of Ava's betrayal. She just wanted to enjoy the calm before the storm deciding to deal with this after it all, when there were no distractions.

But right now, Liz sat on the sofa, Isabel's head in her lap as she soothed her by fiddling with her hair. She ran her hand over it, carefully untangling any knots with her powers. Her eyes were closed as she felt Isabel lying on her lap and imagined how it would feel when her child could do this. She could almost see a small girl her brown hair cascading down and around Liz's knees, her eyes closed as she slept on her mother's lap. Even though in reality it was Isabel who was resting on her lap, Liz felt like she was a mother already. All she needed now was the real child.

She sighed as she felt Isabel shift slightly, her eyelids jumping about as she dreamt. Liz knew exactly what she was dreaming about. Tess' mind warp. It had been so real and so graphic it was like a living nightmare. It was the whole idea, to trick Khivar with a mind warp when Isabel clouded his mind and judgement by her mere presence. So although it seemed they had all died at the hands of Isabel, they didn't. They just simply watched from the front door as Tess mind warped.

She shivered as she thought back to the moment when Isabel stepped away from the pretend Max. It was as his skin had been burnt away from the muscle and was left peeling back slowly. A green pus like liquid had been dripping from his open sours and mixed with the bright red of his blood turning the red darker. She bit her lip as she remembered his eyes, blood oozing from where what was left of his eyes balls. She couldn't see Max Evans in that one moment and it was that moment in which she freaked out. After months of bottling her emotions up tightly inside her she just let it all out.

*****Flashback*****
Liz backed away from the door two steps before turning so her back was flat against the wall. In the pitch black she slid down onto the floor and wrapped her arms around her legs, her head leaning forward to rest on her knees. Taking a deep breath she tried to calm herself.

But she couldn't. Her hands trembled as she pushed back her hair from her face as she lent forward, vomiting onto the floor before her. As she retched the tears started to fall. It was like a purging of all the emotions and it came out all in one go engulfing her in them. Every last tear she did not let go over the last four years dropped down her face, crippled her completely and all she could do was give into the onslaught. When there was nothing left in her stomach she fell back onto her bottom and threw her head back against the wall her soft crying turning quickly into hysterics. Pulling her knees to her chest she rolled onto her side and just cried. “Max...” She muttered under her breath between sobs. “Max. Max. Max. Max.”

She just couldn't stop her lips from producing the name over and over again. It repeated into the air as she thought about the fact she could have lost him. He could have died in the white room. Khivar could have killed him. He could have killed her whole family, friends and herself. She could have just let the cancer overwhelm her. She could have died alone, bitter and loveless, never feeling this complete.

She calmed slightly as he felt his arms wrapping themselves around her body. “It's ok.” He whispered in her ear. “It's ok... Cry it all out Liz.” He sighed as her small fingers wrapped themselves around his brown v-neck jumper. His hand drifted to the back of her head cupping it and pulling her closer to his body. Right now she needed him and he was going to be there for her. She had been through so much and she had to see what Tess had produced in the mindwarp, to allow her to react. Knowing Tess and the fact she was convincing Khivar, it had to be graphic.

“Oh Liz!” she heard Tess exclaim in shock and grief. “I am so sorry!” Tess dashed to Liz's side and practically yanked her from Max's grasp and into her own arms. She held her closer to her chest as she heard Liz cry even harder. Both had seen the image. Tess had created it and when Liz had asked Tess to let her see it so her reaction was real, she didn't want to mind warp her. It wasn't going to be pretty and she knew it would practically destroy her, pushing her over the edge in her already fragile mind.

“Oh god.” she managed to muffle under her breath. “It was... was so real.” She buried her head in to her friend’s chest, not caring about what their differences had been before. Now she was Liz's friend and Liz was to make sure she knew it. The fact Tess was holding her close, caring about her emotions she knew Tess was a friend, a true friend who had simply been misplaced behind a wall of bad judgement, lies and deception. “But... but thank you.” Liz whispered.

Tess frowned, her head still buried in Liz's hair. “What? How can you say that after what I made you see.”

Liz pushed herself away slightly from Tess' body so she could see her face. She could see confusion etched there. “Because you have let the flood gates open,” she giggled as she realised how pathetic she seemed at that moment. She could just picture her running mascara, her red puffy eyes and sore lips wear she had been biting them. “I needed it. I've kept everything bottled inside... and I needed a release. That was just the thing I needed, no matter how crazy it sounds... its true. I needed to see that.” She threw her arms around Tess again and held her tightly for a couple of seconds before pulling away to say in earnest. “Thank you.”

Suddenly she was pulled back into Tess' arms. After a minute or so she felt another pair of arms engulf her and Tess. She looked up and there was Kyle. Soon Maria joined in, followed by Michael and then finally by Max, whose own eyes brimmed with tears. They were finally a family once again. Even though the road had been long and tiring they had finally found their way back to each other.

*****End of flashback*****

As Isabel started to cry, her guilt and the horror crushing her, Liz did the exact thing Max had done for her that night. She just stayed there, playing with her hair softly saying. “It's ok Is. It's ok to cry sometimes. It's ok. Let it all out. It's ok.”

But yet there in her mind she was trying to combat her fears. She had to go see Khivar. He was only a few metres away. Safely locked behind a door, not saying a thing or causing a fuss, in a different room but he was still causing tension amongst the group. She could feel the vibes off every person in the house. The vibes were tense and frustrated. What was funny was the fact the frustration was rolling off those who had powers because they were not just frustrated about the situation, but were frustrated with the fact they couldn't use their powers unless they were in the hot and dirty attic. It was dark and dinghy, the complete opposite to the rest of the house, which was made up of all pastel colours. It was full of spiders and insects they couldn't identify in the darkness. The eyes of china dolls followed your every move, freaking the person out because they were invading the dolls personal space. The only alien to go up there was Isabel as she tried to sleepwalk Alex.

She had no luck.

“I swear he hates me.” Isabel whispered. “He must do... I-I... It's just... I put him through all that pain and this is his way of punishing me... He is blocking me out...”

Liz opened her eyes and glared at Isabel. “Never say that. Alex is not like that. You know that... I know that. I think everyone in this house, including the stowaways, knows that's not like Alex. You probably just can't get through because of the devise... either that or it’s weaken your ability.”

“Maybe.” Isabel agreed softly. “But he must still hate me because of what I said to him.”

“He knew what you were doing. He knew the whole thing was a load of crap.” Liz placed a hand on Isabel's shoulder, pulling at it to make Isabel roll over and look her in the face. “He knew what was happening Iz... and I'm sure even if he didn't.... he would have known it was a load of bull. It's the distance and the fact the devise is here... you said it yourself the dreams were hard to latch on before... so that must be it.”

“I suppose.” Isabel said, closing her eyes as Liz combed her fingers through Isabel's hair just like Alex would have done if he were there. “I love him Liz... I can't lose him.”

“And you won't.” Liz affirmed, her voice serious yet gentle. “And do you know why?” Isabel shook her head her focus completely on Liz's voice. “Because neither Alex or I shall let it happen... He loves you Izzy... and you are like a sister to me... and I want to see you happy.”

A tear slid down Isabel's cheek, seconds later it was smoothed away by Liz. “I-I'm sorry Liz... I'm sorry about what I said before... you know right at the beginning of all this... this stuff ... about how I wish you weren't here with us...”

“Shh.” Liz exclaimed. “Stop kicking yourself for that... for everything. It wasn't even your own thoughts.”

“But how can you say that!” Isabel cried as she sat up and swung round to Liz. “You said Ava played on my fears... so therefore I truly felt that way...”

“So? You felt it but you wouldn't have said it unless she had pushed you into feeling that. You said that you wanted me there... you just didn't want the threat of Khivar looming over your family...” As Isabel looked to the floor Liz grabbed her hands in her own, pleading the other woman to look at her. “Isabel...” She said gently when she finally did catch her eye. “If I was in your shoes... If I had a family that I felt was threatened by someone like Khivar I would have felt the same way... its a natural instinct to want to protect Sophie... and believe me I don't take it to heart.... So don't feel sorry for something you didn't have any control over.” Isabel's mouth opened by shut quickly as Liz cupped her hand around her mouth. “Don't Izzy.... please. I would forgive you anyway... so lets drop it. I don't want this to be a bigger thing that it needs to be.”

“Okay.” Isabel smiled as she wiped away the tears that remained on her cheeks. “Now... lets think about baby names.”

Today is a new part. Guys I neeeeeeeed your feedback because I am starting to lose all will to continue writing, although likely hood is I will continue anyways... it's making me sad

Thanks to:
Tequathisy
Timelord31
Begonia9508

PART THIRTY THREE

Liz stood at the door just staring into the darkened room not seeing the sleeping bodies that were laid out on the floor. She didn't know what had made her come here. It could have been the unbearable tension in their room as Max slumped onto the bed beside her after a hard hour of trying to get Khivar to talk to him. The way he looked just shattered Liz's heart. Once again she felt a pang of guilt for not going to see him before now. It had been a week and she just couldn't bring herself to face the man who could have raped her out in an alleyway. She couldn't bring her self to approach the man who had hounded her for months on end. The man who had given Ava a reason to step up her torture. The man who had almost had her raped under the hands of his henchman.

She could have gone with Max, Isabel, Maria or Tess. She could of even gone with Kyle or Michael, even Serena but she didn't. It was midnight and she was stood in her pyjamas, in the middle of a hallway looking intently for the man who had ruined the best part of four years of her life. It was going to end, but first she needed to know a couple of things.

“You can come if you like...” Came Khivar's voice from the dark shadows of the room. “That's if you don't want to stand in the doorway.”

Liz's hand came to her arms and held herself, suddenly thinking it wasn't a good idea to come by herself. “I'm fine.” she lied through her teeth.

“Suit yourself.” His bitterness rang through in his voice and it shocked Liz. It had been just over a week and his Queen hadn't come to talk to him, let alone save him from the confines of his cell. He didn't even have the strength in him to talk politely to her.

Liz just stood in place, her eyes peering into the darkness at no moving thing. She was just looking at shapes and shadows that she could see. It was while before she spoke because she needed to build her courage. “Is there truly a prophecy... was what Ava told me true?”

“Does it matter? Ava's dead. You can take what she said in either way. You could believe it... many on our planet do... or you could choose to ignore and suggest that the knowledge you gained the last time you were healed and the greenness of your eyes as just a side effect of Max healing you twice. You could take it that when the connection between the two of you was made... you were seeing into Max's soul. The second time you were taking in the knowledge you received from Max's other half of his personality... Zan...”

Liz stood in silence again, her brows coming together as she thought about what he had just said. To some extent she had always believed in the prophecy because she believed Khivar was hounding her down for that reason. But what now? He was giving her own choice in deciding whether she believed it to be true or not. “What do you believe?” She asked him with a whisper, half scared and half curious about the answer he would give.

Moments passed as she waited for his answer. She tugged at her lip as she waited as nervousness suddenly overwhelmed her. “I... I believe in you. You are real. You are strong and you are powerful, the perfect ally and the perfect Queen.”

“That does not answer my question... Do you believe the prophecy? Do you believe there will be a woman twice healed by the true and great King, baring the knowledge and the soul of a brilliant Queen, who with the help of her child, will either unite Antar and the Royal Council ... or will destroy all that Zan had worked for. Do you believe that?”

Yet again there was silence, a gut wrenching silence that only served to scare Liz. “Khivar... answer my question.”

Again there was silence. So Liz took a hesitant step forward to see if she could see Khivar in the room. As she searched the room she held her breath. It was one of those questions she needed answered or it would always plague her mind. If he truly believed the prophecy then she in turn did because it was his excuse to track her down. But if he didn't, it freed Liz in a way that she never felt possible.

“If you cannot answer me Khivar you are not a God... or the true King of Antar... you are nothing but a coward who couldn't even answer a simple question... made by a mere human woman,” Liz spat as anger started to run through her veins and it was quite refreshing to know she could feel more than fear and disgust. The last couple of years had her hiding away from the world, from herself and from the people around her who loved her. She couldn't even talk about her and Max's relationship without the fear that Khivar would enter the conversation and to find that Max was disgusted in the way she was so pathetic. She was sick and tired of feeling like a pathetic child who couldn't sum up enough courage to fight back. The last time anyone confronted Khivar it was Max... not her and she didn't go back in the building after she had killed Ava. She was just too terrified half hoping that Max could just deal with it on his own.

But because of that irrational fear she had almost lost Max.

“Answer me you pathetic excuse for a king... Answer me.”

Silence.

“Answer me Khivar or I swear I shall kill you.”

Silence.

“ANSWER ME!” She screamed at the force field. Her voice rang out around the house, stirring the occupants who just sat up in their beds and listened. None of them made an attempt to go towards their doors and down the stairs because they knew what was happening. They knew Liz was talking to Khivar and they also knew she needed to do it alone.

Max’s hands gripped his sheets, the only way to stop him from protecting Liz.

Liz's hands balled up into tiny fists as she peered angrily into the room, her eyes blazed a strong green light as her energy built up within her chest even with the trithuim amplification generator still active. She didn't realise as she concentrated on making Khivar talk. She stood strong as her energy increased, an energy, which she didn't release; she held it until it was a film of green crackling sparks of electricity running along her skin. It neither harmed or calmed her. It was just a protective layer surrounding her.

She glared at the room demanding silently that Khivar would come forward and be the man he claimed to be.

She closed her eyes for one second Khivar not in her sights. She let the built up electricity crackle and spark across her fingers in an attempt to calm her anger that was quickly turning into complete and utter rage. It was a tidal wave of emotion that threatened to break through the force field and kill the man, but she wouldn't allow it. She needed answers and she was going to get them.

Upon opening them he was at the door, his hands placed on the force field that blistered his hands each second they remained pressed against it. Even though he was just a couple of inches away, Liz felt calmer than she had done in a few years because she knew he wasn't trying to escape, he was just looking at her. At that moment in time he didn't want to hurt her, he just wanted to watch.

“Answer me!” Liz commanded calmly.

“I don't. I don't believe in a prophecy that was written by complete morons.” He lifted his hands from the force field and gazed down on them intently. “In some ways I am just like Max... I don't believe in destiny, I believe you make your own future.”

“You could never be anything like Max.” Liz spat at Khivar, disgust written in her body language and tone. “You can't even feel half the things Max can.”

Khivar's head shot back towards Liz thrusting his hands back into the field. “Just because I do not scream doesn't not mean I cannot feel the pain this causes. Just because I am an alien does not mean I cannot feel just like every human on this planet.” His hands fell from the field and he stepped back, watching Liz intently. “What is it... what is it that makes Max so much better than me when I could be just as good as him? What is it that makes him so much better than me?”

Liz snorted as she neared the force field, her fingers sliding a lock of hair behind her ear. “I wanted what most girls want... some one who is full of human emotions, caring deep and gentle... that usually means you have to be human to win me over... and although Max is only in part human, he has human emotions running through his veins. That makes him human. See... he is better than you because there is a big... huge difference between the two of you.”

“Which is?” Questioned Khivar as he to neared the doorway. Soon they were just inches away from each other again.

Liz beamed at him. “Max is human and you don't come under that category now do you?”

“No. I suppose not. But at least I wouldn't marry my whore of a past wife. How can you forgive him when he caused you so much pain with that?” He asked honestly wanting to know the question. He had tried to find reason in Liz's logic but couldn't find it. Why did she go back to Max after breaking up his marriage to Tess just over 3 months ago? “How can you take him back... and not think about the family he is tearing apart?”

Liz gasped as his words flowed from his mouth. Disgust with herself fell onto her face. What had she done when she had returned to Roswell? She had split up a perfectly happy family and ruined the relationship between father and son. Even thought Tess said that she knew she didn't love Max, she really didn't think about it upon her return to Roswell. “I-I... oh my god.” She flung her hand to her mouth as she took a step back in confusion and anguish. “If... If I had not of come back to Roswell...I would have died”

“But Matthew would have a Mummy and Daddy who lived together.” Azaria started on Liz as she neared the door. She had seen the way Khivar had looked at Liz. It was a mixture of pure lust and love but the most disgusting fact about it was it seemed almost human to her. He was starting to accommodate human emotions for her because Liz had told him that was Max's best feature. She knew what he planned to do through time and by talking to Liz. He wanted to replace Max and she wouldn't allow it. “Matthew wouldn't have been possessed by Khivar. His parents would be at home. Tess would have had the family she was destined to have. Isabel and Alex would be at home right now, holding their little child.” She leered at Liz from under her white hair, which covered half her face, calling on the insecurities and the feeling of selfishness that Ava had forced upon Liz while in hiding. “Because of you... you have ruined the best part of your friend's lives.”

Liz's back hit the stairs as she took in the idea. She had ruined everyone's lives; she felt it in her gut. Her head was telling her that she had done all of this. It was telling her she caused all the pain and suffering that everyone had experienced in the last few weeks, even months. Her head was screaming for her to break down or run again.

But her heart told her different. It told her it was Ava's fault and it was Khivar's fault. She had been a pawn in a complicated game played by two alien misfits who wanted nothing more than power. Ava wanted power over a man who wouldn't fall into destiny and who had acted in the exact same way as her original Zan. She wanted a power much like Liz's hold on Max. She wanted him to love her for eternity, his eyes never wandering and always by her side. She wanted something Liz had. The power to make someone fall in love. Whereas Khivar wanted to rule a planet that just wouldn't yield. It was written in the way he had come here personally. If he didn't believe in the prophecy he wouldn't have come after Liz. If he didn't want her child to destroy all that Zan had achieved then he had no reason to be in the cell or even chasing her.

If he didn't believe in the prophecy and just needed Zan's heir for Antar to yield, then he would have just taken Matthew. All that Khivar had spoken about was a complete lie, a complete spin to make him seem just as good as Max.

“I didn't put us into this situation Azaria.” Liz growled under her breath, her body tense with anger as she lent against the stairs. “But... you know I'd like to thank you...” Sincerity was in her voice, as she needed the door once again. “For showing me what Khivar was up to.” Cocking her to one side she simply looked at the other woman in confusion. “You are clever... pretty... and from what Isabel tells me about what she remembers... just as manipulative as he is... but why doesn't he want you?”

Azaria fumed silently and expressionlessly in the dark room. “What has it got to do with you? I think the question is... why does he want you?”

Khivar disappeared into the blackness of the room, his dark pools never leaving Azaria. Liz was showing her true potential and telling him she wouldn't be fooled as she had the gift to both see the best and the worst features of a person, even if hidden behind a well trained mask. He had to admit that she was good at it. He could now plainly see why Azaria had deliberately brought the foundations of his plan crashing down in front of him. His mind ticked over as he remembered every time he had done something because of her. Anger raged beneath the surface as he remembered how Azaria whispered in his ear

“She has gone back to him... she is a waste of space... if she truly loved you, if you had truly transformed her into your soul mate... why didn't she kill Rath with her own hands? Why didn't she plot against him... why only her brother? I suggest she still loves him Khivar and she needs to be disposed of. Now.”

“You brackard!” Khivar muttered under his breath as he approached Azaria. “You manipulated me into killing the one thing that meant anything to me!”

Azaria spun round her eyes wide as she watched Khivar move around in the shadows towards her. She was glued to the spot, her mind racing as she watched his hands clench and unclench as he neared her. She knew what he was going to do. She didn't even need to hear him roar at her with such human passion she knew it was her time. So she took three steps toward him and actually grabbed his hands, pressing them to her throat.

Liz screamed out loud as she watched the scene in front of her. She could hear the bones of Azaria's neck twist and crack. What chilled her the most was the fact Azaria didn’t even scream, moan or gasp for air. Her hand actually reached for Khivar’s face and as he cracked her neck, in one swift movement, she actually caressed his cheek, piling all her love and affection into that one act of pure warmth. Her palm slid off his face harshly as her body slumped to the floor. Within seconds she was nothing but a pile of ash on the floor.

Khivar stared blankly at the pile. Not one fleck of emotion was found.

“Why?-why? Why did you do that?” Liz stuttered in shock as she too stared at the pile of dust. Within seconds a person had been murdered and then suddenly disappeared before her very eyes.

“Because she helped murder the one thing I wanted… then in turn ruined the one plan I had to get what I was destined.” Khivar tilted his head towards Liz, his finger pointing towards her stomach. “That child is destined to destroy everything Zan did. That child is destined to be mine. You are destined to be part of it.”

“I do not accept that.” Liz declared coldly as she stood strong. She wasn’t going to let him bring her down with the concept of destiny, a word that still kicked her in the stomach whenever she heard it. Max had shown her destiny was what she made it. She had her own destiny. The fact he was waiting upstairs for her, not for Tess, proved it. “I won’t let you have my child…”

Khivar’s lips turned up slightly. “I think you will find out soon enough that I get what I want.”

“But you have already had what you want by raping me in the alleyway… I’ll make sure it will never happen again.”

Liz smoothed down her pyjama bottoms as she remembered the event, as she thought about the blackness that followed after she was knocked unconscious. It tore her heart into a million pieces.

Her innocence could have been taken away from her by a mad man.

She focused on Khivar as she realised he had not answered with a witty or declarative comment about how he would have her. In the darkness she could just about make out the look of confusion masked by the appearance of total smugness.

“You didn’t do it… did you?” Liz gasped as she made a quick step towards the door, more out of happiness and relief than outrage. Khivar’s silence confirmed it. He didn’t take her innocence that night.

PART THIRTY FOUR

She couldn’t see anything past the mist of tears that covered her vision. After all these years with the belief, the lack of memory, she finally knew the answer to the question that tore her heart every passing moment. It was a thought that had completely numbed her from the feeling of truly letting herself go, worried that if she did she would be taken advantage of again. Her and Ava merely working while on the run from him was a relief, a distraction. But after that situation, the episode that changed her completely, she couldn’t even allow herself the luxury of a life. She had to be so careful because of what a man could have done to her.

Now she knew. She knew the truth coming right from the horse’s mouth.

She felt true happiness for the first time in days. Pure joy filled her veins, overwhelmed her mind, body and spirit. It sent her to this whole new place in her mind that she thought she would never find again. It was the place where she could simply get lost in her mind, just for a moment, so she could centre herself and work out all the emotions that were just below the surface. The past few years had almost killed her, her emotions either being pushed out on to the surface, for the world to see, or bottled up tight until she just broke down into a mess on the floor at any time. It didn’t matter how small the trigger, the result had always been the same; she broke down in to hysterics with no one thing or person being able to pull her back.

Now she didn’t have the problem. She could feel the renewed control.

Yet she didn’t let him see that. She was going to keep what was returned to her from him. So she presented an air of being calm and indifferent to what was now known. She lowed her gaze to the floor for a moment to attract his attention.

“Why?” she whispered after a moment. “Why? Why let me believe that you did?” She still stared at the floor, her lip in her mouth as she waited. After a while when the answer to her question was heard she looked back up, finding Khivar knelt before her at the door. His head was lowered, his shoulders shaking slightly. Out of curiosity she made her way down to his level kneeling before him. “Tell me.” She whispered once again.

Unmoving Khivar spoke, his voice timid for one with such self-confidence. “Because Ava decided it would be one final way to break you…” His head snapped up, his eyes blazing. “Don’t think for one moment that I didn’t intend to… because I did. But… when I saw you laid out on the floor I just… just couldn’t. I must not have had complete control of the body I was occupying- but I just couldn’t go through it.”

Liz cocked her head to the side as she lent on her hand. She sat still, lost in her thoughts for a couple of moments. When she finally spoke her voice was calm, slow and strong. “Some say that there are attackers who just cannot go through with such a violent act…” Khivar snorted as he shook his head. He knew he was fully functional at that time. “Or… or it could of have been out of kindness. After all… if you truly believed that I was destined to be yours, which I am not,”

“Which you are… you are destined to be my Queen.” Khivar stated with true belief in his tone.

“Which I am not,” Liz continued completely ignoring his opinion, not allowing the comment to take control over her and anger her completely. Her powers emerged earlier so it meant she could lose control of them in an instant, just like the rest of the time her powers were active. “You may have thought that you would finally have me… You thought that I’d come to you sooner or later… so you did the” Her hands came up in the air using air quotations. “ ‘Kind’ thing by not doing it then… in the alleyway next to a cheesy themed café.”

“Maybe… Maybe not. But as you stated earlier I do not feel human emotion… not like Max does.” He snapped bitterly. “I am devoid of it. If I remember correctly… that was the big difference between me and Max wasn’t it? I’m devoid of human emotion and it runs freely through his veins.” He smirked at her. “So that means your theory has just been blown out of the water… now doesn’t it?”

Liz laughed. It started as a small little snigger, slowly and surely turning into a full-blown chortle that had her crying tears of laughter. The whole time he scowled at her, demanding she stopped it. Yet she didn’t. She wasn’t going to let a deranged Alien King think he could tell her what to do anymore. She didn’t stop, not that she could. When she finally clamed herself down she looked him in straight in the eye, her nerve unwavering as he scowled demonically at her.

“You see… you are so wrong about that. What was that episode with Azaria all about? You finally realised she had manipulated you into killing Vilandra… and you got angry and committed murder. It happens here on Earth… So therefore the emotions you showed me were very much human. It seems to me you are not completely devoid of human emotion… you can feel anger… a dangerously powerful emotion. If you can feel that you can feel the most wonderfully powerful emotion, kindness, compassion.”

“Then surely… I am just the same as Max. After all that was the big difference between us. So with the big difference between us proven to be a load of crap… what is so special about the reborn King? What is so special about Max Evans?”

“I accept her the way she is… unlike you and the way you were towards Vilandra.” Max answered for Liz as he tall at the foot of the stairs, making his presence known. He had been stood there for a while, unable to stay in bed knowing his Liz was downstairs having a heart to heart with Khivar. So he had crept down the stairs and simply sat on the bottom step in just his boxers. He had sat, his body shaking out of cold, watching the scene between them; proud of Liz in the way she handled herself and the demon that was caged away before her eyes. Her determination not to be part of a destiny was strong, so strong it reminded himself back when Tess had just arrived. It reminded him of a time that was more innocent, simpler and kinder to them. It reminded him how much he loved her. He wanted to declare it to the world and there was no better time to do it. “I love her for all her perfections, her faults, her kind heart and her own will. I love her for her. Unlike you I was willing to just love her from afar… I didn’t want to manipulate her into something she just wasn’t. Where as you… You manipulated my sister because you felt that it was okay to change her into the person who would want you… you couldn’t accept her the way she was and couldn’t respect her wishes.”

“Words spoken by a hypocrite.” Spat Khivar as he jumped to his feet, his angered words directed towards Max and his angry looks towards Liz for not coming alone. “If I remember rightly… what Ava told me you chased Liz after she ran away from after your little destiny message. You sang at her window, left her roses on her bed every morning, watched her work during her shifts, declared your love for her and you intentions to get her back, in public. Is that respecting her wishes…? Your disrespect of her wishes was so bad for Liz she turned to Tess and when that didn’t work she went to Kyle for help.” His angered expression turned to a smile as he wound Max up further. “I do believe you are more like me than Liz made you out to be.”

Max’s hand hit the devise on the wall, letting down the force field, before making a charge towards Khivar hitting him hard against the face, knocking him to the ground. Liz sat in the spot in stunned silence as she watched. “I am not like you.” He growled under his breath as he knelt just inches away from Khivar.

“Well you heard what Liz said… anger is a human emotion we both share.” Moving closer to Max he whispered. “If she likes to see human emotion from a man… then maybe I’ll be the perfect match for her if all you seem to be capable of is anger.”

Max lifted his fist, ready to punch the man hard but stopped just seconds before he did, just letting it fall to his side as he shook his head and stood. “If I can stop before I commit murder it proves I am not like you. I couldn’t be like you. I hate to harm, you love to.”

“There is a fine line between love and hate Max” Khivar stated to Max’s smug expression.

“We shall see.” Max stated as he turned to Liz, giving her a reassuring smile as he walked towards her. As Liz stood she smiled as well. This was the man she loved and now she more or less back to her old self, suddenly felt ready to talk to him, to let him in once again. She was too scared before, not wanting to add to his already turbulent mind that was full of worry towards Matthew. Even though he knew Matthew would always be safe with Alex, he still worried about it and she didn’t want to add on it by talking about how things between herself, Matthew and Tess were going to work out. She was too scared then… but now… now she had courage to face her demons and start to live her life; she just needed to know one more thing.

All this raw emotion of love and determination came from the gaze of Max, her ture love.

Khivar’s blood boiled as he watched the exchange between the two. A simple smile made him angry because it was him that should have Liz. He was destined to use her to make his world conform. It was her he needed. That smile shattered his dream that she would eventually come willingly to Antar to rule with him. His dream that she could learn to love him, without manipulation, was destroyed. She truly loved Max and in that one moment it was obvious there was no changing her mind.

He had only one option left. Kill Max.

Adrenaline ran through his veins as he stood quickly and made a run for Max. Liz’s eyes grew wide in horror as she watched Khivar running, as if he was in slow motion, but couldn’t even get a warning to Max out of her mouth before he was tackled to the ground, Khivar grabbing him by the hair and hitting his head on the ground.

“Max!” She screamed as she started into the room, stopping momentarily in shock as she watched Khivar, who had Max successfully pinned to the ground, made a grab for a knife in his boot that no one had spotted before. Out of instinct she threw the knife out of his grasp, into the far corner, and pushed him against the wall with her powers before running over to Max.

Her hands roamed all over his body as she rolled him over, unconsciously checking him for injuries as she noticed he was no longer conscious. “Max” she whispered as he started to wake. She smiled as his eyes fluttered open, her name uttered on his lips as he started to regain consciousness. “Thank God,” she whispered as her forehead came to rest on his. After a moment his hand crept along her neck and into her hair as Max tried to sit up, trying to take her with him.

Once sat they just looked at each other, studying each part of their soul mates face. Sometimes moments like those were the most powerful, meaningful and beautiful moments that they experienced because in that one moment it was apparent, without words or flashes, that they loved each other. In that one moment they memorized every last freckle, scar and imperfection just in case a moment like the one before turned out to be fatal. After every traumatic event they did this. In the bus, after the shooting and after Michael’s episode. It was one pure selfish moment in which they were lost, a moment that could easily stretch on forever.

A moment that always spoiled by something.

“Just sickening!” Khivar whined as he watched the love struck pair as they sat staring into each other’s eyes. “Why don’t you just get together for Christs sake!” He bit when he didn’t manage to spoil the moment, the pair apparently not noticing his presence. When Max’s eyes flickered he beamed at him. “Just thought you should know… people should only stare at each other like that if they are together… so just do me a favour and just get it on!” The air in the room chilled as his voice lowered and his eyes burned into Max’s. “So I can enjoy the moment I take her remaining speck of innocence right before your very eyes.”

Max roared in anger as he lunged for Khivar’s throat, practically pushing Liz away as he leapt to his feet and wringing his hands around the crazed man’s neck. “I will kill you… just like I told you I would.” He growled into Khivar’s face as he watched it turn blue.

“Max…” Came Liz’s terrified voice from behind him. She could barely lift herself from the floor long enough to look at him and all remaining strength disappeared as Max’s head snapped round, his eyes wide to reveal his black pools that replaced the amber ones that usually resided there. “Zan…” she gasped as she slumped to the floor.

His alien side had taken over. Zan was present, she could feel it, like a black hole sucking in her soul that made her cry out in pain so she did the only thing possible; she cut off their connection.

“Confronted with what you fear the most you show your true love what you really are. You show your true colours,” Khivar some how managed to grunt out as Zan’s unwavering stare snapped back to him, completely ignoring the brunette that lay slumped on the floor, tears sliding down her cheeks as she watched her soul mate accepting a side of himself he used to deny even existed. She couldn’t move from the floor because she couldn’t see past the mist of her tears. Yet when Zan looked towards the scene before him his hold didn’t falter as Khivar had hoped. The scene before the great King Zan didn’t even let Max peek through. “She how you are killing the one you love,” Khivar mumbled as his hold on any air he had started to weaken.

Zan’s head snapped back to Khivar. “I am here to do the thing I have wanted to do since the moment I was reborn…” His hold tightened around Khivar’s neck as he pressed him closer to the wall. “Kill you.” The declaration that he growled under his breath sparked a fiery fear in Khivar’s chest. He was determined; Khivar could see that. But he had many tricks hidden in his sleeves.

“How-how do-do-do you … think she w-will be able… to look at-at you ever again?” He spluttered out of desperation, yet another human emotion he had noticeably adopted. He was willing to say anything just to remove the death grip that was wrapped around his throat. It was a grip that could make your whole life flash before your eyes and mere seconds turn into minutes, like it was that very moment. “How-how will she ev-ever let you near your own child?”

Suddenly black turned to amber and soon Max was staring back at the alien that his previous self wanted dead. Instantly he felt sick to the stomach. He almost killed a man. Well… an alien yet he looked like a man. He was still a being and he almost took his life.

Soon his feeling of sickness and disgust towards himself just left his body and in it’s place stood guilt as he remembered Liz. Soon his hands were from Khivar’s throat and he was turning round, coming face to face with why he was feeling guilty. Liz was visibly shaking as she looked up at him, from the floor, yet she wasn’t really looking at him. She was distant, practically seeing straight through him, as if lost in a daydream. As if she was lost in a tragic memory that kept repeating over and over again.

“Liz,” He gasped, as he knelt on the floor before her. When she didn’t reply his hand moved to her shoulder. The slightest touch of his hand had Liz scrabbling away with her hands, her eyes wide like she was a trapped and frightened animal. A sob escaped Max’s lips as he observed her. He had scared her to death by that lightening change from Max, the love of her life, to Zan, an essence hell bent on revenge. But what scared him the most was how quickly he had changed. If one comment would set him off into this thing, how on the earth was he to spend the rest of his life with Liz or be around his children.

“Liz…” he whispered in pain as he edged closer to her, his hand stretched out in front of him but every time he moved a step closer she just slid back a little further out of his reach. “Liz… I’m sorry… I really am. I dunno what just came over me… it-it was something I couldn’t control.”

“It was a side of you that you had dismissed all a long, a side of you that you didn’t accept… All this time she thought you were human and you have just proven yourself not to be entirely the man she had made herself believe.” Khivar smirked at Max. Cocking his head to the side, still pinned securely to the wall, he searched Liz’s face, still smiling slightly out of smugness. “And you chose him over me? You considered him more human than me? Tell me… how does it feel to know you were wrong all along?”

Liz barely even registered him, as she grew more wary of the thing in front of her. One minute he was Max, her Max, and then the next he was Zan, Tess’ Zan with a feeling that just sent cold shivers down her spine. To some extent the whole concept that there was an alien inside of Max she had ignored, even though she subconsciously knew there was, mainly because she had never seen that side of him before. He had always been the kind gentle giant that cared about her, her feelings and her safety. But now she was seeing him in a whole new light and the way Khivar smirked at her just made her feel wary of him. She wasn’t scared of him, well at first she was, but looking at the desperation and pain on his face at that moment just made her wary.

The tears that traced down his cheeks just made her wall, one that completely severed their connection, weaken and begin to crack, letting her able to feel him if she really concentrated. She had completely forgotten about the connection that had been formed the night before the white room and Ava, the night before this hell began. She had forgotten about it because she subconsciously knew it was always there. To completely close it off, even for the few seconds, shocked her by how powerful it truly was because the moment she closed it she felt empty.

After a couple of seconds more cracks in her stonewall began to appear and she could start to feel the overwhelming amount of love and admiration Max held for her. Tears started to fill her eyes as well as she felt the true extent of his love for her. As more cracks began to appear the more she felt it. It was so strong, so warming and so natural she reached out for it, bashing down her own defence.

As every crack was made Max inched a little bit closer to Liz, pouring every last ounce of love he felt for her into the cracks, hoping it got through to her. Soon they were both crying as one final crack was made and the wall just came crashing down around Liz’s soul. Instantly she was hit with a wave of raw emotion that stirred her soul back to life, had her heart racing and her slight frame into her soul mates arms.

As Max held her tightly to his bare chest he muttered repeatedly, “I’m sorry, oh God Liz I am so sorry.” Pulling back, from Max, Liz cupped both sides of his face and gazed into his loving eyes, melting as the tears poured. “Help me Liz. Please. I don’t want to … to become him again.”

She paused for a moment searching for any sign of Zan in Max. She couldn’t see any of the signs of Zan, she couldn’t see Zan in his eyes and she couldn’t feel Zan’s essence like she did before. She smiled, placing a small kiss on his lips, before she rest her forehead on his. She sighed contently. “Some how… some how I just have this feeling that we won’t be seeing him again any time soon.”

“Good,” he sighed with relief. “I love you Liz.”

“I love you,” Liz beamed.

“Errr… guys… sorry to ruin the mood,” Kyle, stood next to Michael who was in just his boxers shivering slightly, hesitated from the doorway. “But what do we do about him?” He pointed towards Khivar.

Looking over Max’s shoulder she sighed. She knew what he deserved and what punishment he was going to get; yet she had one last question for the wannabe alien king. As she tried to stand she felt Max’s confusion grow in the pit of her stomach. Brushing away a lock of his hair away from his eyes, she gave him a reassuring smile. For more moment they remained still, before Liz had to tear herself away from Max’s warm embrace. She shuddered slightly as she stood for the first time realising the way Khivar’s steady stare made her nervous. The fact she still had him pinned to the wall was of little comfort to her. Max, Michael and Kyle standing in the door way didn’t help her to disperse her anxiety either because the way his stare saw straight through her made her feel so alone.

PART THIRTY FIVE

But she had to ignore it to carry on. Carry on to confront the alien who had made her life a living hell, who destroyed her mentally, who made her run for her life.

With each step forward she took, the more confident she became because somewhere deep inside there was a voice ordering her to go and take back her sanity. To take back her life.

“I am going to only ask you this question once. If you know what is good for you, you will answer it.” She stood as tall as she could appear in the darkness of the room. Even though she was stood in just her pyjamas she gave the appearance of being someone not to mess with. Green sparks flickered across her finger’s as she remained still and quiet for Khivar’s acknowledgment that he understood.

Silence just served to have a ball of green electricity narrowly missing his head. He flinched as it burnt into the wall; the paint blistering as it made it’s way through a couple of inches into the wall. “Now… tell me you understand that I will only ask this question once because if you don’t I have no problem in killing you.” When Khivar nodded quickly she continued, disgust running heavily in her voice. “You have threatened everyone I have ever cared about and there is no chance in hell I am letting you or anyone else have my child or me. I don’t care about any prophecies, about your planet, about what you believe. All I care about is whether any one else will come after my family or me. So answer me this… are there other believers who will come after me or will we be able to finally live a normal life? Will I be able to raise my family without the fear that someone alien will come to take us away?”

“Why should I answer you when you are going to kill me anyway?” Khivar hissed.

“Answer me,” Liz ordered as she took a step forward.

“No.” He barked. “Make me!”

“Khivar don’t make me hurt you. I hate to say this because it sounds so cheesy… But answer me now or suffer the consequences.” The green electricity in her palm intensified, as she grew more irritated.

“This tough girl act doesn’t suit you, Liz. It only looks good on some people; especially the pretty girls who have had it hard in life… but you aren’t like them so why are you even trying? Trying to impress me with it so I’ll just turn that information over won’t work on me.”

“It’s what you have done to me Khivar. The way I am now is what you have forced me to become so I could survive your hounding, your torture. It’s no act, it’s the new Liz Parker that you see before you now.” Taking another step forward had Liz stood just before him. She began to fiddle with the buttons of his robe calmly, bottling all her anger towards him inside to let it build. “You even forget that I still have my powers… even with that device activated. So you have this new tough Liz Parker,” Her fingers ran down the line of buttons, popping them off one by one as she did so. “With some really strong kick ass powers that even you, the almighty Khivar, cannot use right now,” Pulling open the robe she exposed Khivar’s naked chest. Her fingers traced the lines of the exposed muscles of his chest. Slowly they crept down his torso to his black trousers, lingering over the bulge she found there.

All the guys gasped as they watched Liz seemingly groping Khivar. “Liz?” Asked a confused Max.

But she ignored him and kept her focus on Khivar. Her lingering fingers sparked around his groin, making him moan with pleasure. “And the silly thing that you are has threatened me and my baby… and to top it all off you have pissed me off by not giving me what I want to know.” Pressing her body into his she whispered in a low serious tone, “Now you are going to answer me… or have a great amount of pain inflicted on a certain area of your body.”

Khivar swallowed nervously, yet managed to declare, “You wouldn’t…” in a sneering and disbelieving tone. His eyes locked with Liz’s the second her green eyes began to grow dark. Suddenly a searing pain spreading through his groin. It felt like it was slowly burning from the inside out. He could feel the skin of his penis start to blister and burst, leaking a green fluid much like the fluid seen in Tess’ mind warp.

His scream woke the rest of the house.

Yet she ignored it just shouting in his ear over the top of his screams “Now tell me! Will there be others coming after us?”

“Liz…” Max called out to Liz. “Liz stop it! This won’t get you any where.”

“Neither will just talking at him!” She argued as maintained her focus on causing Khivar as much pain as possible. “If torture is all that he understands… torture will be the only thing to crack him.”

“Max she’s right!” Michael agreed as he put a hand on Max’s shoulder, preventing him from moving over to stop her. “We have tried to tough guy attitude but it didn’t work because we didn’t have our powers. Liz has her powers and she is mighty need for revenge… so I say you let her do her thing. I feel confident enough that after all this time running from him she knows exactly what she is doing.”

Max clenched his jaw as he listened to Michael, knowing full well he was right. But right now he was worried about how she would feel later on. How would she feel knowing that she had done this to another being? Would she feel just as disgusted with herself? Or could Michael be right? What if it released her mentally? She had been living on tender hooks for so long maybe it would finally allow her to relax, to finally be able to talk to him about their relationship, knowing that the one person she feared was no longer an issue. She could finally feel free to be Liz Parker.

It could go either way and all Max could really do was just stand and watch the scene that was playing out before him and when it was over, be there for her.

“Tell me!” She shouted once more. “Tell me and I can take the pain away!”

“Go to hell!” he screamed in response. “I’d rather die than tell you!”

Liz tensed as he said those words. Would she really go as far as to kill him to find out what she needed to know? The answer to that question was no. She planned to make him suffer, just like she had done running away from a danger she couldn’t see. So he was going to know just how it felt to suffer being blind.

“Answer me now Khivar. Now or I will make you suffer. I’ll make your life a misery because that is what you truly deserve… to suffer just like I did under your scrutiny,” Khivar stopped screaming as she stopped the pain that she was inflicting on him. He turned his head towards her, looking confused as to why she stopped the torture. “Oh don’t look at me like that Khivar… I haven’t finished with you yet.” Her small fingers once again started to move but this time their path was upwards. They made their way up his chest and around his neck, finally finding their way on to the top of his head. “I’m going to make you feel so vulnerable, so powerless and blind to what is going to happen next that you will be begging for me to stop. Just like I did that time in the park… do you remember that day? When you were about to take me but fortune for me that old couple showed up?”

“I remember.” He smiled slightly at the memory, at the way it felt to see Liz on her knees before him, her tear stained face wary. “It felt so good Liz. It felt so good to hear you beg.”

“Well it was out of desperation, which was truly humiliating… but soon enough you will know how that feels.” Throwing him onto the floor, pinning him down with his arms down by his sides, she knelt on the ground. “You have pushed me to this Khivar. Tell me what I want to know and I won’t do it. I might just kill you out of mercy.” Khivar just looked away, defiantly. “Fine. Have it your way.” She spat bitterly, placing both her hands on each side of his face, focusing intently on the task in hand.

Max watched Liz intently for any sign of power drain or fatigue as she sat there deep in concentration. He had no idea what she was doing but the expression she held was one that had him worried yet relieved at the same time. Relieved that she was going to do something that she regretted, but worried at how far she was going to push herself in order to get the answers she was after.

After a minute Liz gasped and collapsed onto the cold floor next to Khivar who was also unconscious. Max quickly ran towards Liz, gathering her up in his arms, pressing her to his body. She felt so small and perfect in his arms that he suddenly wondered how he had ever managed to live without her for so long.

“Oh god Lizzy!” gasped Maria, her hand to her heart, as she saw Liz’s small body limp in Max’s arms as he exited the room. Everyone else, still in their pyjamas, surrounded them by the stairway checking Liz over instinctively as Michael locked Khivar away in the room once more. Maria, happy Liz was still breathing looked Max in the eye, nodding at the silent request he was making. Backing away she ran a hand through her hair nervously before quietly saying, “Back off guys… she’s fine. Our mini Czechoslovakian is fine. So let’s just you know… let Max take her up stairs.”

“But what about…”

“We can ask her questions later,” she barked at Tess. Seeing the pain on Tess’ face made Maria touch her lightly on the arm. “I’m sorry… I am just as curious as you are… but we need to think about her health. We have no idea how hard she pushed herself and trying to get answers out of her now is just useless and probably dangerous for her and the baby. Now… lets all go back to bed… it’s only six in the morning. We will see her later.”

* * * * * * *
After Maria’s little speech Max was up the stairs, effortlessly with Liz in his arms, in a flash. Within a minute he was tenderly laying her on the bed, his eyes fixated on her face as he did so. She seemed so at peace at that moment, he just wanted to take a picture of it and kept in his mind forever. When she was sleeping was the only time in which she looked at peace in her own mind. Awake she always appeared troubled often sitting in a chair, in the dark, just sitting and thinking about everything, trying to work her way out of this hell. Sometimes he wished she would just let him in and let him share the pain and the confusion she was obviously feeling. That wasn’t surprising considering just three months before hand she was dying with no prospect of having children and being hounded by a mad man, now she was expecting her first child, a miracle in her eyes, and had the same mad man, who she feared so much, living under the same roof. Life was just a big complicated mess full of unexpected surprises and betrayal and what Liz needed was talk about it all. She had been bottling it all up, worrying everyone, obviously deeply troubled. Max had to be proud of Liz, she had kept her composure through out everything and was taking baby steps towards opening up to the group once more, but he wished everyday that Liz would open up to him like she had the day this whole thing had begun, back at the Crashdown shooting.

At least he could saver this sight for now until this was over. This sight was just about enough to keep him from breaking down at the sight of her tortured expressions and the crying beside him when she thought he was asleep. This sight just proved to him that there was light at the end of the tunnel that if she was happy in her dreams she would finally, one day, be happy in reality.

Pushing back a lock of her hair he sighed contently. He would wait for her. He would always wait for her.

* * * * * *

Maria stared thoughtfully at Max’s back as he charged up the stairs. She knew Liz was fine, she was with Max, but what she wondered about is what did she do to Khivar? His limp body still lay on the floor of his cage.

“Oh my god.” Gasped Kyle as he pulled Tess into his arms.

Tess gripped him tightly as possible in reaction to his shivering. “Kyle! Your shaking… Go put some clothes on.”

Kyle shook his head as he looked at Michael. “It’s not the cold… it’s what went on in that room that’s… that’s scared me” Talking to Michael his hold on Tess tightened. “Did that worry you as much as it worried me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t she scare you? Not what she did… because he deserved every last thing he got… but didn’t she worry you the way she hardly seemed herself. That person in there was cold hearted… that isn’t the Liz Parker I know.”

“But she isn’t the same Kyle…” Maria chimed in. “I half expected her to be when she came back into our lives. I half expected that after Max healed her, she would stay and depend on us once again. But she ran off… that just illustrated how much she had changed. She wouldn’t have reacted in such a way after the things Ava made Isabel say.”

“The Liz we know would have stood up and fought… tried to make us take some sort of stand and make a plan of action… you know just in case.” Agreed Isabel, as she hugged herself. “She has changed. She had to change… to merely survive.”

“We phased her out of the group… she started to change from that moment. When Max started to push her away… it just started this whole chain reaction. We are the people who started this… and I think when this whole mess is over with we need to show her how much we love her. She is our friend guys and I don’t want to give her an excuse to feel she has to leave us again…” Maria declared, tears starting to form in her eyes. “It’s not everyday you think you are going to loose your best friend forever and then get another chance. She holds this group together… without her Kyle left; Max and Tess pushed themselves out of the group. Isabel had Alex and I had Michael. We had our little pairings and we just simply hung out at the same place, coming together when there was trouble. She has ties to everyone; she gets on with everyone and brings the group together, truly as a group. Since we have been here everything seems to… I dunno… fallen into place.”

“Like Ava once said…” Tess added. “She brings out the best in people.”

“But if she doesn’t open up… how is she going to have the energy to do that?” Asked Serena as she lent over the banister, half watching what Khivar’s unconscious body was doing.

“It’s just a matter of time,” Michael answered from behind Maria, his arms protectively holding her to his body, his face in her hair. “The instant she broke down last week she opened up the flood gates.”

“And she’s with Max…” Isabel smiled. “He’s a good listener… and he won’t probe you either. He’ll wait until she is ready.”

“I just hope she will open up,” Tess whispered. “After all she has changed as a person… so I don’t know whether Max can get to her.”

“Have faith in Max… I do.” Kyle declared as he neared the room. Leaning against the frame of the door he looked in at the prisoner. He was still lying unconscious on the floor; drool sliding out of the corner of his mouth as his exhausted mind slept soundly. “What do you think she did?” He asked after a couple of moments. “What do you think she decided was a worthy punishment for such a man?” He said in a dramatic and tv like manner.

He sighed as Tess’ slender arms wrapped themselves around his waist. Turning his head to face her he found her blue eyes gazing back at him, love evident. “Does it matter? What ever she did I am sure its something he truly deserves.”

“She’s right, Kyle,” Maria agreed as she to neared the force field to stare at the ‘God’ within. “All the time she was away she probably dreamt a hundred and one things that she wished she could do to him… and knowing my Chica… she has chosen a fitting punishment.” She smiled to herself as a memory graced her mind. “I remember the one hundred and one things she wished she could do to Pam Troy. Liz’s favourite one was number 12… turn her into her worse nightmare… turn her into a boffin because she always teased Liz about being one. I thought giving her a pig nose would have been more fitting…”

“I remember that list,” Kyle laughed as he rested his head on Tess’. “One of them was cut her long blonde hair off, just leaving it on her pillow and camp outside her window with a camera. I would have loved to have seen her face the moment she realised her crowning glory was gone… cut out off by the one person she hated the most. But being as nice as pie to Pam just pissed her off more. Pam couldn’t stand it.”

Isabel smiled as she sat on the step. “I remember that. Every time Liz saw Pam she just smiled at her saying hi in a really friendly way.”

“It got her in trouble though… She cornered Liz one day in the locker room and tried her damn hardest to make Liz pay for it. I remember the bruise Liz tried to keep hidden with concealer…” Maria added. “Then someone saw it and Miss popular suddenly became Miss Nobody… Liz finally had the upper hand… she was more popular than Pam ever was… I was so proud of my Chica then.”

“Oh remember the day she tried it on with Max?” Isabel asked laughing. “You should have seen her face when Max turned her down.”

“I wish I could of.” Tess laughed.

Joining Isabel on the stairs Michael added, “Oh forget that… you should have seen Max’s… it was bright red! He was so embarrassed to have been asked out by the whore of the year.”

“But you know what… The best bit was the way Liz grabbed Max’s face and just kissed him senseless. The way his eyes were all misty and loved up, his lips swollen and a boner as long as his arm…”

“Kyle!” Screamed Maria as Tess slapped his arm. “I don’t wanna know about that!”

Laughter erupted between them as they witnessed the bickering that ensued for a couple of minutes. The bickering was only friendly banter, something that Serena admired. She had known Kyle for a while and she hadn’t seen him this happy. She had noticed the way his eyes lit up when he was joking around with them. She could help but notice that these people lent on him for his sarcastic comments, which he had said a plenty since the day Khivar and Azaria signed in at the Manor.

After the laughter died down all just stood contently, smiles upon their faces as they enjoyed each other’s company. A feeling that didn’t feel awkward and tension filled. It was a feeling that seemed almost natural.

“You know what?” Came Serena’s voice from up the stairs. “Liz is so lucky… so lucky to have friends like you.”

“She is… we all are.” Michael agreed as he stood from the step, taking Maria’s hand in his. “Lets go to bed… she won’t be up for a while and I have a feeling sleeping beauty over there isn’t exactly going to wake up anytime soon… and there is a question that needs to be answered… why the hell are we all stood watching him sleep? A bit stalkerish don’t you think?”

* * * * * * *

As the group slept soundly in their warm beds, smiles of contentment upon their faces, a whisper from Khivar’s cell slowly turned into a scream.

“I’M BLIND! I’M BLIND! I’M BLIND!”

PART THIRTY SIX.

Max found Liz fully dressed and cross-legged in front of Khivar’s cell just peering in, crying softly, and waiting for him to wake. She had heard his screams last night, they had echoed in her ears waking her up. She had lain there watching Max sleep beside her but she couldn’t bear to see the worried expression he wore when he started to dream. He was dreaming about Matthew and it just broke her heart to see him in pain from being apart for so long. Isabel couldn’t dream walk him, Tess couldn’t mind warp him and they couldn’t ring him out of fears that the men outside would capture him intent on using him as leverage to retrieve their king. Although they had not heard activity outside in a couple of days they still weren’t sure that they weren’t there.

So Liz left the room, fully dressed, to wait for the games to begin. For a while she had just sat there smiling contently that soon enough she will have the answer to her question and be able to start living a normal life. Yet after a while she started to think about other things such as Max, her unborn child, Alex and Matthew. Slowly but surely all the pain Khivar had caused Liz just overwhelmed her again and she sat there in the hallway with her head in her knees as she sobbed.

She stayed like that for about an hour before Max finally came downstairs in search of her.

“What are you doing here, Max?” She asked meekly as she remained looking at Khivar.

“I came to make you talk Liz… You just aren’t talking to me, to anyone and it’s worrying me.” The moment she looked up at him for her position he just gathered her up into his arms and started rocking her slowly just allowing her to let it all out. This had been what they were waiting for, for Liz to let him in.

After a while she looked at him and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry,” she sniffed as she made herself more comfortable.

“You have nothing to be sorry about Liz.” Max whispered into her ear soothingly. He started to play with her long hair as he waited for her to talk.

“I’ve been bottling this all up for so long… it’s just a shock to think that for once I have the upper hand. His life is in my hands and I finally have true control over my life. He’s been such a big part of my life… to think that I almost died because of him makes me want to rip him apart for he has done to me… but I can’t just let him get away with it that easily, not with out the answer I am looking for… but it also scares me… worries me that there has to be a catch… there has to be something around the corner that is going to take over my life again.”

“I won’t let it Liz. I will never let that happen.” Max whispered again, his hold on Liz tightening.

“But how can you stop it? How can you be so sure?” Liz asked as she remained in his arms, her hand wrapped around the collar of his black shirt.

“Because it’s you… you have had it tough in the last couple of years… and now it’s your time to have a life and there is no one more deserving than you. With me by your side, with me in your life I will make sure that you will have your normal life.” Feeling her tense up, he looked down at her, his hand subconsciously rubbing her back in reassurance. “That’s if you want me in your life… if you want me.”

Liz’s looked back at Max in complete horror and confusion as she snapped up and sat in his lap. Cupping both sides of his face she stared him straight in the eye. “How can you think that I don’t want you in my life? Max Evans I love you with all my heart. Over the years I-I have felt like I couldn’t …couldn’t really breath, I couldn’t really be myself in the way I wanted to… but being with you in the last couple of weeks… I-I have… have found I can breath… I’m not suffocating at all when I am with you.” Running her hands through his hair she straddled him making them face to face with one another. “Now I am coming to realise… I need you Max. I can’t live without you… and I am more than willing to start over… to go back to the very beginning, to forget every hateful word we ever said or thought about one another.”

“Really?” He asked as he pressed his forehead against hers. “Do you really mean that? It’s exactly what I want… and what we need”

“Really,” Liz said passionately with a huge smile across her face. “I think so to. Some much has happened, Ava, Tess, Khivar… it’s all just gotten in the way of-of us. My place, Max Evans, is by your side… I realise that now more than ever. I love you more now than I have ever done because you haven’t given up on me recently. I wouldn’t let you in and I know how hard that was for you… but I knew you would give me the space I needed to get my head around this all and I love you for that. I love the way you truly accept me the way I am and the way you are patient with me. So I want us to start from the beginning starting from today. We will live each day to love each other and make this work. Deal?”

“Deal.” Max agreed as he smiled at Liz. “I love you.”

“I love you to… Now that we have finally decided we are together now… what are we going to tell Matthew?” Liz asked apprehensively. She nervously bit her lip as she waited for his answer because for all she knew he would change his mind just to be with Tess for Matthew’s sake and it made her feel sick. She would fall in love with Matthew, she knew she would, but she didn’t like the thought that Max would be with Tess for his son’s sake. She had only just gotten him back and she didn’t want him to see that he had made a mistake by leaving.

“We will tell him the truth… that mummy and daddy just aren’t in love anymore but that doesn’t mean that we don’t love him just as much as before.” Pushing a lock of hair away from her face Max pressed a tender kiss to Liz’s lips for a second before pulling away and gazing into her eyes. “I will tell him how much I love him. I’ll let him feel how much I love him and me and Tess will sit him down and explain, the best that we can, that we are in love with the two most wonderful people in the world, who will make us happier than we were before. He’s a bright boy, he’ll come to understand in time.”

Liz bit her lip again as she thought about other things. “How is he going to accept the new baby? He might not like the idea of a little brother or sister…”

“He’ll love them just the same…”Max interrupted sternly. “He has wanted a brother or sister for a while now. Liz… don’t worry… what ever hurdles he throws at us we will be able to jump over. He will come to understand that his mother and me just aren’t suited for one another like we are. To make it easier we will divorce quickly but I want to live as near as possible so he knows where to find me… to find us.”

“Of course… Max I don’t want to get in the way of you and your family… it was perfect before I came along…”

“No it wasn’t” Max declared sincerely. “It wasn’t perfect and I wasn’t happy… Now that I have everything that I could ever want I am happy… more than happy ecstatic.”

Liz snorted. “Yeah because you can be ecstatic living with him?” Liz pointed at the still figure that was now calm and asleep on the floor. “How can this be everything you want when I brought him into our lives?”

His hand crept up to her cheek, his thumb caressing her soft white cheek gently. “Because…” He whispered tenderly. “Because I am here with you. I know that if he is here I know that Matthew is ok and I know I can watch over him… and eventually push him out of our lives for good.” He sighed softly as he looked at Liz. Guilt was plain to see in her gaze. “Liz… please do not feel guilty… You have nothing to be guilty for. I made you part of this… if there is anyone who has the right to feel guilty it’s me for getting you into this mess to begin with. But do you know what? I am not guilty because I have you. By coming out to you… by saving you… I found the most amazing person in the world and what’s more amazing is the fact she’s loves me. I am not guilty for dragging you into this because I know you make my world a better place… You shouldn’t feel guilty for letting us deal with this because in return you find out who your real friends are and are reunited with your family. And by bringing him to us you have allowed us the chance to eliminate him completely from our lives. You have nothing to be guilty about because you have done so much good by bringing him to us.” His gaze turned serious, full of passion and love. His body relaxed beneath Liz yet his hold on her tightened. The heat of his body beneath sent shivers throughout Liz’s petite body and suddenly she could feel how strongly Max believed in what he had been saying. “Now promise me… promise me that you will stop feeling guilty about this. This is not your fault that we are in this situation… it is Khivar’s and it is Ava’s… and remember by bringing him to us you have saved yourself and the rest of us. So promise me that you won’t feel guilty.”

Liz beamed at Max as the overwhelming feeling of guilt that she had been feeling just suddenly disappeared. Max was right… she had nothing to feel guilty about. “I promise.” She murmured as she began to lean forward towards his soft lips. “Why on the earth did I wait this long to talk to you about this?”

“Because you were scared… I understand that Liz… I was willing to wait forever for you to open up… I was willing to wait forever for you.” He declared gently as his focus turned towards Liz’s sweet lips that were making their way towards him too slowly for his liking. His fingers made their way to Liz’s red shirt and passionately tugged her forward so he could meet her lips and devour them throwing every ounce of love and affection into the kiss.

Their connection once again flew open for the second time in the last 24 hours. Within seconds flash upon flash of every tender moment that they had ever shared spread across their eyelids, speeding up the kiss into a passionate frenzy that left them gasping for air once they pulled away from each other. Their eyes locked as they sat face to face, their chests pulling in much needed air in to their warm bodies. Their hearts were racing and their cheeks were tinged with the red blood that was being flung around their bodies at lightening speeds. Both could feel the pure and unconditional love both felt for each other, a love that had started off as a small flame back at the Crashdown shooting, into a full blaze that no one could ever extinguish. It was so unconditional that in that moment they knew that the only other people they were to love more were their children.

“I love you so much Max.” Liz declared once more as they sat forehead to forehead. “I love you more than anyone could imagine.”

“I love you to Liz… so so much and I am going to spend the rest of my life making you are the happiest and most loved woman in the world,” Max played with the velvet brown hair as he pulled Liz further into his arms. “Once this is all over we are going to make ourselves a life worth living. A happy life. I can’t wait to once again see the sunlight on your face when I lie next to you in the morning. It feels like it has been years since the morning after that night. I wish I could see the sunlight pure down onto your face, your body and your hair”

Liz smiled as she slowly stood up out of Max’s arms. “Your wish is my command.” She backed away step by step; her eyes focused all the time on Max.

“Liz… what are you doing?” Max asked confused.

“Something we are free to do now.” Liz replied mischievously. When her back hit the wood of the front door Liz’s hand shot out to the black button that had kept her and her family locked away for well over a week. Within seconds the metal of the steel shutters began to creak and slowly begin to lift open allowing a beam of morning sun into the safe house, through the bay windows.

“Liz!” Max cried. “What about the men we left outside?!”

Liz once again smiled sheepishly. “I checked that this morning before you woke up… they seem to have been gone for a while… By the looks of things they couldn’t be bothered to wait around for their ‘king’. If he were truly a God he would have been back after a day… at the latest. He failed them and proved to them he wasn’t a God so they left him… well… that’s what it looks like anyway.”

“Good.” Max said as he stood up from his position on the floor. Slowly he trudged to the door like a man who had been imprisoned for 50 years and hadn’t seen the sun in about one hundred. As he neared the door he could feel the morning sun rain down on his face. Its rays gently caressed his cheeks and brought a small smile to his lips. “It’s odd how just over a week can feel like a lifetime.” Liz watched him as he passed her and stepped out onto the first steps that lead down onto the path. He leant against the frame as he looked out onto the world. It was such bliss to be able to feel the wind on his face, to see the green of the grass and finally be able to hear the birds that he was told plagued the English countryside.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” Liz commented cheerfully as she came up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “I literally gasped this morning when I saw it.” She rested her head on his chest as his arms pulled her round so she leant against him.

“I’m so glad I am here with you… If someone told me about a year ago that I would be standing here with you now, content with you in my arms, as we looked out onto the English countryside I would have just laughed at them. It seemed so far out of reach… even in my dreams I couldn’t seem to believe I would be with you once again…. But some where deep down inside my heart and soul was crying out for you… it was wishing for you to come home.”

“It just goes to show wishes do come true… We have seen that in more ways than one. We just have to be careful with what we wish for…” Turning round to face Max, Liz sighed. “Wishes have destroyed us… and brought us together… so here is my final wish…” Her voice lowered as her eyes burned with true passion and sincerity. “I wish we live happily ever after... together forever.”

Max’s fingers played across her cheek as he beamed down upon her happily. “And we will do. It’s you, me, Matthew and the little one forever.”

* * * * * * *

Everyone stood looking at the window in wonder. The sun still shone brightly high in the sky as they gathered around the dining room window. All were just as gob smacked as the other, each of their mouths on the floor.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” Liz asked as she walked into the room, where the meeting was to take place. She was met with silence; everyone was still focused on the sunlight that was peering through the trees of the back garden. Their eyes were moving in time with the ripples that coursed across the clear pond, which was surrounded with reeds and wildlife. “Guys… can you gawk some other time? It will still be there in half an hour.” Liz interrupted in annoyance. “Guys!” She shouted when she had no reply. “Guys you wanted this meeting… so lets have this meeting!” She demanded as they all turned to look at her.

Gradually they made it to their seats and all were just sat staring at Liz, half trying to unnerve her and half to remain focus on something other than the outside world. “As you guys can see… Khivar’s troops got fed up with sitting around waiting for their ‘King’.” Max started as he held Liz’s hand in his. “Chances are they won’t be back… but they might be, you can never be too sure…”

“And what we don’t want is to be locked away under lock and key once again,” Liz added from his lap, where she was sat.

“So we have come up with a plan…” Serena continued from her seat next to her King and Queen. “It will involve some of the Locacks I know are trustworthy and loyal to Max. It will involve some of the powered men. One Locack and one of the men will be on watch, in shifts of 4 hours… Is that okay with everyone?” As all muttered agreements she continued, her strong English accent ringing out through the room. “No one can leave without letting someone know and Liz and Maria are to be accompanied everywhere by someone with powers.”

As Serena listed the other rules and regulations Liz shifted nervously on Max’s lap. She didn’t want to talk next but she knew she had to offer some sort of explanation to everyone and needed some to help her in the next phase. She ticked over the things she needed to say in her mind, forming it into an orderly speech that would show she meant it all but making it sound like it was the best for everyone. That speech flew out of her head as she finally came to realise everyone was looking for her to start.

“I’m going to say this all in one go… I don’t want any questions and if you don’t agree with me so be it because this is all for the safety of my family… that’s including all of you.” She took a deep breath as she looked away from the group to Max, who gave her a reassuring smile that gave her the confidence she needed. “As you might know… my powers seem to work even though the TAG is on… I dunno why… but I decided last night that I was going to use that to my advantage; I have stripped Khivar of his powers so we can deactivate that thing and finally be able to use our powers freely.”

Serena suddenly jumped up and ran out of the room, her long brown hair flying out behind her, returning two seconds later with the TAG device in her hand. Everyone watched her deactivate it, before letting out a frustrated scream and throwing a blast at the wall, leaving a scorch mark the size of window. She exhaled slowly and as the smoke cleared she sat back down and said, in a calm and collected manner, “Continue.”

Liz looked at Serena for a moment. “Anyway… as I said I have stripped Khivar of his powers… and I have decided he is going to know what it was like to be me when he chased me like a play thing. I have made him blind.” She waited for a moment as everyone gasped and looked at each other. “I want to use this to find out whether or not anyone else will come after me for the same reason as Khivar because I won’t be able to settle down without knowing. I just can’t take it from his mind… I did try that at first but found I didn’t have that ability so I am going to make him give me the information. I don’t care whether or not he believes in the prophecy because he is crazy… I just need to know so I can feel safe. So what I plan to do is make his life for the next week a living hell. At regular intervals we are going to throw blasts at him… being defenceless and blind he should cave sooner or later. I know some of you won’t be happy with this… but this is something I need to do to make him pay and to get answers.”

“I understand that.” Isabel suddenly said, as she looked straight at Liz. “He’s made your life a living hell so now he needs to pay… he deserves what ever he gets and I’m willing to help you.”

“Me to,” Added Michael.

Kyle took Tess’ hand. “I think we all agree with what you are doing Liz… and I think we are all going to be there to help you. None of us shall live freely with him in our lives… and Liz… you’re a friend and I think we all owe it to you to help you after everything.”

A tear slid down Liz’s cheek as she looked around at her family and her heart felt ready to burst out of her chest. “I thought you would be ashamed of me… think that I had lowered myself to the point I am willing to act like him.”

“Of course not Liz,” Maria gasped as she grabbed her hand. “Believe me… we could never be ashamed of you… especially after all you have been through in the last couple of years. We are behind you one hundred percent in what ever you decide in matters concerning that heartless bastard.” She smiled at Liz as she pushed back a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear. “You’re our girl, Chica, and we are always going to be here for you… we have learnt from the past and believe me we aren’t going to make the same mistakes again.”

“Here here.” Max muttered under his breath.

“I know that I speak for every one when I say that we feel so guilty about the way we treated you… you know back before all this happened. We fazed you out… and that was unfair. We paid the consequences though… we changed into these different people,” Isabel declared. When Liz opened her mouth to speak she put her hand up and continued. “These people who just simply thought about themselves… and no matter how much you say that Ava influenced us, made us do and say things we all regret… there had to have been, somewhere inside us, those fears and the capability to do that to you.”

“We are sorry Liz… I hope you will some day know how really really sorry we all are.” Michael added, making everyone look at him in surprise. “What? Can’t a man be sensitive?”

“Not when it’s you… Max and Kyle yes… you no.” Maria laughed.

“He can be sensitive when he wants to be…” Liz said as she thought about the time he had taken her diary. When he handed it back to her, thanking her for giving him another reason to envy Max Evans just illustrated he could be sensitive if and when he wanted to be.

“What do you mean?” Max asked confused, not being able to remember a time he was truly sensitive.

“She means nothing by it,” Michael growled as he eviled Liz playfully.

Serena stood up from her chair nervously, suddenly feeling uncomfortable being in the room. For as long as she could remember she had always felt like the outsider and here was the perfect example. However this was different, she wanted to be part of this group, but after all the time she had spent alone and with Kyle she had hardly any social skills. So she said her goodbyes and left the room, leaving the group to catch up.

PART THIRTY SEVEN

“Hello?”

“Alex!” Isabel practically screamed with excitement as she ran towards him from across the field.

“Izzy?!” He exclaimed as he took her into his bare chest. “I have been so worried about you after what you did… when I didn’t hear from you I just thought about all these silly things like you were dead or had fallen for Khivar.”

“I would never do that to you,” Isabel declared as she buried herself deeper in Alex’s strong arms. “I couldn’t get through to you… we had this gadget of Serena’s that disabled our powers so I just couldn’t dream walk you. We couldn’t even use the phone… we just couldn’t take the chance. Forgive me?”

Alex’s eyes brows came together as he frowned. “Why should I forgive you when you haven’t even done anything wrong… you told me about the whole situation. You warned me before hand so therefore it wasn’t even your fault.” His hand smoothed through Isabel’s blonde locks as he held her close to his body. “It feels like a lifetime since I last held you. It’s nice to. It’s nice to know you are safe.” For a moment that stood just holing one another, cherishing every second of the feeling of their body pressed to each others. After a couple of minutes Alex became curious. “So… so what about the others? Have you kicked Khivar’s butt? When are you coming home?”

“Everyone is okay… Tess and Kyle finally got it on…”

“FINALLY!” Alex grumbled as he gently lifted Isabel off her feet and carefully placed her on the soft grass that lay beneath them. He too lay on the ground. Instantly Isabel curled p on her side, placing her head on his chest listening to his gentle breathing and heart beating. “It’s about bloody time.”

“From what I can gather Max and Liz are back together… and oh yeah… Liz is expecting a baby in a couple of months.” She bit her lip as she heard Alex gasp and just imagined his eyes bulging out of his sockets.

“Max Evans sure is a fast mover… Hang on… that makes no sense… I thought Liz couldn’t have children?”

“Yeah we did to… but it seems Max healed more than her cancer.” She sighed as she shifted to face Alex. “You should see them… all happy and content… pretty much like we were when we found out about Sophie…” Isabel paused as she thought about her baby. “Talking about Sophie…”

“She’s fine Iz. I swear she is getting bigger everyday.” His eyes twinkled with unconditional love as he thought about her. “Matthews spoiling her something rotten.”

“Good good,” Isabel whispered as she blinked back her tears. She had visited her daughter before visiting Alex but it just wasn’t the same. She missed her so much it actually hurt to think about her, which was hard when she couldn’t stop thinking about her small fingers and toes. “I just can’t wait to get home.”

Alex’s hand once again found it’s way in Isabel’s hair. “When are you… when are you coming home?”

“I don’t know… Khivar is still an issue…”

Snapping upright Alex jerked Isabel from her soft spot onto the ground. “What do you mean Khivar is still an issue? I thought the whole thing you went through was to make him a non issue.”

Isabel lay flustered on the floor as she looked up at Alex, who was obviously angry. “Do you know how goddamn sexy you are when you are angry?”

“That’s not the point Iz…” Blinking twice he looked back at Isabel. “Sexy eh?”

“Oh yeah,” Isabel whispered as she led Alex to her with her index finger. “So so sexy” She said in his ear as her arms wrapped around his neck. “I could do you right here right now…” Her lips just skimmed his and instantly Alex was craving every inch of her body.

Shaking his head he jerked back from her, leaving her once again flustered and on the grass. “No… in a minute… Tell me what you mean by Khivar is still an issue?”

Isabel rolled her eyes as she leant up on her forearms “Well…”

“Tell me quickly…” Alex demanded as he started to kiss her neck. “Very very quickly…”

Isabel started to sway as he continued to place butterfly kisses on her neck. Closing her eyes gently she started to speak. “Well… in short Liz is keeping him alive with-with no powers and no eye sight in the plan to torture him for answers to whether or not anyone else will come after her because of the prophecy.” The kisses stopped abruptly. Opening her eyes she came face to face with Alex, his mouth open wide with shock.

“Parker? Are you serious?”

“Deadly.” Isabel shook her head as she thought about it. It seemed almost crazy, four years ago Liz Parker would never even consider something as drastic as that, yet like she herself had said, Liz Parker had to change in order to survive. She couldn’t blame her either, if Isabel could have her way she would probably do the same thing. “She’s changed Alex… she isn’t the same person who left four years ago…”

“Well duh. I am sure being hounded down for the best part of four years would change anyone.” Alex agreed.

Isabel looked back at Alex seriously. “Alex… she has changed. The Liz Parker we knew would have stood up and fought instead of running away. The Liz that we knew opened up to us and wouldn’t intentionally hurt a fly. The Liz that came back to us is the complete opposite to that, she stopped really opening up to us the moment she got here. Now she’s a tough girl underneath it all and is willing to do anything to protect her family from any threat.” Placing a hand on Alex’s chest she sat up and just looked at his face. It held an expression of despair and anguish to think that he had truly lost his best friend after all this time. “Mind you… we all have changed as well… I can feel it just as much as I can feel the change in Liz… But don’t worry… The old Liz Parker is working her way back to us, she’s finding her way home. I heard her tell Max this morning that she has now found her retreat, the place in her mind that allowed her peace and serenity, which in turn helped her find the courage to start opening up to Max. She’s coming home… she won’t be exactly the same as before, just like we aren’t the same, she will be more determined and maybe just a little more detached with her emotions, but she is coming back to us… You will finally have your world back…”

Alex sighed as his hand crept to Isabel’s cheek. “You know what? She is merely making my world complete… my world is you and Sophie… having Liz back in my life is just an added bonus that I will cherish just as much as I cherish you.”

* * * * * * *

“So did he seem happy to you?” Tess asked Isabel as she bit at her nails anxiously. She just needed to get on the nearest phone and ring Matthew, her fingers itched to dial Alex’s home number, yet couldn’t because they were all asleep.

“He did.” Isabel replied uncomfortably as she sat, across the counter from the other blonde, in the kitchen. She hated being alone with Tess because she never knew what to say and it just seemed to get worse after Tess and Max married. Being alone with Tess meant only one thing, silence and the gritting of teeth in order not to say sarcastic and rude remarks. However now was different because after everything Tess had proven herself to be loyal to the group and that just left one thing, the silence. Seeing Tess’ tears her hand floated to Tess’ and rested upon it. She smiled reassuringly. “I think he misses you… He-he was dreaming… dreaming about you.”

Tess’ head shot up. “Really?”

Isabel nodded in response. “Yeah… really. He was dreaming of that when we all went to the park on his last birthday. He was dreaming about that day. The brightest picture I saw was you and him side by side with big smiles on your faces as you both looked at the cake. It was almost like it was in slow motion.”

Tess bit her lip as she tried not to cry hysterically. Flapping her hands in front of her face she swung herself off the Crashdown style stool and began pacing. “Sorry about… you know the tears… It’s-it’s just that I miss him. It’s like there is this part of me missing, it’s as if... as if”

“You are not complete without him…” Isabel added as she thought about her own daughter.

Tess stopped in mid pace and looked at Isabel with understanding. “Yes… that’s exactly how it feels. Sometimes I forget about Sophie… it’s because she is so small…”

“Yeah… I was like that with Matthew when he was first born… I always forgot that you and Max had this little person to take of when I barged over in the middle of the night to nag Max about something.”

Plonking herself back on the stool in front of Isabel, Tess nodded her head in excitement about the fact they finally had something in common. “It was either Michael or your mother who was driving you mad over the wedding arrangements. Neither of us minded though… it was a distraction from the things that were going wrong in our marriage.”

“Do you really see it as being a failure? You seemed so… so I dunno… happy.” Isabel questioned as she remembered the way Tess and Max seemed to be around each other, it was as if they were in love.

“To be honest… yes I do because I felt numb. I appeared happy, and probably felt happy, but at the same time I felt numb. It might have been Ava dampening my emotions to everyone else other than Matthew… So who really knows if we were really happy? It could have just been an act.” She suggested as she jumped off the stool to the kettle. Switching it on, she turned back to Isabel and leant on the work surface. “What?” She asked as she saw Isabel expression.

“I’m just thinking… How have you felt about your break up since Ava died?”

Tess stood for a moment as she thought about it. “Indifferent. There is no happiness and no sadness over the whole thing… I feel indifferent like the whole marriage didn’t happen. Maybe that’s because in someway… It didn’t happen.”

“What do you mean?”

“I wasn’t the really taking part in the marriage… I was just merely a puppet to be manipulated by Ava. So therefore because I didn’t put any really emotion and feeling into it, it didn’t really happen.” Tess shrugged as she turned back to the kettle to make her tea. “Who knows? I have to admit I don’t really care anymore… I have Kyle. After all this time my feelings are just as strong for him as the day he left Roswell. I am happy for the first time and I just want Max and Liz to be happy.”

Isabel nodded in agreement as she looked at the counter top. “I think everyone wants that for them, they deserve it more than anyone. Especially now that they have a baby on the way… they deserve some happiness.”

“Here here,” Tess agreed as she plonked herself back on the stool opposite Isabel. “I couldn’t agree more.”

* * * * * * *

Maria leant against the frame of the door of the library simply watching Serena looking out of the window at the sight of Kyle and Max in combat training.

“What are you going to do?” Maria asked, breaking the silence. Serena instantly and instinctively jumped up and swung round, her hand stretched out in front of her. “Woah woah girl!” Maria said, her hands up. “Don’t shoot me.”

Serena’s tear stained face fell and her eyes fell to the floor as she turned slightly and lowered herself back in the chair slowly. “Oh… sorry.” She said absently as she stared at a spot on the window in front of her.

“Are you okay?” Maria asked patiently as she neared the chair next to Serena. “You seem unhappy.”

“I’m fine… don’t worry about me.” Serena dismissed with a wave of her hand.

“No… I don’t believe that and anyway you are sorta one of us… and I like to meddle in my groups affairs… now tell Maria what’s wrong.”

Serena peered cautiously at Maria for a second before nodding her head slightly. “Ok… if you really want to know… I am unsure about what …” Looking back at Maria Serena shook her head and her eyes turned defensive. “Oh God you are going to think I am pathetic and useless if I tell you this.”

Maria shook her head as she took Serena’s hand. “No… no I won’t.”

Serena’s defensive look soften as Maria warmly and patiently waited for her to open up. “I’m unsure what I am going to do… to do after all this is finished. I was sent here to protect the people Max had healed because he had changed them. I was here to protect them from Khivar… because they could be used as hosts for his consciousness and I can sense when that is happening. But now-now Khivar is here and the likely hood of it is that he won’t be here for much longer. So where does that leave me? The people Max has healed are all here… under the protection of himself and his family. Without Khivar there is no threat to those Max has healed… so what purpose will I serve now on this planet?”

“Can’t you go home?” Maria questioned gently.

Serena’s sad expression answered her question. “This was for life… there is no trip home. Anyway… there is no one on Antar waiting for me because I spent my life at the academy working towards my goal of becoming a Locack… I can’t mate now either, to most I am considered old… I should have mated when I was young.”

“But you look barely more than 20!” Maria exclaimed in disbelief.

“But on Antar I’m 70. I haven’t aged since I landed on earth… once people find out how old I am they would freak out. I should have just mated and settled down when I was 15… just like my mother told me I should.” She sighed. “She told me that attending the academy would leave me alone and heart broken.”

After a couple of moments of silence Maria spoke. “But you aren’t alone.”

Serena’s focus remained outside the window. “Of course I am.”

“You have the other Locacks…” Maria suggested as she watched two of them walking the grounds, their attention on their King as they moved. “And… and you have us.”

Serena turned to Maria, confusion and hope evident in her face. “I do?”

“Of course Chica! You are part of the pod squad now.”

* * * * * * *

Khivar lay flat on the floor with blasts whizzing around just inches from his face. He could just about feel the energy that leaked from them on his cheek. His heart was pounding in his ears and sweat dripped off his forehead into his eyes, stinging them. If he could actually see the sweat may have blinded him, leaving him in just the same situation that he was in. Liz and Michael stood somewhere in his cell, just where he couldn’t tell. The shots had come from nowhere, the only reason he knew that they were whizzing around the room and bouncing off the walls being the fact that blood was now oozing from his right arm. He could just about feel the way it melded into his sweat, probably making more pink and watery.

He clenched his jaw as he made a desperate edge closer to what he thought was a cabinet to hide behind. It just served in getting him hit in the stomach, a hit that made him slump to the floor in agony.

There was silence. The bouncing sound that the blasts made when they hit the wall had stopped. They had stopped firing.

“Khivar I can end this if you want… all you have to do in return is tell me whether or not there will be others. That’s all you need to tell me and I can stop all of this. I could, if you were extra polite and informative, restore your sight and heal that nasty wound that I see that you have on your arm.”

“Go to hell.” Khivar cried from his spot behind the cabinet as he clutched his now badly bruised stomach. “You will just let your pathetic King do all your dirty work…I’d rather die with honour.”

“Maybe… maybe not… I might just be nice enough to let you live here on earth… powerless and alone. Or I might just kill afterwards… you near quite know with me because it’s such a tough decision.”

Khivar laughed bitterly as he listened to her. “Yeah… because you are likely to spare the life of a man who you believe to be a crazy psychopath… who has hounded you down for years just so he could make you his Queen… Like you are going to spare my life after all the things I have loved doing to you.”

“You won’t find out unless you tell me… it’s a 50/50 chance.” Liz said sweetly.

“You might want to listen to her because believe me she is telling the truth… if I had my way I would have killed you by now,” Growled Michael through gritted teeth, which was the only way he could contain his powers and to stop himself from killing the monster that was huddled pathetically next to a cabinet that he could easily blow to pieces with the flick of his wrist. However he couldn’t because Max had warned him not to. Liz had to do this her own way or she just wouldn’t find the closure that she needed to move on.

“I’d rather take my chances with this little game you are playing… It’s highly amusing to me.” Khivar lied in response as he tried disparately to ignore the pain of his wounds.

Liz shook her head as she took steps towards the frightened huddle that was Khivar. “From where I am it seems to me you aren’t finding this very amusing… if anything I think you are finding this quite scary… and just as painful. I hope you remember the pain Khivar…”

“Why?’ Khivar asked as he aimlessly threw his head around trying to pin point her location in the room.

He jumped as he felt her breath skim his ear and her voice pierce the silence. “Because this is what I felt like after Nicholas’ last visit. I felt like I wanted to die and get it over with.”

“But I don’t want to die,” Khivar snorted. “And this hardly hurts.”

“It hardly hurts now… but believe me it will sooner or later… it will hurt so much you will want to just die at my hands rather than carry on living like this.”

“I’m not as weak as you seem to think I am Liz…” Khivar declared coolly as he started to sit up right, turning his face to where the sound of her sweet and sickly voice was coming from. “I am not as feeble as you.”

“This has just been an hour of your life Khivar,” Liz informed him as her eyes narrowed onto him. “Just imagine how it feels to be constantly looking over your shoulder for every hour of every day of your life for four years. Just imagine that, as you lie awake at night tonight when your body is rigid with fear at the thought that there maybe someone else in the room just waiting for you to go to sleep before they pounce on you. You never no…”

PART THIRTY EIGHT

He sat up against the wall in complete silence, listening out for any small sound that could just be someone else in the room watching and waiting for him to go to sleep. He hated to even admit it to himself, he felt vulnerable. He had lost the one sense that he had become so dependent on; it left him in complete darkness and he couldn’t stand it. His eyes were open but he couldn’t see any shadow that jumped around the room. He couldn’t even tell if it was day or night. He couldn’t tell if the light was on and it just made him feel useless. Yet he put up a façade that he maintained through out the last hour, which seemed a whole day, just to piss the lovely and ‘innocent’ miss Parker off.

It didn’t work. Liz knew she had him already; he would soon crack.

* * * * * * *

Dear diary,
Wow this feels odd writing in my journal once again. It feels like it has been years since the last time but I know full well it has only been just over a month.
So much as happened in just the last couple of weeks, the last month even. It scares me how far I have come to near death, near murder and near pure joy in just a matter of days. I have had this whole new side of myself emerge from nowhere and I can feel it just beneath the surface. Maybe it’s the old me and I just can’t remember what that feels like… it might explain why it feels so odd and scary. But what if it’s not? What if it’s me changing? Would that be so bad? Would it risk my family, my friends and my future like it did Khivar? I know I have changed but what shocks me the most is how everyone seems to be accepting that. Maybe I just wish they would hate me for everything… for listening to Future Max in the first place… because if I didn’t, if I had just let my heart lead the way, then maybe… just maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation.

But I know that’s complete bull. Max has helped me see this, actually not just Max; everyone has helped me in the last couple of days. They have sat me down told me why it is them that should feel guilty about everything that happened, not me. It just makes me feel even luckier because I know I have them by my side.

Now I need to get my head around everything… the baby, Khivar, the whole ‘rape’ situation that, thankfully, didn’t happen. It’s something that I know will take time to sink in because for years I had lived with the belief that he took my innocence away from me… now I can live knowing that Max was the one I gave myself to that night before the white room and then again in the white room itself. I know I’ll live a happy life from now on knowing that Khivar didn’t take that away from me.

Now I just need get the answers I need to be able to live my life to the full… with Max.


“Liz?” Max asked, as he lay stretched out on the bed watching her write in her journal, in the chair that was in the corner. “What was it about Zan that scared you?”

Liz stopped writing and stared out in front her as she thought about the answer to that question. Inside she could still feel the horrid feeling he gave her, it was much like the way Khivar made her feel. “When he emerged… it felt like this black hole was sucking our connection out of me… It felt like my head was being torn into a million different pieces. It was pure evil… but that might have just been the fact Zan holds so much hatred towards Khivar.” Liz reassured him. “That doesn’t mean that Zan or you for that matter are pure evil… because like I said it was probably the pure hatred Zan held.” Cocking her to the side she observed Max’s expression. “Why do you ask?”

Max slowly pushed himself up and shifted down to the foot of the bed, planting his feet on the floor. His eyes focused on the floor as he scratched behind his ear. “Because… because I can’t remember how it felt like. I saw it all through my own eyes but had no control… I… I just needed to know why you were so scared of me… you wouldn’t let me touch you and I-I want to make sure that never happens again because-because I don’t want to have to not touch you. I can’t not touch you.” Max’s shoulders started to shake slightly as tears fell from his eyes and the sight just made Liz’s heart break. Within seconds she was throwing her journal to the floor and running to Max, pulling his head to her stomach and wrapping her arms around him. “Oh god Liz,” He mumbled as he let the tears fall down silently. “God It just feels like a dream… A dream where you are back here with me… and-and I don’t want to wake up.”

“I’m here Max… I’m really here and believe me,” She whispered into his hair. “Nothing that happens, not even Zan reappearing, is going to force me away. No matter what I am here. I’m here for you like you have been here for me in the last couple of months. I was stupid to think that I could run from Khivar and from you… I knew you were looking for me… wanting to help, to stand by me but I just couldn’t get it into my head that you would really stand by me. But you did and now I am always going to be standing here, next to you, until the day I die Max Evans.”

Max looked up at Liz, a small smile on his face and pure love in his gaze. “What have I done to deserve you, Liz Parker?”

“You love me.” Her finger trailed down his cheek as she gazed down upon him. “And I will always love you in return. We are made for each other Max Evans; we have known that from the very beginning, it’s just taken us a while to finally get it right. But now we have each other… we won’t let each other go for anything. Not even if somewhere inside you Zan is lurking because he is every part of you Max. He’s you in some way and I love you all; mind, body, soul and Zan… it doesn’t matter to me anymore. I was scared how quickly you changed but I also saw how quickly he was gone again. So lets not talk about him again… If and when he next makes his entrance we will deal with it and you could talk to Serena about Zan… after all she did know him in his previous life.” Resting her head on his she sighed. “Max I’m sorry about the way I … I you know looked so terrified. I am not going to deny it… I can’t say I was as happy as Larry in his presence but it just made me think about you… he’s part of you and I’m sorry for the way I reacted.”

“It’s ok… I was just as scared as you were.”

* * * * * * * *

“So are you gonna give her the answers then? Or do I really need to get physical on your sorry ass?” Michael questioned as he sat on the table, his leg propped on a chair with his arm resting on it, as he became more and more frustrated with his captive.

Kyle sighed an exhausted sigh. They had been at this for an hour and nothing. “We could … you know… torture him.” He hissed in irritation.

“Kyle! I thought you were a Buddhist!” Exclaimed Serena, who was leant against the doorframe chewing the skin of her fingers absent minded.

Michael smirked as he watched Kyle’s face. “Well… well yeah I am but this guy deserves every last thing that he gets.”

“Do you really believe that you mere human?” Hissed Khivar from his spot on the floor. He stared out, his eyes just wondering around the room as he hitched his ears up so he could listen to every last movement. He was slowly but surely working out where everything was, in his mind at least, and trying to work out whether they had forgotten about the knife that Liz had throw into the corner of the room. For the last couple of days he had become more secure in his surroundings, fine tuning his hearing and making a map in his mind from what he did see with his eyes before all of this.

“I do… yes.” Kyle stated his arms crossed as he took a defensive stance. “You have caused no one but misery… so you deserve it all.”

Khivar snorted as he bravely stood from his spot on the floor and walked, as if he could see, directly to Kyle, just stopping in front of him as soon as Kyle’s hand shot up in defence. “You won’t be saying that the day you kneel before me and my Queen.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure that is going to happen anytime soon, Khivar.” Liz replied as she stormed into the room, flinging Khivar across it at the flick of her hand.

His body slid, his hands flapping around aimlessly, towards the wall. He quickly slid half way up the wall before he could say anything. He didn’t bothering moving; there was no point, she had him pinned. He could hear her nearing the corner where his knife lay and swallowed the lump that he held in his throat. With the others he could maintain the front that the pain didn’t bother him so they eventually stopped, but Liz, Liz was a different story. She knew him too well and knew that the pain was slowly making him crack. He smiled nervously as he heard the metal of the knife scrap along the wooden floor; maybe there was some hope for him yet.

“You know the deal by now Khivar. I’ve been here every day to see you and everyday you just simply take the pain… but today is going to be different.” Liz slid her fingers over the blade of the knife as she admired it. The jewels that were encrusted in the dark oak handle just fascinated her. “This is a beautiful blade Khivar… where did you find it?”

“The body of Zan,” Khivar answered. “I took if from his carcass minutes after he died… It was my father’s blade, something Zan took from him the day we stormed the palace… Now it’s going to be passed down to the next murderer of the chain.”

Liz flinched slightly at the thought she might actually kill him. After all this time she thought that she would have taken pleasure in killing him, but she couldn’t. Deep in the pit of stomach she knew she just couldn’t kill him, no matter what he had actually done to her over the years.

“Just can’t do it can you?!” Khivar asked laughing slightly. Anger boiled away in her stomach as she saw the cool smile that graced his lips. “I told you the tough girl attitude just doesn’t work on you… I could see through you in the first place and now… now I can feel it radiating off you. You are just ‘the smallest of small town girls’ with a mere secret to hide.” He laughed as he remembered every line of her diary. “It was such an interesting read Liz… I never knew your diary could reveal so much about you.”

Liz held her breath as she remained where she stood. Her hands clenched around the blade as she tried so hard just to keep her composure. She knew what he was doing; trying to make Liz so angry to the point she would kill him. They both knew she was capable of it; she had come close many times before but had healed him each time after leaving him to lie in his own blood for a little while. She had wanted him to know what it felt like for his reason to live to just leave his body. Now he was going to give her answers because she was sick of it, sick of not having a real life.

So she threw the knife as hard as she could at his groin.

She could hear the blade pierce the skin like paper and took pleasure in the piercing scream he sent around the room. “Tell me,” she asked in a bare whisper knowing he could hear every word. “Tell me what I want to know and I can take the pain away.”

“No!” he screamed through gritted teeth. The knife wasn’t close enough.

Stretching her hand out Liz called the knife to her hand, ensuring that the knife removed itself harshly but slowly before it came back to her. As she waited him to stop screaming she slowly wiped his blood off onto her black trousers. “Fine… have it your way. I’ll stay here all day,” She said as she threw the knife once again at him; this time hitting him in the stomach. “If you really want it to last all day.” A satisfying amount of blood spilt over Khivar’s lip as he half coughed and screamed in pain.

“So be it.” He coughed as blood continued to flow from his mouth and from the puncture.

Liz looked to everyone else in frustration. “This isn’t making your situation any better Khivar.”

“It could be worse.” Michael added. “We could take all your senses away from you and amply the pain,” He lied not knowing whether it were possible.

“Then send you back to Antar so your people can do what they please to your helpless body.” Kyle thought out loud.

Serena nodded as she thought about it. “Yes… yes we can actually do that.” She neared him leisurely as she played with her hands, itching to inflict more on his body. Placing one hand on the blade, she pushed it in further. Her other hand forced his arms out straight against the wall, as if he was being crucified. “Now if I remember rightly from what Isabel told me… you wanted the seal,” One by one Serena burnt the mark of the Royal Seal into his hand. She smiled once she was finished and backed away other stop at the doorframe. “Now your people will finally know who you are… then torture you to death. That’s if we don’t do it ourselves.”

“Whatever,” He spat seeing the lies that they were spouting, yet hiding the pain he felt. “You can’t do a thing to me.” He cringed as he felt the sharp blade being once again pulled from his stomach. It sent a whole new pool of blood to form at his feet as it dribbled from his mouth. He threw his hands open as he awaited the next piercing cut of the blade and sure enough it landed in his palm, in the exact spot where the bottom point of the Royal Seal lay. Now he just needed to be able to move his hand.

As he started to feel the blade moving he shouted, “STOP! I’ll tell you if you just stop!”

The blade stopped moving.

“I’m listening,” Liz stated not showing any hint of excitement and relief in her voice. She didn’t want him to know how she felt anymore.

“I’ll tell you… once I can see you.” He pleaded desperately. “Please… You don’t even need to take away the pain; the knife can stay where it is… all I care about is telling this to your face.” He bowed his head with sincerity as he felt Liz think about his plead. For a moment he held his breath, unsure whether she would.

Liz couldn’t believe that her feet were moving her softly towards Khivar. She was even more shocked to find herself stood in the pool of his crimson blood with her hands on both sides of Khivar’s head.

Seconds later he could see.

“No,” he answered as he finally saw Liz’s beautiful face once again. “No… no one will bother you.” He strained his mind in concentration as he forced his fingers to move around the handle of the blade, which was still embedded in his hand, and pressed the jewel at the top of the handle in. “Except for me…” He whispered in her ear.

Suddenly a bright light filled the room and then they were plunged into total darkness. Liz stood exactly where she was in complete fright as she heard the others cry out in surprise as the skins jumped on them. Soon the colours of the different alien blasts being sent around he room penetrated the darkness. This was the catch that Liz had been waiting for. This was the thing that was going to take everything she had gained away from her. But she wouldn’t let it, not now. So Liz clenched her hands into fists and let out a scream of frustration, sending out a beam of light that filled the room as she released her hands.

Once she could finally see what was going on she found a hole in the wall where Khivar had been. She peered out of it finding the group of skins, with Khivar in the lead, running out of the gates of the safe house towards town.

“Quickly! To the car!” Liz found herself shouting as she made her way out into the fresh air, everyone in tow.

“They won’t go too far… just into town. That’s where I think their base is.” Serena thought out loud as she started running beside Liz. “They got here too quickly to have been based anywhere else.”

“It was all too quick.” Liz commented as she spirited round the side of the house towards the car. “I should have seen it coming!” She muttered to herself bitterly as she shook her head in disgust with herself.

“We will get him Liz!” Kyle said as he laid a hand on her shoulder. “I want to see this guy fry.”

Liz nodded. It was no use getting upset with herself over something she didn’t know would happen. All that mattered now was finding him and then kicking the crap out of him.

“Liz!” Max shouted as he ran down the stairs that led from the door. He intercepted her, swinging her around by her arm to look at him. “You can’t go. You can’t do this… not in your condition.”

“I’m going.” Liz stated as she tried to swing back round.

Max’s hold tightened as he forced Liz to look at him. He gazed at her with worry. “Liz… think about this. You could get hurt. Khivar could get to you… I don’t want to lose either you or the baby… it’s not worth the risk.”

“It is to me.” Liz’s eyes brimmed with determined tears as she looked back at him. “Max I can and I will go because I have to… I HAVE to finish this Max. Don’t you see that I just won’t be happy if this doesn’t come to an end? I have my answer and now all that stands in my way is Khivar, who we are just allowing to get away.” She pulled her arm free of Max’s grip. “I’m going. I need to end this all. NOW!” She cried as tears finally made their way down her cheeks. Turning away she ran in the direction of Serena’s new land rover and hopped in, slamming the door behind her.

Before she could open her mouth to order they leave, she was interrupted. “Go!” Max shouted, fiercely and full of passion, as he jumped in the seat next to Liz. Taking Liz’s hand he smoothed away a few of her tears, before pulling her head to his shoulder and declaring to the group, “This ends today.”

Omg guys! I've just realised... the next part is the last part. But don't worry I shall be back a couple of weeks after this is completed, cos I need time off and I have exams in a few weeks, to give you the sequel 'Exposure'. Love ya guys!!

PART THIRTY NINE

The group skidded into the town, all frantically yelling at Michael to slow down.

Swinging round to the group, taking his eyes completely off the road, he yelled, “Shut it! Do you guys want to get this guy or not? I if drive slower than this we won’t…” Michael stopped in mid-sentence as he swung back to watch the road. When he did his focus came to the small group of skins that were now terrorising the whole of the town, bringing the traffic to a stand still and the people running for their lives, panic stretched across their faces.

Everywhere people ran screaming, or stood still in complete shock to the sight around them. One by one they all seemed to drop like flies to the floor as a blast hit them square in the back as people ran in every direction. As they fell blood droplets flew from their mouths, splattering over the pavement and the cars. After just a couple seconds of watching the scene Max grabbed Michael’s shoulder.

“Turn around.” He demanded, his features determined and serious.

Michael shot a glare at his King as he made the car come to a complete stop, throwing the rest of the group out their seats. “What?!” He screamed hysterically.

“We can’t just charge in there…” Max answered angrily, his hand clenching, as he seemed to get close to losing all his patience.

A hand rested on his shoulder, making him look up from Michael’s glare. “But if we don’t do anything everyone will die. We have to do something. We can’t let this happen to.” Isabel reasoned.

“We need a plan,” Max started, silently agreeing with his eyes. “We can’t just walk in there… It will risk more lives.”

Kyle leant forward between Max and Liz from his seat behind them. “What do you have planned?”

Max painfully looked towards Serena. She knew exactly whom they needed no matter how much he didn’t want to. “Tess,” Serena answered for him.

Yet again there was silence between the group, as they turned to Tess who was now looking out of the car. “Okay.” She answered in a small voice, her thoughts with Matthew as she nodded in agreement.

A sigh of relief was heard from Max before all hell let loose. “Turn this car around Michael… turn it around now!” Maria, who was sat in the front with him, shouted as she stared wide-eyed at the skins whom were quickly approaching the Land Rover. “MICHAEL!” She screamed as she slapped his arm to grab his attention.

“What?!” he snapped.

“GET A MOVE ON!”

* * * * * * *

Tess sat on the chair, in the classy and empty restaurant where they were hiding out watching the skins, rubbing her temples as she prepared herself to warp the twenty skins that were outside the building. So far she had used her powers just to get them from the car to the building without being seen and that was hard enough, now she had to do it again. It was going to be such a drain, such a risk.

Kneeling before Tess, Liz took her hands in her own. “Are you sure you are okay with this?” She asked concerned. “If not we don’t have to do this. There is the risk you will just drain… and you’ll be seen… and we have to think about you and Matthew.”

“In part that is who I am doing this for. If we don’t get rid of Khivar… we won’t ever be free and I want that for our children. But in part I … I need to do this… for” She blushed slightly before she looked Liz square in the eye. “For you. After everything Ava and I have done to you… I need to do this for you. I need to set you free… It’s only fair.”
“You’re my friend… that’s enough in itself. I don’t want to do this… we don’t need to do this. I don’t want to risk anyone’s life anymore while I just sit on sidelines.”

“But we need to do this and you can’t go out there. It’s just like the last hundred or so times… it’s just this time we have family involved.” Tess stressed. “We’ll - I’ll do what ever it takes to get this bastard out of our lives so we can have a family, a home.” Pulling her hands away she took Liz into a hug. “Thank you, thank you for every thing.”

“No. Thank you.” Liz corrected.

Max quickly rushed into the room as he noticed the skins rounding up any survivors, instantly breaking the moment between the two women. “Are you ready Tess?”

“Yes.”

“Good because we really need to get going.” Max declared as he rushed out the room with them behind him.

Everyone surrounded the door as they waited for everything to start. Tess nodded her head as she took a deep breath, her eyes sliding shut, before she focused and easily entered the minds of the skins that were outside. They didn’t even feel it as she did so; all they felt was a presence. Looking behind them for a second each and every one of them shook it off and focused on their job. One by one everyone, except for Maria and Liz, walked out the door completely unseen by the skins that were stood just twenty feet away from them.

They stopped for a second and just waited; relaxing the moment they knew they were completely invisible.

Everything happened so quickly. Within a second of relaxing Max signalled at Michael to take two that were rounding the corner and to Serena and Kyle to take the four that were just off from the group. He watched holding his breath as they stalked their prey. He was nervous. He had faced this situation many many times in the last couple of years but hadn’t faced this sort of situation when Liz was around in a while. He wanted her by his side right now because he couldn’t do this on his own knowing she was somewhere else. She was his rock and without her there to help him through it he didn’t know whether or not he was going to be strong enough to make his way back to her. His eyes glazed over as he heard six skins turn to dust and he felt a small hand fit into his. Looking down he expected to see Isabel smiling at him, but all he saw was Liz, with Isabel stood smiling behind her.

“We will make it through together.” She whispered in his ear. She placed a finger to his mouth as he started to speak. “You told Tess to make sure no matter what happened I would be invisible… it doesn’t mean that I can’t help you. Now don’t argue with me because this is my fight just as much as it is yours, if not more.”

Max nodded his head cautiously, his eyes glazing over with loving tears as he began tightening his grip on her hand. As the others approached he signalled to each pointing to a skin that stood around the group of humans that they were keeping imprisoned with a blue shield. Silently, holding their breaths, they made their way to the skins.
The people behind the shield started to fuss as they watched the adults approaching the aliens, shocked to find they were not seen. Holding his gaze for a moment Liz letting his hand go before she came up close to the shield and signalled to one person to be quiet by placing a finger to her lips. When the woman nodded and turned to calm everyone down she turned back to her mission.

Each person took a place behind his or her selected skin. They looked at one another as they still held their breath, poised ready to take brutal actions towards their skin.

“NOW!” Max shouted before he aimed a fatal blast at the back of his skin. One by one the skins turned to dust before their eyes making the crowd in the shield burst out in a cheer. That was all it took for Max’s heart start to race as he heard the cheer and saw the fresh round of skins coming straight for him, obviously now able to see him. Panic set in as he watched them approach in slow motion. It was as the world was standing still because he knew his future was out in the open, out in a soon to be war zone. His focus narrowed onto Liz who was now crouched behind a car. Relief washed over him slightly as he felt Liz send reassurance and love through their connection.

Soon he found himself in autopilot as blasts were shot at him. Taking a few quick steps forward he lunged at the shield and placing his hand on it, disabling it in seconds. He didn’t even need to signal to the others to surround the humans, they just instinctively made a circle around them, throwing their own shields up to defend the humans from the alien shots. Slowly but surely they started backing towards a building and feeding the humans in before sealing the door shut to stop anyone trying to get outside and putting themselves in danger.

“What happened to Tess?” Michael yelled out as he deflected the shots that were being aimed at Isabel and Max who were still sealing the door. “I thought we were supposed to be unseen!”

“I don’t know,” Max shouted in reply. “But I think we will find out soon enough!”

Just as he said that the sounds of shouts and blasts suddenly stopped dead. Serena, Kyle, Max, Michael and Isabel all froze with the hairs on the back of their necks standing on end. They could feel his presence; it was almost suffocating as they felt his glare in the back of their necks. “Michael!” Came Maria’s tortured scream as they felt Khivar near them. “Michael!” She pierced the silence once more as she struggled in his arms. Michael clenched his fists as he swung around to face the direction in which the tortured scream was coming from. Khivar’s hand rested lightly on Maria’s head, his touch almost looked tender, yet Maria screamed in agony as Khivar probed her mind, raping her of every memory she ever shared with Michael, Liz and her family.

He licked his lips lightly as images of Michael and Maria making love entered his mind. “Oh Michael… you’ve picked a good one here… feisty,” He declared as he sent the images he was raping to Michael.

“Let her go…”Michael growled as he took a step forward towards Khivar, who was surrounded by skins, their hands pointed at him. He tried all he could to maintain control, knowing that if he let go of his anger and focused it on Khivar he could risk losing Maria altogether. He wasn’t going to allow that.

“Only if you give me Liz.”

Max watched Liz out of the corner of his eye. She flinched as she watched the scene play out before her very eyes and her ears were echoing the sound of Maria’s screams as she witnessed her being mind raped. She knew what that was like and it wasn’t pleasant, it was almost worse than believing that you were raped because Khivar had a way of taking a part of you with him as he left your mind and knew every last detail of your life and was willing to use it against you. She stood as she heard Khivar’s request but instantly felt Max’s warning not to. No one could see her; that was clear from the fact two of Khivar’s men were only a metre away from her.

Max watched Liz’s tortured face, as she witnessed her friend’s pain continue, as Maria called out “Don’t! Don’t Michael!” The scream she let out, as the mind rape increased, was almost blood curdling. Liz stood with her hand clenched in a ball as the anger and pain started to well up in her chest and Max could tell from her face she needed to let it go.

“Max,” He heard from behind him. “Max don’t turn around, it’s me. Tess.” Her faint voice rang in his ear and he thought it might have been his imagination if he couldn’t feel her hot breath on his neck. “Sorry but I didn’t have the strengthen to keep myself covered… they found me. I was lucky to escape… but don’t worry… I have Liz covered… I’ll get her out of here and then I’ll be back for you guys.”

Max nodded slightly as Khivar’s attention remained on tormenting Michael. He heard her leave quickly before he did the one thing he was sure he wouldn’t do. He didn’t even look to Liz, in her gut she knew already and he didn’t want to see her pained expression. “Stop it!” Max demanded as he stepped forward in his powerful leadership way. He stood tall with his chest out as he commanded, “Stop it, give her back to us and you can have me.”

“What?!” Everyone yelled at him in shock, wide eyed.

“He needs a powerful Queen to bring down what Zan built… but there is no way in hell he is getting Liz,” He started as calmly and directly as Tess crept quietly to Liz, “So he can have the next best thing…” He swallowed “he can have me.”

Liz gasped out loud as she looked at Max in shock and horror, her hand covering her mouth. “No!” She muttered under her breath at Max. “No!” She said louder as she started to walk towards Max. “No!” She practically screamed as she ran to him. Yet no one but Tess and Max heard. She started to run towards Max but was stopped by Tess as she put her force field up. Liz started to hammer away at the shield as she watched Max approach Khivar, his shield down leaving himself open to any shot.

“Liz… we have to go… we have to get away from here.” Tess whispered trying to reason with Liz. “He’s not going to let Khivar take him away. I’m sure he knows what he is doing.”

Tess’ shield came down as she saw tears start to flow down Liz’s cheeks and pulled her into her arms. “Come on… you need to get out of here… it’s not safe for either you or the baby and I’m getting more and more drained by the minute.” She felt Liz nod her head so she turned her around, giving her a slight push forward. “Run.” She demanded into Liz’s ear as she felt her whole body being pulled to the floor and dragged to Khivar’s feet. “Run and don’t look back!” She screamed out as she watched Liz start to sprint while she was dragged on her back to the feet of Khivar.

“Tess, Tess, Tess,” Khivar said in disappointment as he shook his head. “I thought you would know better than to believe that I wouldn’t find you.” With a flick of the hand he threw a now barely conscious Maria before Max’s feet before kneeling to the floor. Max quickly hurried Maria into his arms and passed her through the shield, of the other hybrids, into the waiting arms of Michael, who held her tightly to her chest. Yet Khivar didn’t care, he just continued to kneel to the floor and grab the collar of Tess’ white shirt and brought her to his eye level. “Now tell me Miss Harding… where is she?” He asked his hand caressed her cheek and tight blonde curls as he waited for his answer. “Where is Elizabeth Parker? Tell me or I shall just take what I want.”

Tess snorted in his face. “I’d like to see you try.”

“Ok…” Khivar grinned. “I like a challenge.” As soon as he placed his hand on her head the group sprang into action. As Tess screamed through pain and mental exhaustion the group started on the skins, each taking one of the surrounding men. Khivar didn’t even flinch as he signalled the skins to form a line of defence blocking the hybrids from him.

* * * * * * *

Liz ran as quickly as she could, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed out loud. Her chest felt heavy with guilt and she felt pain at she thought of what was going on without her. Yet her feet carried her as far away as possible for the sake of the child that was growing within her. But even then, something deep in her gut was screaming for her to go back, to end the whole situation herself.

The moment she heard Tess’ terrified and tear filled scream she stopped dead in such a way she fell to her knees. She bit her lip as she fell onto her hands and curved her head inwards to her chest. Bitter and angry tears poured from her eyes as she shook her head. “No.” She whispered again as her mind raced through every last thing Khivar had done to her. Now he was doing it all to her friends. “It’s not fair.” She growled as she clenched her hands into balls. “It’s not fair!” She shouted as she snapped her head up at another of Tess’ screams. Her eyes started to glow a fierce green as she heard the blasts and the shouts of Tess’ name from Kyle. As she knelt there listening her whole body became more sensitive to what was going on behind her.

She could feel the sweat running down Max’s forehead as he approached the wall of skins that defended Khivar. She could feel Michael’s heart breaking at the sight of Maria’s unconscious body that still played over and over in his mind as he maintained a shield around her. She could practically see Isabel’s determined face as she shot at the wall, screaming Alex’s name every time she hit another skin. She could hear Kyle’s voice saying Tess’ name over again like a mantra as he ran at the wall in rage, with Serena by his side.

She could feel Tess’ mind breaking down.

“NO!” She yelled over the din, her muscles clenched with anger. But there was nothing she could do. She was totally useless.

“But your not!” Tess’ voice rang through her mind, her voice just a mere whisper to Khivar who was the only other person to hear it. “Now save yourself!”

Liz’s green pupils glowed even more fiercely as she lifted herself from the floor, standing up straight; her head back as she took a deep breath. Since she had been healed she held the power and even after she saw it back at the safe house she had forgotten about it. Now she wasn’t going to make the same mistake.

Smoothing back her hair the green light flicked around her hands as she built up the power and will to fight. “I will do this.” She said in a cool crisp tone. “I am going to do this!” As every second passed she thought of every last thing Khivar had taken away from her: her home, her family, her friends and her life. Now he was threatening to take the most important people in her life away from her completely.

That’s when it happened. Everything slowed down as she closed her eyes as the emotional pain of losing them overwhelmed. She could see their faces flashing past her, each at their happiest. She wasn’t going to lose her family. She refused to.

Opening her eyes she found herself in the middle of the fight, skins in front of her, the others behind doing their best to again access to Tess. It was happening so quickly yet it was happening in slow motion to Liz.

She could see Max’s expression turn from concentration to complete and utter panic and fear as he witnessed Liz materialise before him, but it happened so slowly that she could see each and every movement in his handsome face. Each blast travelled around her at a snails pace. One came moving towards her and out of curiosity she skimmed her hand over it. It felt warm to the touch when it should have burnt her skin at the slightest contact with it. She simply watched it fly past her towards Isabel, destroying it with her own blast when she realised Isabel hadn’t noticed it. Turning round she caught one that was coming towards her on her left. She held it in her palms for a couple of seconds as she looked towards the frightened skin. She could see he was scared of her. She was literally what he had been told and the power she was showing in the mere holding of his alien blast proved Khivar was correct; she was powerful. Closing her eyes she drew up all her energy enlarging the power ball from the size of a football to the size of small car. Her eyes flew open as she concentrated, her hands running around the warm ball that developed into a mass of green electricity. Every one came to a stop, their hands still in the air from their fight, as they saw the mass. Liz smirked. “Take this!” She shouted smiling as she threw the ball at the skins.

The bright green light engulfed the skins and within seconds it was gone, along with the skins, which just left the mass of skin flakes floating in the air as the only proof they had been there.

But Liz didn’t see that. All she saw was the scene that was going on behind the wall of skin. Tess lay crumpled on the floor, her head in her hands as she sobbed in pain. Dirt and blood mixed together on her skin as she sweated from the fear and exhaustion she felt. Her clothes were torn at the seams and there above her stood Khivar, a look of satisfaction on his lips. “I’ll have my way!” He declared as he had obviously broken down Tess’ strong defences. Liz’s anger boiled away in her stomach as she witnessed his hands coming down towards Tess and a fresh batch of skins come around the corner.

“No!” She once again yelled out in pain. But this time she felt the warm power in her hands build and she instinctively threw a shield up behind her to stop the others from interfering. It built up more the nearer Khivar’s hands came towards Tess’ head.

Liz’s hand flew out in front of her as her eyes turned black with power. Bright white rays soared through her hands and pierced the husks of every skin that was in town. The wind rushed past her as she gathered more power, sweeping her hair up leaving it to flow behind her. “Khivar!” She declared, her voice deep and inhuman, as she picked him from the floor and lifted him into the air, his body hanging limply in the sky. “This ends today!” She whispered, a lone tear escaping the corner of her eye as she focused on his body. Once again her hands started to warm with the power she built up and within seconds the white light shot from her hands to his centre.

“I carry the child who was destined to bring forth your demise” She growled, her voice still inhuman and dead, yet emotion filled and booming at the same time. “And now I condemn you to death.”

He screamed as she burnt away his skin layer by layer, exposing the muscle and letting the blood ooze out as she did so. She felt no compassion, just anger, as she did so.

Within a couple more seconds the light stopped and Liz stepped back half in satisfaction and half in horror as she let Khivar’s charred body fall from the sky on to the floor.

She stared wide-eyed for a couple of seconds, a sick feeling building in her stomach as she took in the sight of his flesh burned away to expose the silver bone beneath.

It had happened so quickly and suddenly it was all too much for her.

Then everything went black.

Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuys!! Just a note to say that the concluding part of this story is taking slightly longer than I would have liked... so I thought I shall tell you likelyhood is that you shall get it on friday or saturday, with friday being the prefered day.

Yes... yes I know... when you get the next part it will leave a couple of questions in the air, BUT, I PROMISE you that you shall have them answered in the sequel. Oh yeah I can hear you all groan in annoyance at the thought of waiting for a sequel... and I know some writers have left you hanging for years... I have no such plan. In a way the only reason there is going to be a sequel is the fact that the story seems to turn into another story altogether and will give me a couple weeks grace to get my psychology exam (yes I am a brainac, with English being my main focus... can you tell? ) outta the way, meaning I WILL be updating regularly until may/june time when all madness ensues with exams.

So after the next part I shall be having a couple weeks to cram like a complete nutter then I'll be back... fresh as a daisy

I sincerely hope you liked this story... because it has been fun to write it

See in a couple of days!

Loving ya lots, Rie xx