Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch. 15 05/28/20 p. 14

This is the place to post stories that significantly alter the show's canon or mythology such as prequels, backgrounds for the characters that differ from on the show, fics where different characters are alien, and alternative family relationships. These fics must contain aliens or alien storylines as part of their plot.

Moderators: Anniepoo98, Rowedog, ISLANDGIRL5, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, FSU/MSW-94, Hunter, Island Breeze, Forum Moderators

User avatar
max and liz believer
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 821
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2002 10:45 am
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) A/N 12/23/18 p. 11

Post by max and liz believer »

keepsmiling7 wrote: Sun Dec 29, 2019 5:45 pm Looking forward to your return in 2020.
Thank you! :D :D

- Jo
Image
Unbreakable (M/L, AU)
Facebook Page
My Imagination

Instagram: author_josephin_ripa
User avatar
max and liz believer
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 821
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2002 10:45 am
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Author's Note 7th of January 2020

Post by max and liz believer »

Hello all my beautiful readers! I hope there's still some of you left after my lengthy hiatus :oops: :?

As I have told you in previous A/Ns, there has been a pregnancy (and its associated nausea and fatigue), a baby, a move, and a wedding. It's been a lot. But I'm trying to fight my way back again and I have actually written a couple of chapters. I just want to have some chapters ready to go before I start posting, so I won't leave you hanging for too long between posts.

Image
My daughter and I at my wedding in September

I thought I would give you a summary, to jumpstart your memory. While you read that, I'll be sending a chapter to my beta (my editor) and hopefully it'll be ready to be posted shortly. I do, however, suspect that my beta is on vacation, so I can't assure a ridiculously quick update. But soon enough.

Here's what has happened:

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

But she does. And he erases her mind.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Before I took a lengthy maternity leave from this story, Liz and Max had just started to get back to normal. They had only recently started school and realized that there were allegiances within the alien teenagers. Especially one girl, Courtney Green, is interested in Liz’s scalp. She’s not too happy about Liz being viewed as special or that Liz has snatched Max.

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

I'll be returning shortly with a new chapter!

- Jo
Image
Unbreakable (M/L, AU)
Facebook Page
My Imagination

Instagram: author_josephin_ripa
keepsmiling7
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2649
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:34 pm

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) A/N 01/07/20 p. 12

Post by keepsmiling7 »

Thanks for the beautiful picture........what a precious memory.
And a special thanks for the summary. I forget what I read yesterday!
User avatar
SmileeUk
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2001 4:58 pm
Location: SmileeLand

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) A/N 01/07/20 p. 12

Post by SmileeUk »

Hello Jo

Thank You Very Much for sharing your wedding photo with the precious little one :D We are so privileged :D :D

You have made my day & week!! <Doing A Happy Dance> I can’t wait to start reading the third book! Yippee!!

The summary is great and it confirms my memory hasn’t faded :mrgreen:

Looking forward to the new chapter!! :P
~~~~~~ ###### Smiling is a Gift ###### ~~~~~~
User avatar
max and liz believer
Obsessed Roswellian
Posts: 821
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2002 10:45 am
Location: Sweden
Contact:

TWELVE

Post by max and liz believer »

Hi everyone!

You probably don't remember what you wrote in your feedback for the previous chapter a hundred million years ago, so I will quote your entire feedback and reply to it below. Okay? :)

SmileeUk
SmileeUk wrote: Sun Sep 03, 2017 10:16 am LOVE this chapter!!
:D :D
I can feel Max's pain! :roll: It is how good you are with your writing :D :wink:
Thank you :D :oops:
SmileeUk wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2020 7:49 pm Hello Jo

Thank You Very Much for sharing your wedding photo with the precious little one :D We are so privileged :D :D

You have made my day & week!! <Doing A Happy Dance> I can’t wait to start reading the third book! Yippee!!

The summary is great and it confirms my memory hasn’t faded :mrgreen:

Looking forward to the new chapter!! :P
Hehe, you're already reading the third book. This is the 12th chapter of the third book <3


keepsmiling7
keepsmiling7 wrote: Sun Sep 03, 2017 6:22 pm that was HOT.......HOT......HOT.......
My computer is on fire,
and yes Max did find a way.........for now that is.
Thanks,
Carolyn
Well, maybe he didn't find a way. We'll see. Thank you!!


L-J-L 76
L-J-L 76 wrote: Sun Sep 03, 2017 7:52 pm Oh my god someone is going to have to look for a fire extinguisher for their computer now. Great Chapter! Hopefully Max and Liz will figure away to make love again without getting pregnant so soon again. Can't wait to find out what will happen next for Max and Liz.

From:
L-J-L 76
Thank you so much for the feedback!


Natalie36
Natalie36 wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 7:45 am oh my I love the practicing :mrgreen:
:oops: :wink: 8) Thank you for the feedback!


mela3
mela3 wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:31 pm Goooo...teamwork!
Hahaha :wink:


Alien_Friend
Alien_Friend wrote: Fri Sep 22, 2017 3:50 pm Thanks for the note. Writers block is the pits. I could have sworn I left FB earlier apparently it was all in my head.

Loving it. The passion and intimacy they have created between each other is so delicious and precious. Every moment you dive into, you explore new avenues of their beautiful connection. It's is like examining the most beautiful flower in existences and discovering new nuances to fall in love with. I enjoy reading them so care free. Just being young and enjoying being in love. Despite them having a serious objective they can still enjoy life as they try to find answers. :lol:

Thanks for sharing another delicious chapter. It gives me hope that power of Roswell will never end with authors like you willing to keep it current. Good luck with your writers block.
This feedback. Thank you so much. I still remember when I read it; at the gym. And how much it meant to me. Thank you!


RoswellFan68
RoswellFan68 wrote: Tue Aug 21, 2018 7:00 pm I just discovered the unbreakable series. Wow is all I can say.
Thank you so much! And welcome to this series of mine :D


From ELEVEN:

He was slowly inching into my mind - probably without knowing he was doing so - to find out where my line of thinking was going.

“What do you mean?” he asked, catching a strand of my hair and rolling it lightly between his fingertips.

I raised up on one elbow. “Everything else we have been trying to do separately - when it comes to the connection - hasn’t seemed to work that well. Mostly it has meant that we haven’t been able to use our full capacity. But as soon as we-“

“-have worked together…” Max filled in, a light of hope flashing in his eyes, leaving the obvious conclusion unsaid.

Perhaps we should be doing this together. Perhaps Max should teach me how to feed into that energy cap protecting my cervix. That way he wouldn’t be alone in sustaining it. It would have a failsafe. Me.

“Because you have great control when
I…” I blushed, “…let go…” I was still unused to discussing our intimate activities out loud.

“Maybe you have great control when
I come,” Max finished, the hopeful light surrounding a kid on Christmas morning coming to life in his eyes, not caring that he was using completely different speaking terms than I was. Max was not foreign to using any words he wanted to.

I smiled, a wide and engulfing smile. “You know what that means?”

He read my answer before I could stop him, but he humored me by asking, “What?”, possibly wanting me to say it out loud.

I grinned. “More practicing.”

He rolled his eyes, shook his head, in a feigned tired feeling of ‘Oh no, not more practicing!’.

Giggling, I worked myself up his body, trying to ignore how my body responded to his as my nipples brushed against his chest, and melted our lips together. Empathically, I said, “I love you.”

He lightly caressed my cheek, ran the tip of his thumb along my bottom lip, his eyes telling me the reciprocal before his mouth did, “Forever.”

We laid there in silence for a couple of minutes before I broke it by declaring, “Good thing that George taught you how to soundproof the room.”

Amused, he said, “A good thing. A very good.”


____________________________________
Image
TWELVE

Maria’s smile threatened to break her face when she plopped down on the other side of the kitchen table. It made me slightly nervous, that smile. It brought me back to the days when Maria would be ‘up to something’. To a time when Maria had insisted that I should go to that Halloween party at the Evans’ mansion.

And we all know how that had ended….

“What’s up?” I asked, trying to sound causal, deliberately pretending to not see her excitement.

Maria reached for a bagel, practically bouncing in her seat.

When she didn’t say anything, that smile remaining on her face, I couldn’t stop my own smile from creeping onto my lips. Laughing, I reached across the table surface and moved the orange juice away from her just as she was reaching for it, attracting her full attention, “Spill.”

“It’s nothing,” Maria said, completely unable to hide her smile even though she was obviously trying. She shrugged and took the OJ. While pouring the yellow liquid into her glass, she said, “You won’t agree to it anyway.”

I rolled my eyes. She was being coy. “Don’t do that. Just tell me.”

She took a bite of her bagel, chewing it slowly in silence, while watching my face. It was annoying. She was purposely annoying me. But I was still smiling, because of the normalcy of her behavior. She was ‘Annoying Maria’ again. Her ability to bounce back from what she had been through was amazing, making me so happy and relieved.

After twenty seconds of slowly chewing her bagel, I shook my head, rolling my eyes at her again, “Come on. Speak, woman.”

Calmly, no hurry whatsoever, she took a big gulp from her orange juice before saying, “There’s a party.”

Immediately, I lost my smile. Instant anxiety tightened my stomach.

My aversion to those few words must have been clearly visible on my face, because her excitement cooled and she said, “I knew you wouldn’t like it.”

The lump in my throat prevented me from uttering any words. I waved her statement away with my hand, trying to force a smile back on my lips. Trying to make her believe that I was fine with it.

Trying to make her believe that I wasn’t terrified.

She placed her bagel on the small white plate in front of her and reached across the table to take my hand. Squeezing my hand gently, she said, “It’s just a party.”

I attempted that smile again, but it was almost painful. Trying to smile right now made me want to cry. So I stopped, the corners of my mouth dropping.

“What are you afraid of?”

Her question took me by surprise. Maria had grown up these last couple of weeks. She could now see straight through me. She could now read fear on my face.

“It’s nothing,” I mumbled, my voice creaking in its shock. I was staring down into the bowl of cereals in front of me, my body still while my heart was throbbing loudly in my chest.

Her grip tightened around my hand in support. “I know you didn’t even really like parties before all hell broke loose, but I think it’ll be good for you. To get out. To hang around more people around our age. To do normal teenage stuff.”

I bit my lower lip, trying to keep my tears at bay. I wasn’t even really sure why it was scaring me. The rational side of my brain was telling me that it was just a party, while the rest of my body was screaming ‘Danger!’.

“Besides, I’ll be at your side the whole time,” Maria continued. “So will Max.”

I frowned. “Max has agreed to this?”

A small smile. “I haven’t told him. But I’m pretty sure he knows about the party anyway. I’m pretty sure your boyfriend knows about practically everything that goes around.”

I should have smiled at that assumption (because she was right), but the act of smiling still felt horribly distant.

“And if you decide to go, Max will be there. I’m sure of it.”

She was right, of course. I didn’t expect Max to let me out of his sight. Some might call his overprotectiveness overbearing, but due to our current predicament it was completely reasonable. He did leave me for classes at school that we didn’t share (but only because I was always with someone else he trusted) and he didn’t exactly follow me around the Evans’ house since that was a safe zone.

Most likely, the only thing stopping him from attending a party I was attending would be if he was dead and thus was physically unable to.

When I took too long to reply, Maria said, “What scares you about it?”

I wasn't sure I had the answer to that one, so I looked up from my soggy cereal to her face and demanded, “Tell me about the party.”

Maria brightened, seeing my possible interest in the party as a sign that I was actually considering going. And she was not completely wrong.

My best friend had a point. I needed to do something else. I needed to let go a bit. I needed to be a teenager again. And - apparently - teenagers went to parties.

“It’s at Kyle Valenti’s place,” Maria started.

Valenti! Right. That was his name. My mind flashed on the face of the guy that had been the first one to stand up in the canteen and show his allegiance to me (and Max).

“O…kay,” I said slowly, tentatively.

“He specifically asked for you,” Maria continued, her bouncing resuming as her excitement took a hold of her again.

Of course he did, I thought grimly. I had celebrity status now. The aliens probably only wanted me to come so that they could point and stare at me. I would be the rare monkey at the zoo.

“Okay,” I repeated, not able to hide my reluctance.

The bouncing stopped and Maria searched my face in silence before saying, “All the right people will be there.” She was frowning. Maybe trying to figure out the root of my lukewarm reaction, maybe trying to figure out how to sell this idea to me.

I sighed, picking up my spoon and immersing it into the milk containing the almost completely disintegrated fruit loops, spooning some of the content up only to let it run off the spoon and slowly hit the milky surface. “And who are these ‘right’ people?”

She hesitated. “The ones you want to hang out with.”

I looked at her, dubiously, and suggested, “The cool ones?”

If it was a party at Kyle’s, I bet it would mostly be aliens present. And what did all aliens have in common? Well, except for powers, an alien genetic code and secrecy, they had money. It would most likely be a party of the elite.

Like the one Maria and I had attended which had resulted in a physical confrontation between Sean and Max, and had me running into the backyard to hide.

But Sean was no more. So maybe a party with aliens would be safe nowadays. Maybe it was time for me to get to know that side of Roswell High students. Maybe it would be a good strategic move to get to know the people Max and I would be trying to help later. Get to know the ones we had been fighting for. Maybe that’s what Maria meant with ‘the ones you want to hang out with’. Maybe she was thinking strategically. Or did she only want us to have fun? After everything we had been - and were still going - through?

“Are you talking to Max?” Maria asked then, pulling me out of my thoughts.

Her question confused me for a second, before I realized what she meant. I had been lost in my thoughts for too long. She thought I was on the telepathic intercom.

“No,” I said and sighed. “No, I was just thinking.”

“How does Max feel about this?” Maria asked, curiously. Assuming that Max and I had actually been communicating.

“I don’t-“ I started, but his sudden presence in the room interrupted me.

Eavesdropping? I asked him, a mild bite to my question.

He plumped down next to me, pressed a kiss to my temple, and whispered quietly into my ear, “My eavesdropping system clicks on when Maria says ‘Party’.”

I breathed a short laugh and he pulled back, arranged his chair into eating position and reached for a bagel. Breaking off a piece and putting it in his mouth, he looked across the table at the amused Maria and said around a mouthful of bread, “Morning, Ria.”

Maria rolled her eyes and addressed me with a, “You were ‘just thinking’, my ass.”

“He was listening in!” I objected.

Maria’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. “Uh-huh. Right.”

I elbowed Max, who was happily munching away at the bagel as if he hadn’t had anything to eat in weeks. “Tell her!”

“What?” Max cried out, the word muffled by the amount of food in his mouth, and added to Maria, “She was,” big air quotes, “‘just thinking’.”

I shook my head at him, mumbling, “Idiot,” my big smile betraying my statement.

“Actually,” Maria said succinctly. “Max.”

Max took my hand under the table and threw me a wink out of the corner of his eye. In my mind, his voice echoed Good morning, beautiful.

“Yes, Maria,” Max answered in the same strict manner as he would answer an authority figure. Well, plus the mocking tone.

Watch it, I told Max. You’re gonna piss her off.

Maria pressed her lips together, before collecting her cool and resuming, “There’s such a thing as a Female Confidentiality.”

That might be fun. He sounded so mischievous that I had to scoop up a spoon of fruit loops and put them into my mouth to hide my smile.

“Really?” Max asked in an exaggerated interested voice.

Maria frowned. “Stop that!” Looking at me, she asked, “Why is he acting like Michael?”

Hiding behind my spoon, I shrugged, but I’m pretty sure Maria could see the laughter in my eyes.

Did you sleep well? Max asked sensually in my head, making me almost drop the spoon.

“Yes, really,” Maria emphasized, addressing Max again. “There might be some things that should remain between us girls. You know: No boys allowed!”

Max was thinking about our intimate activities last night, heating us both up with desire. I kicked his foot under the table. Don’t!

“Boys are allowed when it concerns the safety of their girlfriends,” Max replied, putting the conversation into a sudden drop of seriousness.

Maria softened, sighing. “I just don’t understand why it would be so dangerous to go.”

Have you told Maria about what happened at Taylor’s party? Max asked me, the memory of our attempts at creating a good pregnancy prevention method last night evaporating like smoke.

No, I told him.

Max squeezed my hand in response. He could understand me not telling Maria. Maria didn’t need to know everything that had happened up to the point of her finding out about the existence of aliens. But at the same time, some information was perhaps necessary to make Maria understand why some things were dangerous now.

“Liz can defend herself now,” Maria tried. “She has access to your abilities and she can do a lot of stuff on her own. Aaand, we have all those bodyguards all the time.”

“It might not be smart to have the adult bodyguards there,” Max said. “It would look weird and they’ll blow their cover. We would only be able to have Michael there.”

“I-“ Maria started, but Max interrupted her.

“Liz can defend herself, yes,” Max continued. “But what about you, Maria? Can you?”

“And what does Michael think about his?” I asked.

Maria looked worried, but defiantly raised her chin. “I haven’t told him. But he’ll be fine with it. He’ll protect me.”

“Right,” Max said, dubiously, and reached for another bagel.

Maria was left with the silence. A silence that might make her doubt her suggestion to go to a party.

“Michael will be protecting Max, myself and you,” I pointed out. “That’s quite a handful. Even for Michael.”

She put down her bagel, her mouth tightening in defiant disapproval. “God! Loosen up! You’re acting like we’re going into a war zone. It’s a fucking party. That’s all. Do you actually think that people will be attacking you in there?”

“There are sides now, Maria,” Max sighed, reaching for the OJ, shaking it, finding it empty, letting out another sigh and reaching for the milk carton instead. Pouring it into a tall glass, he elaborated, “There are still a lot of Antarians on Command’s side, even though some of them have come over to our side. The allegiance of the children usually go along with the opinions of their parents, so if the dad would put his vote for Command you can be pretty sure that his kid would do the same.”

“But you know who these people are, right? Roughly?” Maria asked.

Max nodded. “Sure. We have a fairly good approximation of that. But that doesn’t help at the party, because I don’t know the guest list.”

“We can obviously assume that Courtney Green is not on our side,” I added. “But she might still be at the party.”

Maria frowned. “You told me that Kyle was one of us. Why would he invite the enemy?”

Under the table, Max interlaced his fingers with mine, answering Maria, “It might not work like that. They might have been friends before. Politics might not be enough to interfere with our generation. It’s more a problem of the adults.”

“I don’t believe that.” Maria shook her head. “You told me about what happened at school. About Kyle being the first one to swear allegiance to you. In front of every single alien there. He must have seen Courtney trying to attack Liz as well as the rest of us. He must have put two and two together. If he was so intent on showing allegiance, possibly putting himself at risk somehow by doing so, politics must be important to him. Important enough to not invite the opposition.”

Max shrugged. “You have a point.” He took another bite of the bagel and said around a mouthful, “But we don’t know if those people will decide to crash the party.”

Maria’s incredulous look moved between Max and I, back and forth. “You can’t be serious? You two killed Command and you’re afraid of Courtney Green?”

When she put it like that, it sounded stupid, but I couldn’t agree with her. Because, perhaps I actually was afraid of Courtney Green.

Max explained it better, “We don’t want to hurt Courtney. Command was evil, beyond saving, but if we went around killing aliens - even if it were in self-defense - we would be no better than Command ourselves. Our job is to rehabilitate the ones affected by darkness, not kill them. If they die from the cleansing process, it’s because of their lack of goodness, not that we directly killed them.”

Maria sighed loudly, hiding her face in her hands, and mumbled loudly, “Why do you have to be so noble and good, Max?”

I smiled at this, while Maria looked out between her hands like peeking through the sliding shutters of a window, “Can’t you just zap her, mess up her hair, heat up the silicone in her boobs or something else prank-like? You don’t have to kill her. I was not hinting that you should do that!”

Before Max could answer, I took the stand. “We have not fine-tuned the connection yet. One thing we know is that the connection will act dangerously if it feels that we - Max and me - are being threatened. So it might be a low-key threat from Courtney at a party, but it might turn into a massacre if the connection reacts.”

Maria had paled with my words and was now looking to Max for confirmation. Grimly, he nodded.

“So if I were to come at you with a knife right now, the connection might decide to kill me?”

“If it reads that your intention is to kill us, then yes,” Max answered.

Maria leaned back in the chair, mumbling, “Yikes.”

“We might make it sound more dangerous than it is,” I tried soothingly, “We have started to learn how to work more seamlessly with the connection. But we haven’t been in great peril since Command attacked us and we can’t be certain what might happen.”

“That’s how Sean and his dad died,” Max said quietly, his hand hugging mine in support, hating that he had to bring it up.

I swallowed.

“I was bleeding out, Liz was trying to save me and was vulnerable with her back turned, and the connection answered. Somehow it took charge over our energies and fired a shockwave that killed them both. It would have killed anything in that room, probably.”

Maria thoughtfully chewed on her bottom lip, her gaze empty, and pushed her plate away. “I’ve lost my appetite.”

“Maria…” I said regretfully, remembering how happy she had been at the start of this conversation. How excited she had been to go to the party.

“So we’re not going to the party,” she concluded tonelessly.

Feeling sorry for her, Max said comfortingly, “I’ll check with Michael, Isabel and Alex, okay? I’ll have to run it past dad as well. Maybe we can make it happen.”

A gleam of hope lit in Maria’s eyes. “Really?”

Max shrugged. “Like you said; we need to do more normal teenage stuff.”

I glared at Max with humor, him and me both knowing full well that Maria had said that when Max was not in the room. But Maria failed to notice that additional proof that Max had been eavesdropping earlier.
*****
Two days later

Apparently, Courtney Green was not the sole female who hated me. Whether you were politically against me or not, many girls had - on a very emotional and personal level - previously had a thing for Max. I was convinced that, for most of them, their animosity towards me had nothing to do with me being a part of killing Command, but had everything to do with me stealing their potential future boyfriend. Even their potential future husband.

In other words, we went to that party. At Kyle Valenti’s house. Or should I say mansion? I had consequently reached the conclusion that most of the aliens in Roswell lived under grandiose conditions. Of all the interiors of aliens’ houses I had seen (which were not that many), it was only Alex who lived in a more middle-class type of home. The money the rest of them flaunted was ridiculous. I wondered if they had earned all that capital themselves or if it was handed to them out of a general tax fund, collected by the Antarians. Maybe some of them were bank robbers?

Never mind.

When Max had approached Michael about the prospect of attending a party, which basically entailed him working the whole time (to protect us), Michael had not been as against it as Max had anticipated. On the contrary, Michael appeared almost eager. Almost as if he viewed it as a big challenge that he was certain he would manage.

Maybe it was just a way for him to show his alien friends that he was good at his job. That he was a good protector.

Maybe he just wanted to show off to Maria.

Alex had been doubtful, while Isabel had been excited to go. Philip had a tightly controlled blow-up about it.

In the end, it resulted in us attending the party, and me being elbowed, pushed and given the evil eye by all the jealous girls.

I had been afraid of being looked at as a celebrity. Being gawked at.

If only.

At least that would have been better than the passive aggressiveness I was attacked with that night. The acts were too small, too sudden, for Max to react. He felt their elbows in his side (as they in reality hit my side) as if they had been directed at him, but the girl had moved on and disappeared into the dancing crowd before he could catch her.

The phenomenon was bothering him just as much as it was bothering me. What was supposed to have been a night of normalcy had turned into a night of bullying.

I had never felt so much like an outsider. Never felt so alienated. No pun intended.

Kyle Valenti was funny. I liked him. I had not had much interaction with him before, but he welcomed us personally when we arrived, a warm inviting smile on his face, proudly displaying his girlfriend Emma by his side and cracking at least five jokes in the space of a minute.

He told us to make ourselves at home, that he was honored by our presence, and then he was gone. Disappearing into the sea of youth. A sea of dancing and drinking teenagers.

There were human beings there as well. I had not expected that. But after having been jabbed by enough overly styled girls, I gravitated towards the human groups. I had never hung out with those particular people before, but I felt instinctively safer there. The group we ended up next to was an even mix of girls and boys, and only one of the girls looked at me sourly before looking at my boyfriend longingly.

I love you, Max whispered into my mind then. No one else got a chance. His arm was warm around the back of my waist. There will never be anyone but you. These girls are barely a blip on my radar compared to you.

It was good to hear his assurance. I never doubted the things he pointed out. I knew that he was mine and I was his. Forever. But it still felt good to hear it, to feel his possessive hold on my body that screamed loudly that we belonged together.

“So, Liz…” A girl I had never spoken to in my entire life emerged from the group, twirling a curled strand of blonde hair between her red-painted fingernails, while blue eyes drifted from my face to Max’s. Her eyes fixed on him for a second too long, before she returned her airy attention to me. “Where did you go?”

I frowned. “Excuse me?” I was pretty sure I knew what she was referring to, but I felt that I wanted her to clarify before I accidentally said too much.

Her eyes drifted to Max again and she might as well have been drooling right in front of me. I felt blinding annoyance creep into my body. Leisurely, she moved her eyes back to me and drawled, twirling her hair, “You know, where did you go? You were gone for a very long time.”

“My mom died,” I said simply, but had to swallow around the grief that immediately pressed down on my chest at the reminder.

“I’m sorry, Liz,” a girl to my left interjected quietly. I looked at her, recognized her from biology class (Nathalie, was it?) and gave her a small smile of ‘thank you’, before I looked back at the girl with the perfect make up and the curled blonde hair.

“I heard,” the girl said, at least sounding somewhat apologetic, before she let her curiosity get the best of her again. “Was that why you left?”

“Yes,” I replied. “My dad and I were shocked about what happened. My dad lost his business. We needed to get away.”

“I couldn’t imagine losing my mom,” the girl (Nathalie?) said next to me. I looked at her again. She had a very warm and welcoming face. She didn’t wear any make up and was by all societal standards plain, but there was something very pleasant about her. I briefly wondered why she hung out with the girl that was cross-examining me right now.

I caught the painted girl’s eye roll at her friend before she addressed Max, her voice softening and warming. I felt that annoyance returning. She was flirting with Max, right in front of his girlfriend.

It’s kinda amusing, actually, Max told me, laughter in his thought while his face was blank while listening to the girl.

“You disappeared around the same time, Max,” the girl said, blinking long black fake eyelashes slowly while licking her lips covered in shiny lip balm.

Anger slowly heated up my neck. I had only been jealous about one person in Max’s life before: Tess. And this girl reminded me of Tess. With her blonde curls and her dolled-up face. Even the way she was treating Max was reminiscent of Tess.

“What have you heard, Amber?” Max asked evenly, but calm authority saturating his voice.

I stared at him, the jealousy exploding You know her name?

He glanced at me, telling me She’s in my history class, before looking back at the blonde. Amber.

Amber shrugged. “Nothing in particular.”

The girl I was remembering as Nathalie sighed loudly and rolled her eyes, “We heard that you two eloped. That your parents disapproved of you being together and so you took it to the extreme and decided to get married.”

“We’re 16,” I sighed, the jealousy simmering down when faced with the ridicule of teenage gossip. “Why would we even attempt to get married?”

“So you’re suggesting that you two,” Amber pointed at Max and I, “just happen to disappear at the same time and when you return you’re together. Just like that? Like, did you hook up outside of the school building when you just happened to return to school again at the same time?” An ugly grimace fluttered across her features. “You think we’re stupid?”

“Liz and I are together,” Max verified calmly. “We’re not denying that.”

Should we change the story so that it better fits the rumors? my mind silently asked my alien hybrid boyfriend.

In a way, it was amusing how little the girls in front of me knew. How small their world was. Even if I were to tell them everything, I doubt they would believe me. It would be viewed as a really really bad lie.

Sure. Take the lead, my lady.

I threw him a soft smile, something that had Amber narrow her eyes in disapproval.

“Max was there for me when my mom died,” I told Amber, starting out our cover story with the truth. “So we became a couple around that time. It became too much for my dad. He didn’t approve. He decided that we should go to my aunt. Get away from it all.” My eyes flickered to Max. “Max and didn’t see each other for that whole time.”

Amber frowned. “So you actually went to Boston, then?” The look she gave Max was as challenging as it was dubious.

Max looked the perfect combination of innocence and honesty. “Dad got a new job. The family had to follow.”

Amber looked between Max and I. It was obvious that she was not convinced, that she was sensing that something was wrong with our story. But maybe she couldn’t pinpoint what or maybe she was merely losing interest. Whatever the reason, she sighed with an eye roll and said, “Nothing more exciting than that, huh?”

Her comment made me smile. Her delivery made me relieved and relaxed. It was such a typical teenage response. A typical sign of her not wanting to annoy us or be a bitch, she was only trying to find something exciting to talk about. Be the first one to hear some juicy gossip. Straight from the horse’s mouth.

“Nothing ever happens in Roswell, right?” Nathalie pointed out with a skewed smile.

I swallowed, forced a tense smile on my lips and nodded, “Sure. Nothing.”

In my mind, Max was laughing at my poor response and stopped myself just in time from elbowing him.

“But hey,” Amber said, “congrats on the whole,” she waved her hand nonchalantly between Max and I, “‘couple-thing’.”

I grimaced. “Thanks?”

“Eh,” Amber sighed, looking as if she was finding herself stupid for saying anything. “You know what I mean.”

I was starting to like this Amber. If you ignored the fact that she had the worst skills in making a good first impression, she seemed to be okay. Maybe funny even.

“Um,” I looked at Max, “I need to visit the ladies’ room.”

“Down the hall to the right,” Nathalie immediately pointed out.

I smiled at her. “Thanks.”

Max grabbed my elbow, pulling me close, brushing his warm lips against my temple. Take Maria with you.

I scanned the room, his breath warm and comforting against my skin. Where is she?

Max, never once disappointing in keeping an eagle eye of his surroundings, told me, Next to the entrance to the kitchen. Brushing his hands down my upper body to come to rest on the top of my hips, he gently turned my body towards that location, saying, “Right there.”

And there she was. My best friend.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, squeezed the top of one of his hands and brushed out of his grip.

“You’re one lucky girl,” Amber told me as I moved past her.

Her tone of voice sounded friendly enough, so I gave her a quick, “I know,” before steering my steps towards Maria.

She was only about twenty feet away, but the journey proved to be long with dark angry looks and sharp elbows. By the time I reached Maria’s back, my heart was hammering in my chest and anxiety was pressing down my throat. In those few feet, the guests at the party had made me lose all sense of safety. I felt exposed and threatened and was seriously considering asking Maria to go home with me right then. Max would know of my plans anyway.

But when I tapped her shoulder, the question that flew out of me was still, “Could you come with me to the bathroom?”

She was beautiful tonight. The dark mascara was accentuating her naturally long thick lashes, the shimmering golden eyeshadow was complimenting her warm skin hue, and the lip balm was making her lips look full and sensual. It was not difficult to understand why Michael - who was standing next to her - looked like he had the most beautiful woman at his arm. He looked proud and slightly smug. I refrained from laughing at that, instead meeting Maria’s green eyes as she looked over her shoulder at me.

“Let me guess? Max wanted me to go with you?”

I shrugged. “Yes?”

She smiled brightly, interlacing her long warm fingers with my warm ones. “Okay. Let’s go pee!”

I instantly felt safer and calmer, the anxiety retreating almost guilty. Why had I become so nervous? So anxious? It was, again, only a party. With teenagers. What could happen?

Well, except Courtney Green. Who was walking out the bathroom door just as I was about to enter. Almost bumping into each other, she reacted faster than I did, pulling sharply at my arm, separating my hand from Maria’s, and getting me into the bathroom with her.

Before I had a chance to open my mouth, she had swirled me into the center of the bathroom and locked the door behind us. My heart was already throbbing up my throat as I stared at those pitch black eyes, with the sound of Maria’s banging on the other side of the door and her repetitive shouts to “Open the door!”.

Courtney smiled. “Hi, Liz.”

I looked at the alien in front of me, wondering what she would do, as I contacted Max in my head, Courtney’s locked me in the bathroom with her.

His reply of Fuck was drowned by Courtney’s “Let’s see what you can do without your boyfriend at your beck and call.”


TBC...
Image
Unbreakable (M/L, AU)
Facebook Page
My Imagination

Instagram: author_josephin_ripa
truthrowan
Enthusiastic Roswellian
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2019 12:12 am

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 12 01/12/20 p. 12

Post by truthrowan »

So I woke up my 3 year old by squealing out loud with Joy when I saw this was updated. Congrats on the baby and on the wedding! I'm glad Kyle is a good guy in this story, and so excited to see what else you have in store.
Mom, Nerd, Complete and Total Disaster.
keepsmiling7
Roswell Fanatic
Posts: 2649
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:34 pm

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 12 01/12/20 p. 12

Post by keepsmiling7 »

Oh boy.....we're off and running
Maria and Parties go together.
Courtney on the scene........I'm afraid she'll be trouble.
And then there's Amber........just when they're trying to do typical teenage stuff.
Can't wait for more!
Long 76
Enthusiastic Roswellian
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:23 pm
Location: Grayson, Ky

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 12 01/12/20 p. 12

Post by Long 76 »

Oh No Max need to hurry and get to Liz before Courtney does something bad to Liz.

From:
Long 76
User avatar
SmileeUk
Addicted Roswellian
Posts: 162
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2001 4:58 pm
Location: SmileeLand

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 12 01/12/20 p. 12

Post by SmileeUk »

Oh my, oh my!!!

Your photo at the beginning of the chapter really SCARES me!!! That must be Courtney Green :twisted: in your mind.

Poor Liz!! Being assaulted in the party which was supposed to bring fun into life. Amber is another jealous girl :roll: and I have to admit she has good taste. :lol:

Isn't it warming to hear from your boyfriend that you are the only one in his world :D [big sigh....]

I think Liz is still in her early journey to build up confidence in alien skills and it is time to see how she copes. I have no doubt she will (quickly) improve! Bring it on Courtney!! :twisted: Max will be so proud! 8)

Thanks so much for the new chapter!!
~~~~~~ ###### Smiling is a Gift ###### ~~~~~~
Jlwharton
Enthusiastic Roswellian
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2019 5:42 pm

Re: Unbreakable - Surviving the Truth (AU M/L ADULT) Ch 12 01/12/20 p. 12

Post by Jlwharton »

Wow! That Courtney is a real piece of work! Maybe Liz needs to punch her this time instead of slapping her. Apparently she didn’t get the message the first time.
Janna
Post Reply