Blood of Alien, chapter 4
TITLE: Blood of Alien
RATING: PG-13 for now.
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters are mine, nor are any of the plots that the fic is based on. They belong to the WB or Jason Katims or whatever.
PAIRINGS: So far, just Max/Tess and Isabel/Alex, but we'll see how things go. Hints of Michael/Isabel.
SUMMARY: We find out the truth about Coll, Isabel and the boys fight, Liz and Tess duke it out, Maria makes herself useful, and Tess does something cool with her powers. Not necessarily in that order.
NOTES: I know it's been forever, so here are the links to previous chapters:
Prologue / 1 / 2 / 3.
Please note that this fic takes place right after "Heart of Mine," which means that any canon established after that episode (including 'Off the Menu', for my purposes, which means wave good-bye to Tess's crazy mind-erasing power) is null and void for the purposes of this story.
First period Monday morning was study hall, which Kyle shared with Liz. He usually used it for catching up on homework that was already overdue--she generally reviewed her notes from the week before, and since the two never overlapped, he found that he and Liz never really had much to say to each other first period on Monday morning.
Today, he had an English paper that wasn't due for two days, but he was planning on working on it that night and it wouldn't take more than two or three hours. Meanwhile, Liz's notebook was open to a page full of World History notes, but he noticed that instead of skimming over the lines, her pen was over at the margin, idly drawing squiggly lines and spirals. She was allowing herself to doodle freely, something that she didn't do often, and somehow she became so immersed in shadowing the block letters of her name that she didn't look up until his hand appeared over her shoulder and drew a smiley face inside the dotted i of "Liz."
She finally looked up to see where the hand had come from, and she looked surprised to see him smiling innocently at her. "Remember?" Remember, before we started dating, we would play this courting game all the time?
She smiled, but it was only half a smile, and he could see that her heart wasn't in it.
"Ahhh," Kyle reminisced, "simpler times."
"Much simpler," she replied, "Imagine if someone would have come up to us two years ago and told us that there were aliens in our school.
"I like to think that I would have given the hobo a quarter," Kyle joked.
"Kyle the Jock?" Liz asked. "Really?"
"I said, I like to think," he countered. "That doesn't mean it's true."
Her smile grew softer. "You've changed a lot."
"I don't feel that different," he responded. "I think you've changed more."
She shook her head and then tucked her straight brown hair behind her ears. "I don't know. I think I'm right back where I started, Kyle."
"What do you mean?"
She looked around the room and lowered her voice. "Well...I'll give you an example. One time Michael went out to the Mesa Laka reservation outside of town because one of the Native Americans there knew Nasedo. He drank something that made him really sick, and in order to heal him, all of us had to stand in a circle and direct our energy into healing him."
"Sounds like my kind of thing," Kyle joked.
She didn't seem to hear him, and wasn't looking at him, anyway. "But I was so worried about the same kind of thing happening to Max that River Dog, the man in charge of the ritual, told me I couldn't be part of the circle."
He didn't say anything, and finally she looked up.
"I wanted to be part of the circle," Liz continued, "but there was something wrong with me. I guess that's kind of the theme of my life...I'm not quite as alien as I'd like to be."
He didn't see what was so great about being an alien himself, what with the having to pick up all of a sudden and leave your friends in order to go on a life-threatening mission, but he had never really been a big adventure kind of person.
"Aren't you kind of alien-lite now?" Kyle asked. "After all, you were able to show up in that dreamwalk thing that Isabel did with Max in New York."
"So what?" she responded. "I might have some 'powers'...but I'm still Liz Parker, daughter of Jeff and Nancy."
"And that's not quite exotic enough for you," he finished.
She pressed her lips together into a thin line. "You're laughing at me."
"No," he said quickly. "I'm sorry. I respect the fact that you have dreams."
"And now Isabel has a son," Liz continued, "And I...I found out through Maria. She filled me in, because Isabel and Michael told her all about him."
He was confused. "Maria's your best friend, what's weird about that?"
"No, not that." Liz shook her head. "It's just that, well, Maria went kicking and screaming into this whole alien thing," she paused for a second before continuing, "and I was the one who held her hand through it."
"Aha, and now the situation is reversed, and you feel like it's ironic that something you wanted and she despised came to her so easily and is out of your grasp..." He grinned at her. "Sometimes I'm not stupid."
"You're never stupid, Kyle."
He paused and looked down at his fingers, then turned back to her. "For what it's worth, I used to really like you." Then he realized that didn't come out exactly as he'd meant it, and quickly tried to backtrack. "No, what I mean is...you just said you're back where you started, but I think you started out pretty great."
"I started out as a jerk to you," she said.
He shrugged. "Only after your life turned upside down. I've forgiven you."
"I'm not sure I deserved it."
He laughed. "Well, I didn't forgive you until I became a Buddhist."
"Well," she said, "for what it's worth, I'm sorry."
He hadn't been lying when he'd said that he'd already forgiven her, but it was nice to hear anyway. "Thanks, Liz. I never actually expected that from you."
"Yeah, well, I've been doing some self-reflection."
"This doesn't have anything to do with a certain tall, dark and--"
She cut him off, and he was glad for it, because describing Evans as handsome, whether or not it was the truth, wouldn't have done a lot to salvage what jock cred he had left. "I might have been inspired by...the whole Max and Tess thing, but it's more the fact that they're leaving. It closes a whole chapter in my life, and what have I got to show for it?"
"You don't think they'll be back?" he asked.
"I don't know," Liz responded. "If they do come back, they'll have been through this entire thing together. They'll be even more of a close-knit group than they are now. It won't be the same."
The bell rang, and they picked up their books and walked out of the classroom together. She had math next, and he had gym, so they were going in different directions.
"Hey," Kyle said, right before they reached the hallway where they would be splitting up. "You know that you can always talk to me, right? I mean, I know Maria and Alex are your best friends, but if for whatever reason you don't want to go to them, I'm here. You know?"
Liz nodded. "Yeah. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."
******
He showed up to work early Monday afternoon, hoping to catch an instance of Larek taking over Brody so that he could ask him about Isabel's supposed son. He hadn't counted on the constant influx of customers, mostly tourists arriving in town with their children now that the summer season was starting. For the first few hours of his shift, he only saw Brody occasionally out the corner of his eye on the other side of the room. Between the customer who wouldn't get off his soapbox about the museum being a cover for actual alien activity, the couple who were just looking for a dark room to make out (loudly), and the family with the little children who thought that a museum was a kind of jungle gym, his actual alien issues were the last thing on his mind by the time the evening rush was over.
Then Brody came out of his office looking serious. "I need to talk to you."
Max was startled. "What is it, is it about the guy with the hat? Because I gave him a free keychain, and he seemed perfectly satisfied."
"What?" said Brody, puzzled. "No, it's about your coming to Antar, you moron."
He laughed nervously. "Oh, it's you. Sorry, I've just been so busy that I'm a little out of my mind. Listen, I have something to ask you."
Larek nodded. "All right, but I have something to tell you, and I don't have much time, not more than ten minutes. Let's go into Brody's office."
They went in, leaving Jodi, the new girl who had just come on to deal with tourist season, in charge with all the museum visitors. Max felt bad, but this was important.
Before Larek could begin his speech, Max started talking. "I need to know if any of us had children in our past life, and if they're still alive."
Larek looked taken aback.
"Please," Max said, "it's important."
"Well," Larek began, "I don't know if I should tell you this, but back in the day...well, your sister was very beautiful, and a little bit naive. She was engaged to be married to Rath, of course, but at the same time, there was someone else who swept her off her feet. And, suffice it to say, she wasn't completely faithful to Rath."
Max stared. "I know all this. She was Kivar's lover."
"You know?" Larek repeated, aghast.
"Well, I didn't know it was a secret," Max replied.
"You certainly didn't know when it was happening."
"You mean, when I was Zan, I didn't know?"
"If you had known about your sister and Kivar, you never would have..." Larek's voice trailed off. "In any case, Vilandra gave birth to a boy a few months before her death. You had no idea that there was a possibility of Rath not being the father. But the child is still alive, brought up in Kivar's palace as his own."
The child. It still confused Max. "But we've been gone for a long time...he's not a child anymore, is he?"
"Of course he's still a child," Larek answered. "You haven't been gone for all that long."
"I don't understand," Max said. "It's been fifty years. How long do people live on Antar?"
"Oh, right," Larek said. "I forgot that time works differently on Earth. If I were a physicist, I would be able to understand it better."
There was a pause.
"Well?" Max demanded.
"Well," Larek responded, "I can't really explain it if I don't understand it, but on Earth, time moves forward at a certain constant speed, and on Antar, it's sort of more fluid. And the effects of that are that sometimes, more time elapses on Earth than it does on Antar, and our surrounding planets. Sometimes it's the other way around, too, but that's rarer."
It was something he thought he should ask Liz about, but then he remembered that they weren't on speaking terms.
"Okay." He tried to clarify. "So you're saying that Vilandra and Kivar's son--"
"I don't actually know that Coll is Kivar's son," Larek interrupted. "Kivar is telling the people that he is, but, to tell you the truth, I wouldn't be surprised if Kivar himself isn't sure. It's very convenient for his claim to the throne, however."
So Coll did think that Kivar was his father, which meant he wasn't lying, but it was possible that he was actually Michael's son. Or, the son of Michael from a past life. Isabel and Michael had had dreams last year about having a son; he wondered if that was significant.
"But scandals within the royal family aren't really the most important thing at hand." Larek chuckled. "Well, actually, in a way, they are, ha ha ha." He looked at Max's face, caught that he didn't understand the joke, and continued. "Never mind. Well, the circumstances back home are very exciting, lots of political unrest. The public doesn't know it yet, but we've got a real shot to get Kivar out if we move fast enough, and we received a generous financial donation that may allow us to finish building your transportation much sooner."
"Okay," Max said. Then he thought about what was just said. "Wait. What are you saying?"
Larek looked serious. "I'm saying that we'll be bringing you back within the next two weeks, Max. I'm saying that you should start saying your good-byes."
******
The bell on the microwave went off, and Michael went to take out the macaroni and cheese while Isabel got three plates, along with silverware, out of the cupboard and set them at the table. Everyone helped themselves, and Michael tossed the empty Tupperware into the sink.
"He shoots, he scores," Isabel said, amused.
"What is this?" Coll asked, between quick bites. "This is delicious."
"They don't have macaroni and cheese on Antar?" Michael said. "Maybe I--" he cut himself off quickly from finishing the thought (Maybe I don't want to go back after all), remembering that they had agreed not to let Coll know right away that they were leaving, and changed the tone of his sentence, "--should move there and open up shop."
"I don't know how much luck you'd have with a macaroni and cheese restaurant." Isabel laughed.
"I'd go all the time," Coll declared, chewing with his mouth open. A few pieces of chewed-up pasta flew onto the table.
"Gross," Isabel said, and handed Coll a napkin.
The ringtone on Isabel's cell phone went off and she glanced at it. "It's Alex. Is it okay if I take it?"
Coll was engrossed in his food and didn't respond, and Michael shrugged. She went into the hallway to talk and closed the door behind her.
He hoped she wouldn't take too long--he really had nothing to say to the kid, but it looked like Coll was able to amuse himself anyway, so Michael focused on Isabel's voice coming from the hallway. He couldn't make out any words, but it sounded like Alex was doing most of the talking, and Isabel was giving short, quiet answers. She sounded miserable, which bothered him considering the excitement he felt. He wished there was something he could say that would make her see what she was missing and change her mind.
She came back in a few minutes later, a flat, pasted smile on her face, because Isabel wasn't exactly great at feigning happiness. As she sat down, Coll got up, having finished his meal, and asked where to put his plate.
"Just drop it in the sink," Michael replied. He turned towards Isabel. "What's up?"
She shrugged. "I don't really want to talk about it here."
"Can I leave now?" Coll asked as he put his plate into the sink.
Isabel looked at Michael as if she expected him to be able to answer the question. He shrugged, so she turned back to Coll. "Well, do you think you can make it back home by yourself?"
"Sure," he said. "I'll just go over to--"
"You'll be at the house," Isabel cut him off.
The younger boy groaned. "Fine, Mom."
Michael couldn't help but be amused at the way Coll sulked out the door, perfectly content at taking orders from someone only six years older than him.
Michael waited for the door to click shut, then said, "Now do you want to talk about it?"
"I don't know if you'll understand," she responded. "I'm just melancholy about this whole thing...and I think Alex and I are going to break up."
It surprised him that she thought it was news that she and Alex were going to break up--after all, an intergalactic romance made most long-distance relationships look suffocatingly close--but he knew better than to say that out loud.
"I just wish that this whole thing had never happened," she continued.
"What do you mean, that you and Alex had never gotten together?" Michael asked.
"No, I mean I wish that Larek had never summoned us back to Antar."
"How can you say that?" Michael asked. "This is what we've been waiting for our whole lives."
Isabel raised her eyebrows. "This is what you've been waiting for your whole life, Michael. Not the rest of us."
"Right," Michael replied shortly, "Because, I forgot, nothing is more important to you than your life on Earth."
"That's not true," she objected. "You are. And Max is."
"Really? The way you're talking, it doesn't seem so."
"Well, I'm going, aren't I?" Isabel demanded. "What more do you want from me?"
"I don't know; maybe--" there was a knock on the ceiling from his neighbor upstairs, so he lowered his voice-- "It would be nice if you were excited, or happy, or something."
"Well, I'm not excited or happy!" she snapped, standing up and moving away from him, towards the other side of the room. She crossed her arms and frowned. "I'm going out of loyalty to you guys, but I can't change how I feel about Earth, or about my parents--guess what, I love them, Michael! And I'm sorry if that makes me a bad Antarian or something, but it's how I feel!"
"Well, then maybe you shouldn't come, then," Michael responded, his voice flat.
Isabel looked stricken, and he was about to take it back (he shouldn't have said it to begin with, and now he felt like a jerk), but then someone knocked on the door.
"Dammit. That's probably Max," Michael said, looking at the clock on the microwave. "He should have just finished his shift at the museum." He went over to the door and opened it, and Maria walked in.
She started to speak before even looking at him. "Listen, this might sound crazy, but I can't stop thinking about--" then she looked up, and saw Michael and Isabel staring at her, and stopped. She looked back and forth between them. "Oh, never mind, this is obviously a bad time. Of course she's here. You know, apparently in your past reincarnation or whatever you two weren't exactly the model couple, but I guess--"
"Oh, will somebody just gag you already!" Isabel snapped.
"Maria, you should leave right now," Michael said.
"Don't bother," Isabel cut in. "I'm out of here." She headed towards the door.
Crap. "Iz!"
"Doesn't that just figure," Maria said. "You don't want her to leave, but me you're fine with gone. That was pretty much the defining theme of our relationship, so I shouldn't be surprised. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow." She and Isabel opened the door at the same time, revealing Max with his hand up in the air, about to knock.
"What is this, an apartment or a clown car?" Isabel deadpanned.
Max looked confused. "Well, I just got out of work, so I thought I'd come over." His tone was foreboding.
"We're listening," Michael said.
Max shot a look at Maria, but when it became clear that she wasn't going anywhere, he started. "I just wanted to let you know that I spoke to Larek again today. He took over Brody's body during work. The good news is that your son is legitimate."
"No pun intended," Michael added helpfully.
Max ignored him. "The...um, other news--"
Isabel cut in, her voice sarcastic and dry. "This sounds promising."
When Max continued, he sounded a bit sheepish. "Well, apparently there's some kind of political unrest going on over there, and they're going to try to get us back even earlier."
"What?" Isabel said.
"Maybe two weeks," Max went on.
Isabel freaked out, pacing back and forth as she ran her hands through her hair. "That's insane! We were supposed to have a month to work this out!" she screeched.
"Well, now we have two weeks," Max replied. And, after a pause, "Maybe less."
"What are we going to tell Mom and Dad?" Isabel demanded. "What about school?"
Max sounded tired. "I don't know what we're going to tell Mom and Dad. We'll have to figure it out."
"We were supposed to have a month, Max!" she repeated.
"Well, we don't!" he snapped. "I don't know what to tell you!"
Isabel let out a low growl. "You know what?" she seethed.
Now would be a good time to cut her off. "Now you've done it, Maxwell," Michael said. "Iz, why don't you wait until you've calmed down--"
She glowered at him. "No I don't want to wait until I've calmed down, Michael. You've gotten your wish: I'm not going. There, I put my foot down. And you know what else?" She turned her wrath in Max's direction. "I was going to graduate this year and leave Roswell. And go to college! I was going to get away from this insanity, and guess what? I'm still going to! There! I was afraid to tell you, Max, but I'm not anymore, because you can't stop me!"
There was a silence in the room that was not just tangible, but visible in the way Isabel was shaking while trying to remain calm, and the rest of them were afraid to move, because the ground might shatter beneath them like a thin plate of glass.
Then Max spoke, his voice tentative. "Iz--"
And it broke. "Stop saying my name like that!" she yelled, hysterical. "I am my own person. I make my own decisions. You can't order me to do anything, and this conversation is over!" She stormed over to the door and closed it behind her.
"She seems grumpy," Maria commented, her voice shaken but light.
He wasn't in the mood. "Shut up."
"I'm going after her," Max declared.
"Don't," Michael said. "Let her cool off."
"She's Isabel," Max responded. "She never cools off."
"Fine, then I'll talk to her, at least I can talk to her on her level."
"You'll talk to her? Aren't you the one who got her into this awesome mood to begin with?" Max's voice dripped with sarcasm in a very un-Max-like way, and he advanced on Michael threateningly. "What the hell did she mean when she said you'd gotten your wish?"
Maria put her hands in between them and pushed them apart. "Both of you shut up, okay? Do I have to be the one around here to do everything? Both of you will back off and I will talk to her tomorrow."
"You're joking," Michael said.
"I am not," she responded, with a look in her eyes that he was quite familiar with, which frankly, sort of scared him. "And you will thank me for this, mister."
He dropped his head into his hands. "Oh, brother."
"I'm serious," Maria insisted. "I can fix this. What do you have to lose? Just hear me out."
"All right," Max agreed.
"Good," Maria said. "Now, listen. Here's what we're going to do."
******
Tess was ten minutes late to third period physics and the only seat left was in the front row, all the way on the inside of the classroom. Dr. Albert, an educational zealot in her forties, stopped speaking and stared at Tess making her way to the desk, as she was wont to do when students were tardy.
She made it to the end of the row, and stopped when she saw that Liz Parker was sitting in the chair right before hers. They locked eyes, and after a frozen moment, Liz ignored her and went right back to her notes as the teacher continued her lecture.
She opened her notebook and started copying down the important points of the class, and went on for a few minutes before she realized that she didn't know what exactly was going on. Taking a look at her notes from the last class and comparing them to the discussion at hand, Tess noticed that she seemed to be missing a whole bunch of definitions and formulas. She tapped her pencil onto Liz's desk in order to get her attention, but Liz seemed firmly entranced by the Dr. Albert's voice.
"Liz," she whispered.
No response.
She repeated the name a little bit louder, and the other girl turned around, a cool and unaffected expression on her face.
"Can I get your notes afterwards?" Tess asked.
Liz frowned, drawing her eyebrows together. "What do you need them for? You're not taking the final." And she turned back to the lecture.
Tess was impressed and annoyed at the same time. She had done nothing recently to warrant this kind of behavior--and if Liz was annoyed that Max was leaving the planet and blaming it on Tess, that would be beyond appropriate.
She tried again. "Come on, give me a break. I don't understand what she's talking about."
"Who told you to come late?" Liz replied. "Let me guess, there was a super-important meeting that you--"
Their teacher's voice interrupted. "Parker and Harding, is there a problem?"
"No," they replied in unison, and Liz added, "I'm sorry."
After a few minutes of listening where absolutely nothing was illuminated, Tess wrote something in the margin of her paper--Did I do something to you?--and pushed it over towards Liz's desk for her to see.
Liz glanced at it quickly, then responded right beneath Tess's note: I just think it's irresponsible to show up late and then assume that I'll help you catch up on what you've missed.
Was that supposed to be a metaphor or something?
Tess frowned, reached over, and wrote, I was asking for a favor. It's just notes.
She waited for a few minutes for the other girl to reply, but it seemed that Liz had decided to focus more on taking notes on the class. Finally, there was a slight lull in the lecture, and she was able to respond to Tess.
Liz had the piece of paper placed in the center of her desk, so that Tess had to lean over to read what she was writing. It's not just notes.
Of course it wasn't.
Liz continued. It's the principle of the matter.
She tried to let it go, and to concentrate on making up what she could, but it was eating away at her, and towards the end of the class, Tess found herself whispering to Liz, "Just say whatever it is you want to say."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Liz responded.
"Ugh." Tess crossed her arms. "If you have something you want to get off your chest, then just come out and say it." And stop being all passive aggressive about it.
"You're delusional," Liz said. "What would I want to get off my chest?"
"How should I know? Maybe you're mad that I'm dating Max. Maybe you're mad that he's leaving the planet. Maybe you're afraid--"
"Okay, yeah, I have something to say," Liz hissed. "Maybe I think that it's really stupid that you're all--especially you--just accepting this mission that you never even asked for and you just had the dumb luck to be born into-"
The bell rang, interrupting her, and students started to file out of the classroom. Tess and Liz stayed, though, watching everyone else leave and making no move themselves to get up. Eventually, the classroom was completely empty aside from the two of them, the tension weighing heavily between them.
Tess bit her lip before speaking. "You know, you could look at it from my point of view."
As soon as she said it, she knew it was a mistake from the way Liz's eyes widened. "Your point of view?!" she shouted, or as close as Tess had ever heard her come to shouting in that high-pitched surprised voice. "I could look at it from your point of view, Tess? What do you think I've been doing ever since you got here? Why do you think let I Max go after that day in the cave? Why do you think I kept being nice to you, kept trying to be your friend? I've looked at it from your point of view the whole time--you look at it from my point of view for once! Humans are people too, you know! I'm part of this mess, I've been in it just as long as Max and Isabel and Michael have. I love Max, and I care about Michael and Isabel. And you too, despite everything, I've come to care about you. So why can't you accept me already?"
Tess recoiled, then took a breath and scowled. "Being nice to me? Please, how stupid do you think I am? You think I don't know what you and Maria say about me behind my back? Every time I talk to Max I'm a tramp. Every time I save your lives I'm desperate for approval."
"I don't say things like that!" Liz insisted.
"Really." Tess raised her eyebrows.
"Really! I mean, Maria, a little bit...but that's just how she is. She doesn't mean anything by it."
"All right, Liz," Tess said. "Let me try to paint a picture for you. It's Isabel's birthday. There's a surprise party for her at the Crashdown, and I'm on my way to Jensen's to get her a present. Suddenly my vision goes out completely. My car gets rammed into from behind. A woman's voice asks me if I'm Vilandra, I shake my head no. I'm dragged into another car, which drives me out somewhere in the middle of God-knows-where, I can't mindwarp because I don't know what's going on. She asks me again if I'm Vilandra, tells me not to lie to her."
"I'm sorry," Liz interrupted, "but I already know this story. I don't see what this has to do with--"
"You never even apologized!" Tess yelled. "How did Whittaker know to find me? Who's the one person in the group who had any contact with her?"
Liz breathed in sharply, as if she'd been punched in the stomach. "You're right. I never thought..." Her voice trailed off.
"Maybe that's why I find it so hard to accept you," Tess spit out. "Because you don't. You never think."
For a few seconds, there was an uncomfortable silence. Tess shifted in her seat.
"You know, I always imagined that when I finally said that it'd be a lot more gratifying," she said.
Liz seemed to laugh against her will.
Tess shrugged. "But I don't actually feel any better now."
"Do you want to...try again?" Liz said, and this time it was Tess who laughed before she could stop herself.
"I'm glad I got it out of my system, that's all," Tess admitted.
"I'm really sorry I almost got you killed, Tess," Liz said, and Tess could see that she really was.
"It's--" she stopped herself before she could say 'it's okay', because it wasn't really okay," Well, now you know better, and that's good enough."
"I definitely know better now," Liz agreed. "And...I'll try not to do it again."
Tess laughed again, because it was such a mundane apology for the situation, and yet anything else would have seemed melodramatic.
"So now that we've gotten past that, can you admit that I have a point, without just saying, 'Oh you would never understand'?" Liz asked.
"That I accept my destiny even though I never asked for it?" Tess said. She shrugged. "I've had a long time to think about it and be angry about it. Maybe it's a little fast for Max, Michael and Isabel...but what can I say? I know it's hard."
"And yet?" Liz prompted.
Tess shrugged. "I've made my peace."
There was a pause.
"Tess?" Liz said, after a few seconds.
"Yeah?"
"It's not just Max...I'm really going to miss all of you."
"Well, I guess I'll miss some of you," Tess replied.
Liz laughed in a good-natured sort of way. "I guess I can't expect you to change too much."
Tess smiled. "Liz Parker, you're okay, you know that?"
Liz blushed.
"Listen, do you want to eat lunch with me?" Tess continued. "We'll sit at the table next to Isabel and I'll use my powers to hide us. Apparently there's a whole big project happening with her and Maria and Michael at lunch today."
*****
Okay, Maria, here's your chance. Don't screw this up.
Isabel was sitting at a table eating her lunch by herself, which meant that somehow, Maria had beaten Alex to the cafeteria. It was as if the heavens had aligned just for her so that she could save the day.
She took a deep whiff of lavender essential oil, screwed the top back on and stuffed it into her pocket, then walked over to the table and set her tray by Isabel's, sitting down next to her.
"Men," Maria said, trying to sound completely confident. "Am I right?"
Isabel's mouth dropped in a very undignified manner, and Maria could see the strawberry yogurt on her tongue. Quickly, she swallowed, but didn't stop staring at her as if she'd grown an extra head (ironic, Maria thought, considering). "What are you doing here?"
Time to break out the material. "I came on behalf of the morons of your species."
The other girl continued to stare blankly.
"Ugh." Maria rolled her eyes. "Max and Michael sent me to convince you to change your mind. They think that because we're both women, I'll be able to somehow find the magic button that will make you do what they want you to."
"Well, they can forget it," Isabel said, stabbing into her salad. "Why'd they send you, anyway? We're not even friends."
She forced herself to ignore the alien princess's exaggerated rudeness and concentrate on the task at hand. "I know, it's like they think just because I'm a girl, you'll listen to me."
"God, what idiots," Isabel said.
Now they were on the same page. That was a good start.
"They really are," she agreed. "I don't know why we put up with them."
"Max thinks that just because he has the title of king means somehow he always knows what's best, and Michael...don't even get me started," Isabel ranted, gesturing with her fork. "I mean, you know how Michael is."
"His head is thicker than a block of cement?" Maria offered. "Yeah, I know."
She let a pause linger for a moment, and ate some of her fries. After letting Isabel be angry for a few minutes, she continued.
"You're just making them stew in their own juices, to punish them, right?" she asked, innocently. "I mean, you wouldn't really stay here and be the only alien left on the planet."
Isabel shook her head, but with less conviction than she'd had earlier. "I don't want to talk about it."
"I get that." Maria paused, as if treading carefully into dangerous territory. "It's just, it could be forever. Imagine if you never saw Max again. I can't even..."
Isabel put her fork down and stared at her again. "You sure do talk a lot."
Okay, now we're backing off. "I know, I get that a lot," Maria agreed. "I don't mean to piss you off by being too invasive, I just spend a lot of time thinking about things that aren't my business."
It evidently worked, because a wry smile crossed Isabel's face.
Deciding it was safe to jump back in, Maria continued. "You know you can't let them go off without you. They'd be totally lost. I mean, you're the mediator. Max and Michael without you to break up their fights, that's a terrifying picture."
"They'd murder each other within a week," Isabel muttered, but Maria could see that the smile hadn't disappeared.
"They'd murder each other within two days," Maria agreed. "I'd like to see Tess try and keep the peace, right?"
Isabel snickered. "Please, like Tess knows anything about either of them. If she did, she wouldn't be so keen on dating my asshole brother."
Maria laughed, and right on cue, Michael showed up in front of them. "Hey, Isabel, can I talk to you a second?"
She snapped her fingers at him, playing the part perfectly. "Do you mind, dude? We're talking. About you."
Isabel laughed. "No, it's okay."
As she left, Michael turned around and gave her an awed expression.
'You owe me,' she mouthed at him, unable to prevent a wide grin from spreading over her face. And that's how we do it, DeLuca style. She walked away, a bounce entering her step, and she felt happy for the first time since the night of the prom.
******
Her parents were out having drinks at their neighbors, and probably expected that she and Max would either be out or sleeping when they got back. But instead, the four of them were waiting in the living room in order to announce to her parents that they were from another planet.
She wished she were having drinks right now.
"This is really nerve-wracking," Tess commented. "Are you sure you don't want to just leave them a note?"
Isabel turned violently at her and snapped, "It would be a lot less nerve-wracking if you would stop saying that!"
Tess shirked back. "Sorry."
She knew she shouldn't have yelled but she was much too anxious to keep her nerves in check. Michael's voice, from a year ago, saying, "There's no such thing as unconditional love," kept repeating in her head, like a stupid television jingle.
Forget about that, she commanded herself. Growing up in foster care is Michael's damage; you certainly don't need to go taking advice on familial relations from him.
"They should be home within the next few minutes," Max said. "Everyone remember their lines?"
"Can we have a dress rehearsal?" Michael said sarcastically.
They hadn't written an exact script, but they'd come up with a basic idea of who was going to say what. Of course they would mention the fire incident from last year, as it was the closest their parents had ever gotten to figuring out the truth about them.
"Michael, this is serious bus--" Max started to say, but the front door opened and he quickly shut his mouth, while the rest of them got into their sitting positions.
Their parents were laughing when they walked in the door, which Isabel hoped was a good sign.
"They left the light on in the living room," she heard her father say, but he stopped in his tracks in the doorway, as he saw the group of them sitting there.
Her mother followed a few seconds later. "Max, Isabel, honey, it's late. Why are you kids still up?"
Show time. Isabel thought she was going to be sick, and she, along with Michael and Tess, looked to Max, who had set his face serious and determined. She was beginning to see why he was the leader.
"Max?" Phillip said. "What's the matter?"
Max spoke without standing up. "Mom, Dad. We have something to tell you."
"Is everything okay?" their mother asked, concerned.
"Yes and no," Isabel responded. "But you might want to sit down."
Once the Evans adults were sitting in the two living room chairs, Max began. "There isn't really a good place to start. Do you remember last year, when there was a fire, I put it out, and you didn't understand how?"
"What fire?" their father said.
"The fire in the kitchen, honey," Diane reminded him, "that time when the sheriff came."
Phillip nodded. "Oh, right. I thought you said you poured water over that fire, Max."
"But Mom," Max said, "you didn't believe that, right?"
She looked sheepish. "It just seemed..."
"I know," Max continued. "It was a hasty lie. Water doesn't put out an oil fire, and if I had really done that, it would have just caused the burning oil to spatter. It would have caused more damage."
"Why are you telling us this a year later?" their father asked.
Isabel swallowed, and spoke. "You have to know how he put out the fire."
"I don't understand," her mother said. "Why are your friends here?
"Because if we had been here, we would have been able to do the same thing," Michael answered.
Isabel heard Tess say, "Well, maybe not Michael," under her breath. She turned to see Michael trying to hide a smile, and she glared hard at both of them before turning back around to her parents.
Max took a deep breath. "I was able to smother the fire by instantaneously moving all the oxygen out of the vicinity."
"With a towel?" her father asked.
Max shook his head. "No."
He leaned forward. "With what, then?"
"With nothing," Max answered.
Her mother was clenching her father's arm, visibly scared. "What are you telling us, Max?"
Isabel stepped in. "He's saying that we're able to do things that no one else on this planet can." Her mind flashed for a moment to Lonnie, with her spiked hair and her body piercings, able to do everything that she herself could do and more, but willed herself to concentrate on the matter at hand. "It's because this planet isn't where we came from."
"We're aliens," Michael continued. "All four of us."
Her father looked stern. "This is ridiculous," he said. "Is it April Fool's Day, or..." he trailed off, because the armrest of the couch, where Isabel was laying her hand, was turning to a bright red. Finally, he swallowed hard. "I don't--I don't believe in aliens."
"Do you believe your daughter?" Isabel said, changing the armrest back to the original beige. "I promise you, this is what we are. I've wanted to tell you since the beginning, but we were afraid."
Their parents were looking at them in fear, and Isabel was afraid all her nightmares were coming true at once. Until Tess broke the silence.
"I think somewhere, deep down, this isn't a surprise. You both must have sensed that Max and Isabel were different from other children, that they were special in some way."
Isabel thanked her silently for saying something tactful, knowing how much it went against Tess's nature.
"We're still the same people we were before," Max continued. "All we've ever known is the two of you as parents, and we were afraid that you wouldn't feel the same way if we told you."
"Max Evans," Diane said. "That could never, ever be." She looked over at Isabel. "Isabel. Don't you two know how much I love you?"
They all glanced at Phillip, to see if he would respond the same way, but he was frowning. "Well, I don't know how we're supposed to react, exactly. Obviously your mother and I love you, but Max, isn't this dangerous? Aren't there government agencies that are going to hunt you down or something?"
Government agencies. The image of Max being tortured by Pierce in the White Room hit her with a force, and she flinched.
Michael, not one to hold his sarcasm, butted in. "Well, we've tried not being aliens, but it didn't really work out too well for us."
Max shot him a look, and turned back to their parents. "I know we've sprung a lot on you at one time, and that it's hard to accept. But there's something else you should know."
Isabel tried to keep her voice steady as she took over. "We wouldn't have told you otherwise...it's just safer for you not to know, because...well, Dad, let's just say you weren't too far off about the government projects. But we needed to tell you before we left."
"What are you talking about?" her mother asked, confused. "Where are you going?"
They were all quiet, waiting for her to figure it out, and when she did, she gasped and her eyes filled with tears. "You're not...going back to your home planet?"
"There's a war there," Michael explained. "And they need our help."
"But you're children!" her father exclaimed.
"We're royalty there," Max said. "They sent us here so that we would be safe until they needed us to return."
"Don't we get a say in any of this?" her mother demanded, her voice getting shriller and more hysterical than Isabel had ever heard her. "You're not eighteen yet, and you've been living under our roof for the past eleven years. We're still your parents!"
Isabel bit her lip, trying not to cry, and turned away, listening to the argument that might as well have been taking place inside her head. Every point that was being battled, on both sides, was something she had spent nights working through over the past week, and she still didn't have a right answer. If she listened to her head, it told her--well, it told her both sides, that she was needed on Antar, but on the other hand, how much could Antar possibly need a bunch of teenagers who were half-human? And if she listened to her heart, it positively broke with all the connections, all the people that she needed that she would have to give up, no matter which way she went. No, the right answer definitely wasn't in her heart, this time.
"I don't accept that," their father declared. "Nuh-uh. You're grounded; if you need to fight a war, you do it from your bedrooms. Michael and Tess, that goes for you, too."
"Mr. Evans," Michael said, "with all due respect, you can't stop us."
"Like hell I can't!" He shouted, getting onto his feet. "You're little kids playing dress-up! You don't know anything about fighting a goddamned war!"
"We know a lot more than you think we do," Michael retorted. "We've been in life-threatening situations more than once over the past year."
For some reason, the revelation didn't seem to calm him down. "Well, that just makes me feel a hell of a lot better, doesn't it?" Phillip demanded.
Suddenly Tess appeared in the doorway behind their parents. Shocked, Isabel looked over at where Tess had been sitting moments before--scratch that, where Tess was still sitting. Max and Michael were also staring between the two Tesses. Tess--the one on the couch, ostensibly the real one--nodded ever so slightly.
"This isn't getting anywhere," the mindwarp version of Tess said. "We should get out of here and let them cool off before it gets any worse." Then it disappeared.
After a beat, Max stood up. His face masked of any emotion, he stated, "This conversation is over. Mom, Dad, we'll be at Michael's apartment. You can't convince us not to go, but we still would like your support. If that's something you can give us, you know where to find us."
Their mother was weeping now, not even trying to hide it. It made Isabel feel embarrassed, and ashamed. Why should she owe more to strangers who created them and then dumped them in the desert than to the people who'd given of their own sweat and tears to protect and raise them for the past eleven years?
Still, she stood up with the rest of them and walked out the door. And when her father tried to come after them, and Max raised his hand to create a green force field, she didn't look back to see the look on her parents faces.
They walked for a few minutes in silence as Isabel tried not to picture what she had missed by not looking back and all of a sudden she burst into tears. She lost control of herself, her entire composure coming undone. A moment later, Michael's arms were around her, preventing her from swooning completely. She leaned against him and continued to walk, letting out loud sobs against her will.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Tess asked.
Isabel sniffled. "Not even a little."
******
The room was dark, without windows or doors. It was large, much too large for the two figures inside, looking like they were about to be swallowed by the darkness which permeated the area.
The figures were gaseous, almost as to be transparent, but that was just a trick of the eye--only at the very edges of their bodies could one see past them. Their colors changed depending on mood and objects in the vicinity, but with the lack of light, they just looked like shadows. The one on the right was sitting on a bench.
An opening started to appear in one of the walls, and an artificial light seeped into the room. When the doorway was complete, a third person, looking much like the first two, floated in. He was greeted by both men with a contortion of the body that was similar to a bow, but more graceful, almost like a dive, if the air were water.
"Your majesty, Kivar," said the man who had been sitting. Their words sounded different than they would to the ears of an English-speaker, or a speaker of any of Earth's languages, but those were their meanings.
"Fien," Kivar responded. "This had better be important. I was busy reprimanding one of the boy's teachers. You would think that a master of mind-control would be more than a match for a child."
"So, Coll is still playing hooky during his science classes, eh?" Fien inquired.
"I find it hard to place the blame on him," Kivar said. "He feels the tension the way we all do."
"We have news in that regard," said the other man. "The reason why we called."
"Yes," Fien continued. "Rom and I have calculated the defector's whereabouts."
"It seems that he is on Earth," Rom continued.
"Earth?" Kivar repeated. "Now why would he want to go there?"
"We don't know, but we've tracked him to the southwestern United States. We think he may be staying in Roswell," Rom answered.
"I don't like it," Kivar said. "This has to be part of a plot. But against whom?"
Fien rose. "Your highness?"
"He could be trying to contact the Royal Four, to give them information to help them overthrow me." Kivar started moving around the room, slowly, as if pacing back and forth. "I don't know why they would listen to him, but he could plant the information anonymously. But that makes no sense, he stands to lose just as much as the rest of us if the regime topples. He might be trying to kill them, but that would make my standing more secure, make me stronger than ever."
"Maybe it's just a coincidence," Fien suggested.
"Hardly. Our 'Nicholas' is a sly, very sly. There must be an angle here."
"Should we get rid of him?" Fien asked.
"I'll have to think it over," Kivar said. "If only I knew what he were up to.... No, don't act yet. Track his movements. Try and see if he's engaged the Royal Four, and we'll work from there."
"As you wish." Fien bowed again, and Rom followed.
"Permission to depart." Kivar waved them off, and the two men left the room.
When they were gone, Kivar ran his arm over one of the walls, creating a window overlooking a still lake. He didn't notice the water, though--he stared into the sky at the stars, focusing in the direction he knew Earth to be, though it was too far to be visible to the naked eye. "Nikaul," he murmured to himself. "You devious little bastard. I know you have a plan, but I can't figure out what it is. What is going on inside that deranged little mind of yours?"
There was no one in the room to answer him, and there Kivar stayed, staring and contemplating until morning.
RATING: PG-13 for now.
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters are mine, nor are any of the plots that the fic is based on. They belong to the WB or Jason Katims or whatever.
PAIRINGS: So far, just Max/Tess and Isabel/Alex, but we'll see how things go. Hints of Michael/Isabel.
SUMMARY: We find out the truth about Coll, Isabel and the boys fight, Liz and Tess duke it out, Maria makes herself useful, and Tess does something cool with her powers. Not necessarily in that order.
NOTES: I know it's been forever, so here are the links to previous chapters:
Prologue / 1 / 2 / 3.
Please note that this fic takes place right after "Heart of Mine," which means that any canon established after that episode (including 'Off the Menu', for my purposes, which means wave good-bye to Tess's crazy mind-erasing power) is null and void for the purposes of this story.
First period Monday morning was study hall, which Kyle shared with Liz. He usually used it for catching up on homework that was already overdue--she generally reviewed her notes from the week before, and since the two never overlapped, he found that he and Liz never really had much to say to each other first period on Monday morning.
Today, he had an English paper that wasn't due for two days, but he was planning on working on it that night and it wouldn't take more than two or three hours. Meanwhile, Liz's notebook was open to a page full of World History notes, but he noticed that instead of skimming over the lines, her pen was over at the margin, idly drawing squiggly lines and spirals. She was allowing herself to doodle freely, something that she didn't do often, and somehow she became so immersed in shadowing the block letters of her name that she didn't look up until his hand appeared over her shoulder and drew a smiley face inside the dotted i of "Liz."
She finally looked up to see where the hand had come from, and she looked surprised to see him smiling innocently at her. "Remember?" Remember, before we started dating, we would play this courting game all the time?
She smiled, but it was only half a smile, and he could see that her heart wasn't in it.
"Ahhh," Kyle reminisced, "simpler times."
"Much simpler," she replied, "Imagine if someone would have come up to us two years ago and told us that there were aliens in our school.
"I like to think that I would have given the hobo a quarter," Kyle joked.
"Kyle the Jock?" Liz asked. "Really?"
"I said, I like to think," he countered. "That doesn't mean it's true."
Her smile grew softer. "You've changed a lot."
"I don't feel that different," he responded. "I think you've changed more."
She shook her head and then tucked her straight brown hair behind her ears. "I don't know. I think I'm right back where I started, Kyle."
"What do you mean?"
She looked around the room and lowered her voice. "Well...I'll give you an example. One time Michael went out to the Mesa Laka reservation outside of town because one of the Native Americans there knew Nasedo. He drank something that made him really sick, and in order to heal him, all of us had to stand in a circle and direct our energy into healing him."
"Sounds like my kind of thing," Kyle joked.
She didn't seem to hear him, and wasn't looking at him, anyway. "But I was so worried about the same kind of thing happening to Max that River Dog, the man in charge of the ritual, told me I couldn't be part of the circle."
He didn't say anything, and finally she looked up.
"I wanted to be part of the circle," Liz continued, "but there was something wrong with me. I guess that's kind of the theme of my life...I'm not quite as alien as I'd like to be."
He didn't see what was so great about being an alien himself, what with the having to pick up all of a sudden and leave your friends in order to go on a life-threatening mission, but he had never really been a big adventure kind of person.
"Aren't you kind of alien-lite now?" Kyle asked. "After all, you were able to show up in that dreamwalk thing that Isabel did with Max in New York."
"So what?" she responded. "I might have some 'powers'...but I'm still Liz Parker, daughter of Jeff and Nancy."
"And that's not quite exotic enough for you," he finished.
She pressed her lips together into a thin line. "You're laughing at me."
"No," he said quickly. "I'm sorry. I respect the fact that you have dreams."
"And now Isabel has a son," Liz continued, "And I...I found out through Maria. She filled me in, because Isabel and Michael told her all about him."
He was confused. "Maria's your best friend, what's weird about that?"
"No, not that." Liz shook her head. "It's just that, well, Maria went kicking and screaming into this whole alien thing," she paused for a second before continuing, "and I was the one who held her hand through it."
"Aha, and now the situation is reversed, and you feel like it's ironic that something you wanted and she despised came to her so easily and is out of your grasp..." He grinned at her. "Sometimes I'm not stupid."
"You're never stupid, Kyle."
He paused and looked down at his fingers, then turned back to her. "For what it's worth, I used to really like you." Then he realized that didn't come out exactly as he'd meant it, and quickly tried to backtrack. "No, what I mean is...you just said you're back where you started, but I think you started out pretty great."
"I started out as a jerk to you," she said.
He shrugged. "Only after your life turned upside down. I've forgiven you."
"I'm not sure I deserved it."
He laughed. "Well, I didn't forgive you until I became a Buddhist."
"Well," she said, "for what it's worth, I'm sorry."
He hadn't been lying when he'd said that he'd already forgiven her, but it was nice to hear anyway. "Thanks, Liz. I never actually expected that from you."
"Yeah, well, I've been doing some self-reflection."
"This doesn't have anything to do with a certain tall, dark and--"
She cut him off, and he was glad for it, because describing Evans as handsome, whether or not it was the truth, wouldn't have done a lot to salvage what jock cred he had left. "I might have been inspired by...the whole Max and Tess thing, but it's more the fact that they're leaving. It closes a whole chapter in my life, and what have I got to show for it?"
"You don't think they'll be back?" he asked.
"I don't know," Liz responded. "If they do come back, they'll have been through this entire thing together. They'll be even more of a close-knit group than they are now. It won't be the same."
The bell rang, and they picked up their books and walked out of the classroom together. She had math next, and he had gym, so they were going in different directions.
"Hey," Kyle said, right before they reached the hallway where they would be splitting up. "You know that you can always talk to me, right? I mean, I know Maria and Alex are your best friends, but if for whatever reason you don't want to go to them, I'm here. You know?"
Liz nodded. "Yeah. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."
******
He showed up to work early Monday afternoon, hoping to catch an instance of Larek taking over Brody so that he could ask him about Isabel's supposed son. He hadn't counted on the constant influx of customers, mostly tourists arriving in town with their children now that the summer season was starting. For the first few hours of his shift, he only saw Brody occasionally out the corner of his eye on the other side of the room. Between the customer who wouldn't get off his soapbox about the museum being a cover for actual alien activity, the couple who were just looking for a dark room to make out (loudly), and the family with the little children who thought that a museum was a kind of jungle gym, his actual alien issues were the last thing on his mind by the time the evening rush was over.
Then Brody came out of his office looking serious. "I need to talk to you."
Max was startled. "What is it, is it about the guy with the hat? Because I gave him a free keychain, and he seemed perfectly satisfied."
"What?" said Brody, puzzled. "No, it's about your coming to Antar, you moron."
He laughed nervously. "Oh, it's you. Sorry, I've just been so busy that I'm a little out of my mind. Listen, I have something to ask you."
Larek nodded. "All right, but I have something to tell you, and I don't have much time, not more than ten minutes. Let's go into Brody's office."
They went in, leaving Jodi, the new girl who had just come on to deal with tourist season, in charge with all the museum visitors. Max felt bad, but this was important.
Before Larek could begin his speech, Max started talking. "I need to know if any of us had children in our past life, and if they're still alive."
Larek looked taken aback.
"Please," Max said, "it's important."
"Well," Larek began, "I don't know if I should tell you this, but back in the day...well, your sister was very beautiful, and a little bit naive. She was engaged to be married to Rath, of course, but at the same time, there was someone else who swept her off her feet. And, suffice it to say, she wasn't completely faithful to Rath."
Max stared. "I know all this. She was Kivar's lover."
"You know?" Larek repeated, aghast.
"Well, I didn't know it was a secret," Max replied.
"You certainly didn't know when it was happening."
"You mean, when I was Zan, I didn't know?"
"If you had known about your sister and Kivar, you never would have..." Larek's voice trailed off. "In any case, Vilandra gave birth to a boy a few months before her death. You had no idea that there was a possibility of Rath not being the father. But the child is still alive, brought up in Kivar's palace as his own."
The child. It still confused Max. "But we've been gone for a long time...he's not a child anymore, is he?"
"Of course he's still a child," Larek answered. "You haven't been gone for all that long."
"I don't understand," Max said. "It's been fifty years. How long do people live on Antar?"
"Oh, right," Larek said. "I forgot that time works differently on Earth. If I were a physicist, I would be able to understand it better."
There was a pause.
"Well?" Max demanded.
"Well," Larek responded, "I can't really explain it if I don't understand it, but on Earth, time moves forward at a certain constant speed, and on Antar, it's sort of more fluid. And the effects of that are that sometimes, more time elapses on Earth than it does on Antar, and our surrounding planets. Sometimes it's the other way around, too, but that's rarer."
It was something he thought he should ask Liz about, but then he remembered that they weren't on speaking terms.
"Okay." He tried to clarify. "So you're saying that Vilandra and Kivar's son--"
"I don't actually know that Coll is Kivar's son," Larek interrupted. "Kivar is telling the people that he is, but, to tell you the truth, I wouldn't be surprised if Kivar himself isn't sure. It's very convenient for his claim to the throne, however."
So Coll did think that Kivar was his father, which meant he wasn't lying, but it was possible that he was actually Michael's son. Or, the son of Michael from a past life. Isabel and Michael had had dreams last year about having a son; he wondered if that was significant.
"But scandals within the royal family aren't really the most important thing at hand." Larek chuckled. "Well, actually, in a way, they are, ha ha ha." He looked at Max's face, caught that he didn't understand the joke, and continued. "Never mind. Well, the circumstances back home are very exciting, lots of political unrest. The public doesn't know it yet, but we've got a real shot to get Kivar out if we move fast enough, and we received a generous financial donation that may allow us to finish building your transportation much sooner."
"Okay," Max said. Then he thought about what was just said. "Wait. What are you saying?"
Larek looked serious. "I'm saying that we'll be bringing you back within the next two weeks, Max. I'm saying that you should start saying your good-byes."
******
The bell on the microwave went off, and Michael went to take out the macaroni and cheese while Isabel got three plates, along with silverware, out of the cupboard and set them at the table. Everyone helped themselves, and Michael tossed the empty Tupperware into the sink.
"He shoots, he scores," Isabel said, amused.
"What is this?" Coll asked, between quick bites. "This is delicious."
"They don't have macaroni and cheese on Antar?" Michael said. "Maybe I--" he cut himself off quickly from finishing the thought (Maybe I don't want to go back after all), remembering that they had agreed not to let Coll know right away that they were leaving, and changed the tone of his sentence, "--should move there and open up shop."
"I don't know how much luck you'd have with a macaroni and cheese restaurant." Isabel laughed.
"I'd go all the time," Coll declared, chewing with his mouth open. A few pieces of chewed-up pasta flew onto the table.
"Gross," Isabel said, and handed Coll a napkin.
The ringtone on Isabel's cell phone went off and she glanced at it. "It's Alex. Is it okay if I take it?"
Coll was engrossed in his food and didn't respond, and Michael shrugged. She went into the hallway to talk and closed the door behind her.
He hoped she wouldn't take too long--he really had nothing to say to the kid, but it looked like Coll was able to amuse himself anyway, so Michael focused on Isabel's voice coming from the hallway. He couldn't make out any words, but it sounded like Alex was doing most of the talking, and Isabel was giving short, quiet answers. She sounded miserable, which bothered him considering the excitement he felt. He wished there was something he could say that would make her see what she was missing and change her mind.
She came back in a few minutes later, a flat, pasted smile on her face, because Isabel wasn't exactly great at feigning happiness. As she sat down, Coll got up, having finished his meal, and asked where to put his plate.
"Just drop it in the sink," Michael replied. He turned towards Isabel. "What's up?"
She shrugged. "I don't really want to talk about it here."
"Can I leave now?" Coll asked as he put his plate into the sink.
Isabel looked at Michael as if she expected him to be able to answer the question. He shrugged, so she turned back to Coll. "Well, do you think you can make it back home by yourself?"
"Sure," he said. "I'll just go over to--"
"You'll be at the house," Isabel cut him off.
The younger boy groaned. "Fine, Mom."
Michael couldn't help but be amused at the way Coll sulked out the door, perfectly content at taking orders from someone only six years older than him.
Michael waited for the door to click shut, then said, "Now do you want to talk about it?"
"I don't know if you'll understand," she responded. "I'm just melancholy about this whole thing...and I think Alex and I are going to break up."
It surprised him that she thought it was news that she and Alex were going to break up--after all, an intergalactic romance made most long-distance relationships look suffocatingly close--but he knew better than to say that out loud.
"I just wish that this whole thing had never happened," she continued.
"What do you mean, that you and Alex had never gotten together?" Michael asked.
"No, I mean I wish that Larek had never summoned us back to Antar."
"How can you say that?" Michael asked. "This is what we've been waiting for our whole lives."
Isabel raised her eyebrows. "This is what you've been waiting for your whole life, Michael. Not the rest of us."
"Right," Michael replied shortly, "Because, I forgot, nothing is more important to you than your life on Earth."
"That's not true," she objected. "You are. And Max is."
"Really? The way you're talking, it doesn't seem so."
"Well, I'm going, aren't I?" Isabel demanded. "What more do you want from me?"
"I don't know; maybe--" there was a knock on the ceiling from his neighbor upstairs, so he lowered his voice-- "It would be nice if you were excited, or happy, or something."
"Well, I'm not excited or happy!" she snapped, standing up and moving away from him, towards the other side of the room. She crossed her arms and frowned. "I'm going out of loyalty to you guys, but I can't change how I feel about Earth, or about my parents--guess what, I love them, Michael! And I'm sorry if that makes me a bad Antarian or something, but it's how I feel!"
"Well, then maybe you shouldn't come, then," Michael responded, his voice flat.
Isabel looked stricken, and he was about to take it back (he shouldn't have said it to begin with, and now he felt like a jerk), but then someone knocked on the door.
"Dammit. That's probably Max," Michael said, looking at the clock on the microwave. "He should have just finished his shift at the museum." He went over to the door and opened it, and Maria walked in.
She started to speak before even looking at him. "Listen, this might sound crazy, but I can't stop thinking about--" then she looked up, and saw Michael and Isabel staring at her, and stopped. She looked back and forth between them. "Oh, never mind, this is obviously a bad time. Of course she's here. You know, apparently in your past reincarnation or whatever you two weren't exactly the model couple, but I guess--"
"Oh, will somebody just gag you already!" Isabel snapped.
"Maria, you should leave right now," Michael said.
"Don't bother," Isabel cut in. "I'm out of here." She headed towards the door.
Crap. "Iz!"
"Doesn't that just figure," Maria said. "You don't want her to leave, but me you're fine with gone. That was pretty much the defining theme of our relationship, so I shouldn't be surprised. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow." She and Isabel opened the door at the same time, revealing Max with his hand up in the air, about to knock.
"What is this, an apartment or a clown car?" Isabel deadpanned.
Max looked confused. "Well, I just got out of work, so I thought I'd come over." His tone was foreboding.
"We're listening," Michael said.
Max shot a look at Maria, but when it became clear that she wasn't going anywhere, he started. "I just wanted to let you know that I spoke to Larek again today. He took over Brody's body during work. The good news is that your son is legitimate."
"No pun intended," Michael added helpfully.
Max ignored him. "The...um, other news--"
Isabel cut in, her voice sarcastic and dry. "This sounds promising."
When Max continued, he sounded a bit sheepish. "Well, apparently there's some kind of political unrest going on over there, and they're going to try to get us back even earlier."
"What?" Isabel said.
"Maybe two weeks," Max went on.
Isabel freaked out, pacing back and forth as she ran her hands through her hair. "That's insane! We were supposed to have a month to work this out!" she screeched.
"Well, now we have two weeks," Max replied. And, after a pause, "Maybe less."
"What are we going to tell Mom and Dad?" Isabel demanded. "What about school?"
Max sounded tired. "I don't know what we're going to tell Mom and Dad. We'll have to figure it out."
"We were supposed to have a month, Max!" she repeated.
"Well, we don't!" he snapped. "I don't know what to tell you!"
Isabel let out a low growl. "You know what?" she seethed.
Now would be a good time to cut her off. "Now you've done it, Maxwell," Michael said. "Iz, why don't you wait until you've calmed down--"
She glowered at him. "No I don't want to wait until I've calmed down, Michael. You've gotten your wish: I'm not going. There, I put my foot down. And you know what else?" She turned her wrath in Max's direction. "I was going to graduate this year and leave Roswell. And go to college! I was going to get away from this insanity, and guess what? I'm still going to! There! I was afraid to tell you, Max, but I'm not anymore, because you can't stop me!"
There was a silence in the room that was not just tangible, but visible in the way Isabel was shaking while trying to remain calm, and the rest of them were afraid to move, because the ground might shatter beneath them like a thin plate of glass.
Then Max spoke, his voice tentative. "Iz--"
And it broke. "Stop saying my name like that!" she yelled, hysterical. "I am my own person. I make my own decisions. You can't order me to do anything, and this conversation is over!" She stormed over to the door and closed it behind her.
"She seems grumpy," Maria commented, her voice shaken but light.
He wasn't in the mood. "Shut up."
"I'm going after her," Max declared.
"Don't," Michael said. "Let her cool off."
"She's Isabel," Max responded. "She never cools off."
"Fine, then I'll talk to her, at least I can talk to her on her level."
"You'll talk to her? Aren't you the one who got her into this awesome mood to begin with?" Max's voice dripped with sarcasm in a very un-Max-like way, and he advanced on Michael threateningly. "What the hell did she mean when she said you'd gotten your wish?"
Maria put her hands in between them and pushed them apart. "Both of you shut up, okay? Do I have to be the one around here to do everything? Both of you will back off and I will talk to her tomorrow."
"You're joking," Michael said.
"I am not," she responded, with a look in her eyes that he was quite familiar with, which frankly, sort of scared him. "And you will thank me for this, mister."
He dropped his head into his hands. "Oh, brother."
"I'm serious," Maria insisted. "I can fix this. What do you have to lose? Just hear me out."
"All right," Max agreed.
"Good," Maria said. "Now, listen. Here's what we're going to do."
******
Tess was ten minutes late to third period physics and the only seat left was in the front row, all the way on the inside of the classroom. Dr. Albert, an educational zealot in her forties, stopped speaking and stared at Tess making her way to the desk, as she was wont to do when students were tardy.
She made it to the end of the row, and stopped when she saw that Liz Parker was sitting in the chair right before hers. They locked eyes, and after a frozen moment, Liz ignored her and went right back to her notes as the teacher continued her lecture.
She opened her notebook and started copying down the important points of the class, and went on for a few minutes before she realized that she didn't know what exactly was going on. Taking a look at her notes from the last class and comparing them to the discussion at hand, Tess noticed that she seemed to be missing a whole bunch of definitions and formulas. She tapped her pencil onto Liz's desk in order to get her attention, but Liz seemed firmly entranced by the Dr. Albert's voice.
"Liz," she whispered.
No response.
She repeated the name a little bit louder, and the other girl turned around, a cool and unaffected expression on her face.
"Can I get your notes afterwards?" Tess asked.
Liz frowned, drawing her eyebrows together. "What do you need them for? You're not taking the final." And she turned back to the lecture.
Tess was impressed and annoyed at the same time. She had done nothing recently to warrant this kind of behavior--and if Liz was annoyed that Max was leaving the planet and blaming it on Tess, that would be beyond appropriate.
She tried again. "Come on, give me a break. I don't understand what she's talking about."
"Who told you to come late?" Liz replied. "Let me guess, there was a super-important meeting that you--"
Their teacher's voice interrupted. "Parker and Harding, is there a problem?"
"No," they replied in unison, and Liz added, "I'm sorry."
After a few minutes of listening where absolutely nothing was illuminated, Tess wrote something in the margin of her paper--Did I do something to you?--and pushed it over towards Liz's desk for her to see.
Liz glanced at it quickly, then responded right beneath Tess's note: I just think it's irresponsible to show up late and then assume that I'll help you catch up on what you've missed.
Was that supposed to be a metaphor or something?
Tess frowned, reached over, and wrote, I was asking for a favor. It's just notes.
She waited for a few minutes for the other girl to reply, but it seemed that Liz had decided to focus more on taking notes on the class. Finally, there was a slight lull in the lecture, and she was able to respond to Tess.
Liz had the piece of paper placed in the center of her desk, so that Tess had to lean over to read what she was writing. It's not just notes.
Of course it wasn't.
Liz continued. It's the principle of the matter.
She tried to let it go, and to concentrate on making up what she could, but it was eating away at her, and towards the end of the class, Tess found herself whispering to Liz, "Just say whatever it is you want to say."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Liz responded.
"Ugh." Tess crossed her arms. "If you have something you want to get off your chest, then just come out and say it." And stop being all passive aggressive about it.
"You're delusional," Liz said. "What would I want to get off my chest?"
"How should I know? Maybe you're mad that I'm dating Max. Maybe you're mad that he's leaving the planet. Maybe you're afraid--"
"Okay, yeah, I have something to say," Liz hissed. "Maybe I think that it's really stupid that you're all--especially you--just accepting this mission that you never even asked for and you just had the dumb luck to be born into-"
The bell rang, interrupting her, and students started to file out of the classroom. Tess and Liz stayed, though, watching everyone else leave and making no move themselves to get up. Eventually, the classroom was completely empty aside from the two of them, the tension weighing heavily between them.
Tess bit her lip before speaking. "You know, you could look at it from my point of view."
As soon as she said it, she knew it was a mistake from the way Liz's eyes widened. "Your point of view?!" she shouted, or as close as Tess had ever heard her come to shouting in that high-pitched surprised voice. "I could look at it from your point of view, Tess? What do you think I've been doing ever since you got here? Why do you think let I Max go after that day in the cave? Why do you think I kept being nice to you, kept trying to be your friend? I've looked at it from your point of view the whole time--you look at it from my point of view for once! Humans are people too, you know! I'm part of this mess, I've been in it just as long as Max and Isabel and Michael have. I love Max, and I care about Michael and Isabel. And you too, despite everything, I've come to care about you. So why can't you accept me already?"
Tess recoiled, then took a breath and scowled. "Being nice to me? Please, how stupid do you think I am? You think I don't know what you and Maria say about me behind my back? Every time I talk to Max I'm a tramp. Every time I save your lives I'm desperate for approval."
"I don't say things like that!" Liz insisted.
"Really." Tess raised her eyebrows.
"Really! I mean, Maria, a little bit...but that's just how she is. She doesn't mean anything by it."
"All right, Liz," Tess said. "Let me try to paint a picture for you. It's Isabel's birthday. There's a surprise party for her at the Crashdown, and I'm on my way to Jensen's to get her a present. Suddenly my vision goes out completely. My car gets rammed into from behind. A woman's voice asks me if I'm Vilandra, I shake my head no. I'm dragged into another car, which drives me out somewhere in the middle of God-knows-where, I can't mindwarp because I don't know what's going on. She asks me again if I'm Vilandra, tells me not to lie to her."
"I'm sorry," Liz interrupted, "but I already know this story. I don't see what this has to do with--"
"You never even apologized!" Tess yelled. "How did Whittaker know to find me? Who's the one person in the group who had any contact with her?"
Liz breathed in sharply, as if she'd been punched in the stomach. "You're right. I never thought..." Her voice trailed off.
"Maybe that's why I find it so hard to accept you," Tess spit out. "Because you don't. You never think."
For a few seconds, there was an uncomfortable silence. Tess shifted in her seat.
"You know, I always imagined that when I finally said that it'd be a lot more gratifying," she said.
Liz seemed to laugh against her will.
Tess shrugged. "But I don't actually feel any better now."
"Do you want to...try again?" Liz said, and this time it was Tess who laughed before she could stop herself.
"I'm glad I got it out of my system, that's all," Tess admitted.
"I'm really sorry I almost got you killed, Tess," Liz said, and Tess could see that she really was.
"It's--" she stopped herself before she could say 'it's okay', because it wasn't really okay," Well, now you know better, and that's good enough."
"I definitely know better now," Liz agreed. "And...I'll try not to do it again."
Tess laughed again, because it was such a mundane apology for the situation, and yet anything else would have seemed melodramatic.
"So now that we've gotten past that, can you admit that I have a point, without just saying, 'Oh you would never understand'?" Liz asked.
"That I accept my destiny even though I never asked for it?" Tess said. She shrugged. "I've had a long time to think about it and be angry about it. Maybe it's a little fast for Max, Michael and Isabel...but what can I say? I know it's hard."
"And yet?" Liz prompted.
Tess shrugged. "I've made my peace."
There was a pause.
"Tess?" Liz said, after a few seconds.
"Yeah?"
"It's not just Max...I'm really going to miss all of you."
"Well, I guess I'll miss some of you," Tess replied.
Liz laughed in a good-natured sort of way. "I guess I can't expect you to change too much."
Tess smiled. "Liz Parker, you're okay, you know that?"
Liz blushed.
"Listen, do you want to eat lunch with me?" Tess continued. "We'll sit at the table next to Isabel and I'll use my powers to hide us. Apparently there's a whole big project happening with her and Maria and Michael at lunch today."
*****
Okay, Maria, here's your chance. Don't screw this up.
Isabel was sitting at a table eating her lunch by herself, which meant that somehow, Maria had beaten Alex to the cafeteria. It was as if the heavens had aligned just for her so that she could save the day.
She took a deep whiff of lavender essential oil, screwed the top back on and stuffed it into her pocket, then walked over to the table and set her tray by Isabel's, sitting down next to her.
"Men," Maria said, trying to sound completely confident. "Am I right?"
Isabel's mouth dropped in a very undignified manner, and Maria could see the strawberry yogurt on her tongue. Quickly, she swallowed, but didn't stop staring at her as if she'd grown an extra head (ironic, Maria thought, considering). "What are you doing here?"
Time to break out the material. "I came on behalf of the morons of your species."
The other girl continued to stare blankly.
"Ugh." Maria rolled her eyes. "Max and Michael sent me to convince you to change your mind. They think that because we're both women, I'll be able to somehow find the magic button that will make you do what they want you to."
"Well, they can forget it," Isabel said, stabbing into her salad. "Why'd they send you, anyway? We're not even friends."
She forced herself to ignore the alien princess's exaggerated rudeness and concentrate on the task at hand. "I know, it's like they think just because I'm a girl, you'll listen to me."
"God, what idiots," Isabel said.
Now they were on the same page. That was a good start.
"They really are," she agreed. "I don't know why we put up with them."
"Max thinks that just because he has the title of king means somehow he always knows what's best, and Michael...don't even get me started," Isabel ranted, gesturing with her fork. "I mean, you know how Michael is."
"His head is thicker than a block of cement?" Maria offered. "Yeah, I know."
She let a pause linger for a moment, and ate some of her fries. After letting Isabel be angry for a few minutes, she continued.
"You're just making them stew in their own juices, to punish them, right?" she asked, innocently. "I mean, you wouldn't really stay here and be the only alien left on the planet."
Isabel shook her head, but with less conviction than she'd had earlier. "I don't want to talk about it."
"I get that." Maria paused, as if treading carefully into dangerous territory. "It's just, it could be forever. Imagine if you never saw Max again. I can't even..."
Isabel put her fork down and stared at her again. "You sure do talk a lot."
Okay, now we're backing off. "I know, I get that a lot," Maria agreed. "I don't mean to piss you off by being too invasive, I just spend a lot of time thinking about things that aren't my business."
It evidently worked, because a wry smile crossed Isabel's face.
Deciding it was safe to jump back in, Maria continued. "You know you can't let them go off without you. They'd be totally lost. I mean, you're the mediator. Max and Michael without you to break up their fights, that's a terrifying picture."
"They'd murder each other within a week," Isabel muttered, but Maria could see that the smile hadn't disappeared.
"They'd murder each other within two days," Maria agreed. "I'd like to see Tess try and keep the peace, right?"
Isabel snickered. "Please, like Tess knows anything about either of them. If she did, she wouldn't be so keen on dating my asshole brother."
Maria laughed, and right on cue, Michael showed up in front of them. "Hey, Isabel, can I talk to you a second?"
She snapped her fingers at him, playing the part perfectly. "Do you mind, dude? We're talking. About you."
Isabel laughed. "No, it's okay."
As she left, Michael turned around and gave her an awed expression.
'You owe me,' she mouthed at him, unable to prevent a wide grin from spreading over her face. And that's how we do it, DeLuca style. She walked away, a bounce entering her step, and she felt happy for the first time since the night of the prom.
******
Her parents were out having drinks at their neighbors, and probably expected that she and Max would either be out or sleeping when they got back. But instead, the four of them were waiting in the living room in order to announce to her parents that they were from another planet.
She wished she were having drinks right now.
"This is really nerve-wracking," Tess commented. "Are you sure you don't want to just leave them a note?"
Isabel turned violently at her and snapped, "It would be a lot less nerve-wracking if you would stop saying that!"
Tess shirked back. "Sorry."
She knew she shouldn't have yelled but she was much too anxious to keep her nerves in check. Michael's voice, from a year ago, saying, "There's no such thing as unconditional love," kept repeating in her head, like a stupid television jingle.
Forget about that, she commanded herself. Growing up in foster care is Michael's damage; you certainly don't need to go taking advice on familial relations from him.
"They should be home within the next few minutes," Max said. "Everyone remember their lines?"
"Can we have a dress rehearsal?" Michael said sarcastically.
They hadn't written an exact script, but they'd come up with a basic idea of who was going to say what. Of course they would mention the fire incident from last year, as it was the closest their parents had ever gotten to figuring out the truth about them.
"Michael, this is serious bus--" Max started to say, but the front door opened and he quickly shut his mouth, while the rest of them got into their sitting positions.
Their parents were laughing when they walked in the door, which Isabel hoped was a good sign.
"They left the light on in the living room," she heard her father say, but he stopped in his tracks in the doorway, as he saw the group of them sitting there.
Her mother followed a few seconds later. "Max, Isabel, honey, it's late. Why are you kids still up?"
Show time. Isabel thought she was going to be sick, and she, along with Michael and Tess, looked to Max, who had set his face serious and determined. She was beginning to see why he was the leader.
"Max?" Phillip said. "What's the matter?"
Max spoke without standing up. "Mom, Dad. We have something to tell you."
"Is everything okay?" their mother asked, concerned.
"Yes and no," Isabel responded. "But you might want to sit down."
Once the Evans adults were sitting in the two living room chairs, Max began. "There isn't really a good place to start. Do you remember last year, when there was a fire, I put it out, and you didn't understand how?"
"What fire?" their father said.
"The fire in the kitchen, honey," Diane reminded him, "that time when the sheriff came."
Phillip nodded. "Oh, right. I thought you said you poured water over that fire, Max."
"But Mom," Max said, "you didn't believe that, right?"
She looked sheepish. "It just seemed..."
"I know," Max continued. "It was a hasty lie. Water doesn't put out an oil fire, and if I had really done that, it would have just caused the burning oil to spatter. It would have caused more damage."
"Why are you telling us this a year later?" their father asked.
Isabel swallowed, and spoke. "You have to know how he put out the fire."
"I don't understand," her mother said. "Why are your friends here?
"Because if we had been here, we would have been able to do the same thing," Michael answered.
Isabel heard Tess say, "Well, maybe not Michael," under her breath. She turned to see Michael trying to hide a smile, and she glared hard at both of them before turning back around to her parents.
Max took a deep breath. "I was able to smother the fire by instantaneously moving all the oxygen out of the vicinity."
"With a towel?" her father asked.
Max shook his head. "No."
He leaned forward. "With what, then?"
"With nothing," Max answered.
Her mother was clenching her father's arm, visibly scared. "What are you telling us, Max?"
Isabel stepped in. "He's saying that we're able to do things that no one else on this planet can." Her mind flashed for a moment to Lonnie, with her spiked hair and her body piercings, able to do everything that she herself could do and more, but willed herself to concentrate on the matter at hand. "It's because this planet isn't where we came from."
"We're aliens," Michael continued. "All four of us."
Her father looked stern. "This is ridiculous," he said. "Is it April Fool's Day, or..." he trailed off, because the armrest of the couch, where Isabel was laying her hand, was turning to a bright red. Finally, he swallowed hard. "I don't--I don't believe in aliens."
"Do you believe your daughter?" Isabel said, changing the armrest back to the original beige. "I promise you, this is what we are. I've wanted to tell you since the beginning, but we were afraid."
Their parents were looking at them in fear, and Isabel was afraid all her nightmares were coming true at once. Until Tess broke the silence.
"I think somewhere, deep down, this isn't a surprise. You both must have sensed that Max and Isabel were different from other children, that they were special in some way."
Isabel thanked her silently for saying something tactful, knowing how much it went against Tess's nature.
"We're still the same people we were before," Max continued. "All we've ever known is the two of you as parents, and we were afraid that you wouldn't feel the same way if we told you."
"Max Evans," Diane said. "That could never, ever be." She looked over at Isabel. "Isabel. Don't you two know how much I love you?"
They all glanced at Phillip, to see if he would respond the same way, but he was frowning. "Well, I don't know how we're supposed to react, exactly. Obviously your mother and I love you, but Max, isn't this dangerous? Aren't there government agencies that are going to hunt you down or something?"
Government agencies. The image of Max being tortured by Pierce in the White Room hit her with a force, and she flinched.
Michael, not one to hold his sarcasm, butted in. "Well, we've tried not being aliens, but it didn't really work out too well for us."
Max shot him a look, and turned back to their parents. "I know we've sprung a lot on you at one time, and that it's hard to accept. But there's something else you should know."
Isabel tried to keep her voice steady as she took over. "We wouldn't have told you otherwise...it's just safer for you not to know, because...well, Dad, let's just say you weren't too far off about the government projects. But we needed to tell you before we left."
"What are you talking about?" her mother asked, confused. "Where are you going?"
They were all quiet, waiting for her to figure it out, and when she did, she gasped and her eyes filled with tears. "You're not...going back to your home planet?"
"There's a war there," Michael explained. "And they need our help."
"But you're children!" her father exclaimed.
"We're royalty there," Max said. "They sent us here so that we would be safe until they needed us to return."
"Don't we get a say in any of this?" her mother demanded, her voice getting shriller and more hysterical than Isabel had ever heard her. "You're not eighteen yet, and you've been living under our roof for the past eleven years. We're still your parents!"
Isabel bit her lip, trying not to cry, and turned away, listening to the argument that might as well have been taking place inside her head. Every point that was being battled, on both sides, was something she had spent nights working through over the past week, and she still didn't have a right answer. If she listened to her head, it told her--well, it told her both sides, that she was needed on Antar, but on the other hand, how much could Antar possibly need a bunch of teenagers who were half-human? And if she listened to her heart, it positively broke with all the connections, all the people that she needed that she would have to give up, no matter which way she went. No, the right answer definitely wasn't in her heart, this time.
"I don't accept that," their father declared. "Nuh-uh. You're grounded; if you need to fight a war, you do it from your bedrooms. Michael and Tess, that goes for you, too."
"Mr. Evans," Michael said, "with all due respect, you can't stop us."
"Like hell I can't!" He shouted, getting onto his feet. "You're little kids playing dress-up! You don't know anything about fighting a goddamned war!"
"We know a lot more than you think we do," Michael retorted. "We've been in life-threatening situations more than once over the past year."
For some reason, the revelation didn't seem to calm him down. "Well, that just makes me feel a hell of a lot better, doesn't it?" Phillip demanded.
Suddenly Tess appeared in the doorway behind their parents. Shocked, Isabel looked over at where Tess had been sitting moments before--scratch that, where Tess was still sitting. Max and Michael were also staring between the two Tesses. Tess--the one on the couch, ostensibly the real one--nodded ever so slightly.
"This isn't getting anywhere," the mindwarp version of Tess said. "We should get out of here and let them cool off before it gets any worse." Then it disappeared.
After a beat, Max stood up. His face masked of any emotion, he stated, "This conversation is over. Mom, Dad, we'll be at Michael's apartment. You can't convince us not to go, but we still would like your support. If that's something you can give us, you know where to find us."
Their mother was weeping now, not even trying to hide it. It made Isabel feel embarrassed, and ashamed. Why should she owe more to strangers who created them and then dumped them in the desert than to the people who'd given of their own sweat and tears to protect and raise them for the past eleven years?
Still, she stood up with the rest of them and walked out the door. And when her father tried to come after them, and Max raised his hand to create a green force field, she didn't look back to see the look on her parents faces.
They walked for a few minutes in silence as Isabel tried not to picture what she had missed by not looking back and all of a sudden she burst into tears. She lost control of herself, her entire composure coming undone. A moment later, Michael's arms were around her, preventing her from swooning completely. She leaned against him and continued to walk, letting out loud sobs against her will.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Tess asked.
Isabel sniffled. "Not even a little."
******
The room was dark, without windows or doors. It was large, much too large for the two figures inside, looking like they were about to be swallowed by the darkness which permeated the area.
The figures were gaseous, almost as to be transparent, but that was just a trick of the eye--only at the very edges of their bodies could one see past them. Their colors changed depending on mood and objects in the vicinity, but with the lack of light, they just looked like shadows. The one on the right was sitting on a bench.
An opening started to appear in one of the walls, and an artificial light seeped into the room. When the doorway was complete, a third person, looking much like the first two, floated in. He was greeted by both men with a contortion of the body that was similar to a bow, but more graceful, almost like a dive, if the air were water.
"Your majesty, Kivar," said the man who had been sitting. Their words sounded different than they would to the ears of an English-speaker, or a speaker of any of Earth's languages, but those were their meanings.
"Fien," Kivar responded. "This had better be important. I was busy reprimanding one of the boy's teachers. You would think that a master of mind-control would be more than a match for a child."
"So, Coll is still playing hooky during his science classes, eh?" Fien inquired.
"I find it hard to place the blame on him," Kivar said. "He feels the tension the way we all do."
"We have news in that regard," said the other man. "The reason why we called."
"Yes," Fien continued. "Rom and I have calculated the defector's whereabouts."
"It seems that he is on Earth," Rom continued.
"Earth?" Kivar repeated. "Now why would he want to go there?"
"We don't know, but we've tracked him to the southwestern United States. We think he may be staying in Roswell," Rom answered.
"I don't like it," Kivar said. "This has to be part of a plot. But against whom?"
Fien rose. "Your highness?"
"He could be trying to contact the Royal Four, to give them information to help them overthrow me." Kivar started moving around the room, slowly, as if pacing back and forth. "I don't know why they would listen to him, but he could plant the information anonymously. But that makes no sense, he stands to lose just as much as the rest of us if the regime topples. He might be trying to kill them, but that would make my standing more secure, make me stronger than ever."
"Maybe it's just a coincidence," Fien suggested.
"Hardly. Our 'Nicholas' is a sly, very sly. There must be an angle here."
"Should we get rid of him?" Fien asked.
"I'll have to think it over," Kivar said. "If only I knew what he were up to.... No, don't act yet. Track his movements. Try and see if he's engaged the Royal Four, and we'll work from there."
"As you wish." Fien bowed again, and Rom followed.
"Permission to depart." Kivar waved them off, and the two men left the room.
When they were gone, Kivar ran his arm over one of the walls, creating a window overlooking a still lake. He didn't notice the water, though--he stared into the sky at the stars, focusing in the direction he knew Earth to be, though it was too far to be visible to the naked eye. "Nikaul," he murmured to himself. "You devious little bastard. I know you have a plan, but I can't figure out what it is. What is going on inside that deranged little mind of yours?"
There was no one in the room to answer him, and there Kivar stayed, staring and contemplating until morning.