Category: UC
Rating: PG-13 through most of it but rated R and even NC-17 for violence, sex, and language
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything, if I did the show would still be on and Season 2 and 3 would have been a sick dream of Max’s in
The White Room.
Summary: During her investigation of Alex’s death Liz finds far more than she expected and starts to question everything. Set just after It’s too Late, It’s too Bad; so Liz found out that Alex didn’t go to Sweden and Max and Tess had sex but no baby yet and there probably won’t be one. And everyone is still against Liz’s investigation
Warning: Not for Max lovers
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PART 1
Liz walked away from the small plane as she hung up her cell phone with shaky hands. The Swedish Embassy had just told her that the building in the background of the pictures that she had been researching had been torn down years ago. This meant that Alex had never been there and to her meant that he had never gone to Sweden. So where was he for that time? And why had someone gone to such lengths to ensure that he believed that he had? What purpose did it serve?
Liz went to the front of the airport and hailed a cab. One parked just down the curb accelerated quickly to beat another one to her and Liz got in. She told him where she wanted to go and sat back for the drive. As the scenery went by she started to think things over. This search was getting bigger and bigger. She was going to need help but from who? The aliens were out of the question. Michael was too busy consoling Maria and didn’t believe her. Tess didn’t care and wouldn’t go against Max. She had seen that Isabel had at least been curious despite her anger at the funeral at Liz’s outburst. She didn’t put the idea of Alex being murder out of her mind. But like Tess, wouldn’t go against Max. And Max well…
Max and her were the closest things to enemies now that two people could get without killing each other. She realized after the last few days that she didn’t know Max anymore. He was like a complete stranger to her. The Max she knew would never have blown off Alex’s death like it was an unimportant event. He would have looked into it with vigor and need to help find out why their friend, who had stuck his neck out for them repeatedly, had died. She had thought that he would help her after they had talked on the first night after Alex had been killed. But after everything the last few days, she knew that couldn’t be. Ever since the funeral he had treated her like she and the investigation were nothing. Like she was some unimportant person who he was indulging. He had as much said so.
So that left out everyone but Kyle and Maria. Liz didn’t want to drag Kyle into yet another alien matter so she go to him last, which left Maria. She was sure that if she could talk to Maria calmly about all of this without her getting upset that she would see that Liz wasn’t imagining things. Especially when she saw the evidence Liz had accumulated. She would go to her first thing in the morning.
Liz came out of her thoughts when she realized she didn’t recognize any of the landscape. They were no longer on the highway and appeared to be going off into the desert. She cleared her throat as she spoke to the driver, “I think you’re going the wrong way.”
“Just following instructions.”
“But this isn’t the way to Roswell.” Liz stated.
“I didn’t say I was following your instructions.” He quipped back. Before he added. “Just sit tight and you’ll be fine.”
The hair on the back of Liz’s neck went up and she knew she was in danger. She hadn’t been paying attention and stepped right into a situation that might jeopardize her life. She didn’t know who this guy was or why he had taken her but she wasn’t safe. She had to get out of there. She thought first about her cellphone than dismissed it. She had no idea where she was to tell anyone. And she wasn’t sure of whom really to call. So the next idea was to get away.
She looked up at the dash and saw that they were going about forty miles an hour. Not the best speed to jump out of a car but she had to do something. If she could get away and back up to a main road she could flag someone down. She grabbed the door handle, yanked on it opening the door and leaped out.
She felt her feet hit the ground before her legs buckled underneath and she fell. She put her hands out in front of her body to catch herself and felt the ground biting into her palms. They didn’t stop her completely and she rolled a few feet. Once the rolling stopped she got up and started to run. She heard the car tires screeching and looked over her shoulder. The driver was in the process of turning the car around and kicking up a cloud of dust. It only took a few seconds for it to complete the U-turn and came barreling towards her.
Liz pumped her legs harder in an attempt to run faster. She knew that she couldn’t outrun the car but she had to try and reach the main road. She was about fifty feet away from road when she felt something hit her in the back that flung her to the ground again. But this time she didn’t get right up instead plunged into darkness.
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Maria finally spotted Max in the hallway at school and headed towards him. She didn’t get far before she stopped suddenly. Next to Max was Tess. But what had stopped her was the sight of him holding her hand. Maria couldn’t believe it! She wondered what Liz would think after seeing them. After all if she was feeling this shocked, she couldn’t imagine how Liz would feel. Actually after seeing Michael with Courtney, she did understand a little but still. She had only loathed Courtney for a short time while Liz and Tess were enemies. That’s why it was so hard to believe even after all the times Liz had told her that Max and Tess had to be together, to follow their destiny, she had never believed it would happen. But it had. And despite how she felt about it, Maria needed to talk to Max.
Maria started moving towards the two aliens again and Max stopped when he saw her. His gaze flickered from her to Tess as if waiting for her to say something. He knew that the gang would be stunned when they found out that he was with Tess, he was surprised himself but after the night they had just spent together, he realized that there was no going back. He was surprised when Maria said nothing, only glared at him. Since she didn’t speak he just called out a quiet greeting. “Hey Maria.”
“Hey Max, Tess.” She couldn’t help but notice that Max seemed slightly uncomfortable with everything, from holding Tess’s hand to talk to her, but ignored it as she asked, “Have either of you seen Liz? I haven’t seen her all day and I called her phone but she didn’t answer.”
Maria was surprised when she saw what looked like anger flare up in Max’s eyes before she heard Tess say, “No, I haven’t seen her.”
“She went to Sweden.” Max answered.
“What?!” Maria asked. “Why didn’t you stop her?”
“I tried to stop her from going on her inane search but she wouldn’t listen.” Max argued. “I caught up with her yesterday as she was waiting for a cab to take her to the airport. She told me she was going to Sweden and I didn’t want her to go, so I ordered her to get into the jeep.”
Maria looked at Max with disbelief. “You did what?”
“I ordered her to get into the jeep. But she wouldn’t listen. Then I told her that if she went, our friendship was over. And she still decided to leave.” Max explained. He felt betrayed by Liz when she had turned away from him. And if she wanted it to be that way, then fine, he would too.
“Why did she go to Sweden?” Tess asked suspiciously.
“It had something to do with her investigation,” Max stated angrily. “I know she’s been talking to the Swedish Embassy about something.”
“I just can’t believe you let her go by herself.” Maria exclaimed but she wasn’t just upset with Max, she was mad at Liz too. How could Liz have just left? Did she not realize that she needed her? She had just lost Alex, she didn’t need Liz gone too.
“Oh, come on Maria. Liz is a big girl.” Tess stated interrupting her. Max and Maria looked at her as she went on. “She can take care of herself, and it’s not like she’s going to find anything. We all know Alex’s death was an accident. Liz just won’t admit it. She’s as hard headed as Michael.”
“Who do you think you are?” Maria snapped at her. “You don’t know anything about Liz, and don’t act like you do just because you’ve weaseled your way into our group.”
“Maria calm down.” Max said. “You don’t have to attack Tess.”
“Whatever. If you happen to see Liz when she gets back before I do, tell her to call me.” Maria snapped back before she turned around and stomped down the hall not bothering to say good bye. She decided to look for Michael and tell him how stupid his king was.
PART 2
Liz climbed out of unconsciousness slowly and felt like she was wading through fog. She became aware of the stinging and soreness from what she was sure was a bunch of cuts and bruises on her body. She knew they were from her escape from the cab. Remembering that made her also remember that the reason she had bolted. Because she had been in danger. But she hadn’t been able to get away, she had been stopped by something hitting her from behind. So now they had her but who were ‘they’ and where was she?
Her curiosity got the better of her and she cracked her eyes open slowly. The only thing she saw was a plain cream color ceiling. She tilted her head slightly and looked around. It looked like a typical bedroom. There was the bed she was lying in, a small table next to it with a lamp, a dresser, a chair and a small table with it. There were two doors, one she figured led to a bathroom and one she figured would let her out considering there were two guards stationed on each side of the frame. They noticed that she had woken up and she listened as one talked to the other in a foreign language. It didn’t sound like any Earth language that she had ever heard but what surprised her was that it sounded familiar.
She watched as the man who had done the talking stayed in his position while the other one got up and went out the door they had been guarding. She guessed it was to report to someone that she was awake. She slowly sat up and pulled her hair back away from her face. Deciding that her body needed to move around more and stretch, she pulled her legs out from under the blanket and got off the bed. The guy made no move to stop her as she walked the length of the bed then back. She was feeling anxious. She had no idea where she was and no one else knew that she hadn’t gone to Sweden. They wouldn’t be looking for her, which meant she was on her own. She would have to go up against evil aliens by herself.
She started to wonder who had her. Was it Nicholas? Possibly Lonnie and Rath? She had told the aliens that Khivar’s obsession with Isabel could have been the reason why Alex had been killed, so could it be him? Or was it a completely and new enemy? They didn’t know how many enemies the four square had.
Liz’s attention turned back to the door when it opened and a different man came through it. The new arrival rattled something off in the language that she had heard used before, before the guard he was addressing bowed slightly before saying in English, “Yes, my Lord Khivar.”
The guard left and the guy, Khivar, turned towards Liz. She had been right, Khivar had something to do with all of this. He had something to do with Alex’s death. Again Liz felt a sensation of familiarity as she took a moment to look over the man who had taken Max’s thrown. She didn’t know why but it was there.
Khivar was tall, although most people were compared to her, with dark blonde hair. He looked to be in shape, with wide shoulders and just enough muscle to not over do it. He held himself like a guy who was used to being in charge, which he probably was. His skin had a medium tone to it, not olive like her own however not pale like Tess’s but a healthy medium. Overall he looked to be in his mid to late twenties although Liz knew he was far older than that. She couldn’t help but be curious if this was really him or if he had taken over a human’s body like Larek had before. She looked into his blue eyes and saw something that made her think that it was really him. They didn’t look how Brody/Larek’s had. There was something in them that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. They looked like they contained a wide range of emotions. All in all she couldn’t blame Isabel for falling for him before, he was very handsome. She couldn’t believe that she was very attracted to her captor. She snapped out of it and said, “Khivar?”
“Yes.” He answered simply as he continued to stare at her. It seemed to Liz that he was trying to memorize her or something. Trying to learn every detail, something she found odd.
Before Liz knew what she was doing she moved to strike him. All the anger and grief she had been feeling over the death of her best friend, a guy she considered her brother, came out. It had built and festered ever since Valenti had appeared at the Crashdown to tell them about what had happened. And now she had looked at Khivar as an outlet for all of it. She felt her fists make contact only a few times before he grabbed her wrists. She used the small amount of weight she had to struggle against him. He kept his hold on her and shoved her back down onto the bed. But she didn’t give up and continued to fight back.
“Damn it Enola stop this or I’ll have to have you restrained.” Khivar declared.
Liz could see that her struggles were in vain so she did indeed stop. But although she stopped he did not immediately move from his position over top of her but made sure that she was pinned down. He looked down at her and asked, “Can I trust you to behave?”
Liz nodded, Khivar released her and stood back up. She sat up but stayed sitting on the edge of the bed. “I demand to know why I have been brought here and held prisoner.” Liz said. She didn’t want to show fear, although that was what she was feeling, and tried to sound braver than she was.
“You are not a prisoner, you were brought here for your own safety.”
“Yes, I’m sure my safety is the genuine reason for my capture.” Liz said defiantly.
“Believe me when I say it is true. You were getting too close in your investigation to be allowed to continue . It was becoming too dangerous for you.” Khivar explained.
“So you admit that you had something to do with it.” Liz spit out vehemently. “Why did you kill Alex ? He’s did nothing to you, nothing at all.”
“You have my word that I nor any of my people are responsible for the wrongdoing you are referring to.” Khivar said, Liz could hear an air of disdain for her even suggesting it.
“Why should I believe you?” Liz asked.
“Because I am not lying.” Khivar said simply with a raise of his shoulders. “If you want to know the true guilty party you should look closer to home.”
“What?”
“An enemy disguised as a friend.” He answered. “One in the midst of your small group.”
Liz thought about what he was implying to her. If she could believe him, he was saying that someone in their group of nine had been the one to kill Alex. It only took her a couple of seconds to eliminate the non-guilty parties and come up with the responsible one. “Tess.”
“Yes, Ava or as you call her Tess, is the one to blame. From what I have learned it seems that she was mindwarping him to decrypt a book that they possess but do not understand. One that came with them in their ship. She organized an elaborate setup to conceal the fact that he would be gone. She made it appear that he was out of the country.”
“Sweden.”
“You are right. But as you know he did not go there, as a matter of fact he wasn’t that far away. Only as far as Las Cruses.” Khivar explained.
“How do you know so much about this?” Liz asked. “Not just about Tess but of Earth and this area.”
“Not all of my men were destroyed last fall. They have been watching and observing until I arrived here five days ago.” Khivar said. He was still gazing at her intently but Liz ignored it.
“So this is your natural form and not a possession?” Liz half asked, half stated.
“Correct. As for my knowledge of this planet and the region, I have studied everything possible to understand it. Now back to my explanation. For a month Ava…Tess kept the mindwarp going, whether she knew it or not, it caused a slow deterioration. A month after she started her plans, the objective was achieved, he translated the book and she had the directions to use the granolith and get them home. Once that was done, she returned everything back to normal. But the deterioration was so advanced that the blocks on the memories of that month began to break down and he started to remember. He confronted her, told her that he knew what she had done and threatened to expose her.”
“So she killed him.”
“But first she attempted to mindwarp him again. The damage was too extensive and the mind can only take so much. Her last attempt was what did it in.”
Liz was trying to wrap her mind around what he was telling her. The whole time that Alex had been gone, Tess had really been mindwarping him to decode the book. And it had killed him. Why didn’t she just recommend having Alex try to Max rather than go to such extremes? She looked at Khivar and asked, “How do you know so much about her plan?”
“I have an inside source.” Khivar said before heading towards the outer door. He poked his head outside speaking quietly before coming back inside. And when he did he wasn’t alone.
Liz looked on in disbelief for several minutes before she found her voice, “Alex?”
PART 3
Liz ran towards Alex and hugged him tightly. She felt his arms wrap around her tightly and it felt so good. She thought she would never see him again, certainly never hug him again. She thought he was gone forever. But here he was in front of her, alive. The reasoning part of her brain kicked in just then and she stepped back, "No, you are not Alex. Alex is dead, you're just a shapeshifter or something."
She saw hurt seep into Alex's eyes before he said, "Ask me anything, I'll prove who I am."
Liz thought it over, trying to figure out what to ask. She wanted to make sure it was something that no one would ever know. After all if he was a fake they knew enough about him to do a very good job. He looked like the same old Alex, standing there dressed in baggy pants and a T-shirt. "When we were little, what was our favorite play thing to do?"
Alex's smile wide as he said, "We used to take the pillows out of their cases before we'd climb in them. Then we go to the head of a staircase and use them as sleds to slide down the stairs. We got caught the first time in the back of the Crashdown so we only did it when we were at my house. Our parents said we were too old to be doing it since we were nine but we didn't care."
Liz's smile was twice the size of Alex's as she hugged him again, as she did she whispered, "I'm sorry that I doubted you. But I missed you so much."
"I know, and I missed you too." Alex said. "I'm sorry I couldn't come and tell you but it wasn't safe, it would have raised too many questions and so much more. Before I realized that I did connect with Isabel but I think she thought the whole message was a dream."
"How are you standing here? I mean what happened?" Liz asked. She pulled him over eagerly to sit on the edge of the bed so they could sit down, and she didn't let go of his hand. She didn't want to let go of him, she was scared that if she did that he might disappear.
"Well I'd be dead if Khivar and his men didn't save me." Alex started to explain. At the mention of Khivar's name, Liz recalled that he was still in the room. He cleared his throat and said, "I have something I have to attend to, but will return shortly."
Alex just nodded and Khivar disappeared out the door. When she was sure that he was gone, Liz spoke. "You have to tell me everything."
"Well I heard Khivar tell you about Tess's part in all of this. About her plan and that she was the one who killed me." Alex started but Liz interrupted him.
"I am so sorry that I didn't realize that she was up to something sooner. I have never trusted her and should have known she would do something like this." Liz said.
"It's not your fault, it's hers. But back to what happened. That last day that you and Maria were at my house, I started to break out of the mindwarp. I remembered everything but I still remembered what had supposedly happened as well so I was very confused as well as angry. I went to see her and confront her. You should have seen her, she was freaking out because she knew how close she was to being caught. She told me that she was going to fix me and started to warp me again. I remember feeling a sharp pain then collapsing. I was in and out of it but I do know that she mindwarped Kyle into carrying me out to my car and I remember part of the accident."
"But how did you survive?" Liz asked.
"This is where it gets a little fuzzy, the impact with the truck knocked me out but Khivar's men have pieced most of it together. They were there when all of you were outside of the morgue and saw Max go into the van. But since I was unconscious, Max couldn't connect with me and heal me. The men who came out to retrieve my body from the van? They were really Khivar's men, skins. They wheeled me into the building then back out another door. They brought me back here and none too soon. If they would have been another few hours, nothing would have saved me." Alex said.
"But if you were unconscious still how did they heal you?"
"They have this healing tube, which happens to look like a coffin, that was able to repair all the damage. It works slower than the other way of healing but a connection was not required. I was in it for six hours but came out just as good as ever." Alec stated as he patted his chest to show he was solid. "And I've been here ever since. They faked my funeral and checked up on what was going on in Roswell and about your investigation. They intercepted your phone signal and tapped into it. They followed you to the airport and knew when you received the call from the Embassy. They knew that you had found out that I didn't go to Sweden, I knew you wouldn't stop looking into things in Roswell and Tess would come after you. So we decided you needed to be safe and brought you here."
Liz took a minute to absorb what he had told her. He had still been alive when they had been in the morgue parking lot. And Tess had stood there and let them believe that she was as concerned as they were but she had been the one who had inflicted the injuries on him. If she despised Tess before she all out hated her now. She should have let her leave town months ago and not listened to Future Max. They were better off with her gone, she was more of a danger to them than the enemies that had attacked them. That thought made her think of her current captors and she asked, "So what are the skins going to do with us now? Hold us prisoners to use against Max and the others?"
"Liz..."
"And how can you be so at ease around them?" Liz went on. "These are the people who killed and have tried to kill Max and the others. True, I'd be willing to give them Tess but what about Isabel, Alex? I'm sure that Khivar is going to make another move to capture her."
"They saved my life, plus there are a lot of other factors and things going on that you don't know about. Things that if you knew would help you to understand why I don't feel threatened while I'm here." Alex said. Alex looked away then and back to the door where Khivar came through again. This time he was followed by two individuals one who carried a large tray of food and the one that followed who was carrying one of her bags she had taken to the airport. The second individual put the basket down quickly and left while the other one laid the tray on the small table, bowed to what look to Liz like all three of them, and left. The door shut softly as Khivar spoke, "I thought you maybe hungry, since you were out for so long and clean clothes were also brought so that once explanations are complete you can clean up."
Liz was about to state that she didn't want anything to eat when she suddenly realized she was starving. She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten plus how long she had even been there. "How long was I out for?"
"About twelve hours, it's the day after you supposedly left." Khivar answered. Liz couldn't believe the amount of time that had already passed. No wonder she was starving. She eyed Khivar as she cautiously made her way over to the tray of food. It smelled wonderful. There was nothing strange about the food, it looked to be a simple stew with some bread but to Liz it was a gourmet dinner. She dug into it enthusiastically and was half way through when she noticed Khivar and Alex staring at her, "What?"
"Just wondered if you were going to come up to breathe." Alec said.
"Sorry," Liz said embarrassed. "I haven't eaten much over the past few days, food was the last thing on my mind. There were far more important things to think about."
"That's Enola, determined to a fault. When there is a goal to achieve, she does everything possible to reach it, to the point of obsession." Khivar said. He didn't look like he had meant to say it out loud, but he had. And if Liz wasn't mistaken, there was affection in his voice. Plus he had acted like he knew her personally when they had never met. It was odd. But what struck her the most was that he had called her by the same word or name as he had before and she didn't know why.
"What does Enola mean?" Liz asked addressing Khivar. "That's the second time you have refer to me by that word, Enola."
Liz noticed Alex and Khivar glance at each other quickly before Khivar answered her, "Enola is not a term or word but a name on Antar."
"But why are you calling me that when you know my name is Liz?" Liz asked confused.
This time it was Alex who spoke. "That's part of what I was saying before, about things you don't know about. If you're willing to listen, Khivar and I will tell you, are you willing?" Liz nodded and he went on. "You know that Khivar was the one who overtook Max's throne, and that they were killed then were reborn and sent here. Now what we didn't know was that they weren't the only ones. Khivar also lost people who were reborn and sent away for safekeeping. Liz, you and I were those people. I know what you are going to say, we're human but believe me it's true. My name was Ardeth and yours was Enola. Khivar is my older brother. That's why he sent his men to save me from Tess when they found out what she was doing. They had been watching us and saw I was in danger."
Liz's eyes were the size of saucers at Alex's words. "Say I believe this, that I was this Enola, who was I to you both? A sister or something?"
"No, not a sister." Alex said uneasily. "You weren't related to us. You were involved with Khivar, in a romantic way."
PART 4
"What? You're insane!" Liz exclaimed at Alex's statement. He had just told her that she had been involved with Khivar that couldn't be. She looked between Alex and Khivar. "This can't be true, you're wrong. Alex, you can't really believe this?"
"Yes, Liz I do believe it." Alex stated. "You and Khivar were together, I was Khivar's younger brother and also had a twin sister. And he has no reason to lie about this."
"He is the enemy of our friends!" Liz argued.
"In war isn't the opposing side always the enemy? Otherwise they wouldn't be at war." Khivar said, which only pissed Liz off more.
Alex saw this and tried to calm Liz down. "I know what you're thinking, that it's some ploy to get me to tell him stuff about Max or to get to Isabel. But it is the truth. We are those people and we did live before. You know me, Liz. I wouldn't fall for something like this or lie to you about it."
"No! I'm human and so are you!" Liz reasoned. "Your blood proves it. And our parents, they have baby pictures of us, the others didn't come out of their pods until they looked like they were six."
"Eno...Liz, you are partly right, you were infants but you were not born at least not in this life. You were recreated and did come from pods. But for you to blend in you had to come out as babies." Khivar explained. "There is more to this than you know and if you will calm down, we'll tell you all of it so you will understand and believe us."
"I guess I don't really have a choice, do I? Considering you're keeping me here and I don't know how to leave." Liz said defiantly. "Go on."
Khivar waited for her to calm down a little more before he started. "Enola and Ardeth were killed before the Royal Four. So they were the first to be recreated, a prototype if you will. This was before I came into power and the scientists were not the same ones who later worked on the others. They were scientists who were on our side of the mounting dispute. It was actually part of the work that Enola herself had helped research. It was an experimental procedure that they didn't even know would work. But I was desperate to make them live again."
Khivar cleared his throat before he continued. "One consequence of the recreation was that it would take them a long time to mature so they needed to be safe for an extended period of time. So once the planning started I had to figure out where would be safe to send them. Earth was far away enough that no one would think to look for them there. And humans were close enough to our make up that you could blend in."
"I thought Earth's atmosphere was poisonous to you." Liz questioned.
"It is to the skins. On Antar there are three different races, as there are on the other four planets in the system. The skins are what are called Electrians. The largest concentrations live in the wet areas of the planet but Antar's atmosphere contains a lot of moisture and they can live anywhere on it. The other two races are Aloritans and Alorians. The Alorians are the aliens you are familiar with, the ones that the Royal Four are. Ardeth and Enola were also Alorians. They as well as the Electrians have a wide range of powers while the Aloritans or shapeshifters can only change their physical appearance as well as manipulate matter and some limited mental abilities." Khivar explained.
"So Alex and I are supposed to be a mixture of Alorians and human?" Liz asked.
"No, you are not hybrids. You are pure Alorians." Khivar answered.
"But our blood, it appears to be human while the others is green."
"Yes it does. And none of Earth's standard tests short of a DNA profile would say different. As I said before, our makeup is very similar. The main differences are our powers, and a few other characteristics."
"If the other four are Alorians, why did the scientists who created them mix human DNA into them?" Liz asked. While she was unsure whether she believed the story, her scientific mind was vastly absorbing the procedure they were talking about and found it fascinating.
Khivar's expression turned to an unreadable expression before saying, "From what my scouts have told me, after they were killed and smuggled away, Zan's mother decided that since she knew people would be looking for them once the secret was out, that they needed to look different. So they came to Earth and collect DNA samples here and mixed. The other's blood have a green appearance as a side effect of mixing Alorian, human and the gandarium."
"Now as I was saying. Earth was decided on as a secure location to send Enola and Ardeth so a team of eight was sent down with them. These eight were Alorians, people I trusted who would be the best equipped to be guardians. They came to Earth in what would have been 1945 here. Their ship landed in Arizona not far from Copper Summit. The pods had to be kept hidden so that they could mature. The plan was for them to mature and the occupants to be raised until they were able to take care of themselves and be sent back to Antar." Khivar explained.
"So what happened to these eight protectors or 'guardians'?" Liz asked. "How come we've never seen them?"
"I'll answer this one." Alex butted in. "You have seen them, they are our grandparents. They were the guardians who were sent with us. As they were watching over us, they made lives for themselves. Got married by Earth traditions, years later had kids, our parents. They decided it would look better if they raised us."
Liz shook her head, "No, that can't be. My parents and my grandparents are not aliens!"
"Yes, they are." Alex reiterated. He knew he was hurting Liz but she needed to know the truth. "Grandma Claudia was an alien, she had actually been your nanny. Her death was unexpected, she had a genetic disorder that occurs in some on Antar that ended up killing her. The others could not get to her before it was too late. The doctors and nurses who treated her were told that there were religious reasons behind them not being able to do certain tests and the authorities were not alerted. Courtney wasn't hired by accident, they knew who she was except that she was a Rath supporter. It's also how you went to work with Whitacker."
Liz's eyes filled with tears. One of the people who she loved the most was turning out to be a complete stranger to her. It was then that she realized she was starting to believe what they were telling her. Their story seemed to fit together. Of course she knew that for her them to want her to believe them that they would cover all the bases. And it explained why she had always felt on the outside of things. It wasn't something she could explain easily but it was just a feeling. And their story explained it. But if it weren't true, if he didn't have proof, why would Alex go along with it? She noticed that they had both fallen silent and she wiped her eyes to encourage them to go on.
"We received reports that they had landed safely and were well. They gave similar reports for two years until they informed us that a 'supposed' crash had occurred in Roswell New Mexico. They were still in Arizona at the time but Jonathan Parker and Colin Whitman went to Roswell to see if there was any truth to the tale. By the small evidence they heard, they realized that it was an Antarian ship. After they reported it to us, we looked into it and found out about the recreated Royal Four. It wasn't until some time after that a large group could be assembled, mostly of Electrians, and sent to Earth to make sure that the first group was sent and to find the Royal Four. That was the group of skins that you encountered in Copper Summit. In that time the Parkers and Fishers decided to move to Roswell to keep watch out for any signs. By the time the second group landed in 1950, they were set in Roswell and didn't want to move back. They had purchased the café and had settled. The next thirty years were spent building Copper Summit, watching over the pods and looking for the missing royals."
"And all the while the war was still going on Antar?" Liz asked.
"Time in this galaxy is different than ours, we have multiple time dimensions. Where a day on Earth consists of twenty four hours, a day on Antar consist of one hundred and twenty Earth hours but appearing to be the same length. The time here moves five times as fast. So just over ten years has passed on Antar during the time that you have been gone, and yes the war has still been going on, in my favor. I am still on the throne although it has been a meaningless existence.
"So what was the plans once the pods hatched?" Liz asked.
"To raise the two of you without any knowledge of who you were. It was for security more than anything, it is hard for a young one to keep secrets and also so that you would not be raised with any problems due to the imminent isolation you two would have felt about being different than others. Then on your eighteenth year you would be told, and your memories restored."
"But things changed." Liz stated.
"Yes, we did not know exactly where the Royal Four were or when they had hatched so you becoming involved with them was not expected. I should have planned for it to happen."
"Why would you have planned for it?"
"Because I should have known that if you were close, that Zan would find you."
PART 5
The last bell rang and Max headed for his locker. He caught himself before he looked into Liz's last class of the day. At least it what would have been if she was in school and not off on her quest that would find nothing. She had been gone only a day but it seemed longer.
As Max maneuvered through the halls and approached his locker he saw Isabel standing at her just a few down. "Isabel, I wanted to..."
"Sorry Max, I have to go. I'm catching a ride with Kyle." Isabel said in her best ice princess voice before she moved to walk by him.
But Max didn't let her get that far. He grabbed her upper arm to stop her, "I'm sick of this tantrum you've been throwing ever since I told you that you weren't allowed to go away to school. You have to understand where I'm coming from with what I'm saying."
"No Max, you understand." Isabel said forcefully. "Everywhere I look, I see Alex. Here at school, at the Crashdown, and I'm reminded of how stupid I was for not letting him in sooner. Of all the time I missed out with him. Plus I'm reminded of someone who was so full of life but it was cut short. And you're forcing me to stay here so sorry if I don't feel like being around you right now, actually I'm not sorry at all."
She wrenched her arm out of his grip and stormed down the hall towards a waiting Kyle. Max watched as they left the building before returning to drop stuff off at his locker. His frustrations at Isabel were still strong and anyone close could hear the slamming of his books against the back or see the vibrations of the door shaking from impact. But Max didn't care and went about his business. He was still doing it when Tess showed up.
"Max, you might want to go easy or people are going to you have something personal against the locker." Tess said trying to break the ice.
"I'm just angry at Isabel. She still won't talk to me."
"Well she'll come around," Tess said. "She just has to realize that your word is law especially when we go home. Speaking of home, I thought since you weren't working tonight maybe we could work on more memory retrieval. You did so well on your last time."
Max thought it over. Ever since the incident with Larek/Brody, the memories of his past life had been nagging him. There was something off about them. True, he had been telling Michael the truth when he said that Tess had played a large role in them but there was more to it. With those memories and the ones he had gained from the one retrieval session he had found that he had been attracted to Tess and cared for her but he also felt lingering feelings as if she was only a replacement for someone else. It was a strange feeling that he wanted an answer for but the only person who had memories was Tess and he couldn't very well ask her if he had been in love with someone else. Especially not after their night together at the observatory. They had been working toward something of a relationship ever since and although it was strange to be with someone other than Liz, he was giving it a try. He looked over at Tess's eager face and said, "Sure, I'm not sure if Isabel will be there or not but we can just go into my room and work from there like last time."
The two left than and headed out to the Jeep. As they left they saw Michael and Maria in the Jetta and Tess asked, "So has anyone heard anymore from Liz?"
"Not that I know of."
"So no one knows if she's arrived in Sweden?"
"No." Max answered.
"I don't know why she went, I mean, what did she think she was going to find?"
"I don't know. I know she was looking into some picture of a building that Alex was at when he was there. She sent it off to the Embassy there to see if they could find it because she couldn't. She thought that a missing building had something to do with what she thought happened to Alex."
Tess's brow furrowed but she turned away so Max couldn't see. If Liz figured out that the building no longer existed, then she might figure out that he had never been there. But there was no way that she'd be able to figure out where he'd really been, what he'd been doing or that she had anything to do with it. They pulled up at the Evan's driveway a few minutes later and they made their way into Max's room. As Max arranged everything like before, Tess couldn't help but smile at how well her plan was working. She had Max to herself now, no Liz interfering where she was supposed to be. She wondered why Max always seemed to fall for the dark haired ones. She remembered him being infatuated with someone back on Antar with dark hair but her memories weren't strong enough to give her any details. Of course she hadn't told Max or the others about that. What was so good about brown hair? It was boring.
Once Max was ready the two sat down and began. "Is there anything else that you got from your memories that you want to focus on?" Tess asked.
"One thing I remember was a long corridor in what I think was a palace. It wasn't like a normal hallway but like the Great Halls I've read about in medieval castles." Max explained.
"I think I know what you're talking about." Tess stated. "Now close your eyes and concentrate on the image."
Max closed his eyes, pulled up the image from his sparse memories, and took a deep breath. He could hear Tess saying something but he ignored it, concentrated on the hall, the look of the stone, the largeness of the area, and felt something starting to flutter at the back of his mind. He held onto it and tried to expand on it.
He saw through his own eyes as he ran quickly into through the entrance to the great hall and looked around. He had to find her, had to get her to understand. He didn't see her so he called out, "ENOLA! I just want to talk to you."
He caught sight of a flash of color ahead and rushed that way. He saw Enola hurrying a head of him and quickened his pace even more. He only ran a short distance before he was able to grab a hold of the back of her dress. It caused her to slip and she fell to the ground. Her head was hung down, her hair hiding her face as she said, "Zan, just leave me alone. I don't want to talk to you anymore, I want to go home."
"But I love you." Zan said as he leaned in to kiss her but like before she pulled away.
As she got up off the floor she rejected his hand of help and did it herself. As she did she turned away from him, "Zan, I told you that I don't see you as more than a friend. Please respect that. If you can't then we can no longer be friends."
"This is because of him isn't it? Things were great before he came back and poisoned you against me." Zan said furiously. She wasn't listening to him but at least she wasn't running away anymore.
"He did no such thing." Enola said sternly. "My feelings and thoughts are not influenced by anyone."
"Yes, he has. Have you not noticed or think I haven't noticed how he looks at you? How he's always has to be within arms reach of you, like he's scared that you'll run away if he let's you go." Zan stated. " And you spend so much time with him you hardly come to the palace at all anymore."
"My time is my own and I spend it the way I chose. And as for how he looks at me, it's none of your business." Enola snapped.
Zan stood there in shock as she defended him, "You care about him don't you?"
In barely a whisper she said, "Yes, I do, very much."
"But he's only a council member. You would rather have him than be a queen?" He asked.
"I wouldn't care if he was a pauper." She turned towards him then as she said, "I love Khivar."
But before he could see her face Max snapped out of the memory. He took a deep breath to clear his head and saw Tess staring at him, "Did you remember anything?"
"Yeah, um just a meeting with Michael in the great hall. Nothing big."
"Yes, it is. It was a memory and it'll help bring up more later." Tess said enthusiastically. She left not long after that and Max played the memory over in his head. Who had this Enola been? It had hurt him in his memory that she had spurned him so he must have cared a lot about her. But she obviously didn't feel the same way. She didn't want him, she wanted Khivar and that confused him even more. They had talked like her and Khivar had a relationship but that didn't make sense with what he knew. Hadn't Khivar been with Isabel?
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