A Lesson in Sacrifice

Part 15

Had Michael been ‘fearless leader’, he would have charged into Sheriff Valenti’s house and blown Tess up into a million alien bits. But the others had insisted that they should confront Tess and give her a chance to explain. Kyle, especially, had argued that maybe they could change Tess’s mind. Michael had serious doubts about that, but he was outvoted, so he went along with the others.

They were on their way to the pod chamber. They had used another visit to the Granilith as an excuse to get Tess to come with them in the Jeep. Isabel was in the passenger seat next to Sam. Tess was sitting in the back with Michael, who didn’t take his eyes off her the whole way.

“Why are we having a meeting so late, Max?” she asked them once they were on the highway.

“We hardly ever go into the Granilith chamber at night,” was Sam’s lame answer. “Maybe it acts differently then.”

Isabel gave him an incredulous look. Sam just shrugged, clearly sending her a “feel free to help at any time” signal. But Tess seemed happy with the explanation, so Isabel just shook her head and stared at the desert speeding by.

Sam looked in the rear view mirror to see if he could spot Maria’s Jetta. So far, he didn’t see the little red car following them. “Good,” he thought. He didn’t want Tess to get suspicious as to why their human counterparts had been invited to this particular meeting.

The time traveller parked the Jeep in its usual spot in the desert and he and the three young aliens made their way to the pod chamber. Michael opened the door and led them inside. They entered the Granilith chamber and sat down.

“What do we do now, Max?” Tess asked when the others just made themselves comfortable on the floor.

“Now, we wait and see,” Sam answered, looking at Tess, then at the Granilith.

She looked at him, unconvinced, but didn’t say anything else. About ten minutes went by before they heard noises outside.

Michael got up and opened the door to let their friends in.

Tess’s reaction was immediate when she saw them.

“What are THEY doing here?” she hissed, clearly unhappy with the turn of events.

“I called them,” Sam said

“You would,” she replied dryly. She noticed Kyle standing next to Liz and couldn’t decide if the fact that he had been invited to the impromptu meeting was good or bad news. When he failed to meet her gaze, she knew.

Bad news. Very bad news.

She became defensive. “Look, I don’t know what they told you, but I don’t appreciate the fact that you feel the need to all come here and gang up on me,” she said, looking at Sam.

“Is there a reason why we should all gang up on you?” he asked her calmly.

The blond alien didn’t answer and just looked at them in turn. Instinctively, she started backing towards the door. The others had formed a circle around her. When she reached the exit to the pod chamber, she bumped into Michael.

“We know everything, so don’t think you’ll get out of here in one piece,” he threatened.

“Okay, okay,” she said, backing away from Michael, in Kyle’s general direction. Kyle still wouldn’t look at her, but she knew that he was her most likely ally in this room. “What is it that you think you know?”

“We know that you want to kill us,” Sam said. Tess turned to look at him. “We know you plan to deliver my son to Khivar.”

Tess let out a little laugh. “Who told you that? Did Liz tell you that?” She looked at the dark-haired girl who was standing a step behind Sam. “You’re pathetic, Parker,” she told the girl. “We all know she can’t stand me, she’ll say anything to get rid of me!”

“What makes you think we’d believe you over her?” Isabel asked harshly.

“I’m one of you. She’s human,” Tess answered, as if talking to a two-year-old.

“So are we,” Isabel said.

“Oh, but we’re so much more than that! Haven’t you listened to anything Nasedo has been trying to teach you? We have a purpose, there’s a reason why we are here. We have a destiny!”

“Enough with that destiny crap!” Michael said. “Max, I say we kill her right now.”

“I agree.”

Michael looked at Isabel in surprise. He hadn’t expected her to back him up so quickly.

Kyle cleared his throat. “Maybe… um…” his resolve wavered went he met Michael’s eyes, but he didn’t let himself be intimidated. “Maybe we should hear more of what Tess has to say…”

“Thank you, Kyle. It’s nice to know who your real friends are,” Tess said with a pointed glance in Isabel’s direction. Isabel never looked away from the other alien’s stare.

Tess realized that putting the humans against the aliens wouldn’t work to her advantage. She decided to switch gears. “I have no reason to want to kill you,” she explained, her voice mellow. “You are my friends, the only family I’ve ever known. Why would I want to jeopardize that now that I finally feel I am accepted by most of you?”

Michael couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Maxwell!” he said, exasperated. “If you don’t –“

“I know, Michael,” Sam interrupted. Turning to Tess, he said, “Look. Liz told us everything you told her this afternoon. We know,Tess. It’s over.”

Tess looked at Liz suspiciously. “You really remember?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes. I guess you are getting weaker after all,” Liz smirked.

“Oh, and before you try, we won’t let ourselves be mindwarped. We have ways to know when you do,” Sam said, exchanging a knowing glance with Liz. Unbeknownst to almost everyone in the room, Al was hovering somewhere near the far wall. He waved at Sam, silently lending him his support.

“So I suggest that you leave this cave right now, and don’t look back until you reach whatever destination it is you’re going. I don’t ever want to see you in Roswell again.”

Cries of protest were immediately heard.

“Max!”

“We can’t just let her leave!”

“She messed with our minds!”

“I thought we had agreed to kill her!”

“She’s a manipulative bitch!”

Liz looked at Sam curiously. He nodded almost imperceptibly in Al’s direction. Liz looked in the direction he indicated and obviously saw nothing, but she understood what he meant. They didn’t know the whole story.

“Are you willing to live with another death on your conscience?” she asked above the noise.

The others fell silent.

She looked at Michael and Isabel. “Either of you?” she insisted. “You both know how it feels to take someone else’s life. You did it in self-defense. But this time, it would be murder.”

Michael started to protest, but Liz raised her hand to stop him.

“We know what her intentions are, but if we were to kill her right now, no jury in this land would believe it was in self-defense. How would you explain it? ‘I know she wanted me dead before Christmas, so I prevented it by killing her now’?” Michael looked away. He knew she was right.

“So what do you suggest we do?” Isabel asked.

Liz looked at Sam for confirmation. Sam stared in Al’s direction for a moment and nodded to the brunette.

“I suggest we do what Max said. We let her go.”

Michael shook his head, but said nothing.

“Are we voting on this?” Isabel asked again.

Sam looked at her. “No. We’re not. My decision is final.” Isabel threw her hands up and gave up. “Don’t come crying to me, little brother,” she warned him.

Sam gave her a small smile and turned to Tess.

“I trust you will be outside of city limits within the hour?”

Tess just glared at him and took a long look around the room. Those who were meeting her eyes were clearly hostile. She shrugged and said lightly, “Isabel’s right, you know. This isn’t over. Your Majesty.”

She stood in front of Michael, who was still blocking the exit. “Well?” she said. Michael didn’t move a muscle.

“Michael!” Maria said from across the room. He looked at her, surprised, and took a step to the side to let Tess go. She left without looking back.

Sam suddenly had a feeling that Michael had yet to have that promised talk with Maria. He gave him a pointed look. Michael looked embarrassed. Sam cleared his throat.

“Yeah, okay, I get it!” he told his leader. “Maria? Could I talk to you, outside?” Maria folded her arms across her chest in a defensive position, clearly showing Michael how not interested she was in anything he had to say, but still followed him outside.

“I’ll go see if… um… if Tess really left,” Kyle said hesitantly.

“You shouldn’t go alone,” Isabel said, following him. “Alex?”

“Yeah, sure. I’m coming too.”

Soon, Liz and Sam were alone in the Granilith chamber. She turned to him.

“You are absolutely positive that letting Tess go was the right thing to do?” she asked him, just a trace of doubt in her voice.

“Yes. She won’t live to see morning anyway.”

Liz gasped in spite of herself. It’s not that she would miss Tess, but it just seemed so… sudden.

“Al said that she somehow convinced Courtney to drive her to Copper Summit, where they were supposed to meet with the rest of the Skins. That’s where their group called the Universal Friendship League have their headquarters.”

“By ‘convinced’ he means ‘mindwarped’ doesn’t he?”

“More likely than not,” Sam agreed. “They had a car accident just outside of Phoenix. Both of them died.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t just a set-up?”

“Yes. Ziggy found some top-secret government files. Something ‘unusual’ showed up in the accident report. No bodies were found in the car, only piles of ashes, and no evidence of a fire.” He caught Liz’s worried look. “But not to fear. They never linked them to any of you. I have a feeling thanks to Sheriff Valenti are in order.”

“So, you’ve succeeded in changing the future, then?”

After listening to Al for confirmation, Sam nodded, satisfied. “Yes. Max and you are still alive in Al’s time. Ziggy found your wedding licence,” he added, a twinkle in his eyes at the way Liz’s whole face brightened up at the news. “I’m pretty sure Alex was at your wedding, too.”

“Thank you,” she said sincerely, pulling Sam into a tight hug. “Thank you so very much.”

“You’re welcome,” Sam answered, returning the hug. He was more choked up than he had expected. But then again, how many times had someone actually thanked him on a Leap?

“And thank Al for us, as well,” she added, still hugging him.

“Max and you should go and visit him in Stallion Gates in a few years. He’d love to see you.”

“We will,” Liz promised.

Sam let go of Liz a bit reluctantly, and waited for the familiar tingling indicating that he was about to leap. When it didn’t happen, he turned to the Observer.

“Aren’t you supposed to leave once you’ve put everything right again?” Liz asked, echoing his unspoken question to Al.

“It would seem I have one more piece of business to take care of,” he answered after a moment. “Follow me.”

They exited the Granilith chamber, and moved into the empty pod chamber. They could hear their friends outside in quiet conversation. Sam climbed the rock steps leading to one of the top pods and retrieved a large burlap bag. After climbing back down, he emptied its content on the cave floor.

Orbs and healing stones fell and rolled on the ground. The Book of Destiny fell to Sam’s feet with a thud. He bent down to pick it up.

“Ziggy says that the best way to prevent the end of the world is for the aliens to learn all they can about the Granilith. Everything is in this book.”

Taking Liz by the hand, he left the pod chamber and stepped into the desert night. Isabel, Kyle and Alex were standing next to the Jeep. Michael and Maria were nowhere to be seen, either fighting or making up at this very moment. Sam came to a stop in front of Alex, Liz next to him.

“Alex,” Sam started. The boy looked at him with a questioning glance. “I know Tess’s way was devious and wrong, but the idea behind it was good. Would you mind helping us translate this book?”

Alex frowned and picked up the book. He looked through it quickly. “The symbols repeat themselves. I guess if we can find some kind of pattern, we could translate it. It might take a while, though.”

“Are you up to the challenge?”

Alex looked at Sam and Isabel. The hopeful look in her eyes was not unnoticed by him. He broke into a wide grin and nodded. “Of course! I would love to.” Isabel smiled back at him, and hugged him fiercely. “Oh, thank you Alex!” she said.

“You’re welcome,” was Alex’s reply, muffled as it was by Isabel’s hair.

“Liz, follow me,” Sam said urgently.

She looked curiously at him as they quickly made their way back to the pod chamber.

“It’s time,” he told her once they were inside. “I thought you’d like a moment alone with Max when he returned.”

“Yes, I would. Thank you once again. This means so much to me, you have no idea,” she said, hugging him.

“What means so much? Liz, what are we doing in the pod chamber?”

“Max!” Liz exclaimed, hugging him even more tightly against her. “Oh, how I’ve missed you!”

“I’m here, I’m not leaving again.” He pulled back to look around the room, confusion in his eyes. He looked at Liz. “ Are you okay? What happened to me?”

“I’m fine, Max. Everything is fine. They made sure of it.”

“Who’s they?” he asked, still confused.

Sam had told her Max wouldn’t remember much of what had happened. She figured she could fill him in later. For now, she was just very happy to have him back.

Before he could ask another question, she shut him up with a kiss. The surprise almost made him pull back, but his brain registered that what was going on was a good thing, and he kissed her back. The kiss deepened and went on for a long time before they needed to break for air. Max had no idea what had happened since his silly serenade idea to lead to this particular moment, but whatever it was, he was grateful for it. They kissed for a long moment, small butterfly kisses turning into hungrier, more passionate ones, until Maria’s head popped in the pod chamber entrance.

“Hey, Mariachi boy! That’s enough!” she said with a smile. “We should all head back home.”

The couple blushed and pulled apart. Max nodded and hugged Liz close to his body. They stepped out into the desert. Max was surprised to see everyone there. He gave Liz a questioning look.

“Later,” she promised with a kiss.

If it involved more kisses from Liz, he certainly was not going to complain.

*********

Sam Beckett could still feel Liz Parker’s arms around him when the familiar blue light enveloped him. Her thanks echoed in his mind. “That’s why I’m doing this,” he thought without words. Saving the world had its rewards. Soon, he was floating between time and between selves, and memories of his life as Max Evans started to fade. Longing for home gripped him again, as it did when he was there. And once more, he prayed, “please let this leap be the leap home.”

The end

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