Max stared at Liz as she stormed into the office and slammed the door, "Seal the door, Max. I want to make sure they can't get in." She snarled as she started to pace.
After the door was sealed, Max turned back to Liz. She was still pacing and looking upset. In attempt to calm herself down she took off her jacket and put her gun on the desk before she took a couple deep breaths. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this pissed.’ Max thought it best that he wait for her to speak. As he waited, his eyes grazed down her body and caught sight of the pendant he had given her. She was still in the same clothes she had on when he saw her earlier but now Max could see all of her in more detail. Except for their kiss the night before, he hadn’t really been close to Liz in quite awhile. He could feel the heat rising in his body at the sight of her so close.
"See something you like?" He heard Liz ask.
Max’s eyes shot up to meet hers. He couldn’t believe she had caught him checking her out. "Yeah, I do. Um, I was noticing how those clothes are different than I’m used to seeing you in."
"Ky bought me some new clothes last summer to cheer me up. Zack about had a heart attack when he saw me. They weren’t as innocent as the rest of my clothes so when I got back to Roswell I put them up. I keep them in a bag that I have in case we have to leave town in a hurry."
"So you really didn’t go to your aunt’s in Florida and Kyle didn’t go to football camp?" Max asked.
"No, we did but not right away. Zack was the one who drove me home from the pod chamber. He was heading into Roswell to come see us and found me walking along the road. I didn’t tell him anything that day but he knew I was pretty upset. When he questioned Ky, he couldn’t tell him anything except that it had something to do with you. Ky was still in shock from you healing him so Zack talked us both into leaving with him to travel around for a little while. About a week later Zack confronted us about you guys and we told him everything. He tried to convince us to not go back but we said no. We traveled around, never staying anywhere for longer than a couple days. Kyle left for football camp in July while Zack and I went out on our own. It took me forever but I talked him into spending the last three weeks of the summer with me in Florida. I think that was first time I really have ever seen him relax." Liz smiled at the memory.
"Is that when you learned how to ride a motorcycle?"
Liz nodded, "Zack taught me shortly after we left Roswell. It’s really freeing. I needed that."
"I’m glad they were there for you."
"Yeah, they were. I helped Kyle understand what had happened and he listened to me about you. It’s one reason, Zack’s not your biggest fan."
"I bet this past year didn’t help my case any."
"No, it didn’t. Especially when Kyle told him about how you acted when I was investigating Alex’s death."
"I don’t know how to tell you how sorry I am for that. I didn’t want to admit that you lost someone you cared about because of us. I was scared that if you found something that the murderer would come after you and I would lose you even if you weren’t mine at the time. Nothing I can say will make up for the horrible way I acted but do you think you could try to forgive me?" Max looked at her pleadingly.
"I’ll admit that the way I conducted my investigation could have brought unwanted attention to us, Zack made sure I knew that. I don’t regret doing it though, I owed it to Alex to find out what happened. When you said that you didn’t believe that Alex was murdered it hurt. Not only did you not believe in what I was doing, but you were mean and hateful about it. It took all my control not to knock you on your ass that day in the hall when you grabbed me. Then on that night you yelled at me in front of Tess and Kyle, it was like I didn’t even know you. You scared me. Kyle came after me and I broke down and I hated you for making me feel like that."
Liz composed herself before she continued, "But when I look back at it I realized something. It wasn’t you. After Alex died, it was like you gave up your human side. I don’t know if it was guilt that you could heal him, I saw your face when you came out of the van with his blood on your hands, or grief that he’d died or fear that one of us could be next. So you buried it and became a machine. Knowing all that helps me understand why you were like that but I don’t know if I can forgive or forget it that easy. But I can say that I won’t let it make any barriers between us. We’ve had enough of those."
"I can understand that. I’ll just have to do whatever I can to make you trust me."
"I don’t doubt you’ll try. My brothers trusting you are a whole other story especially Zack. He’s really protective of me actually of all of us."
"I noticed that. I understand though. You know how protective Michael and I are of Izzy. It drives her crazy."
"All my siblings used to be real protective of me. That’s why Krit sided with Zack. Zack told him you hurt me so he stepped up and went into protective mode. Kyle stayed to keep them away so we could talk. He’s always stood up for me when they were being overprotective. Of course when it’s just the two of us he’s as bad as all of them put together." Liz started fidgeting. "Max, about me setting up that scene with Kyle. I thought you were supposed to be with Tess."
Max didn’t give her a chance to finish, "I know, Liz. I know all about your visit from the Future me. I heard you talking to Kyle before you left. Michael and I confronted Maria and she filled us in."
"I’m sorry I had to hurt you like that. He told me you guys needed her. I told him that I didn’t want to but when he told me about Michael and Isabel dying, I knew I had to so I went to Kyle for help. He’s the only one I knew I could trust to help. Even though he knew about the Future you, it was hard to talk to him about it so I told Maria."
"I hate that you had to go through all of that just to have Tess turn on us. But don’t worry we’ll figure out something."
"Maybe we can find Ava. I trust her, they might share the same DNA but she’s not like Tess. I still have some questions for her about me being changed."
"Well I trust your instincts. You’ve been right in the past even if we didn’t pay any attention. Now that we know about our enemies coming we can prepare. I’m just glad that I got it out of Maria. Don’t be mad at her."
"I’m not. It’s just strange to have everything out in the open."
"I know what you mean. Out of all the thoughts that are running through me the strongest one is how relieved I am." When Liz looked at him funny he explained, "Although I don’t like what Tess did, I am relieved to know that none of what she made me believe was true. I felt relief when I found out all about the Future Me because it explained why you pushed me away. I feel relief that you could finally tell me about your past. Even if we made you."
He turned to look her in the eye before saying, "Liz, I want you to know something. Even when I thought you slept with Kyle I never stopped loving you. What you said doesn’t change that. You are still the Liz that I fell in love with. Your secret doesn’t change that. I am curious as to why I never saw any of it in the flashes though." Max said as he ran his hand through his hair.
"When I first found out about the flashes I was scared that you would. When you didn’t bring it up I kind of came up with a theory as to why."
Max smiled. Leave it to Liz to come up with a theory to put things in perspective. "Let’s hear it."
"Well, all the memories you’ve seen are happy ones and fantasies, right?" When Max nodded, Liz continued, "I don’t have any really happy memories of when I was at Manticore. I think my subconscious suppressed them as far as possible without me forgetting them while the happy ones became dominant. The flashes just picked up the dominant ones and never accessed the other ones."
"It the best explanation I can think of. The only bad flashes you’ve ever gotten from me were right after I escaped and I wasn’t at my best then." Max thought for a moment about the best way to ask her more about Manticore. He didn’t want her to have to bring up any painful memories but he wanted to know. "Could you tell me more about your time there?"
"Why?"
"I want to be able to understand what happened."
"I don’t know if I can." Liz said. She didn’t know if she would ever be able to tell Max enough for him to understand what the first eight years of her life had been like. She wondered what he would think of some of the things that she had done. "I haven’t really talked about it for years. It just wasn’t something Kyle and I talked much about. It’s kind of hard to accurately describe."
Max came up with another idea. "Maybe if you concentrated on that time hard enough and we made a connection, I would see it."
Liz’s eyes went wide and began to chew on the corner of her lip, "Max, I’m not sure that’s a good idea."
Max could see how reluctant Liz was, "Liz, what is it? You’ve never been afraid of a connection before."
"I’m not afraid of you. I’m scared of what you might see." Liz stopped for a minute to figure out the best way to tell him, "Max, when I was there I did something's that I’m not proud of and I don’t want you to see." She couldn’t even bring herself to admit that she had killed.
There was only a few things that Max could think of that would make Liz this scared to tell him. "I have a pretty good idea what they might be. We know you have to do some extreme things to survive, just like us. It won’t change anything I still want to see it all." Max walked up so he was right in front of Liz and rested his hands on her shoulders.
As much as she didn’t want him to know, she could see how determined he was. There was no way she was getting out of this. "Okay Max."
"Think of nothing but those memories." He moved his hands up to cup her face and looked into her eyes.
**Flash**
A young short haired Liz going through practice sparring motions. Liz fighting hard against several soldiers. She continues to fight them until they are all laying around her unconscious.
**Flash**
Liz putting together several different weapons and firing them.
**Flash**
Liz looking at a guy, who Max guessed was Lydecker, yelling, "Emotions are a weakness. Fear is a weakness."
**Flash**
Lydecker backhanding Liz for not doing something right. Liz doing the exercise over and over before being allowed to be stitched up at the infirmary.
**Flash**
Liz sitting in a classroom watching a scene that was flashing different pictures and words.
**Flash**
Liz standing next to Kyle receiving orders. "Sir, yes, Sir"
**Flash**
Liz and Kyle coming up on the target that they had been tracking. Kyle signals to Liz to take the target out. Liz shooting at the prisoner, killing him.
**Flash**
Liz talking to her brothers and sisters as they came up with their names.
**Flash**
Liz watching as Eva was gunned down.
**Flash**
Liz running with Kyle to the fence on the night of the escape. Hearing gunshots.
**End of Flash**
As the connection started to fade, Liz waited to see how Max would reacted to what he saw. She didn’t know what he had seen. She felt his hand move up and he started rubbing his thumb along the scar above her left eyebrow.
"Lydecker gave this to you didn’t he?"
He continued to stroke it and gazed into her eyes as she nodded. Max knew she thought he would see her differently now and she was right but in a different way. She thought he would turn away from her but he felt just the opposite. He wanted to take her in his arms and do everything possible to make her forget it all. He knew that all the stuff he had seen was what she had to do to survive. Manticore represented the same thing to her as the white room did for him. He’d had nightmares about the day and a half he had spent in the white room, he couldn’t imagine what spending eight years in it would do to him. He realized she was an even stronger person than he already thought. He came out of his thoughts when she asked.
"You saw it?"
"Yeah."
"He believed that if we had harsh enough punishments we would only make mistakes once. He was right. The one were I got this scar was tame compared to other ones. We learned quickly to do it right the first time. What else did you see?"
"I saw when you guys came up with your names. I saw some of the training sessions along with some other stuff."
"Max." Liz turned and tried to walk away but Max grabbed her from behind. He wrapped his arms around her brought her back against his chest and leaned his chin on her shoulder.
"Liz, I know you’re worried about what I saw but don’t be. I know you were doing what you had to. Seeing the way Lydecker treated all of you affected me more than anything else. I could feel how much you hate him."
"I can’t even describe it. I’ve tried to get over it but I can’t. Whenever I think I’m moving on something happens and I feel the hatred increase. He tortured Zack to try to find the rest of us, he turned Bren against us, and he killed Tinga. He took the love she had for her little boy and used it against her. He has Max now. The sooner we get her out the better"
Max turned her around and pulled her back into his arms before he kissed the crown of her head, "Don’t worry. We’ll get her."
Feeling Max’s arms around her helped to calm her mood. She never felt so safe as she did in his arms. She was ecstatic that he had forgiven her for lying and had accepted her past. He still loved her and hadn’t stopped even when he thought she had betrayed him.
Max pulled back slightly and asked, "Is there any chance that we can be together? I don’t want to push you into anything but
can we go back?’
Liz looked at Max and saw all the love in his eyes, "No Max we can’t go back. Too much has happened. " When she saw the hurt in his eyes she explained, "But we can be together."
"Like start over?"
"Not quite. More like working from where we’re at. We have too much history to start over. We have changed and we have to get to know the people we’ve become. I love you and I want to be with you. This year has taught me that life is too short. We don’t know when your enemies could come, or when Manticore could find me. We don’t know how long your people live or if my barcode has an expiration date on it. We just start from here and go where our heart leads us."
"My heart always leads to you." With that Max leaned over to kiss her. He lightly pressed his lips against hers not wanting to push her but the passion picked up quickly when he felt her respond. He ran his tongue across her bottom lip, asking for entrance. She parted her lips allowing him to deepen the kiss. They both felt their bodies start to heat up and Max pulled her closer to him. As Liz started to slip her hands up around his neck, they heard someone banging loudly on the door, interrupting them.
"Liz, Max! We’re back and we’ve got your food." Maria yelled through the door.
Max leaned his forehead against Liz’s and said, "We’ve have to teach her better timing." He pulled away and went to unseal the door. He opened it revealing a greatly relieved Maria.
"Thank God. I wasn’t sure how much longer your brothers were going to wait before they tore the door down. They seemed to think you’d been in here too long to just be talking." When she saw Liz holding Max’s hand she added, "You were just talking, right?" She smiled and led them out to the others.
Part 16:
"Ask Kyle. I’m busy." Liz spat.
After Liz walked out of the room, Krit and Zack looked at Kyle. Kyle glared in the direction that Liz had gone, "Since Krit doesn’t know all about the intergalactic soap opera, I’ll start at the beginning."
He took a deep breath and began, "Most of this is what Liz told me but some is what I’ve seen myself. Liz had a crush on Max since she was fifteen. Finding out he was an alien didn’t change how she felt, obviously. If anything it made her like him more. She knew he understood how it felt to be different but look like everyone else. I didn’t like him and I wanted to protect her but since I didn’t know about their secret she wasn’t really talking to me much. She found out that he was interested in her too so she pursued him. She was shocked when he pushed her away. He told her that it might be dangerous and he wanted to protect her. They became friends and she did everything she could to protect him and got dragged into all kinds of alien crap. I tried to get her away from him but she wouldn’t budge. She finally broke him down and they dated for a couple of days but he broke up with her giving her some alien reason. Liz was crushed but she still wanted to be with him so she stuck around him being his friend. A couple of months later, they got back together and for a couple months they were happy. At least until, the blonde betrayer Tess came to town."
"She was an alien too and she wanted Max. One of her powers was mindwarps. She could make you see something that wasn’t there." Zack and Krit could tell he didn’t care for Tess. "Anyways she did something to him and he kissed her with Liz watching. When Liz confronted him he told her and she forgave him. A couple of days later Max was captured by the FBI and they went to rescue him. After that they found out that they had lived before as royalty and Max and Tess were ‘destined’ to be together." Kyle voice was now thick with sarcasm. "Liz felt she could stand in the way of his destiny so she left. That is when Zack found her walking through the desert."
"After spending the summer with Zack and I, Liz was went back to Roswell more determined to stay away from Max. She was doing well but I could see it hurt her. Max wouldn’t give her up though. He kept pushing her to go back with him and she almost did. Right before she did she found out that if she did that Tess would leave town and she couldn’t let that happen. The four of them form a complete unit that makes their powers stronger. Without one of them, they would be too weak to fend off their enemies." That was a pretty vague description but he would let Liz tell them about her visitor on her own. "So she gave him up. She came to me and I helped her staged it so he would see us in bed together. He didn’t know we were brother and sister so he thought she had betrayed him and he turned to Tess. A few days later she told me everything. When I helped I didn’t know all the other stuff, I just thought she was pissed at him." He ran his hand over his face at the memory of how hurt Liz was.
"I’ll tell you something. I wanted to beat the crap out of him so many times over the next few months because of the way he treated her. Liz begging me not to was the only thing that kept me from knocking his alien ass down a peg or two. A few months later they became friends and he quit being so mean. That continued until a couple of weeks ago when Alex died. It looked like he died in a car accident but Liz felt otherwise. She knew that he’d been murdered possibly by an alien and she set out to prove it. She wasn’t very quiet about it. Max and her fought about it quite a few times because of it. To the point that they completely cut the other one out of their lives but Liz continued and found out it that Alex had been killed by alien."
"Now ever since Liz and I pulled our little stunt Tess had been wiggling her ass more and more into Max’s life. He trusted her more and more but they didn’t have the relationship she wanted so she set out to get him. At prom, Tess mindwarped Max to kiss her again right in front of Liz. After Alex died, Tess took advantage of Max being alienated from everyone and used her powers to make him believe that they slept together, that she was pregnant, and that they had to go to their home planet for the baby to survive which they couldn’t do. Now while all of this is going on Liz was still investigating and had found out that Alex had been mind-controlled into decoding an alien book that told them how to go home. Right before they were about to leave, we figured out that Tess had been the one to control Alex and eventually kill him." Kyle couldn’t bring himself to tell his brothers that he had also been mindwarped. "We got there in time to tell them. When Liz confronted Tess she figured out about the whole baby nonsense being fake and started in on her. I don’t know how bad she would have hurt her but Tess used her powers to escape. This all happened the morning before we left to Seattle."
He had just finished when the others came in with bags of food. "Zack’s right about Liz being hurt a lot over the last two years and if I could I would do everything possible to keep her away from him but I trust her. She’s smart, she doesn’t just give her love to anyone and she’s more stubborn than ever. She won’t stop until she gets what she wants and I think she still wants to be with Max. She loves him and I hate to admit it but he loves her too. I don’t think he deserves her but she won’t listen to me or anyone else." He left them to think about what he said and headed over to get some food.
.
Part 17:
As they made there way back to the others, Liz saw Zack and Krit standing off to the side slightly. She noticed Zack staring at her and Max’s entwined hands. "Go on over to the food, I’m going to go talk to Zack and Krit." Max nodded as he looked over at Liz’s brothers.
Max walked over and started going through the food. He saw Kyle watching him and he said, "Hey Kyle. I wanted to say thanks for your help. You didn’t have to watch your brothers so Liz and I could talk but you did and I appreciate it."
"Well we have always stuck together. If I hadn’t they would have go in after five minutes. I know she wanted to talk to you about everything." Kyle stood so that he was facing Max and used a practiced intimidation stare that they had all learned at Manticore before saying, "I want Liz to be happy and if she feels like that is with you then I know I can’t change her mind. Just remember that she is my little sister and I will protect her. If you ever hurt her again, either a past, present, or future version of you, no amount of alien powers will be able to save you. Do we understand each other?"
"We do." Max said knowing that Kyle as well as the rest of Liz’s siblings would make good on the threat.
Liz walked over and stood in front of Krit and Zack. Before she could say anything Krit spoke up, "Before you lay into us again, I just wanted to let you know that Ky told us everything. I just want to say that I’m sorry I took Zack’s side without knowing the whole story. I could see he wanted to protect you and I just assumed the worst about Max. Now that I know everything, I’m going to trust your judgment and I won’t say anything unless he gives me reason. Just remember that although I might not have been around for the last ten years, you are still my sister and I look out for all of my siblings. I’m going to go eat and leave you two to fight things out." Liz smiled at Krit’s last statement. She went up to him and hugged him. "Besides my sister could do worse than alien royalty."
Once Krit was over with the others, Liz spoke, "I’m sorry for going off on you earlier. I know you’ve always looked out for all of us and want us to be okay. You have to understand something though, and that is that I love Max. I wouldn’t even be standing here if it weren’t for him. We’ve beaten all the obstacles that we’ve come up against and will keep doing what we have to so that we will be together. We love each other so you better get used to it. You’re my brother, my family and I need my family but you can’t run my life. I have to make my own decisions. We will be together, Zack and I hope that you can maybe be friends with him some day." Liz glanced over at Max and saw him watching her with concern on his face. She gave him a small smile to reassure him before she looked back at Zack.
"Are you done?" When Liz nodded, Zack took a deep breath before he said, "When Ky told us everything it made me realize that you didn’t just jump into all this with Max. You’ve put a lot of thought into your actions and not just been led by emotions. I was worried that you might risk you and Ky by being involved with Max and the alien stuff. I think it has made you even more cautious. You’re too stubborn for me to change your mind so I’ll be civil to them. I’ll just be a normal big brother. Even if I were to become friends with Max don’t think I will ever stop being protective. Max will just have to live with you having six older brothers watching to make sure he doesn’t hurt you."
"I’m glad we understand each other. Just remember what I said, you can’t tell me what to do anymore not like when we were at Manticore."
"You know Maxie said almost the same thing." Zack said looking at Logan.
Liz noticed the look and wondered again about the relationship between Logan and her sister. ‘He must care a lot about her to be helping us.’ Liz smiled at the thought of her sister having someone special in her life like she had Max.
"Come on, we’ve got about six hours until we head out. Why don’t you start getting to know him along with my other friends now? Let’s eat." Liz and Zack walked over to join the others.
Part 18:
Liz and Zack walked over to join the others. Before she got there Michael intercepted her. "I know you probably want to eat but can I talk to you a minute?"
Liz nodded and followed him away from the group. "What’s up Michael?"
"I wanted to apologize for giving you a hard time earlier. It took a little while for it to sink in." He said.
"It’s okay Michael. I understand."
"There’s something I wanted to ask you about away from everyone else. Why didn’t I read about any of this in your journal?"
"Well I started that journal the day I got shot and it was mainly about how I found out about you guys. You would have read about it if you had taken one of my earlier ones. They were full of stuff about Manticore. Most of it I don’t think anyone would want to read about." Liz’s tone of voice confirmed Michael’s thoughts about how bad her time was there. He knew she had probably used her lethal skills while she was there and maybe even after, he had seen it in her eyes. Her eyes held a look that said she’d done something she’d hated. He knew that look he’d seen a similar look in his own eyes.
It was then he realized that he had more in common with Liz and Kyle than he ever thought possible. They were soldiers like him and would probably understand how he felt about killing Pierce. "You know if you ever want to talk about it but don’t want to go to Maxwell or Maria, you can come to me. I know what’s it like to keep things bottled up."
Liz smiled at his suggestion. It showed how much he had grown over the past year. He’d always been this tough person who never talked about feelings but Liz could see that his rough edges were being worn down. Her heart had gone out to him last year after she’d heard his little ‘I’m dangerous speech’ he’d given Maria. She knew he wouldn’t talk to anyone about it because he didn’t think anyone could understand. Little did he know at the time that her and Kyle knew all too well.
"That’d be nice. Maybe I could even help you work on your bike. With all the mechanical training they gave us I could tear that bike apart and put it back together with no problem." Liz said.
Michael eyed her thoughtfully. "If you get the rattling out of the muffle, I might even let you drive it once. But I’ll kill you if you do a wheelie like you did on the way up here."
"Hey, I couldn’t resist." Liz laughed. "I don’t get on a bike very often."
"Well then I’ll make you a deal. You teach me some of the hand to hand combat as well as whatever else you know and I’ll let you borrow it once a week. Deal?" As he stuck out his hand.
She took his offered hand and said, "Deal. Now let’s get over there. My foods probably ice cold by now."
They both walked back and saw that the others were already half way through their own food. When Max saw Liz he waved his hand to heat up her food and she dove in. While they ate, the Roswellians told them about Liz being healed and about some of the things that they had been through over the last two years. Max had just started to tell them about the summit in New York when a van came crashing through the loading door. The X5’s jumped into action drawing their guns while Max, Michael and Isabel raised their hands. Everyone prepared to defend themselves when the driver side door opened.
"Did you guys decide to have a party without me?" The dark haired woman asked.
"Maxie!" Zack yelled. With that one name the X5’s all relaxed and made a beeline for their sister. They all took turns hugging their sister with Liz being the last. Her friends all noticed that out of all of the siblings that Liz looked the most like Max. They could all see how happy Liz and Ky were that their sister was safe.
"We were just planning on coming to get you." Liz said. She motioned for her friends to come up behind her so they could meet her sister.
Max looked around and smiled when her eyes fell on Logan. "I have a different mission for you now other than a rescue."
"What’s that?" Zack asked.
"To take down Manticore." They all stared at Max as she made her way to the passenger door of the van.
"Have you gone crazy?" Syl asked.
"No, I haven’t." She reached into the van and pulled out her passenger. They all noticed that he was tied up and blindfolded. "We’re going into and take them out and he’s going to help us." At her last statement, they watched as their sister pulled off his blindfold revealing his face.
Max could feel Liz’s body stiffen next to him the moment the stranger’s face was revealed. The silence was deafening until Maria whispered to Max, "Who’s that?"
"Lydecker."
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