----------

It was almost a four days later when Michael and Kyle, on their numerous walks about town spotted a young man that resembled Alex so much that it took Michael three tries to get Kyle to shake himself out of his stunned stupor.

"Hey, hey," Kyle hissed as he grabbed unsuccessfully at Michael's arm. Exasperated and lacking any better ideas, he followed the impulsive alien across the street, darting into an ally just in time to avoid being see by the Alex look-alike. "We're supposed to wait for the others, remember?"

Michael tossed a look of irritation over his shoulder. "And wait for what? He's going to be gone by the time the others get here." Reaching over, he pulled the cell phone from Kyle's pocket. "Call them and give them directions as we follow Mr. Dead over there."

Kyle only managed to catch the phone three inches from the ground after Michael tossed it in his general direction before taking off down the street again. Muttering over the guy's inconsiderate nature, Kyle dialed the number as he jogged behind the long legged alien. "Hey, we spotted the ghost."

"Where?" Max asked as he grabbed Isabel by the arm to keep from crossing the street as they had planned.

"We're headed west on," he glanced at the sign ahead of him. "McDowell Street, north of Durant Avenue."

Max glanced briefly at the bent map in his hand. "We're about three block down and four blocks behind you. Call your dad, we're on our way."

"Got it," Kyle glanced up and nearly collided with Michael. "Hey, what's the big..."

Grabbing Kyle by the shirtfront, he pulled him into an alley and pressed them both to the wall. "Shh..." He counted to ten before poking his head around the corner. "All clear."

Rubbing the area where Michael's knuckle punched him in the chest, he grimaced and dialed the phone again. "Dad?"

"Yeah?" Valenti glanced at the two girls that were busy consuming double helping of ice cream.

"We've spotted Alex."

There was a pause. "Where?"

"North of Durant Avenue, we're headed west, just passed Flower Glenn." He glanced at Michael who pointed toward the side of the street. Somewhere during the trek, the streets seem to have gotten more gritty and just a but more intimating. "Not a great neighborhood here, Dad."

"Got it," Valenti traced the street on the map with his finger. "We're on our way now. Remember, don't make contact until everyone gets there." He paused for a moment, the parental concern coming to surface. "Is Tess with him?"

"No," he shook his head and heard the regret in his own voice. He would have liked to at least see that she was okay. "He's alone."

"Hey," Michael had slowed and came to a virtual stop hugging the side of a building. "I think he's arrived at his destination."

The destination turned out to be a small cabin toward the end of town, behind it was a rather vast expansion of nothing. Settled on a piece of dry worthless land, the cabin should have long been abandoned but was currently occupied, as indicated by the soft glow of light in the window. To say that the place looked shabby was being awfully kind.

Isabel and Max, both looking grime and pale, joined Michael and Kyle ten minutes later. Valenti showed up another fifteen minutes after that with the girls in tow. No one said a word for a moment, both afraid and excited over the possibilities. "What do we do?"

"I checked out the place already," Michael announced quietly, his eyes still on the door. "There's only one entrance to the place that that's through that door." He pointed to the yellowish wooden door that sat at the center of the little shack.

"We can surround the place easily," Maria noted soberly as she watched the daisy curtains flutter in the double windows.

"And do what?" Valenti asked sternly. "Storm the place, powers a blazing?"

"What do you suggest, Dad?" Kyle asked nervously. Something about this just seemed wrong. *It's too quiet.*

"Let's take a look, see if we can figure things out without revealing ourselves," Jim holstered the gun he had in his hand. "Like Max said, for all was know, those are skins in there and Alex was created into a husk to gain your trust."

Max nodded his agreement. "No one makes a move without my say so, okay?" He looked pointed at Michael who held up his hand in agreement. "We move in, nice and slow."

Walking nonchalantly one by one down the street, the collected hind the little hut. Peering through the side window, Isabel was hard pressed not to gasp in shock as she gazed at the Alex-look-alike putter around the kitchen. The lean face and dark eyes, slender body and long arms, it was Alex through and through. The quiet dignity, loyal trusting face, it was like he had stepped out of one of their memories and was mocking them with his very presence.

Michael grabbed Isabel and covered her mouth just in time to muffle the cry of pain that threatened to erupt, exposing them. Max turned and stared at his sister, silently asking her to be strong for them.

Liz grabbed Kyle's hand as she watched Alex pour tomato juice into a glass, those long slender fingered hands steady and strong. How many hours did he spend playing the guitar with those same fingers? Stacking a sandwich together quickly, he picked up a knife and neatly sliced it into quarters. Picking up sandwich and juice, he walked into the other room.

"When did Alex learn to cook?" Maria asked, her knuckles white from clutching the windowsill.

"That's putting a sandwich together, not cooking," Michael commented as he slowly released Isabel. "Any idiot can do that, even a dead one."

"Come on," Max gestured to them as they rounded the corner toward the next room.

The window was larger, letting in more light. The soft buttercup color curtains fluttered in the through the open window, allow some of the stifling hot window cool the interior of the cottage. The room held only the basics with a bed, a stool, a nightstand and a sleeping bag in the corner. Someone had put a glass bottle with a yellow daisy on the nightstand, next to a basin of water. For a moment, they didn't know what they were seeing.

Alex sat on the stool, carefully lifting a small white towel from the basin and wringing it dry. He had set the sandwich and juice on the ground by his feet, careful to avoid splashing water on it.

"What is he doing?" Kyle asked, shifting to see if he could get a better view over the top of Liz's head.

"It looks like he's washing his hand," Maria answered in a low hiss.

"Shhh..." Valenti hushed the two with a quick wave.

Max shook his head, denying what he knew was true even before Alex shifted enough for him to see. Lying curled on the bed, face contorted in pain even in sleep, pale golden locks limp with perspiration, was the woman he had said goodbye to not more than ten days ago.

"No freaking way," Michael muttered as he stared in disbelief.

"Oh my god," Isabel said as Tess's face came into view from behind Alex. "What the hell are they doing together?"

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Chapter Four: The Deception
----------

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Chapter Five: The Confrontation
----------

"He looks pretty good for a dead man," Michael commented as he stood leaning against the wall of the motel room they had rented. "Good colors, good tone, good breathing patterns..."

"Will you stop that?" Isabel snapped in a quiet hiss as she touched Alex's head with a moist towel. "And was it really necessary to knock him out like that?"

"A sleeper hold was the nicest way to put him out of commission for a while, Issy," Michael said with a grim smile. "It would have been a lot worse had I simply knocked him over the head with a rock. Which I'm still tempted to do for his boneheaded decision to team up with Tess."

"And what was that all about anyways? I only caught half of the conversation and it didn't make any sense to me." Maria asked, her eyes never leaving Alex's sleeping face.

"They were in cohorts to pull something fast on us all," Valenti replied, his eyes on the sleeping boy. "Someone call Kyle and make sure he and Liz are all right watching Tess."

"They're fine," Max murmured sitting in the only chair in the room. "Tess is too weak to do anything more than sit up, we all saw that." He had been watching Alex for the past hour now, replaying the conversation he had over heard over and over again in his head. *She hadn't betrayed me, not really. But why did she lie? And why did Alex let her pretend to kill him? So many questions and only one way to get the answers to them all.*

Reaching over to pull Isabel away, he glanced up at Michael and looked pointed toward Alex.

Reaching over, Micheal shook the slighter boy's shoulder firmly but not roughly, he was still having a hard time believing that Alex was alive. "Yo, Sleeping Beauty! Time to wake up." *And answer some questions that's burning holes in our heads.*

Groaning, Alex rubbed his forehead for a moment, trying to orient himself to the unfamiliar surroundings. He tried his best not to react to the sight of Michael and Max, who stood side by side in front of him, stern looks gracing their youthful faces. *Calm down, they don't know anything yet and they're not going to. Tess needs you to pull this off for her, not to mention Isabel. You can do this, Alex!* Trampling down the sudden panic, he shook his head. "What the heck is this?"

"That's a good question, kid. That's what we'd all like to know." Valenti murmured softly but still managed to startle Alex as the boy whipped around to stare at him... no at the girl standing next to him.

Isabel's eyes held all her doubts, all her fears... all her pains. "Hello Alex."

Steeling himself for the toughest battle of his life, he turned his back on her. *It's easier if I don't look at her. Now I know how Tess felt. God, all I had to do was die but she had face them all for... stop thinking about that now. Just get through this!* "Look, you do know that K and R is a federal offense?"

"K and R?" Maria asked her voice floating from somewhere behind Michael. "What's that?"

Alex raised one brow arrogantly. "Kidnap and Ransom. And it has twenty to life jail sentence attached to it. But I'm a generous guy, you let me go now and we'll forget this ever happened."

Michael laughed. "Can't charge us for kidnapping a dead man."

Knowing that it was true, Alex played along anyways. "You're threatening to kill me now?"

"Alex..."

"Why do you people keep calling me Alex?" He asked, hoping he was as convincing as Tess obviously had been. "My name is Colin."

"Alex, I think the game is over. Let's just get to the truth and sort this whole mess out." Valenti advised in his usual quiet dignity. He felt bad for the boy, from the look in the kid's eyes, he's scared.

"Who's playing games?" Alex leaned forward and stared at Max, the only one that seemed to be perfectly calm. "I don't know who you people think you are, but you're going to be spending the rest of your lives in..."

"Cut the crap, Alex," Michael growled.

"Alex, why are you doing this?" Isabel asked, stepping forward to reach out, to touch. *God please, don't take him from me again.*

He swallowed the lump in his throat and restrained himself from going to her; to ease the pain he could hear in her voice. The desperation tore at his heart. "Look, I think you people probably have me confused with someone else. So in light of that, I think I'll just be going now." He got up but found himself toe to toe with Max Evans.

Max didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, needed to do but knew that he needed the truth. "You tell us what we want to know or I walk over to that nice little cabin by the woods and shake it out of Tess." He saw the concern in Alex's eyes. If nothing else, it would appear that Alex cared a great deal for the blonde beauty. "In her condition, I doubt she'd last more than few minutes."

"That's what you think." Sitting down again, Alex crossed his arm over his chest and stared at Max, as if gauging his reaction. "Ask away."

There was a pause of silence as each of the three aliens struggle to ask.

Maria, impatient by nature, threw up her hands and sighed. "Okay, I'll go first." She marched up at Alex and asked point blank, "Why the hell did you help that lying bitch?"

"Maria, with all due respect to you anger and misunderstandings of the situation at the moment," Alex began with quiet dignity and all the regal starch of a white knight on the defense, "Don't start labeling people until you get all your facts straight. It makes a person look small and vindictive in the process."

Mouth hanging open like a gutted fish, Maria sputtered for a moment before getting a hold of herself. "Okay, let me try this again. Why did you help Tess?" She smiled at him with clinched teeth, letting him know of her displeasures.

"Cause I trusted her."

"TRUSTED HER!" Maria exploded, her face infused with disbelief. "How can you trust that witch?!? She's evil. She killed..." that stopped the tirade rather abruptly.

"Me?" Alex suggested helpfully.

Crossing her arms, Maria sat down on the bed with a huff. "Oh shut up!"

"And here I thought you wanted me to talk," Alex mused ironically.

Michael sat down on the bed and pulled Maria against him to clam her. "Why did you trust her? Especially when the rest of us..."

"She made a convincing argument," Alex said quietly, remembering the long conversation they had just before she gave him the alien book for translation. There was actually very little he had to do, Tess had already deciphered most of the journal with the fragments of memories she had recovered. All had to do was set up everything else for the others to find.

"Why you?" Isabel asked, her eyes full of question. "Why did she approach you but not any of..."

"And did you ever think that maybe I was the only one willing to listen to what she may have to say?" Alex asked quietly, looked at her truly for the first time. He wanted her to understand. "You've never made it a secret that you didn't trust her, Isabel. None of you did."

"I trusted her," Max said as he turned to stare at the window.

"Did you, Max?" Alex asked, shaking his head in disbelief. He couldn't get the image of Tess crying herself to sleep at night; those heart-wrenching sobs of agony that broke his heart to hear. "Did you really? If you did, you won't have been so quick to assume that..."

"I didn't," he answered, watching the sky. The sky was gray, not the kind is looks like it was about to rain, just a very unhappy gray. "I didn't want to believe but she said..."

"What did she say?" Alex's eyes searched his. "I mean, what did she really say to you?"

"She said that she killed you!" Max spat out in anger for his own disgust with himself. *How could I have believed her? How could I have believed that she was capable of murder? Was it cause no matter what, she was always Nasado's child? Not to be trusted no matter how hard she's worked to prove her loyalty only to you?* He shut his eyes against the vile taste in his throat. "She said..." Then he paused, playing those last moments in the cavern with her over and over again in his head. "She didn't answer me."

"She told you want Nasado's plans had been," Alex cleared for him. "She told you want you need to hear to believe. But she never said the words, did she?"

The others all looked at Max, who stared at Alex. "No, she didn't."

"But you chose to believe," Alex was grime and shook his head again. "And you wonder why she didn't come to any of you for help? Why it was so easy for her to make you believe? You wanted to believe. You needed someone to be angry at for all the shit that you went through, and she's the outsider, so you chose her."

There was a heavy silence as the others run it through their minds. Michael cleared the discomfort in his throat. "Why did she..."

"Have to lie?"

He nodded. "Yeah. We'd like to know now."

"Nasado's plan was to have Tess return with Max's child and deliver Max, you and Isabel to Khivar. Tess and Nasado would get safe passage back to the home planet. With Max's child safely in his possession to be raised as his own, the people would accept him as King."

Valenti nodded his head in understand. "Then there would be no need for Max to be around."

Alex smiled at the former sheriff. "That's right, Max would die once the child was born. Khivar needed one or the other to keep the people in line."

Michael shook his head, trying to clear the idea. "So she lied about killing you to make Max stay here on Earth, where he would be safe?" The theory had holes big enough to drive semis through. "What would keep Khivar from sending an army to kill Max once the baby was born on Antar?"

Surprise appeared on Alex's face. "Wow, Tess was right. You're a lot sharper than most people give you credit for."

Michael was tempted to sock him one.

"Answer to that: nothing. But notice that Tess isn't on Antar." Alex turned to Max, who was watching him with an intensity that was almost frightening. "Tess knew that she couldn't go to Antar, not when Max's life would be in danger and Khivar ready to take her child away from her. But she did send the message beacon on to inform Khivar of her impending childbirth."

Maria shook her head. "I don't get it, if Blondie wasn't going to go home, why would she send an announcement?"

"So that Khivar knows that she's got a child," Max answered, everything making since now. "She needed Khivar to know that there's a child out there with my DNA that the people of Antar will accept as heir to the throne. But going to Antar means that Khivar would kill me, so Tess doesn't leave Earth." He sat down suddenly on the hardback chair, his legs no longer willing to support him. "Khivar can't kill me without an heir to present to the people. I would get on with my life without danger. And with Tess and the baby dead, Khivar would never know."

Alex watched with some sympathy for the tortured man. "Give the man a cigar," he said dryly but not unkindly. "He got it."
 

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Chapter Six: The Questions
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"I don't believe you!" Liz shouted. "You're wrong!"

"Right," Alex shook his head at her stubbornness. "Cause you'd know more about this than I would."

"Liz, stop yelling at him." Maria wrung her hand and chewed her lip. Between Liz's upset and Alex's obvious unconcern, it was quite confusing.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Kyle was having serious trouble digesting everything. "You're saying that instead of Tess mind-warping me into believing that I was carrying out luggage when I was really carrying your body, she mind warped me into thinking that I was carrying your body when I was actually carrying luggage?"

Maria blinked at all the nouns and verbs. "Run that one more time."

Alex rolled his eyes, he has told the story twice now and getting tired of sitting there being grilled. "Kyle, you really were carrying out luggage, they were for the Salvation Army, Tess thought we might as well drop off the stuff while we were at it." In fact they ran quite a few errands that day before he was 'killed.'

"So I didn't carry any bodies?" Kyle asked again tentatively.

Alex nodded his head sympathetically. "That would be an affirmative."

Kyle nodded his head, appearing both relieved and perplexed. "Now explain to me again how..."

"Oh for crying out loud!"

Max has long sense stopped listening to the ongoing explanations, questions and emotional outbursts from his various friends. His mind was occupied by something else, the near overwhelming sense of guilt.

"How did my mom end up with the same..."

"Tess has been dropping that thing in everyone's head for weeks now, it was my idea. I figure Liz or you would have picked it up sooner or later and..."

*She didn't betray me.* The thought kept running in his mind, the one thing he could never make himself to believe in. Sure there were times when he doubted her motives and her understanding but he's never doubted her loyalty to him. She's always made it clear that she was on his side, no matter what. *She didn't betray me, but I sure as hell betrayed her.*

"But I saw that girl, the one that you supposedly were with in Switzerland? How do you plan on explaining her to me? And how does she figure into this grand scheme of yours to..."

"Liz, now many times do I have to go through this. She has nothing to do with what Tess and me did. She's just a nice girl that offered me a friendly ear and some hot meals while I hid out for a bit. I was only there doing some minor translations with the text. It's not like I was any expert at all this alien language crap. I'm actually a little surprised that...."

*I yelled at her, threatened to kill her. I let myself get carried away with that cause I needed someone to blame for Alex's death.* Max stared out the window, the numbness was starting to melt around his heart, making him ache all over. *I blamed her cause she was convenient, cause she let me.* If he had that power, he would cry with shame. *She loved me and I betrayed her.*

"But the wreckage," Valenti asked, his mind looking for the details now that the others have worked through way through most of the bigger clues. "How did you manage to survive the crash. According to the reports, your car hit the truck head-on."

"Neat trick, huh?" he grinned, almost proud of himself for it. "Tess and I were trying out that little stunt for weeks now, usually after school when no one was around. She'd put up something called a magnetic ionic field that repels all forces thrown at it."

Michael nodded his head as things fell into place. "She created a force field like the one that Max uses to protect you form the wreck."

"That's right."

Valenti nodded slowly, thinking it through. "But how would she be able to do it unless..." The thought nearly took his breath away. "Unless she was in the car with you."

Alex nodded. "You really think she was going to let me do it alone? And chance that it might actually kill me?"

*She risked her life, not once, not twice, god knows how many times now to protect you and yours. Remember New York, you idiot. Who stood by you and help keep your head when you needed it the most?* Max wished to god that Michael had not found that newspaper clipping. He wasn't sure which was worse, knowing that she hadn't turned her back on him, or thinking that she had.

"And you actually thought this would work?!?" Michael yelled, his eyes shooting fury at the near-bored Alex, who seemed completely impassive by his outburst. This was the fifth or sixth time he's asked that question and frankly, Alex was getting tired of answering the question.

"Are we done here?" Alex asked, finally getting up from his seat. He's answered all the questions, explained all the planning and maneuvering, avoided looking at Isabel more than two seconds at a time... Isabel, she was so beautiful. He couldn't get over just how beautiful she was. It was as if the time that he spent away from her only made her more radiant. *God Isabel, I'm sorry for have hurt you so bad. But I did it for you.*

"Not quite yet," Max turned to watch Alex for a moment. He needed to do something, needed to do anything to make this up to Tess. *How do you redeem yourself in the eyes of someone you turned your back on so completely? She's never going to trust me again.* But he needed to try. "How is she?"

"How do you think?" Alex shook his head, his grief evident on his face. "She grows weaker every day. Not only does she not eat, as she should, she can't keep down the things she does eat. I can't do anything but try to ease some of the pain."

There was silence. He didn't need to say it. They all knew. Tess was dying.

"You may not be able to do anything but we might," Isabel murmured softly for the first time since Alex everything came tumbling out into the open. "From what we've heard so far, Tess seemed pretty determined to die in order to protect the rest of us."

Valenti nodded his agreement. "She's right. She's even you all the conclusions she needs you to hear but none of the options that can get her out of this."

"Maybe it's cause she doesn't see any options," Alex replied, knowing where this is headed. "Don't you think I've tried to talk to her about it? She won't even discuss the possibility of her surviving with the baby. For all of our planning to pay off, she and the baby had to die and be buried in an unmarked grave where no one can ever find them."

Max nodded. "I know that part. Now what can we do to prevent it?"

"Find her another granilith. Get her off the planet so that her kid can breath."

"Or she's not telling you everything there is to know," Max sighed and went to the pack that he had brought with him. From inside, he pulled the healing stones. "Maybe these will help."

Alex eyed the stones with much interest. He looked up at Max, noting the determination in them. Somewhere in his heart, there was a spark of hope that lit. "Assuming they work? How do you plan on getting her to let you use it?"

Max raised a brow at him humorlessly. "You're presuming that I'm going to give her a choice in the matter."

Not knowing what to do, Alex got up. "Now are we done?"

"Alex..." Maria reached out for him.

"I care about her, Maria." He wasn't going to abandon her. "I really do."

"I know," she hugged him tight for the first time. The solidness of him brought tears to her eyes. "It's so good to see you again."

He smiled, his arms coming around her for a moment. "I missed you too." And he meant it. It was lonely without the others when he was waiting for Tess. It was just as only as he tried to keep Tess's spirits up as they await her death. To be among those that care once more, it was such a painfully sweet feeling. "I gotta go. Tess will be worried if I'm back too late."

Michael and Max both stepped into this way as he made for the door. Max shook his head. "You won't tell her, will you?"

Alex paused, wondering what he was going to do. *Tell her and risk having her run? Or don't tell her, and betray her trust? Tell her and let her die? Or don't tell her and maybe have a chance to save her and her baby? Decisions, decisions...* But he already knew what he was going to the minute he saw the healing stones. "Can you save her?"

Max looked at Michael, Michael looked at Isabel, Isabel looked at Max. The three nodded almost at the exact same moment. "We'll most definitely try."

Alex nodded. "Then I better find out what Tess knows about her condition then, shouldn't I?"

"Yeah," Max stepped out of the way and opened the door. "Oh, and Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"Waffles."

"What?" Perplexed.

Max shrugged his shoulders. "Tess. She likes waffles more than pancakes. Lots of strawberry jam, whipped cream and Tabasco sauce. Add chocolate chips if you have them."

Surprise lit Alex's face. "I'll remember that."
 

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Chapter Seven: The Realization
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"You sure we should be doing this?" Maria asked yet again as they silently moved around the little shack toward the window that would allow them a view of Tess.

"We have to know weather Alex can be trusted or not," Michael murmured back, his brows furrowed with concern. He didn't like letting Alex leave but didn't exactly have a lot of choice.

"This is Alex we're talking about here," Isabel hissed back, shocked that he would say such a thing. "Of course we can trust him."

"The Alex we knew wouldn't have lied to us, Issy," Michael explained softly, obviously hating the fact that his doubts were causing her pain. "We don't know what Tess could have done to him."

"She didn't do anything to him," Max replied, keeping a careful eye on the window as they approach. The last thing they need was for Tess to look out the window and see them. "She didn't need to."

Liz frowned at him. "When did you become her champion?"

He glanced back at her, not saying a word.
 

----------

Alex brought the breakfast tray down slowly and winced as he glanced at the creation that was currently making him slightly queasy. The golden brown waffles were topped with light whipped cream and swirled with strawberry preserves. It looked like a toothache waiting to happen. He kept the small bottle of Tabasco sauce on the side cause he simply couldn't bring himself to add the last ingredient. It was simply asking too much of him.

Touching her brows with a wet towel, Alex sighed and prepared for the performance of his life. "Hey Sleeping Beauty, meal time."

The came awake slowly, eyes clinched shut for a moment to drive away the pain. Tess took a couple of deep breath, willing herself not to appear weak in front of her friend. Forcing her lips to comply, she smiled at him as she struggled to sit up. "Hey, you were gone for so long."

He tried not to look too guilty for having left her alone for so long. "Sorry, I...needed a walk."

"I understand," she reached out and touched his hand, her cold fingers barely brushing his. "Any time you need to leave, just do it. I don't want to be a problem for you."

"You're not a problem," he bent and retrieved the tray. "Here, I bought you some food. Sorry no pancakes, after the tenth one got stuck on the ceiling, I gave up. Hope you like waffles."

"Waffles," her face brightened considerably. "They're my favorite." She dipped a finger into the cream and bought it to her lips. "Umm.... Oh thank you, Alex."

Alex silently thanked Max for his considerable memory. "I'm glad you like it. I bought you some of this new hot sauce they were pushing at the store. I've got the regular kind in the kitchen if you don't like these."

Tess picked up the bottle and examined it for a moment. "Green Tabasco sauce?"

He shrugged, wanting to keep it all light. "They're supposed to be as good as the red. But what do I know?"

Feeling adventurous, "Well, you only live once, or twice in my case," and poured some onto her waffles.

Alex could almost feel himself turn as green as the hot sauce.

Taking a big forkful, Tess savored the sweet and hot taste with pleasure. "Oh, this is wonderful."

"I take it green agrees with you?"

"You can't even tell the difference," she smiled and offered him a forkful. "Want some?" He backed away so fast that he knocked over the stool he sat on. Laughing, Tess offered her hand. "I know, I know, it's not to your taste. But how would you know unless you try some?" She bit into the food with a wistful smile. "Kyle would sometimes sneak a spoonful here and there."

"You mean Kyle actually tried that?" Alex shook his head in amusement. "He's braver than I thought."

She laughed, glad for the happier memories to reminisce about. "You know who makes the best waffles? Not that yours is not great and all..."

"Right," he laughed and rolled his eyes. "Who?"

"Michael," she smiled remembering the guy in this apron and hat pretending to slave over a hot stove in the back. "I loved it when he cooked at the Crashdown. He knew just how crispy to make the fries, or how hot to make the soup. And he always added extra whipped cream when you ordered waffles with the works." She smiled, appearing like a sweet child talking of her favorite brother. "Everyone always compliments him on how fast he could get the orders out. Of course he cheated and used his powers. The only thing he wouldn't cook with his energy was the hamburger. Said it made them taste funny when he did that."

Alex laughed. "Isabel use to complain about that as well."

"Sheriff Valenti wouldn't let me cook hotdogs that way either, said it took all the flavoring out of it." She glanced down at the half eaten meal, feeling suddenly sad. "I miss him." Smiling suddenly with fondness, she looked up at Alex. "I miss having him yell at me about cleaning up the living room, or making the bed, or not closing the curtains when I cook so no one would see."

Alex held her hand as he forked up piece that appeared not to have any hot sauce on it. "It's not too late to go back."

She shook her head quickly and set the tray aside. "No, I can't." She squeezed his hand. "But you..."

"Let's not go there again."

Turning solemn, she turned to him. "Alex, let's be serious here. You have your life to look forward to. All it would take is about two minutes of deep mind-warp and it can all be yours again."

"Tess..." pulling away.

"No, listen," she tugged on his arm. "I'm not going to last much longer and I have to do it soon, while I'm still strong enough to do so. I can make other arrangements to dispose of my body, it doesn't have to be you."

"Oh course it does," he took a deep breath and prepared himself. "We're in this together remember? You and me, against the universe."

She smiled, "I wish I had been a better friend to you."

"You're the best."

"No I am not. I'm so selfish to have dragged you into this whole big..." she gasped as the shooting pain started once more and she doubled over in agony.
 

----------

Max and Kyle jerked up almost at the exact same moment, both wanting to go to her at the sight of her pain. Michael managed to tackled Max before he revealed their location and Valenti grabbed Kyle's arm before the boy could move more than an inch from his position.

"Down, you two," Isabel hissed as she peeked up over the windowsill. As much as she had hated Tess before, watching her in agony like that... *We really misjudged you, did we? You really cared about us, didn't you?*

Max held his breath - willing her his strength - as he watched Alex rock her slowly, trying to ease her pain. *Hang in there, Tess. Just hang in there.*

"Breathe, Tess," Alex's murmured soothingly over the painful gasps as Tess tried to force air into her lungs while keeping the pain a bay. "Come on, breathe slow now." His arms were tight around her, trying to absorb some of the ache that twisted her beautiful features. "I gotcha. I gotcha."

Maria's nails dug deep into Michael's arm as she stared blankly at the wall, almost as if she could see through it. "She's really dying." Until that moment, Maria's mind hadn't accepted that Tess did this for Max and the others. It was unreal. But faced with that kind of self-sacrifice, she felt her heart clinch painfully and her eyes water. "Michael, she's really going to die, isn't she?"

Michael Guerin lived for three things. Finding out the truth of his past, Max and Isabel. He'd be the first to admit to never completely trusted Tess. Sure she was there, always helping him develop his powers, pushing him to the limits to make him better. There were things she would say to him that made him nervous. [Michael, you have to get better. Max and Isabel, they depend on you to protect them. In war, it's kill or be killed. And there are always sacrifices to be made.] He swallowed the lump in his throat. *She always sounded so cold-hearted when she said those things. Like she expected me to sacrifice myself or something. No, she was talking about herself, about the sacrifices that she was preparing to make for us.*

"Stay with me now," Alex sniffed as he shifted her tighter in his arms. "Just hang on, it'll pass soon. Just hang on," he could hear her shallow breath, coming haltingly. "Just breathe through it."

Liz stared into the sky, her eyes filling with painfully hot tears. *You were doing it all cause you loved Max, weren't you Tess? I lied to him cause I loved him. You'd die for him cause you loved it. You were even going to allow me to have him.* She didn't know whether to thank her or curse her.

Valenti held his son, whether it was to archer himself to his spot or to stop Kyle from going to Tess, he wasn't sure. *Oh god, kid. Why didn't you just tell me? I would have helped you.*

Kyle bit his lip. *Big boys don't cry. Big boys don't cry.* But he did. He cried cause his little sister was in pain and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.
 

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Chapter Eight: The Option
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"Come on, Alex," Isabel mumbled, her eyes trained at the couple sitting on the bed. "Ask her already."

"I think her need to breath outweighs his need to ask her about the healing stones," Valenti mumbled back dryly.

"And how are we to help her if we don't know how?" she replied, her eyes full of annoyance. Though she would never admit it out loud, she was just a little more than bothered to see the two together so comfortably. Tess was tiny and delicate, so in need of protection. So unlike Isabel with her regale pose and robust health. She knew better than most how men liked to play the knight. And from here, Tess looked just a little too perfect as the helpless princess.

"Yeah but how is she going to answer if she can't talk," Kyle pointed out.

"She could nod her head," Liz suggested quietly and then blushed as Maria stared at her in shock.

"Will you guys quiet down! They'll hear us," Michael hissed at them.

"They'll hear you before they hear us, Michael." Maria offered a tentative smile. "You whisper too loud."

He offered her a smile for her effort in keeping things light before turning to Max. Their leader was currently staring into the window, eyes glassy with some unseen thoughts lurking the in the recesses of his mind. "Maxwell?"

"She's growing weaker," he muttered softly. "I can see it even from here, all the light is going."

"What are you talking about?" Michael asked, his eyes frightened for a moment. When Max didn't answer, he reached over and shook him. "Yo, wake up!"

Max turned suddenly. "We need to do this fast. She's growing too weak."

"We can see that," Kyle pointed to the window. "The question now is what to do about it."

Max watched the window again for a moment. "Other than Michael, everyone else go back to the hotel. We don't need so many people here keeping an eye on things, too conspicuous. Sheriff Valenti, can you see about digging up some food?"

Jim Valenti eyed the boy for a moment, hoping he wasn't going to let his heart rule his head. But Michael would be there; he could keep Max's head the way Max could keep his. "Okay kids, let's go."

"Hey," Maria protested, not willing to leave yet. "Why does Max get to make the decisions? And why does he get to stay?"

Turning dark, intense eyes on her, Max replied, "Cause it's my wife and child in there."

The others stared, stunned at the reference even as Max turned back to stare through the window where Alex rocked Tess quietly as the pain subsided for the moment. It was the first time he had acknowledged his connection to the blonde stranger among them. Always before, he had denied the past, the one that he shared with her in a distance planet, in another life. Always, she had been the one to remind them of their alien past, their connection to another place and another duty, she had been the one that was on the outside of the circle. Now Max not only blurred the lines, he's got one foot over them.
 

----------

"Can I get you anything?" Alex whispered, his eyes on the drapes that he had insisted upon when they moved into the low-rent shack. The added a splash of color in the otherwise dismal place. Now he was doubly glad for them, cause they were currently distracting Tess from seeing the frequent heads that pop up and down the sill. *Why did I think they were going to keep away?*

"No," she replied hoarsely, her eyes already drooping with exhaustion. "I'm okay."

"Liar," he admonished gently, brushing back damp lock of hair from her brows. "Some water maybe?"

"Water sounds good," she smiled and opened one tired eye. "Thank you."

"Anytime," he grinned and shifted her back on the bed slowly, careful not to jar her. "How is the baby?"

Tess's tiny hands went to her abdomen. For a moment, her hands glowed gently before flickering out. Her face crumbled and she had to take a deep breath to calm herself. *This is for the best, baby. I know it is. We all have to make sacrifices for the greater good, and this is yours and mine.* She swallow the painfully hot tears. "We're going to be fine."

"We both know that's not true but..." he touched her face to gain her attention. "Can it be?"

Her eyes clouded for a moment. There was some urgency in his eyes, an almost desperation that she didn't quite understand. "What do you mean?"

"Tess, we've never really talked about it but..." he glanced over his shoulder, sensing the ears that were pressed to the wall. "But is there any way that the baby can survive on Earth? I know that you said that its biology is completely different and he needed an environment that Earth's atmosphere cannot provide but..."

"It wouldn't matter," Tess replied her eyes sad. "The baby and I are meant to die and..."

"You are not meant to die!" He stood and paced the tiny room in agitation. "You are choosing this path to walk on, so let's not pretend otherwise. You didn't have to turn the granilith around. You didn't have to return to await death. Your baby would have been fine if you had returned to Antar."

"And leave Max with no defense against Khivar? Let that despot raise my child?" Her blue eyes flashed with anger, alive for the first time in days. "NEVER!" She started at the sound of her own voice, as if not realizing that she had shouted the last word. "Alex, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

He smiled at her. "Mother's instinct, that's what." He went to the kitchen and returned with a glass of water. "Tess, can you change the baby so that he can breath the air here?"

"What?" her eyes went wide with disbelief. "Why would you think that..."

"I've seen the amazing things that you and Max and Isabel and Michael have done over the past 2 years." He shrugged his shoulder. "Some of it is like magic. Bringing Kyle and Liz back from the dead, that's... Why can't you do the same for your flesh and blood?"

Tess turned her face away, staring at the wall.

"Tess?"

"It's not the same." Her voice was filled with unbearable grief. "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't." She turned to swallow the tears that came. *Damn it, girl. You are Nasado's child. You don't cry. You don't get to cry.* She took a deep halting breath. "I'm not strong enough and I don't have the healing stone that is needed to channel that energy to rearrange the baby's DNA."

"But if you did have the healing stone?" Alex's eyes were intent on the blonde curls, silently urging her for the answer to their prayers. "Then you could..."

"No, I couldn't," she turned to face him, wiping her eyes as she did. "I told you, I'm growing weak. And even at full strength, I wouldn't have the power to do it. You need a healer, a protector and someone to channel that energy through the stones."

Alex nodded his head slowly. "Max the healer, Michael the protector and Isabel the..." He frowned. "What is Isabel?"

She couldn't help herself. "The love of your life?"

He frowned at her and blushed, hoping that Isabel hadn't heard that. "Be serious here."

"I am," Tess nodded and shifted in bed. "And no, it doesn't necessarily have to be Isabel though the other two is correct. Max is the healer; his powers were always to fix the wrongs in the universe. Michael is the protector; the external force of his powers makes him ideal to safeguard the king. Isabel and I have introverted powers, which is why we have mind powers, her dream walking and my mind warps."

"The difference in sex?"

She shrugged. "Who knows why but that would appear to be the case won't it?" She smiled and reached out to touch this hand. "Hey, let's talk about something else?"

"Tess," he held her hand and asked seriously, "Would you do it if it was an option open to you?"

Glancing at the hands that held hers tightly, she looked up frightened as an unbelievable thought occurred to her. "Alex, tell me you didn't try to contact Max and the others."

"Tess..."

"Tell me you didn't call them," her eyes wide with fear.

Alex nodded his head. "I didn't call them."

For a moment, she tried to read his eyes for the truth. When she saw the clear untainted truth there, she fairly wilted with relief. "For a moment there I thought..." she laughed weakly. "Of course you wouldn't betray me." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I know I can trust you with my life."

He swallowed hard. *Please forgive me, Tess.* He forces his lips to smile for her. "Tess, I wouldn't ever do anything to hurt you. I'm only trying to help."

"I know," she leaned back in bed and sighed. "I know that you care."

"And don't you forget it," picking up the dishes. "Tess, you didn't answer me."

Bright blue eyes turned to look at him with regret. "The option isn't open to me so it's not even something I want to contemplate, it hurts too much." She smiled at him with longing. "It's a nice dream though, to think they'd try to save me and my baby." She sighed and closed her eyes.

Thinking she was falling sleep, he turned to leave.

"Alex?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for the waffles."

"Any time."
 

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Max leaned against the wall, heart pounding with anticipation. Grabbing Michael's arm, he moved around the house stealthily. He forced open the front door without trouble and waited for Alex as he washed up the dishes in leisure.

Alex wiped his and sat down in the beanbag that acted as sofa, couch and overall decoration for the room. "Well? Did you hear?"

Michael made a face. "Yeah, we heard." He turned to Max. "When?"

"I'd like to do it tonight, but it won't be too safe to do so." He looked toward the door that was slightly ajar.

"Relax," Alex assured him with a save of his hand. "She usually sleeps like the dead after an attack. She won't be stirring for another hour or two."

Frowning, Michael moved to take a peek at the girl. She was a deathly pale face against white sheets surrounded by a halo of springy curls. "Do they come often?"

"More frequent now than before." Alex turned to Max. "Why don't tonight?"

"Energy gives off light, especially the healing stones when activated." Max explained even as he too moved to stare at the vision not obscured by fluttering curtains. "God, she looks so helpless."

"Yeah," Alex sighed and rubbed his eyes. "That's probably because she is. Max, she's getting weaker by the hour, I can feel it."

He nodded and motion for Michael to follow him. "We'll go back and get the stones and Isabel. You said that she'd sleep for some time, right? It'll be another hour before sunset. Maybe we can pull this off while she's sleeping."

"Yeah right," Michael shook his head in disbelief. "No way in hell she's going to sleep through it Maxwell. And once she wakes up, the first reaction is to toss the lot of us out on our ears, literally." He looked to Alex. "Tell me her mother's-instinct isn't going to blast us from here to kingdom come before she realizes what's going on."

"He's right," Alex pointed out and began to make himself a sandwich. "You're going to have to get her agreement to do it. Other wise, you're looking at a fight here."

Max nodded slowly, seeing the logic in it. "Okay, then maybe I need to have a talk with my wife."
 

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Chapter Nine: The Thoughts
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"He's doing what?!?" Liz bounded to her feet, knocking the liter of soda precariously balanced on the bed to the floor.

"Hey," Maria grabbed the bottle before more could spill. "I thought were going to keep our presence here hush-hush until we get things a little more settled."

Liz began to pace the length of the room. "I can't believe Max would trust her after she..."

"Oh for God sakes Liz, get over yourself!" Alex rolled his eyes and flopped faced first onto the bed. He felt like he has aged a hundred years in the past two days. The stunned silence didn't seem to faze him a bit. "I'm honestly really sick and tired of hearing your rants so could you just for a few minutes, shut the hell up?"

There was no comment from the peanut gallery as they stood there staring. Isabel, after a moment of hesitation, walked over and sat by Alex's prone body. "Is Michael..."

"Playing backup for Max," he muttered into the bedding, mentally realizing that the bed probably wasn't too clean but physically too tired to care. "You didn't think he's leave ole' fearless there alone with the 'lying bitch' as you call her, did you?"

Isabel bit her lip. "Are you all right?"

"Oh I'm fine, just perfectly fine," he said, turning his head enough to see that the rest of the party had gone back to their food and Isabel and him were relatively alone on one side of the room. "Tess may be a tiny little thing but she's strong when she's in pain."

Understanding that, she nodded. "Is she..." he slanted her a look. "Stupid question, she's dying, of course she's not okay." She played with her fingers for a moment, her long blonde hair hiding her face from him. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be better once I know how Tess is going to handle seeing Max again." He sat up slowly, careful not to come too close. *God, she's beautiful. How can anyone be so beautiful and still be so... good.* He was sure that if he touched her, he'd hang on to her and never let go. "How are you doing, Issy?"

She gave a pathetically weak laugh and sighed. "I'm doing okay. How about you?"

He smiled at her. "Okay, that was pretty lame, I know. Seriously though, how are you holding up?"

Tentatively, she reached over to hold his hand. "Better, I'm doing much better now."

He looked at their linked fingers, a small ball of warmth growing in the pit of his stomach. For three years now, since she passed him in the hallways during the first period rush, he's loved her both from up close and afar. The life he had in high school, the status of nerd, he knew he had no chance of her ever looking at him in any way shape or form, not the glamorously beautiful Isabel Evans. He had his dreams to sustain him though those days when all he could hope for was a glimpse of her as she walked pass him. Then one day, his dreams came true and she turned to him with a smile. That was almost two years ago. And even now, as she sat there holding his hand, he still had a hard time believing. "Isabel..."

"I missed you," she said quietly, her head turning toward him. "I missed you a lot." Her eyes watered painfully and her composure threatened to crack. "You don't know how much I hurt thinking that you weren't going to come back. When Max said that he failed..."

"Max didn't fail," Alex murmured back, not daring to look at her yet. The pain in her voice, it tore at his heart. "At least, not really. You can't fix what wasn't broken in the first place."

She offered a smile. "I'm sure he'd be happy to know that."

Alex gave a weak laugh, the first genuine laugh he's been able to offer in a while now and squeezed her hands. Suddenly, the world didn't seem such an alien place.

Maria watched Alex and Isabel with sad eyes. "They look good together," she smiled and opened another bag of potato chips. "Like they were meant to be."

"They are meant to be," Kyle murmured as he watched the sun from the window. "You think Tess is going to freak out when she sees him?"

"Doubt it," Liz sighed and sat down heavily in the only chair in the room. Her heart felt tight as she remembered the way Max looked when he ordered them to leave. His whole focus had been on Tess and the baby, on protecting his wife and child. *His wife and child. I didn't think it was possible.* Her heart ached painfully. All her dreams, the secret fantasies she harbored even after the future Max warned her of the consequences, shattered in her heart. There wasn't going to be a happily ever after, not for her and Max. She saw it in his face as he gazed through the window. *He looked at her and the way he used to look at me, only with more intensity. He loves her.*

"She's going to freak," Maria commented as she poured soda into a cup. "How can she not? I mean, everything she planned and schemed is going to fall apart once she realizes that Alex had told us everything."

"Actually, Alex didn't." Jim Valenti pointed out mildly. "He gave us enough to draw the right conclusions but never really gave us the exact answers. So, the short of it is, he didn't betray Tess's confidence in him."

"While still managing to play the hero," Maria shook her head. "Sheesh, that guy certainly does get around, doesn't he?"

"Sunsets in three hours," Kyle commented as he turned to her father. "Tess never liked the dark very much. Always said that it reminded her to her time with Nasado, running from the Skins."

Valenti nodded his head soberly. "She's got Max and Michael there to protect her from anyone that so much as thinks to hurt her."

Kyle gave of snort of irony. Not a week ago, Michael and Max were ready to kill her on sight. Now, they were there to protect her. He didn't believe it for a moment, people don't turn around that quickly. "And who's going to protect her from them?"
 

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The stones were smooth, etched only on one side and cool to the touch. Had he not seen the magnificence and power of the healing stones, he would not have believed it himself. Shifting it from hand to hand, he looked up to watch the woman that slept fitfully in bed.

She was like a blonde angel, gracefully beautiful and delicate. But Tess Harding was not a helpless damsel in distress, though she was definitely in distress at the moment. Brows furrowed with pain, even in sleep, she whimpered every once in a while. Alex had assured him that it was normal that she never sleeps well and never long enough.

It was hard for him to sit there and think of all the bad things he had in his mind for the past days. Even harder for him to reconcile was the fact that he had been wrong, so very wrong about her. *Is that guilt you feel there?*

He turned from her as the door was nudged open with a toe. Max came in with a tray of tea. Shrugging his shoulders, Max set it down as Michael vacated the seat he had been occupying while keeping a watch on Tess. "Mom says that a hot cup of tea cures every ailment in the world."

"What about the ailment that are out of this world?" Michael asked, his hand reaching out to touch as Tess jerked in bed. "I keep expecting her to wake up any second."

"And she probably will," Max answered, his eyes on her once more. The beads of sweat were forming on her forehead once more and he moved to get the towel.

"Maxwell," Michael cleared his throat uncomfortably for a moment. "She really would have gone through with it, won't she?"

"You mean die?" touching the soft towel to her forehead, careful not to apply too much pressure. From everything he's observed, Tess gets very little sleep as is. There was no need to deprive her of any more unnecessarily. "Yeah, it's safe to assume that she probably would have done so."

Michael sat on the floor and watched the scene before him for a moment. There was something touchingly familiar about the way Max watched her, touched her gently, and leaned his body forward as if to shield her from.... Michael blinked.

The scene wasn't just familiar, it was eerily so. For a split second there, Michael saw a ghost of a memory. He saw Max, dressed in silver and black armor, his imperial symbol imprinted on every piece of equipment he wore. He saw Tess, dress in the same silver and black armor, obviously pregnant, obviously in pain. She reached out to Max, he bent toward her, dropping his weapon by his side, cradling his wife in obvious anguish.

Then it was gone, as if merely a fragment from some unseen source.

"Michael?" Max asked, his eyes filled with concern. "What's the matter?"

For a moment, his eyes narrowed toward the blonde in bed. But he quickly reprimanded himself silently. *For god sakes, man. The woman is dying and you think she's playing mind games with you?* But old habits died hard. "Nothing, I just thought that I..."

"What?" Max asked, his brows furrowed with anxiety. "What was it? You had the oddest look on your face."

"I..." He frowned, not sure of his own thoughts. "I thought I saw..."

"What?" coming off the chair, obviously disturbed by his friend's uncertainty.

Closing his eyes, he tried to envision what had just flashed in his mind. "Max, when you and Tess tried to access your memories of your past life, did you ever get actual memories? I mean, events and people?"

Max nodded his head slowly. "At first they were just vague sensations and places that I think I remember but everything was hazy. Then more like something I saw in a movie, flashes of recognition but nothing solid. It wasn't until the incident at Brody's that..." he nodded to himself and glanced over his shoulders at Tess. "I hurt her so badly that night, denying that there was anything between us."

"You had to," Michael murmured hurting for him as he watched the pain flash in Max's eyes. "Brody couldn't know."

"I know," Max stared at the slight frowned that tugged on Tess's lips. *They say that one is most at peace in their sleep, but even here, you find no peace, do you Tess?* Even now, he could see the look of hurt in her eyes as he turned from her, denying ever feeling love for her. "But you should have seen her, I thought she was going to cry."

"Did she?"

"No," Max smiled gently. "No, Tess knew how to keep her head. No matter what her feelings are, she always pulls through for me." He shook the memories of his trip to New York with her off. "Ahem.... Why did you ask about the memory retrieval sessions?"

"I thought that I saw... I saw you and Tess, in the middle of something and..." Michael shook his head and dragged his hand through his hair. "I don't know what I saw. I just know that I didn't like it."

"What were they? Tell me about...." He turned as a soft moan filtered through his thoughts. Tess was coming around.

Michael saw the look in Max's eyes and knew that the man was a goner. *And I thought seeing him with Liz Parker was going to make me hurl.* Pointing toward the door, Michael left his friend with fond wishes and luck. *Tess, no matter what I thought about you in the past, you've always been good to Max and me. Thank you for trying to protect us all.* He paused briefly with his hands on the knob. *Hum... I wonder if she's like some fries later?*

Moving slowly, so as not to startle her, Max resumed his seat by the bed as she shifted in the bed, slowly pulling herself out of slumber. He reached over and touched her face with the towel again, noting that she was still uncommonly pale. She was growing weaker, the baby using more of her energy to gain each breath from within. *I'll protect you, protect you both, the way you tried to protect me.*

"Alex, you didn't need to watch over me like this, I'm pretty capable for waking up in one piece without your eagle eyes on alert, " her eyes still closed, she sighed then groaned as the muscles across her back pulled from the stiffness. "Oh, my stars and garters, I so need to get out of this bed more."

He reached over and slowly shifted her up to a sitting position, watching with amusement as she stubbornly kept her eyes shut, as if trying to catch a few more moments of physical sleep while her mind was already functioning. Sitting on the bed, he cradled her for a moment rubbing her back.

She whimpered as he slowly worked some of the stiff muscles on her shoulders and back. "Geeze Alex, where did you learn to do that? Keeping me secrets from me now?" she smiled lazily and turned to hug him. "Hey, you've been working out?" she teased before turning her face up and opening her eyes.

For a moment, Max was afraid she was going to open her mouth and scream. But she didn't. Instead, she seemed to have been frozen in place, arms still wrapped around him, eyes wide with astonishment. "Hi Tess."
 

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Chapter Ten: The Understanding
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Michael tiptoed away from the door, hearing nothing from within. He figures he's got at least another hour to waste before Max decides it was time to perform another miracle. The little reservation he had about this whole plan he pushed to the back of his mind. There was no mistaking the look in Max's eyes as he sat there and stared at Tess. The boy wasn't going to be talked out of this even if Michael had any intention to. Even he could not stand there and not be affected by Tess's plight.

Then there was the sliver of memory he caught a glimpse of. Unlike Max, Michael had never had any desire to try to retrieve his past life. He was no king, didn't need to know what had happened. He was just.... He was just Michael.

But now, now that he's got a little taste of what his last lifetime was like, he was curious to know more. What he saw, what he felt, it had been terrible. Max had been in pain; he saw it in the express on the man's face. And Tess....what the hell was a pregnant queen doing in armor? The question nagged him as he sat down and stared at the blank door.

"Hey!" Maria whispered from the window. "Coast clear?"

He nodded his head; sorry for the interruption as he tried to remember... he wasn't sure what he was trying to remember. "What are you doing here? I thought Max told everyone to stay together until one of us come and get you."

"He did," pushing the surprisingly silent-hinged door open. "But I kind of got tired of staring at the wall and..." She peered at him. "What's up? You look funny."

"Nothing," he dismissed it with a wave and got up to go to the kitchen area, six steps away. "You want something to eat?"

"Not really," she sat down in his vacated seat and glanced at the door to the bedroom. "Max in there with her?"

"Where else?" Michael answered with a sigh, pulling frozen food from the freezer. He frowned as frozen greens and ice cream was pulled out. "Alex's choice of food needs some serious rethinking." He rummaged around for pizza or hamburger patties; maybe even some frozen cut fries would be nice. "It's all health food in here."

Maria grinned suddenly. "Tess is pregnant. Of course Alex is going to feed her nothing but good stuff."

"She needs fats and things she's going to want to put in her mouth. It's no wonder she's so skinny." Michael countered, shutting the freezer with his hand lightly, so not to make too much noise. "And keep your voice down, I don't want them to hear."

For a moment, they both stared at the door, as if they could hear the words being spoken from within. "Kyle thinks she's going to freak out the minute she sees Max," Maria commented after a moment.

Michael shook his head, feeling something ache in the region of his heart. This was all too familiar to him. "Wouldn't surprise me one bit."
 

----------

The words caught in her throat as she stared, eyes wide. Tess was sure, so damn sure, she was still asleep and having a wonderful dream-or a terrible nightmare. Her heart threatened to explode in her heart chest as it pounded faster and faster in fear and ... in wonderful, sweet, torturous hope.

Max watched the hundreds of painful needling emotions pass through her eyes. There was so much fear in them, so much fear that he could have cursed himself for putting it there. The questions that had formed in his mind over the past hour that he's sat there just watching her, melted away to two simple words. "Hi Tess."

Her bottom lip trembled as she opened her mouth to speak. But no word emerged. No sound was emanated. It was like a flawless picture, so delicately perfect that she was afraid to shatter it with any small movement on her part. She didn't even notice as the tear slide down her cheek.

His heart gave a painful twist as he watched her try but fail to believe. Reaching out, he touched the tear that seemed to leave a scar on her cheek. "Sh..." fingers to her lips. He traced her face his fingertips, lightly memorizing her features all over again with his touch. "Beautiful."

Tess jerked herself away, curling into a ball as she crouched in the corner of the bed. She began to cry in earnest as she murmured to herself, "Wake up, Tess. Just wake up."

Max shook his head and crawled to her, baiting back the hurt as she jerked again at his touch. He tried to wrap his arms around her, tried to hold her, to comfort her, but she struggled against him.

"God, just wake up." She tried to pull herself way as strong arms held her tight against a chest the held the strong beating heart pressed against her ears. "Alex! Alex, help me. I can't wake up from this nightmare!"

"Sh...." He felt his own tears burn as he pressed a kiss into her hair. "It's okay, Tess. It's me. It's Max."

She shook her head, unwilling to believe. "No, no, no. Oh god, I'm losing my mind. Please just let me die."

He held on tight as she cried in his arms, begging for it to end. Each cry was a small dagger in his conscience. *How could I have done this to her? How could I have killed her hope so thoroughly?* He was at a lost at to what to do. All he knew for sure was that he was going to make this up to her somehow.

Michael poked his head in for a moment and at the glare from Max, retreated without a word. It really didn't take Max's threats to make him run for the hills. He was no better at dealing with crying women.

"Tess," Max whispered against her ear, waiting for the storm of tears to subside. "Please don't cry anymore." Running a soothing hand down her back, feeling the sharp jagged breaths being taken. "Sh..." rocking back and forth as he had seen Alex do for her.

The heart wrenching sobs abated and her hiccupping jolts reduced. And after what seemed like a lifetime, Tess calmed and relaxed in Max's arms. His relief was palpable and he was reluctant to break the peace just yet. So, he simply held her, resting his cheek against her curls until he realized her breathing had become steady and soft. "Tess?"

She had fallen asleep from exhaustion.

Shifting her gently, Max propped himself up against the wall and settled her into the curve of his body. Cradling her, he was reminded of how small and delicate she was in comparison to the rest of the motley crew that he called family. She was a tiny fairy queen compared to the tall statuesque Isabel and lanky Michael. Heck, he himself was almost a foot taller than her.

The hint of floral fragrance whiffed through the air, tantalizing his sense of smell. She always seemed to remind him of another world, somewhere mysterious and wonderful. Perhaps it was her link to his past that did it. Or perhaps it was the way she never quite allowed herself to be free. Unlike the rest of them, she alone shouldered the weight of Nasado's pact and promises. She alone knew too much for her own peace of mind. And she had decided to be alone for their sake.

Max smoothed back a lock of curl that fell on her cheek and stared at her calm face for a moment. *I asked you in New York what I ever did to deserve your loyalty, and you said that it was because I had been a very good husband to you in our past life. So what did you do in your last life that made you deserve the louse that I am today?*

Shaking his head at his own musing, he decided that whatever was going to happen will happen and there was no need for him to hurry it along. One thing is for certain; the universe isn't through with him or her yet. And therefore, she had to live. Now if only he could convince her to let him save her.
 

----------

"Tell me about her?" Isabel asked as she settled her head on Alex's shoulder. The two of them shared the bed with their back against the headboard as the others gathered around for some quiet time.

"Her?" Alex asked, his head tilted just enough to rest his cheek on her head. She smelled like Calvin Klein and Lever 2000 soap. This was a moment he never thought he would ever have, not with her.

"Tess," she murmured softly, watching Liz's eyes shift away. "Tell me about her cause I obviously don't know her at all."

For a moment, Alex was silent. "The first time I got to know her, and I don't mean when everything blew up in your faces after the whole kidnapping Max thing, was at Nasado's grave site." He shifted slightly, letting his arm rest causally over Isabel's shoulder. "It was the middle of the night and I was... I don't remember why I was out that night, just that I was. She was sitting by the hillside, where the grave was, leaning up against a big rock. I doubt she saw me or she wouldn't have said any of it out loud."

"What?" Kyle asked, impatient as ever, but was hushed by a stern look from his father.

Jim Valenti could see that the events would go a long ways to explain what they've all been dying to know: How did Alex end up team up Tess? "Go on Alex."

He nodded and stared out the window at the setting sun. "She was crying. I don't think I ever thought of her as the crying type, she always seemed so cold, so sure of herself and what she was suppose to be doing. But she was crying that night, blaming Nasado for all the hurt he had caused and will cause in the future." Alex shook his head. "I didn't know until that night how lonely she was and how easily she accepted that she was going to be alone."

"Is that when you approached her?" Kyle asked, sorry that he hadn't been more supportive in the beginning. Hell, if anything, he had resented the fact that Tess came into his world and disrupted everything there was about it. Would it have been him in Alex's place had he been more in tuned to Tess's hurt and isolation?

"No," he made a face. "Like the rest of you, I didn't trust her. I thought for a moment that she might have been playing me but..."

"What happened?" Liz asked, curious despite herself.

"She fell asleep on the grave." He shrugged his shoulder, unwilling or unable to tell them why such a simple, thoughtless action had touched him so much. "She cried and then she passed out, right there where no man would dare to tread." Tess had awoken two hours later next to Alex, using the simple non descript headstone as a rest. "We talked afterwards and it took some doing," it had taken more than some doing for Alex to talk Tess around to confiding in him. And had she not been so frighteningly alone, he was sure she would never have included him. "But Tess finally decided that we could be partners in crime together."

There was silence as the words were absorbed in slowly, replacing the questions and assumptions in each mind.

Isabel cleared her throat and looked at him. "Was she good to you?"

"Good?" he frowned at her. "I'm not sure how that applies in this case. Tess tried the entire time to talk me around. Gave me every opportunity to back away..." He remembered a horrible fight with Tess, just after the prom when she had seen how happy he was with Isabel. She even threatened to mind wipe him; but Alex knew better than be to taken in by her angry words. He held his ground and she finally conceded to following the carefully laid out plan they had spent months putting into place. "But everything worked out exactly as it should at the end."

"Except some reporter accidentally caught Tess with a camera," Kyle pointed out with a smile, enjoying the ironies of life. "And Michael caught the picture in his eyes."

"Yes," Alex grinned at that. Everything had been planned to a T, including how to get Tess away from the landing site. But neither one could have counted on all the small factors that led to their discovery. "Life has a funny way of messing things up."

"Well I'm glad it did," Valenti commented as he stood up slowly, rubbing his shoulders. "Else we would have never known the truth. And that above all is what's most important."

"But what is the truth?" Alex softly. "It the truth what you believed in a week ago when you thought Tess capable of killing for no reason? That was what you all believed in and what was the truth for you. Or is the truth what you know now? But then I could be holding things back from you that you will never know again. The truth is what a person makes of it. And that may not always be the same."

For a moment, the others stared at Alex.

He shrugged. "The library has a rather impressive collection on philosophy. And I had a lot of time on my hands waiting for Tess to show up."

Kyle rolled his eyes. "Figures."

----------
Chapter Eleven: The Memories
----------

The enemy was approaching too fast.  She knew that they would never had enough time to warn the rest of the troops of the impending danger.  The information had been false.  Khivar had lied to Vilandra.  The plan had been so simple.  No one could have predicted that Khivar would really love Vilandra.  Would lie to her to save her feelings…

Unless…  Unless she betrayed us.  Unless Vilandra loved Khivar and betrayed us. 

No, I mustn’t think like that.  Cannot allow myself to think that way.  Vilandra wouldn’t betray us.  She loves Zan, she loves her brother.  A princess wouldn’t betray her country, her people.  She wouldn’t betray Rath, the man that adores her.  She wouldn’t betray her love for him. 

Think girl, think.  This isn’t the time for your theories and guesses.  There isn’t any time for anything but to act. 

Have to get to Zan, have to get to Zan before it was too late.  Oh light, please do not allow him to be with the front of the troops.  Must do something.  Must not allow anything to happen to…

What is that?  Troops moving this way?  No it can’t be, there aren’t suppose to be any troops in this section of… Enemy troops.  Lots of enemy troops.

The army would never know that they are being snuck up from behind.  Have to do something, something big to warn the others.  Oh light, please let me be strong enough.  Please don’t let me fail my people, my love, my king, my Zan.

Forgive me my child; forgive your mother for her need to save her people over her need to save you.  I love you, my little one. 

I love you, Zan my love.  Forgive me for breaking my vow to you.  I will be with you forever in your heart.  Good bye.

"It's sunset," Alex announced as he stared at the glowing red fireball that was slowly disappearing from beyond the horizon. His stoic eyes revealed nothing as he stood by the window, facing the direction in which he had come. The past month have aged him, not physically though he was showing signs of fatigue, but emotionally and mentally, he's aged a decade. "Where are they?"

"Max is probably taking his time to talk her around," Isabel suggested softly, feeling distanced from him. His mind was elsewhere, on someone else.

"She's not going to want to do it," he murmured, obviously deep in thought. "If he offers it to her in request form, she'll turn him down. She'd have to."

"You don't know that," Kyle interjected heatedly but his face reflected his doubt.

"Of course I know that," Alex replied, still staring at the retreating sun. "You don't spend so much time with someone that not know their very nature." There was a pause then he snorted with amusement suddenly and glanced over his shoulder at the room at large with a smirk. "Well... then again..."

"Rub it in, why don't you?" Kyle growled and sat down in a chair his brows knitted together with concern.. "But Max won't let her, right? I mean, he won't let her just die, will he?"

Alex watched him soberly for a moment, not saying a word.

Liz frowned and patted his shoulder. "Of course Max won't let Tess die. He loves..." her eyes narrowed for a moment. "He loves his child too much to allow anything to happen to him."

"Besides," Isabel said with confidence. "It's not like we really need her to use the healing stones."

"You'd force her hand, Isabel?" Jim Valenti asked quietly, obviously troubled by the this.

She didn't even flinch. "If need be, yes I would."

"And you think Max will allow that?" Kyle asked, torn between horror and relief. An enormous part of him knew that he would do anything to save Tess. But was that small nagging conscious that asked him whether it would be worth violating Tess's rights to do so.

"Max won't let her die," Alex agreed with great reluctance. "But that doesn't necessarily mean that Tess will allow him to save her."

Liz read the words carefully, tearing it apart piece by piece. "What will Tess do if Max insists?"

Alex shrugged his shoulders, more concerned by that thought than he would have liked to admit. "Tess has done some pretty crazy things, you've all seen that, to protect Max. If she thought Max was in danger because of whatever the reason, she'd take pretty drastic measures to cure it."

Valenti did not like the sound of it at all. The volatile nature of human hormones combined with the fire power that he's seen these kids pack, don't not always go well together. And Tess... he knew that the girl was hurting and people hurting tends to make mistakes. *Kid, don't do something we're all going to regret.*

"Like jumping off a bridge?" Kyle asked, always the first to state the obvious thing that no one else is willing to say.

"I think she can do better than that old cliché." Alex frowned as the fun finally disappeared behind the hills. "Where are they?"

"Michael will come for us when they are ready," Liz assured him with a gentle pat on the arm.

"She's going to need dinner soon," Alex muttered to himself, his thoughts already on what to make. "She's suppose to stay in bed but she always wants to make dinner."

"Roast beef and mash potatoes," Kyle interjected with a fond smile. "She always puts cranberry sauce in. I think its cause she likes the color."

"Meatloaf sometimes when she's not feeling so hot," Alex concurred with a nod. He kept glancing out the window. "I've bought so much tasaco sauce that the guy at the grocery store asked me if I was sick or something."

"So what did you tell him?" Liz asked, a small smile curling on her lips.

Alex grinned suddenly. "I told him I was a cooking student experimenting with some recipes. Now he asks me about my cooking classes every time I come in. I think he wants to hire me to cook for him now."

Isabel laughed softly, her eyes showing amusement for the first time. "I take it he doesn't know that you can't boil water without making a mess."

"Boy, wouldn't he be surprised when he finds out," he laughed before turning to the window to watch the rapidly darkening sky. Sighing, he lost all humor in the situation. "I'm not going to wait anymore." Picking up his jacket from the near by chair, he headed for the door.

"Alex," Isabel called as she reached for his hand. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going back," he called over his shoulder as he pulled the door open. "Someone's got to be there when the shit hits the fan."
 

"What do you think is going on in there?" Maria asked as the noise died down from the room. The glass against the wall did nothing to improve hearing as the movie people would her believe. It only served to make her ear ach from pressing against the glass too hard.

"Not sure," Michael replied distracted as he paced the full length of the room. "Doesn't sound like Max is doing a particularly good job in convince Tess to go along with our plans." He sighed and ran a hand through his curls. *Of course, she never was very good at going along with what was planned. Damn it Tess, I would have preferred to live the rest of my life hating you. I would like to have never seen what our lives were like on Antar.* But that was a futile wish. For he had caught a glimpse of what it was like and what they all went through to survive.

"Michael, what's wrong with you?" Maria asked quietly as she continued to watch him with concern. "You look like a caged lion that's ready to roar."

"I'm just frustrated, that's all," and he was certainly that. And confused as hell. There was so much that he didn't understand and too much that he did. A part of him prays that Max can talk her around. Another part of him.... *What, you idiot? You really want history to repeat itself?*

"With what?" Maria asked with insistence as she watched the anger and aggravation mount on his face. The way he paced, much like a caged animal, sent shivers of uncertainty through her. This was not the Michael Guerin she knew so well, not the man she had spent a frightful night making love to. He was someone different now, someone she didn't recognize at all. "Michael, what's wrong?"

He turned to look at her. Maria. Sweet, innocent, beautiful, human Maria. The night he made love to her, nothing about the physiology mattered. So what if he was a hybrid and she was a full-blown human. That night, they had been one. Yet now, as he stood there staring at those soulful liquid chocolate eyes, he couldn't seem to forget that she was human and that he wasn't, at least not completely. He also couldn't forget that the he lived once before, as another. *As a warrior. As Isabel's fiancée.*

Swallowing hard, he turned from her. *Isabel's fiancée. Isabel's betrothed. Isabel's lover.* He couldn't forget that. He couldn't forget those god-awful images of him and her, on the rocks, loving like there was no tomorrow. Couldn't forget the smile on his face as he held that precious little boy. Couldn't forget that since of wonder and joy... and loss when he awoke alone.

He can't remember Vilandra, but he instinctively knew she had been ever bit as beautiful and wonderful as Isabel. He knew that.

The distance she felt from him, not physically, frightened her. She could almost see the shifted as he pulled away from her. "Michael?"

Jerking his mind away from the thoughts of a certain blonde, and not the right one at that, he turned to Maria with a quick smile that offered reassurance. "Don't worry, everything will be fine."

There was doubt in her eyes, the same doubt she could hear in his voice. "Will it?"

Michael stared at her, willing himself to tell her so. But a part of him knew that something had changed, not just between the two of them but with everything else in the world. It was no longer so clear, Tess's actions had seen to that. And he couldn't lie to Maria to spare her pain.

Before Michael to utter a word, the front door slide open soundlessly to reveal Alex followed by the rest of the members of the alien conspiracy team. "What you are guys doing here?"

"We got tired of waiting around for word," Alex explained and lifted the grocery bag of food onto the kitchen counter. "Max still in?"

Michael nodded slowly, exchanged concerned glances with Isabel. "The stones?"

"In here," Valenti said as he lifted the worn backpack from his shoulders. "We thought it better not to leave them lying about." His eyes trailed to the shut door across the room. "How is everything in there?"

"Not too great from what we heard earlier," Maria commented as she helped Alex unpack grocery.

"Why do you say that?" Kyle asked.

"There was yelling, screaming, crying and someone knocked over a glass earlier." She shrugged and glanced at Michael. "And I have a feeling that ole' silent one here knows more than he is telling."

"Michael?" Isabel asked, her eyes seeking answers that he knew wish he couldn't even begin to answer. But unlike himself, Isabel remembers nothing, needs to remember nothing. He could bear the pains of the past for them both.

Shaking his head, Michael leaned against the wall next to the door and crossed his arms. "I don't know what's happening. All I know is no matter what Maxwell thinks, Tess is not going to make this easier on him, her or the rest of us."

There was silence as they stared at the door as if to will it to open. Then... it did.

An exhausted Max stepped out, eyes lightly red fro the burning tears that he refused to let fall. Running an aggravated hand across his face, he looked up to see his friends stare back at him with expectation. For a moment, he wanted to lie to them. It would be so easy to just lie and say that everything was fine, even knowing that it was far from it. But he could not do it: not even to protect them. "She said no."

"Where you surprised?" Alex asked quietly, his face school to blankness as he moved about the kitchen to prepare dinner. He was a little surprised that he could speak at all; his heart seemed to have taken up new residence in his throat. That last shred of hope that he didn't even know he had been carrying withered and died.

Max shook his head slowly, his face reflecting the heaviness in his soul. "I'm not sure what I expect anymore. I'm not sure of anything anymore."

"Well at least that's a start," Alex commented, slicing tomatoes with easy strokes. He was glad that sandwiches were easy and did not require the use of the stove. "I think maybe it's time you all went back to Roswell now. School will start soon and..."

"We're not leaving," Michael said before anyone else, and there were plenty, could get a word in. Shaking his head slowly, he felt the anger built from somewhere deep within. "She's not going to get away with this again. I won't let her." He stomped toward the bedroom door.

"Michael, what are you doing?" Max asked, his eyes wide with question and concern as he grabbed hold of Michael's arm to stop him. The intense purpose in his best friend's face was frighteningly serious. It was something hauntingly familiar about it.

"Taking care of a few things from the past," he said pulling his arm away and taking hold of the knob.

"What do you plan on doing in there?" Max asked once more pulling the door closed even as Michael reached to push it open. "Michael..."

"Trust me, Maxwell." He turned and looked at his friend, his king, solidly in the eyes, trying to wordlessly convey the importance of this. For to him, it was important. It was time to put a few things to right, staring with Ava... Tess.

Max hesitated for a moment, an unreasonable fear unfurling in his stomach. But this was Michael, his best friend Michael who would never do anything to hurt... Nodding, his took a step back, allowing him access to the room and praying that Michael could do what he can't. Convince Tess to live.

 

 ----------
Chapter Thirteen: The Perspective
----------

Max sat leaning against the wall, his eyes somewhere a thousand miles away within his soul. He couldn't hear anything in the other room, but that was all right. Somehow he knew that whatever Michael was saying to her, he probably would be better off not knowing. It wasn't that Michael was cruel; he was just brutally honest. Sure, Tess's feels and sensibilities might be bruised in the process, but it was better than being dead. Besides, it's not as if Tess wasn't use to Michael's attitude by now.

It has always been that way. Max was the soft one, the one that played the diplomat, the reasonable good one. While Michael played the devil's advocate with his sharp as nails comments and pinpoint accuracy at cutting to the bleeding truth of situations. How many times have they avoided conflicts in that matter? *The minister of B'lorna certainly was right when he say that we were two sides of the same coin. Both moving toward the goal but in our own manners and we merely had the good fortune of always being able to play on each other's strengths.*

Max blinked for a moment, feeling a sickening nauseating feeling in the pit of his stomach. He did not know the minister of B'lorna. He didn't even know what a 'B'lorna' is. But then again... No, Maxwell Evans did not know a Pinealor, Minister of B'lorna, third planet in the Trimar system. But Zan certainly did... Zan remembers Pinealor when he attended the royal wedding, where the honorable minister gave his only child to the King of Antar.

"You okay?"

Looking up, it took Max a moment or two to recognize her. Liz Parker, innocent naïve child of Earth, third planet from the Single-Star system. He blinked at her, still processing information from some far away place. He could see the purity in her, the goodness that drew him like a moth to a flame. But that brightness, that goodness that had once seemed like his salvation no longer tugged at his heart the way it once did.

A part of him knew that the innocence of his ignorance was lost now. And that part of him that loved Liz Parker had grown up and remembered another lifetime, with another woman. Perhaps a part of him always knew that Liz wasn't the other half that completed him, perhaps that was why his soul had been so restless even when he was seemingly content with her. His soul knew what his heart and mind did not, it remembered the past... it remembered Ava.

Swallowing the lump in this throat, he forced himself not to grieve for the innocent, untainted future he once thought he could have with Liz. The one he now knew would never be enough for him. "I'm all right, Liz. I'm not the one dying."

Liz Parker could never be called a dummy. Seeing him in this pensive mood and after witnessing the possessiveness he exhibited when speaking of Tess and the baby, she saw that the end was near. "Michael will talk her around," she reassured him as she took a seat across from him, knowing instinctively that he would not welcome any physical comfort she had to offer right now. "If nothing else, he'll do this best to shake the truth into her."

He looked up startled then saw she was teasing him. The smile came reluctantly and briefly. "Michael always was more convincing than I ever could be."

"You mean Michael gets away with throwing his attitude around while you chose to be the negotiator in any situation." She smiled remembering numerous times they've clashed over issues. "But you two have always made a good team. Maybe you softened Tess up enough to hear what Michael has to say?"

Max gave a dry ironic laugh. "You aren't the first person to say that."

"Who else?" glad to see him at least smile.

"No one you know," Max assured her with a shake of his head. He knew that he shouldn't put it off, shouldn't let her think that there was a chance. "Liz..." He didn't know what to say. How many times has he tried to be with her? How many times did he reject Tess's open hand and heart for her? How often did he reassure her that she was the only girl for him, despite their DNA differences? "Liz, I...."

"Shh..." she touched his lips with her fingertips, willing herself not to cry, "I know," and failing miserably. The first hot tear hit her cheek and made its way to her chin. "I know," and she got up and walked away.
 

"Liz," Maria struggled to her feet as she watched Liz rush out the front door with Max still sitting here, silently watching her leave with regretful eyes. Kyle caught Maria just before she could go after her best friend. "What's the big idea?"

Kyle turned his head and watched Liz run across the street toward the hotel. "I think she needs a minute or two alone before you go to her."

For a moment, Maria looked torn. But in the end, Kyle's reasonably sober tone made the difference. "What do you think Max said to her?" she asked glancing over her shoulder to where Max still sat, now with his forehead resting against his bent knees.

Having watched Max since the first moment the would-be king entered the cramp room, Kyle had a pretty good clue what just went down. "I think Max finally saw what Tess has been trying to tell him for the better part of a year now."

Puzzlement etched itself onto Maria's brows. "And what's that?"

"That you can't fight destiny," he murmured softly as he turned his eyes to the still shut and silent door. "I wish I knew what's going on in there."

"Don't we all?" Maria replied, her eyes too straying to the shut door. A tiny part of her already knew what Kyle had been trying to tell her. She had sense the change too, the slight shifting in the winds. Michael had been too.... Too distracted earlier. Like he was...She didn't want to consider the possibilities.

"What's going on?" Jim Valenti asked as he joined his son and Maria by the front door. Having been absolutely of no help in the kitchen, he thought the living room would be a better place for him to be. "Where's Liz?"

"She left," Kyle said softly, eyes on Max who has yet to move. "After talking to Max."

Jim Valenti looked at the exhausted teen and back at his son then at the door toward the hotel. "Look Kyle, I know that you want to be here for Tess and all..."

Kyle did not need his father to finish the request. "Liz shouldn't be wondering around alone. Maria and I will keep her company."

It wasn't the first time Jim has notice that Kyle was becoming more and more in tuned with him and the world. *My son is growing up to be a fine man.* The father within him puffed up its chest and grin proudly. "Thank you."

"Keep us informed for any changes?" holding up his cell phone as he followed Maria out the door.

"I will and be careful."

"You too, Dad." Kyle paused briefly at the last step. "If you get to see Tess, tell her..." he blinked for a moment before grinning. "Tell her that she's still my favorite Martian."

Knowing a private joke when he saw one, the sheriff nodded. "I will."
 

"What are you going to do if Michael forces her hand?" Isabel asked quietly as she arranged the salad to her liking, remembering not to add the Tobasco sauce until the others had a chance to get some first. How humans ate such bland food is beyond her.

"He won't," Alex replied, pouring juice into tall glasses with strawberry designs on the side.

"He won't?"

"Max won't let him," he paused a moment, glancing at the sandwiches. Deciding that Tess would more likely to eat it if he cut it into small pieces. "If Max was going to force Tess to submit to the healing, he would have done so already."

Isabel watched him for a moment, cutting the sandwiches diagonally once than twice, making neat little triangles. The Alex she once knew didn't know how to handle blunted scissors without hurting himself. He's changed. Grown up. "Alex, I..."

"Liz!" Maria voice called out, distracting them both in time to see Liz Parker run down the front steps and away from the cabin.

Puzzled, Isabel pushed the dingy curtains by the window away to watch her friend continue to flee down the street. "What was that all about?"

"What else? Max." Alex picked up the plate loaded with little sandwich wedges and a glass of juice and placed it on the breakfast tray. "How long do you think Michael will be?"

"Alex," Isabel said rather exasperated. "Will you for one moment stop thinking about Tess and talk to me?"

He set the tray down and leaned against the counter with a sigh. "What do you want me to say Issy? You want to hear me say that I made a mistake, cause I didn't. I don't regret doing what I did and I don't have to justify it to you or Max or Michael or anyone else. This isn't your life, it's mine and I will choose to live it any way I see fit."

"And to hell with the rest of us that grieved for you, that cried every night for you, that sat at midnight by your gravesite so that you wouldn't be alone." She murmured as she rearranged the salad once more.

Shaking his head, he thought about not responding. But he knew that it wasn't him. He could keep his big mouth shut, really he could, but know that he couldn't. Picking up the tray, he leaned over and whispered his perspective on her thoughts. "On the grand scale of things Isabel, your few tears cannot possibly compare to the three lives that were willing to disappear from the face of the earth for you future happiness."

She turned and stared after him as he approached the door and was quickly stopped by Max.
 

"Max, she's got to eat," Alex argued softly, trying to avoid looking in Isabel's direction. He could have kicked himself, mouthing off like that. "Just let me go in there so that she isn't..."

"She'll be fine waiting another two minutes," Max replied softly, his eyes darting from the guy in front of him and his sister. He wasn't blind, even if he was distracted, something was decisively wrong. "What's going on?"

He didn't even bother pretending not knowing. "Isabel and I had a disagreement."

"What kind?"

"With all due respect, I know you're her brother and everything, but what goes on between Isabel and me stays between the two of us unless she decides that she needs to tell you." He nodded his head and sat the tray down. "Take it in when you think it's appropriate to interrupt whatever it is Michael is..."

The muffled yelling from the room distracted them both. They got into each other's way as both reached for the door at the same moment. Max came to his senses first. "We have to let Michael ride this through."

Alex turned as the shouts from within subsided. "And then what?"

Max sighed, he wasn't sure which hurt worse, his head or his heart. "I wish I knew."

 

Tess stared at him, her cornflower blue eyes wide with shock and disbelief. She didn't want to believe him, didn't want to believe that he remembered. It would be easier, infinitely easier if no one ever remembered except her. She had thought that she had been the only one to remember, and only after months of regression sessions with Nasado pushing her on. She did not like to remember the painful memories that left her shaken for days after.

But she could see it in his eyes; he knew what happened that fateful day. He had the same haunted look. "Michael..."

"It would be so much easier on me if I hadn't remember," Michael said, sitting down slowly on the bed, the exhaustion obvious on his face. "So much simpler if I didn't know about that day."

"I can help," she offered tentatively. The dark look she received for that had shrugging her shoulders. "It was just a thought."

Michael shook his head, bodily turning toward her and placed his arms on either side of her legs, effectively caging her. "Tell me what I'm missing here, Tess. I remember that day as if it was something I watched in a movie. It was like someone else's nightmare but... but it happened to me, to us."

She watched him, her eyes trying hide the fear that made her insides quiver like the jello Alex is always trying give her. "Max never has to know. There is reason he ever has to know about that battle."

"You think you keep it from him? You think I can keep it from him?" Michael asked with a dry laugh. "In case you haven't noticed, our past does not seem to want to stay in the past. It'll come out, sooner or later it will all come out."

"Michael..."

"Why were you there?" he asked sharply, his eyes watching hers for any sign of falsehood. "Why in god's name were in doing in the strait that day?"

"Saving your lives," she bit back with anger. "I did it for him, for our people."

"And ended up killing us in the process," he shot back with just as much heat. "Zan fell apart after you slipped into that coma!" he got up, feeling the need for some action so he doesn't give into the urge to shake some sense into the petite blonde. "Why do think he had you sent to safety? You and that baby, you were everything to him. Two minutes before we went into battle, that's all he talked about. You and the baby. What did he want to ask of me when he thought there was a chance he may die? 'No matter what, make sure Ava and the baby is all right.' That's what he made me promise. And what do you do two minutes after I promise that I would protect you with my life?" His eyes accusing her, "You get yourself killed!"

Tess bit her lip. She remembered her husband, her king, her Zan. The way he would bring her flowers on every ninth day of the week. How he would lay in bed and rub her swollen belly, talking to their unborn child. The way he looked when his eyes fell upon her, full of joy and wonder. How he loved her on nights when the three moons that circled their planet was full in the sky.

But she also remembered Max. She remembers Liz Parker. She remembers that way he turned from her, even after learning the truth about their past. The way he pushed her away from him time and again. The repeated declaration of love for another. She could still see the hate in his eyes when he threatened to take her life. The way he looked when he said that he did not love her.

She didn't want to remember that. She didn't want to remember this life. But she did, only too well.

"Tess?"

She turned to him, eyes filled with tears of pain she had hoped to bury. "It doesn't matter. Nothing about that life matters now." But she knew it wasn't true. It was that life, that lifetime with Max that she lived and died for now. She took a deep shuttering breath and swept a knuckle over her eyes. "Michael, you love Max and Isabel like they were your family. Do this for them. Convince them to go."

Michael stared at her for a moment as if she'd lost her mind. "And let you make a liar out of me again?"

"Michael..."

"I promised Max... Zan... whatever you want to call him that I would protect you no matter what. Remember your wedding day? Remember the vows I made before you and Zan, before the entire army? I would give my life to protect you. Just as every soldier under my command would."

She shook her head in disbelief. "You made that vow another lifetime ago."

"Does not negate the promise," Michael yelled. "My three priorities in life, protect Max, protect you, protect Isabel."

"Then protect Max! Protect your king, Michael. You know better than Max or Isabel what could happen if Khivar comes here." Michael's life, the way he grew up, he could face reality better than the others could. In many ways, while Max and Isabel were sheltered from the harshness of life, Michael had faced it. "All you would need to do is turn away from this." She argued, eyes bright with fear. She had to convince him since Max wouldn't listen to reason. "No one ever has to know about those the promise. Isabel and Max does not remember anything of our past. No one will ever know but me."

"I'll know!" he replied soberly. "I *will* know."

Slumped against the wall, she was almost ready to call in defeat. She can work and reason with anything but someone's honor. Just like she can take any kind of scorn or hatred just as long as she can be true to herself. Swallowing her pride, "Michael, I'm begging."

He turned to look at her, her whole body language pleading with him. "Tess, I can't."

She nodded slowly. "And I can't let you save me."

Michael understood, better than the others. "You know that I can't let you die, right?"

Tess stared at him, eyes dry and old. "So what do we do now?"

"Good question."
 

----------
Chapter Fifteen: The Deal
----------

"Liz..."

"Just let me be, Maria," she sniffed into a tissue and waited for her soul to take a breath from its painful pounding. She was having trouble breathing; the swelling of her heart was getting in the way. Her whole body ached with something she wasn't even sure she could identify much less put to words. It just hurts.

Maria could feel her eyes well up with tears, feeling her friend's pain even without knowing the source. No, that wasn't true. She knew the source. Maxwell Evans. Only he could make Liz cry like this. "Liz..."

"Maria," Kyle stopped her as she reached for her friend, curled up on the bed in a fetus position. "Give her some time," his eyes filled with sympathy for the young woman who sobbed her sorrows out loud. "Just let her cry it out for a bit."

The blonde beauty turned to him. "But..."

He shook his head. "Trust me," and meant it.

Maria nodded her head slowly, looking back to her best friend of more years that she cared to recall. She sat down gently by on the bed, by her side, and said nothing, simply being there.

*Why?* Liz kept asking herself. *Why did this have to happen? Just when we were finally making our way....* She cried harder, even as her mind told her heart to stop lying. *Stupid, stupid, stupid. The fact that he slept with her should have told you the truth of the situation. Max isn't shallow. He doesn't just climb into bed with anyone for no reason other than lust. Why did you let yourself believe that it meant nothing?*

Maria's heart ached. She knew pain, raw exposed pain when she saw it. And there it was, staring at her in the face in the form of her best friend. And she ached for her.

Kyle watched Liz silently, feeling his own heart crack for her. They had been close once, not nearly as close as she had been with Max, but definitely close enough for him to hurt for her. He felt torn. More than anything, he wanted things the way it had been once, before everything had gone so wrong. Liz was a friend, he hate seeing her hurt. But Tess, she was like a sister. And more than anything in this world, he knew that Tess wanted to be with Max.

Yet, Tess had been willing to give up everything for him and let him be with Liz. Tess loved Max. Liz loved Max. Now the question is, who does Max love?

----------

Isabel sat down on the ground by Alex's side. She didn't know what to say, what to do. Alex had changed. Changed into someone that had come into their own. It was... confusing. "Alex?"

"Yeah?" he answered, never taking his eyes off the door that remained shut. He had a responsibility. He had a responsibility toward Tess. He had a promise to her, made a deal with her. He was in this together with her. He wasn't going to abandon her now; he'll stand by any decision she made... even if it meant giving up Isabel.

"I'm sorry."

He turned to stare at her. "What for?"

Eyes shifting away, she bit her lip. "For being selfish," she nodded. "You were going to give up everything, everything that meant anything to you for me...for my family. And I put your believes, your values below my own. I'm sorry." She gave a small weak laugh. "That was pretty prima donna of me."

Giving her the lopsided smile that made her heart skip a beat, she bumped her gently with his shoulder. "And I'm sorry that I ... that I snapped at you." He shook his head knocking a lock for his hair loose. "I worried about her. For the past month and a half, she's all I think about and worry about. And now..."

"She's going to pull through," she assured him, even knowing in her heart that Alex was right. Max wouldn't force Tess into anything; it's not in his nature. And Michael... Michael won't gainsay Max, even if it meant saving Max's child. "Have faith."

"In what?" he asked, resignedly. He was tired, too tired to be nervous about being in her presence. Funny, he hadn't really felt nervous with Isabel, not since his 'death.' Had it been before, he'd be stammer and tripping over himself. Now...

"In goodness," she replied, tentatively resting her head on his shoulder. "In the power of love."

"What love would that be? Tess's love for Max is what's going to kill her. Max's love for Liz is what drove Tess to this. Liz's love for max is breaking her heart right now. So, I ask you, what which love and what kind of love should I have faith in?"

Isabel sighed. He asked in that monotone that he uses when he was asking a serious question. There was no recrimination in there. No bitterness, no sadness, no anything. Just plain... questioning. "In the love one has for one's child. Tess doesn't want to kill her baby, even she has..." She mentally slapped herself but then thought better. It's only been a day since she's learned the truth. Habits are going to be hard to break but she'll start now. "Tess has maternal instincts, every woman does. Have faith in her love for her child."

He accepted that for a moment. "I hope it is stronger than her memories of her past life."

Isabel couldn't help adding mentally, *Me too.*

----------

They sat there, silent as a tomb, simply replaying the last few minutes in their mind. The Mexican Standoff has begun and both ere holding no weapons at the moment. And while they both knew that physical attacks were not the for the game of the day, the emotional wounds they're about to inflict upon one another could be fatal.

Michael turned to her, deciding to make the first move, after all he was suppose to be the warrior here. From everything he's managed to gather since their past lives were revealed to them, Michael knew that he was a general, a damn good one too. Generals are strategists, good at these chess board games. So here goes nothing. He only hoped it worked. "You know, for such a selfless act its pretty selfish."

Tess blinked blankly at him. The disgruntle look on his face made her nervous. Of the others, Tess always thought that Michael was the most enigmatic of the three, the most difficult to read. "Am I supposed to understand what that means?"

He made a face at her. "Its just that..." he sighed and looked out the window, it was easier not to look at those beguiling blue eyes. "Dying is easy. Living is hard."

She eyed him carefully, not trusting his tactic. "I hate to be the one to tell you this, Michael, but dying is not easy. Dying is very hard. But you know what's harder?" She had to play on his sense of morality, his love for Max and Isabel. Most of all, she had to play on his memories of Ava. "Making the decision to die. Making the decision that you are going to kill your own flesh and blood as well. That's hard."

"No," he shook his head firmly. "Living is definitely harder. Once you're dead, you don't hurt anymore. But living, you keep hurting, you keep remembering, you keep asking yourself, 'was there anything I could have done to change that?' That's the hard part. Not knowing."

Stunned, Tess sat there silently for a moment. This was the first time she has ever considered it. "Is that what you ask yourself after I died?"

Michael nodded slowly, turning to look at her. He needed her to see the truth of it. He needed her to see it so he could use it. "Yeah, everyday up to the end when Khivar's troops overtook the palace."

For the first time since her arrival at Roswell, she felt a connection to him. Michael Gurin, the cold loner, understood what she had asked herself time and again after she remembered. *But there wasn't anything I could have done different then. And nothing I can do different now.* "If it is any consolation, I didn't die in vain. I got to see Zan live."

"And what good did that do when he gave up hope," he retorted softly. There was no bitterness there, just a simple statement of fact. "You shouldn't have done what you did. We would have found another way."

"No time," she replied, her eyes far away in another life. "You think I didn't consider it all? I did. But I was young, frightened, desperate. And your guard..." she smirked, finding amusement in this for the first time. "They were pathetic."

"Don't I know it," Michael rolled his eyes remembering part of it. "They weren't the best, were they? Cause we needed the best on the field." It had not been a hard decision then though it haunted him later.

"Yeah, I understood that."

Michael nodded, willingly shouldering some of the responsibility of what happened that day. He... Rath should have known better. Queen Ava may have been petite in size, but she was not some demur helpless thing. She was strong, powerful, willful at times and loyal to a fault. Everything a queen should be... and still is. "Don't do this, Tess."

"I don't have a choice." Closing her eyes, she took a deep shuttering breath and forced the ache in her stomach to subside. The baby was having a hard time breathing too. It was becoming harder and harder to hide the constant pain. She had to get them to leave soon, it was going to become so much more obvious in very little time.

"Tess?" his brows coming together with concern as she paled even as he watched. "Are you all right?"

Forcing her eyes open, she nodded stiffly.

Reaching over, he touched the back of his hand to her forehead just before she jerked away from him but not before he felt the excruciating heat. "Oh my god."

"I'm fine," she bit out.

"No, you're not."

"Michael, listen to me..."

"No," he shook his head at her. *Time to play hardball.* "No more of this."

"Michael..."

He stared at her, silencing her with the icy sharpness of his glaze. The kind of pain she must be going through combined with the kind of her pain her memories must bring her every night... How does she do it? How does she live with the kind of nightmares? He could only remember a part of it, granted the important part, and already he felt as if he would be sick to his stomach and... He didn't want to think about that any more.

It was time to play the military general that he had lived as in his past life. *Forgive me Max, but I'm doing this for you.* "I don't think you're bring fair to Max," he pronounced quietly.

"What?" her eyes wide with disbelief.

"You're being completely selfish about this."

"Really?" she inquired, sarcasm dripping from every inclination of her head. "Yes, I'm being selfish cause I want him alive and happy and breathing and..."

"This is his child too."

"Yes, I know," nodding her head, her limp curls bouncing tired on her head. "But it resides in my body and I will decide what is best for my child."

"Oh don't give me that it's-my-body-it's-my-decision crap," Michael growled.

Tess couldn't help it, "Do you talk like this to Maria?"

"Shut up!" he said without any heat. "The point is, Max should have a say in this as well. In fact, Max should have a say in a lot of it."

"I don't know where you're going with this..."

"You deprived him of the right to decide for himself." There was a moment of silence as Tess absorbed it. "You also denied the chance to know exactly why you do the thing you do."

Her eyes flashed for a moment. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Meaning I seriously doubt you did your best to 'help' Max remember everything there is to know about his past life with you," he replied angrily. He needed that anger, need the blaze of red to cover up the tug of guilt that he was already beginning to feel in his heart. "I wonder how interested Max would be about the events that led up to the last days of our lives."

"No," her denial came at a whisper at she stared at him. "Why would you want to put him through that kind of nightmare? We were at war, we saw people die every day. Why would you want to put him through that?"

Michael leaned toward her, his expression heartless and grime. "Because he should know. He should remember what he was, who he was, how he was. How else is he ever going to appreciate this gift you've decided to shove down his throat? How can he know about this great sacrifice you are willing to make for his love if he doesn't remember?"

Tess shook her head slowly, watching his eyes. The eyes were always the first things to give one's lies away. But the steadiness of those hard dark eyes made her insides quiver. *He'd tell Max.* The thought of Max remembering, remembering everything and still turning from her.... "You can't tell him. It'll destroy him to know."

"Will it?" he asked, careful to mask the uncertainly he was already beginning to feel. "Maybe he can learn from his past mistakes? But then, maybe he will remember you? Maybe he'll remember what he gave up for you, what you gave up for him?"

"For what purpose can that possibly serve?" she shouted at him, letting slip her temper. "It can't change the past and it can't..."

"The past is the past but the now is here today!" Michael said getting up slowly, his hands carefully resting at his side. "And it would give him a choice. He'll know the truth of everything and he'll get to decide for himself. But that's what you're really afraid of isn't it? You won't know for certain then, will you? Will Max stay with you because he owes you? Or will he stay before he loves you?"

Shaking her head slowly, she tried to convince herself that Michael is bluffing. "It wouldn't matter. I'd be long gone by then."

He nodded his head slowly. "You're right, it wouldn't hurt you one bit, would it? But Max, he'll be left with all the questions. 'If I had loved her like I once did, would she be alive today?' Or maybe he'll go with my favorite, 'Was there something, anything, I could have done to save her?' Which one do you think he'd go with Tess?" He watched her, her lips devoid of color now, horror clouding those blue eyes.

A part of her, that part of her that still clung on to the miniscule hope that she could be loved, wanted it; it wanted Max to know and remember. But the bigger part, the part that remember the mission she had embarked upon so many months ago knew that she couldn't let him know. It would kill her to know he suffered with all the haunting questions that burned in her mind nightly. Max couldn't handle the guilt, she didn't want him to. "Michael. You can't."

"Can't I?" he asked softly, turning toward the door. He paused, glancing over his shoulders, "Or are you proposing to allow him a choice?"

She shivered with fear. "What do you mean?"

"Give him a choice." He watched her shake her head slowly, denying it. "Let us help with the baby and give Max the choice of staying or leaving."

Air seemed able to enter her lungs, her heart had contracted to a point where every breath was painful. "What are you saying? If I don't let you heal the baby, you'll tell Max what you remember?"

"Yeah," he answered honestly, feeling the yank at his heart. "I'll tell him about your promises, my promises, his promises to you. I'll tell him about the battle, your death, his death, the death of his people."

"You wouldn't," stating it firmly. "You love him too much."

Michael nodded his head, wondering at his own balls of steel. "Yeah, that's why I won't keep it from him," turning about, he opened the door and stepped out..

Tess felt the blood in her veins freeze in terror. *He won't. He couldn't. But this is Michael... this is Rath. He would and he could. A year's worth of planning and execution, it was all going to be for naught. But Max... He mustn't find out. He mustn't know about the battles and deaths. He would break his heart. He mustn't remember my death, the death of our baby.... It would kill him.* Scrambling out of the bed, she tripped over the sheets and blankets as she rushed for the door to stop the nightmare from commencing.

"Maxwell," Michael called overly loud.

"Michael," Tess crashed to the ground, her knees unwilling to support her weight as the pain in her adomene commanded all her attention for a moment. She forced the pain down. She waited until Michael turned to her. On her hands her knees, she pleaded with him. "I'm begging... please."

"Tess..." Alex said as he went to her but she didn't pay him attention as she continued to stare at Michael, eyes wide, lips trembling with fear.

Hardening his heart, Michael turned his back to her. "Max, I have something I need to talk to you about."

Feeling her heart stop, she grabbed at the only option he left her. "You win."

Turning, Michael pinned her with his eyes as Max came around her to drop to his knees beside Tess, trying to help the girl up. But Tess was more concern with other matters. "We have a deal?"

Max, Isabel, Alex and Sheriff Valenti watched the two with abated breaths. None of them knew what the deal was but it wasn't important at the moment. They knew what side Michael was on and they knew that any deal the two make would mean that Tess would end up living and that was what was important now. Any consequence from that can be dealt with later.

Tess nodded her head slowly, trying to keep her vision clear as the radiating pain pushed pass her sheer force of will that had been keeping it under wraps. Grasping out, "Deal," before she curled up into a ball on the ground and allow the cold unconsciousness take slowly throw its dark cloak around her. The last thing she remembers was Michael as he dropped by her side, helping Max carry her. "I never knew you were so cruel," never realizing she had said the word out loud.

----------
Chapter Sixteen: The Beginning
----------

Kyle wished for something to drink. His throat felt like someone ran sandpaper over the inner lining of his esophagus. He's been sitting there for ten minutes now wondering if he should risk getting up and going for a glass of water. But thinking it over, he thought better of it. While both Maria and Liz had cried themselves to sleep, he couldn't risk them waking up and starting all over again.

He wondered for a moment if the hollow feeling he felt at the pit of his stomach was the same what Liz felt when she finally drifted into a fitful sleep. It hurt, physically hurt, to see her in so much agony. Wounds of the flesh were easy to cure but wounds of the soul... those leaves its mark on a person forever.

Shifting his weight in the uncomfortable chair, Kyle stared out the window where the moon was just beginning to peek out from behind some clouds that had hide it until now. Even the night was restless, full of clouds that shift and move across the sky. It look like a summer storm was headed their way.

"Kyle?"

Turning, he was startled to see Liz sit up on the bed, her eyes red and puffy. "Go back to sleep, Liz. It's early yet."

Liz brushed a lock of her dark hair away from her damp face. Glancing down, she spied Maria asleep on the bed beside her. "I don't remember her getting in with me."

"You weren't exactly up to thoughts at the time," Kyle said kindly with a look of sympathy. "She cried for you."

Liz offered a small smile. "Yeah, it would be so like her too. Maria, the ever soft hearted one in our little group of misfits." She reached out and touched a curl on Maria's head. "I've very lucky with friends."

"Liz?" Kyle said softly, offering his hand out to her. He may not be able to help Tess with whatever it was she was going through, but he could very well be there for Liz who hurt too.

For a moment, she hesitated. While Kyle and her had been close once, they have since went their own way. But no matter what was said and done, they belong to something that only those within can understand. Reaching out, she clasped hands with him and allowed him to pull her to him.

Drawing her to him, he settled her into his lap and allowed her to settle herself into the curves of his body. There was nothing sexual, nothing brotherly, nothing but friendship there in that embrace as Liz allowed herself to absorb the quiet strength in Kyle that she's never noticed before.

The last two years have been strange, almost unreal, for them. Both having died and come back by the means of something that was out of this world. It had forced them to both grow up and face the world.

For Liz, it was an awaking to something she always knew was out there, something that was never out of her realm of impossibilities. It had allowed her move comfortably from the strange awkward girl to a woman of infinite knowledge. For that alone, she will never regret knowing the aliens.

For Kyle, it forced him to see the world outside his safe little world. It propelled him from adolescent to man, opening him to the necessities of life. He understood his father's position so much more now, the hardships that came with knowledge of life. At the same time, he gave him a kind of peace and acceptance that he's never known before. The world opened more to him, all the possibilities... Seeing Max and the others, he knew that only the imagination limited them.

They sat there, in silence, just holding one another, offering and accepting comfort. It was the first time in a long while since either of them had this kind of peace.
 

----------

Jim Valenti hated being helpless. He was never good at standing in the sidelines when there were things to be done. But he was way out of his league here. This was something that was... unnatural yet natural all at the same time, unfamiliar and familiar all at the same time. "Get some hot water," he instructed quickly as Max and Michael gently moved Tess's unconscious body to the bed.

"What did you do to her?" Alex asked, as he dropped a cold compress to the reclining blonde's forehead. She was paler than she's ever been, and the lines of agony stood out plain on her face. "Michael!"

"Stop yelling!" Michael hollered back at the same volume as he lifted her leg and tucked a pillow under her ankles. "I didn't touch her if that's what you're asking."

"What happened Michael?" Max asked, slipping his body along the back wall and lifting her head into his lap. The once springy curls that drove him to distraction were limp and covered in sweat. She was hot to touch and paler than ice. Whatever was happening to her can't be good.

"Tess and I had a discussion," Michael replied, lowering the shields of his emotions.

"So why doesn't any one in this room believe you?" Valenti asked as he motioned Alex aside and checked her palse. "Her heart is racing and her breathing isn't too smooth either." He checked her eyes, sending a silent thanks to the powers above for that six months training course in his late twenties on emergency first aid.

"Here's the hot water," Isabel said as she brought the big pot that had been set to boil for spaghetti. "It hadn't boil yet."

"Good," Valenti replied, dipping as much of the hand towel into the scolding water as he could before lifting it to wring out. As hot to the touch as the water was, it was cool compared to the heat radiating from Tess as he patted her cheeks to get some blood circulating here. "She's burning up."

The choking cough woke her up slowly and she blinked unseeing blue eyes at the ceiling, muttering something unintelligible.

"What is she saying?" Isabel asked, her voice anxiously, her eyes searching her brother's concern face and Michael's carefully guarded one.

"It's no language I've heard of," Alex replied quietly. "But somethings, when she sleeps, she'd have conversations in that language."

"Must be Antarian," Max murmured softly as he brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "She must be reliving our lives again."

Michael said nothing, his eyes drawn to the words that were barely audible. Unlike the others, he recognized it. It wasn't so much he recognized the words, it was the intonation and way she was muttering it. He had seen her do so once before, just before her slipped into the coma that she never awoke from. It was a prayer; a prayer of last rites.

Shaking his head slowly, Michael fought the urge to curse at her. *Just when I got her to agree to the damn thing.... She goes and pulls a stunt like this. Damn it Tess, I'm not going to let you win on this one. No way, no how.* Getting up determinedly, he stomped to the living room and grabbed the stones from the back. "It's time."

Max stared at the smoothly carved stones. "We have to wait until she wakes up and talk us through the processes."

"She's not going to wake up," Michael replied, placing one stone in Isabel's outstretched hands.

Alex gasped at him while Valenti dropped the phone he had been using to call the others back. "What do you mean?"

"She's not waking up this time," Michael replied, dropping the fourth stone in Alex's limp hands. "You'll hold it to form the fourth corner of the square. Don't worry, you don't need to do anything but hold it." He gently took Isabel by the shoulder and set her three feet from Alex toward Tess's feet. Stepping onto the bed, he dropped himself across from Isabel and next to Max. "Let's get this over with."

"But we don't even know what to do?" Isabel asked her eyes wide with fear.

The shutter over Max's features came down like a ton of bricks. Dark eyes narrowing dangerously, he pinned Michael with a look that said not to mess with him. "How do you know she's not waking up?"

For a brief moment, Michael considered lying to him. But knowing Max the he did, and Max knowing him the way Max did, it would have been a pointless exercise. And with the fact that he's about to keep a whole deal with Tess under wraps, never to utter it again, it didn't set well with him to lie now. "She was saying her last rites of passage."

"Her what?" Valenti asked in disbelief before turning his pale eyes to the young woman in the bed. "You're kidding, right?"

"No," Michael replied. He shook his head impatiently; knowing that there was going to be more questions soon but now was definitely not the time. "Can we get on with this?"

Isabel stared at the body that was emitting wretchedly painful sounds. "We still don't know what to..."

"It'll come to you," Max said with reassurance as he stared at his sister, offering his strength and belief. "Tess said that you are the stabilizer, you can channel the energy into the body. I can heal it and Michael can provide the energy source. We can do this Isabel."

Michael nodded slowly, "We have to."

She took a deep breath, willing herself to stop the quivering stomach the threatened to make a mess out of this whole thing and opened her eyes. Alex sated at her, his eyes and body calm with confidence in her ability to mix all the problems in the world. Somehow, it strengthened her to know that he had such unwavering belief in her. "Let's do it."

----------
Chapter Seventeen: The Impossibility
----------

With halting breath, Max pulled back, drawing first Isabel then Michael with him.  They retreated slowly, watching the scenes of Tess's memory and soul replay itself once more to them, allow them to remember and relive a part of themselves lost so long ago. 

And as the light around the four dimmed, Alex held his breath, praying to see a miracle.

Isabel collapsed first, her body unable and unwilling to support her tired frame.

Max gave out next; his body slumped over Tess's in a protective manner that he had once taken in battle.

Michael struggled to stay conscious for another minute, but even he could not fight against the inevitable darkness of rest that was needed to heal.

Jim Valenti watched with some disbelief as Tess took her first unlabored breath and opened her guileless blue eyes, blinking at him with a kind of wonder. 

Miracles truly do happen in this world. 

----------
Chapter Eighteen: The Morning
----------

He heard the footsteps before rushing to open the door, hushing them with a finger to his lips. Jim Valenti watched as the anxiety and fear crossed the three youthful faces as they turned to him for answers. "They're sleeping it off."

"Did it work?" Kyle wanted to know immediately.

"We think so," he answered as he shut the door behind them. "The others are exhausted, took a lot of out them to get through it." He leaned against the door, having felt like he aged ten years in the last ten minutes. While the others had stood there for what seemed like a lifetime, it had in fact only been less than six minutes. But time was relative in the minds of those that must live through events that defy understanding. "Tess woke up just after then fell asleep again. She's been in and out since."

Liz traded fearful looks with Maria as they both rushed to the bedroom door. The four aliens were sprawled in as comfortable a position as they could in the cramp little room with Isabel and Michael both on the ground, while Max was slumped against the wall at the head of the bed. Tess lay curled on her side as the foot of the bed, facing away from the door as well as Max.

Alex sat on the ground near Tess's turned face with a damp towel, wearing a frown that was a cross of concern and irritation. Looking up as the door opened, he put his finger to his lips and patted Tess's forehead once more before getting up. Motioning for them to back out, he followed before pulling the door shut behind him. "Don't made noise, they're sleeping."

"We can see that," Maria replied, eyes full of anxiety. "Is Michael all right?"

"He's tired... and probably confused," he answered honestly with a shrug.

Kyle nodded his head. If he had just gone through what he suspected they all had, he's be pretty mixed up too. "Can I see her?"

"Not yet," Alex replied shaking his head and stretching his back. He hurt from being so tense. "She just got back to sleep, I don't want you waking her."

"I won't wake her," Kyle murmured softly, eyeing the door with some defiance.

"Don't do it," Valenti warned sternly. "She's been through too much already."

"What about the others?" Maria asked, her voice small, frightened. "They all look so pale, so...dead."

"They'll be fine in a few hours," Valenti replied gently, rubbing his eyes slowly his knuckles stretching his back as he did so. "I think we could all settle in for a long night. First thing tomorrow, we figure out how to get Tess and Alex back into Roswell without having the FBI and National Guards on full alien alert."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Alex replied going to the corner where extra bedding had been piled. "I call under the dining room table."

"I get the armchair," Valenti said as he thanked Alex with a nod of his head as he reached for the thin blanket the boy had handed him. "You three planning on staying or going back to the hotel room?"

Kyle looked at Liz. Liz looked at Maria. Maria stared at the closed bedroom door where their friends and loved ones lay silently with their futures uncertain but brighter. "We'll stay."

 

The murmuring voices woke her, gentle sounds that were unfamiliar but comforting. The door opened then shut, bringing in a whiff of sweet smelling cocoa and buttered toast. Someone was making breakfast, making everyone within smelling range drool with hunger.

Tess opened her eyes for a moment, assessing her body as she did every morning when she woke. But this time no pain or aches greeted her as she slowly shifted every limb at its most minimum so not to alert any of the others of her conscious state. Again, nothing jumped out at her.

For a blissful moment, she enjoyed the wonder of being healthy once more. She enjoyed the feel of her child, safe and protected, within her womb. And for a brief moment in her second life, she was completely content.

Then, "There better be some coffee along with all that health stuff," Michael warned crankily. Tess felt her heart skip a beat; memories of the evening before flooded her until she chocked on her own disbelief and grief.

All those months of planning, waiting, secrets, betrayals, pains... all that was for nothing. She was right back where she began only this time...her finger trailed to her belly where the small gentle swell was barely beginning. This time, she had an heir to contend with, another threat to Khivar's reign... and to Zan/Max's survival.

A gentle but firm hand slid over hers, startling Tess from her thoughts. "Shh..." Max whispered as he stretch himself fully along side her and linked his fingers with hers, resting both hands over her stomach where their child laid. She stiffened noticeably against him. "Just relax and don't say anything."

He had been watching her for some time now, noting everything there was about her. It certainly wasn't the first time he's taken the opportunity to study that angelic face since... since she first arrived in Roswell. But it was the first time that he allowed himself to see without all of the fear, the anger, and the guilt ... without all the emotional baggage he's managed to build up in his short lifetime. And as he always suspected, she was beautiful.

He had only waken an hour before to find her curled as far away from him as physically possible on that narrow little bed, as if fear of touching any part of him had her clinging to the edge for dear life. He was aching from bone deep but ecstatically happy that the events of last evening weren't just some clever dream. He hadn't felt so very alive since the day the grandilth took off with Tess in it.

Now, with the lies out in the open, the baby saved, it was time to work on convincing Tess that she didn't need to carry the burdens of their past and future on her own. Well...that is if she'd even let him near her enough to do so.

"It's going to be okay," tightening his arm to bring her closer. As anticipated, she resisted. Wiggling madly, she only succeeded in helping him help her to relax in his embrace. "You're only going to tire yourself out even more. And if I didn't miss my guess, you're still pretty weak to put up much of a fight."

Wrinkling her nose, she tried to wrench her fingers from his. But Max had been right about one thing, she was pretty weak from all the mayhem. The last thing she needed was another fight on her hands. But it appears to be what she has now. "Let go of me."

"Not until you calm down enough to talk," he murmured against her ear, too intimate a touch for her. She smelled faintly of fabric softer and something unidentifiably sweet. And as exhausted as she was, she was still putting up one hell of a fight. "You're going to do yourself some damage if you keep this up."

"What do you care?" she huffed, gave one final attempt at pulling herself away from him before giving up all together with a defeated sigh. "I hate you."

Even knowing that she couldn't have possibly meant it, not after everything she had done, Max still felt a twinge of pain hearing the words. But he didn't blame her. Lord knows that if she really did hold a hatred for him now, he would probably deserve it. No, he wouldn't blame her at all. He tightened his arms, snuggling her closer. "This coming from a woman that was willing to die for me. Yeah, I really believe you there."

Tess felt her heart sank without a bubble. "What do you want?"

"How about just to talk?" he replied loosening his hold so not to hurt her. "How about to tell you that you're not alone in this battle? That Michael, Isabel and me are here for you and the baby. How about to tell you that as of now, you are never leaving our sides again? You are going to watched like a hawk so that you don't pull anything this stupid again."

"Stupid?" she asked indignantly.

"Yeah, stupid."

She gave a huff and rolled her eyes. So that plan hadn't worked. "Well, I never said I was smart. Loyal, yes. Smart, no."

Max smiled, glad that he was no longer fighting him tooth and nail on this one. To be honest, he probably couldn't have done a decent job of defending his own position. His body was still suffering from lack of energy after last evening. That last thing he needed right now was to thirty rounds with his wife.... His wife, did he really just think that and not realize it?

"Go to sleep, Max," Tess whispered softly as she felt his arms slack slightly more. The exhaustion was fairly pouring from him so tangibly that she could feel it. "We'll talk later."

"You promise?" he asked, eyes already drooping.

Tess yawned softly. "Yeah, I promise."

"And you always try to keep your promises, don't you?" he muttered before letting his face drop forward into her soft hair.

Nodding to herself, she admitted sadly. "Yes, I do."
 

"It's quiet." Alex said from his position near the front door facing that closed bedroom door.

"It's nice to have quiet," Kyle commented as he chewed on potato chips. "If you ask me, we've had too much excitement around here."

"You're telling me," Maria added pouring soda into a glass. "What we all need is a nice long peaceful vacation in Hawaii."

"It's too quiet," Alex said with a frown as she slowly began to get to his feet.

"How can it be too quiet?" Kyle asked with a frown as his father got to his feet, eyes watching the now alert Michael.

"Alex?" Michael looked at him with a question.

Ignoring the inquiring looks. "It's way too quiet," before he began to cross the room. "TESS!"

Michael felt his heart stop. "You don't think she'd skip out on us, do you?"

"I won't put it pass her," Alex replied, long legs carrying him nearly half way there. "She can't trust me now. She may just bolt without any warning," then shouted. "TESS!"

Michael got to the door two steps ahead of Alex and was about to push it open when it was pulled wide from inside. Tess ran headlong into him and knocked herself silly on his collarbone. "Ouch!" and staggered back.

Max caught her under the arms just as she lost her footing. Setting her back on he feet, he glared at the two in the doorway as he pushed her hand away to exam the bump on her head. "No harm done."

"Still hurts though," she muttered as she continued to rub the offended area.

"What happened?" Max asked as he led Tess through the door by the elbow.

"Nothing," Michael answered glaring at a relieved Alex.

"Then why were you yelling your head off for me?" Tess asked as she pulled her arm away from Max and went into the kitchen for food. She was suddenly starving. "I thought we were being attacked or something."

"Sorry, I overreacted. You have a tendency to do the unexpected and unpredictable," Alex replied, taking the butter knife from her and grabbing the jar of mayo from the frig. "Sit down, I'll get it."

"I can make my own sandwich," she replied, getting the bread from the counter. "I think you've done more than enough these past couple of days."

Grinning at her, he pointed out, "I wasn't the one that got her picture in the paper."

Rolling her eyes, for she had meant his constant babysitting while she was ill, she answered, "Yeah, like I really planned that. Stupid reporters."

"To whom we all should be grateful for," Valenti commented as he took the bread from her and stacked thin slices of ham on it. "Without them, we'd still be the dark about this whole situation. And don't think you get off that easy, young lady. You are in major trouble for lying to us."

She was having a difficult time suppressing the warm and fuzzy feeling she was suddenly experiencing from the paternally stern look she was getting. "I don't even get bonus points for doing it for all the right reasons."

"Don't even get me started on the 'right' reasons." Kyle scolded, pouring tomato juice into a glass and adding a generous dose of Tabasco sauce into it. "And exactly how much of my stuff did you make me donate that day? Cause that suitcase felt pretty damn heavy."

"Not much. And I thought Buddhists were suppose to care about materials goods anyways," picking up the shriveled up oranges on the counter and searching for a knife to cut them with. She wasn't quite up to using her powers yet, especially when she was still experiencing limp noodle legs.

Michael nudged her aside as he pulled out the small sparing knife Alex has shown him earlier and began to slice the old oranges into neat slices, checking to make sure there weren't any molds or bad spots on them. "Just because Buddha-Boy here studies the believes of the Chinese, doesn't mean sixteen years of Western culture goes out the window overnight."

"Thank you, Michael, for being the voice of wisdom, shocking as that may be," Kyle replied while glaring at him. "And don't call me that. God, you sound just like her when you do that."

Throwing up her arms, she moved out of the way as a kitchen full of guys made her breakfast. They all look so happy and relaxed, shuffling around the little area, bantering back and forth... like a family. Trampling down the choked emotion that she sensed was joy, she crossed her arms and asked, "Are you guys going to be like this all the time if I stick around?"

The four answered unanimously in no uncertain terms, "YES!"

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Chapter Nineteen: The Pledge
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"So how pissed off are you?" Alex asked quietly as he took a seat by a silently munching Tess.

Taking another bite of the ham and cheese sandwich, she ignored him for a moment in favor of watching the argument across the room on how to integrate the two of them back in Roswell. Max and Michael stood on solid on opposites sides of the argument with Valenti acting as referee and everyone else taking sides. So far, no one has bothered to ask either Tess or Alex what they wanted to do.

"Oh, I am majorly pissed at you," she answered between bites, taking sips of her juice every once in a while.

"To paraphrase you earlier, don't I even get bonus points for doing it for all the right reasons?"

"No," she replied, finishing the second sandwich Valenti had insisted on making for her. She was glad, she was honestly starving. Probably making up for all the skipped meals lately. "Since I caught hell for it, you should too."

He reached over and slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her near. "I'm not sorry you're all right."

Leaning her head against his shoulder, she sighed. There was no way she could blame him. He *did* do it for all the right reasons, even if it was against all her wises and desires. "What are we going to do, Alex?"

"We're going to do exactly what we want to do," he replied, looking up at the arguing couple. Michael was making a valid point of not drawing any more attention to themselves, as with the dead federal agents and a giant rocket shooting off into outer space. NASA and FBI agents were all over Roswell for days. "No matter what our friends and family decide."

She smiled with amusement and looked to her determined friend. "We?"

Raising a brow at her, "Yes, we. I made a promise to you a long time ago. We're in this together, come hell and alien invasions. Nothing has changed in that respect."

Her blue eyes shifted for a moment, "And what about Isabel?"

Silence told her a lot before he finally spoke. "Nothing has changed there either."

Tess rolled her eyes. "Right, her knowing that you're still kicking instead of pushing daisies don't make a difference."

"Not where you're concerned."

If there was an appropriate response to the blatant show of loyalty, she knew them not. Swallowing tears that she hadn't realized that she was about to shed, her eyes went in search of something else to occupy her mind before she embarrassed them both by bursting into tears.

Her eyes strayed to Liz, off in the corner, barely giving her opinion every once in a while. "What happened with Max and Liz?"

"Don't worry about them," he advised, brows knitting together with concern.

"Don't give me that," Tess admonished gently. "I want to know what happened to them and why I woke up with Max?"

For a moment, Alex considered lying to her and not worrying her too much. In the days that followed her first arrival, she had clung to the hope that Max would be happy with Liz. And while the thought broke her fragile heart, it also gave her hope and conviction that she did the right thing overall. Alex had reinforced that hope, telling her all the things he thought she wanted to hear. But now... "He kind of collapsed after they healed you. Didn't want to leave you when they all woke up. He didn't want you waking up alone. As for Max and Liz..." his eyes took in the haggard, dejected look on his brunette friend's face. "They came to an understanding."

Tess held her breath, her observant eyes not missing a thing but too fearful to be hopeful. Her heart couldn't taken another beating, it just couldn't. "What kind of understanding?"

Alex looked at her, "That's something you're going to have to ask one of them. I was not privileged to their conversation." He patted her shoulder and sighed. "But I don't think you'll be particularly disappointed with the results."

She looked over at Max, who was arguing on the point of staying near the pod chambers, and then looked over at Liz, who held her hands together in front of her. So far, since her awaking, she hasn't seen him so much as turn to her for anything. Liz, on the other hand, had looked to Max more often than not. She wore a look that Tess knew only too well. How many times has she seen it in the mirror? "She's sad."

Alex didn't dispute it. "Yeah."

And though she hated herself for it, a small sparkle of hope ignited in her heart. Knowing the potentially deadly fall of disappointment she stomped furiously on that spark... only it refused to die. Well... there was more than one way to skin a cat. "Alex?"

"Hum?" distracted by the halo of radiance that sat around an anxious Isabel.

"How do you like LA?"
 

"And what exactly do you expect to tell the rest of the town?" Michael asked with exasperation. "That Tess was kidnapped by aliens and Alex rose from the dead?"

"In Roswell, that just might be believed," Maria commented dryly.

"You're not helping," Michael growled at her, brows furrowed.

"Who said I was on your side with this?" Maria shot back, crossing her arms over her chest. Michael's attitude over this whole thing was beginning to grate at her nervous. He had no consideration of anyone else except Tess. Not that she was jealous or anything like that. "I have no desire to pack up and leave Roswell."

"Michael, be reasonable there," Isabel said softly, her light color eyes shifting between her brother and her friend. "None of us can just pick up and leave without causing some uproar. And the last thing we need right now is to draw more attention to ourselves."

Michael rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because bringing Alex home isn't going to cause the biggest shock since Nixon's Watergate fiasco."

"Didn't know you were such a history buff," Isabel murmured as she looked at her brother, who was quietly fuming. "Look, we don't need to make a decision right this second. So if we all just..."

"Of course we do," Michael exploded, throwing his hands up in the air. "Hello! We can't stay here much longer without your parents sending out the national guards after us. How long do you think that 'we're going on a camping trip with Sheriff Valenti' crap is going to hold up?"

"He's right," Max added with a sigh. "Even with you playing in their dreams, we can't stay here much longer."

Liz, silent until now, offered tentatively, "How about if we just split up?"

"WHAT?" All faces turned toward her stunned.

Swallowing the unshed tears she was already beginning to feel, "All of us shifting around like a horde is more than likely to give notice to anyone, or anything, that may be watching. Max is right when he said that moving Tess back won't be that hard, given no one ever found out what happened to her. A quick lie will solve everything. But Michael is also right; Alex is another matter all together. He died in town. There are people in school that attended his funeral. Unless Tess can mindwarp the entire town, and even at her best that's doubtful, it's going to cause a scandal."

"What are you saying Liz?" Max asked quietly. "Leave Tess and Alex here? On their own? Like none of this ever happened?"

"No..." she protested.

"Of course not," Michael added determinedly. "I'll stay with them. Make sure nothing happens to Tess or the baby."

Maria stared at him, shocked. "Michael!"

"I gave my word, Max," Michael added, his eyes watching his friend's steadily. All his life, he's felt this strange void in his life. Everyone had a place in the universe except him. But now... Remembering gave him something, something powerfully good, a purpose. "I promised to protect her, with my life if necessary. I failed once. That isn't going to happen again."

"But Michael..." Isabel started to protest but was stopped as Max raised one hand to her.

Nodding his head with understanding, Max held his hand to his friend, pressing his palm to Michael's forearm. Sheen of warmth flowed from his hand to imprint itself to Michael's. He didn't understand it but he knew it was right. Plus... it was familiar. "Pledge your loyalty to your queen."

"No!" Tess called out, scrambling to her feet from across the room. She recognized it even if no one else did.

His fist to his heart, Michael recited from distant memory. A language none of them remembers, in words none of them knew; but the meaning they all understood. It was almost musical in tone but held a note of solidness that offered gravity to the promise.

Tess reached Max just as he pulled his hand away, the emblem of the king forever marking his friend. She watched with both fascination and horror as the glowing V symbol of the royal house stood out plain from beneath Michael's tee shirt. "Oh my god, what have you done?"

Max didn't reply as Tess continued to stare. He watched her with a silent resolve.

"You idiot!" Tess hit Michael in the arm as hard as she could then yapped as her hand went numb with pain.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Alex instructed as he grabbed Tess's hand into both of his and squeezed tight, pushing pass the sting. "For such a smart girl, you do the dumbest things sometimes."

Hissing at Alex, she glared at Max before she realized he was still watching her, hand glowing with unshed power. "Oh no you don't!" backing away, putting Alex between her and her former husband. "Don't even consider it."

"Tess," he replied, quite calmly for someone that had only moments before in the mist of a heated argument. "It's for the best."

"Yeah right!" she spat back at him, continuing to back toward the door even as she watched Michael move to stop her. "Stay where you are, Rath...eh... Michael. Don't think for a moment that this is going to work. I won't be bullied into this!"

"What are you talking about?" Maria asked, her eyes never leaving the glowing imprint on Michael's forearm. "Michael, what did you and Max just do to each other?"

"Max?" Isabel whispered, her eyes wide with incomprehensible dread. She knew this, this whole thing but it made no sense to her. All she knew was that this was important... this was something that one couldn't turn back from.

"Alex, get out of the way," Max advised softly, still slowly advancing on them.

"Max," eyeing his hand with more caution since he first met his alien friend, Alex pushed Tess back as far as he could without loosing touch of her. "What are you going to do?"

"Alex, get out of the way," Michael echoed his king and made a grab for Tess that she easily knocked away. "Tess..."

"Don't 'Tess' me!" she said scrambling over the coffee table and around to behind Valenti. "I didn't agree to this. And I don't plan on going through this either. For goodness sakes, Michael. If you remember even half of what you say you do, you'd remember what happened the last time we did this!"

It didn't phase him at all but Max stopped, hand wavering in mid-air. "Michael..."

"Don't!" he pointed one finger out to stop him. The determination bright in his eyes, "I went into it willingly and I'm doing it again. Only this time it's for her and not you."

"And look what it got you the last time!" Tess shot back from behind Valent's and Kyle, having maneuvered the father by the pant waist to behind the son. "Or did you forget how you died!"

Michael paused, avoiding Max and Isabel's eyes as they both stared in shock. This wasn't the time nor place for such discussions. And he didn't want them knowing. Tess had been right before, there was no need for them to know. No need at all. "Tess..."

"I won't do it, Michael," one hand on Valenti's belt and one hand closing over the doorknob of the bedroom door. "I'm not putting myself and you through that."

"I'm doing this for you," Michael replied, calmly as he advanced at Kyle. "Kyle... you want Tess to be safe, right?"

Kyle was torn between the unknown and his heart. Eyes shifting from Michael's glowing mark on his forearm to Max's still glowing hand. They were both deathly calm and sure of themselves... well, at least Michael was. Max seemed to be having second thoughts now, but he was sure it had nothing to do with what they are attempting to do and everything with what Tess had said. Tess was healthy now... Wasn't that enough? No... it wasn't. She was still in danger. "Yeah, I want her safe."

"Then move aside," Michael ordered, his manners changing already.

"Don't let them do this!" Tess pleaded with Valenti has she turned the doorknob slowly, hoping, praying no one noticed.

"Michael, wait," Valenti said putting his hand out, stopping the teen from coming closer as Kyle stepped slowly aside, eyes apologetic. "I don't know what's going on and I'm not sure I want to. And while I understand that you want to protect Tess with whatever this is, she should be able to weigh in on this every bit as much as you have. You can't just enforce your will on her. It's not right."

"Yeah," Michael agreed slowly, lips curling dryly at him. "Just like it wasn't her right to decide how our futures should be when she concocted this crazy plan of hers to die for us. Turn about is fair play. Please move, I don't want to have to hurt you."

"I can't let you do this."

"You cannot stop me."

"I will if I have to," Valenti replied, his hand on his hip holster.

"You're not going to have to," Tess announced, shoving Valenti forward before slamming the bedroom door shut.
 

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Chapter Twenty: The Change
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Michael stared at the shut door for a disbelieving second before turning to Max completely stunned. Jerking a thumb at the door, "Does she really think that's going to keep us out?"

"She isn't stupid," Max replied calmly as he advanced on the door. "Tess," rattling the handle. Locked, of course. Sighing, he turned to look at his friend. "I don't want to blow it in case there are flying debris."

Rolling his eyes, "Then we do it the hard way," Michael shrugged and put his shoulder into the door. The flimsy wood gave on the third attempt, sending a stumbling Michael into the room. Tess shrieked as a hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle landed on her. Scrambling off of the tiny young woman, Michael has a momentary flash of panic.

"Tess!" Max, Alex, and Kyle tried to get through the door at the exact same time and end up making a comic scene that came right out of an episode of Three Stooges.

"Oh for god sakes," Isabel muttered as she pulled Kyle and Alex back by their pant waists and marched through the door with Max following closely behind. "Tess, you all right?"

"I was," she made a face and sat up slowly. "What the hell was that?"

"You being stupid," Michael said disgruntled as he dusted himself off and glanced at the approaching Max.

Tess scouted all the way to the wall on her hands until she had nowhere left to go. Shaking her head at him, "Please Max... no."

He hesitated two feet from her. "You're still too weak to use your powers, aren't you? That's why you're still here. Can't get out of the room cause your body isn't up to blowing a hole in the wall, is it?"

She glared at him, hating the fact that he was speaking the truth. "I could if I have to."

"Survival instincts," Michael nodded his head in understanding. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"But you're not in danger, are you Tess? And a part of you knows that already, don't you?" Max asked quietly, going to his knees in front of her. His hand still glowed iridescently. "How about we compromise since the idea of being linked to Michael so repulses you?"

Maria's eyes went wide.

Michael frowned. "Thanks for the support, Max."

Kyle scratched his head. "What do you mean, 'linked'?"

Isabel's breath caught in her throat. A part of her, the part that she's always kept under lock and key, knew that it meant.

Tess eyed him cautiously. "What kind of a compromise are we talking about here? Cause if it's anything like Michael's..."

Max reached out to stroke her face with his open hand; swallowing the twinge of hurt he felt when she flinched at his touch. [Easy, Max. One step at a time. It's like building a wall; you've got to start from the foundation. And light knows I've obliterated whatever trust she ever had in me.] "If you won't let Michael protect you, then let him protect our child."

Her hand closed instinctively over her belly, shielding the precious life within. Looking up, she searched Michael's calm unwavering gaze. Being linked to one meant being linked to the other, at least for the time being. But as time passed, "Michael...."

"Just say the world, Tess," Michael replied, his face too serious on his youthful face. He wasn't backing down from this. "You know I'm here."

She looked to Max once more, him patiently waiting her answer. Could she do this? Could she really force her child to endure this? Max may have word it differently, making her hesitate, but essentially he left her with no choice at all. She won't put her baby through that, being linked to another. Knowing that every second of the day, the other was aware of you, whether you were safe or in distress. A constant watch... and protection. "No, not for the baby. He will have to make the decision on his own, I won't do it to him."

Leaning in closer, Max pressed his cheek against hers. "Then Michael will protect you, from now until our next life together," and pressed the warm glowing hand against her arm, imprinting the mark of the royals on her, forever linking her life to Michael's. For a moment there was silence. He turned his head slowly, pressing his lips against her temple, ignoring the stab of guilt he felt knowing that Liz was there to watch.

Michael felt it, the instinct connection of the link. Her fears, her doubts, her desperation, it was almost more than he wanted to know.

Alex rolled his eyes. Turning he motioned for the others to leave. "Okay, everybody out. Nothing more to see. Let the pregnant beached whale get her rest."

That snapped Tess out of her blissful trance. "Hey, I resent that!"

Turning to grin at her, Alex shrugged his shoulder and pushed a reluctant Kyle out the door. "Too bad." Pointing to the alien king, "Max, make sure she sleeps."

"I will," Max reassured him as he waved them off, cradling Tess's body against his own. "I will make sure nothing ever happens to her again."
 

Michael flexed his hand, feeling a slight tension there. It was strange, his knuckles felt tight as if he had been clutching them for a long time. His back felt sore too... as if from lack of movement for a very long time. Over all, he felt just a twinge of discomfort without actually feeling uncomfortable.

"You all right?" Maria asked, her chocolate eyes deep with concern. Apprehension was on her face. In the time that she's known of their secrets, it was the first time she's been actually afraid of their powers. "Michael, what happened in there? What's with the glowing tattoos?"

His hand went to his shoulder, knowing that the evidence was no longer visible but somehow he still sensed its presence. "A responsibility."

"To Tess?" Valenti asked quietly, his eyes watching him steadily. He may not understand it all but he heard enough to know to suspect.

"Yes," he replied, soberly.

"Forever?" Alex asked, going to kitchen to clean up. He knew that answer already but he wanted to hear it anyways. A part of him knew that he should feel relieved. Tess and the baby was safe now, no more lies and deception. Michael was going to make sure they're okay. But a part of him couldn't help but feel... jealous? Was that the right word for it? Jealous cause this meant that Tess no longer needed him?

"Yeah." For some reason, it didn't feel like a death sentence to him. In fact, it felt oddly comforting... like going home after a long trip. "It's like a marriage, until do us part."

Maria stared at him, eyes wide with horror. "Excuse me?"

"Relax Maria, it's just a analogy," Alex replied cheekily as he poured dishwashing detergent on the sponge. "No need to get your panties in a bunch."

"Wait up here," Kyle held his hand up and shook his head. "I don't get it. What does the little glowy thingy do?"

Michael frowned, rubbing his shoulder with the palm of his hand. "It makes sure that I knew when Tess is in trouble." And lets him know when she needed him. Last time, it had been Zan he had been linked to... right up to the end when the king's death killed him as well.

Kyle's eyes narrowed slightly, watching the play of emotions cross Michael's face. "What aren't you telling us about this whole alien marriage thing?"

"It's not a marriage," Isabel replied softly, her eyes unfocused and trying to remember something she wasn't sure she wanted to remember. Something terrible happened back on Antar, something related to this link. "It's a connection from the soul. 'Two hearts as one beating in time. Where one lives, the other follows.' It's an ancient tradition that hasn't been used since the last Great War."

Silence held its breath as Isabel shook herself from the distance memory of something she doesn't quite remember but can't quite forget. She stared back at the stunned eyes that watched her disquietly.

Everything was changing now. Nothing was what it was once before. A week ago, they all knew where they stood in life... where they wanted to go. Now... all was but a puzzle of what the universe has in stored for them. Nothing is for certain except change.
 

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FIN
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