PYGMALION

 

by DocPaul

 

 

 

 

Chapter Ten: Time will come and take my love away.

 

Day Ten: Thursday, 8:03 am

 

 

The coffee was hot. That was all Michael could say about it. Nothing. He felt nothing. He tasted nothing. Yesterday had wiped away everything from his senses. A creeping numbness invaded his body. The world would never be the same. Sipping the coffee, he listened to the person on the other end of the phone. A frown marred his attractive features into a mask of coldness.

 

“I don’t care! The cost is secondary. Get those windows and doors repaired today! The security company will issue passes to your men, but I don’t want anyone working there if they haven’t been in your employ for at least five years.”

 

Michael swore as the man on the other end argued that it would be impossible to fulfill that request. Sean came into the kitchen and grabbed the coffee. Sitting down at the kitchen table, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and settled back to listen to Michael.

 

“The building inspector cleared the back lofts. There is power, and the security people will be there all day installing a new security system. The construction team will also be there repairing the water damage. I’ve got people all over the place. I need those windows installed today. The glass doors can be installed by the construction team, but only your company carries the security panes I want.” Michael listened for a few moments. “I’m unwilling to wait a week. If you can’t do the contract, I’ll find a company that can, even if I have to go to Albuquerque to do it. I am offering a bonus to get it done today, and that bonus is in cash. You have my number. I’ll give you one hour to decide to do it, or I’ll get someone else.”

 

Sean winced when Michael slammed the phone down. Watching the man, it was hard to figure out how he continued to keep going. Yesterday was the worst day for all of them. They thought that the day Jim and Amy were hurt was that day, but yesterday taught them just how much worse it could get.

 

“What you want for breakfast?”

 

Michael just shrugged and picked up the phone again. Sean took his cup and went to search the refrigerator. Amy and Jim’s house had stood empty for over a week, but last night it became a refuge. Liz went home to her parents’ house, and Isabel was staying with Alex. Michael, Maria and Sean took over the Valenti house. Yesterday was spent hiring a construction contractor to get into the remaining lofts and repair smoke and water damage as soon as possible. The fire marshal and police crime scene investigators had cleared the remain structure. The firewall had saved the north part of the renovated warehouse structure from being completely destroyed.

 

Normalcy. They needed their lives back immediately, and Michael was working hard to restore it for all of them, especially Maria. The loss of Mrs. Mulhoney had hit Maria hard. All the fight she had in her body seemed to have been depleted, and in a matter of hours she collapsed into a bundle of tired nerves. Both Margo and Zeke were still in the hospital, but they were hoping to bring Zeke home today.

 

Margo’s loft was damaged beyond repair. It would need to be completely rebuilt. One of the empty lofts on the north side could be renovated for Margo either as a temporary solution, or if she’d like, a permanent one. Maria was silent for once, so Michael was taking care of everything. He wanted all of the collapsed loft area removed and cleared away before he took Maria home.

 

Both Sean and Michael had been back to the complex several times to search for Mr. Booboo, but the cat was gone. Michael didn’t have the heart to tell Maria, so he told the construction crews to keep an eye out for a whiny black cat losing its hair.

 

Sean had had enough. “Michael, put down the phone and sit.” Michael ignored him and searched for another number to call. “Michael, sit down before you fall down!”

 

Sean grabbed the phone and hung it up.

 

“Back off, Sean.”

 

“You back off! If you go down, who’s going to take care of Maria? She’s already breaking, but if she loses you too, it would destroy her.”

 

“I’m doing this for Maria! Everything I do is for Maria! Everything!” His life had reorganized itself to revolve around her, and all his energy and thoughts went into keeping her with him. There was nothing else. Nothing more important.

 

Sean took a skillet and put it on the burner. Grabbing milk, bread and eggs from the refrigerator, he checked the bread for mold. “I know you are. Normally, I’d be in there with you, but you’re too stretched. It’s not going to kill you to stop and breathe.”

 

Yes, it would. How could Sean not know that? It was in the pit of his stomach. A sourness. A tiredness of his soul that bled outward. Mrs. Mulhoney hadn't just belonged to Maria, she had been one of them, a part of their family. And she was gone. He couldn’t think about it or talk about it. If he sat still too long,  the reality that there would be no more cookies, no more going over to move furniture, and no more kind sweet woman to pat him on the arm and tell him about ‘when she was a girl’ caught up with him. If he stopped, he might never start again.

 

Some days you could convince yourself that you had nothing left to lose, that all the things you held in your hand were what was important, and you’d protect them. What did a person do when that which they protected was gone? Failure was a terrible thing when the price of failing came at such a grave cost.

 

Max knocked on the door and waited a moment before entering. Seeing the two men facing each other, neither speaking, made him lose his tongue as well. Michael nodded and without a word, he left the room.

 

“Max.”

 

“Sean, what just happened?”

 

“I’m not sure. He’s not talking, so I don’t know.” Sean had to cook. His nerves were frayed. “I think he’s scared.”

 

Max sat down at the table. Watching Sean, he reached over for the coffee. “You got another clean cup?”

 

“Sure.” Sean passed over a cup and started frying bacon. Meat. Breakfast meat. That would make him feel better.

 

“It’s hard for him, you know.” Sean looked up at Max, but remained silent. “He lost his father a while ago, and after Mikey died, Michael was alone. That was hard. He found Isabel and me, but it was never the same. Mikey gave Michael something none of us can possibly understand. An identity. A name. A place. Without him, it was like Michael lost all sense of belonging, so he searched. He searched hard. All he could understand was in some ways he was stronger than others, but deep inside, he always knew that in other places he was weaker. He once told me that he never thought he would fall in love or marry, that he didn’t have it in him to risk that much again.”

 

Sean started cracking eggs and whipping them with milk. “That makes no sense to me. Practically from the moment he met Maria…”

 

“Exactly. From the first moment he saw her. I was there. The electricity was instantly apparent. One look, one touch, and it was as if she jumpstarted his cold heart. The heart he forgot how to use, or maybe he used it too much. Hard to say.” Max took a drink of his coffee. “He wasn’t looking for it, and if the truth be known, he was trying to avoid it at all costs. So Maria was unexpected, a surprise.”

 

“Soulmates?”

 

Max laughed. No, that was too simple. “Yes, but there is more there. Like there is between all of us. Michael, Isabel and I, we were all pretty messed up and isolated when we came here. But I know that it was meant for us to all be here in Roswell, to meet. Maria was here, waiting. Destiny. Karma. Kismet. Who knows? I just know from the moment they met, they knew. It was like they recognized the other in a cosmic way.”

 

“And he’s scared…”

 

“If he loses this time, there will be no coming back. Mikey was bad, but Maria?” Max couldn’t even find the words to express what he knew instinctually. It was beyond words. All he could see was that one long awful day when they almost didn’t make it. Michael, standing outside her room in the ER, hugging his stomach, afraid and almost broken. It was shocking to see him need someone that much, but Michael did need. “Maria completes him, and he does the same for her. Both of them were running pretty fast, but they both stopped the moment they met. It was time. Running was no longer an option. If he loses her, what does he do? He doesn’t know how to run anymore. He won’t be able to run fast enough or hide from the pain, from the loneliness.”

 

Max was right. There were no words for it, or even a clean concept. Love. A small word to encompass so a strong emotion, so complex and variable.

 

“He fights being alien because it’s the one thing that could take her away from him.”

 

“Yes.” Max looked into the empty cup. Sean was making French toast, and Max watched as he flipped them without even paying attention. “It’s the very thing that’s killing her. He’s scared because the unknown makes him powerless, unable to stop what’s happening.”

 

“And this bomber…”

 

“Is the same. A danger he can’t find. It’s coming at us in all directions, and we stand vulnerable. How terrible must it be for the hunter to become the hunted?”

 

Sean passed Max a plate of French toast and crisp bacon. “We’re losing him, Max. I’ve never seen him so…”

 

“I know.” Max pushed a mouthful of food in, and shook his coffee cup at Sean. He had stayed up all night at the PD coordinating everything, waiting for reports. It was a long night. He hadn’t even had the time to call Jonathan and let him know what was going on, but he needed to do that very thing. Jonathan would be angry not to be there.

 

“I could call in a few favors from my family.” Sean said nonchalantly.

 

Max had already considered that. It didn’t have to be Sean. Amy or Michael could do it as well. The DeLuca family would do anything to help Maria, to help any of them. After Amy married, it was apparent that both Sean and Amy were considered family again, and Michael was included on his own merit. There was something in Michael that the DeLuca family saw and understood, a kindred spirit of sorts. And despite being a cop, they respected and honored him with an extended hand of fellowship. And for Maria, Michael was smart enough to overlook what family he was marrying into, and accept the gesture for what it meant.

 

“Perhaps Michael should call?”

 

“ ‘Miko’ should.” Sean dipped his bacon in his syrup thoughtfully. “But I don’t know that he can. He’s not all here. He isn’t thinking. I think that we’ll have to carry Michael this time.”

 

Maria was down, and with her went a sense of stability in their lives. She was Michael’s rock. Maria was the person all people turned to confide in, to talk to, to clear up what was bothering them. Even people who never talked, found themselves confiding in Maria. She and Michael had a symbiotic relationship. They depended and used the other in a mutual relationship, beneficial to each of them. Those ties were so established now, it was a hard to imagine what would happen if they were severed. The answer was, they could not be severed. Whatever it took to keep them was worth it.

 

~~~

 

She was too small. Too tired.

 

Standing in the door, he watched her. A lot of time was spent watching her. Worrying. Sitting on edge of the bed, Michael took one of her hands and raised it to his mouth. Rubbing her fingers across his lip he closed his eyes and willed her to feel better, to mend.

 

“Detective.”

 

Michael hadn’t realized that she was awake. She was watching him. Perhaps…perhaps she watched him as much as he watched her.

 

“Professor. You missed a feeding.”

 

“I’m tired. I needed sleep more, and now I need to go back to the hospital.”

 

Michael stood up and paced the room. “You need to rest, and eat, and rest some more.”

 

Maria sat up in bed and looked at him kindly. He was breaking. The string of his reserve was drawn and pulled to the edge. It couldn’t happen, but there were some things that couldn’t be changed, no matter what. Wishing didn’t make them so, and all that was left was reality.

 

“I have to go. You know that.”

 

“Maria…”

 

“My people are in the hospital, Michael. Mine. You do what you have to.”

 

Michael took a seat next to her and picked up her hand. “The babies…”

 

“I know. I know that you’re worried. I’m worried too, but life goes on. I can’t…” Maria looked away and stared at the wall. “They need me.”

 

Michael glanced at her pale small face. So much ground already lost in less than twenty-four hours. She had been fighting so long and so hard. It was the price she paid. A price they were paying. Her skin was cold last night, and she was too tired to wake up and eat. In the early morning gloom, he sat watching her sleep, and that deep concentration was back. They needed her, but what she didn’t say was that she needed them.

 

“I can’t stop, Maria. I can’t. I know that you have things to do, and don’t think I don’t know that you’ve given up many things along the way for the babies and for me. I don’t want to beg more from you.”

 

Her finger came to rest on his lips. “Don’t beg. Ask. I’d do anything you ask. You know that.”

 

Michael kissed her finger. That was the problem. He wouldn’t ask. She knew that. There were some circumstances and limits even they wouldn’t breach. The rules. They worked for a reason. They were more than words on a paper to remind them to be considerate of each other. The rules were in their hearts. Forged, tried and true. They worked because they were meant to work. He couldn’t ask. Not for his fear, and not for his children. He had to trust Maria to know her own limits, and to be who was she was. Her people were down and in need. It was killing her. It was sapping her of whatever strength remained, but she had to continue. There was no other way for people such as they. No other way. The balance they struck was a separate peace.

 

“At least let me feed you. Promise me that, okay? You skipped a feeding.”

 

“I was tired. So tired.”

 

Michael could feel her coldness. “I know, but I need it too. It’s not just for you.”

 

Maria leaned back in the bed, and hooked her hand on his shirt, and pulled him down to her. “Detective, are you suggesting that I am neglecting you?”

 

“Very much so, Professor. I was forced to talk to Sean this morning. I could feel all my IQ points settling in my groin.”

 

Maria laughed and kissed him on the lips. “I know you. I refuse to let you blame poor Sean for the fact that all your thoughts revolve around your…nether regions. You’ve been that way since I met you, so this isn’t anything new.”

 

Michael moved her over, and slid in the bed next to her, pulling her tight up against him. “Then it must be your fault. Before you, I was on a pretty long dry spell with no real desire to end it.”

 

“Now that I can’t imagine.” Maria undid the buttons of his shirt. Her eyes darkened at the sight of his skin, and the telltale quickening of the heartbeat under his skin. Her voice became husky and almost lazy in a long draw. “Feed me, Detective. I’m hungry.”

 

“God, Maria…” Michael drew her so close, and it wasn’t close enough. She took away everything. All the worry. All the pain. For a short time, it was just them, and he could actually rest.

 

~~~

 

The doctor was leaving Margo’s room when they arrived. Zeke was sitting outside her door waiting patiently. He saw them coming towards them, but the doctor held his attention.

 

“How is she? Is she awake? Can I…”

 

“Zeke, let the doctor talk,” Michael said soothingly, his arm going around the younger man’s shoulders and pulling him back to give the doctor room.

 

“Guerin. Why am I not surprised?” The doctor hesitated. “Actually I am. You’re on the wrong side. Usually it’s you in this bed.”

 

“C’mon, Jack…” Maria put a hand on his arm.

 

Jackie saw Maria and smiled. “Maria! How are you feeling?”

 

“Tired.” Jackie was the doctor Maria knew best. The young resident had lived through an intern stint in the ER with the destructive teams of Guerin-Evans and Valenti-DeLuca terrorizing the medical profession. She was finally doing a rotation in the ICU, and lo and behold, there he was again. Her Waterloo. Her Nemesis. Cranky Detective Guerin. He was like a bad penny. He always showed up.

 

Michael, seeing the look of understanding between the two women, felt at a disadvantage. His eyes narrowed and he took in the petite woman with medium length hair in a nice curly black bob.

 

“Are you a real doctor yet?” Michael said nastily. “We want a real doctor.”

 

“Michael...” Maria said in a pleading voice.

 

But Jackie didn’t take offense. Instead she just looked at Michael Guerin, the thorn in her side, pain in the ass Detective that caused her more late shifts than she could count. Swallowing a smile, she just looked at him in a superior condescending manner.

 

“Want? Aw....wanting is a good thing. It builds character. By the time you finally get what you want…you finally might even have a personality.”

 

Michael opened his mouth to respond, but Maria quickly intervened.

 

“How is Margo?”

 

“She’s awake. That’s about all I can tell you.”

 

“Then get us a real doctor who can…”

 

Jackie continued to ignore him. “She’s not really talking. What little I could get out of her was almost unrecognizable. Too hard to understand.”

 

“Margo rarely talks.” Maria volunteered.

 

“I checked her over. She had a severed tongue. Is that why?”

 

“She can talk,” Michael said. “She just finds it hard. Her tongue was bitten clear through when she was eight. Her stepfather used to beat her. She learned to hide from him in small places, but as a child the fear was so great that when she heard him coming, she would give herself away. To keep from making a noise once she bite her tongue so hard…”

 

Jackie turned pale, and quickly nodded. “I think I’ve got the scenario. Thanks.”

 

Zeke had turned away when Michael started to tell Margo’s story. He couldn’t take it. He and Margo had much in common. Maybe too much. Thinking of her so scared and abused hurt his stomach. It reminded him of a time when he too was paralyzed with fear, vulnerable and abused.

 

“May I see her?”

 

Jackie looked at the young man. She nodded. “Yeah, I think it’s exactly what the doctor would order. Try to get her to eat.” Jackie waited until the young man was in the room. “I’m transferring her out of the unit today, so you’ll get your real doctor soon.”

 

“Jack,” Michael said. “How is she really?”

 

“She’ll survive. Though I don’t think that would be surprise to either of you. Her throat will be hoarse, and she took quite a bit of smoke damage, but there is no indication that it did lasting damage. She was lucky to get out when she did.”

 

“Zeke went in for her.” Michael said softly.

 

Jackie looked at the closed door. That charming attractive young man? Her delicate eyebrow arched in wonder. Where did these two find such interesting and colorful people? It never occurred to her to include herself in that description.

 

“Well, it should be this afternoon, and if everything goes well she’ll be released either tomorrow or the next day. I take it from the news that her home was lost?”

 

Maria shook her head no. “Just some of her material possessions. Her home is with us, and that she’ll never lose.”

 

Jackie glanced at the two. No, she suspected that that was true.

 

“Thanks, Doc.” Jackie quickly acknowledged Michael’s thanks.

 

“Good to see you on your feet for a change, Detective. Let’s keep it that way.” She walked away hurriedly as her beeper went off.

 

Maria watched her and hit Michael in the stomach. “Do you have to be so confrontational with her all the time?”

 

“With who? The Doc? Aw, c’mon, Maria, she knows me. It’s a sign of affection. She knows that.”

 

“And what? A two by four across the head is what? A marriage proposal?”

 

“More like an invitation to dinner,” Michael said opening the door for Maria.

 

“Pig.”

 

~~~

 

Sean glanced at the phone in his hand again. Sighing, he finally punched in the numbers. Waiting for the phone to be answered, he calmed his stomach. This was not a real favor. It was a family thing. The abrupt end to the dialing and ringing took a moment to make sense to his brain. It was answered.

 

“This is Sean. I need help…”

 

~~~

 

Alex walked through the dark club to the back room. Stopping in the door, he lit up another cigarette as Freddie was testing some equipment.

 

“Alex.”

 

“We need to talk.”

 

Freddie put down the cymbals and nodded. It was inevitable. “I figured with everything going on that you’d have to come to me.”

 

“I’ve kept the faith with you for a long time.”

 

“You have. I’ve always appreciated that.”

 

“Can you?”

 

“Most of the time. It’s hard at times. We don’t feel like you do, but the longer we’re here in human form, the more we are able to understand human feelings and emotions. I’ve been ‘Freddie for well over fifty years.”

 

Alex laughed. Yes. That had been the first clue. He met Freddie when he was sixteen and first started playing in the band. By the time he was twenty-two, he started to notice that Freddie never aged. He was eternally twenty-one. So one day, he asked. And a few years of friendship was enough for Freddie to know what Alex was and to understand him, so he took a chance.

 

“Did you know they were here?”

 

Freddie laughed. “No. We suspected that they might come here. It was where they crashed. Homing into what was left behind. But no. For the longest time, I thought they were in New York.” Freddie laughed in a strange humor. “What a disappointment that was!”

 

Alex grabbed a bottle and sat down. Pouring them both a drink, he waited. Freddie would only tell what he could and no more. Alex wasn’t going to rush him.

 

“They weren’t the best people in their last lives.”

 

“Last lives?” Alex’s eyes narrowed. “You better explain that.”

 

Freddie sat down and took a cigarette from Alex’s pack. Alex wouldn’t ask unless things were getting very serious. Taking up the lighter, Freddie drew in deep. Damn, that felt good! He loved Earth. Loved it in so many different ways. It was like that damn silly movie with the Dorothy chick. Damn whiny chick she was, but okay on the eyes if only she’d stop singing. Anyway, Antar was like Kansas, grey and colorless. Tasteless. And Earth? It was all in Technicolor.

 

“They were the ‘Royal Four’. Three siblings and a consort to the King.”

 

“Consort? You mean…”

 

“His wife. The Queen. The first two were the Royal blood of Antar, and the third, the Commander, was a son of the King by a neighboring planet’s Queen. That planet had lost their King, and their Queen needed an heir. She chose her nearest and most deadly enemy in the hopes that their child would bring their two worlds into an unbreakable alliance.”

 

“The Commander?”

 

“The one you call ‘Michael’.” Freddie laughed. “I know him well. I followed him. Worshipped him. He was our hope. He was the ‘second’, and next in line to the throne. If the King, Zan, failed, it would have been Rath, your Michael, who would’ve been in line to take control.”

 

“So he’s their brother, Max and Isabel’s?”

 

Freddie nodded. “Yes. In our corner of the galaxy it doesn’t mean the same as it does here, but close. Zan was King. He was born before your Isabel by mere breaths. First twin birth in so many centuries. There was a lot of jealousy there that Zan ruled merely by an accident of birth. Your Michael was born almost exactly the same moment they were, and the strange thing about it was that he was born exactly at the same time as Vilandra. They’re all twins in a strange way. Isabel wanted to rule, but with Michael alive at the same time, it would never happen. The throne would pass to the next male in direct bloodline. Michael was destined to rule two planets as one.”

 

“How many planets we talking here?”

 

“Five. Five in the Crest. Antar was always the strongest. It had the Granilith.”

 

Alex was getting confused. “Maybe your people should write this all down.”

 

“It is written, has been written. Destiny is a strange thing. You can run from it, but you can’t hide. It finds you eventually.”

 

“So how did they die?”

 

“Very painfully.” Freddie took another drink. “Not at first. There were six from the five.”

 

“I don’t understand.”

 

“No, I’m sure you don’t. Five planets in a ‘V’ formation. Antar sat on the cusp. At the end. Two on either side. When they were young, the great houses of each planet sent their heirs to be educated at the same place, and there, they became friends. Kivar was from the furthest planet to the left of Antar, with Ava also on the left, but from the planet in between. The Commander was from the right, immediately next to Antar. Finally Larek’s planet was the furthest on the right. Five planets. Six friends. Three in blood and three in friendship. They were unbreakable, and it looked like for the first time in our history there could be an alliance, a peace.”

 

“What happened?”

 

“Politics. Antar still held the power because they had the Granilith, and nothing could change the nature of those who live in our galaxy. A thirst for power is what motivated us in all things. It was decided that King Zan would marry Ava to cement an alliance. It was not a happy union. Zan loved another, but he was cruel enough and corrupted by his own power to want it all, so he agreed. Zan was many things, but the most consistent description would be drunk on his own power. He forgot to pay attention, and he made mistakes.”

 

“Ava would be…”

 

“Your Tess. The Queen. She was in love with another as well, but he had died when they were young, so she didn’t protest the union. She knew Zan well enough, and they were attracted to each other, so it worked out on some level bringing her world, Rath’s world and Antar into a strong alliance.”

 

“Sounds like it should’ve worked. What went wrong?”

 

Freddie sat back in the booth. “We went wrong. It was our nature to thirst for power. Feelings, or emotions as you know them, don’t really exist in our world. Zan married Ava, and his best friend, Larek was his best man. The other world was Kivar’s, and he was upset that all the other planets were aligning with Antar. He created dissension and Zan’s conduct didn’t help matters. Larek and a few others went to the Commander and begged him to overthrow Zan, to take Antar’s rule. Rath refused, but the seeds were sown. He watched his brother, the King closely, and at times they almost came to blows. Breaking the Commander’s loyalty was impossible. Zan would have had to become the most horrendous of murderers for the Commander to try to overthrow him. Genocide might have swayed him to do it, but...”

 

“Larek, the King’s best friend, allied against him?”

 

Freddie shrugged. “Funny thing was, Larek was loyal to Zan, but his people were feeling the weight of tyranny. He was forced to make a decision between his people and his friend. He chose his people. One thing was certain. There was too much turmoil. Skirmishes, wars and battles were being fought on every planet. Zan was slowly realized he was losing control, and all that he had to control the planets was the Granilith. He also discovered that his sister, Vilandra was aligning with Kivar, and she, who had always been jealous of his throne, was looking to take it with force by marrying Kivar.”

 

“Vilandra?” Alex paused. “You mean Isabel?”

 

“Yes.” Freddie looked into his drink. “She’s a story perhaps best left for another time.”

Alex was quiet for a moment. “There’s more?”

 

“Yes. Much more.”

 

“Can you tell me?”

 

“No. Perhaps not at this moment. Perhaps never. I can tell you that the threat is not from the aliens, or not specifically. None of the factions would ever harm the Royal Ones. Not until…”

 

“Until?”

 

“Until they find the Granilith. Not until the path of Destiny is set.”

 

Alex sat back. The Granilith. What the hell? Vilandra…no, his Isabel had betrayed her brother, the King and tried to take his throne? Isabel... Vilandra... How?

 

“At least tell me about how they were reincarnated if they perished before. How did you recreate them?”

 

“The Granilith. Its power is immense. With the help of a crystalline entity called a Gandarium, human DNA with a special chromosomal abnormality and the power of the Granilith, all four fallen Royals were re-engineered.”

 

“Why on Earth? Why here?”

 

Freddie paused. Too much. He was telling too much. “They’re human. They can’t live on our planets. Once their alien essence was mixed with human DNA, they became essentially human. They were never meant to be lost. That was the mistake. Their ship collided with a human craft...I think it was a weather balloon. Anyway, it brought the ship down before it could continue to the designated area. Their pod chambers were in danger so their protector quickly hid them in a makeshift cavern and left them in order to try draw attention away from them. When he returned years later, they were gone.”

 

He was hiding something. Alex thoughtfully worked through all the information he had. They were retrieved from death. But why?

 

“What is so special about these ‘Royals’ as you call them? Why bring them back?”

 

Freddie sighed. “Destiny is only a walk along a determined line. The Royals’ destiny wasn’t completed. They were important enough to risk re-engineering them. There were two attempts. But most of us didn’t know that. One group was more alien than human, and they reside in New York, but they’re not the Royals…merely duplicates. We call them ‘the Dupes’.”

 

Interesting. Isabel and the three others had replicates who looked exactly like them. How could they tell the difference?

 

“These Dupes... How can you be certain they aren’t the real Royals, and the ones here aren’t the backups?”

 

“Simple. The Dupes are sterile. They have been mating for years, since early in their teens. Nothing has resulted. Too much alien essence in their makeup. They can’t reproduce with humans on Earth, or even with each other. For the longest time, we all suspected that it was a mistake, that too much had been risked for nothing. I found the Royals first, but didn’t say anything.”

 

Michael was reproducing with Maria, a human. And Max and Tess, two aliens, were reproducing. That was pretty conclusive. And he had found them first, but didn’t say anything.

 

“Why? Why were you silent?”

 

Freddie glanced at his hands. His new husk had almost another fifty years before he would be forced to harvest a new one. Every year closer and closer to that fifty, he almost felt human.

 

“Many of us had given up. We saw the Dupes and realized that it was a lost cause. Our options were slim to almost non-existent. If we could find their protector and the Granilith, then we could go home. Our only other option is to make this planet our home. And I happen to really enjoy this planet. So many things to experience. So many sensations. Except for my husk needing to be replaced every fifty years, I could literally live here forever. I don’t want to go back. The Royals can’t go back either. Why mess up their lives? They were happy... I was happy...”

 

Alex nodded. It made sense. All of it, except for one thing. Why? “What was this unfulfilled Destiny crap? If they can’t go back and re-establish peace, then why bring them back at all?”

 

Freddie was silent. Alex and his friend stared each other down, both unwilling to budge on the question or the answer. Some things couldn’t be forced. Alex finally backed off.

 

“Then at least tell me that this bombing shit, and the threats aren’t from your people.”

 

“They aren’t from us. None of us would touch any of them, especially not the Commander, and doubly so, Maria. Never Maria.”

 

Alex noticed the change in Freddie’s voice at the mention of Maria’s name. It was almost breathless,  reverent. Curious. Maria was an engaging woman, but she was human, not a Royal. Why would this alien be so deferential to her?

 

“She’s sick. Dying.”

 

“I know. We’ve been watching. All of us.”

 

That close? No wonder Guerin was a neurotic bundle of nerves, hissing and spitting at anyone and anything that got to close to her and his children. He must have sensed the interest, the eyes, and felt them too close as they moved into his territory.

 

“You told me you couldn’t help her.”

 

Freddie shook his head sadly. “We can’t. None of us know how. We only know there is a solution, but the details are not something ever explained to us.”

 

Alex tried not to react to that information. They knew Maria. Knew of her long before they met her. Long before they found her. Freddie had been on the Earth for over fifty years. It was as if he knew that Maria would exist long before she was born. What the hell was going on?

 

“Can the babies survive without her? If she gets too weak, can they take the babies?”

 

Taking another cigarette, Freddie lit it and drew the smoke deep into his lungs, or his equivalent of lungs. “No. The babies will come when it’s time. They can’t leave their mother’s body until then. And if anything happens to her within the first six years of their birth…the twins will die without her.”

 

“Die? Why? She doesn’t remain pregnant for six years?” Alex felt a breaking of sweat on his body, and an empty feeling in his stomach. Impossible. She was hardly going to make nine months, but six years would be… No. It couldn’t happen!

 

“Until there is an internal trigger to commence labor, the babies are connected to their mother in so many ways, I can’t even begin to make you understand. Once they’re developed enough to release the physical connections, then birth will be triggered. But even their father, who is more human than alien, was in an incubation pod for over six years. It took that long for all his mental, neurological, and sensory pathways to close and develop enough for him to control them. Without that developmental time, his alien mind and powers would have been unleashed, unrestrained, and used out-of-control by a child unable to understand them. That crucial six years created a mental connection with the other three that basically dampened their powers until all four were born. There was a mistake. They weren’t born together. The one you call Tess is younger. She took longer than the rest. Perhaps her incubation chamber was damaged during the crash, or possibly it failed and she went into hibernation while in stasis. Hard to say. They should’ve all emerged at the same time.”

 

“Four months ago they all finally stood in the same room, at the same time for the first time. There was a power surge. I was there. It was amazing.”

 

“Yes. That was the unlocking of their innate powers.”

 

“And the twins? Do they go into stasis too? Incubation pods?”

 

“No. Their mental connection to their mother remains after birth. For six years she is the control, the dampening of their powers. Their powers are already active and there is no mechanism to shut them off, so they’re rerouted through mental pathways to their mother. All that they are and all that they will be, is maintained by her. At six they will have an awakening and their powers will finally be their own. But until then, their lives are connected to her in a mutual symbiotic relationship. They can’t survive mentally without her. She is, in effect, their incubation pod.”

 

“So she’s important for that reason? For the survival of the hybrid twins? Is it really the twins that are important, and Maria just part of the package?”

 

“There is more. She has a greater role, both she and the Commander. The Commander’s followers are Skins who would never harm or let harm come to the Commander or his family. He has and always will be our greatest hope.” Freddie stood. He had said too much. It was time to leave before he revealed any more. “I can tell you this. There are more than just two factions of Skins. There is at least one Shapeshifter and an army of Walkers, who are human hosts taken over and used as puppets. But for the Royals, the enemy has always been from within. Close. Inside. Just be careful who you trust, Alex. Who you love. She betrayed them once, and what was inside her once can very well rise again. She has a vulnerability inside that can be exploited. Choose carefully. Walk softly.”

 

Freddie left a very quiet Alex watching him through a haze of smoke. Isabel. Vilandra. What the hell was a frickin’ Granilith, and why was it so important? Alex decided to sit back, drink a few whiskeys and chain smoke. Maybe the chemicals would clear his brain. If the aliens weren’t the threat, then who was?

 

~~~

 

It was late before Michael found a way to get Maria away from the hospital. Zeke could go home, but he insisted on staying with Margo. Tomorrow, they might bring her home, and if they could he would bring them both.

 

“Maria, wake up. We’re home.”

 

“The loft?” Her voice sound groggy with sleep.

 

“No, your mom’s and Jim’s.” Michael frowned. She had fallen asleep in less than a minute after they got in the car. The entire day in the hospital wore on her.

 

“Did you find Mr. Booboo?”

 

“Soon. I promise.” Getting out of the car, he went around and picked her up. She was almost asleep again. “Maria, I can’t let you sleep, honey. You have to eat.”

 

“Too tired. Just let me sleep for a little while, and then I promise…”

 

“No. You already promised to eat. Remember?” Michael looked down at her snuggling in his arms, her head resting in the crook of his shoulder. She was so tired. She had to eat.

 

Pausing to enter the security code, Michael shut the door behind them and quickly re-engaged the alarm. Going up the stairs, he took her into their bedroom. It was the main guest room. Sean was staying in Kyle’s old bedroom down the hall. The house was silent, missing the activities of its normal inhabitants. Maria just snuggled into the warmth of the covers.

 

“Maria, c’mon. Food, then sleep.”

 

Maria turned over and looked at him with tired eyes. Smiling slightly, her smile quickly left her face. Reaching up her hand, she stroked his face softly, her fingertips dragging along the various features.

 

“You look exhausted, Detective.”

 

“Hard day.”

 

“Hard life,” she said softly. Lifting a little she fitted her mouth to his. Kissing him, his eye closed and he allowed himself to be pulled into her, inside. She had to do so little to make him happy. Just a smile, a kiss. Michael looked down at her his eyes, drinking ever minute inch of her face. His.

 

“Maria,” he said hoarsely, but she stopped him with another kiss.

 

“I know. I love you, too